“Is there anything you can’t do?” I said, gingerly placing the soles of my feet on the sand. “Seriously. You have the powers of a fucking god and yet here you are bandaging my mere mortal feet.” I wanted to hold onto my anger, but I couldn’t. I was too tired, and a part of me was pathetically grateful that he’d helped bandage my feet even though he was the reason the wounds were even there.

“Thank you,” I whispered, my throat feeling tight.

I always found ways to excuse the people who had hurt me. It seemed this big green idiot was no exception.

I couldn’t even call him an idiot, to be honest. There was no denying the fierce intelligence in his lop-sided golden gaze. He wasn’t stupid. Brutal maybe, but not brutish.

Strong and stubborn Suvi made way for practical Suvi when the alien scooped me up into his arms once more. I didn’t fight him. The sun was beginning to set and I was cold and he was warm and there was nothing else to be done.

He kept carrying me until long after the sun had set. I dozed off a little bit in his arms, not realizing just how much the day of walking in the sun had taken out of me until now. The rocking rhythm of his steps lulled me.

It was when those steps came to a jerking halt that I woke up once more. The alien practically vibrated with tension, staring at something in the distance. I twisted in his arms to follow his gaze. My breath snagged painfully in my throat when I registered the unmistakable shape in the distance.

On the top of a low, grassy hill ahead, bathed in moonlight, was a building.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Skallagrim

Araider warlord’s house.

It was not the palatial home from my memory with the white-haired male in the river. It was not the house I was searching for, the one that felt like it meant something. This house was completely unfamiliar to me, and yet I knew instinctively what it was. I knew, somehow, that the main building would have housed a raider warlord and his family, the smaller rooms at the back serving as barracks for his mercenary followers.

I also knew, without exactly understanding how, that the people who lived there would be viciously territorial and likely would not welcome us.

I did not care. I was a stone sky god and a Bohnebregg prince, and if they did not let me in to shelter Suvi for the night then they would die for their disobedience.

A prince?

The word pinged around in my head. I ignored it with a grunt, opened my wings, and flew to the building.

I hadn’t thought to warn Suvi first. She wouldn’t have understood me anyway. But she gasped and bucked in my arms when I lifted off, clutching at me in a panic. I held her fast and tried to soothe her, told her she had nothing to fear.

My attempt at calming her earned me a sharp tug at my scalp as she pulled on my hair like it was a set of reins she could use to force me into landing.

In flight, the distance passed beneath us in mere moments. I landed on my feet before the house on the hill. Instantly, Suvi began to try fighting her way out of my hold. I did not let her go. Instead, I held her even more tightly and used my wings to create a shield in front of her, even though a spear would be snapped in midair before it ever reached us, a hurled stone or blade warped and crushed by my power. If I wanted to, I could collapse the entire building on the heads of whichever warriors were inside with nothing but a flick of my claws. River help them all if even one came close to hurting her.

My voice boomed with stark authority.

“I demand passage into this hall. As your prince, I lay my rightful claim upon your sustenance and shelter for the night.”

The words slipped from my forked tongue without thought. As if I’d spoken them many times before.

“If you heed me, you will earn fresh metal. If you refuse, you will pay in both metal and in blood, as sure as my name is... is...”

Like a wind-battered candle in the dark, the words sputtered and went out.

Rolling my jaw in irritation, I gave up on whatever formalities I’d invoked and ploughed through the grass up the hill. The house had a large, pavilion-style room at the front, open to the air. Braided grass and cotton curtains hung threadbare and useless. There were no lights and I heard no sounds.

I kept Suvi wrapped up in my wings, even as she wiggled in defiance, using my power to slide open inner wooden doors. We passed through room after room.

There was no one here.

That was both good and bad. I wouldn’t have to protect Suvi from anyone.

But there wasn’t much of use here, either.

It looked like the place had been stripped bare. Like anything of value had been taken long ago and the structure abandoned. Even the empty house had not come away unscathed from whatever had happened – there were singed-looking holes in several of the walls, like something had blasted through and burned the walls while doing it. Ash and dust coated my feet and claws as I padded over the smooth, wooden floorboards.

Satisfied that no one was here, I finally let Suvi down in the largest central room of the house. She placed her boots down and looked around. I watched her in the gloom, observing her as she toured the perimeter of the room then ducked into another chamber. Like a shadow, I followed her.

She shook out an old blanket that she discovered in a dusty corner, then dropped it and jumped backward with a high-pitched yelp when something heavy landed on the floor with a thud. I quickly shoved her behind me, then bent to see what it was.

It was a leather belt with a stiff knife sheath attached. I pulled at the handle jutting out of the sheath and a long, curved metal knife slid out.

This style of knife, with its carved wooden handle inlaid with blue river stones and its deadly sharp blade, was deeply familiar to me. I stood, hefting the knife in one hand and holding the belt and sheath in the other. A deep, primal sense of satisfaction overtook me when I thought of putting the belt on. I had found it, I had claimed it, I would keep it. That was the way of things.

At least, I was fairly certain it was...

I sheathed the knife and moved to put the belt around my waist when my eye landed on Suvi and I halted. Something in my chest lurched, then went tight. She looked so small in this abandoned place. So vulnerable, with her soft skin and her little bandaged feet. Feet I hadn’t even known to be hurting until tonight.

She watched me with gleaming, guarded eyes as I moved towards her. Her breath caught, her pulse fluttering in her throat when I leaned down close and looped the belt around her waist. I felt her breathing against the scales of my neck and chest, so gentle and warm, and a claw of desire curled low in my belly.

“Here, little star,” I murmured, my voice sounding oddly husky to my own ears. “This is for you. Not that you’ll need it...” My eye flicked up to both of hers. “Because you have me.”

I did up the belt’s buckle with practised ease, muscle memory taking over where conscious memory failed. Something told me that this was a child’s knife and belt, because it settled easily enough around her soft abdomen, resting against the curve of her hips. It likely would not have even fit me. If it was a child’s, that would explain why it did not seem to have been found and plundered along with the main stores of weapons my instincts told me a house of this calibre should have contained.

Suvi had a pinched expression as she looked down at herself. She shook her head in dissatisfaction, as if uncomfortable with the weapon. As if she wanted me to take it back. She fiddled with the buckle and then gave up with a sharp sigh when she found that she could not undo it.