Page 55 of Night Fall
“We may need to use Erik as bait.”
“No!” She rushed to her feet. “How could you even suggest that? Erik…” She stared at him, a look of horror crossing her face. “You … Tell me you don’t agree with this.”
“My love—” He reached for her, but she smacked his hands away.
“I just got you back. I just got you back after so long. How could you? How could you want to do this when I may never see you again?”
“Mya, please—”
“No!” she screeched, and before he could move, she ran from the room.
NINETEEN
Mya felt Erik’s presence from the hallway. She wished she could stand to be away from him, but she couldn’t.
When he opened the door, all she could mutter was a weak, “Leave me alone,” even while her body begged for his touch, for him to sweep her into his arms and promise he wasn’t leaving.
Erik closed the door gently behind him. She could feel him at her back, and when he wrapped his arms around her, she sunk into his warmth as though he had pulled her out of the freezing cold.
His tone was so soft, so broken as he said, “Fagr skjaldmær min, please don’t run away from me. It breaks my heart to watch you walk away, or for you to tell me to leave you. I will never leave you. I promised I wouldn’t.”
The thought of him leaving cut through her like a knife of betrayal, and she spun out of his embrace. “That’s right, you promised, but that’s exactly what you’re wanting me to watch you do, leave.”
“My love—”
“Would you be okay if it was me? Would you be fine with letting me go out there and be the bait?” she snapped, fully knowing the answer.
His eyes narrowed and filled with fury.
“That’s what I thought.”
Erik took a deep breath, then tilted her chin up to his. “You’re right, fagr skjaldmær min, but there’s a difference between you and me. You do not have a locator spell that turns you into a giant beacon for the enemy.”
She bit her lip.
“My love, I dealt with them easily today, but that wasn’t even a quarter of Constance’s army. Who knows how much they’ve grown since I’ve been free. You heard Oaklynn. They had three days to find me. One day has already passed. They could find me anywhere: at your house, here. What happens if Greg and Daniella are here alone with Ruby?”
Mya shook her head, but the image of Greg and Dani fighting, of any possible danger coming to her niece, was still there. She averted her eyes from Erik’s and tried to steady her tone even though she felt like she was drowning. “Th-They could handle it. We could plan for it.”
Erik stroked her cheek, drawing her gaze. “Gregori is the same age I was when they buried me alive. I believe in him and his wife’s abilities, but when they would also have to protect their child … It’s selfish to put them through that, and you, my love, have never been selfish.”
Mya’s knees shook at the thought of losing her brother, or Dani and Ruby, but her heart was breaking at the thought of losing Erik again, of something going wrong, of him truly dying this time.
“I don’t want to lose you,” she whispered.
“You won’t,” he said as he tucked her hair behind her ear.
“How do you know? Why are you so calm? How are you so certain?” she asked, fisting his shirt in her hands.
“Because I was alone before. Now I have you. Even if I cannot believe in myself, I will always believe and have faith in you. Always.”
Mya grasped the strands of Erik’s hair as he kissed her, twirling them in her fists to try to keep him close to her. And he held her as if she were his whole world, the key to his entire being.
When they broke apart, she whispered, “I’m sorry for walking away from you, and for being so…” She looked down and mumbled, “difficult.”
He grasped her chin, leaving her no way to retreat from him, and said with a smile on his face, “You are not difficult. You were scared and hurt. I understand that. I understand you, and I always will.”
Erik rested his forehead against hers and for a moment they simply shared their breath.
