My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 511

Rurik

I spun around and she let me go. I staggered and went down in the snow with a grunt beside the water trough.

"Fuck you," I spat, getting up.

The frozen slush soaked through my leggings and shirt. I shivered but didn't stop. I had to get back in there. I had to make Sarn pay.

I tried for the hall doors. She stepped in my way without a word. Her face was as flat and quiet as ever. No emotion, no warning.

I tried to shove past her shoulder. My feet flew out from under me, and once again I slammed into the snowy ground, this time on my back.

"Bloody hell!" I snarled, getting up, shaking the snow off my braids.

The firelight from the high windows made long shadows across the yard. The laughter inside felt like claws in my head. They were celebrating a victory while Taya burned.

I eyed the girl. She stood between me and those doors, silent and still as a statue. Maybe if I tried a different way. I feinted left, then darted right. She put me down with barely a twitch.

I stopped, breathing hard, staring at her. She never let her gaze waver from mine. She tilted her head a little to the side, her eyes steady on my face. That look in her eyes, the tilt of her head... there was something in that look, something I couldn't place. And it unsettled me more than the falls did.

I stood there, chest heaving. I was drunk and angry and stupid, and I was no match for her in this state. I glared at her, and still she didn't flinch. I wanted to take her head off, and I wanted to hide, and I wanted to scream. But I did none of those things. I did nothing but stare at her, and she stared right back.

The doors thudded open behind me. I rounded on Father as he stepped out into the cold. The door slammed shut again.

"You let her do this to me!" I snarled. "Right in front of the whole fucking hall! Taya's not even cold yet and you let a girl drag your son out like a dog!"

"Shut. Up." Father's voice was low and plain, never raised. It was a voice you listened to, whether you wanted to or not. "You swung at Sarn. In front of twenty of his men. And in front of the Luna's table. If the girl hadn't moved first, Sarn's men would have. And they'd not have been gentle. She kept your head on your shoulders."

"That doesn't mean she gets to..." I cut myself off. The anger had nowhere to go. "Too fucking convenient, that! Sarn rides in the very morning she's dead. You don't think it was him?"

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