Down.
This was it.
The end.
Until a hand snapped around her wrist and she slammed against the rock. Ignoring the sting, she looked up…and met Matthew’s eyes. Moments later, rocks tumbled past her.
Uh oh.
She glanced up seconds before Jackie came sailing down. Cybil didn’t think but snatched the woman’s wrist. She clenched her teeth and held on tight as Jackie slammed against the rock beneath her.
“I’ve got you,” she gasped. “Just don’t move!”
Jackie started to struggle then calmed.
Oh, hell, holding her was almost more than Cybil could take. But she would. Or she would fall too. Her eyes met Matthew’s. “Pull me up enough then grab her. Let go of me afterward if you need to.”
“No,” he whispered seconds before Heidrek swung over the edge and fell in beside her.
“What are you doing?” she growled, grateful to see him but upset that yet one more person was in harm’s way.
“Saving Jackie. When I tell you to, let her go.” Before she could respond, he shimmied down the rock until he was beside Jackie and wrapped his arm around her. “Let her go, Cybil!”
Her eyes met his. “Are you sure you have her?”
For all the godliness they were supposed to have come into, at the moment they both seemed far too mortal.
He nodded. “I have her.”
“Okay.” The second Cybil let go, Matthew yanked her into his arms.
Matthew.
Alive. Well. Here. She hugged him, thanked him, and then pulled away, concerned about Jackie.
“I have you,” Heidrek murmured as he pulled himself onto the ledge and Jackie onto his lap where he tucked her head against his chest. “You are safe.”
Cybil didn’t recognize what she felt at the sight.
Sort of like she had been sucker punched.
“Cybil,” Matthew murmured. “You are okay. All is well, woman.”
Eyes trained on Heidrek and Jackie, she swallowed hard, then tore her eyes from them and looked at Matthew. “You’re awake.” A whole different set of emotions washed over her. “You’re really okay.” She shook her head, elated. “You are okay, right?”
“I think so.” He rubbed the side of his neck where the dart had hit him, a wry grin on his face. “Still a little off but with Odin’s blessing, here and well.”
Done with worrying about Jackie and Heidrek, she murmured, “I’m so glad,” before she hugged him.
“You are crying,” he whispered, holding her tight.
“No, I’m not.” Maybe a tear or two. “I thought you were going to die like Bjorn did…had.”
“Not yet.” He stood and swung her up into his arms, murmuring, “Not yet,” again as he started walking.
Though determined to stand on her own two feet, she was too exhausted and shaken to ask Matthew to put her down.
“Why did we end up there? What happened?” She rested her head against his chest. “I don’t understand.”
Only when Heidrek responded in her mind did she realize she was speaking to him.
“My god needed you to understand something,” he said. “Thor needed this.”
Cybil tried to respond, she tried to understand, but grew far too drowsy. When she awoke again, everything looked different. Towering pines and mossy rocks were dipped in white fog and a heavy, warm fur covered her. Her eyes drifted sideways only to find Jackie asleep beside her.
“What’s going on?” she tried to say as Bjorn crouched, held a skin to her lips and urged her to drink. Suffering from the worse dry mouth ever, she nodded and allowed him to tip it against her lips.
“We have continued traveling.” He urged her to lie back after she took a few sips. “You should rest more and gain strength.”
Cybil shook her head. “Is everything okay?” She braced her hand on the ground when the world tilted. “Why do I feel like this? I shouldn’t feel like this because of what happened.”
“You feel this way because you were touched by Thor,” Bjorn explained. He shook his head and held her arm as she struggled to her feet. “It’s no small thing being touched by such a powerful god.”
Grateful for his support, she frowned with aggravation at her wobbly legs. “What do you mean?” She squinted and looked around. “And where is everyone?”
“Some are hunting. Some are standing guard where you cannot see them.” He grumbled under his breath as she managed a shaky step. “You should at least sit, woman.”
Her eyes went to Jackie. “She’s okay too, right?”
