by Mariah Stone
He had seen that look in the eyes of rare men. He had seen it in Nyr’s eyes.
The eyes of a man who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted.
They fell on Hakon, and a muscle on Hakon’s cheek jerked. He gripped the ax.
Dan met his gaze, his fingers clasped around Mia’s upper arm, and he pulled her against him. Hakon’s gut twisted.
“And who is this, Mia?” Dan asked.
“I am Hakon the Beast,” Hakon said. “And I have come to take back my wife.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
A ll of Mia’s breath was sucked out of her lungs.
He’d come for her, through time. He wanted to take her home. He forgave her.
Every cell of her body became alive, crackling with sparks of joy. Seeing Hakon again was a miracle. Seeing him here, in Boston, in 2019, was even more bewildering than when she’d traveled through time herself.
“You got married?” Dan turned to Mia, killing her delight, his face blank. “To him?”
Between her and the man she loved, was the man who’d captured her. Mia nodded, and Dan’s face became a cold stone mask. Ice water flooded Mia’s veins. Dan’s men had found her right after she had appeared at her apartment and had taken her to Dan. But funny enough, Dan was afraid of her after she’d disappeared into thin air right in front of him. He had asked her once if she was a witch, and she hadn’t given him any explanation, which had made him even more cautious. He hadn’t touched her, hadn’t said a single rude word to her since. This was the first time he had touched her since she got back.
“Please come inside, Hakon,” Dan said and gestured for Hakon to do so.
Mia’s neck stiffened. No!
“No. I came for my wife, and she is leaving with me.”
Dan pulled Mia closer to himself, making her flinch. The cold barrel of a gun pressed against her ribs, and all the blood drained from her face. Hakon’s eyebrows snapped together, his eyes narrowing and darkening, turning into amber, like a wolf on the hunt.
“Let’s not air our dirty laundry out here,” Dan said. “Come inside.”
Hakon nodded in cold agreement and walked across the ramp and onboard the ship. Mia’s knees turned to jelly as she watched him walking into enemy territory, alone, right into a trap. What could his ax and sword do against a gun?
Carl straightened but only followed Hakon with his eyes. Mia knew the price of that attention all too well. Carl looked like a goofball, but he wouldn’t hesitate if he needed to protect his boss at the cost of another man’s life. Mia’s feet turned to ice despite the warm day.
Dan gestured for Hakon to go into the cabin and then one floor down to where the bedrooms and his study were. When they entered Dan’s study, the smell of wood and polish enveloped them. A massive mahogany desk stood by the far wall, along with a giant leather chair. To the right were a conference table and eight chairs. By the left wall, a leather couch. A Persian rug added to the impression of tasteful opulence.
Dan closed the door behind him, still gripping Mia’s arm, and pointed the gun at Hakon. Mia’s hands shook as Hakon studied the gun with an amused expression, probably thinking such a small thing couldn’t be dangerous enough to do any real damage.
Hakon must have sensed some danger, though, as his hand tightened on the handle of his ax.
“No, my friend,” Dan said. Mia’s throat clenched. She knew that tone. Dan talked like that to his employees when they had done something wrong. Employees Mia would never see again. “I doubt they’re real, but hands off your Viking toys.”
He walked to the table, dragging Mia after him, then sat on the edge, stretching out his legs and crossing his ankles.
Hakon looked into Mia’s eyes, and she saw love shining back at her, and she finally began getting warmer. “Are you all right?” he said.
“Yes.” She managed a smile that she meant to be reassuring. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“And the babe?”
Dan’s face turned livid. “The babe is my concern. It’s my child.”
Hakon’s face lost all tenderness as he looked at Dan, steel in his eyes. “Maybe so. But it is mine just the same.”
Dan’s clean-shaven jaw tightened. “Who are you, anyway, Hakon the Beast? Are you a wrestler? A stripper? Jason Momoa’s stunt double or something?”
Hakon looked at Mia. “How much does he know?”
“Nothing,” she said.
