Laura
Despite being only fourteen years old, Solomon was half a head taller than me and toned with muscles.
“Solo, you’ll be training with Laura today,” Archer told the boy, whose face stiffened. “What’s wrong?”
“No offense, but I’m a great fighter and I don’t need her to teach me.”
“You idiot,” Archer smacked the back of his head, with a grin. “You’re going to teach Laura.”
“Oh.” Solomon straightened up and squared his chest. “I’d be honored to.”
“Don’t underestimate her. She’s fast and a very intelligent fighter.”
Solomon nodded and smiled at me. “This is going to be fun.”
“Marco will be up at the new gym teaching the beginners, while I’ll train the Nboys outside.” Archer looked around the large schoolroom. “I figured you two could push the tables aside and train in here.”
“Sure.” Solomon was already clearing an area in the middle, and I helped him.
“Are you okay being alone with Solo?” Archer asked me.
“No problem.” I grinned at the boy. “If he does something I don’t like, I’ll just beat him up.”
“You have my permission,” Archer said with a laugh on his way out.
Solomon moved with grace, was a superior fighter, and was very serious about his training.
“Again,” he demanded for the seventh time when he wanted me to perfect a kick.
“Jesus, you’re just like Magni,” I complained and dried away sweat from my forehead.
“I’m not.” The boy looked away with a frown.
I stopped in front of him, and leaned my head back to look into his blue eyes. “You could’ve been his younger brother. You two look so much alike with your size, eyes, and fighter skills.”
Solomon pressed his lips together.
“What’s wrong?”
“You are not the first to compare me to him, but I’m nothing like him. I would never leave my wife.”
Lowering my head, I bit my lip. “Solo, it wasn’t Magni’s fault. You don’t know the whole story and you shouldn’t judge him. Magni is a good and honorable man.”
“He left you.”
“Technically, I left him first.”
Solomon folded his hands into fists and kept them close to his thighs. “When I marry Willow, nothing is going to make me want to leave her.”
“You plan to marry Willow? That’s nice.”
“You think I’m not serious,” Solomon said and began arguing. “Just because we are young doesn’t mean we don’t know how we feel. I love her.”
His words knocked my breath from me. “You love her?”
He nodded with determination.
“Did you tell Willow that?”
Solo turned around and took up his fighter position. “Yes, I did, and when she’s old enough to marry, we’ll make it official.”
I chewed on my lip, unable to speak.
“Let’s try that kick again,” Solo instructed and waited for me to get into position before he attacked.
The thought that two children had no problem declaring their love for each other was humbling to me. They were twelve and fourteen but not afraid to say such powerful words.
Magni and I were adults and married. We had no excuses, so why hadn’t I told Magni how I felt about him when I had the chance?
Solomon’s attack took me by surprise and I landed on my ass. My mind had been occupied with blaming myself for pushing Magni away and I hadn’t been concentrating. Annoyed with myself, I cursed low and took Solomon’s hand when he pulled me up. “Thank you.”
“You got to clear your mind and focus.”
Loud screams from the outside made me look out the window, and I saw a flash of red appear for a second.
“What the fuck?” Solomon breathed behind me. “He’s going to crash at that speed.”
I ran to the window, my fingers almost boring into the frame, and my heart speeding with fear. It was Magni and he was coming in much too fast. Something had to be wrong with his hybrid.
The thought that I was about to watch the man I loved crash and burn made me stiff with fear. My eyes locked on the red drone in the sky.
“Get back, get back,” Archer screamed outside and the Nboys ran for cover.
Magni was always careful with his hybrid, but this time it came down so fast that it slid over the ground and made scratching sounds.
When the door opened, Magni didn’t step out. He jumped out and ran straight for the school, shouting at Archer and the boys. “Where is Marco?”
Disappointment filled me. “Marco?” I turned to look at Solomon, my eyes blinking in confusion. Why hadn’t Magni asked for me or maybe Mila? Why Marco?”
Solomon lifted both hands as if to say that he had no clue but was wondering the same thing. “We’d better find out what’s going on – come on, Laura.”
Solomon ran, while I walked, trying to get my emotions under control.
I saw Magni enter the gym and a second later, Marco came sprinting out with Magni and all the children on his heels.
“What’s going on?” I asked when Marco ran past me.
He didn’t stop to explain, so instead I stepped in front of Magni with both hands outstretched, shouting for him to stop. It was a matter of trampling me down or stopping, and thank God, Magni chose the latter. Towering over me, his face was scrunched up in anger.
“Why are you chasing Marco?” I demanded to know.
