Speechless, Bjorn listened in growing concern as she spoke.
“I heard everything you told Tait after he came to try to save me.” She frowned. “About my tattoo and Loki’s blade. Everything.” Now her eyes narrowed. “Most especially about you deciding to control me.”
Bjorn almost denied it.
Almost.
Then it occurred to him he was about to do the opposite of what she wanted. Lie. Had their positions been reversed, he would have wanted the truth from her. So he gave it to her. Emotions aside he focused on being blunt. “Yes, I decided that it was best I control you to keep not only my people safe but yours.”
Samantha drifted closer, her voice level but her pupils flaring with emotion as she touched her hip, her tattoo. “So you knew exactly what you were looking at on Mt. Galdhøpiggen when you saw this?” Her eyes narrowed even more. “You formed an opinion and a plan then stole me from my home…from taking care of your mom.”
“I did what was best for all involved.” He couldn’t help but narrow his eyes as he closed the distance. “Do you have any idea how dangerous this blade is?” Then he said more than intended. “How many times I dreamt of it…of you?”
Her breathing switched pace. “No, Bjorn, how would I know that when you avoided me like the plague? When you avoided everyone?” Anger flared in her eyes. “How often do you do that? How often do you vanish into the mountains, brooding and despondent as your family worries about you?”
When he growled in frustration and denial, she poked him in the chest. “That’s right. It works both ways. It’s not all about you worrying about everyone else but them worrying about you too.” Her eyes widened, and her cheeks grew rosy. “Imagine that. Somebody cares about you!”
Before he could get a word in edgewise, she continued, her dragon eyes flaring to life. “And those people who care about you? They’re sick.” She kept slamming her finger into his chest. “They’re really sick, and they need you, Bjorn.” Her eyes returned to normal, damp as they locked with his and her palm pressed against his chest. “But you’re nowhere to be found, and they miss you so much.”
“This tale sounds far too familiar, does it not?”
Bjorn closed his eyes to the voice that drifted through the forest.
A voice that had changed and deepened since the last time he heard it.
“Look at me then, Dragon,” the young man demanded as he held an arrow taut, ready to be released. “Look at what you left behind.”
So Bjorn did.
He turned his head and met the eyes of someone he had tried to keep a close eye on over the years. Someone he only ever watched from afar.
“It has been too long, Sven,” he said softly. “It is good to see you again, Son.”
Chapter Eight
SAMANTHA’S MIND WAS still reeling as Bjorn and the teenage boy eyed each other across the way. There was no mistaking they were related. Though still gangly, Sven already had his father’s height, steely eyes and quite possibly, his stalwart nature.
“Why are you here?” Sven kept his arrow notched and aimed at his father. “Why after all this time?”
“I am just passing through.” Bjorn gestured at Samantha. “Me and my…friend.”
Sam frowned but said nothing. Calling her a friend was a stretch at this point. Because despite all the crap she’d been through since hooking up with Bjorn, one thing remained true. Friends didn’t keep secrets this big from one another.
And for all intents and purposes, Sven was one mega big family secret.
How old was Bjorn when he had him? Ten? Because seriously, he seemed too young to have a teenage son on the brink of manhood. As far as she could tell, Bjorn couldn’t be much over thirty. Even then, his grumpy attitude and fuzzy face likely made him look older than he really was.
“You do not pass through anywhere unintentionally,” Sven seethed, arrow still at the ready. His brows perked at the quickly repressed look of surprise on Bjorn’s face. “Did you not think I saw you over the years, Father? Hiding in the shadows?” His eyes narrowed. “Afraid to face your family. Afraid to take responsibility for your actions.”
Bjorn clenched his jaw and remained silent.
Frustrated, Samantha frowned at him. “For God’s sake, say something, Bjorn. Why did you—”
She clamped her mouth shut when Sven redirected his bow at her, and Bjorn stepped in front of her. “If you mean to shoot anyone, it best not be an innocent woman who wanders onto your land, Son.”
