The Silver Thread (39 page)

“Are you still taking it?”

Annika shook her head.

“When was the last time he did?”

“Friday morning, I think. He was drifting in and out of consciousness when I woke up. He didn’t know what day it was, and he kept confusing English and Karsikko. But I flushed the rest of his stash, so you don’t have to worry about us bringing any here. I don’t put up with that kind of shi—I mean, stuff,” she corrected herself, glancing at Stella and then at Sloan.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Anthea said. “But I’ll warn you now; don’t take anything that he says or does personally in the near future. He’s quite mercurial when his pretty flowers have been taken away.”

“Mummy, look! Now they’re hugging on the ground!” Stella squealed.

“What?”

Anthea turned to look out the window, along with Asbjorn, and cried out again, waking Sloan for good this time. The brothers were wrestling on the lawn with their arms interlocked, until Talvi broke free. He threw a flurry of punches to Finn’s head and body, but Finn kicked the back of Talvi’s knees with one of his long legs, grabbed him by the neck when he hit the ground, and managed to climb on top of him. He delivered a few solid right hooks to Talvi’s head and ribs, and a couple of mighty kidney punches before he got jabbed in the throat.

“I think I need to go break that up,” Asbjorn said, frowning with concern as he came to the window and picked up his daughter.

“They’ll sort themselves out,” came Ambrose’s unconcerned response. It didn’t stop him from getting up to see what all the fuss was over, since the ferns in the windows were obstructing his view. “They haven’t had a good scrap in a while.”

“I don’t think that’s a scrap,” Asbjorn said, plunking Stella beside Annika before darting out of the room. Ambrose and Annika looked out the window just in time to see Talvi nail Finn in the jaw with his left elbow, slashing him open. Bright red blood spilled down Finn’s throat, and down the front of his shirt. Talvi raised his elbow again and this time he brought it down on the side of his brother’s head. A trail of red began to run into Finn’s ear and down his neck. Talvi shoved his right forearm against Finn’s throat, and with his left hand, he started to pull the knife from his boot.

“Dear gods—he’s going to
kill
him!” Ambrose exclaimed, and rushed outside after Asbjorn.

“Come along, Annika,” Anthea said in a commanding voice, standing up with Sloan and heading toward the hallway. “Can you keep the children entertained in the music room across the hall while I go help?”

“Of course,” she said, trying not to cry. Holding Stella close in her arms, she followed Althea out of the room. She took one last look out the window, watching both Ambrose and Asbjorn pull Talvi off of his brother, and even then, he still tried to kick Finn as he was being dragged away.

Ambrose wasn’t an elf known to be easily angered, but he was positively livid as he and Asbjorn hauled Talvi to the shed behind the stables and threw him to the ground, tying his hands securely behind him. While Asbjorn kept one boot firmly on Talvi’s back, Ambrose disappeared into the shed and returned with a rusty shovel.

“I can manage now, if you’ll see to Finn,” he growled, and pressed the shovel between Talvi’s shoulders while Asbjorn raced over to Finn. Ambrose forced his youngest son to walk in front of him, past the horses in the fields, and into the forest of towering silver poplars and white birch trees that lie beyond the gardens around their home.

“How
dare
you lay a hand on anyone like that in my home, in front of my grandchildren? How
dare
you do that to your own brother?” The twinkling in his blue-green eyes was long gone and his knuckles were white around the shovel’s handle.

“How
dare
he do that to
me
!” Talvi shouted, his heart still pounding loudly in his chest. “He acted like what he did was some kind of accident, and then went on about how sweet and gentle he was when he was having his way my wife! He told me she begged him for more! Gods, I’m going to be sick…”

Ambrose dropped the shovel and grabbed the collar of Talvi’s shirt, which was spattered with Finn’s blood, jerking him close.

“He didn’t have
any
way with her!” Ambrose roared in his face. “He gave her morphine to keep her subdued, and then he filled himself with so much of it that he might have
died
, all to spare you and Annika the heartache of her carrying his child!” The wild ferociousness evaporated from Talvi’s face as this fact registered in his mind. “She told us everything while you ran off like a half-cocked dilettante to deliver your misguided revenge. I’m losing count of how many times you’ve almost killed him, due to your recklessness!” Ambrose pushed him away and took the shovel once again, forcing his son to continue walking in front of him.