Magni looked past me to Marco, who had stopped a little further away. All the children were gathering to see the action. Lifting his hand, Magni pointed at Marco. “You wouldn’t be running if you hadn’t done something you shouldn’t.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Marco called back with confusion on his face. “Of course I’m running when you look like you’re about to kill me.”
“What is this about?” I asked low enough for only Magni to hear.
He looked down at me, his right eyebrow raised in a perfect arch. “Did you sleep with him?”
The sweetest feeling of relief hit me right in my chest. Magni was back and he still cared about me. I closed my eyes and sighed, but Magni misunderstood and took it as a sign of guilt.
“You did, didn’t you?” Magni growled low.
I was just about to protest and clear up the misunderstanding when Solomon heroically pushed me back and got between me and Magni.
“I won’t let you touch her.”
Both Magni and I warned him to stay out of it.
“I’ll fight you if I have to, but I won’t let you put a finger on Laura.”
“You would fight me?” Magni pushed forward. “Are you kidding me?”
“Solo, no!” The fear in Willow’s voice was real.
“I’ve been wanting to kick your arrogant little ass for a long time,” Magni hissed at the teenager. “But I don’t have time right now. Move the fuck away from my wife.”
Archer moved closer. “Solo, do as he says. Don’t meddle in things you don’t understand.”
“I understand that Laura has been sad and that he’s not treating his wife right,” Solo shouted back to Archer.
“What did you say?” Magni grabbed the boy’s collar. In reflex, Solo pushed back with a hand to Magni’s shoulder.
“Hey, hey, stop.” Marco came back. “Whatever you’re angry about, don’t take it out on the boy. If you want to fight someone, you can fight me.”
Magni changed his focus from Solomon to Marco. “Oh yeah? Those are big words coming from a man who ran like a coward just a minute ago.”
“Marco isn’t the coward. You are!” Solomon accused my husband. “You left Laura.”
A warning growl came from Magni, and Archer scolded Solomon. “You’re way out of order, boy. You’re coming with me to my office, right now.”
“Solo, I don’t need you to protect me,” I assured the young man, but he wouldn’t budge and held his stance between me and Magni.
“It’s okay, Laura, I can take him in a fight.” Solo didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before he got knocked out cold by Magni.
Willow screamed as if Solo had been killed and ran to throw herself on top of his body.
“Magni, no. He’s just a kid.” Kya came running too, and I bent down, shaking his shoulder. “Solo, open your eyes.”
“He’s going to be fine,” Magni said when Willow looked up at him with tears in her eyes.
Solo’s eyes blinked open after Kya had slapped his cheeks a few times.
“What happened?” he asked with confusion on his face.
“Magni hit you,” Willow explained and took Solo’s hand.
“Be happy I only put him to sleep for a second instead of knocking his teeth out. I bet you wouldn’t find him so pretty with short hair and no teeth.”
Willow opened her mouth to speak, but Archer was quick to put his hand on her shoulder. “Magni had every right to hit Solo. If he’d come between me and Kya like that, I’d have done much worse.”
Willow defended her boyfriend. “He was just trying to protect, Laura.”
“Laura was never in danger,” Archer argued. “And if she had been, Marco and I would have handled it.”
“Willow, Archer is right,” I told the girl. “Magni would never hurt me.”
I turned to Magni. “Why did you chase Marco like that?”
Magni pointed at Marco, who was now only about ten feet away. “Keep your hands off my wife.”
“What are you talking about? I never touched Laura.”
Magni was stabbing his finger in Marco’s direction. “You’re not her protector. I am!”
Marco and I exchanged a glance of confusion.
“Don’t look like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Khan told me how he made you her protector and that you two sleep together.”
Marco held up both his palms in a sign of peace. “There must be some misunderstanding. I’m not Laura’s protector and I’ve never slept with her.”
“Are you saying Lord Khan is lying?”
“No – I don’t know.” Marco looked to me for help and I stepped away from Solo, who was now sitting up with a hand to his head.
“You must have heard wrong, Magni. That’s all,” I said.
“Laura.” Magni stepped so close that his chest touched my arm. “What is going on between you and Marco?”
I closed my eyes, calling for patience.
“Laura, look at me. Tell me that you aren’t fucking him.”
As if someone had turned on a laser beam inside of me, I opened my eyes and pinned Magni with such intensity that he jerked back a little. “This is absurd. You and I are going to talk, right now.” In long strides, I walked to the cabin, trusting that my temperamental husband would follow me. I held the door and closed it when he was inside.
