“What the hell is that?” he growled and spun around to face her. “What kind of game are you playing, Mercy Odinsdottir?”
She shook her head, but he advanced on her.
“Tell me.”
For some reason, even though he was angry, even though she’d seen him cave a man’s head in, she wasn’t precisely afraid of him. That’s not to say she was looking forward to his ire, but she knew in her bones that he wouldn’t hurt her.
She supposed that was a rather stupid assumption considering all the facts in evidence.
His fingers closed around her upper arms and he leaned in close to her face. “I’m not kidding,” he growled.
There was something about his growl that twisted up her insides. Made her think about what it was like sitting in his lap, his manhood pressed against her. Gave her that same feeling low in her belly.
“Oh for gods’ sake, Mercy. That’s not supposed to turn you on.”
She swallowed and wet her lips. “Must be the Valkyrie in me. I can’t help it.” Her eyes narrowed. “And how do you know?”
He arched a brow. “The way your eyes get all sleepy and half-lidded, your lips swollen just begging me to kiss you again, the way you gasped when I grabbed you. You’re supposed to fear me. The whole godsdamned galaxy fears me—no, the whole ‘verse. And you… you want furious kisses in the ice.”
“I really don’t know about the message on the wall. I have no idea where it came from.” She pushed away from him, irritated that he could read her need so easily. “Maybe you’ve been here before. You’ve traversed the Great Dark. You’ve slayed monsters, destroyed planets. Maybe you were here and forgot.”
“The likelihood of that is the same as you leaving this planet a virgin.”
Her cheeks burned. “Maybe I just will.”
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her flush against him. “I could take you right now, and you’d let me.”
“I couldn’t stop you.” Instead of coming out as a recrimination, it sounded breathy and needy.
“All you have to do is tell me to stop, Valkyrie.”
“I’m no Valkyrie.”
“Oh, but you are. When you’re tested, you will see.”
He sounded so sure, she knew he was going to be disappointed when he realized she was as timid as her name.
“Fine. Are we going to get this over with or not?”
He released her. “Not. I need to know what we’re dealing with. It’s someone who had access to your father’s pod.”
She nodded. “And someone who had access to you. Someone who knew that you were going to escape.”
“And someone who either gives a shit what happens to you, or this is some elaborate trap.”
“I can’t think of anyone.” Mercy shook her head. “Maybe I’m not the ‘her’ they meant.”
“Who else could it be? I’m not in the habit of saving maidens.”
“Maybe that’s not me, and maybe that’s not you. The ‘verse shifts all the time.”
“No, fuck that shit. I believe everything happens for a reason. Sometimes, that reason is too much grog, but it is still a reason.” He nodded. “For now, let’s find shelter.”
“We’re not staying here?” She wandered over to the control console and found two packs outfitted for wilderness survival. “No, I guess not. And whoever set this up, knew we wouldn’t.”
He followed her over and started pulling things out of the pack. Food rations, a temporary shelter device, and a map.
“Still think that wasn’t meant for us? The tech pants and shirt are in your size.” He rummaged around. “Mine too.”
The tech clothing was meant to protect them from any indigenous plants or animals that might be poisonous. Hopefully, it would help with the cold too.
There was no sun here. She wasn’t sure how the planet wasn’t anything more than a ball of ice. Unless the core burned hot, and then they were on borrowed time.
“Do you want to follow the nav map?” He showed her the device, a red light indicating their position and green line to show the path they were to follow.
“You’re the great adventurer.”
“Mercy, this is about you, too. If you really want to stay in the hangar, I’m not going to drag you out into the wild. We don’t know what’s out there, or who left the gear. We don’t know what we’re walking into. This is your life. I’m not going to make decisions for you.”
“I kind of wish you would.” She laughed, but there was no mirth. “My father told me that in every part of the ‘verse, the way I was raised was prized in a woman. And everything you tell me is the opposite.”
“You are not property.” He touched her face. “Even if you were mine, you would still be your own. Do you understand?”
“Not really.” The idea was so contrary to everything her father taught her, she had trouble processing it.
“Choose.” His jaw was hard and set.
Why couldn’t he just kiss her some more? Grope her, ravage her? That sounded like a much better use of their time. She didn’t want to go. She didn’t know who’d left the packs, who had tampered with the ship, or if it was even meant for them. She wanted to stay in the hangar until rations ran out and then deal with it, but she didn’t want to stay alone.
“If I choose to stay in the hangar, will you stay with me?”
“Yes,” he answered quickly, with no hesitation. He hadn’t even had to think about it.
She sighed. “Then we go.”
“And why did you choose that?” he prompted.
“Do we have to pick it to death?” She didn’t want to talk about it, she didn’t want to do it. Mercy just wanted to do what had to be done and forget about it, if she could.
“Normally, I’d say no, but you need to learn yourself. Your own motivations so you can see your strengths like I do.”
