Weaving Fate - Nora Ash Page 0,102

me?

Then the full impact of his words set in and sorrow flooded my chest. He thought I would never love him, and how could I blame him? I’d thought the same thing, wallowing in the pain and longing of my bonds to Saga and Magni. Even Bjarni… I’d thought I couldn’t love him, when the truth was right there, staring me in the face.

I’d been so stupid. So goddamn, inexcusably stupid.

“I love you,” I whispered, wiping at the tears that started trickling from the corners of my eyes. “You’re every bit my mate, every bit a part of my soul. There is no difference in how much I need each one of you, Modi. How could you think I would run and leave you to die? You’re my mate. My life.”

He stared up at me, the expression in his blue eyes inscrutable, but I felt the roil of his emotions in our bond. “How? How can you love me? I have felt your anguish since the day I put my mark on your neck. Your regret.”

“As I have felt yours,” I said softly, cupping his cheek with my now-damp hand. “Do you love me, Modi?”

His gaze didn’t waver from mine as the silence stretched between us. Finally, he said, “I would die for you a thousand times over, Annabel. I did not choose to love you. Fate forced me to. But I cannot deny it. Not anymore.”

I cracked a smile at the regretful notion to his confession of love. “That’s what every girl wants to hear.”

He snorted a laugh that devolved into another cough.

“I need to heal you,” I said, frowning down at his bloodied body, my focus switching back to the present.

“You do not have the strength,” he murmured, eyelids closing halfway. “I just need… to rest for a little while.”

“We don’t have time for rest.” The rumble of Bjarni’s voice made me look up. My blond mate stood behind me, the golden rope I’d untied from Loki’s wrists in his hand, now looped more loosely around the dark god’s neck. They both looked as exhausted as Modi and me.

“Help her,” Bjarni said, nudging his father toward me before he slid the rope off his neck, though he stayed alert.

“Isn’t it enough that I saved the day and killed the bloody dragon?” Loki muttered. But—somewhat to my surprise—he knelt by my side and put his hand on my nape. His magic filled me again, far less intense but still unpleasant.

I suppressed the shudder of his presence inside of me and grasped on to his offered power, directing it through my own before I let it spill into Modi’s broken body.

Modi’s injury was deep and ran the length of his spine, and it took me the better part of an hour to heal it enough so that he could sit up.

“That is enough, Anna,” he said, grasping the hand I’d pushed against his chest and lifting it off, separating my magic from his wound.

I looked him over, squinting to focus on his face when white dots danced in front of my eyes.

“You have used too much of your energy, mate,” he murmured, pressing my hand to his lips before he stroked my cheek. When our eyes met, the emotion I saw dancing in his made my heart stutter.

Fate might have forced it, but yes, he did love me. We’d both been such fools.

“Her energy?” Loki muttered, letting his hand fall from my neck to the ground. His voice was raw, exhaustion painting every syllable.

I twisted to look up, catching Bjarni’s gaze. I’d felt his steadfast presence throughout the healing process, his nearness strengthening me.

“Bjarni, I… I’m so sorry.”

He cocked his head. “Don’t be.”

“No, I am. And I should be. I’ve been so wrapped up in my pain I didn’t allow myself to feel anything else. I love you too. I should have been able to tell you that from the first moment.”

He cracked a smile and reached down, pulling me to my feet and into his chest. “I know. Now come—we’ve slayed the dragon. It’s time to save some damsels in distress, hmm?”

“I am so telling Saga you called him a damsel,” Modi said, wincing as he pushed himself to his feet. “I am sure he will love it.”

Thirty-Five

Grim

Three weeks.

It had been three weeks less a day since Bjarni left with the girl and Magni’s brother, and all we had discovered in their absence was that Mimir wasn’t in Valhalla and Freya had vanished from Folkvangr.

In the first few days,