He nodded, turning his attention to Dan, who looked both confused and furious at the exchange. “I am someone you should be terrified of,” Hakon said. He looked at Dan from under his eyebrows with cold fire in his eyes, and a chill ran through Mia. For the first time, she saw why Hakon was known as the Beast. She would not want to be the one he looked at like that.
“Terrified of you?” Dan stood up, letting go of Mia, and she backed away from him. “You do not come to my boat and threaten me. Do you know who I am?”
“I do. You are a bristle on Loki’s sweaty ass. You are the runs that a forest troll has after eating a rotten corpse. You are the offal that makes even pigs want to vomit.”
Dan’s face was reddening, and Mia’s hands shook. The angrier Dan got, the more unpredictable he’d become.
“No man should lay his hand on a woman,” Hakon said. “No man should make her suffer. And yet, you did. So you are no man.”
Dan was shaking now, his eyes narrowed, the corners of his mouth crawled down. Mia’s fingernails bit into the flesh of her palms. We’ll get through this, peanut. I will not let any harm come to you or Daddy.
And she did not mean Dan.
“You fucker,” Dan growled, pointing the gun at Hakon.
Mia took a step towards him, her hands trembling. “No! Dan, don’t!”
“Mia, stand back.” Hakon’s hand was still on the handle of his ax. “Do you want me to kill him?”
“What? No! Of course not.”
Hakon nodded. “As you wish.” He looked at Dan. “You deserve to die a thousand deaths for every time you caused her any pain. But I will not kill you if she does not wish it. So. Let us resolve this peacefully. Mia is coming with me today. What will it take for you to let her go?”
Dan’s upper lip crawled up, turning his face into a predator’s snarl. Mia couldn’t breathe. This would not end peacefully. Hakon was just making Dan angrier and angrier, and he did not know what the man was capable of.
“You’re delirious if you think I will let the mother of my child go,” Dan said.
“What do you want? I doubt it is treasure—it looks like you have plenty.”
Dan’s mouth turned into a straight line. “I. Want. My. Child. And my woman. Now, either fuck off or I will kill you.”
Hakon arched his brow and looked pointedly at the gun. “With that?”
Oh no! He’ll get himself killed! The cold worry that had snaked around her stomach exploded, shooting ice water into her veins. “Hakon, it’s a gun!” Mia cried. “It shoots bullets. It’s deadly. Leave. Go back before he does something.”
Hakon frowned and studied the weapon, then slowly removed his ax from his belt.
“Put it away,” Dan said, “or I will shoot you.”
“Try,” Hakon said, and darted down for Dan’s legs.
The gun fired with a deafening pop. Mia screamed. Terror gripped her body like a steel fist. Hakon hugged Dan’s legs and pushed him. Dan fell, and another blast filled the room with an acrid, chemical smell. Hakon pressed Dan’s gun arm to the floor. With the other hand, he pressed the blade of his ax against Dan’s throat.
“If you do not wish to let her go peacefully, you will let her go because I made you. Mia, leave.”
“Not so fast.” Dan’s gun arm twitched.
The barrel was pointed at Mia. The floor shifted under her feet, and she covered her belly protectively.
“You will not,” Hakon snarled.
Oh, he would. He was capable of anything to save himself.
“One twitch and I will,” Dan’
s voice rasped.
A low growl escaped Hakon’s throat.
“Stand up slowly,” Dan said.
Hakon obeyed, got to his feet and backed away. Mia’s mouth filled with a sour taste.
Dan stood up. “Now put your ax and your sword on the floor and kick them towards me.”
Hakon did as asked. His weapons flew across the carpet at Dan’s feet and landed just two steps from Mia. She had a hard time swallowing the jagged rock in her throat.
Dan pointed the gun at Hakon, and everything froze.
Mia knew then that this would be it. Dan would kill Hakon. It was bad enough he had taken away her freedom to work as a doctor and her baby’s chance to grow up as a normal member of society and not part of the criminal world.
But now he was about to take away the man she loved.