“Yes,” Bjorn said. “And still resting as you should be.”
“I’m not tired.” She scanned their surroundings again, determined to see past the fog, surprised when her vision sharpened and she could. The whiteness faded, and everything beyond it became clear. She was able to zoom in closer with her eyesight alone.
When Bjorn stilled, she knew he sensed what she was able to do. Colors were more intense. The green of the leaves. The gray of the rock.
“You do not see red in your vision, do you?” he murmured.
“Red?” Though it was nearly impossible to pull her eyes from the intensity she witnessed, she looked at him. “I recently saw red in my vision but not now…why? What is that?”
Perplexed, Bjorn seemed to consider his words carefully.
“Just tell me,” she said. “I can take it.”
Bjorn nodded and didn’t beat around the bush. “Red is the color we see when our dragons surface.”
She perked her brows. “Come again?”
He frowned. “Come where?”
Cybil bit back a sigh and exercised patience. Bjorn deserved nothing less. “Why would I see red when I’m not part dragon?”
For the first time since she met him, Bjorn grew uncomfortable. He stopped trying to get her to lie down and prompted her to take a few steps. Unfortunately for him, she could sense his thoughts and her eyes widened. “What do you mean, I’m half dragon?”
Bjorn stilled again, his thoughts swirling rapidly as he tried to come up with an answer that wouldn’t overwhelm her. Instead, a cool, indifferent feminine voice drifted through the fog before Svala appeared. “So Heidrek has not told you then, Cybil?”
“Sister,” Bjorn growled in warning when Svala stopped in front of Cybil and narrowed her eyes.
Cybil narrowed her eyes right back and forced her legs to straighten. “Evidently not, Svala. But you clearly want to.”
She remembered the way her sisters acted, especially Samantha, as they struggled with their unknown dragon blood. How feisty they could get. Svala was like that. All the time it seemed. But then she had been raised in a Viking society so she supposed it made sense…to a degree.
“Can you not feel what is inside you,” Svala started, but her words were cut off by Heidrek as the fog peeled back and he and Matthew appeared.
“It is not your place to tell her anything, Cousin,” Heidrek said sharply and gestured over his shoulder. “Go help prepare food.”
Svala’s eyes narrowed further on Cybil before falling to Jackie. “You should be with the one who can bring your kin back from death, Heidrek.” She eyed Cybil with contempt before turning away. “Not one who brings death closer and closer without hope to dine with Odin.”
Real nice. She just couldn’t win with this woman. But right now she had other things to worry about so she redirected her building aggravation Heidrek’s way. “So what am I supposed to feel inside of me then?” Her eyes went to Matthew. “And while I’m glad you’re awake and well, you never did say how that happened?”
“Let us go somewhere more private,” Heidrek said.
She barely got the word, “no,” out before he scooped her up.
“Put me down, Heidrek,” she said through clenched teeth.
He didn’t listen, but then she knew he wouldn’t. Rather, he remained silent as he walked around a thick, wooded bend then set her down carefully but with enough force that she leaned back against
a mossy rock.
“Stop,” he said softly with a firm hand on her hip when she tried to move. “Just listen.”
Though flashes of Jackie on his lap flickered through her mind and a nugget of jealousy flared, it felt different than it had before she slept. Before she ended up in the tiny cave with Jackie and foolishly got so defiant. Before she scaled the cliff to get away from her feelings. Now things seemed less about Jackie and Heidrek and more about the changes happening inside her.
“Tell me what’s going on, Heidrek.” Cybil relaxed and didn’t feel defiant in the least. She needed answers and wanted them now. So she met his eyes and ignored how he made her heart thunder in a way that had nothing to do with anger. “Tell me why I saw red when we had sex and why I saw things so clearly through the fog just now.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw before he pulled his hand away and spoke. “You saw red because, like me, you have a dragon sleeping within you. One that is never allowed to surface.” His eyes held hers. “You saw things so clearly through the fog because your dragon is trying to surface in response to your new powers. Those you gained when we coupled.”
