Page 29 of The Kraken Bride

Ja. I would. And that was the reason I must be sure, beyond any doubts. “For love, I would absolutely give up one dream for another and move from Ashmorra to Krakenströnd—or, um, anywhere—forever.” Not just three years.

She studied me for a long while, and it wasn’t a pleasant sensation. When I verged on squirming, she set her cup aside with a hard thud. Her voice changed. Not louder, not softer, but heavier. “Let me tell you a story, girl.”

I leaned closer, eager. “Please do.” I wanted any information she offered.

With an expression as contradictory as the rest of her, somehow both calculated and innocuous, she linked her fingers over her middle. “Once upon a time, there was a peasant boy, born in the time of King Jokull, the primordial. A fearsome warrior with a beast stronger than any other. He kept our enemies in check, but we paid a price for it. We were his favorite food, you see.”

Bile seared my throat. Jokull ate his own people? No wonder Sebastian was willing to join with shifters to destroy the primordial.

The lady continued with this non-fairytale. “To keep the peace, his subjects sent a tribute every month. The oldest among the kraken factions. A gift meant to grace his table.”

Barbaric.

She nodded, as if agreeing with me, even though I’d never spoken a word. “But the primordial preferred younger flesh. He also liked to inflict heartache at the same time he satisfied his hunger. Added spice, he claimed.”

The room felt suddenly smaller, the air heavy with dismay. “Sebastian was sent to his table?”

She gave a clipped nod. “Days before a convergence, he and his parents were captured by the primordial. Not for tribute but dessert.” Her gaze moved beyond me, beyond the realm itself. “My son Aron, Sebastian’s father, died first. Birta, his mother, died after the convergence. No one but Sebastian and Jokull knows what unfolded before, during, and after, or how the rune drove the primordial from our lands before the goddess scooped him up and imprisoned him. But the event did not leave my boy unscarred. No longer was he my laughing, happy child, but a survivor with a mission. Protect us all.”

Silence stretched as I absorbed her words. Sebastian’s entire world had changed during a convergence. The rune had awakened and he’d used it to drive Jokull off. Then it must have faded.

But he’d done this before. Had paid the rune’s toll. And he’d chosen not to tell me what that toll was. Why? What didn’t he want me to know?

I didn’t have to wonder why he hadn’t killed the primordial back then. He’d been little more than a child. Though he must have wanted to do the deed. Oh, the horrors that had been heaped upon him. So badly I ached to hug the precious boy he’d been and comfort the strong man he’d become.

Now, I thought I understood his tight control. How he kept everyone at a distance and slid from warm to icy in a blink. He’d already lost so much. One mistake could cost him everything.

Lady Harpa dug the verbal knife deeper. “Now Jokull has come back and he’s growing stronger. But Sebastian isn’t thirteen-years-old anymore, fresh from torture. He’s a king who has fought to keep his crown for this very day. He must face the big bad again, and this time, the outcome will forever settle the fate of our kingdom.”

And I would have a hand in that outcome. Fear attempted to swamp me, but I beat it back. Sebastian had faith in me, or he wouldn’t have recruited me. I could do this. I could help him save his people.

His grandmother snapped her gaze to mine, her demeanor now as sharp as a blade. “Jokull is determined to steal the kraken throne. If he isn’t killed after the rune transfers to Sebastian, we won’t get another chance to take him down.”

“I have so many questions. How does the rune kill?”

“A special power. A strength beyond comprehension.”

Strength mattered to all berserkers, but perhaps it mattered a wee bit more to the kraken. “Who has it killed before?”

“Many others. Too many to list.”

Okay. “How can you be sure it will end Jokull when it only drove him out last time?”

“The wielder of the power matters. Sebastian is older now. Wiser. A lethal force in his own right.” Her irises churned. “My Basty will do what he must this time, no matter the cost.”

A shudder passed through me. There was that word again: cost. I’d known it would cost more than permission.

“You cannot win his heart.” She offered a sad smile. “Firebrands are a weakness.”

I flinched. “You’re wrong. A firebrand is a strength.” I’d witnessed the transformation Olyssa underwent when she met her firebrand.

“Are they? The most dangerous person in any room isn’t the one who steals your secrets, but the one who makes you want to give them away.” She drummed her fingers over the arms of her chair. “We shall see if you agree or disagree when the battle is over.”

A promise delivered like a death sentence, and I couldn’t wait to prove her wrong.

The sound of determined footsteps reached my ears a split second before Sebastian strode into the room, gorgeous in a sleek black tux.

One look at him, and his presence overshadowed everything else. Every part of me came to sudden, vivid life.