Page 97 of Lost in the Dark
His mouth worked, eyes wide with shock. “How…”
“I told you,” she said, “we could save each other.”
“Anna. I can’t…”
“You don’t have to. This is for me, Enulf.” Using her heel, she rolled Rathbytten all the way onto his back—the deadliest position for one struggling to breathe. She stepped onto his chest—that broad chest she’d once thought spoke of safety and strength—and pressed her slipper into the tusk in his throat.
As he wheezed, she let her lips curve upward—and she unfastened the necklace.
Placing one hand on his neck, she leaned close, thrilling at how the breath rattled in his lungs. “Hold my heart, you asked,” she said, gripping his chin and shoving the damned necklace into his gaping mouth. She planted both hands over his mouth, smiled as his face began to match the blue of his beard. “You gave this to each of the wives you murdered. Like them, I held your heart. Like them, I would have served you and this house faithfully. And like them, you betrayed me.”
He wheezed, red foam bubbling around her palms.
“Yes.” Her head tilted and she smiled. “Now, I claim that heart as mine.”
Footsteps sounded, desperate taps upon stone and freshly woven mats. “My lord…No!”
Looking up, Anna saw Gude hurrying from the great hall, the glint of a kitchen blade at her side. The cook’s face was twisted with distress—and with something else, something that might have been relief? Her arms hung limp as she stared at Rathbytten’s broken body, the blade never lifting.
Could it be there was one more woman in this house that required saving?
Without taking her eyes from Gude, Anna held out a hand to Enulf. “I need your hunting knife.”
A smooth wooden hilt filled her palm.
“Thank you,” she said to Enulf.
Giving the cook a final glance, seeing her stop a few paces away, Anna turned her gaze to Rathbytten and plunged the blade into his chest. Her father may have sold her to this beast, but he’d taught her well. She knew how to dress a kill. Angling the knife, she carved a path inside her husband’s chest.
And sliced out his still-beating heart.
She lifted the organ, holding it in her palm, and the ever-present shadows seemed to retreat from the hall, letting the daylight illuminate her kill. She met Enulf’s gaze and gave him a slight nod, then shifted her gaze to Gude’s and slowly bit into the organ. Power kissed her lips and she savored the taste.
A sharp breeze rushed through the hall, blowing away more of the shadows.
Freedom, the mora cried.We are free!
Yes, sisters, she thought.You are.
She gained her feet and crossed the hall to where Enulf stood. She held out the heart to him. “We are saved. Will you honor your word? Will you promise yourself to me, mind and body and heart?”
“With all that I am.” He cupped her face, and brushed his lips across hers.
Finally. She leaned in, deepening the kiss, and felt the thrill of power tangle with the deeper thrill of belonging—of being loved. His mouth claimed hers, tongue tangling with her own until their breaths were ragged. Her body pulsed with a desperate desire, sex wet and core begging to be filled.
They both needed more, but now was not the time.
Reluctantly, she pulled away and offered him the heart. “Take your freedom.”
“I so take, and I so pledge.” He knelt before her and took a bite from her hand. “I was bound to serve my brother before I could walk. He drew strength from my suffering, my pain. Rejoiced in it. But now I am free.”
He pulled the stone from his chest, crushed it in his palm and let the dust crumble to the ground.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I choose to bind myself to you, Anna. For all this life and then next.”
“And I accept your oath, with all my heart. We now rule this place.”