Talvi was silent for a few minutes before he took a deep breath and shuddered when this grave error in judgment finally registered in his brain. Unfortunately, the anger and adrenaline were still coursing powerfully through his bloodstream, and had nowhere to go.

“I wasn’t holding the needle, so how can it be
my
fault?” he asked, tossing his head arrogantly.

“Because you’re old enough to know better!” Ambrose spat, pushing Talvi with the end of the shovel to keep walking onward at a fast clip. “Because your new bride is not. Because you left her alone with your brother without knowing when her three days are. She was born a
human
, Talvi—she doesn’t
know
these things about us! She’s only twenty five, and you’re three
hundred
! You ought to be the one guiding her along this new path, not abandoning her when the timing is inconvenient for you.”

“I didn’t exactly have a choice,” Talvi argued, ducking under a low hanging tree limb. “I made a deal with Merriweather in exchange for finding Annika.”

“Always excuses with you, Prince Talvi,” his father said, frowning as they stepped over a fallen log. “You are but an observer of chaos, never the cause. Nothing is ever directly your fault, is it?”

“I made a promise!” he insisted. “I couldn’t break it!”

“And what are marriage vows? Are they not a promise?”

“I don’t recall the exact terms we agreed upon in our contract,” Talvi snapped. “It was nearly half a year ago at sunrise. I was tired. Why don’t you ask Dardis and Chivanni? They were there.”

“Why don’t you ask them yourself?” Ambrose snapped right back. “Speaking of the fairies, where’s Chivanni? Did you leave him at the London embassy?” Talvi said nothing, and his father’s eyes widened. “You’re supposed to be responsible for him.” Still, Talvi said nothing, and his father’s eyes were nearly falling out of his head. “You didn’t leave him in
America
, did you?”

“So what if I did?” Talvi spat. “They have fairies there, too, you know. He’ll be fine.”

Ambrose glared daggers of rage at his son as they walked along. He had never wanted to hit him so hard in his life, but he somehow found the strength to keep the shovel in his hand instead of swinging it upside Talvi’s head.

“You think you know everything, but you know nothing of marriage. Do you know your wife’s birthday? Do you know how she prefers her tea in the morning? Why, I would bet she doesn’t even take tea, since most Americans prefer coffee. Do you even know her middle name?”

Talvi sulked in silence. He didn’t know any of these things.

“Every successful marriage is different for everyone who is in one,” his father went on, “but they all require the same thing.”

“Love?”

“Surprisingly, no. There are plenty of successful, yet loveless marriages out there in the world.”

“Well then, what is the elusive missing ingredient they all require?” Talvi sneered.

“They all require the merging of two lives, not just two bodies. I know you’re adept at merging bodies, but you know absolutely nothing about merging two lives. Think about it, son. Do you realize that you’ve never had one authentic relationship with a lady?”

Talvi started to name a name, and stopped. Then he tried another, and stopped again. There were so many named and nameless faces floating around in his mind, but none of them were anything he had ever thought of as a relationship. Then one dark-haired elf came into mind.

“What about Zenzi? She was a sort of girlfriend.”

“More like a sort of nightmare,” Ambrose said with an incredulous face. “I’d rather have a case of poison oak than see her face again. At least the rash goes away when you stop scratching it.”

Talvi snorted to himself.

“She is quite like a bad rash, isn’t she? Perhaps she’ll finally get the hint if I have the displeasure of running into her and she sees my wedding ring.”

“Do you honestly believe that a bit of metal will be your shield from relentless females like her? Talvi, you have no idea what it means to be married. You must yield to one another, trust one another, respect one another, and
worship
one another. Simply slipping a platinum band on one another’s fingers does not a marriage make.” Ambrose guided him to the right, and began to look around more closely at the pale trees in the forest as they continued to walk.

“But I love Annika so much. I am so utterly under her spell, and she is so utterly unaware. I can scarcely believe that I just tried to kill my own brother over her!” he lamented with tears in his eyes. “That woman will be the death of me.”

“More than likely, if you keep behaving like this,” Ambrose said and slowed down, though he kept walking. “I mean that, Talvi. If you cannot get your act together, it will be me digging your grave instead of you digging mine. Your chosen profession does not lend itself well to married life.”

