Fantasyland 01 Wildest Dreams (21 page)

I nodded, suddenly liking the idea (very
much) of “getting away home” with my husband. That meant making out
(or better) so I accepted the cloak Frey threw over my shoulders
and fastened it at my neck as I moved to Ulysses, Frederick and
Laurel to give them all hugs and cheek kisses, thanking them for
teaching me tuble and spending time with me.

“Until you return, your grace,” Frederick
said on a squeeze during our hug.

“It was a pleasure, Winter Princess,” Laurel
muttered, holding onto my upper arms and smiling at me.

“Honored to do it and will be honored when
we do it again, Princess Finnie,” Ulysses murmured in my ear while
proving his arms were indeed very strong for he squeezed the breath
right out of me.

When I pulled away, I smiled into his eyes
and wondered if I’d be back this way before I went home. Then I
looked through the three of them and hoped I would. I didn’t know
them well, just like everyone I’d said farewell to that day in the
village, but everything I knew I liked so it would be cool to know
more.

Frey came around the table and claimed me
and I called good-byes and see-you-laters to Thaddeus and Ruben as
I yanked on my gloves. Thaddeus grunted his good-bye, still clearly
peeved. Ruben smiled at me and gave a good-bye flick of his hand,
still not peeved at all.

I wrapped the fingers of both my hands
around Frey’s bicep (or kinda did, they didn’t get anywhere near
going all the way around) and leaned into him as he led us out of
the pub and down the snow covered ground toward where Tyr was
waiting.

“So,” I started, “do you really know how to
bottom deal, stack the deck, false shuffle and all of that?”

“Yes,” Frey answered and my head snapped
back to look up at him.

“Really?” I asked.

He looked down at me and grinned. “Yes.”

“Will you teach me?”

Without hesitation, he repeated, “Yes.”

“Awesome,” I breathed, his grin became a
smile through which he chuckled and then he disengaged my hands
from his arm when he moved it to slide around my shoulders and pull
me to his body.

I slid both my arms around his middle and
walked semi-sideways as I pressed my cheek to his chest.

It had been a good day, a good night and it
had been six good weeks (mostly).

And it kept getting better.

I sighed as Tyr came into view wondering
how much better tonight might get (and hoping it got a
whole
lot better) then my step
stuttered when I felt Frey’s body suddenly get tight at my
side.

Then, in a flash, he flung me away from him.
I went flying and landed against Tyr who had shifted quickly to the
side in a way that it seemed like he was breaking my fall.

But even as I reeled, I saw it.

I saw.

I
saw
.

Lightning fast, Frey’s hand went to his
knife on his belt, his knees bent and his arm swung overhanded,
launching the knife down the walk.

And I saw that knife lodge right in a man’s
throat.

I stared at the man as he fell backward,
hands lifting to his neck, blood spurting from the knife and
rushing down to stain his sweater but I sensed more movement,
looked back and saw Frey had his other knife out, a man was
approaching him, blade drawn. Frey’s hand snaked out and wrapped
around the man’s wrist that was holding the knife. Frey whirled him
and yanked him back against his body and, without hesitation, on
another hideous gush of blood, Frey sliced open his throat.

Saliva filled my mouth as the air hollowed
out of my lungs and I pressed back hard against Tyr.

Then I heard running footsteps and saw
another flying knife as Thad went down to a knee and released one
in what appeared to be my direction. My heard jerked around to see
a man who had been rounding Tyr and nearing me drop to his knees,
Thad’s knife in the side of his neck.

Then I whirled immediately the other way as
I heard scuffling feet and I saw Ruben had hold of yet another man,
one arm wrapped around the man’s chest, pinning him to Ruben, Ruben
holding his own knife close to the man’s throat. The man in Ruben’s
hold was pressing back to get away from the knife and grunting with
the effort even as his feet shuffled underneath him but only his
toes were touching the snow because Ruben held him off the
ground.

I stood frozen, every inch of me, including
my mind and my lungs… but not my heart.

My heart was hammering painfully in my
chest.

