10. NOT MY PRINCE CHARMING

10

NOT MY PRINCE CHARMING

H an laughed at me, his features as handsome as ever, even if he was an evil fuck. "You are a pain in my ass, you know that? You are still my mate, despite everything."

I pushed off the bottom of the pond, floating further out into the middle. What the hell was I going to do now? I reached for the connection to my brothers…but then paused. They were tough, but Han was part god. He would kill them. I was sure of it. So, I played along. For now. "I've been told that before. Not exactly news to me."

He ran a hand over his head. "I really would have liked Ragnar?k to happen. At least the way I wanted it to, you know, with me ruling after? But it seems you really put your foot into it. You fucked everything up, just by existing . Mind you, killing your mother didn't help—did you know she was tied to the tree of life? Unbelievable, really, I guess you really are one of us. A bunch of murdering, vicious killers."

"How do you know that she's tied to the tree of life?"

"You don't seem surprised." He tipped his head. "Interesting. Well, I have it on good authority that the pantheon is freaking out. They think you set this all up. To take them down."

"I didn't," I said unable to muster up more than the two words.

"No, I don't think you did either. Too na?ve."

My bones ached with the cold of the pond, and I was pretty sure I felt a slither of a long muscular snake rolling across my ankles.

There were no snakes that swam in this lake, at least not of the size I was feeling.

Which only left one possibility. "Jor."

Han's eyebrows climbed. "You think he's here?"

Next to me, a pair of eyes attached to a big scaly head surfaced, blinking up at me. I pointed at him in case Han missed the movement. "Yes."

Han sighed. "Well, it doesn't matter. The whole prophecy is messed up. There is no point in me killing you right now. It does nothing but soothe my ego. If you die, I don't even know if Ragnar?k will happen."

"Impossible." Jor shot his head upward, fangs descending. "Your ego is impossible to soothe. It's too big."

I laughed, teeth chattering, I couldn't help it. Because I had an image of someone trying to stroke a giant, screeching bundle of an ego that kept twisting away from being touched. I was losing it. Or more likely the cold was getting to me.

"So why are you here?" My teeth slammed together, and it took everything I had to keep speaking normally. "Are you spelled now too?"

Han tucked his hands into his pants pockets, toasty and warm on the edge of the pond. "That fucking mate bond. Even without a desire to kill you…I am drawn to you. I think Havoc will do it anyway—kill you, that is. He was always the better hunter than me. I'm certain Sven spelled him, you know. Made it so he can't help but want to kill you. That he thinks of nothing but your blood and eventual death. The way I once thought of it." Han smiled. I struggled not to react. But maybe he saw something in my face because his smile widened. Though what he saw beyond the pale tinge of my skin, I'm not sure. "And you are more than any of us realized. You carry the sun, and you are one of us. I don't know if that's even allowed."

One of us. One of the Norse pantheon. "It's complicated."

"Prophecies and bullshit usually are." He didn't quit smiling .

"Why are you here, if not to kill her?" Bebe snapped. I noticed she'd moved around so she was as far from him as she could be, across the pond.

"Good question. I think I found myself curious. The urge to kill you, to kill any of the suns, is gone. Which tells me I might have been under a compulsion; the same way Havoc is now. Or if the change in how the end of the world is going to happen shifted things, that's possible too. The compulsion came on me, around the time that Sven started working with me, nearly five hundred years ago." He shrugged. "Games and shadows, magic and blood. Ours is a pantheon of violence, Cin. Welcome to the family."

He turned as if to leave. I looked at Jor who did a full body ripple, as if he understood my silent question. I knew so little about this world, and I wasn't sure how much good it would be reading old books based on a mythology that may or may not be accurate.

The question was, how desperate was I for help? How much was I willing to gamble to survive?

Han was ten feet away now and continuing away from me.

"Will you help me? Or at least, help me for a minute?" For a minute? Moon goddess, I was struggling here.

I blurted the two questions out, and Han stilled in his tracks. He looked over his shoulder. "You would be stupid to trust me. I am not a nice man, Cin. Even without the compulsion on me, there is a point where your death would benefit me. It was always meant to happen."

"I didn't say anything about trust." I had to get out of the water. The cold was too much, I'd been in too long. I started toward the shore, my limbs sluggish even though my mind felt calm. If I didn't get out soon, I would die of the cold—even a shifter had limits. "I need help to understand what's been laid at my feet. Why would Sven spell you? Why would he spell Havoc? Why didn't Sven spell you both if he wants me dead? What does he have to gain from Ragnar?k happening at a certain time? Where can I find the Norns?"

Jor rumbled beside me. "I'm disappointed. If Ragnar?k is no longer the end days as we understand them, where does that leave me?"

"Maybe you get to be a hero," I said as my feet found footing in the soft mud.

Jor reeled back in the pond like I'd slapped him, ripples flowing out around his massive thick body. "A hero? Why would I want that? Heroes rarely get happily ever after's, Cin. You know that, right? They usually die."

I didn't answer Jor, just kept moving until I was out of the pond. Shivering, vulnerable, and yet I could feel the difference in Han. A sense of calm radiated off him. Calm, dangerous, and unbothered by the fact that I was meant to die at his hands at one point, that I'd bested him.

Han looked me over, his eyes dispassionate despite my state of undress and the fact that I was cold as ice which made my nipples all but point straight at him. "What exactly do you need help with?"

"You could start by handing her those clothes," Bebe snapped as she raced around to get between us. "Don't you be looking at her boobs. They aren't yours."