Her whole life, she had been at the whim of men—first her father, then Dan. Hakon, too, in the beginning.
Enough! Anger roared deep in Mia’s gut like a wall of fire. She would not let the man who had ruined her life take away her last glimpse of happiness.
She sank to her knees and took Hakon’s sword. It was heavy. Too heavy. But anger gave her more strength than she knew she had. Maybe it was the years of battle fury that the sword had drunk in, but it vibrated in her hands ever so slightly. And maybe it was the fury born inside of her, but her arms filled with strength, adrenaline running through her veins like electricity through cables.
Her body took over. It knew what to do, as if something ancient in her blood urged her to protect the ones she loved. Every cell of her body screamed, no more! No more tyranny, no more abuse, no more allowing some man to take away the things she loved. Her legs assumed a strong position, her arms pointing the sword at Dan’s back.
Mia had just opened her mouth to order Dan to drop the gun, when Hakon lunged forward like a giant flash of fur and man. Dan staggered and leaped back. The gun exploded in his hand in a bright flash of fire and smoke. Mia squeezed her eyes closed just as she was propelled back from the sudden impact. But she stayed on her feet.
When she opened her eyes she saw blood. Dan’s blood, welling around the sword, the edge of which had sunk into his back, right where his heart was.
Dan yelped and turned, eyes wild and bewildered as he looked at her. His mouth moved soundlessly, his arms waving, trying to grab her. But his heart was already failing. His eyes rolled, and he fell forward onto his stomach, lifeless.
Mia’s breath came out ragged, her body numb. She should feel remorse. She should feel guilty. She had just killed a man.
But instead she had more space in her chest to breathe. A weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and the vise that had always gripped her stomach in fear had disappeared. She remembered every time he’d hit her, every time she’d flown against the wall from his hands—and that one time when he had taken her against her will, the most painful time of all.
No more.
She was free.
Did Vikings feel that way when they killed their enemies?
Hakon was studying her with such tenderness that her heart squeezed. He was also holding his shoulder.
“Oh gosh, are you all right?” She hurried to him and removed his hand from his shoulder, but he brought her into a bear hug, his warmth, his smell enveloping her.
“A scratch. I am proud of you, my Valkyrie,” he whispered in her hair, then looked into her face. “You are a Viking.”
Mia smiled at that, then glanced back at Dan’s body. “We need to get out of here.”
“Yes. Let us go home.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“How do we find the Norn?” Hakon said against Mia’s hair.
Her scent in his nostrils was honey, and he was drunk with it, swimming in it. She was in his arms, her round belly pressing gently into his stomach. Her body was warm.
“God, I missed you,” she whispered, then inhaled against his tunic.
“I could not breathe without you.”
She raised her head to look him in the eyes. “Thank you for coming for me.”
“I would come for you in the depths of Helheim.”
She smiled. “I think you just did.”
“I died a thousand deaths when you picked up the sword. A healer, a mother, and now a shield-maiden…”
His heart was so full of love for her, it was bigger than Midgard.
“Yours,” she said, and their lips met, plunging him into a world of bliss, magic, and sweetness.
He wanted the moment to last for a whole lifetime, but it could not. Mia withdrew, gently, her chest rising and falling quickly against his ribcage.
“I’d love to pick this up soon, but for now, we need to go,” Mia said. She looked back at Dan’s body and slipped out of Hakon’s arms. A small sting of disappointment pierced him. “I don’t know where we can find the Norn, but I know we can’t stay here for much longer. Dan’s study is soundproof, but Carl might come check soon. He was alone this morning, but that’s unusual. More guards will probably arrive soon. We need to be far away by the time they find Dan.”
Hakon nodded, then walked to Dan’s body and removed his sword. He wiped the blood off on Dan’s jacket and picked up his ax. Mia opened the door and peered out. Then looked back at him, her eyebrows high.
“We don’t need to look for the Norn. She’s already here.”
Hakon frowned, and the blood in his veins stood still.