“I guess I could do worse than Magnus the Destroyer for a tutor.” She sighed, suddenly uncomfortable. She’d never had anyone who believed in her, yet it was her “kidnapper” who listened to what she had to say and encouraged her. Another heavy exhale steadied her. “I think I chose as I did because of what you said. Because you’d stay with me when you so obviously think that following the nav map is the best course of action.”
“And why did that make you choose?”
“I don’t know.” She fidgeted.
“Yes, you do.” He used his finger to tilt her chin up so she was forced to look at him.
“Fine.” Oh, she could drown in his eyes. Mercy didn’t know how he expected her to maintain any rational kind of thought while she was slipping down into—
“Mercy,” he prompted again.
“You put your life in my hands. I can’t do any less. And I see that you want me to trust you, not because I have to, but because I can.”
“Lesson passed.” He nodded. “Suit up.”
Chapter Four
Magnus thought he was a grown man.
Grown men didn’t sneak glances at beautiful women while they were changing. Untried boys did things like that. Grown men told their women that they wanted to watch them, grown men undressed them with their gaze boldly and purposefully, while within full view of their women.
But he couldn’t help it.
He’d had his hands all over her curves and the way she’d responded to him had his recently thawed brain much too hot to concentrate on anything but her.
Shit, he had to get his head in the game. Their lives depended on it.
The worst part about it was he knew that she’d give him whatever he desired. Even if she wasn’t just paying a debt or finding some way to feel like she’d done her part—he was sure from the way she kissed him that she wanted him.
Only—and he never thought he’d say this and, if he had to say it out loud, he’d swear that it was the freezing sickness talking, but—he didn’t want just a fuck. Not some mechanical chore, even if the outcome was pleasure.
He wanted a connection.
He hadn’t realized how lonely silence was. He’d been left on his own many a time. The first time he’d crossed the Great Dark, he’d been alone.
But watching the years of men and beasts go by, looking out of his frozen prison, he longed for interaction. For connection. For touch.
Then she’d been there, her tiny little touches like the remnants of a meteor shower, burning up before she even made contact.
Yet, the casual brush of her flesh against his kept him sane.
That thought was enough to make him turn his head. She was beautiful, kind, and generous. She’d just shown that she trusted him. He wouldn’t violate that by sneaking peeks at her lovely, delicious, delectable…
“All done,” she said and turned around. “Were you watching me?”
He’d been caught. “It’s only fair.”
She blushed again. Damn, he liked making her blush.
“I’m teasing you.”
“Are you ever going to let that go?” Mercy fidgeted with some unseen bit of something on her sleeve.
“It’s only been a day, so probably not.” He shook his head.
“Fine. Should I strip naked for your inspection?” She pursed her lips.
She was being flip, but his cock didn’t care about that. It demanded yes. But his brain… no. “See? Look at that sauce. I’m Magnus the Destroyer, and you’re sassing me with absolutely no fear.”
“Because I trust you.” She smiled softly.
Damn it, there it was again. All those soft, squishy feelings inside that he’d always wanted to avoid, yet now he sought out. He was as confused as she was. This was all new territory and now was not the time to go off on some adventure with his feelings. They had plenty of adventure right there in front of them.
“Are you ready?” He handed her a light stick.
She snapped it in half and it glowed to a pale, green life. “As I’ll ever be.”
He stepped through the door and out into the new world. It was strange. The sky was black as pitch, and he could see no stars. But there were odd little bits of flora and fauna which shone and twinkled like what his mother called Valkyrie lights. She said those things were the souls of defeated Valkyries lighting the way home. If he was ever lost, he should follow them.
And now they seemed to be leading down the path that the nav wanted them to take.
Mercy reached out her hand almost as if she wanted to touch one, but she pulled back.
“It’s strange how they grow amongst the ice.”
“Where else would Valkyrie lights grow?”
She laughed. “The Great Dark, I suppose.”
They were silent then, as they followed the trail. He turned to check on her now and again, but she kept pace behind him.
It seemed as if they walked forever, but in truth, it couldn’t have been very far.
The land in front of them opened out to a wide expanse of a steaming lake. There was a pink sandy beach and the water was filled with those Valkyrie lights, making the water a strange purple.
“It’s so beautiful,” she breathed. Mercy touched her finger to the water. “It’s warm.”
He pulled the mech shelter out of his pack and it deployed, unfolding and setting itself up. He peered inside and saw it had every luxury—including a dry chem toilet. Whoever had wanted them here seemed to think of Mercy’s every comfort.
It sure as hell wasn’t Odin Lokison.
She’d spotted a lagoon and was grinning from ear to ear.
“Wait, wait! Let me check the water for salinity and life forms. The Valkyrie lights may be pretty, but we don’t know if that’s actually what they are or if they’ll chew your face off.”
He readied a test strip and followed her over to the small lagoon that glowed even more brightly than what seemed to be the sea. But they didn’t look like the Valkyrie lights, it was something all together different.
There were no predators, no life at all, in fact. The water was too hot. There was ice all around them, but for the bodies of water.
“Seems safe enough.” He used the nav to run a sonar test for depth. “No deeper than six feet in the middle. But why don’t we get settled before you go adventuring?”
