Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 121534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Don’t think about her legs. This is one complication we don’t need to add to the mix. “Don’t make me carry you—”
She throws a leg over me, anchoring me in place.
And suddenly I’m calm.
So calm.
Just like I was when she kissed me in Sigurd’s office, when she tried to get me to stop reacting. Just like I was when we touched the third rune.
What if we just let ourselves?
To rest like this with her.
To drown in the quiet she brings amid the chaos. Her weight against me is steady, grounding, like the storm in my blood is finally silent—not just silent, at peace.
Her breath feathers against my neck. “Just five minutes,” she whispers, voice thick with sleep.
And Gods help me, my eyes grow heavy.
Maybe death would be worth whatever sleep follows this.
The last thing I think of is a home I don’t even know, with trees so tall they blot out the sun. Branches tangled in silver frost that never melts. Jagged icy mountains rise in the distance with their peaks swallowed up by storm clouds. The air smells like iron and snow, yet beneath it lingers the warmth of pine smoke, like a fire burning just out of reach. Like the warm feeling of the sunrays—like the warm touch of Rey.
I jerk awake when my alarm goes off, and two things happen at once. Rey looks up at me from the bed and screams, while simultaneously punching me in the face.
“Son of a bitch!” I roar. “What the actual fuck, woman. It’s too early for this shit! Get out of my room!”
She stumbles out of the bed, collapsing on the ground before getting up and shouting again. “Why am I in your room? Your bed!” she roars back. Okay, so she was definitely sleepwalking, then.
I rub my sore eye. “Right, it definitely tracks that I just went over to your room, picked your lock, grabbed your feisty little body, careful not to forget the very un-Rey-Stjerne-like cat mug, and decided to use you as a teddy bear. Do I look like I want to sleep with a prickly, knife-wielding cactus?”
She retreats toward the door, opening it slightly to leave, but then turns back. “I happen to like that cat mug, thank you very much. And why am I a cactus? And they don’t carry knives, Aric! They have…pointy things that, you know— Shit, what are their names again? It’s early. Why am I here, why am I here with you, why am I not—”
“You should wear pants to sleep, Rey. Seriously.”
Wrong thing to say. Her eyes immediately darken like she’s going to stab me with her knife after all.
She jumps a foot when a knock sounds at the door. Then someone pushes it the rest of the way open.
Reeve waltzes in with a coffee in hand and then stops dead in his tracks, his head swiveling back and forth between us. His mouth opens.
“Say. Nothing,” I hiss, voice heavy with sleep and annoyance. Where are the storms now? One would think lightning would strike right between us in this moment.
He holds up his coffee. “I didn’t. My breath was bated, but I have the restraint of a much older man. So what, did she crawl out of a coffin to come and murder you, or was this a…planned event?”
I shoot him a glare. “I was sleeping in peace when Stalker Stjerne—”
“Has a nice ring to it.” He laughs.
“I thought so, too.” I smirk.
“Hey!” Rey yells.
“Anyway,” I continue, “this one makes her way over here, drinks my water out of her weird cat mug, then pins me to my bed and…sleeps.”
“Oh, she sleeps.” Reeve winks. “Got it.”
“No, that’s not code for sex, Reeve. She literally kept me prisoner and slept.”
“Please!” Rey grabs one of my sweatshirts and tugs it on. “Like I’m strong enough to pin you to anything. You’re a Giant!”
Her face pales like she knows she just called me out, but Reeve doesn’t so much as flinch.
He knows I come from a strong bloodline, and that’s all Sigurd has trusted him with. My protection at all costs. It’s a level of secrecy he’s always been fine with, especially since my accident. Reeve isn’t really the type to ponder the mysteries of the world.
I frown. “Yeah, I know I’m pretty tall, but you’re still scrappy and strong, and I may have also fallen asleep. It was a rough night.”
“Unbelievable!” She stomps her foot. “Both of you.” She eyes Reeve, then his coffee. “I’ll just take that and be on my way.”
It’s out of his hands before he can do or say anything. The door slams behind her, leaving me feeling guilty for doing…literally nothing.
Reeve leans against the door. “She pinned you? How, again, did she manage that? I’m genuinely curious, because one six-six guy plus one five-foot-nothing girl? The math isn’t checking out.”