My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 403

Jace

Five godforsaken years. I can't believe I almost let it happen again. All that time wasted, drifting from crowded city to cramped tavern without a purpose. Avoiding the responsibility that awaited me. The only thing that finally pulled me back was the ore deposit, the one prize worth securing for good. I had a plan, a way to take Blackwater and guard that vein of precious metal. It was the only thing in my life I'd ever seen through to the bitter end. And now, here I am, dragged north on someone else's errand, leaving it all behind. Just like before.

A soft crunch of boots on gravel, the hiss of a fire flaring to life. We'd reached the camp. A handful of lean-to tents scattered around a makeshift fire pit, the kind of rough camp a man on the run would stop at, nothing built to last. Temporary, thrown together in a hurry. It was hard to imagine anyone calling this place home for long, but it would do for what we needed.

I needed to focus on the task at hand, on the prize waiting for me back in Blackwater. I couldn't let this expedition derail everything. I'd bide my time, learn what I could, and find a way to make it worth my while. Because one way or another, I was going to come out on top. I'd endured five years of nothing for that ore. I wouldn't let it slip away again.

I followed Fenris's lead, dropping my pack by the fire pit as he did the same with his furs. He turned to face me, his pale grey eyes glinting like sharp stones in the firelight. "The boy's tent is over there." He jerked a shoulder toward one of the lean-tos on the far side of the camp. "You'll go in alone."

I raised an eyebrow. "You're not coming with?"

A snort escaped Fenris's lips. "I've got no desire to see what's left of him. You're the one who's been pushing me to let you talk to him. Now's your chance."

"But you want me to do it alone?"

"It's for the best. Right now the boy's got just enough wits about him to cling to the one thing that's kept him alive. I walk in there, all he sees is something big enough to hurt him again, same as whatever did this to him in the first place. He'll fold like a house of cards. Too much, too soon. He'll retreat back into his head, and we'll never get a damn thing out of him."

I nodded slowly, and turned toward the tent, leaving Fenris to his fire.

My feet carried me steadily across the barren ground, but my thoughts swam in circles. Fenris had trusted me. Really trusted me, like I'd never experienced with him before. The revelation made my breath catch in my throat.

That prior encounter with him still haunted my nightmares. Fenris hadn't raised his voice. Hadn't so much as bared a tooth. That had been the worst part, how still he'd gone, how quiet, like a man deciding in real time whether killing me was worth the trouble. That kind of calm, from someone his size, had been far more frightening than Sera in her coldest moments. At least with her, you could read her ruthless calculation, the machinations behind her mask of control. Fenris gave you nothing to read at all.

And now he'd placed his faith in me to handle this? I couldn't fathom why. It cost him something too, to sit by and let me do this alone. Even if he didn't show it, I could feel the weight of that trust pressing down on me. I didn't know how to bear it, how to be worthy of it. Part of me yearned to run back to him, to hand this burden back and let him shoulder it. But I kept walking, one shaky step after another. He'd given me this chance, and I couldn't waste it. I had to prove I was the man he thought I was.

I stood before the flap of Corwin's tent, my heart pounding in my chest. My hand trembled as I reached for the fabric. Taking a deep breath, I pushed it open and ducked inside.

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