“What does it even matter?” Talvi said bitterly after a while. “I think she’s afraid that she married the wrong brother. I don’t know how she learned to keep things from me, but what I do know is that she trusts Finn more than she trusts me.”

“I think that’s the most rational observation that’s come out of your mouth in ages,” Ambrose said, and stopped walking. He turned to his son, who looked at him in confusion. “Annika has no reason not to trust Finn. She has hundreds of reasons not to trust you. She is a wise woman to be wary of handing over her heart to someone who doesn’t even know her middle name. Your current marital status does not erase what you were and what you still are. You have ruled successfully for decades in your current position, Prince Talvi. You’ll not be dethroned overnight.”

“So what am I supposed to do? I can’t change my circumstances, but I love her madly. I’ve told her those things again and again, yet it doesn’t sink into her head! How am I supposed to mend things with her when she doesn’t trust me completely? I think she hates me! She said I was the king of the douche lords. I’m fairly certain that’s American slang for the worst name you can call someone.”

Ambrose didn’t laugh, though his eyes started to twinkle once more.

“Perhaps you should think about why she gave you the new title,” he said, resting his hands on the handle of the shovel, “You have a lot of complicated questions. I believe you’re going to have to dig fairly deep to find all the answers you’re looking for.”

He tapped the ground between them with the shovel, and leaned the handle against Talvi’s chest. Then he walked behind him, took the confiscated knife from his back pocket, and cut the rope around Talvi’s hands.

“Are you really going to make me do this, after all these years?” Talvi asked, taking hold of the shovel before looking back at his father.

“You know that I am very fair in my judgments. If you’re going to act like a child, then you shall be treated like one,” Ambrose said, putting Talvi’s knife back in his pocket as he started to walk in the direction of their house. “And if you are going to act like a sociopath, then you shall be treated like one, which means my house will no longer be your home if anything like this ever happens again. I’ll come visit you tomorrow, and see what you’ve turned up.”

Back in the music room, Annika was trying to keep Stella and Sloan entertained, but their attention spans were about as short as hers. It was just as well; they were exactly the distraction her fraught nerves needed. The door opened and Asbjorn walked in, scooping up Sloan in his large arms and swinging him gently around in a circle.

“Thank you for watching them while we got the situation under control,” he said in a calm, collected voice, assuring her that there was no need to worry any longer. “The rest of us are in the kitchen, if you’d like to eat something tastier than snicker doodles with jalapeño cheese. Unless you truly enjoy that sort of thing.”

“Eh, I think I’m just going to hang out in here for the rest of the night,” Annika said, even though her stomach was growling. “Maybe I’ll sleep in here, too.”

“Why ever would you do that?” he asked, furrowing his blond brows at her. “It wouldn’t be very comfortable.”

“I’m feeling a little out of place right now,” she replied. “I don’t know what I’m going to say when I see Talvi. I’m not even sure I want to stay in his room with him tonight, after what he did to Finn. Is he alright, by the way?”

“Yes, he’ll be fine,” Asbjorn assured her, swaying from side to side with Sloan in his arms. “It’s just a scrape, compared to the polo accident. He’ll need to keep his stitches in for a couple of days, but it could have been much worse. As far as Talvi goes, he won’t be home tonight, so you don’t have to worry about what to say to him right now. You’ll have his room all to yourself.”

“What do you mean? Where did he go?”

“His father sent him off to think about what he did,” Asbjorn said, and set Sloan down. The little boy started to toddle after Stella around the edge of the room while he watched affectionately. He sighed and shook his head before turning back to Annika. “I think this is the first time the brothers have ever fought over a lady before.”

“They weren’t fighting over me. Finn was just defending himself,” Annika said, brushing off the comment, but Asbjorn shook his blond curls.

“No, those were offensive moves he made, not defensive,” he pointed out. “He’s incredibly strong. He might have even won that fight if he was in better health and Talvi hadn’t started in with the elbowing. Pulling his knife wasn’t very honorable either, but then, he tends to be a dirty fighter. I imagine his training took over and it couldn’t be avoided.”

“His training?” Annika asked. “For what?”

