25. Callie

Ilaughed as my sister raced away down the beach with Erik and I headed to my tent to get changed.

As the night was drawing in, the temperature was dropping but the huge fire Julius had built was more than enough to keep the worst of the cold at bay.

I rummaged through my things in search of a sweater but gave up as I spotted one of Magnar’s on top of his pack. I grinned as I tugged it on and the thick, blue wool dropped down to skim my thighs. For some reason I got a real kick out of stealing his clothes and I grinned like a naughty kid as I rolled back the sleeves to release my hands from the overlarge material.

I left my legs bare, sticking with my shorts and enjoying the feeling of the sand between my toes. I located a hair tie next and headed back across the sand towards the fire once more.

Before I could get more than a few steps, Julius poked his head out of his tent and he frowned as he spotted me. “I have a bone to pick with you,” he said, prodding my bare foot with his finger.

“Really?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I looked down at him and started twisting my hair into a braid over my shoulder.

“Yes. You’ve made my brother too happy.”

“Too happy?” I asked with a smirk.

He nodded darkly. “My life wasn’t missing a damn thing. Me and Magnar were just fine, plenty of battles to fight, ale to drink, a different woman every night-” I raised an eyebrow at that remark and he coughed awkwardly, glancing back at the fire as if he expected Magnar to have overheard him. “Anyway the point is, that then you come along and now he’s got this constant look on his face like...like you’re literally the best fucking thing.”

“Am I taking his attention away from you?” I teased.

“No. Not that. You’ve taken my contentedness.”

“Are you sure that’s a word?” I frowned.

“It is. And I was. I was perfectly content. Before you made me see that maybe I’m not,” he accused.

“You’ve lost me,” I admitted.

“Pfft.” Julius waved me off and I laughed as I stretched my arms above my head, arching my back to stretch it out too.

“Well, when you’re done being cryptic, I can smell dinner.” I turned from him and headed towards the fire with my stomach rumbling.

I dropped down beside Clarice as I arrived and she looked to me with a smile. Fabian and Chickoa were sitting to our right talking in low voices and she almost seemed happy in his company.

“Hungry?” Clarice asked as the smell of the food Magnar was making washed over us.

He’d found ingredients growing wild close to the beach and I was excited to see what he cooked. He’d been mixing all kinds of herbs and roots with the tinned food we’d brought from the mall.

I looked across the fire at him and he smiled at me in greeting. He’d left his shirt off and the flames cast flickering shadows over his bronze skin and tattoos.

“Very,” I agreed as I eyed his bare chest.

“You’re as bad as your sister and Erik,” Clarice said with a laugh.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I replied innocently as I turned back to look at her.

Julius arrived and dropped down to my left, his eyes set on the fire as he started twirling a large white seashell between his fingers.

“Just in time,” Magnar announced as he moved towards us with two steaming bowls of food.

I accepted mine with a wide smile as the smell set my mouth watering.

I devoured a heaped spoonful of the stew and groaned despite the fact that it burnt my tongue.

“This. Is. Everything,” I sighed, closing my eyes.

Though the dehydrated food we’d taken from the camping store was definitely an improvement on the junk food we’d had to survive on before that, it couldn’t compare to a properly cooked meal. And Magnar was a damn good cook.

Fabian got up and walked away without a word and I watched him go with a faint frown.

“This is why I’m glad you parasites don’t eat,” Julius said as he shovelled the food into his mouth. “So that there’s more for me.”

Clarice snorted a laugh and her eyes stayed fixed on Julius while he ate.

“By the gods, I wish I could remember what that was like,” she murmured.

“With a bit of luck you can find out again soon,” I said.

“I want that more than anything in the world,” she replied softly.

Magnar nudged his brother aside and sat down beside me, pulling my feet into his lap. I shivered a little at the contact with his cool skin but it wasn’t unpleasant.

“No,” he grumbled as he reached for my hair and tugged the hair tie out of the end of it. I rolled my eyes as I continued to eat while he pulled my hair out of the braid again, leaving it loose down my back and trailing his fingers through it.

Clarice watched us with amusement in her gaze and I noticed Chickoa smiling at us from the corner of my eye.

“Have you been stealing my clothes again?” Magnar teased as he released my hair and his fingers trailed across my ankle instead.

“I think you like it,” I replied with a smirk. I lifted another spoonful of food to my mouth but somehow managed to miss and the red sauce splattered down the front of his sweater.

Julius barked a laugh at me and I grinned sheepishly as I scooped it back off with my finger and put it in my mouth.

