Viking's Ransom (Viking Ancestors: Rise of the Dragon, #4)

by Purington, Sky

  “So you think she has an angle?” he murmured, focusing on the first part of what she had said.

  She nodded. “I can’t be the only one to sense it.”

  His eyes held hers for a long moment before he spoke. “No, you are not the only one.”

  “So we travel together until she tells us what to do next,” she said, not sure what else to say as he closed the distance.

  “I know what I would like to do next.” He pulled her close enough to feel the heat sizzling between them. The pure, unfiltered, undeniable chemistry. “But I suspect that is half of Hel’s plan right now.”

  “She wants this,” she murmured, “us.” She shook her head. “Even though I’m the ransom.”

  “Or something more,” he reminded, tilting up her chin until their eyes were aligned. “Hel has a plan, and I do not think it has to do with handing you over to the enemy.”

  “She will if she has to,” she countered. “Just like you will.”

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you have a death wish, Sis,” Shea declared, appearing at the entrance to their cove with a covert grin on her face as she eyed Eirik and Kenzie’s intimate position. “But I can’t imagine why when things are just starting to heat up.”

  She grinned at her sister but didn’t indulge her in what every Cupid loved to chat about most. Love and lust then more of both.

  “Glad you made it, Sis,” Kenzie began but trailed off when she glimpsed something out of the corner of her eye.

  “Dagr,” she whispered.

  What was he doing here? Was he looking for Hel or worse yet, running from Einnar? In hot pursuit, she chased him around a corner onto a narrow path between towering boulders only to stop short when the world shifted just a smidge. Enough to let her know she had crossed over into Helheim. A fact confirmed when she glanced back. Eirik had been right behind her, but he was no longer there.

  “Kenzie?” came a small voice as Dagr peeked around a small boulder up ahead. “Why are you not hiding? You should be hiding.”

  “From who?” she asked, afraid she already knew the answer as she joined him behind the rock and crouched down.

  “The bad dragon,” he whispered. “He is here somewhere. I just saw him.”

  The bad dragon? Shit. Not what she wanted to hear.

  “I won’t let anyone hurt you, sweetie.” She frowned and tucked him against her side, startled to realize she could actually touch him. “Where’s your mother? Where’s Hel?”

  “She’s here somewhere,” he said. “She will find me. She always does.”

  “Good,” she murmured, peering back down the path for signs of Einnar. “How do you know the bad dragon, Dagr? Have you met him before?”

  “In my dreams,” he whispered, his little dragon eyes flashing with an unusual fire she knew was born of being both dragon and demi-god. Hel’s son. “I have seen the bad dragon in my dreams since I was born.”

  Though some might scoff at the idea, dragons had long memories and could often remember their actual birth. Some could even remember before that. Yet Dagr wasn’t talking about a memory but a dream. Right?

  “Dagr,” came Hel's sharp, worried voice before everything blurred around her and Helheim shifted back to Níðhöggr’s Realm in the blink of an eye. But not before she saw a flash of something that downright terrorized her.

  A single dragon eye she knew all too well peering down the pathway.

  The last eye she had seen before she died a horrible death in another life.

  Chapter Sixteen

  THOUGH HE COULD not pinpoint an image or location, Eirik knew as he pulled a terrified Kenzie into his arms that she had just witnessed her own death in another place and time.

  “It’s okay Kenz, we’re right here, sweetie.” Shea crouched beside them, resting her hand on Kenzie’s back as her eyes met Eirik’s in concern before she focused on her sister. “Talk to me, Sis. What just happened? How can I help?”

  “It’s okay,” Kenzie managed in a weak whisper, trembling like a leaf barely hanging on in a strong wind. “I’m all right.” Yet her nails dug into his neck she was gripping him so hard. “I am...really.”

  “I have her,” he assured Shea as he scooped Kenzie up and carried her out to the grassy area beside the river where Leviathan and Rokar roasted game over a fire. Davyn stood when he saw the state of Kenzie and Vigdis, seemingly recovered from her use of Magnus-magic, joined them with more concern in her eyes than he expected.