While tempted to clench her jaw, her hands, anything to control her shock and even fear, she instead tempered her breathing. She did what she had done for so long when faced with astounding information and spoke with a calm, even voice. “I have no dragon in me. If I did, it would have surfaced long before now.”
Heidrek wanted to touch her…comfort her…but he knew better.
“You have always had a dragon within but it is trapped by the seer inside you. Therefore, it has become part of you in a way I cannot put into words,” he said. “Unlike the freedom your sisters will someday feel, you are denied it. You have always been denied it but had no idea because you were so focused on protecting your kin. On making sure they would be okay.”
He shifted closer but didn’t touch her. “Between being a prophet and challenging everything in the name of your family, you were, in the deepest part of you, the very thing you protected.”
“I’m not a dragon,” she whispered, confused by the way her body responded. The way everything sharpened around her then dulled as she fought it. The bizarre feather-like but razor-sharp rightness she felt.
“You are not a dragon,” he agreed. “Nor am I.” He clenched his jaw and shook his head. “We are now something more.”
“We’re Dragon Seers and demi-gods,” she managed and kept focused on breathing evenly. “I get that. Old news.”
“No, we are not just those things,” he murmured. “Not anymore.”
“What are we then, Heidrek?” She frowned. “What am I?"
“Different. Powerful. Touched by the gods in a different way.” He moved even closer. “Me by mine and you by not only yours but mine as well.”
Cybil felt the heat of his body. More than that, the empowered way he made her feel. It was like a drug. An aphrodisiac. She wanted more of what they shared earlier. More sex, passion, and desire. But at the same time, she knew it weakened her, softened her, made her more vulnerable. Or did it?
She had spent her entire life being strong, daring, defiant yet protective so it was impossible to know precisely what she felt when she was with him.
“Why was I touched by your god?” She shook her head, baffled by the idea. “By Thor?”
“I am guessing for two reasons. The first?” He unsheathed a sword and held it out to her. “To deliver this to me.”
When her eyes fell to the blade, Cybil nearly lost her footing and leaned back heavily against the rock. She ran her finger along the blunt edge of the sword, startled by its warmth.
“I dreamt about this sword,” she whispered.
“And I dreamt about you giving it to me,” Heidrek said. “Then you vanished.” He shook his head. “But I do not think either of us dreamt it. I believe we were under the spell of Thor as he forged this blade from the lightning within the waterfall.” His eyes searched hers. “What do you remember of it?”
“I woke up, and you were sleeping. The waterfall seemed different…” she murmured.
“Slower?”
“No.” She continued running her fingers along the blade. “Much faster if possible. Brighter.” Her eyes met his. “It was the most beautiful, violent thing I’d ever seen.”
“It was much slower in my dream. Sluggish,” he said. “Almost frozen in time.”
“Strange,” she said, convinced she could see flickers of that same brightness in the sword.
“What happened next?” he asked.
“I suppose I was tempted by the speed of the water…its rage.” She took another measured breath. “I seem to be running more passionate than usual lately.” Cybil pulled her eyes from his as she remembered all too well what he could make her feel. “On all levels.”
Her breath caught when he sheathed the blade and took her hand in one swift movement. “Everything you have been feeling is normal, Cybil…as normal as it can be for us.” Though he didn’t move closer, the feel of his hand made it nearly impossible to think. “What happened after you awoke and saw the waterfall? What did you do?”
“I was drawn to it,” she whispered. “Incredibly drawn.”
When he said nothing, she cleared her throat and continued. “I walked toward it. I needed to feel its spray, to feel even an ounce of its influence, its sheer power.”
“So you were lured?” he said.
“Lured,” she murmured, mulling over the word before she shook her head and met his eyes again. “Maybe but I don’t think so. It felt more like I was walking toward a piece of me I hadn’t embraced yet. I can’t say that it was good or bad just…where I should be. The right path.” Her eyes lowered to their adjoined hands. “Why would I feel that way about a Norse god?”