“On the bright side, you don’t get cold so you don’t really need a sweater,” I pointed out.

“Well in that case, feel free to steal all of my clothes then,” Magnar said shaking his head.

“I will,” I agreed.

“They look better on you anyway,” he murmured, his eyes skimming over my bare legs. “So I guess I’ll just have to go without.”

“Pity,” I replied.

Fabian reappeared with two large bottles in hand. I looked at the amber liquid curiously and he grinned as he noticed everyone’s attention on it.

“I figured if this could be one of my last nights as an immortal then I should make use of my body’s ability to heal from the effects of this,” he said as he unscrewed the top from the first bottle and took a swig.

“Where did you get that from?” Clarice asked incredulously.

“I took them from the mall and I’ve been waiting for the right time to drink myself into oblivion alone. But I decided to share instead.”

He passed one to Chickoa and she gave him half a smile before taking a drink herself.

I finished with my meal as Magnar took a sip from the bottle and he passed it to me next.

I sniffed it, wrinkling my nose as the scent burned the back of my throat. “What is that?” I asked in disgust, not feeling remotely tempted to drink it.

“Whiskey,” Fabian replied. “You tried some in my dream once.”

“Oh yeah,” I said as Magnar shifted uncomfortably. “It was gross.” I tipped a mouthful of the liquid into my mouth and shuddered as it passed down my throat. “It’s gross in real life too.”

I passed the bottle to Julius and he chuckled at my obvious disgust.

Heat simmered in the pit of my stomach as the drink found a home there and I smiled a little as the warmth of the alcohol tingled beneath my skin.

Magnar took my empty bowl from me and headed away with it.

“Well trained, isn’t he?” Fabian teased.

“A real man looks after those he cares about,” Julius replied darkly, daring Fabian to contradict him. “Perhaps if you’d done that a thousand years ago, the woman you loved wouldn’t hate you now.”

Fabian scowled at him and Chickoa inspected her nails, clearly agreeing with Julius.

Clarice was eyeing Julius like she wanted to say something but she kept her mouth shut.

“Well this is cosy,” I said, tugging the bottle from Julius’s hand and taking a long drink of the disgusting liquid.

Magnar reappeared and he tossed a large greenish fruit to Julius before passing a second one to me. He sat down beside me again and handed me a knife from his belt so that I could cut into it.

“What is it?” I asked.

Fabian sighed dramatically before Magnar could answer and I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what had him on edge.

“It’s a mango,” Fabian said. “Which no doubt you’ve never seen before. So you can add it to the endless list of fuck-ups you attribute to me and point out what a piece of shit I am. Yet again.”

I narrowed my eyes at Fabian, deciding not to respond to that as I cut into the fruit.

“You know, you probably wouldn’t feel so touchy about everything you’d denied her if you just apologised for it,” Chickoa murmured.

“I don’t think Callie is interested in my apologies at this point,” Fabian replied.

“You could give it a whirl,” I muttered.

Fabian’s gaze fixed on me as he opened the second bottle of whiskey. He tipped the contents into his mouth and didn’t stop drinking until it was half empty.

“I’m sorry,” he blurted as he pulled the bottle away from his lips. “Sorry that I fucked up the Realms so that you never saw the sea or the grass or a fucking mango before. Sorry that I kidnapped you and married you and wanted you when you didn’t want me. Sorry that I didn’t fight against the bond the gods put on us and tried to make you love me. Sorry for all of the screwed up shit I’m responsible for directly and indirectly to you, your family, humanity and my own siblings... Miles and Warren...”

I shifted uncomfortably and no one said anything as he lifted the bottle to his lips again.

“But most of all,” Fabian continued, his gaze turning to Chickoa. “I’m sorry that I was ever stupid and selfish enough to believe that you wanted to love me for eternity. I never should have turned you. I should have just loved you for as long as you were supposed to have and accepted the inevitability of your death.”

He tossed the empty bottle into the fire then stood and shot away into the trees.

My lips parted in surprise and Clarice began to rise to follow him.

“No,” Chickoa said as she got to her feet instead. “I’ll go. I think it’s time Fabian and I had a long talk.”

I watched as she darted into the trees after Fabian and I bit my lip awkwardly. I lifted the mango to my mouth and chewed on it for several seconds. The sickly flavour washed over my tastebuds and I stopped chewing as the urge to spit it out seized me.

I fought against it for several seconds but I really couldn’t force myself to swallow it. I spat the fruit into my hand and Julius laughed loudly.

