And...
She suffered a moment of doubt.
"I will return with Marduk's heart—or not at all," she'd pledged in her father's hall, and the great goddess Tiamat had heard her oath.
If she didn't bring his heart—preferably in a box—back to her father's court within the year, then she could never return.
Marduk turned, his dangerous amber eyes drifting in her direction as if he sensed danger.
The hard line of his jaw tightened, but it was the quirk of his brow that caught her attention. That hateful, smug, mocking smile that curled over his full mouth.
The mouth that had once kissed her until she was crying out with pleasure.
Those hands that had pinned her to the floor.
All of them belonged to the prince who'd spurned her and made her the laughingstock of her father's court.
Not just once, but twice now.
Suddenly all her doubts evaporated.
Burning with rage, Solveig loosed the arrow.
It arched toward him, glinting in the sunlight. Cascades of dwarven magic streamed from it, magic that could pierce any dreki psychic shield.
And Marduk caught it, his fist closing around the arrow shaft at the last second before his furious gaze jerked in her direction.
Ragnarök's fires.
Solveig reached for a second arrow, but it was too late, for the king turned too.
And while she was formidable enough to take on her scoundrel mate, she was no match for two powerful dreki warriors.
Instead, she fled.
There would be another day.
And another arrow with his name on it.
She was going to kill that lying, sweet-tongued bastard. And she was going to enjoy it.
The arrow came out of nowhere.
Marduk snatched it out of the air, alerted by its hiss. The point almost grazed his chest. The dreki inside him roared in fury, but then the scent of his assailant caught his attention.
"Assassin!" Rurik snarled, shoving past him, but Marduk caught his older brother's forearm.
He lifted the arrow to his nose and inhaled.
She smelled like summer storms and turbulent, rushing rivers. He’d never forget that scent. He’d recognize it anywhere. And as he lowered the arrow and raked his gaze over the shale-covered hillside, he couldn’t stop the dreki inside him from flaring its wings in excitement.
Solveig.
Princess. Warrior. Mate.
Would-be assassin.
Life had just become interesting again.
“What are you doing?” Rurik demanded.
"Relax. I know exactly who it is." He tossed the arrow in the air and caught it. The question was: What was he going to do about it?
Catch her, rasped his dreki.
If he closed his eyes, he could almost picture what it wanted him to do to her.
He could drop from the skies like a furious bolt of lightning and pin her to the ground. A second to shift back into mortal shape and then she’d be under him, wriggling and furious. A knife in her hand, no doubt, but he’d taken her weapons off her before.
You could kiss her again.
Aye. And she’d rip his throat out if he tried.
The day of their official mating had caught them both by surprise. The second the doors to her chamber closed behind him, she’d turned on him with fury for choosing her as his mate. He’d argued back—she was the one who’d dragged him back to her court in chains, forcing him to fulfill his past obligations—and one thing had led to another.
He’d kissed her.
She’d kissed him back.
And if Haakon, Tormund, and Bryn hadn’t burst into the chambers to rescue him, he’d have probably done a hell of a lot more to her.
He could still taste the furious caress of her mouth, and even though it had been months since he’d escaped her court—and their mating—she haunted him each and every night.
“Who is it?” Rurik demanded.
“Princess Solveig of the Sadu clan.”
“That's Solveig?"
“The one and only. Thank the goddess.”
Rurik frowned. “But why…? A direct attack like this means war. Surely Harald would not forsake our alliance? He’s never broken his word before. We need to capture her and discover what she’s doing in my territory—"
"No, no." Panic burst through him. He may not have fully explained the details to his brother. “I shall hunt her down and deal with it.”
That hint of scent wafted from the arrow again.
It stole through him like the kiss of the stormy wind off the Arctic. No delicate floral scent here. No pretty perfumes or scented oils.
But female in all the ways that mattered.
A scent both fierce and toe-curling, smoky in its allure.
A scent he'd breathed in once and could never escape. It had drifted within his lungs like a slow-acting poison, twining around his soul over the past three months. It stole into his dreams at night and left him hard and aching. It woke him sweating and spent, her name on his lips.
Solveig.
"No," Marduk repeated softly, as he watched the dark shape slip down the mountain like a wraith. "This has nothing to do with you—or her father."
A shiver of delight speared through him. He'd felt trapped this past month, bound by his familial vows to help his brother reform the Zini court.
But watching Solveig flee from him sent a thrill of excitement through him.
"You're not going alone. She tried to kill us," Rurik said.
He tossed his brother the arrow. "I'm fairly certain you were safe."
"Marduk."
He paused on the edge of the ledge and looked back, a wolfish grin on his face. "Trust me, brother. It was definitely me she was aiming for."
He couldn't entirely blame her.
His older brother had always been ruthless and cunning, and Marduk could see hints of it stealing over Rurik’s face. "Any particular reason why?"
“I may have left the lady before the mating vows were completed. She took offense to it.”
“May have? Why am I only hearing of this now? Her father, King Harald, is our only ally. You were supposed to bind them to our cause. If she kills you—"
"She won't kill me." Though his balls might be at risk.
Rurik pointedly gestured to the arrow. "This stinks of dwarven magic. It was made to pierce any spellcraft either of us could create. It was aimed at your heart."
"If she truly wanted me dead, I would never have sensed her coming. Solveig is a shadow in the night when she wants to be. Relax, brother. I know what this means. This was a warning. She wants my attention. She wants me to know she’s coming for me."
“That doesn’t make me feel any easier about this situation!”
“She won’t kill me.” He was certain of that, if nothing else. “She wants me to suffer, and death is too kind.”
“Marduk,” Rurik growled.
"Besides...." He spread his arms, prepared to launch himself into the skies in order to chase her. "You were the one who insisted I mate with her. If you hurt her, then you'll destroy your newly minted alliance with King Harald, and I know how important such an alliance is."
“Not more important than my brother.”
Marduk hesitated. Once upon a time, they were words he’d hungered to hear.