He watched me as he brought my other hand to his chest over his heart. Even through the thick leather, I still somehow felt his steady heartbeat. Gently, he skimmed his large, calloused hand over my arm, up to my shoulder and down to my chest. His hand paused right over my heart, mirroring me.
“Nothing’s wrong. Keep breathing with me,” he said again, then drew in a deep breath that I followed.
I swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the rising lump in my throat. Rune took in another deep breath with me as we gazed at each other. He was so calm as he helped me. Not a lick of fear showed on his face from the lightning that streaked through the sky in a constant zigzag. Or from the wind that blew harder, whipping our soaked hair around with pieces flying across our faces. Through his calm, I found mine and didn’t freak out from the abnormality around us.
A large part of me wanted to open the link and connect with him, but I didn’t want him to see how much I was struggling. Already he was worried and did his damnedest with helping me from the ledge of each attack. And he watched me die . . .
He needed comforting. Not me.
“Breathe,” Rune reminded me.
I sucked in a breath and released it on a shaky exhale.
His free hand cupped my cheek, and his eyes held knowledge of my inner struggle. It only made my nails curl into his neck by the slightest again. His heat swarmed through me with tingles on my face and hand.
“Isa, you need to let me help you and ground you. You’re in— “
“We need to leave,” Hluti said from behind me. His heavy footsteps in the muddy grass came to my side, and his large body came into my peripheral.
Rune kept his eyes on mine, while at the same time, the lightning stopped flashing in a constant streak. He stared at me, not saying a word, but his eyes showed he was saying a lot in his mind. It was like he was challenging me to connect the link to know what he was thinking. To hear what he wanted to say.
A memory of Rune looking at me like this, but in a different lifetime, made my stomach flip. My hand twitched on him, and his eyes darkened, his jaw setting.
This had happened before in the past. When I was Estrid.
He’d lured me in with the desperation in his eyes and his jaw working. And it almost worked this time around, but . . .
Stepping away from him, I dropped my hands from him. I fingered some of my wet hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear. I glanced back at the burning house, my chest squeezing from the sight. It lasted for a moment before the numbness took over, everything else fading until I couldn’t feel my face. My limbs were heavy, and my feet were like lead, weighing me down in my spot.
My eyes blanked, and my hands hung by my sides as I stared at the fire with sightless eyes. The only thing I could make out was the orange glow that was a halo around the blurry house.
Whispers came to me, but not like the ones I’d grown used to all my life. They came from something else, each one like a caress from a lover. It raised goosebumps and made my heart skip a beat.
All I could do was stand there, listening to them grow louder but unable to make out their words. I barely registered the lightning streaking again in a constant zigzag across the sky.
“Call the portal,” Hluti grunted impatiently.
Rune’s hand rested on my lower back, breaking whatever spell I was under. I jolted with a gasp, turning to Rune as he pulled me back to him again. He curled his arm around to hold me close against him, sending tingles through me. He must’ve not noticed me zoning out or the lightning that now stopped in the weird constant loop. Or maybe he did but decided not to say anything.
It didn’t matter. I couldn’t make everything about myself. They had more important things to worry about.
“We’re making a quick stop first,” Rune said. Hlíf and Slátra stepped up, so the men were forming a protective barrier around me. My stomach twisted in knots because they were still wanting to protect me. “So we’ll be flashing.”
Slátra guffawed, and Hluti’s amber eyes shifted to mine with a weird look on his face. Hlíf kept his expression blank but still had the scary mountain-man look. When he met my stare, it still held the same softness only for me.
I expected a fight from Hluti. For him to list reasons why we shouldn’t make a stop before leaving my realm. And sadly, I would have accepted it and agreed.
I was selfish.
“You’ll be flashing all of us then? In this storm? You know the risks,” Hluti said, his gaze going back to Rune.
The risks?
Rune’s hold on me tightened. “Better than a portal and mortals seeing us coming out of it where we’re going. I’ll take the risk.”
“We’re wasting time,” Hlíf said in warning.
He was right, we were. Someone could walk through a portal at any second, and we’d be in trouble. Again.