“He’s highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat,” Asbjorn said with a mysterious smile. “I thought you would have picked up on that by now. Have you ever tried to get away from him? Or, what I really ought to ask is, have you ever
successfully
gotten away from him? Talvi is akin to death itself…if he rests his gaze upon you, it’s unlikely that you’ll escape him.”

Annika thought of when she’d attempted to slap Talvi on the plane. His reflexes had been lightning fast. She also thought back to their first morning together in her bedroom, playing cat and mouse with him in the shower, and then failing to escape him when she got out of the shower. Plus there was that tango in her living room that she couldn’t escape. She shook her head at her brother-in-law.

“You know that I was gone for a year before I was able to come home, don’t you?” asked Asbjorn, resting his hands on his hips. “When I returned, so much had changed. I had expected my children to be a year older, but I was astounded to find that Talvi was married, and even more shocked that Hilda and Finn had parted ways. So naturally, I had to wonder what, or
who
did they have in common that wasn’t there before I left? Why, it was a strange young human lass whom I only saw for a brief second before she disappeared into a closing portal. And now here you are, and those Marinossian brothers are literally at each other’s throats.”

“What are you getting at?” she asked, giving a prim smile. “Finn and I are just friends. Sure, things got a little crazy in Paris, but I didn’t have anything to do with him and Hilda breaking up. What happened, anyway?” Annika didn’t know Asbjorn at all, but she was leaning towards liking him.

“She waited almost thirty years for him to be sure about his feelings for her, and then suddenly, she ended it. I don’t think any of us saw that coming.”

“Thirty
years
?” she squeaked. “Finn told me that the reason they split up was because he said something he shouldn’t have.”

Asbjorn nodded, causing his loose blond curls to sway.

“Well? What did he say?”

“I think he told her something to the effect that he felt he knew you in another life, if not in numerous lives.”

“But that’s a really sweet thing to say,” Annika remarked, feeling confused. “I don’t understand why they would split up because of that. I know I’ve felt like I’ve known people in other lives before. He’s probably one of them. What’s the big deal?”

“He’s an atheist, Annika,” he said, with yet another mysterious smile. “He believes in science and facts and logic and reason, not gods and myths and previous lives and such. You may have mistaken his knowledge of the esoteric to mean that he believed in it, but that was incorrect, until recently. Then he met someone who made him question those beliefs. And then he considered them. And then he began to believe in them. It was a bit much for Hilda to accept, after waiting all that time for him to have that same level of faith in their relationship.”

“Why didn’t he say something when I first met him?” asked Annika, but she felt she already knew the answer.

“Why would he want to? Who do you think always got the ladies, between those two?” Asbjorn said with a knowing look. “Finn’s very selective to begin with, and he’s such a gentleman, that by the time he felt comfortable telling a lady that he fancied her, his brother had already paid her a visit. Perhaps that’s why he got involved with Hilda to begin with, because Talvi has only thought of her and Runa as sisters.

“Also, if he had said anything to you, it would likely have caused the three of you pain. We all knew you were destined to marry Talvi. It was written in the stars, and Finn didn’t want to interfere with these unseen forces that he had just started to believe in. One way or another, he wanted to have you be part of his family. That’s why he worked so tirelessly to help Talvi and the fairies create your rings and plan your wedding ceremony. He knew that was the only way to have you in his life.”

“I, I don’t know what to say,” Annika said quietly, realizing how much went on in the world around her without her knowledge. “Does Talvi know about this?”

Asbjorn waved a hand in dismissal, chuckling as he did so.

“No, Annika, your husband hasn’t a clue, and unless you tell him, I doubt he would ever figure it out. Clever and cunning as he is, I don’t think Talvi is able to comprehend that level of pure affection free of any expectation. That’s not a derogatory statement about him. It’s simply an observation of how his mind operates. He has many expectations of your relationship. It’s incredibly rare to truly love someone without having any expectations of them. I know I don’t feel that way about Anthea. I love her very much, but I have a lot that I expect from her, such as being a loving and supportive wife, a patient mother, and so on. And you wouldn’t believe the expectations that she puts upon
me
!” He raised a brow at her while he smiled warmly. “I told her I wanted to wait another few years before we added on to our family, and look how that turned out.”

He walked over to the end of the room where Stella and Sloan were playing and gathered both of them in each of his strong arms. “What am I going to do when there are three of you to hold next April?” he asked them with a happy smile.