“Leaving is dangerous.”
“If I don’t show up, he’ll be suspicious, Rowan.”
Rowan stilled as if thinking this through. After a moment, he nodded. “Perhaps a trip behind enemy lines would be good for us…even if I do not like it.”
Lily groaned. “I’m not dealing with this tonight. I have to be at work by eight. Wake me up at seven.” She crawled under the covers and pulled them up over her head, then fought the urge to smack Rowan as he slid behind her, chuckling.
“One more question,” Lily said after a moment.
“Yes?”
“Why am I wearing the ring?”
“If he comes for me,” Rowan said, his breath catching in his throat, “It won’t be here. Loki would never think that I might hide his greatest desire right under his nose.”
Ah, so she was a form of bait now. Normally she would have been offended, but right now she was far too tired to even think about it, much less muster anger. Behind her, Rowan’s breathing slowed to gentle, even puffs against her neck, and she tried to relax against the sea of swirling thoughts. “There is something else,” she said when she realized she couldn’t contain it anymore.
“Mmm-hmm?” Rowan sighed, ruffling her hair with his breath.
“Loren…Loki,” she corrected, “told me a story about a sword named Gram.”
Rowan sat straight up in bed and reached for the lamp on the table. “What about it?”
“He called it the Dragon Slayer.”
“Lily…” His voice was uneven, and his breathing oddly shallow. Lily’s chest filled with dread. “What do you know of that sword?”
“Well…” She curled away from his hard stare. Her body sang with sudden tension, and she hated that she had to feel this way. She probably should have told him this sooner. “He said Loki wanted to own it. I thought he was just being eccentric at the time.”
“Lily…” he repeated, his voice hard. She could hear the beginnings of that second timbre beneath it, and the sound frightened her.
“I think he has the sword…the real one.” She blinked against the tears that squeezed out. “If all of this is real, I think Lor…Loki has the real sword. It has a black stain on the end that he swears is dragon’s blood.”
Rowan went still behind her. His breath stopped. Lily grew still as well, listening, afraid to turn and look at him. Tension filled the room, and had she not been terrified of his reaction, she would have slipped out of the bed and gone back to the guest room. For a long, strained moment, Lily believed coming to him was a mistake.
Just as she convinced herself that she needed to leave, his arms curled around her and she felt his lips against her shoulder. “Sleep, love,” he whispered, sliding one hand under her cheek to turn her face up to his. He kissed her softly, his hands trembling with the effort, and pulled her tight against his chest. “Sleep now and we shall figure this out in the morning.”
But sleep refused to come. No matter how she tried, Lily could not find the right combination of comfort and security to turn off the thoughts swirling in her head. Rowan held her close, his deep even breaths puffing against her neck in the darkness, and even that held no solace. Over and over she replayed the conversation, searching for anything to make the story less believable. The whole thing was pretty fantastic, but the seriousness and thinly-veiled panic etched into Rowan’s features spoke volumes toward its truth.
When the alarm went off, she still hadn’t slept. Reluctantly, she disentangled herself from Rowan’s arms and padded down the hall toward the guest room and her things. If Rowan could smell Loki from that far away, she was willing to bet that Loki would be able to smell him all over her.
She showered and dressed, and was surprised to find Rowan waiting outside her door with a broad grin on his face. “Morning, beautiful,” he said. The smile spread across her face before she knew it was there.
“Morning,” she replied. “I thought since…well…” She felt the blush crawl up into her cheeks. Casting her gaze to his feet, Lily tucked stray, wet strands behind her ears. “I thought that if you could smell him out there last night, then he might smell you on me, and it might upset him.”
Rowan chuckled as he closed the distance between them and kissed her soundly. Her back hit the wall as his tongue swept across hers and his hands traveled the length of her body. “God or not, this should make that stupid cat think twice about touching my woman,” he growled when they separated.
His woman.
She liked that. Too much.
“I thought the point was to keep me safe, not make me a bigger target,” she argued. Rowan caressed her face. She tilted her face up toward his. A small, thin smile tugged his lips upward.
“It is. Now he will know to keep you safe, or he will suffer the wrath of Asgard.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “I have to go to work now.” With a shrug, Rowan curled his arm around her shoulders and led her downstairs to where a car waited for her.
“Dane will let you off at the corner so you can walk in.” There was a new sadness in Rowan’s eyes as he kissed her forehead. “Be safe.”
Chapter Twelve
The morning was colder than usual. Every so often, small snowflakes floated past the car, and despite the toasty warmth of the car’s interior, Lily shivered. She hadn’t expected snow in November considering nature’s threats of an Indian summer, yet here it was. As she stepped out onto the sidewalk, her foot slipped on the icy ground. For a moment she wasn’t sure she would make it all the way to the door of the building, but after the initial adjustment in her balance and posture, she made it inside with no further problems.
Lily wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when she pulled open the front door, but it certainly was not the warm and worried welcome she received. Loren—no, Loki, she reminded herself—swept her into a fierce hug. The tiny huff of expelled air was the only indication that something was wrong. Yesterday she would have allowed herself to enjoy this embrace. Now she looked at him not as an eccentric human, but as a cruel and calculating immortal. Loren was gone. This man before her, embracing her, was something different and dangerous.
