Warning: Explicit Sexual Situations
Explicit Language
You Should See Me in a Crown
Chapter Two
4 Years Ago — Kattegat
"I love you." I gasp out, my body gathering a thin sheen of sweat and my nails dig in to Ivar's back when he curls his warm fingers inside me, leading me to my come apart underneath him.
My thighs absentmindedly spread wider, greedy for everything he's willing to give me. His lips press to my neck and his teeth tug at the skin, his fingers refusing to relent despite me whimpering from the amount of sensitivity.
He chuckles quietly at my wanton lust and pulls away from my throat to look me in the eyes.
Heat pulses through me once again, his hard-driven fingers merciless in their sinful pursuit to completely break me.
He's successful, causing tears to slip past my closed lids and a loud moan to come from my mouth to let everyone else within earshot know what we're doing. Neither of us care, though. We stopped caring when Ubbe and Hvitserk walked in on us months back and Ivar didn't bother to stop
He just slowed down and grew impatient when his brothers were too struck with shock to remember what they needed to speak to him about.
Ivar takes his fingers from me, putting them in his mouth to taste me.
Despite how comfortable we are with one another, I still can't help but turn crimson red by his action. Before I have time to shy away from him, he's hooking his muscular arms around my thighs and pulling them over his shoulders.
Every curse word in existence falls from my lips when his tongue laps at me to clean me the way he did his fingers.
When he's had his fill, he wipes his mouth and pulls himself up to kiss me.
I hum, his tongue intertwining with mine and his hand gently grasps my throat.
"I love you, too." He finally replies when he pulls away.
He falls beside me and I turn to rest my arm across his chest.
The warm fur underneath us keeps us from the cold ground and he pulls the another fur, that's halfway down our bodies, up to our shoulders to cover us up.
I'm still catching my breath, trying to regain my energy so I won't be drained when I go back home.
Ivar notices my struggle of heaving deep breaths and chuckles.
"Not so bad for a cripple, huh?" He mumbles against my forehead, his calloused palm brushing over my bare breast. A shudder runs through me and I have to sever my lip between my teeth to keep quiet.
I roll over, resting on him, my arm against his chest. His hand comes up to massage my scalp and the simple pleasure makes me nearly forget what I was going to say to him.
"What are we going to do about my parents, Ivar?" I ask him finally and he raises his brows.
"We tell them the truth." He says. "That you sneak out of your house at night to meet me anywhere so I can defile you."
I gently hit his chest, trying to keep from laughing too loud.
"My father would kill you." I say after a moment, my voice serious and he shakes his head a little.
"He will be too drunk to truly put up a proper fight." He argues and I would find it humorous...if it weren't all too true.
We're silent for a few minutes, and I try to swallow down the lump in my throat, feeling as if I'm suffocating.
I pull myself into a sitting position, pulling the fur up to cover my chest and his hand runs up and down my back.
"I didn't mean to upset you." He says quietly and I look at him over my shoulder.
"Worse has been said of my father, Ivar. Your words do not affect me like they once would have." I assure him. "My father has not been himself for many years now. My mother's infidelity with my uncle hurt him too deeply to quite recover. I've always felt if he didn't numb himself, that he'd kill her."
Ivar doesn't speak, his hand just skimming across my skin in a soothing manner.
I couldn't imagine hurting Ivar in that way, but I can't help but wonder how he would react. Would he kill the man or simply ignore the fact he's hurting by staying full of mead and whiskey?
"What would you do if I were to do such a thing?"
His hand stills, and I can feel it balling in to a fist. Perhaps he's imagining me under one of his brothers, letting them please me in the one way he can't.
"I will never be able to kill you, Iskra. No matter how angry I become with you." His words hold promise that makes me smile faintly to myself. "But I would never forgive you and a part of me would hate you for it."
I nod understandably and look at him again.
"I will never hurt you like that and neither will any of your brothers. They love you too much to betray you so deeply." My hand grasps his, my lips pressing to the back of it.
He smiles, fingers gently grasping my chin to bring my lips down to his.
"Issy," Delilah gently shakes me from my slumber and my eyes blink open slowly. "It is early morning. We need to continue."
I groan, rubbing my forehead and sitting up.
The sun is barely peaking through the trees and I look at Delilah.
She looks chipper and happy...of course she's a morning person. How convenient being I operate best at night.
"C'mon," She nudges me with her foot. She's already got her things packed and strapped to her horse and I stretch and bring myself to a stand. "It shouldn't be much long before we reach York. When we get everything settled there, you can rest."