“Stop calling me son.” Sven kept his voice and body language remarkably calm considering how turbulent the look in his eyes was.
Well, that certainly reminded her of someone else she knew. Sam eyed Bjorn. The apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. Speaking of trees, soon enough another voice joined the conversation.
A female one.
“Put down your weapon, Son.”
Samantha peeked around Bjorn as a woman appeared out of the forest beside Sven. Bjorn was such an exceptional artist, she didn’t need to guess who it was.
Katla.
Bjorn’s wife.
And wow, was she gorgeous with long, dark hair and a petite figure that most women would die for. Her eyes were as dark and lustrous as her hair and her face the sort that would make her damn popular in the twenty-first century.
The dots of Bjorn’s life were slowly but surely connecting. She had a vague recollection of him telling her at the Dragon Lair he was no longer married. And it seemed he was telling the truth based on Katla’s body language. Whatever he’d had with this woman went south. Bjorn was tense as hell and Katla? She seemed cold and indifferent to him...but not to Samantha.
When Katla’s eyes met hers, the sensation she felt was hard to describe. A mixture of jealousy on Sam’s part mixed with sadness on Katla’s. One thing was for sure, Bjorn’s ex recognized her.
“So you do exist,” Katla said softly as she held out her hand. “Come. Please. I will not hurt you.” Though she didn’t look at him, she spoke to Sven. “Lower your weapon, Son. Do not make me ask again.”
“He will,” came an even softer voice before Näv appeared and gently lowered it for him. “He is.”
Samantha’s eyes rounded. What was Näv doing here? She hadn’t seen the seer since she and Bjorn yanked Sam back in time. Quite honestly, Sam was still wondering how she and Bjorn ended up here when they were just at the Dragon Lair and Sam was storming out of his lair.
Näv’s eyes went to Sam’s. Clearly reading her mind, the seer said, “This time I did not pull you through time, Samantha. You did it by yourself.”
“What do you mean...” Sam started, trailing off as she tried to grasp the implication. “I did this?” She looked around. “I brought us here?”
“Yes.” Näv took the bow and arrow from Sven. “You brought Bjorn away from danger to the last place on your mind before the enemy arrived. A place that angered you but also made you curious.”
She seriously didn’t like that she had blacked out the entire time the enemy was there. Or that she was evidently possessed.
“I don’t understand,” Sam whispered, her eyes still on Näv. “How did I do that?”
“I didn’t realize quite what you were until you were in my mind,” Näv said, her eyes flickering to Bjorn before they returned to Sam. “You are as rare if not more so than your sister, Cybil because you are something we truly didn’t believe existed.”
“And that is?” Sam prompted when Näv continued to look at her so fondly.
“You are a Gateway Seer, Samantha,” Näv said. “Where most see and live a timeline that only leads in one direction, your magic sees it entirely different.” When Näv traced a circle in the air, Sam swore she saw sparks. “Your magic sees things as rounded and easier to transgress. There is no beginning or end but space that curls into itself. What lies inside you, sees all possibilities. All space and time.” Her smile grew wise. “Which gives you the power to transport people through time without any help f
rom the gods.”
Näv seemed matter-of-fact and proud to enlighten with her next statement. “Though likely only hours in your future, you brought Bjorn here because his former wife, Katla, must have been on your mind.”
“You don’t say,” Sam muttered and shook her head, pretty much at her cracking point. “Can’t wait to get home and tell the family.” Näv was about to respond, but Sam cut her off as she moved away from Bjorn. “Speaking of family, how the hell do I get back to them because I’ve had more than enough,” she covered everyone with a wide swipe of her arm, “of all this.” Her eyes met Sven’s. “Not you. Sorry. You’re just a kid. I meant the rest of them.”
Sven frowned. “What is a kid?”
“You,” Sam supplied and headed Näv’s way, more than ready to start poking her in the chest if it got her answers.
“No.” Katla stepped in front of her before she got to the seer. “We do not harm our own.”
Our own?
That’s when she realized that Katla was a seer too.
They all were except for Bjorn and his son.