His name is Loki, she told herself. This new, enlightened image was not an attractive one. If she were honest with herself, she would have admitted that she was terrified of him.
“I was so worried about you,” he cried as he released her. “I went by your house to check on you, but you weren’t there. What on earth happened to you?”
“I stayed with a friend…” she said, as she shrugged out of her borrowed coat. Looking up, she met a concerned gaze from eyes that were a little too close to her own for comfort. “You two…my nerves were so rattled that I could barely sleep. Didn’t you get my message?” His look of relief curled into a frown as he looked at his phone. Lily didn’t buy it. He was a little too on-cue for any of it to be real. He knew. He had to know.
“Stupid technology,” he said with a laugh. “I feel so silly now.” Draping an arm around her shoulders, Loki towed her through the building to the storage room. She’d spent much time in there, and she knew the way. Something was wrong. First, he never would have met her at the door. Second, he was normally much too busy to walk her in. Lily glanced around the room, almost empty now, and bit back a sigh.
“I have to say,” he said with great humor, “your interns take direction well. I went over to the gallery first thing this morning, and I’m impressed.” Lily forced a smile in response, and shrugged out of his grip. Pulling a notebook from her bag, she focused her attention on it rather than him.
“They’re good kids.”
“Have you considered my offer?”
“Later, Loren.” She wished he’d take the not-so-subtle hint and leave the room. After the previous night’s revelations, she couldn’t look at him without seeing lifetimes of cruelty and a month-long history of lies. There was a new coldness in his dark eyes that frightened her. She turned the page and marked through several lines of notes, then scribbled d
own the margin of the page. It was nonsense, really, but she hoped that appearing busy would run him off.
“Holy shit, there’s an elephant in the room!” That got her attention. Groaning, Lily looked up to find him smiling at her. She scowled. “There’s my girl.”
“Not funny,” she retorted. “Now kindly pick the canary feathers out of your teeth and go away.”
“Maybe it isn’t funny, but it is true.” Loki laid his hand over hers to stop her. “What is it that we aren’t talking about?”
Lily fixed him with a withering stare. She pulled her hand free, tucked her pen behind her ear, and crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you really want to do this?”
“We can’t work like this, Lily.”
“You mean I can’t work like this. You’re perfectly capable of making me insane with or without a problem.”
Mischief crawled all over his features. “Come on, honey. Tell me what’s going on.”
“First, don’t call me ‘honey.’ Second, I want to know why you and Rowan went all He-Man on each other last night.” The air in the room grew noticeably cooler, even though his smile remained in place. “I don’t want a ridiculous excuse either. I want the truth.”
Loki considered her for a long, tense moment. She wondered how he would explain himself, wondered just how much of the truth she would get, and how much of what he would say matched what Rowan had already told her. She still didn’t fully believe the story, but with every new twist, the fantastic seemed to focus more and more into the realistic. She also didn’t believe that he would come out and announce his existence as a god from the Old World. Loki draped himself in Loren Eshu’s familiar indifference and shrugged.
“I suppose the term ‘mortal enemies’ is the wrong one.” Yeah, you have to be mortal for that, Lily thought. “He and I have orbited each other for years, as those with money are wont to do.” Loki smirked as he leaned over the table toward her. “He’s jealous that I’m more attractive than he is.”
“Be serious.” Her tone was flat, emotionless.
“We battle for the same artifacts. We tend to collect the same things.” Lily leveled him with a hard stare that stopped him from saying more. She shivered again, wishing she hadn’t taken her coat off and left it on the other side of the room.
“Did you know my past with him when you hired me?” Loki blinked, the only expression of surprise she’d seen cross his face since meeting him. “Before you answer, know that the continuation of whatever this relationship may or may not be depends on the answer to this question. So choose your words carefully.”
Dust motes floated through the beams of light between them. Lily tensed, prepared to walk out when he hung his head.
“I knew he had interviewed you, yes,” Loki admitted. “If you were enough to hold his attention and have him pull an advertisement, I thought it only right that I provide a little competition.” He glanced up at her—the mischief was firmly back in place, twinkling in his eyes. “I never thought you would accept my offer.”
Lily snapped her notebook closed and shoved it into her bag. He was absolutely insane. “Bullshit,” she snarled. “Carolyn said you specifically requested me…and I know you well enough by now to know that you don’t make offers without a guarantee that you will get what you want.”
She slung her bag over her shoulder and headed for the door. Rage burned through her. She wanted to scream at him, to throw things and to completely undo an entire month of work. More than anything, she wanted away from him, as fast as possible. He blocked her exit by stepping in front of her. Lily bit back a curse and glared up at him.
“Where are you going?”
“To the gallery.” She tried to go around, but he moved with her. The humor drained from his face. His mouth narrowed to a hard line, and the air around him dropped several degrees.
“What are you playing at?”
“Nothing.” Lily tried to sound innocent, but her anger fused her jaw in place and she found it impossible to be nice. “I have work to do, and I don’t want to do it around you.”
