Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) by Gwen Rivers (free ebooks romance novels .TXT) 📗

“What do you mean?”

“She’s more than capable of taking care of herself.” Harmony rubs her temples. “She has friends and family and she knows this side of the Veil better than any of us.”

Her words are laced with bitterness. “Are you jealous of Nic?”

“No.”

He taps his nose. “I can smell the falsehood. You must believe it otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to say it. But your resentment is clear.” He drags a hand through his hair.

“I don’t like how she’s treated you in the past. Believe it or not though, I actually do like her. Though I know she doesn’t like me at all, through no fault of my own. You’d better release me before you jaunt off to her side. You might not kill me, but Nic is another matter.”

“So you can run back to Freya and tell her I tricked her? We don’t already have enough to deal with, what with defeating Underhill and halting Ragnarök.” Sister or no, she’d helped Freya abduct him.

“You can’t stop the end.” The seer glares at him as though he’s being intentionally oblivious. “The fact that we are standing here, together, should tell you that much. Freya wanted to keep you safe. Now that you are no longer in Asgard, Underhill will be after you.”

“Underhill has no power in the mortal realm.”

She casts him a pitying look. “If you believe that then you really are mad, just like the gods told me you were.”

Harmony moves to stride away but before she can, he grips her arm. Her gaze goes from it to him and back.

“Stay with me,” he all but begs. If she really wishes to leave, he’ll have no choice but to let her go.

Her dark gaze is guarded. “Why should I?”

“So we can get to know one another.” After releasing his hold, he lowers himself onto a fallen tree. “Tell me about how you came to be disguised as a fey?”

She glances away. “It was Freya who rescued me from the cave. She helped deliver me. If she hadn’t shown up, I probably would have died.”

Aiden closes his eyes and imagines the cave where his life had been forever altered. His father chained to the slab, the serpent with the dripping venom and his mother holding a bowl. Never able to sleep or eat…and pregnant. “Why would Mother stay there?”

A muscle jumps in her jaw. “She refused to leave him, not even long enough to give birth. The ground shook constantly while she was in labor, until Freya arrived and ordered one of her minions to hold the bowl until I was born. She couldn’t hold the bowl and me at the same time so she told Freya to take me with her.”

Aiden reaches out a hand and covers hers with his own. Squeezes once. He knows what it’s like to have his mother turn her back on him. To deem him unimportant. But he had killed his little brother, was possessed by the wild spirit of the wolf.

Harmony had been an innocent newborn babe.

Her purple hand turns over until she is clasping at his with desperate strength.

“So Freya took you in?”

She nods once. “At first, but there was always the worry that the other gods would find out who I was and where I’d come from.”

No wonder she was so loyal to the goddess. The curse of their line, to forever demonstrate loyalty to those who didn’t deserve it. Sigyn to Loki, Aiden to Nicneven, Harmony to Freya.

“How did you come to be in Wardon’s court?”

She sinks down onto the log beside him. “Freya hid me in the Seelie Court. She changed my appearance so I would look like the fey family who’d taken me in. Until my drowning accident, when I started to see the future. It wasn’t just from the accident. My goddess powers had started to manifest, making my ability to see clearer. Word of my gift spread. Then Wardon brought me into his household.” She looks away.

Wardon, the former Master of the Waves. He’d been power-hungry and arrogant, but also a visionary. “Did he hurt you?”

She doesn’t meet his gaze. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

He closes his eyes. All this time, he’s had a sister out in the world, unprotected and vulnerable.

Pack, his wolf whispers.

“You knew who I was? What I was to you? Why did you never come and find me?”

Her dark gaze holds his. “All I knew of you were the stories. The mad wolf who’d shredded his little brother. Freya told me it was safer to keep my true identity from you.”

He swallows. “Do you still fear me?”

She studies him intently. “I’ve never feared you, Aiden. But I can’t say I trust you, either.”

He stands and offers her a hand up. This time, she takes it. “I’ll gain your trust. And you can regain mine. If you stay with me.”

She searches his face, her expression yearning. “I can’t see your future anymore.”

He tilts his head. “Why?”

“Sometimes, when someone’s destiny is too close to my own, I can’t see them anymore. I’m sorry, I’m not going to be much help.”

“You’re going to be my family.” He squeezes her shoulder. “You and Nic. That’s more than I’ve had in a lifetime. For the first time in forever, I am looking forward to the future. I don’t need to know what it holds.”

She smiles then, and it’s a real smile, genuine. “Come on then. Let’s go find your spoiled, selfish mate.”

Road Trip

“Are you ready to tell me where we’re going?” I kvetch from the backseat. We’ve been on the road for hours. I’m hungry, cold, tired. Heartbreak over Astrid burns like acid in my gut.

Plus, I’m awfully sick of looking at the back of their heads.

“Somewhere safe,” Chloe says.

“The farm was safe,” I grumble.

“Right up until the FBI found out about it,” Angrboda quips.

I let out a breath. “And couldn’t you just ensorcell all the humans into letting me go instead of chowing down on them?”

“Agent Hanson is too strong-willed.