Tyr was pressing his bulk against my back
which was a good because if he didn’t, there was a good chance I
would pass out.

“We saw them follow you out of the pub,”
Thad explained, striding forward casually and bending over to yank
the knife out of the not quite dead man lying in the snow not three
feet away from me. And when he did, the man’s body jerked as he
made a horrid gurgling noise and a new flood of blood poured out of
the wound.

Another surge of saliva filled my mouth at
the sight but Thad completely ignored him as he straightened and
turned to Frey.

“They’ve had eyes on you and Princess Finnie
all night,” Ruben put in.

“Felt them, saw them, not skilled, unwise
but interesting,” Frey muttered distractedly then jerked his chin
at Ruben. “Find out what he knows and I’ll want to know everything
he says the minute you break him.” Ruben grinned in a very scary
way that told an equally frightening tale about the new activities
he’d be engaged in that night, activities he appeared to be
anticipating with great relish but Frey was already looking to
Thad. “Go to the constable, explain. Go to the men, I want four at
the cabin on patrol outside. All night. Do it now but not in that
order. Finnie and I are away home. Tell the men we leave for
Fyngaard at dawn, we’ll need a guard. And send someone to the
king.”

Thad nodded, turned and disappeared in the
shadows.

Ruben was already yanking the still
struggling man away and he too disappeared in the shadows.

I stood still frozen but my head swiveled
woodenly to the side as Frey walked calmly to the dead man to
collect his knife, putting his boot to the base of his neck to do
so.

He sheathed it after wiping the blood off by
stabbing it twice into the snow.

I swallowed back a sudden surge of vomit and
my head got light.

Tyr whinnied and suddenly I was caught in
Frey’s strong arm. He mounted his steed at the same time dragging
me with him. Then I stared blankly ahead of me as Frey touched his
heels to Tyr’s flanks and we took off at a full gallop.

Frey held me close with his arm around me,
his torso pressed into my back so we were both leaning over Tyr as
we cleared the town and the darkness of the forest which was shot
by the bright gray of moonlight on snow surrounded us.

My husband just killed two men.

Right in front of me.

And one of his men killed a man.

Right beside me.

And they didn’t pause, check for pulses,
call police or anything.

And they were good at killing. Very good.
Remarkably skilled. Unbelievably. They wasted no time, they didn’t
hesitate, they didn’t blink and they didn’t even get winded or
break a sweat.

They’d done it before. Often.

I started trembling but not with the cold
that bit at my cheeks and ears.

It was fear. Pure fear the like I’d never
felt in my life.

I closed my eyes tight and my trembling tore
through me deeper, turning to shakes.

Frey felt it.

“Wee Finnie, it’s all right,” Frey whispered
in my ear, “you’re safe, my winter bride.”

I opened my eyes for two reasons. One,
because I saw the remembered and probably never to be forgotten
vision of the man’s body jump and his blood flood when Thad
unceremoniously yanked his knife out of his neck and two, because I
didn’t feel safe.

Not at all.

What I did feel safe was saying that Frey
definitely had enemies. Four men had come at him.

Four.

And he’d dispatched them without a thought
and left them dead or dying in the snow of a sweet, quiet, winter
village that had two awesome waterwheels and he did this without a
second glance.

Oh God.

At a gallop and using Frey’s shortcut, we
were home in five minutes. Frey took Tyr right to the door,
dismounted the minute Tyr came to a stop and hauled me off the
horse. He held my hand as he guided me to and through the front
door but used my hand to position my back against the wall right at
its side.

“Stay here, wee one,” he muttered then I
watched blankly as he moved about the room, the bathroom space, he
climbed to the loft and down again then moved through the kitchen,
out through the backdoor then back through the kitchen.

Then he came to me.

I automatically tipped my head back when he
got close and I stood there stupidly as his big hand curled around
the side of my neck and his mouth came to my forehead for a light
touch.

Then his eyes caught mine.