“This is about Keir. You were with him.”
“None of your business,” she snapped. “You are my employer. There is no reason why I should tell you of my personal affairs.” Fury flashed across his face. Lily closed her eyes and sucked in a deep, calming breath. “I need some time, Loren.”
A long, tense moment held them locked in place. Loki’s breath came in harsh, ragged puffs. This was a mistake. Lily knew that now. She’d come too close to the truth. He would surely kill her now. She waited, terrified and furious, until he let out a long sigh.
“Go.” She opened her eyes and looked up to meet a cold, calculating stare. “But this is not over.” He stepped back to allow her through, but caught her wrist in a steel grip. “Crossing me is a bad idea, Lily.” Loki released her and strode off through the house.
Lily fled. She found herself standing on the sidewalk before she realized she had no transportation. And she left her coat inside.
Damn.
The gallery was eight blocks away. Normally she would walk, but not in this weather. And calling a cab could leave her standing there for much longer than it would take to walk. Frustrated, she plucked her phone from her bag and dialed the only number she could think of.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” His worried voice washed over her, calming her nerves.
“I need a ride to the gallery. I left my coat inside and it’s too cold to walk.”
“I am right around the corner.”
“Rowan…”
“You honestly did not think I would leave you alone with him, did you?”
She groaned. The chivalry, while oddly endearing, only reinforced the thought that she was up against something much too big, and her knight in shining armor was quite a bit more hairy than she wanted him to be. Lily started to answer, but she could already see his headlights coming around the corner. Sighing, she closed her phone and pulled the door open. Wondrous warmth blasted out to meet her.
“I should hate you,” she grunted and flung herself down into the seat.
“Glad to see you too,” Rowan replied, and leaned over to kiss her cheek before pulling away from the curb.
“This is beyond ridiculous.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it is. Because you’re hell-bent on protecting me, and that determination has made me even more of a target!” Rowan’s features darkened. His foot fell heavy on the gas pedal, and the car shot forward through the intersection, making her clutch at the armrest. The muscle along his jaw began to tick.
“What did he say?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“Well…I asked him if his hiring me had anything to do with you.” She rubbed her temples with her fingertips, trying to curb the headache behind her eyes. “He said he wanted a fair shot at me because I made you pull your ad.”
“He knew it was mine?”
“Obviously, Rowan, or he wouldn’t have said that.”
Rowan swore, a long string of obscene words that made Lily blush. After several colorful phrases, he calmed himself, and sped past the gallery. Lily glanced back over the seat as her destination went whizzing by, and turned to him with an open-mouthed gawk.
“I need to see that book,” he responded. “If it is what I think it is, then we may be in more trouble than I originally thought.”
* * * * *
The house was cold, and the bitter, metallic smell of cat permeated the air, concentrated in the living room. A cold breeze drifted in from the back of the house. Rowan followed it, growling in frustration when he found the shattered window.
“He has been here,” Rowan shouted back through the house. Immediately Lily was at his side, cowering under his arm. “Your home is no longer safe.”
“I was afraid you were going to say that.” She curled closer to his side. “He’s been inside, hasn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“So…now what?” Her small b
ody shook under his hands and he pulled her closer. She fit so well against his side. He couldn’t imagine her not being there.
“Collect what you need. You will stay with me until this is over.” Under his hand, her shoulders tensed. Stubborn woman. She still had no idea the danger she was in, and that blasted independent streak of hers was bound to get her killed.
“Here’s the book.” She offered it to him, and when his eyes found the worn cover, his heart seized in his chest. Plucking it from her fingers, Rowan turned it over in his hand. The familiar knotwork burned into its cover shook him. “Do you know it?”
Rowan swallowed around the lump in his throat. “It belonged to my father.” Her big, blue eyes went wide and perfectly round.
“What…what does this mean?”
“Loki killed my father.”
She gasped, and her arms went around his middle. He hugged her to him to stave off the shaking anger consuming him. “He was behind the death of my ancestors, which I knew all along. As far as my father’s death, I have known it was by his hand for quite a long time. I just never had proof.”
“And this journal…” she trailed off. Her eyes grew wide and perfectly round as realization hit. “Oh, Rowan…I’m so sorry.”
“Do not be. I am very glad you found this.” It gave him all the reason he needed to bring this war to a close. “Get your things. We need to go.”
Lily scurried from the room. Rowan sank to the edge of the bed, cradling his head in one hand, the book clutched tightly in the other. He had known his father’s death was at Loki’s hands, but to have the proof was overwhelming. And now Lily was in danger. He’d been so selfish that he’d put the woman he loved in danger.
Rowan paused, feeling his eyebrows knit together. This was a new revelation. He loved her—probably the most irrational situation he had ever found himself in, but it was what it was. He loved her. He brought her into this. Now, he had to protect her.
Lily reappeared with a bag slung over her shoulder. She stood in the doorway with her arms wrapped around her middle. So small and vulnerable…the sight squeezed at Rowan’s heart. He mentally kicked himself for being so stupid.
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