“Okay.” Mercy ducked and pushed her way into the shelter. “Oh, wow. This is nice. I think my father used to use these when he went hunti—” She stopped as if she’d just realized what impact her words would have. “That was thoughtless.”
“You mean when he was hunting me? It’s okay, you know. That’s not your fault. I’m not angry at you.”
“But I don’t live in a bubble. I should think before I speak.”
“It takes more than a memory to hurt me, Mercy.”
“Does it? Because you could slice me to the bone with one.”
Her words crashed into him and he cocked his head to the side as he considered her. “Why aren’t you afraid of pain?”
“Being afraid of a thing doesn’t make it any less likely to happen.” She shrugged.
“Is that what you’ve been taught, or what you feel as yourself?”
“What?”
“Your tutors. Did they say those words to you?”
“No, my mother did, and they feel true.”
“It’s a very Valkyrie thing to say.” He nodded.
“Have you known many Valkyries?”
“I suppose. I was raised on Acadia. My mother was Boudicea, and when the Saxony came and salted our lands, poisoned the wells, and wiped out our technology, I vowed revenge.”
“Have you had it? Your revenge, I mean?”
“No. I still have to kill Rollo. He was the warlord that took my mother. And when I find him, I will grind his bones for salt,” he growled.
“That’s why my father hunted you. It wasn’t just the thrill of the sport. I’ve heard that name before, Rollo. He’s one of my father’s supporters for governor.”
“Your father will never be governor. The Asgardians don’t want another Saxony.”
“I think all the honest thieves are on Hel.” She shook her head. “It was Rollo my father was hoping would ask for me.”
“He’s already married some Saxony princess. He wants to be king.”
“Then I think you should kill him.”
He sat down. “That’s rather bloodthirsty of you, Mercy.”
“Did you know that Eir, my mother’s name, means Mercy?” She looked up at him, eyes wide. “Rollo can’t be king. He’s a bad man. King of Saxony means he’d rule the Saxon system and, from there, he’d control the food supply for most of the ‘verse.”
“You speak of killing a man as if it were an easy thing to end a life.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I know it’s no easy thing. And I don’t know, if given the chance, that I could do it. But you could.”
“And then what? Then I’d be King of Saxony?”
“Do you want the right answer or the answer I’d rather have in my head?”
“Both.” He chuckled.
She flopped down on the inflated sleeping area with a huff. “I know that the right answer would be that you’d stay until a fair government was installed, but really, I’d want you to run away with me.”
“With you? What would we do?”
“This.”
“Right now? In a mech tent on a no name planet with…”
“I told you it was silly.”
“What do you think is going to happen here?” he asked softly.
“We’re going to fall in love.”
She said this with the utmost surety, so it slapped his face harder than a mace ever could. “Why do you say that?” He wasn’t afraid of her conviction, or the idea of loving her. But they’d just met.
“It’s science.” She shrugged. “Proven fact that people who’ve been through a high-stress situation together tend to bond. And we’re stranded on an uninhabited planet. Eventually, I’ll look good. I’m the only one here.” She gave a wry laugh.
“You look plenty good,” he reassured her.
“And don’t forget Stockholm Syndrome. I’m completely reliant on you for my survival.”
“I thought we established back at the hangar that we’re in this together.” He tried not to laugh. She had this way of stating things that was so brash, so honest, but completely unaware of herself.
“Without you, I might last until the rations ran out. Then I’d be screwed and I know it.”
“You’re stronger than you know.”
“You keep saying things like that.” She laughed. “You make me feel good about myself, and I think that you like that I’m not afraid of you. You’ll love me, and I’ll love you, even if it is just while we’re here.”
He smirked. “What if we never leave this planet?”
“Then I guess we should try to make the best of it.” She shrugged.
Magnus shook his head. “You are not what I expected, Mercy Odinsdottir.”
“I hope that’s a good thing.”
“Yes, it is.”
He wanted to tell her so many things. He was sorry he took her, but he wasn’t sorry they were together. He was sorry for what it meant for her. Then again, another part of him wasn’t sorry at all. A man like Odin Lokison didn’t deserve to have Mercy in his life. He’d treated her like crap.
A child should be protected and loved, and she was neither. She was nothing but a means to an end for him. There was a vengeance in that, too, for Magnus. He’d taken her away, and now she belonged to him. Odin would never use her again.
He didn’t have to hurt Mercy to make Odin pay. All he had to do was love her better. That would be no harsh task.
Could it really be that easy?
Magnus thought about what she’d said about Rollo as he lay down next to her, and she came into his arms easily.
For fifteen years he’d been frozen. Fifteen years of his life, gone. All the while Rollo was still walking around breathing. The knowledge didn’t sit well in his gut.
But she curled into him, her small hand splayed on his chest. Her touch calmed him, eased him—all things he’d never expected from his enemy’s daughter.
In truth, all things he’d never expected from anyone.
It was almost as if they had the bond like the Valkyries and Berserkers in the days of yore. He made her stronger, and she gave him peace.
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