The Ice Bride

by Ripley Proserpina

  Behind me, footsteps dislodged the rocks, kicking them into the waves. “What do you two want?”

  “She’s our skaoi,” Raynor announced, speaking for himself and Grim.

  I turned to glower at my brothers. Grim’s arms were crossed. He wore his magical form, covering himself in his ice, as did Raynor. They were as off-balance as me to appear like this in daylight. We were usually in better control of ourselves.

  “She can’t be your skaoi; she's human,” I argued, leaving out the part about her being mine as well. As out of control as we were, the declaration would only bring discord. On second thought, I could use a good fight. “And she’s my skaoi.”

  “Impossible,” Grim blurted, eyes going white. Good. He was getting angry.

  “It’s true. But none of us are bonding to her. She has to go back.”

  “No.” Raynor’s eyes were as white as Grim’s. His hands clenched, the white darkening, becoming thicker, harder. Protection for the battle he was about to initiate.

  “I’m sending her back. It doesn’t matter who she is, what matters is what she is. No Jötnar will bond to a human. It will be the end of us.”

  “No,” Grim replied, and threw himself at me.

  We rolled, the water crackling where it met our skin. Ice formed then disintegrated as it was smashed by the waves. I got him under me and drew back my fist, but Raynor tackled me.

  The fight began again. Grim waited for an opening to slam me into the ground, and when it looked like I would have the upper hand, Raynor tossed himself into the fray. Unlike the other fights we'd had which generally ended in a draw, something spurred my brothers on. When I thought they’d exhausted themselves, they worked in concert. When Grim needed a breath, Raynor fought harder.

  I’d always been bigger and stronger. This was the first time they’d ever given me a true fight. One I wasn’t sure I could win.

  The air was filled with the sound of ice breaking, of one, or both, or all of us flailing in the water. Grim and Raynor faced me and leapt. One went high and the other low, and my head hit a rock, cracking against the surface. My vision dimmed, and my coordination slowed.

  “Give up,” I told them. “No matter how long this lasts. If you pound me into nothing, it still can’t happen. Imagine the damage her presence could do. Imagine what the elders would do when they learned of her.”

  “You’d give her up without a fight.” Raynor growled.

  “I’m being realistic.”

  “You’re being a coward,” Grim countered.

  “Am I?” I asked. “We bond to her, and what then? What happens when the tribes come to pay their respects and they see a human? A woman weak and unable to protect herself. They’ll turn her to dust where she stands. She has no magic, no power. And then there are our children. Would they be human or Jötnar? How would they protect themselves against stronger giants? Do you see the impossibility of it?”

  As my words filtered through the haze of their anger, the fight left my brothers. Their skin turned from white to pink. The magic inside them left them looking the way I’d last seen them at the cabin—clad in furs and skins.

  “It’s not impossible,” Raynor whispered, though I could see now he believed as I did. He continued to deny the knowledge that we were not meant to bond to our skaoi. Not for our own well-being, but for hers, and those of our children. “It shouldn’t happen this way. If the gods chose her for us, we should be with her.”

  “Maybe we aren’t meant to be with anyone,” Grim interrupted. “A skaoi for both of us?” His gaze held Raynor’s. “It was too good to believe.”

  His earlier certainty bled completely now, and Raynor nodded. “It was.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. It hadn't been my intention to break my brothers’ hearts, but there was no other way for this to end. Inside my chest, my heart cracked. I felt my magic surge inside me, a frisson of power beneath my skin turning to ice. I had merely seen the woman’s eyes, and it gutted me to know she couldn’t be mine. What would my brothers feel, who I knew had touched and held her?

  “Do we return?” Grim asked, his voice as husky as Raynor’s. I nodded.

  “We protect her and mother tonight, and in the morning, we bring her to the clearing.”

  “And then what?” Raynor asked.

  “Then we try to forget.”

  From my brothers’ faces, they believed such a thing as unlikely as I did.

  5

  Grim

  Our trek back home was silent except for the occasional crackle of ice on our skin when our power surged. I knew my twin suffered as much as me, but I was too consumed by my own hurt to ease his pain.