  “She is being torn between worlds,” the seer murmured as she sat beside him on a rock where he held Kenzie on his lap. Her arms were still clenched around his neck as though she was trying to hold onto reality. He just wasn’t sure which one. Nor was he sure why she was becoming far more immersed in Helheim than he ever was.

  Vigdis pressed the pad of her thumb to the center of Kenzie’s forehead and murmured a chant before her eyes rolled back in her head.

  “What the hell’s she doing?” Shea exclaimed, frowning between Davyn and Eirik. “Cuz this shit’s not workin’ for me.”

  “It’s all right,” Davyn said, pulling Shea onto his lap despite her protests. “Vigdis means her no harm.” He peppered kisses on the side of her neck, clearly trying to distract her as he murmured, “She but seeks answers.”

  Shea sort of flailed between sinking into his cousin’s embrace and worrying about her sister before Eirik gave her a reassuring nod. “She is all right, Shea. I feel it.”

  Her eyes stayed with his for a moment, her hair still sparkling with a mix of his and Kenzie’s colors, before she nodded. “She better be. I’m keeping a close eye on her.”

  In truth, whatever Vigdis did relaxed Kenzie so much, her breathing evened, and she fell asleep with her arms still wrapped around him. Meanwhile, Floyd sat in front of them, eying the seer with uncertainty.

  “What happened to her?” he murmured to Vigdis. “I know she shifted into Helheim, but I could not follow her...I could not even sense her.”

  “She is being pulled there by something far more connected to that world than you, Hel’s Dragon.” Having used his nickname on purpose, she gave him a pointed look. “Which is very telling, I would say.”

  He frowned. “Telling how?”

  “I am not entirely sure,” Vigdis murmured, as frustratingly vague as Hel, her answer eerily similar. “You need to journey forth with the Gemini to find your answer. Your answers. Because there are several on your venture.”

  “Dagr?” Kenzie whispered in her sleep.

  “She calls for my son,” he said softly. “I think she was just with him again.”

  “So she sees him, and you don’t?” Shea considered him. “Any thoughts why that is?”

  “Not really.” He had mulled this over. “Though I suspect Hel has something to do with it. She must have given Kenzie the ability when she took her.”

  “Ability?” Rokar spoke up, surprising them all by talking. “Why would she give Kenzie the ability to see your son and not you?”

  He made a good point. But what other explanation could there be?

  “Maybe she’s allowing Kenzie to get close to Dagr to make sure she forms a connection with him,” Shea said. “That way, Kenz won’t think twice about giving up her damn life in the end.” She scowled. “Even though she seems on board anyway.” Her eyes narrowed on Eirik. “No offense to your son but just to be clear, Kenz giving herself over to the enemy is gonna happen over my dead Cupid wings!”

  Evidently, Shea and Davyn were caught up on everything they had missed. Probably for the best all things considered.

  “I am not going to let your sister sacrifice herself,” he replied, shocked to realize he meant it. Had probably meant it for some time now. “I will find another way to satisfy this prophecy.” He absently stroked Kenzie’s hair. “Einnar will not have her in the end.”

  “Even if the bastard has your son?” Shea shot back, challenging him.

  “He will not get my son,” he ground out before he said exactly how
he felt about Kenzie, “and he will not get my dragon mate.”

  Tongue in cheek, Shea eyed him for a long moment before she finally said, “I think you really mean that.”

  “I do,” he vowed, never more certain of anything in his life. He had gone from being willing to sacrifice her to cringing at the thought. Yes, some of it had to do with his dragon, but an even bigger part had to do with his human half.

  “Here, old friend.” Leviathan handed him a skin of mead. “You look as though you could use a drink.”

  He nodded thanks and took a solid swig as he readjusted Kenzie on his lap until she slept with her cheek against his chest. Her hair was still damp from the pond and a deep, rich red, highlighting her creamy skin in a way that drew his eyes. She really was every bit as beautiful as her fiery little dragon.

  “Except for Sage with her gypsy blood, Kenzie has the warmest skin tone out of all of us,” Shea said softly, her Cupid eyes sparkling as she watched him admiring her. “Mom says she gets it from the dash of Sicilian mixed in with all our Irish blood.”

