by Kate Pearce
She drew her face close to his and ran her lips over his cheekbone. He had a bruise there, too. She kissed another cut right across the side of his bottom lip, recalling the first time Steinn had kissed her. It had been at the last winter festival when their clans had come together. He’d been bold and kissed her soundly.
This time she got to be the one to have the upper hand. She drew his top lip into a kiss this time. Steinn sucked in a breath and murmured against her mouth. “Dri...”
Now that woke him up.
Their kiss began as a nibble, a slow-churning moment where her mouth enjoyed the feel of his. Their heads naturally tilted to deepen the kiss and she melted from the pleasure she felt. His hands behind her back pressed her even closer, one hand going to her hip to gather her shift in his fist.
One moment she was kissing him and the next, his warm hand caressed the skin on the underside of her thighs. She was even more exposed now. No more barriers. He stroked her bottom, urgently rubbing her against the bulge in his trousers. She knew very well what could come next. At a certain age the young men and women learned what happened to couples who sighed and moaned underneath the worn blankets at night. They did what she was doing now.
But she was different than them. She had a vow.
His tongue brushed against hers, pushing such thoughts aside. Damn, he made her feel so good. So happy. Each stroke heated a fire hotter than anything she’d consumed. The chill that had soaked her bones was gone now.
He pulled back, breathless, and took in her face.
She wanted to say something to him, not sure what though. Please do it again?
He spoke instead. “I’ve always wanted you more than I’ve wanted anything else.”
Drifa should’ve said the same thing back to him. That the desire to be with him was something she could never shake the entire time she was in Niflheim.
She opened her mouth to tell him the truth, but his head descended to kiss her again. A brief kiss that left her breathless and panting as his head descended. She didn’t stop him as he pulled her shift over her head, leaving her naked next to him. Nor did she stop him when his warm mouth licked the skin along her clavicle down to between her breasts. Her body sang as he took one nipple into his mouth, then the other. He suckled each tip, rolling his tongue over the sensitive nipple. All the while his hips rotated against the heat gathering in her core.
“I want your first time to be perfect.” He sighed against her breast. “Do you want me as much as I want you?” he asked.
He didn’t wait for an answer. His head went down even farther until the wet, warmth from his tongue slid over her belly button, down to the apex between her legs.
“Steinn...” Her voice no longer belonged to her.
“I want to mark you as mine right here,” he breathed. Ever so slowly, his tongue stroked over her womanly folds, prying them open. Being shy now was far from over. All she could do was gather her hands in his brown hair and hold on.
“You're so wet.” He tasted her again—this time on the throbbing pearl—and she trembled. “You taste as delicious as I imagined.”
Why had she waited so long to experience such things? His mouth was relentless, nibbling, sucking, licking, until her back arched from the pleasure he offered. Stroke after stroke of his tongue bathed her core in heat, but when his tongue penetrated her channel, she came undone. The muscles in her stomach jumped and pleasure shot up from her core up her back. He clasped her buttocks tight to keep her from bucking too wildly.
“Steinn!” She gasped his name again and again.
“That’s it, Dri. Give me all your sweet nectar.”
Her thighs clutched at his head, but he kept going, his masterful tongue sliding in and out of her, filling her until all she could do was cry out for him. Cry out until an earth-shattering orgasm pulled what little strength she had out of her.
When she finally stilled, he rose up from between her legs, a dark look on his face. His gaze raked over her naked body. The bruises and cuts along his torso made him all the more primal, a brute ready to take what he wanted. His large hands stroked over her skin from her cheek, down to the side of her breast, over her quivering stomach and finally he stopped right over the place where his tongue had just been. He pressed ever so slightly on her button and she moaned. A deep guttural moan that rocked her.
“That feels so good...” she whispered.
The evidence of his arousal was there. All he’d have to do was slip off his trousers and lay with her. He’d mark her as his as he promised.
He placed her hand along the generous bulge. Then he waited. Whatever lay beneath his clothes pulsed under the weight of her hand. She sensed his need. The urgency churning in his stomach as he gazed at her with a hunger that reflected her own.
The vow. Remember the vow you made and the consequences of your actions. The consequences of the past. She let her hand fall to the side and looked to the dim fire in the pit.
“I take that as no.” His words were thick with desire, but they were clear. He got up from the bed and gathered his clothes.
“Don’t leave,” she finally said. She didn’t want him to go like this. To leave mad.
“I can’t go around and around like this with you. It cuts me every time that you can’t be mine.” He turned to look at her, his eyes cold. “I want to see you in my bed every night as my wife. I want to feel you lying next to me when I wake, but this vow—the Women of the Frost—has taken away everything you and I could ever have.”
“Sit down, Steinn!” she finally snapped when he didn’t move.
Finally he sat, the crackles from the fire were the only sound in the room. When he finally spoke she expected bitter words, but it was a question that came.
“Do you remember that day?”
“What day?” she managed.
“The day your family discovered you had the gift?”