  As we moved through the forest, I cast glances around. I’d followed Fenris to the shore, determined to make him see my way. Despite my anger, I’d been hopeful, and I’d passed my favorite spots with the idea of showing them to our skaoi. I’d even imagined my bonding, overwhelmed with joy that it would include my twin, and I’d never have to choose between him and the woman the gods chose for me.

  I’d been stupid.

  Fenris was right, and I hated him for it. The tether holding me to my eldest brother snapped, leaving me adrift. Even Raynor was lost to me. Emerging from the trees as the sun began to set, we met our mother at the door of our home.

  “Idiots,” she cursed at us through clenched teeth. “This is a blessing. A skaoi is a gift from the gods, and you are fools to discount it. She is meant for you. For all of you.”

  “She’s human,” Raynor whispered. I glanced at him, but he stared at the ground. I’d never seen my brother unhappy.

  “So what?” Mother snapped. “There are three of you. You can protect her.”

  “And our children? What of them? We don’t live forever,” I retorted, and Mor’s face paled. I hadn’t meant to remind her of the death of our father, but merely the fact that we wouldn’t be around to protect our children, or our children’s children, against those who sought to hurt them.

  “Jötnar are set in their ways, but we aren’t unyielding. We can change.” My mother threw up her hands. “Our ancestors lived among humans for generations! Still do if the stories are true. So, we chose to live away from the humans. Perhaps it is time for us to reevaluate our place in this world.”

  “I won’t have the woman I bond with test this theory of yours. Better she live away from us than die by our sides.”

  Mor stared at the ground and shook her head sadly. “You’re fools. I’ve raised fools.” With that parting shot, she walked back to the cabin, yelling over her shoulder, “Fools sleep outside!”

  None of us said a word in argument. My skaoi’s scent drifted through the open door when my mother went inside. It would have been intolerable to spend the night surrounded by that scent. As it was, the small tease had the ice inside me rushing over my skin, and it was only through force of will I was able to compel it back.

  Wordlessly, my brothers and I tramped to the gardens behind the house. Mor had turned the soil, but it would be weeks before she put seeds in the ground. Despite the spring weather, there was the promise of a hard frost in the air.

  Raynor lined the fire pit with kindling and pine boughs, and Fenris lit the fire. By tacit agreement, all of us stayed in skin, as if we feared changing forms would make it easier to give in to what we all wanted.

  Staring into the orange flames, I imagined my life as it could have been. For one, I’d have learned my skaoi’s name. At least I had held her in my arms. Raynor and I had embraced her together. Lifting my hands to my face, I could smell her beneath the salt of the ocean and the hint of snow. It would wear off eventually, and all I’d have would be my memory.

  Glancing at Raynor, his face shadowed in darkness, I reached out along the link we’d always had and came up short. Something was in the way of our connection, a barrier that had never been there before. I pushed against it, testing its strength, but it didn’t budge.

  Fear gripped me. Was I to lose my twin as well as the bride chosen
for me by the gods? Perhaps it would have been better if I had never learned of her existence. If I’d spent my life with only my brothers for company. My eyes closed with that as my last thought: being alone forever wouldn’t have hurt as much.

  Jolting awake, I burst to my feet. Inside my chest, a web extended, like ice forming across a still pool of water. Watching with wide eyes, it grew to encompass Fenris and my twin before snaking under the door and inside my house. I felt the moment it touched my skaoi, connecting me to her and yanking me forward. My brothers were on their feet as well, the line reeling us in like fish on a hook.

  All our concerns from earlier, none of it mattered compared to the link between me and the woman inside. Fenris was first through the door, and Raynor and I tumbled behind him, pushing and shoving in our haste.

  Mor smiled when she saw us.

  “Betha.” She glanced toward the woman who regarded us with wide blue eyes. On her head sat a crown of snow, each flake unique and perfect. Betha. She was mine. I rolled her name on my tongue, loving the way it sounded. Bay-tha. It was as beautiful as she was.