“I need to stall Tyr and my men will be here
soon. I’ll need to speak with them when they arrive. Feed the
fires, wee one, I’ll meet you in our bed.”

Then before I could open my mouth to make a
noise, he was gone.

I stood against the wall staring into the
room. Then I lifted my hands and saw they were shaking, even in the
weak light of the dying fires I saw them shaking.

Shaking so bad it was out-of-control.

I closed my eyes tight for a moment before I
opened them and wandered to the fire, stoking and feeding it then
putting the grate to and turning to the other one. Once finished
with the second one, I fed a few logs to the kitchen stove then I
took off my boots and, still clothed, I climbed to the loft and fed
the fire up there too. Then I lay down on the bed, over the covers,
back to the railing and pulled a pillow to my chest and held it
tight.

Faster than I would have expected, I heard
the front door open and close meaning Frey had come back and my
body tensed.

I didn’t know what to do, what to think.

This world might have elves, animals that
could talk to you and trees that had glitter bark but it also had
men who could take a life without hesitation and without even the
barest hint of remorse.

And my husband was one of them.

Thinking of the Frey who had been mine for
the last three days, my only thought was, how could that be?

Thinking of the Frey I had first met when I
came to this world, I knew the answer.

I felt his presence hit the loft then I felt
it hit the bed.

Then I heard his voice come at me softly,
“Finnie, you’ve not changed.”

And that was when I felt his light touch
pulling my hair off my shoulder.

So that was when I moved, swiftly rolling
away from him and gaining my knees, I shuffled back to the end of
the bed, pillow still held tight to my chest.

“I don’t… don’t…” I shook my head, “I don’t
think I want you touching me, Frey.”

He was on his knees too, but settled back on
his heels, and his eyes were on me.

He studied me for a moment before, still
speaking softly, he asked, “What’s this, wee one?”

I didn’t delay in replying. “You killed two
men tonight.”

He moved as if to come toward me and I
shuffled back another foot, my feet clearing the edge of the bed
and he stopped so I did too.

“Finnie –”

“
You didn’t blink,” I cut him off. “You
didn’t… you didn’t…” I shook my head and my throat clogged so I
swallowed and whispered, “You didn’t even
blink.
”

“Wife –”

“No,” I shook my head again, then closed my
eyes tight and looked away before opening them and looking back,
“No. I… I don’t know what you’ve done to get enemies like that but
I can guess, considering you killed them without hesitation and
then rode away while their warm blood still melted the snow, and, I
can’t say… I can’t even think… I don’t know… I don’t know but I
don’t think I want anything to do with a life like that.”

“Finnie, come here,” he ordered, extending
an arm to me.

“No,” I shook my head, “no way, Frey. I’m
sorry but no freaking way.”

“Finnie, come here,” he repeated and I shook
my head. He dropped his hand but held my eyes and said gently, “My
winter bride, those weren’t my enemies.”

“And whose were they?” I fired back.
“Thad’s?”

“
No,” he replied carefully,
“
yours.
”

My mouth dropped open and I felt my eyes get
wide.

Then I breathed, “What?”

“Come here,” he ordered quietly.

I stayed still and unmoving.

“Love, come here.”

“
They’re… they’re…” I stared in his face,
“they’re
mine?
”

Oh God. If that was true, Sjofn
totally
left a lot out of her note.
A
lot.

“Fin –” he started but that was when I lost
it.

And I lost it by throwing down the pillow
and shrieking, “
What did I do to make enemies who would come at me with
knives?
”

I barely got out the last word when Frey
moved, his arm darting out, fingers wrapping around my wrist, he
yanked me so I fell forward then he shifted, whipping an arm around
my waist and one down my legs to haul them out in front of me, my
bottom swung out, I landed in his lap and his arms were around me
before I could even twitch.

I twisted to face him, my head tipping back
and I whispered, “Frey, I –”

“
You have been sharing my bed for five
nights now, that’s what you’ve been doing, my Winter Princess,”
Frey finished for me and I blinked up at him. “And your uncle and,
perhaps, spies from dozens of different Houses would know
this.”