“Maybe it has less to do with the god and more to do with something else,” his voice softened even more, “or someone else.”
She didn’t feed into his implication, but she didn’t pull her hand away either. Instead, she continued recalling the dream. “Drawn to the raging water, I walked to the base of the waterfall. I got soaked. Or at least I think I did. The spray from the water stung my skin yet still…” A shiver of excitement shot through her. “I liked it.”
Her eyes dropped to the ground as if seeing inside the dream. “Then there it was. Shimmering gold. The hilt of a blade. I fought the water and picked it up. When I did, I felt calmer, less intense somehow.” She shook her head. “It was the same blade you now have.”
“Do you remember holding it out to me?”
“No.” She shook her head. “The next thing I remember was waking up in that small cave with Jackie.” Her eyes slid to his. “Any idea why I ended up there? What happened?”
Fog drifted closer, closing them off from eyes that wouldn’t see them here anyway. A soft blanket of white that made their setting more intimate.
“That leads to the second reason I spoke of.” He shifted closer and wrapped his fingers more securely with hers, sending another wave of awareness through her. “I think Thor sent you to the smaller cave with Jackie to test your heart, maybe even your loyalty.”
Her brows lowered, and she frowned. “What do you mean?”
“You tell me.” He was so close now and the fog so thick that there was nothing left but the two of them. “What happened there? Did you speak with Jackie about us? About how you felt?”
“And how do I feel?” she said without thinking. Yet the minute her eyes locked with his, a new fire flared within that wasn’t sexual in the least.
“You feel tempered anger. Jealousy. More than that? A need to rise above it all,” he said, one hand still wrapped around hers, and the other braced against the rock by her side, his eyes piercing as they held hers. “But you do not need to feel any of that.”
Being so close to Heidrek felt like she had come home but at the same time made her acutely aware of how far away family was. He was becoming too much too fast. He aroused her and scared her simultaneou
sly.
Determined to keep things in perspective, determined to keep this thing from spiraling out of control, she almost turned away but didn’t. She wasn’t the sort to give up and wouldn’t start now.
So she kept her eyes locked with his and gave him absolute honesty. “Yes, I’m still jealous of Jackie, and it sucks. That’s not me.” She patted her chest. “What I’m feeling is not who I am…who I’ve ever been. And now I’ve done things that make no sense because of it, and I don’t like it.”
Cybil shook her head. “It’s weakness.” She paused, considering her words, hating them, but knowing full well they needed to be said. “And I don’t want to be with a man who drives me to it.”
Heidrek said nothing at first, just eyed her, before he showed more emotion than she expected and ground out, “You drive yourself just as much as I do. We are responsible for our own actions. I do not want,” he paused, struggling, before he continued, “I do not want what we have become or the people in our path to stop us from…”
When he paused again, trying to find the right words, she said, “What, Heidrek? What is it you want? I already told you what shouldn’t be between us so…”
That was the last word she was able to utter before he cupped the back of her neck and pulled her lips to his. She should step away and stay strong, but she melted instead. Of course, she did. He felt amazing. He was everything she wanted.
Yet she needed more.
“No,” she murmured and dragged her lips from his. “No.”
“I will not hurt you, Cybil,” he murmured, his breath as ragged as hers. “Tell me what you feel because your mind is closed off. Tell me what you want so that I can give it to you.”
He should know. Shouldn’t he? Or was she a fool to assume as much? Aggravated more with herself than him she said the last thing she intended. “I know you and I shouldn’t be together. I understand the reasons. But that doesn’t stop me from being upset that you desire Jackie.”
There. She said it.
As their eyes held she wondered what it was about him that made her so blatantly honest. Because under any other circumstance with any other man, she would have kept these feelings private. She would have worked through her emotions then dismissed them.
Rise of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 1) Page 15