  And then Mor went on. “Meet your husbands.”

  6

  Betha

  “Wait. What?” No, no, no, no. This did not work for me. I could absolutely, one hundred percent not be married to the sexy triple threat. I’d written my best piece of journalism in my life, and I needed to wave it under my editor’s face while yelling things like, “Ha ha!” and “Suck it!”

  And yet, more than I wanted to give my boss the middle finger, or hear my mother's voice, even if it was only to bemoan my broad shoulders, I wanted to explore the pull to these men I couldn't deny. It tied me to them. Their scent, delicious as it had been the day before, was positively orgasmic now.

  My brain ached, like I'd eaten ice cream too fast, and I rubbed my forehead, scraping my fingers against something icy. What the hell? Pulling gently, it dislodged, and I stared at it in confusion. Was this a crown? A headband? It was beautiful, like someone had connected individual snowflakes. As soon as I touched it, though, it melted, dripping onto the floor. Within seconds, it had disappeared. Regretting its disappearance for only a second, I focused on the bigger issue.

  “How am I married?” I asked aloud, staring down at my hands. No ring. I peeked out the window. Definitely hadn't landed in Las Vegas.

  Last night, after the mountain men had left, I’d introduced myself to the woman in the Tarzan way. “Betha,” I’d said, touching my chest.

  “Freya,” the woman had answered, touching her own. We’d spent yesterday evening in companionable silence. I couldn't understand a word she said, but her tone was friendly, and once she started talking, she didn’t stop.

  I hadn’t recovered from the crash entirely; my body ached, but it didn't stop me from shuffling to the kitchen to watch her cook. Like the rest of their house, their kitchenware was a mishmash of older technologies and ones I used every day. At one point, the lights went out and the woman had held up a finger, and headed outside where the hum and roar of a generator started up. I liked to think I'd helped with dinner, but the most I'd done was pull the bread out of the oven. Even then I'd managed to burn myself on the rack. Helping after helping was pressed on me. I finally fell asleep as full and happy as a house cat.

  The spoiled way I’d gone to sleep hadn’t prepared me for this type of wake-up. The floor rumbled beneath my feet as the men walked toward me—no—stalked toward me—like I was their prey.

  My entire body tensed, and not because I was afraid. What I really wanted to do was lunge off the bed, over the chairs, the rugs, and tackle them. Maybe lick all three like I used to do as a kid with my chicken nuggets so no one took them. These guys were mine.

  Where had that thought come from? They couldn't be mine because I didn't know them. I had no idea if they had interesting personalities, or would get my sense of humor. Maybe they wouldn't like me once they got to know me. I had no idea what made these guys tick.

  The last thought had me squeezing my thighs together, because tick rhymed with dick and I suddenly had the urge to attach to them like a limpet. The room seemed to be getting hotter, and sweat trickled down my temples.

  “It's going to be all right, my skaoi,” Second said, kneeling in front of me with his brother following suit. Reaching toward my face, he cupped my cheek in his hand. Cool relief flooded me.

  The heat at my core chilled, making me shiver. Second's nostrils flared. If he could smell me, like some kind of—hold on.

  “I can understand you now,” I whispered. “I couldn’t yesterday. What is going on?”

  Forgetting all about their hotness and the foreign sensations pulsing through me, I stood, edging past them to have the door at my back. I needed to get out of here, to run away. If I could get some distance between me, and these pillars of handsomeness with their amazing smell, I could figure out what was going on.

  Second's gaze cut to the door. He knew what I was thinking.

  So I bolted.

  Outside, snow had fallen during the night, but it didn't slow me down. I had long legs, good endurance, and when I found my stride, I was fast.

  With my arms pumping, I cut through the snow like it wasn't there. The cold air cleared my head, filled my lungs, and I wanted to shout out with joy. The trees blurred by me, and when the sound of broken limbs and snow reached me, I put on a burst of speed.