She nodded. “It was the same day you returned from Niflheim with Knurre.”
“I find it ironic how the north has called us both, Dri. In ways neither of us will ever understand.”
The north might’ve given her the Call, but as she looked at the man she’d left behind, her heart told her she should’ve ignored that summons.
8
Three years ago
The day the chilling north had called Drifa had been, in contrast, a blistering summer’s day. The heat had been stifling, forcing everyone indoors—even those who made the trek toward the crystal mines. But there were still root vegetables to pick from the cave floors at the edge of the foothills and Drifa was bound and determined to keep the moles and rabbits from munching on what little food they grew.
While the rabbits grew fatter and had more litters, the men and women in her village grew hungrier. Traps along the countryside had rarely caught anything. Without a generous haul from the crystal mines, winter would be even harder without livestock for clothes and more food. The never-ending heat was the source of the problem.
Sneaking out of the great hall where the chieftain’s family stayed was another matter entirely. While the heat baked the roof, the shade inside was far more tolerable. Her mother and three sisters had retired to a cool spot in the great room—all the while her mother grumbled about the lack of work to be done today.
“All those useless fools,” she barked. “When the caravan comes through in a week, we’ll have nothing to add to their carts. Which means no food or water for what little rations we have.”
Her mother had once been a beautiful woman, but having countless children and working long hours foraging for food had added long lines of bitterness along her gaunt cheeks.
Hunger did that to many. It made them angry at anything and everyone. To her mother, most of all.
If the others weren’t willing to try to gather food, she’d damn well at least make an effort. She gathered a basket and a thin gray cloak. The chieftain’s was far larger than her own.
Once at the great hall door she pressed her han
d against the wood. The heat outside pushed back. Countless times as a child she’d been warned of burned skin. How the men remained in the mines for days if they got trapped during the summer time.
Her stomach grumbled and tore into her insides. The potato meal from breakfast barely fed any of them.
As soon as her parents allowed her to marry Steinn she’d gratefully leave her clan. They had far too little food and too many mouths to feed. As the chieftain’s eldest daughter it was her place to leave and establish a match with another more prosperous clan like Steinn’s.
She took a deep breath and cracked open the door. A breeze flowed in, but not a pleasant one. It was as if a fire pit had extended into the room, radiating its heat into the cooler places to suck away any moisture.
Instead of standing there to assess how bad it was she went outside and shut the door behind her. Gathering her cloak close and leaving only a hole to see through did little good to hold back the waves of heat. Every breath she sucked in carried dryness that stifled the spit in her mouth. After twenty feet sweat soaked her back and her dress slid across her skin as she walked.
But she kept going. The cave was no more than a short walk away through the village. No one stopped her. She could traverse this whole trip with her eyes shut. Every spot with a hint of shade offered a momentary shelter from the heat. Then she moved on. All the while to distract herself she played out fantasies of what her life would be like when Steinn returned this fall for the festival to remember their ancestors. It had been like that for the past two years. He’d visit briefly in the spring and fall with his brother Tre. During that time they courted.
She smiled under her cloak. Those were the good memories she cherished. As each day crept toward cooler weather she looked forward to seeing his serious face. Matter of fact, she saw it as her mission in life to prank him whenever possible. A little bit of pig fat smeared on the hilt of his sword or an edible gift with a surprise rock inside. After the first prank, he refused to eat anything she gave him.
By the time she reached the cave, every footstep was an effort. Her tongue had swelled, filling her dry mouth. Daring to take a drink in the heat wasn’t wise.
Once she was within the darkness in the cave, she took a few sips to satisfy her thirst, but the cottony sensation in her head wouldn’t leave her.
Ignore it, Dri. Get to work.
So she discarded her cloak and used a gardening tool to work at the rows of root vegetables along the cave’s opening. All the plants needed were just a hint of sun for them to grow while they spent the majority of the time in the shade. She filled her basket with what she could find until her vision swam. The numbness in her head had spread to her fingertips and then her mouth. Along with a strange sensation that gathered in her stomach, gnawing at her in a way that hunger never did. This churning slithered up the back of her throat and snaked back down again, forcing her to let go of her basket and stumble to the cool cave wall for support.
Something was wrong. Was she suffering from heat stroke? This was a common symptom many in the clan suffered from once in a while. She examined her face. Instead of feeling heat from flush or even sweat, her skin was cool. Not a single bead of sweat lined her brow or neck.
The chill along her face grew colder and fear raced down her back as grayish-black dots clouded her vision. Each warm breath she sucked into her lungs sounded wet to her ears. A labored gasp that forced her to clutch the cave floor’s dirt.
The hard, frozen dirt.
She blinked and with each slow blink she blacked out for a moment. Time crept by. Until someone touched her shoulder.
“What are you doing out here, Drifa?” a woman asked. It was her mother. Her younger brother stared with concern from behind their mother.
The morning light from the outside no longer bled into the cave. Just the dimness of twilight. How much time had passed with her lying on the ground?
