by Mariah Stone
The preparations for the feast were going well. Mead was brewing. There was enough rye for bread and vegetables for stew. Servants and thralls were all almost back to good health and he knew there was enough manpower to prepare the feast when the jarls arrived.
His wife’s belly swelled more and more, and she was getting more and more beautiful every day. So beautiful, he stopped breathing for a moment every time he glanced at her.
With more free time away from the hospital, she became more involved in the household chores. The great house was cleaner, and the food tasted better. Their bed was fresher. She liked to bathe every day, and the thralls were used to heating up the bathhouse for her. She had discussed with him the repairs of the houses and sheds, and he had given her full control. He just had not thought that the houses needed to be repaired; he had thought they would keep till later, with the revenge and raids on his mind.
Arinborg made everything better.
And the people loved her. Hakon saw her going to gather herbs with Oda and other women, cooking with them—even though as the jarl’s wife, she did not have to do that. She sewed a gown for the baby. Another woman lent her a crib, and it already stood in the bedchamber.
When the watchman finally sounded the arrival of the first longship one week later, Hakon was filled with both anticipation and dread. The purpose of his entire life—avenging his mother’s death—was within his reach. But he was lying to his wife, and very likely destroying his only chance at happiness.
It was Jarl Vefuss—Hakon recognized his white-and-red sails as soon as they were visible. Hakon and his wife waited on the wooden pier, ready to welcome their guests.
Jarl Vefuss was a man in his fifties, his beard and hair already white, but his might still obvious. He brought his two sons, tall and proud and seemingly good warriors. He came with fifty men.
The next day, Jarl Brunn arrived with another fifty, and the day after, Jarl Rafr with thirty more.
The village was swarming with people, and Arinborg and he were busy entertaining guests.
The night of the day Jarl Rafr arrived, they started the feast, and Hakon needed to discuss the matter of Nyr in private with the jarls. The three jarls watched Arinborg with respect but caution, knowing that she was their enemy’s daughter. Surprisingly, none of them had seen her before. Hakon supposed it was understandable that they would not know her given that Nyr had nine daughters, but he could not imagine how any man could overlook a woman like her.
The feast was fully underway, the mead hall loud with laughter and the hum of voices, rich with the scents of roasted boar, cooked vegetables, and freshly baked bread. Mead flowed like a river. And Arinborg was so beautiful, Hakon’s heart stopped every time he looked at her.
The doors to the great hall flew open. “Where is Hakon the Beast?” roared a woman he had never seen before.
The hall went quiet.
“Here,” he said, standing up.
“Is this how you meet your bride?” she shouted. “You do not send a greeting party? You do not worry where she is?”
Hakon frowned, confused. The woman had long dark hair, a rich woolen cloak trimmed with fur, and a beautiful blood-red dress. She was quite lovely, but possibly insane.
“My bride is right here.” He gestured at Arinborg, who stood up as well, pale. “And who are you?”
The woman’s dark eyes threw lightning bolts into his wife, and he shifted instinctively to protect her.
“I am Princess Arinborg Nyrdotje. Your wife-to-be. I was delayed because I received an injury on my journey. And who is she?”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
M ia had lied to them all. And now they knew it.
Her world was collapsing in the dim light of the great hall. Everyone stared at her. The faces of men and women she’d come to love, working every day side by side to fight the epidemic, or curing them or their children.
And yet, their opinion didn’t matter as much as one person’s.
Hakon glared at her with such intensity that she wanted to hide somewhere. One part of his face—the dark side with the birthmark—was in the light, and the other part in the shadows. It was as if the predator, the wolf in him, had taken over.
Mia shuddered.
“What is she talking about?” he said, his voice harsh and grating.
She had known this would happen eventually. This stupid plan had never had a happy ending. She should have told him a long time ago.
“She is the real Princess Arinborg,” she said.
People around the room gasped.
Hakon grimaced as if she’d physically wounded him and looked her up and down, as if seeing her for the first time.
“Hakon,” began Jarl Brunn, who sat by Hakon’s other side, “if she is not the princess, King Nyr—”
“Not now. I need to talk to my wife.” He offered Mia his hand. “Come.”
His voice was soft, but it had a steel edge to it. Mia rose on legs as weak as cooked spaghetti, pins and needles in her arms and feet. But she held her head high and straightened her back. This might be the end of her and Hakon, and that would be her fault. But it was her chance to explain everything to him and hope that he would forgive her again.
Forgive yet another betrayal.
He led her outside. Even though it was evening, there was still a lot of light. The sun was just beginning to sink behind the mountain, setting the water of the fjord ablaze with red and orange. The wind rustled, evening crickets began their chirping, and the air smelled of flowers and grass. Hakon led her to the beach where no one would hear them.
When they came to the rocky shore, water splashing under their feet, Mia’s heart was thumping so hard, it threatened to jump out of her chest. She was sweaty and hot, and she sank to her knees, leaned over the water and splashed it into her face. It was slightly salty, cool, and smelled of the sea, and it washed some of her anxiety away.