“What the hell was that?” I scolded. “I haven’t seen you for a month and then you come back here acting like a jealous lunatic.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“You were supposed to talk to me about it. If you had asked me, I could’ve told you that there is nothing between me and Marco.”
Magni was pacing the room. “Why would Khan tell me that he’s your protector, if he’s not?”
“You’ll have to ask Khan about that.”
“So there’s nothing going on between you and Marco?”
I rubbed my face. “How many times do I have to tell you? There’s nothing going on between us. He’s far too young for me anyway.”
“You’re the same age, Laura.”
“Yes, but he’s not you.”
Magni stopped pacing and turned to look at me. “Say that again?”
We stood three feet apart with loaded energy between us.
My voice softened as the joy that he was back caught up with me. “He’s not you.”
Magni shifted his weight from one leg to the other. “So you’re not going to divorce me?”
“No.” I took a step closer. The words that I’d wanted to tell him for so long were right on my tongue, and my heart felt like it was exploding.
Magni stepped closer too, pulling me into a tight hug and saying the words that I wanted to hear. “I love you.”
“What?” I whispered, as if I hadn’t heard right.
“I love you, Laura.” Magni released me from the hug, his blue eyes looking into mine with a new sense of vulnerability.
“I love you too. I always have,” I whispered back.
His face lit up and we laughed together when he visibly released a deep breath. “Are you sure?” he asked.
“Yes. I love you, Magni,” I repeated with a rush of relief that the words were finally out.
“Even though I’m a jealous lunatic?”
I tilted my head, still grinning. “I never thought you would admit it.”
He nuzzled against my neck and buried his hands in my hair. “Shit, I missed you.”
“I missed you too, but you really shouldn’t have knocked out Solo.”
“I would knock out anyone who came between me and you.” Magni leaned down to kiss me.
I placed a hand over his mouth. “No. If we start kissing, we’ll be having sex in a second, and what we need to do is talk about our relationship.”
I expected Magni to roll his eyes, but he nodded and sat down on the bed and listened.
“Things are changing fast in the Northlands, and I want to be part of that. I’m working with Pearl on building more experimental schools, and the first couples will be matched soon. I like that Pearl involves me and listens to my ideas.”
“I understand.”
I stood for a second, waiting for him to object to what I had just said. When he didn’t, I walked over to stand between his legs, gently touching his hair. “I know it’s hard for you to not be in control all the time, but I would never do anything stupid or reckless.”
He looked up at me. “Like fighting a large Huntsman?”
“Khan told you?”
“Yes. What were you thinking, Laura?”
“Khan shouldn’t have mentioned that.”
“I’m glad he did. Khan said he was terrified that they’d shoot you.” Magni closed his eyes and looked like he was trying to keep his emotions under control. “The thought alone makes me want to scream.”
“Nothing happened.” I slid down on his lap and placed my arms around his neck.
Magni leaned his forehead against my hair and held onto me. “I could have lost you, Laura.”
“You didn’t,” I whispered. “I’m right here.”
Looking deep into my eyes he repeated my new favorite words. “I love you so much.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“Because I’m a proud fool.”
“What happened to you in Alaska? The Magni I know would never admit that.”
“Nothing happened, and that was the problem. I had too much fucking time to think.”
“And you concluded that you’re a proud fool?”
“Yes.”
I smiled and kissed him. “I could have saved you the trip and told you that.”
He squeezed me tighter. “It was one of those things I had to discover for myself.”
I kissed him again.
“Laura, I’m truly sorry for storming off like I did. I know I blow up and get angry too often for my own good, and I want to change it.”
“Wow, I’m impressed. Does that mean you can live with my being both a Motlander and a Northlander?”
“As long as you stay with me.” He placed his head against my neck and breathed me in. “Laura, I wish I could use words like Finn or Khan, but I’m not that kind of man.”
I stroked the back of his hand that rested on my hip.
“I know how to talk about other things, but I’m lost when it comes to expressing how I feel about you.”
“Try.”
Magni looked pained when he straightened up, and his chest rose and fell. “Okay, you know how much it hurts when you get shot or stabbed?”
“No.”
He bit his lip. “No, of course not. But did you ever break a bone or something?”
“I twisted my ankle once and it got all swollen.”
“Right.” He nodded with a thoughtful expression. “I think the same happened to my heart when you left me. It was so swollen that there was no room for it to beat and it hurt worse than the time I broke three of my ribs.” He placed his hand on his chest. “I consider myself tough when it comes to physical pain, but this was way worse than anything I’ve gone through in the past. With a physical injury, you can take painkillers and keep still until it heals. When we were apart, the pain in my heart was constant, and I couldn’t breathe.”