  “It is very beautiful,” he murmured.

  “Heck, yeah it is.” She shook her head. “Though you’d think with Sicilian blood she’d handle the sun better.”

  “Yet she does not.” His eyes went to Shea as he thought it over. “Any more than she did Helheim at the beginning.”

  But she seemed to be handling Helheim just fine now.

  “Interesting.” Shea eyed the late day sky and the sunlight finally peeking through the trees much as it had come through the clouds over the ocean that morning. “Yet she’s crossing over more often to Helheim and heck if the sun’s not coming out!”

  “It is all worth paying attention to,” Vigdis said softly, her eyes going from Kenzie to him. “Because it is all part of your journey.”

  A journey that seemed to be taking her more into his old world and him more into a world he had no longer thought he could be part of. Around people he thought he would eventually have to walk away from forever. Yet here he sat with a group of them and not one was sick. Not one was nauseous and needing space from him.

  He took another deep swig of mead, reveling in the sensation of feeling...normal. Not needing to distance himself. It would take some getting used to...assuming it lasted.

  “How are you both feeling,” he asked Rokar and Leviathan. “Has your dragon magic had a chance to replenish itself?”

  They nodded as Leviathan responded, “It happened very quickly.”

  “It’s this place.” Vigdis gazed north. “Níðhöggr’s Ash.” Her eyes returned to them. “The Great Serpent's magic combined with what he took from Mt. Galdhøpiggen sees well to the dragons within his Realm.”

  No one responded to that because they knew how deeply it had affected Vigdis when Níðhöggr harnessed the power of her people’s mountain to support his cause. Something they hoped would return to normal once everything was said and done. Once they had won Níðhöggr’s war for him.

  “So are we staying here overnight?” Shea eyed the area and late day sun as Rokar handed out meat. “Or are we going to keep moving?”

  Though tempted to keep moving and carry her, he would prefer Kenzie be awake as they traveled. He wanted her to become familiar with this place so as the war progressed she could find her way around if need be. Yes, the land had been known to shift about but never all that much.

  “I’m awake,” Kenzie suddenly murmured into his mind moments before her eyes fluttered open and met his. She didn’t say anything right away, just stared at him as though she was glad to see him. Happy to be there.

  “How do you feel?” he murmured, running the pad of his thumb along her delicate jawline.

  “I’m okay,” she said softly though her eyes had grown troubled. “Just...sad mostly.”

  “Are you ever,” Shea said sensing it, as the others nodded in agreement.

  When Eirik looked at them in question, Rokar, again surprising him, spoke for them all. “I think we can all feel her sadness. It is,” he seemed to struggle to find the right words then ended up saying something truly daunting, “familiar to me.”

  Kenzie’s eyes went to Rokar’s and lingered almost as if she saw an ally in him. As though they had been down a similar road. And though tempted to be jealous, he knew it wasn’t a romantic comradery but something deeper.

  She blinked a few times as though snapping out of it before her eyes returned to Eirik’s. “Dagr’s okay. He’s with Hel now.” She frowned. “Unfortunately, he knows Einnar.”

  She proceeded to share what had happened. How Dagr considered the enemy a bad dragon. How he had been dreaming about him his whole life.

  He listened with growing alarm. Did Hel know about this? She must. So why not tell him? Because she had to have suspected it tied in with the prophecy.

  “I thought Dagr was always with Hel,” he said, trying to keep fear for his son at bay as he focused on the most pressing issue.

  “I think he usually is,” she murmured, content, it seemed, to remain on his lap. “But sometimes, because of the thinning veil between the worlds, he ends up in Helheim’s shadow.”

  He narrowed his eyes, unfamiliar with that term. “Helheim’s shadow?”

  “Yeah.” She rubbed her forehead, narrowing her eyes as she seemed to search for a way to describe it. “I guess it’s sort of a place between this world and that one. A place we both seem to be able to access.” Her eyes returned to his. “It’s the same place I saw him when we were at your lair... except now I can actually touch him.”

  Touch him. How was that possible?