Hakon studied her, his face a stone mask. She knew it was a cage that held his real feelings inside under lock and key. But his eyes were free. They were dark, and there was fury in them, and pain, and questions.
“Talk,” he said.
Mia closed her eyes for a moment, considering if there was a way to say things in some sort of order that would make sense and soften the blow. But she couldn’t see it.
“My name is Mia Lindsay. I am from the future.”
He blinked. “Are you taking me for a fool?”
“I know it sounds crazy. I was born in 1993 in San Diego, United States of America. That probably doesn’t make much sense to you because it’s the Christian calendar, and America is not even colonized yet. Anyway, I come from about eleven hundred years in the future. I am a doctor—well, almost. I had to stop my residency because of Dan, the man I told you about. The white powder I gave you is a painkiller. A pill I had with me when I traveled back in time.”
She began talking faster and faster, trying to find the arguments quickly to persuade him, before he could cut her off and she’d lose her chance.
“The suction tube was a plastic bracelet I had with me. All those strange words that you are always asking me about…the fork…bathing…my dress with the flower print…my purse… All of the questions I asked about things that seemed obvious to you…common knowledge.”
He closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head. “You are a strange one. You come up with such nonsense and want me to believe this?”
“I do!”
His lips tightened into a thin, angry line in his beard, then he took a step and grabbed her by the arm, shaking her slightly. Mia shrank at first, surprised, but then straightened her shoulders.
“You have been lying to me about everything that you are. Everything! Your name, where you are from. You didn’t tell me a true thing about yourself. I have been living with a woman who does not exist. I have been falling in love with a woman that is an illusion.”
His words squeezed and twisted her stomach, the pain excruciating.
“
Tell me the truth, Mia,” he continued, “or whoever you are. Why did you come here? Why did you pretend to be someone you are not?”
Mia clenched her jaw. “I didn’t have a choice. You just grabbed me, put me on your horse, and threatened me with death if I wasn’t Princess Arinborg. So I had to be her. Then I was looking for an escape, until the epidemic started. I couldn’t leave until I made sure everyone got through it. And then—”
She swallowed. The knot in her throat hurt. His eyes, his mouth, were right in front of her. She itched to trace his eyebrow, the one on the side of the birthmark. It was bright blond against the darker skin.
“And then I fell in love with you.”
He let go of her and took a step back, grimacing as if he was about to spit. “I do not believe a word. If you really loved me, you would have told me the truth.”
Pain stabbed Mia in the heart. He was right. This was exactly what she was afraid of.
“I wanted to. I almost did. But I couldn’t bear to see you brokenhearted. To see you like this.”
He shook his head. “I knew the gods would not let me be happy. It was the curse all along.”
Her stomach dropped.
“I lied because I was afraid of you in the beginning. I had to do anything to protect my baby. Anything. Like any mother would.”
His face went blank at that, the anger gone. Ah yes, he knew that all too well, and he knew she was right. He was listening now, and hope flickered in Mia.
“After Dan…” she continued. “His name is Dan Pavarotti. He is a mafia lord in Boston, which means he has a huge criminal organization under him. Three years ago, we started dating. I had no idea he was a criminal back then, or I never would have become involved with him…”
And then she told him everything. Words poured out of her like pus from a wound. For the first time since she had met him, she was talking about her real self.
And it felt good.
She told him things she had never told anyone. How her father had always controlled her mom and her. How she had found another control freak in Dan. How in the beginning he was every woman’s dream. He’d courted her, spoiled her, showered her with attention, and even named a yacht after her. How he’d begun beating her because he didn’t know how else to keep her by his side. How she’d tried to escape him twice, and how his men had always found her and returned her to him. How he’d raped her after the second escape attempt, and she’d gotten pregnant. They hadn’t been intimate for a while by then, and Dan had been caught in a rage and hadn’t used a condom. How she’d found the strength to convince him to end an unhappy relationship for both of them. And how he’d found out that she was carrying his child the day before she could disappear forever.
And how that old lady had given her a golden spindle in the hospital so that she could escape. How the next thing Mia knew she was surrounded by the woods, the rock with the runes standing by her side, and a roaring bear charging her.
And Hakon.
He frowned. “A golden spindle?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Only a Norn would have a golden spindle.”
“A Norn?”
“Norns spin people’s fates.” He studied her, then rubbed his forehead. “This tale you told me— It is very hard to believe. But if it is true, a Norn sent you here. And the rune stone in the sacred grove must have been why you appeared there. That is where we do sacrifices and praise the gods. There is a lot of magic in that place.”
Mia inhaled deeply and nodded. Her instinct to go to the rune stone had been right.
Their eyes locked. “So you are not his daughter.”
“Whose? King Nyr’s?”
He laughed bitterly. “I don’t know if I am relieved or concerned. If I am not married to Arinborg, the work of the past years to avenge the death of my mother has just perished.”
Mia frowned. “Avenge the death of your mother?”
He turned away and walked a few steps, then turned back to her, his hands on his hips. Mia waited for the answer as if her life depended on it. The sun sank even lower behind the mountain, spilling flamingo-pink, red, and orange across the skies, turning into blue, and then almost black on the other side.
