Chapter 39

Mory hissed at the pain as the burn of the medicine sank in while Haldir dabbed it on with a cloth. "That hurts like a bitch."

Even wearing gloves during her sword training, Mory's palms were chapped with open sores. As he softly blew across her wounds, Mory chuckled at the man drying her hands.

He sounded more like a mother than a Viking as he swatted at the air around her fingers. "Is that better?"

"Mmm-hmm. Her lips twisted as she nodded and inspected his work. "Not too shabby. I would have let you work under me."

She held her palms before her as Haldir rubbed shampoo between his hands. "So, tell me why I have to learn to use a sword anyway. I'm not going to be expected to fight, am I?"

He moved around her, and once she was between his thighs, he scrubbed at her hair. "Because even though you can't die doesn't mean some creature's not going to try to find out for sure if it's true. You have to be able to defend yourself when the time comes."

She smiled as he worked his way into the crook of her neck to kiss her. "Isn't that what I have you for?"

His fingers closed around the hair he was washing and yanked until she was looking at him and he kissed her forehead "Absolutely."

He grabbed the pitcher from the wall beside him and submerged it. "You know, you did quite well for never holding a sword before."

The water poured over her, and she pushed it from her eyes. "Did I? I felt like an asshole with all those soldiers watching me."

His hands took turns milking the water from her hair as he worked downward. "There aren't many women here skilled in fighting. Trust me, they were watching in awe, not to judge you."

Her eyes moved over the bathroom, and she sighed as the firelight warmed her wet skin. "I don't know what I was expecting when Bose told me about this place. But for some reason, I thought I'd find women flying around on broomsticks with their monkeys, and girls in red ruby shoes dancing down a yellow road."

Haldir's raspy chuckle blew over her shoulder. "Oh, so you did meet Tessa?"

She smacked his knee. "Stop. I love her; she's just fantastic."

He rubbed at her shoulders. "Yes, she is. I'm glad you two got on so well. She can be a difficult person to get close to. She doesn't trust many people and is respectful to even fewer. She requires a lot of attention."

Mory's head shook, and he sensed anger in her, and when she asked – "Is that why you and Teddy don't get along very well?" – his hands froze in place on her skin.

His fingers curled around the sides of the tub, and water dripped down over Mory as he stood. "It's a long story, Morana. And I don't care to go into it tonight."

Mory watched as his muscular, pale-skinned ass wiggled and rippled while he walked to the vanity for towels, and she pulled herself up to the side as he dried himself. "I like long stories, so go on."

"You know how families can be." Watching him rub the towel over his head, Mory raised her eyebrow to him, and when he caught it, he tossed it to the floor. "There were two of them, and one of me, and I had no clue what I was doing. I did the best I could, but it wasn't enough."

Her head shook, and her lips curled under as she rolled her eyes at the visions. "Or was it because of what happened with Tessa's husband?"

He pulled his boxers up over his ass then grabbed his shirt from the chair. "I'm no fan of those two idiots, but things were already bad between us before any of that happened."

Mory's lips pushed together as she wagged her finger at him. "I was talking about the other one. The one she killed."

Like he'd been punched in his gut, Haldir leaned over and clutched at his knees to catch his breath again. And when he stood, he was teary-eyed, and his hand trembled as he wiped his face. "So, I guess immortality wasn't the only gift the gods saw fit to give you."

Her shoulder lifted, and she shook her head no. "I'm not sure it was me. I think she did it. As soon as she fell asleep, she showed me everything. I saw them dancing when she was just a little girl, saw her mother die, saw her losing her baby, saw those fuckers rap…" Her hand waved off Tessa's memory before she slapped her hand to her mouth. "It was like I was right there going through it with her. It was just"— she struggled to keep her lips from quivering as she blinked at the ceiling — "I felt it all with her, and it was just so fucking awful."

His fingertips rubbed at his forehead as he sat on the bench in front of the tub. "Are you sure you want to know all the ugly parts, Morana. Once you know a thing, it can't be undone, and you'll not look the same at anyone you've met once you do. Not even me."

Both her hands rested on the edge of the tub, and she nodded. "I have to know. Please tell me that all that pain wasn't for nothing."

His fingertips rubbed at hers. "Yes. Teddy has never been very happy with me because of Tessa. Not even before their parents died. She and I are" — he sighed as he shook his head at how creepy it sounded — "we were bound together. I saw it the day she was born, and I looked into her eyes. I've been at her side nearly every day since." Both his hands flipped up. "I have no blood ties to her, and I don't even really understand what the hell kind of thing she is." His fingertips pointed into the center of his chest. "But in here, she's mine. Like I gave birth to her myself, or like someone just ripped my soul in two and slapped it in her body. I don't know how else to explain it."

His finger swirled around the air between them. "She's the most dangerous sort of thing. She can burn the world down with her sheer will and charm the pants off everyone she meets with just a smell of her. I've seen her do it." The finger moved back and forth like a windshield wiper. "But her magic holds no sway over me. It never has. I don't smell anything except that cinnamon-flavored shit she wears all the time, and her fires never burn me." He tapped at his temple. "But here. She shows me things just like she did you." And he understood then how they were all woven together as a family as his head shook at her. "You didn't smell her, did you? I'm told it's like strawberries."

Her eyes narrowed to him as she thought about how nearly everyone she met adored Tessa, no matter how rude she was. "No. Nothing."

He wiped his hand with his mouth, and he nodded. "She remembers nothing. Not really. Sometimes little blips escape for just a moment. Only long enough to torture her. Teddy cast a spell on her to take her memories of Rafik and her baby away, but he messed it up. Her mind's not been quite right since then. It's like she's got no love or happiness to her at all. Only when she's causing pain or humming that fucking song."

She grabbed the towel from him and dabbed at her face. "Why doesn't he just take it back? She deserves to know the truth about her own goddamn life."

"He can't." Haldir pulled his shirt over his head and rocked forward to pull it down his back. "In the beginning, he just wouldn't. He was convinced his way was best; that he knew her best. But every day was worse than the last until she sank a knife in her own fucking heart."

He moved the bench back and turned to face her. "When I brought her here, and when he died, the spell should have been broken. As strong a warlock as Teddy is, Tessa is three times stronger. She might be the strongest of them all if she were made whole. It's her own magic that keeps the spell in place now, not Teddy's. He couldn't take it back if he wanted to." His finger poked her arm as he shook his head. "And he doesn't want to. He was trying to save her, to give her the family that was stolen from her. He's dug into the lies he's told himself all these years, and he won't be reasoned with. Believe me, I've tried."

He pushed her hair away from her cheek, and his thumb swiped at her tears. "The one thing I know to be true after living with these people all this time is that every wrong we do returns to us times three. I pity Teddy when that day finally comes."

Like he explained it to her, a pressure built in her chest where her wound once sat, and she rubbed at it with her fingers. Tessa's memories lived there now, and Mory was saying the words before she even could think it. "I want to live by the sea with her."

It was as if someone else spoke through her, and when she looked at Haldir, the way he offered her a tight-lipped grin let her know he understood. "I guess we bonded or whatever. I just want to be with her, she needs me."

His hands cupped her face, and he nodded. "I know. We'll leave once the King returns. I need to see him first."