“After all that drama, you don’t even like it.” Magnar barked a laugh as he took the rest of the fruit from my hand and passed it to his brother. I tossed the half chewed piece into the fire and frowned.

“Sorry.”

“You’re apologising because you don’t like the taste of something?” Magnar asked in amusement.

“Well you went to the effort of finding it for me-”

“That was no effort, there’s a tree full of them over there.”

“I’ve never really been able to turn my nose up at food and it feels kinda ungrateful when I know what starvation feels like-”

Magnar frowned as he drew me closer to him. “I will never see you go without again,” he growled. “So if you want to spit out a mango then just spit it out. I’ll find you an apple or an orange or a coconut if you want it instead. You’ll never go hungry while you’re with me.”

My chest tightened at his words and I leaned in to press a kiss to his lips, grazing my fingers along his jaw as I did so. My family and I had made the most of our situation in the Realm but we’d always been helpless, wishing for the world to be better and surviving against the odds. But when Magnar promised to look after me, I knew he’d do it. I was safe with him in a way I’d never dreamed of being. He’d always love and protect me and I’d do the same for him too.

“Do you two never get tired of each other?” Clarice asked and her tone wasn’t mocking, only inquisitive.

Julius released a low laugh. “You should hear them when they argue. The two of them are as stubborn as each other - I’ve never known my brother to lose an argument before he met this one. But he’s met his match in her.”

Magnar chuckled, taking the bottle of whiskey from his brother and raising it to his lips.

“Well what’s love without passion?” he asked as he offered the bottle to me but I shook my head in refusal and he passed it to Clarice instead.

“You think arguing is a good thing?” Clarice mocked as she finished her drink then passed it to Julius again. She brushed her fingers against his and he hesitated a moment before drawing away.

“It can be,” Magnar said. “Or are you going to deny the way your blood rises when you bait my brother?”

Julius straightened his spine at the remark and Clarice shook her head in fierce denial.

“I don’t enjoy arguing with him,” she replied. “He’s an arrogant, jumped-up-”

“The two of you should stop dancing around each other,” Magnar said, ignoring her. “Life’s too short.”

Julius frowned at Magnar as if he had no idea what to say. “You can’t seriously be encouraging me to...”

“To what?” Magnar caught my waist and pulled me into his lap. “Be happy? Little brother, I died when I killed Idun. I shouldn’t be here now but I stayed for this woman in my arms. The cost of remaining with her means I have to feed from her. Do you really think I would judge you poorly for loving a vampire after all of that?”

Julius’s gaze slid to Clarice and she fell unnaturally still.

“Loving her?” he asked and I could tell he’d meant it to come out dismissively but his voice was weirdly strained instead.

“Give it up, Brother. It’s written all over your face.” Magnar’s grip tightened on my waist and I leaned against his chest as I tried not to smile.

Julius’s frown deepened. “So you don’t even care that I...”

Magnar shook his head and Julius looked at Clarice again, releasing a heavy breath.

“Fuck it then.” He upended the bottle of whiskey into his mouth and tossed it into the fire with a loud smash.

Julius pushed himself to his feet and crossed the space in front of us in three long strides.

“What are you doing?” Clarice gasped as she gazed up at him.

“Offering you the world apparently. If you want it?” He held his hand out to her and her lips parted as she stared up at him.

The moment hung between them endlessly and I shifted in Magnar’s arms, worried she was about to turn him down.

“I want it,” Clarice breathed, placing her hand in his.

Julius yanked her to her feet and caught her mouth with his as she coiled her arms around him.

Magnar released a deep laugh and I grinned as he tightened his grip on me.

Clarice moaned with desire and Julius hoisted her into his arms as she wrapped her legs around his waist. His hands shifted beneath her shirt, pushing the material up at the back and I couldn’t help but laugh as he started to carry her back towards the tents.

I turned to Magnar as we were left alone by the fire and I reached up to cup his face in my hand, grazing my thumb through the stubble I found there.

“You’re a good brother,” I said as I watched the flickering flames reflected in his golden eyes.

“I have my moments,” he agreed with a smile. “Though we may end up regretting that happening.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because now we’re going to have to listen to what they’re getting up to for the rest of the night.”

Clarice cried out in pleasure from the tents behind us and I couldn’t help but laugh as I leaned against Magnar’s chest.

“Well maybe we just need to distract ourselves from it. Besides, you still haven’t fed yet.” I twisted to face him, pressing a kiss to his mouth and I could feel him smiling against my lips.

“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Magnar agreed.