I looked down. “I’m sorry, Magni.”
“Did your heart hurt too?” he asked me.
“Yes, but more like a slow ache that grew stronger. I missed you a lot.”
He gave me a sad smile and kissed my nose. “I know I’m terrible at explaining it, but my feelings for you, Laura…” He sighed. “I would do anything for you. You know that, don’t you?”
The edges around my moist eyes softened in a smile. “Your words were perfect.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“And you don’t think me a weak man because I couldn’t breathe when I thought I’d lost you?”
“No. I don’t think anyone would ever accuse you of being weak. And if they did, I’d punch their nose in.”
“I didn’t see you punching Solo when he accused me of being a coward.”
“Because he’s too young to understand that things aren’t black or white. He’s got this conviction about marrying Willow, but soon he’ll leave this school and most likely they’ll never see each other again.”
“So, he’s naïve. That doesn’t give him the right to say shit like that to my face.”
“Can’t you cut Solo some slack? He looked up to you and you disappointed him.”
“Why should I? He didn’t call you a coward when you came back after six months, I was only gone for one month.”
“At least give him credit for being brave enough to stand up to you and defend me.”
Magni rubbed the bridge of his nose. “There’s that. The boy has serious balls. If only he had brains too.”
“He’s not stupid.”
“You don’t think picking a fight with me was stupid?”
“I would call it foolish.”
“Same thing, Laura.” Magni played with my hair. “But to be fair, I was the same way at his age. Always thinking I was invincible and immortal.”
“And now?”
“Now I know that I have a big weakness. I don’t fear rebels or warriors, but I fear you.”
“Because I’ve learned to fight?” I winked at him.
He smiled and leaned in to plant a slow kiss on my lips. “What I meant was that I fear losing you.”
I held up my thumb and index finger, letting them almost touch. “Aren’t you just a little bit scared of fighting me?”
He laughed. “I’m terrified of fighting you.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet of you to say.”
“Imagine if I hurt you by accident; that would be unforgivable.”
I pretended to be offended and tried to get up from his lap, but Magni held on to me and his low chuckle made me soft inside.
“Where do you think you’re going? We did the talking.” His eyes fell to the bed with an insinuating smile.
“You want make-up sex?”
He nodded and slid his hand up my leg. “It’s been a month and I’ve thought about you non-stop.”
Nuzzling the hair on his nape, I whispered, “I thought about you too. I regretted that I didn’t tell you how much I loved and admired you.”
“Admired, huh?”
“Magni, when your Huntsmen came to find you, one of them told us a story about how you took his place as a hostage last year.”
“Hmm. And you want to know why I didn’t tell you about it. There was no need to worry you.”
“I want to know how you got away from those men.”
Magni shrugged. “Laura, sweetie, most rebels are disgruntled men who have no military background. They talk a big talk, but have little to back it up.”
“But they had tortured your men.”
“True, and that’s why I showed the rebels no mercy. It was supposed to be an easy assignment so I sent a team of new guys to take care of it. They were too green; it was my fault that I hadn’t sent a more experienced group to deal with it.”
“But the rebels had weapons and you volunteered to be a hostage. How did you get out of that situation?”
“With your training you should know that a warrior like me doesn’t need weapons to defend myself. They were amateurs who overestimated the threat of a gun to my face.”
“They held a gun to your face?”
“Not for long.”
“But how did you unarm them?”
“I’ll show you some other time, but right now I want to make love to you.”
I angled my head with a curious smile. “Not fuck me?”
“I’ll do that in round two.” Magni was kissing me and pushing me back on the bed when a knock sounded on the door.
“Not now,” he shouted.
“Magni?”
We both raised our heads and looked to the door at the sound of Mila’s voice.
With some speed, Magni got up to open the door. Mila had turned around and was running away with her head lowered.
“Mila honey,” he called and ran after her.
She turned her head and still looked sad when Magni kneeled in front of her. I couldn’t hear what he told her, but he was holding her hands and had his head close to hers looking apologetic.
Mila listened and when he was done talking, she lifted her hand and placed it on his cheek.
They looked at each other and he said a few more words waiting for her reply. I was no great lip reader, but it looked like Mila spoke the words “I forgive you.”
Magni hugged her and rose up from the ground with Mila still in his arms. Her feet dangled over the ground and her arms were gripping fiercely around his neck. When he turned to me, I saw tears in his eyes. Magni had never looked more attractive to me than he did at that moment.