  They were chasing me, and I liked it. It was right—what we were supposed to do. Part of the dance. But I was too fast for them. They'd never catch me. I didn't have the bulk they did, they'd never be able to match my—

  Arms gripped me, lifting me off my feet and spinning me around. I imagined what I looked like, feet peddling, arms windmilling. My elbow connected with a hard chest. “Oomph.”

  Whoever held me spun me around. “First,” I whispered.

  “Grim,” he replied, and I frowned.

  “What's grim?” I glanced around. The snow was still falling, but I wouldn't call the landscape grim.

  First blushed and bit his lip. With his arms around me, I could truly get the sense of his height. At nearly six feet myself, I wasn't used to tipping my head back to see someone's face. He cleared his throat. “No. It's my name. Grim.”

  “Betha,” I answered, beginning to feel awkward. His arms were tight around my back. His hard chest pressed against my front. My chest heaved as I panted, trying to catch my breath with each inhalation, and my nipples rubbed on him. The sensation flooded my senses; I needed more of it.

  “Betha.” My name came out on a breath. Movement behind me had him narrowing his eyes and growling. “Fenris. You won't take her.”

  Second moved into my line of sight, away from a copse of trees. He studied Grim and me intently.

  Silently, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his twin. “She is ours now. There is no breaking the bond.”

  “Hold up.” I gripped each of their shoulders, attempting to separate them so I could step forward and address the other brother. The one who'd been dragged out of the house yesterday and had regarded me with dislike and confusion. Having been on the receiving end of looks like that most of my life, I could safely say what was burning in his eyes now was as far away from dislike as one could get. “Grim.”

  His body tensed, but he didn't move. “Please stay behind Raynor and me, Betha.” Was it just me or did his mouth linger over my name. “We'll keep you safe.”

  “I'm not going to hurt her, idiots. She is my skaoi as well as yours,” Fenris snapped.

  “What is a skaoi?” I asked.

  They ignored me. “You denied her. Said you'd send her back. I won't let you,” Second— no—Raynor answered.

  Send me back? To Boston and my job and the story I'd written and Jeb the douchebag editor. The plan had a lot less draw than it did when I was hurtling toward Earth, expecting to be a Betha pancake.

  “I couldn’t send her back. Not now. But she can’t run from us, not here. It’s too dangerous,” the older b
rother snapped. His eyes were blue, but different than the blue-eyed twins and mother, and when they caught mine, they warmed. When I stepped toward him without thought, both Grim and Raynor stopped me.

  Anxiety filled me. I had to go to him, needed to go to him. The twins had to let me past. Though Fenris remained still, body held in a position of feigned calmness, he was strung tight and ready to snap.

  “Let me,” I whispered, pushing them apart with a gentle nudge.

  “Not too close,” came Raynor’s gravelly reply. He threw one arm up, blocking me from going further.

  “Raynor.” Fenris growled. “Don’t touch her.” His blue eyes darkened as his skin paled, a bluish-white cast creeping from his neck to his jaw and along his cheekbones. Steam poured off of him where it covered his naturally pink skin.

  “Move.” I touched Raynor’s arm, wrapping my fingers around his wrist. Whatever I felt for Fenris, I felt for Raynor and Grim, and the threat in Fenris’s voice charged something inside me. I managed to get around the twins, enough they still shielded me, but I could get between the men if I needed to.

  Growling low and deep in his throat, Fenris glided forward, eyes narrowed. His entire body began to change. Gone were the furs and leathers, the high cheekbones and slightly slanted eyes, and what remained in his place was a giant of a man, covered head-to-toe in ice. Each step came with a snap.

  Holy shit.

  The arm beneath my hand cooled, an equally low growl vibrating from Raynor and echoed by Grim. As I stared, their bodies mirrored Fenris’s: blue-white encased in ice.

  Raynor’s knees bent, ready to lunge at Fenris. I dashed between them. “No!” Palms forward, I whipped my gaze from the twins to their older brother. “Stop,” I added, trying to impress upon them I was one-who-shall-be-obeyed.

  A dark eyed gaze, nearly navy, held mine. He tilted his head to the side, pausing for just a moment.