My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 515

515 /526

Rurik

The Night of the Feast

"I saw nothing," I lied flatly, staring at the ground. "Only Taya."

I felt Thorne's gaze on me, heavy with disbelief, but I did not take back the words. I knew them for what they were, a brazen falsehood, and yet I could not bring myself to speak the truth. I did not ask myself why.

Some time passed in silence, then Thorne grunted once and turned to go inside. The heavy doors shut behind him with a thud. I sat unmoving, staring at the snow, until Father's calloused hand closed around my arm. He heaved me up off the trough and started steering me home. I went like a child, empty and numb.

The girl rose from the snow, her eyes fixed on mine. For a moment it seemed she might follow, but she only watched us go. Her pale face was no more than a smudge in the darkness as Father and I passed beyond the reach of the torches.

Inside my quarters, I collapsed onto my bed without removing my wet clothes. The keep gradually fell silent around me... footsteps fading, a door creaking shut, a distant shout... and the cold began to seep into my bones. I lay there with my eyes open, staring into the blackness, as the night dragged on and on.

The dying embers cast flickering shadows on my darkened chamber walls. I could not make sense of the sifting shapes, the way light and shadow danced together. The fire had burned down to smoldering coals now. The chill seeped into my bones, and I pulled the covers tighter around my chest.

The cold tugged at a memory, far back in my mind. Taya and I, seven years old, running through the keep's halls as the wind howled outside. She had a way of vanishing on me, no matter how hard I tried to keep up.

I would search for her, my breath puffing out in little clouds, racing through the drafty corridors until I stumbled upon her hiding place.

She would be waiting for me, a mischievous glint in her eye. We would play at hide-and-seek, or pretend to be bandits in the night, wrapped in our cloaks to keep out the chill.

I was always the one to seek her out, to find her hiding in the tapestry-lined corners, behind the heavy oak doors.

Now her voice came to me, drifting on the dark air, harder and lower than I was used to. I followed it without thinking, my feet carrying me to the source of the sound. It drew me around a corner of the hall, and I paused when I saw her. Taya had Mina pinned against the wall, her small nails digging into the other girl's arm.

Taya's voice was as rough as rocks. Mina's face was red and streaked with tears, but she was fighting not to let her cries show.

I knew that look, had seen it before. Taya always knew how to draw it out of her, always found the right words to make Mina's eyes fill with tears.

"Bastard child," Taya hissed. She shoved her face close to Mina's and spoke right into her ear. "My father says your mother was a dirty Southern whore."