He was about to meet one of the Norns, who knew the fates of every person, every god, and every creature in all nine worlds of Yggdrasil. Odin himself was in their power. They had even predicted Ragnarok, the end of the world.
He had never heard of anyone who had met a Norn, besides Mia. Not even in legends.
And now he would meet one of these powerful, mystical beings. Their fate was in her hands. Would she send them back? Would she say that his destiny lay here, in the future? Would she take his life?
Whatever his destiny was—whatever their destiny was—he would meet it the same way he had always gone into battle and the same way he lived his life.
With his head high.
Hakon straightened and followed Mia through the door.
At the bottom of the stairs sat a small old woman dressed in the clothes of the future. She was knitting, with a serene smile. As if there was no dead body in the next room. As if there was no guard upstairs. And as if there was no danger that more guards would come for them.
Hakon stopped next to Mia who was standing by the stairs and staring at the woman. Without looking at him, she took his hand and squeezed. His heart began beating more calmly.
“Ah.” The Norn glanced at them with curiosity. “The supposedly married couple. I like your tapestry. You did well.”
“Can you send us back home?” Hakon asked.
She stopped knitting, stood up, and walked to him. Her timeless blue eyes met his, and a shiver ran through him. The feeling was familiar. He knew it from the battlefield, when destiny saturated the very air—it was in the scent of blood, in the flash of iron, in the sound of pierced flesh and broken bone. When every movement, every breath, and every step determined if you lived or died.
That was what he saw in her eyes. Countless deaths and births. Wars, the rise and fall of kings, the discoveries of new lands, new worlds, and new creatures. He saw happiness and despair. Love and indifference. Bravery and cowardice.
He saw his destiny.
“I CAN SEND YOU BACK HOME,” the Norn said.
A hummingbird began fluttering its wings right where Mia’s heart was. Home…
Ever since she’d traveled back in time, her life had been filled with miracles. Today was the capstone. Hakon had come for her through time. He loved her, he forgave her, and he wanted her.
And she had finally stood up to Dan.
She was free.
Her shoulders straightened, the tension in them evaporating. Every cell of her body was full of energy. I am enough, the voice in her head sang.
&n
bsp; Mia remembered her mother—her obedience, her docility—and she wished that she could give her mother the gift of strength and independence that now radiated within her like a warm, glowing ball of light. That it would fill the gaps in her mother’s soul, fill her cells with the energy and love that she was lacking.
Because Mia was enough.
Enough for her. Enough for her baby. She would not allow anyone to dictate to her, or to her son, how she should live her life.
She was going to define it on her own.
And then she knew that her own life was not back in the Viking Age.
If she was going to define her and her baby’s life, it would not be without modern medical care, safety, and security.
Pain exploded in her chest, in her gut, in every part of her. Because that meant her life would be without Hakon.
The Norn turned to Mia, and in the sweet old lady she had met for the first time in the hospital cafeteria, she now saw someone else. Something else. Something that chilled her body.
Destiny.
But not hers.
“Do you want to go?” the Norn said.
She rummaged in her purse and removed the golden spindle.
Hakon inhaled sharply. “Never did I think I would see the golden spindle with my own eyes,” he said, his voice low and solemn.
Mia turned to him. The words that she was about to say tasted bitter on her tongue. “I am not coming with you, Hakon.”
His face… The change in it echoed inside of her as though the sword she had killed Dan with cut her own heart in two. The happiness, the joy, the wonder were gone, replaced by loss and despair.
“What?” he croaked.
Mia squeezed his hands. “I am sorry. I must stay in my own time. I can’t have a life back in the Viking Age.”
“But you said you wanted to be with me—”
Mia could not breath. A fist clasped her lungs and twisted. “I was wrong. Now that I am free of Dan, for the first time in my life, I feel like I am the real me. The me that I was always supposed to be. I can finally live my life. I can give my baby the best future he can have. Just the two of us. I want to finish the residency program. I want to become a doctor. I want to raise him in love, in safety, and in prosperity.”