“I didn’t sign up for this,” she murmured. “I want to go home.”
“But you are home,” Katla said, her voice soft as she gripped Sam’s hand. “It can be no other way.”
Sam shook her head and pulled her hand away. “Sorry, but home’s where my sisters are.” She tried not to panic. “Certainly not here with a bunch of strangers.”
“One sister is already here,” Näv reminded and pulled Sam after her before she could deny her. “And more will be coming.”
“Highly doubtful,” Sam said, surprised by Näv’s strength. “Hey, let me go.”
“I will. Just a few more steps.”
More irritated by the moment, she stopped short a few steps later and frowned. “Why here?”
“Because I want to show you something.” Näv’s eyes went to Katla then Bjorn before flickering over Sven and landing on Sam again. “Will you keep your mind open if I give you the truth? Or will it be too much to handle, I wonder.”
Not sure she liked the sound of that but no coward, Sam crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. “I can take a lot so try me.”
“Do not,” Bjorn growled, but Näv hushed him.
“Can you truly take it, Samantha?” Näv gestured at the trees around them. “Because you have arrived in the Forest of Memories. Though it sounds ancient, it was only created a decade ago.”
“Oh, yeah?” Sam said. “Why’d it get that name?”
“Because something traumatic happened and created an area of energy within these pines. Energy that continues to capture anything intense that happens here. Sometimes it will replay it for those who are curious enough to wander into the area,” Näv said. “Memories replayed for perfect strangers to watch.”
Okay. Interesting concept. She’d bite. “What happened here to begin with that was so intense?”
“Well, you see, it happened between a dragon, a seer, and a king,” Näv murmured. “Let me show you.”
“No,” Bjorn growled again, but it was too late.
Whatever Näv did made everything swirl away. Bjorn, Katla, and Sven. All were gone except the forest. Snow drifted down in huge, lazy flakes that seemed at peaceful odds with what slowly materialized in front of her.
A hooded woman plodded through the snow and urged the young boy next to her to follow. He had dark hair and sad cobalt blue eyes as he glanced back. “Where is Father? Isn’t he coming?”
“No, he is lost to us, Sven,” she said softly. “It is time to meet your new father.”
“But I do not want a new father,” he whimpered, still looking back over his shoulder.
“Shh, child,” she murmured, her eyes alight as she pulled back her hood, released Sven’s hand and rushed into a man’s arms. Katla was younger, maybe eighteen if that and dewy-eyed, more trusting.
Tall and rugged, the man seemed receptive at first.
But it only lasted a breath.
Sam put a hand over her mouth as she watched the memory unfold.
“Come now.” The man yanked Katla after him. “I have been through too much and waited too long to have you, woman.”
“Unhand my mother!” little Sven roared as he held up a stick as though it were a sword and thrust it into the man’s thigh. “Right now!”
The man didn’t bother with a response but whacked Sven hard enough that the child fell flat on his back. No sooner did he hit the ground than a frigid wind started to blow so hard it bent the trees. Seconds later, a huge blue dragon crashed down.
Sam forgot to breathe as her eyes traveled up over the talons to the muscled, serpentine body to the massive wings. But that’s not what really got her. No, that’d be the beautiful blue catlike eyes that didn’t narrow on the man first but her, Samantha.
Almost as if it saw her standing there…
In a memory.
The man who had just hit Sven shoved Katla behind him, held his sword up and narrowed his eyes at the dragon. “Fight me like a man.” Disgust laced his words. “Not like the careless beast you are.”
The dragon’s eyes went to Sven who had scrambled to his feet, then to Katla, who welcomed her son when he ran into her arms.
“See how they fear you, Dragon? Now they are mine,” the man roared. “So fight me or flee because you are not welcome here.”
Somehow Sam knew Sven wasn’t frightened of his father in dragon form. Rather, his fear was a direct result of being hit by the stranger. And Bjorn was infuriated. She staggered back as a bright light flashed and the dragon vanished only to be replaced by a roaring blur that slammed into the man. Katla screamed and yanked her son away from the violence that erupted.
