Page 172 of Shadow Queen
Mikael shook with fury. He couldn’t stand to watch but he couldn’t look away. At last they broke, and Salara stepped back.
Then the Bear brought his hand up to her cheek again. That hand—he would lose that hand. And just when Mikael thought that was the end, the Bear pulled her closer and dropped his head to kiss her.
And what was most gutting—she let him. He backed her toward the bed, their mouths still together, and he laid her onto the mattress.
Mikael pushed out a breath through his teeth. There was no containing his rage. In the room where she slept, in the night, the Bear would come to her. And she would take him.
The vision faded to dark, a small mercy, and they stood in the emptiness once again.
“When?” Mikael breathed to the seer, who stood behind him. “When does this happen?”
“When she is still young and beautiful.”
Mikael was quiet for a moment, taking in all the seer had shown him. “Are there any more?” he asked.
“Not new.”
Mikael opened his eyes, and he was in the daylit temple of Odepeth once more. He stood, forcing his breath to calm and trying to harden his heart. “The other visions of the Bear… of my fate?” he asked.
The seer drew his brows together in regret. “As it always is, and always will be. Unchanged.”
So that was it. The Bear would take his head.
Still.
And his wife.
“Salar,” the seer said. “Salara has asked that I send word if I receive another vision.”
“You won’t,” he said, and the seer bowed his head. Then he left the way he had come.
Norah came down the stairs just as Mikael stepped inside the double doors of the castle. It was late, and she hadn’t heard his arrival. Soren had told her he’d gone to the seer, and she was desperate for news.
“Husband,” she said as she crossed the floor to him. She wanted to tell him about Adrian’s son and that she’d received the good news that they expected the boy to survive. But she could see torment on his face, silencing any news. The weight in her stomach grew. “Are you well?” He didn’t look well.
He didn’t answer.
“What did the seer show you?” she asked.
He still didn’t answer, and that scared her. It hadn’t been good news. She forced out an even breath. He would need her. He would need her reassurance. They walked toward their chamber in silence. She tried to stretch the tension out of her neck as she walked, but she knew nothing could take that away.
Suddenly, he stopped, turning and looming over her. “Has the Bear come to you in the night?” he asked.
His question came unexpectedly. “What?”
“Have you taken him to your bed?”
Where was this coming from? “Of course not!”
“Then it’s still to come.”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“I saw you,” he seethed.
“Mikael,” she breathed, “this is madness.”
He grimaced as he reached up and ran his fingers along her cheek. Then in a startling move, he clasped the base of her jaw and forced her still to look at him. Not painfully, but with an unnecessary strength. “Have you kissed him since we’ve been wed?”
