Sky in the Deep(25)

I’d wondered what could break the bond between an Aska and his clansmen and cause him to turn against his people. What could make him leave his own family behind. I’d always thought of Iri as strong. Wise. But my brother was a fool. He’d given us up for a Riki girl. And if Iri could do a thing like that, then what was I doing here? I’d followed him into the forest. I’d gone after him. Risked everything. For this.

He hadn’t just become one of them. Iri was in love with one of them.

“What are you doing out here?”

A Riki man stood at the entrance of the ritual house, his hand gripped around the handle of his axe. Snowflakes fell, catching in his red beard, and I looked down at the basket toppled over at my feet.

“What are you doing out here, Aska?” he snarled.

I crouched down to pick up the dishes and bones, setting them back into the basket carefully. His boots crunched in the snow, coming toward me. I stood, holding the basket between us. When he took another step, I had to step backward.

He looked down to the buttons on my dress. “Didn’t know there was a lady under that armor vest.”

I tried to step around him but he moved, blocking me. My eyes landed on the knife at his hip.

“If I’d known, maybe I would have bought you myself.” He smiled as his fingers tightened around the axe handle. “Maybe Fiske would take a good price for you.”

He dropped his face next to mine and when I felt his hot breath on my skin, I reached, snatching the knife from its sheath and finding his neck with its cold edge. I pressed the tip of the blade beneath his jaw and looked him in the eye, the twitching in my body slowing. It brought me back to the fight that filled me. I listened to the sound of his breath bursting in and out in surprise and pushed the blade a little farther.

The amusement in his eyes was gone, his hands going up and his body stiffening against the knife. Calm flooded into every dark place within me. I wanted to press until the soft skin gave way to the blade. Until I felt the warmth of his blood on my numb skin. I wanted to feel anything but the betrayal of my brother. This is where I belonged. Spilling Riki blood. And Iri was Riki now.

“Aska.” My eyes snapped up to see Fiske standing in the archway of the ritual house. His eyes moved from the man to me and back again. He stalked toward us.

The Riki’s eyes were boring into me, his breaths still heavy. He clenched his teeth, his face turning red as Fiske reached us. His hand clamped down hard onto my arm, and he wrenched the knife from my grip. He dropped it to the ground before he yanked me toward the trees.





SIXTEEN


I stumbled, trying to keep up with him, but he didn’t slow. Fiske’s grip on my arm sent a shooting pain into my shoulder, making me dizzy. When we were far enough into the forest that I could no longer see the ritual house, he stopped, releasing me.

“Do you want to die? Stay away from the other Riki.”

I held my arm to my side, glaring at him. “If you wanted me to stay away from them, why did you make me come here?”

He looked back the way we came, his voice dropping lower. “What was the Tala saying to you?”

I clenched my teeth. “She was admiring what you did to my face. I should have taken off my dress and let her see the rest of your work.”

He flinched at the words, moving a step back. “If you don’t start acting like a dyr, you’re going to keep drawing attention to yourself. To both of us.”

“What do you mean act like a dyr?” I picked up the collar around my neck and let it drop back down against my skin. “I am a dyr. I won’t pretend to like it. If you want to punish me so I don’t embarrass you, you can drag me back to the ritual house by my hair and beat me to death. I’m sure your clansmen would enjoy it. It would be a better end for me than knowing I’d spent the entire winter shining a Riki’s armor of my clansmen’s blood because my brother is a fool,” I whispered hoarsely, my chest rising and falling beneath the fit of the dress.

He glared at me, his pulse moving at his neck where the stroke of ritual blood was dried on his skin. The blue of his eyes glinted in the faint light. “You want to go?” He launched me toward the trees. “Go!”

I turned in a circle, nothing but snow-covered trees as far as I could see.

The building fury in the center of my chest exploded and I shoved into his chest with my fists. He didn’t budge. I hit him again, harder, and he snatched my wrists up with both hands, holding me before him as I tried to wrench free.

“I shouldn’t have listened to Iri,” he muttered. “His concern for you is going to get him killed.”

“So be it. He’s betrayed me and dishonored the Aska. He deserves to die.” I spat.

His face changed, a flash of darkness igniting in his eyes. His fingers tightened around my wrist as he pushed me back, pinning me to a tree. His axe slid from its sheath smoothly before the cold blade pressed to my throat.

“Threaten my family again and I will kill you,” he breathed. “I’ll kill you and then I’ll wait for the thaw. I’ll go down to the fjord and kill your father while he sleeps.”

My eyes widened, my mouth dropping open. I looked into his face, trying to measure the hatred there. But it was something else. Something more ferocious than hate.

It was love. For Iri.

“Iri would never forgive you,” I grunted.