Han laughed, low and deep, a sound that would have done something to me when I'd first been ‘rescued' by him. But now, nothing, not even a glimmer of lust. "Actually, if we want to play that game, you are my mate still. The bond is still there. You've numbed it quite well, though, I'll say that. It took me a few days to track you down."

I shrugged, feeling nothing but the cold. "I don't believe in mate bonds."

"No? You did when I first dragged you from that shelter." He took a step closer, my clothes held out to me, heat radiating off him.

A few weeks before, his very proximity would have had me panting, begging on my knees. Now? Not so much. Not even a flicker of desire rippled through me. Because he was the monster that wanted the world to end in fire and destruction.

Or at least, he had been.

I snatched my clothes from him, and yanked on my shirt and pants, ignoring everything else. "I think mate bonds can be changed, shifted, destroyed, even. I've seen it."

"Ah, your dear mother." He tssked. "She was a peach, wasn't she?"

I grimaced. As if anything else could have reminded me how very wrong he was for me, that was it—he'd been banging Juniper for gods knew how long. That would do the trick. The fact that at any point, spelled or not, he'd found her attractive…it was too much for me. "Besides, I don't do my mother's sloppy seconds."

"Oh, snap!" Bebe laughed and shadow boxed along beside me.

"I can't believe you are trusting him at all!" Jor grumbled from the pond. "This is seriously messed up! I don't want to lose my coffee dates. You can't die yet, Cin!"

I looked at Jor and then back to Han. "Loki made me your mate, to try and save you. Why didn't he just remove the compulsion from you?"

"I doubt anyone knows about it. I barely understood it until it was off me." Han shrugged. "And he bound us so you would save me, yes, but no doubt it was for his own machinations."

I silently agreed with him and found myself touching the brand on my neck. Loki's symbol was etched into my skin, reminding me just how I'd gotten into this mess in the first place.

The thing was, Han was not someone I would ever trust, not in any situation. Because he was a fucking monster. He'd killed women for funzies. My thoughts stuttered over the memory.

Didn't he? What if that had been Sven back then too? Fuck. "Did you kill the vet?" The question blurted out of me. There had been a very kind vet. She'd stitched me up after a fight where I'd been on the losing end of a very sharp piece of glass. Han had taken her home, made her every fantasy come true, and the next morning…well…she'd been dead.

Han grunted. "I don't know. Maybe?"

"Maybe?" Bebe took a swat at his legs. "What the hell kind of answer is maybe? How do you not know if you've killed someone or not? What is wrong with you?"

He bent down to Bebe's level. "I am a monster, little pussy. You'd best remember that. And monsters don't give a fuck who they kill, who they eat, or what they destroy, as long as their main needs are met." His hand shot out faster than I could even see it, to grab her tail, lifting her in the air a few inches. "Be glad I find you amusing."

She screeched and launched herself at his face, but I caught her, holding her to my chest as she all but vibrated with fury.

"You son of a bitch! Don't you ever touch my tail!" Bebe trembled, but at least she wasn't clawing at me to get to him.

Han laughed, unmoved by her violence toward him.

I stood there, barefoot, staring him down. A twinge ran along my back, the strumming of a bond that I did still have.

Richard. He was calling to me. I took a step. Han moved like liquid and blocked my path.

"You want answers?"

I stared up at him, so close that in another time, another place I would have leaned into him. But he was not my mate. Not for real, it was all manufactured. Even my wolf knew it. The rolling growl rumbled up through my chest, vibrating the air between us. "Yes. I need answers."

"You are on the right path, even if it looks like the hardest one. Find the Norns." He closed the last breath of distance between us, staring me down as if that would intimidate me. Maybe if it had just been my golden, maybe it would have worked. But my golden in me, she was not cowering anymore. I bared my teeth.

"How?"

He smiled and leaned so that his mouth brushed against my ear. "You want more? What will you give me?"

His breath was hot, and I couldn't help the shiver. It wasn't desire, but sheer temperature change, I was fucking cold, and his breath was hot as a fire.

"Don't give him anything," Bebe hissed, still crushed against my chest. And that close to him? Well, she took advantage.

She swatted the side of his face, slicing him open. He stumbled back, a snarl on his lips. He lifted his fingers and touched the claw marks, blood coating them.

"Oh, you will pay for that."

"Run, Bebe." I tossed her over my shoulder and squared off against Han. "You deserve more than that, for what you've put us through."

Jor curled through the water, right to the shoreline. "Oh, this is so good. I wish I had popcorn! And I can feel the twist to the story coming! Gods!"

Han shot him a look. "What do you mean by that, snake?"

"Serpent." Jor flicked his tail. "I'm a serpent . And what I meant by that is simple. The third player is about to show up."

Panic ripped through me. Panic that was not my own.

Richard's panic was hot, and wild and a single word came through the bond between us.

Havoc.

I looked at Han. "You sure you don't want to kill me? "

"You, not at the moment. Your fucking cat, I'd grind to dust," he snarled.

Bebe squeaked, as if she were afraid, but I doubted she was afraid at all.

No, the sound of heavy padded feet closing in on us was the issue. I turned to my left to see Havoc stalking toward us, his icy blue eyes locked on me. His dark fur bristled across his spine, his tail stiff as he stared me down.

There was nothing of the man I knew in those eyes.

"Right." I whispered. "Well don't suppose you want to keep your brother busy while I run?"

Han laughed. "You're kidding me? You want me to play protector?"

A girl could hope.

And right then, hope was all I had left.