  “Can Hel not access this place?” he asked. “Is that why Dagr was alone?”

  “I don’t know with any certainty.” She shook her head. “Though I assume she must be able to because Dagr sounded confident that she can always find him there.” She squeezed his hand, likely sensing the distress he was trying not to show. “He’s okay, Eirik and he’s a smart kid. He knows when trouble’s around, and how to hide from it.”

  “Trouble,” he murmured, eying her with renewed concern. “What happened to you back there, Kenzie? Because I sensed you witnessed your own death.”

  “Yes,” she confirmed, visibly shivering before she swallowed hard. “Sort of.” She shook her head. “I didn’t see what happened to me in my previous life, but I did see Einnar there at the moment of my death...his eyes were the last ones I saw.”

  “Skáld’s dragons really suck, don’t they?” Shea frowned at Kenzie in concern. “I’m so sorry, sweetie. I really am.”

  “So am I,” Kenzie said, that same deep sadness washing over her again. “Though I’m sort of surprised by how damn sad it makes me. Not to say dying isn’t sad but it feels like something more. Deep grief.” Her eyes went to Eirik’s. “Maybe because we were being separated?”

  “Maybe,” he murmured, wishing he could give her a more definitive answer.

  “Separation of dragon mates is an awful sensation,” Davyn said, his eyes drifting to Shea as he likely remembered their own separation in another life. “ Nothing compares.”

  “No, I can’t imagine anything does,” Kenzie said softly, her eyes still on Eirik's, lust suddenly replacing grief. Moments later, her scent hit the air.

  “I am going to look around more and become familiar with the land,” Leviathan said, his voice guttural as he nodded at Eirik then made himself scarce. He appreciated it because he knew this wasn’t easy.

  “We will rest here for the eve and start out early,” he said, coming to a decision as he stood with Kenzie still in his arms. He grabbed a satchel with more mead in it as well as extra meat from Rokar.

  “Sleep well, you two,” Shea echoed with an assuming all-knowing grin of approval, her hair sparkling even brighter. “Definitely do everything I would do.”

  He intended to and then some. But first, he wanted to resume their conversation from earlier. He wanted Kenzie to truly understand that he wanted her whether or not she could have children. Som
ething he broached the moment he set her down in an area similar to the previous one minus the water and smaller. More intimate.

  “We don’t need to talk about this right now,” she said as she sat in a verdant swath of grass against one of the moss-covered rock faces. “Because I have a feeling our conversation is just going to go in circles.”

  He wasn’t surprised that she knew what he wanted to talk about.

  “What makes you think I want more children?” he asked as he handed her food and drink then lit a fire. “Truly, I would be just as content to see Dagr more.”

  “I know,” she said softly, eying her food rather than eating it as she sighed. “I guess it’s more about what I want for you rather than what you think you want.” Her eyes rose to his. “I see how much you love Dagr so I know damn well you’re the sort who would revel in having more.” She shook her head. “And I’m not going to be the one to deny you that.”

  “Then we will help other children who need parents,” he countered as he sat beside her. “If you will have me, that is.”

  “So we’re back to this,” she said, her voice still soft.

  “Yes.” He met her eyes and saw well the emotion churning in them. “I would live in the future with you, Kenzie. I can see Dagr just as easily one night a year from there.”

  “In what reality do you think I’d let you do that if you’re actually able to be around your family again after all this?” She shook her head. “No way. You’ve lost too much time with them already.”

  He went to speak, but she shook her head and cut him off, her tone firm. “No, Eirik, I’m sorry.” Her eyes stayed with his, her voice unwavering. “I should’ve just come clean with you from the start.” She hesitated a moment, her expression grim. “I have a boyfriend back home. One I’ve been on and off again with but no more.” She shook her head, her words final. “I’ve decided once this is all over, I’m going back to him.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  KENZIE KNEW THE minute she said it, Eirik wasn’t buying it. Yet instead of countering her verbally, it seemed he was of the mind to show her as he pulled her onto his lap before she had a chance to stop him. In fact, she didn’t have time to mutter a word before he dug his hand into her hair and closed his lips over hers.