Samantha barely recognized the dragon turned man as the two rolled and rolled, punching and kicking until they sprang to their feet and started circling one another. Then she finally saw him, and her jaw dropped.
Bjorn.
While she knew it was him, nothing could have prepared her to see him without a beard. To see the face beneath all that hair. Sure you could speculate a man’s features beneath a beard but…holy shit.
Bjorn was, for lack of a better word, untouchably handsome. While she figured he was pretty hot, wow, was she off. He was gorgeous by any woman’s standards. She had nothing to compare his face to because he was one of a kind.
Those lips.
That chin.
His everything.
And he was young. Maybe eighteen. Which only meant he was turbocharged super-hot now beneath all that hair because he was entering his prime.
Any thoughts of good looks vanished as Bjorn’s blade met the man’s sword. The fighting was ferocious, deadly and soon enough, clearly unbalanced as heavily armed men appeared and created a circle around them.
“You do not need to do this, my King,” Katla croaked as she tucked Sven’s head against her so he couldn’t watch what was happening. “I am yours willingly.”
“Oh, but I do need to do this, my new Queen,” the man spat as he and Bjorn continued to go at it. “The Sigdir’s need to know they do not rule all lands.” He thrust his sword, and Bjorn avoided. “That they do not rule my land.”
“I do not care about land,” Bjorn roared as he drove the man back, their swords clashing rapidly. “Only my wife and son.”
“So you say,” the man said. “Yet you let her turn from you and take your son. What sort of man are you? What sort of father?”
“I love my son!” Enraged, Bjorn rushed at him only to be thwarted by a man to his right then another to his left. Sam shook her head as pure horror unfolded.
“If you want to fight me then do so,” Bjorn taunted the man. “Do not have your men do it for you.”
“Please,” Katla sobbed, still keeping Sven’s face averted. “Let him go and be with me, my King.”
“Maybe,” the man, king, murmured as he watched his men attack Bjorn.
“But I wonder?” his voice grew dangerously soft
as Bjorn spun and fought so well, men fell like dominoes. “Will you be able to forget a face such as his? Will you forget how handsome he is…was?”
“Father,” Sven cried when the king’s men finally overcame Bjorn and held him to the ground. Why didn’t he shift back to a dragon? Based on the sheening of his skin her guess was he tried but was too weak. Too damaged from the countless wounds he had suffered.
“I am your father now, boy,” the king said to Sven as he crouched beside Bjorn with a blade. “Remember that or I will find this man again and do far worse than what I’m about to do now.”
In that single moment, Bjorn started to become the man he was today. He didn’t struggle because he knew it was pointless. Instead, silent fury filled his eyes as the king slowly sliced his blade down Bjorn’s cheek. A scar so deep, there would be no healing from it. He was about to start on the other side when a loud roar filled the sky.
Sam had heard that sound before.
Naðr Véurr.
Bjorn’s king. His father.
And he was coming.
The man with the blade to Bjorn’s face eyed the sky before he leapt to his feet, spat on Bjorn then gestured to his men. “We must go.”
“Father, no!” Sven kept screaming over and over as the king swept him up and plunked him on his horse.
“I am here, Son, I’m coming,” Bjorn said, weak as blood poured for him. “I will not let them hurt you or your mother.” He tried to get up but was kicked in the face by another man then flipped.
Bile rose in Sam’s throat as one of the soldiers leaned over and whispered in Bjorn’s ear, “You’re not going anywhere or saving anyone,” before he raked his blade hard down Bjorn’s back.
That was the scar he still bore to this day.
Bjorn’s skin shimmered as though his dragon still tried to surface, but it was too late. Whatever fight he had left in him slowly bled into the ground as men continued to attack him before they swung onto their horses and fled.
Bjorn lay unmoving, his eyes wide to the sky as blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth. She knew Naðr Véurr had caught up with some of the men. That based on their cries, he was attacking viciously.
Vengeance of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 2) Page 11
