care for you.”
“He hates me. Lusts for me, yes, but isn’t that what men do?”
Brylee places a hand on my knee. “It’s not just that. He wondered how you were doing. Then his concentration went to the cuff.”
Of course it did.
“It’s to summon something. And we don’t know what that something is.”
“We think it’s magic,” Rohana voices. “Since the cuff already holds half the power of the sea next to Father’s, it could only be used for something like that.”
“Remember when Taysa mentioned Norse magic?” Nesrine asks across from me. “We looked it up in one of your books. It’s sorcery from the north. The Viking is from there.”
I look around the room at my sisters’ full attention on me. They know I have some sort of connection with him. That I let him go because I didn’t want him to die. I despise my poor judgment and weakness, which could’ve caused the death of everyone I love.
But never again.
The only person outside my sisters that I fully trusted was Tobias, and that was the way it would always stay. Not some burly man with a lewd mouth and secrets that he won’t reveal.
“So, we have a plan,” Isolde recites, her coral-colored eyes glancing between Atarah and Brylee but not me, which sparks caution. “Seduce the Viking.”
I begin to leap from the lounge. “Are you out—” Atarah’s hand shoots out to sit me back down.
“He cares for you,” she says with a squeeze to my thigh. “And as much as I loathe the idea of him touching you, we aren’t able to delve any deeper into his head. We thought with him being weak right now it would make it easy but something is blocking us.”
“The Norse magic,” Brylee adds. “He got through the veil. He knew where to find us. The seeress would have enough magic to pinpoint us, possibly a locator spell.”
“But what would Vikings want with the sea?” I challenge. “I’ve read that they are warriors and farmers. They don’t sail around like Tobias does. What would be the reason?”
“We don’t know,” Atarah states. “Maybe they made a deal for protection. We’ve seen these Highlanders mentioned in his head over a dozen times. They are a real threat to his people in his mind.”
“We know it’s not something you want to do,” Rohana utters softly. “We all don’t want you to submit to someone who has betrayed you.”
“I’d do it,” Nesrine claims with a smirk. “But he already knows all my tricks.”
I mean, what choice do I have?
“I’ll do it.” I receive a bunch of voices at one time, asking me if I’m sure and I don’t have to do it if I don’t feel comfortable, but I ignore them. “I’ll get the information.”
Then he dies.
The sound of soft snoring pulls me out of my deep sleep, followed by the thudding in my skull. I’m assuming the girls let me fall lifeless to the floor because I feel a large bump on the back of my head.
Slowly, I perch my weight on my right elbow, the moonlight streaming into the room to slightly illuminate it. The wheezing still continues, and I glance through the room only for my eyes to fall on a body laying on the floor with a pillow under their head. Slim legs, the hump of a curvy hip and flat torso, it describes all the sisters, but I’d know this one anywhere.
Davina sleeps peacefully a few feet away, and I blink a few times to make sure I’m not seeing things.
She’s still there.
My movement toward her rattles my chains, alluding to the fact that even though I was stabbed and possibly have a head injury, they still have me bound.
But she’s in my midst, and I’ve been waiting for this moment for weeks.
As slowly as I can and without gasping in pain from my shoulder, I crawl in her direction. The tile digs into my knees, but the light in the room guides me to her easily. I half-expect her to jerk to attention at my closeness, but she lays still, arm thrown over her midsection as her chest heaves in small breaths of air.
Reaching for her hair, I gradually and carefully pull out one of her bobby pins to work at my lock like she had prior. A few twists, loud cuss words in my head, and it pops open. The loud release stirs her, and since I know I don’t have a lot of time, I seize my opportunity.
Tucking my arm