Swallowing back the rising bile, my fingers dug into Rune’s hand as I closed my eyes. I took shaky breaths through my nose, trying to keep them steady to calm myself. But each inhale was loud and quick.
“I’m here,” Rune murmured as he caught me in his arms. “Throw up and be done with it.”
I did as he said because it was taking too much energy to hold it back. Rune comforted me, rubbing my back and holding my hair back. After spitting a few times, I turned to him and buried my face in his side.
He picked me up, my legs wrapped around his hips and my arms around his neck as I kept my face buried into him. I breathed him in and basked in his comfort while I grounded myself and tried to figure out what the hell had just happened.
I barely registered Rune walking, the sway of his steps lulling me into calmness. Remembering my promise, I buried my hands in his hair at the back of his neck. I turned my face so my cheek rested on his neck, his warmth seeping into me through the contact.
“Put his head on a pike. Hang his body from a tree with a sign warning the others they’re next.”
Rune vibrated with a rumbling, pleased groan. “Anything for you, my lethalhugrökk.”
“I’ll get on it,” Slátra said.
Rune’s arm curled under my bottom and the other around my back to hold me tightly as he stumbled a step. I moved to pull away from him, but he held me tighter.
“Keep still,” Rune said, squeezing me to him.
“You can’t walk.” I squirmed again, but he didn’t budge on letting me go.
“I can walk just fine,elskan mín, as long as I have you in my arms.”
I huffed but gave up because I didn’t have it in me to argue and relaxed into him again. He loosened his hold on me and hummed, pleased.
“Where’s Hlíf?” Hluti asked. Metal sang with his words as he sheathed his sword.
“With the other female.”
Relief swept through me, and I released a shaky breath.
She was safe. She wasalive.
ChapterSixteen
“You should have seen her, brother. She killed two men with their own axes,” Slátra greeted with a hearty laugh as we found Hlíf with Harper.
I peered over my shoulder, spotting the redhead lingering around my friend, who stopped pacing, dropping her arms to her side as she swept her gaze over us as a doctor would.
Hlíf turned his kind green eyes to me in Rune’s hold. I didn’t miss the way he looked me over like a protective brother would his little sister. It sent warmth through me and a moment of pity that I didn’t have siblings growing up.
But he was my claimed brother now. Blood didn’t make you family. You chose the people to be one. People who claimed blood ran thicker than water never really understood what a family was supposed to be.
I’d take the turbulent water that protected me while drowning others with the blood that poisoned me. I was fortunate to have blood family that was nothing but loving to me, but I’d heard time and again of friends’ families—whether it was their parents, aunt, or siblings—who weren’t loving and accepting of them.
They’d shout,“Blood is thicker than water. When these people leave you behind for us to clean up the mess they left, you will see who your real family is.”
I honestly didn’t know how they could’ve said that to someone. They basically called them trash and something they had to clean up, like it was a job and not a human being with feelings.
Hlíf took a step toward me, and I noticed my packed bag hanging from one of his shoulders. I smiled softly, my heart swelling that he thought of grabbing it for me. Already I was upset and shaken, but if we had left my stuff behind at the cottage, I think I would’ve had a meltdown and begged to go back to grab it.
Harper’s gaze went to the blond first as he approached her and Hlíf. Concern crossed her face as she looked him over, then Hluti in the span of a few seconds. I wasn’t surprised at all that she worried about them while they fought the large group after us. She was a sweet person, and with her working toward being a doctor, of course, her first reaction was assessing people for any injuries. It didn’t matter if they kidnapped her.
Turning her gaze to Rune and me, her mouth opened in an O as her eyes widened from the sight we were. She recovered and closed the distance between us, her hand outstretched to steady Rune who still held me tightly to him.
“What happened?” she asked, looking over me and then Rune. She must’ve noticed the small area where Rune was shot with a dart because she frowned and pushed herself up on the tips of her toes, trying to reach his neck with her fingers. “What the hell were you shot with?”
Hluti came around us from behind, grabbing Harper’s arm and pulling her away from us with a grunted, “He’ll live, female. Let’s go.”