Her mother touched her face, quickly drawing back her hand as if bitten. Her look of concern melded into a smile and widened eyes.
“What wrong?” her brother asked.
“She has been Called.” Glee filled her mother’s words.
“Called?” she croaked. Her mouth was parched as if she’d kept it open for a long time.
Ignoring their questions, her mother pushed her brother into action with a jerk of her head. “Pick up your systir and take her back to the hall.”
Her mother gathered the basket and the frost-covered vegetables that had fallen out. She couldn’t contain her excitement as Drifa was hoisted into her brother’s arms.
Now that evening had arrived the village had come to life. Women and children tended to other gardens among the cave openings and men trudged toward the mines to finally work.
A few extended their concern, but her mother brushed them away. “She’ll be fine.”
Dread filled her. Her mother hadn’t said such a thing in years.
Once inside the house, her mom placed the basket on the table and clapped her hands with glee. “My dóttir has been Called!” She raised her hands to the roof and whispered words she couldn’t make out. Maybe a prayer of thanks to the Goddess. “Soon you’ll join the sisterhood and you’ll fulfill what our village has been unable to do since I’d been Called.”
“What…” She knew very well what her mother had told her, but the finality of it had yet to hit.
Warm hands clutched her face and her mother kissed her cheeks. “You are like me. You are a Woman of the Frost.” Her mother’s words spilled forth like running water over rocks. “You’ll board a boat in a few days’ time and you’ll go to them. You’ll tell them our clan has finally supplied one of their own.”
Her response stumbled out. “No, I won’t.” Steinn was coming soon. In a month or two the summer would be over and she’d push for their marriage.
“Foolish, little girl.” Mother closed in on her. “Do you know what the Women of the Frost do?”
Of course, she did. Every woman in her lineage learned from an early age that only certain families carried the gift and it was the Women of the Frost who kept the desert from advancing northward. Her clan produced one every generation—until her mother decided to stay with her father instead of leaving.
“After I didn’t answer the Call, they found out.” Her shrill voice rose. “Those bitter old bitches, sitting celibate in their cold rooms, chose to punish me for my actions. When the summer came after I chose your father, the cool winds from the north should’ve come with it. Instead the heat levels rose.” For a moment she swallowed as if the memory pained her. “Your father traveled north and what should’ve been ice meeting the desert was nothing but dead lands. Dead red dirt. Those whores gave our clan a death sentence.”
Drifa’s mouth dropped open. So there it was. That was why they suffered.
“We offered them crystals by the cart load, but they wanted none of it.” She snorted. “They had plenty from the other clans who offered them such riches to keep the desert from spreading. What they wanted was to re-build their ranks and I denied them such the moment I took your father to my bed and conceived a babe from that first night.”
Her eyes formed slits. “You were that babe.”
“You want me to leave my life behind, and the man I’ve come to love for the Women of the Frost?”
Her mother made a rude clucking sound. “You’re not bonded to him yet—you can undo the damage I’ve done and bring prosperity back to our clan.”
She searched her mother’s eyes and bounced between pain and obligation. Blinking away tears, she could push away the memories of hunger, hearing her siblings’ stomachs growl from the lack of food. Her own suffering diminished every time Steinn arrived. His clan brought food to trade—what little they could offer—but nonetheless it was food.
But the moment she married him the suffering would continue. If she journeyed to Niflheim she could learn the frost craft and push back the desert. She could give her siblings the life she was about to give up.
As much as she tried not to dwell on it, her chest tightened and all she could do was close her eyes to keep from looking at the woman who was supposed to put herself first before her children.
Oh, Steinn…
Tears coursed down her face, but Drifa quickly wiped them away. She’d mourn her loss in private instead of allowing her mother to witness it.
“Do we have crystals to trade for my transport north?” she managed to ask.
With a growing smile, her mother nodded.
A few days later, an hour or two before dawn, she slipped from the house. No goodbyes to her family. She didn’t want to cry again. The long walk across the sands and patches of dry dirt had been good for her. By the time she reached the halfway mark toward the Frost River where the traders waited for her, the sunlight began to warm the land again.
A form waited at the top of a hill she approached and it was a face she didn’t want to see. Not today and not at this moment when her heart was so heavy.
She’d have to say goodbye to Steinn face-to-face.
By the time she reached him, she couldn’t get in a word. The joyous look on his face told her he didn’t know.
“I’ve found something wonderful, Dri. An ice dragon. I want to share it with you.” He swept in and took her into his arms and what she wouldn’t give to be able to stay there. To have him hold her like this and tell her she wouldn’t have to go. That she’d remain with him and that they’d get married as their parents wanted. Like she wanted.
Not far behind him, a beautiful white dragon laid on its back on the sand. It peered at them with curiosity. Just looking at it made her want to run her hands along its graceful neck. Would the scales be rough or smooth? Was it as powerful as the tales she’d always heard?