“When my father was dying, he told me what really happened that night. Nyr gave him the idea to test my curse.”
She had a feeling she didn’t want to know the answer, but she had to ask anyway. “So why did you want to marry his daughter?”
“Because I am going to kill him by the end of this summer, with the help of Jarl Brunn, Jarl Rafr, and Jarl Vefuss.”
The ground sank under Mia’s feet. “What?”
“This marriage was supposed to distract him. He wanted me on his side to fight his wars for him. He got me. He wouldn’t know what had struck him until we’d attacked. But now that everyone knows that you are not Arinborg, I have no chance. The other jarls will fear catching Nyr’s attention before we can act.”
Mia swallowed. “If you have no more chance, there’s no need to get revenge anymore, right?”
“No need to get revenge? I will never stop hunting him until I avenge my mother’s death.”
“So you hid from Arinborg—or me—that you were going to kill her father.”
He nodded.
Something dark turned in Mia’s stomach. Something she had not felt since she’d found out what Dan really did for a living.
Realization that she’d fallen in love with the image of a man, again, rather than seeing his true nature, slammed the air from her chest. Fear chilled her to the bone. The reality of that man was terrifying.
A man who was ready to kill the father of the wife he supposedly loved.
She stopped breathing. “And you are blaming me for lying? I lied to save my baby! You are lying to kill the father of your wife!”
Hakon took a step towards her. “Lower your voice!”
Mia breathed heavily and hugged herself, seeing him in a completely different light now. “How could I be so stupid? I thought I’d finally found the man for me. Even though I swore to myself I wouldn’t rush into relationships, I would first gain independence and take care of my baby. And yet what have I done? Fallen in love with a Viking from eleven hundred years ago! A Viking who would put a blood feud above his love.”
Hakon scowled at her. “But he is not your father. Why do you care?”
“Why do I care? I care because the man I thought I’d fallen in love with doesn’t exist. I thought you were noble and kind and good-hearted. Turns out, you are a cold-blooded killer. I have already run from one so that my baby wouldn’t be raised by such a man. And I won’t let another one raise him, either.”
Panic flickered in his eyes. He took a step towards her. “What are you saying?”
“I’m leaving. What was I thinking, imagining that I could stay in the past with you, give birth here, raise my son here? With you? I was ready to forget vaccination, modern hospitals, and the lack of proper education. But I can’t be in a relationship with a man whose sole purpose in life is revenge.”
He clenched his fists. “It is the destiny of Hakon the Beast.”
Tears burned her eyes. “You are drinking the poison of revenge, and you don’t even realize that you are the one dying. Stop, Hakon. Nyr already killed your mother. Don’t let him kill you.”
He looked like a hurt animal. She wanted to reach out and soothe him. But there was no future for them. Not after this.
“Goodbye, Hakon. Tell everyone I am sorry,” she whispered. Then she turned away and walked towards the sacred grove.
She thought she saw him lifting up one hand as if to grasp her, but she must have imagined it.
She could only hope the rune rock would take her back, and once she was in Boston, that Dan had forgotten about her.
But she would never forget Hakon.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“F orgive me, lord, but you are not listening,” Arinborg’s voice dragged Hakon out of his daydream, in which the woman with a deli
cate swollen belly, hair the color of new honey, and eyes like the first grass of the year, was telling him that she loved him.
The day was gray, and rain drizzled on the village in a fine mist, the air thick with the smell of wet wood and earth. It was cold despite the summer season, steam rushing out of people’s mouths as they stood and watched the fjord where a longship was approaching.
A longship bearing King Nyr’s colors.
A week had passed since Mia left, the days dragging like he was living on the bottom of a swamp. Hakon was split between the pain of her betrayal, which tore his heart like a mace with sharp nails, and worry for her that sent his head spinning. If that man, Dan, found her… Hakon’s fists clenched.
But he could not do anything about that. She’d left; she did not see a future with him. And he did not, either. It was for the best. He had to focus on his goal, which was fast approaching.
Hakon turned to Arinborg, who was standing by his side, her pretty dark eyebrows raised, her brown eyes angry.
“What did you say, Princess?”
“I said, I hope you have something in mind to soften the blow. He is convinced we are already married.”
Hakon clenched his jaw. He had something in mind that would turn the blow into a storm.
“Do not worry, Princess. Your father will forgive me once he finds out that he will have the honor of marrying us.”
She turned to the ship and muttered, “If you think it will make him forgive you, you clearly do not know him.”
Hakon cocked his head. “Maybe so.”
She gently cupped his jaw and turned his face towards her. She was lovely—dark arched eyebrows; big beautiful eyes; full lips, red and inviting. She was as tall as Mia, but bigger chested. Any man would give up freedom, lands, and silver to be the husband of a beautiful, strong, smart princess.
But her touch made Hakon want to step away, made him miss Mia’s touch even more. This woman was not the woman his heart beat for.
The princess traced his cheekbone with her thumb. “I agreed to marry you even after what you did. But it does not mean I am ready to forgive you. That imposter is gone. That is a good beginning.”