"What money are we going to use to buy a thing there?" The thought crosses my mind and her face falls.
"I gave you the coins." She states.
"No, you didn't." I argue with furrowed brows.
"Iskra, yes I did. I gave it to you when we bid goodbye to Heahmund."
"Delilah, no you didn't."
"Iskra, Heahmund gave me the money, I thanked him, told him goodbye and gave the money to you!" She exclaims in frustration, stomping her foot.
"No, you didn't. He gave you the money, you thanked him, told him goodbye and handed it to—"
My face drops at the memory of sitting the money on our table at our home in Sherborne.
I say something I haven't heard since leaving Kattegat. Something I grew up hearing from every man around me when something did not go the way they planned.
"Oh, fuck me!" I complain, groaning loudly in irritation with myself.
"I no longer doubt you being raised by Northmen." She says blankly as she crosses her arms. "And to think you pray to your God with that mouth."
"I've done much worse with my mouth, I assure you, now where did I put that bag?" I say as I dig through my things and she raises her brows at what I just implied.
"What?"
"Nothing, virgin Delilah." I wave my hand at her to dismiss what I said and she cuts her eyes at me.
"I'm repulsed." She informs me and I roll my eyes.
"So was God, Lilah. Now can you help me find this and stop standing there counting all my sins?"
She relents, stepping to me and grabbing my satchel, helping me dig through it.
"Are you not taught to value your own body and save your intimacy for your spouse?"
"Absolutely. Child sacrifice is acceptable but if we sleep with someone before we're married to them, Odin bans us from Valhalla." I say sarcastically and she rolls her jaw.
"Well, I didn't know how far your people consider 'too far'." She argues.
"I've never heard of 'too far' until now, if that tells you anything and I can't find the money." I give up, sighing.
"Yeah, I can't find it either." She rubs her forehead. "So we've moved to a new city with no money to purchase anything."
"We'll see how real this God is that we trust in so much." I state and she looks at me, but doesn't say anything.
•••
It only takes a few hours to reach York, the town thriving through the gap between the trees. We look on from where we came from on the grass covered hill and Delilah smiles brightly.
"We made it." She's relieved and I look at her.
"We have no money." I remind her and she shakes her head.
"We won't need it. God will provide. As he always has."
I just nod a couple times, but still worry as I look at the city.
"Ascension is in a few days." She says calmly. "Surely they won't turn away strangers on a day so close to our faith."
"You clearly have not met a self-righteous Christian." I scoff. "They make pagans look holy."
We just look at York for a minute more, about to make our way down from the hill we're on.
Just as we're about to turn, the smell of fire wafts through the air and the two of us exchange looks.
"What's that smell?" She asks and I furrow my brows slightly, smelling the familiar scent of burning herbs that were used to lace the wood piles when we would make sacrifices to the Gods.
Not just any sacrifices, human sacrifices.
"Oh, hell." I mumble, my eyes widening in the direction the smoke's coming from.
Thumping drums start sounding in the thicket of woods and I'm torn between ignoring what's going on, and going to attempt to save whoever's dying.
I try to pretend nothing's happening, but I swear I feel a scalding burn from the silver cross around my neck that Heahmund gifted to me and I hiss, tugging at the reigns of my horse to get him to turn on the direction of the drums.
I start praying, tucking the cross under the top of my dress to keep it hidden.
"Put your cross away." I tell her between my talking to God and she furrows her brows.
"What?" She's confused, and I exhale, finishing my prayer by crossing my chest. "What's wrong?" She asks me.
"You'll see it clearly." Is all I say before nudging at my horse's sides enough to get him to start running and she follows on her own horse.
The more the drumming gets closer and louder, the more I'm praying in my mind.
"Woah," I pull back on the reigns and come to a halt, sliding off the horse to tie him up to a tree.
Delilah stops and does the same.
We're not that far from the sacrifice, and I make sure she's equipped with at least two weapons before we run the rest of the way.
We get to the small clearing in the woods, hiding behind trees, seeing the woman holding a rusted knife, dancing around the smoking wood as two young boys, two children, are tied to the stack of wood. There's a crowd of warriors, watching with pride and I feel sick.
"Tell me they aren't..." Delilah's horrified, barely able to speak. Tears are thick in her voice and I look at her.
"The Gods demand sacrifice in order to help in battle. It's like a payment." I explain lowly and she tries to take calm breaths.
"What are we planning to do?" She asks and I rub my lips together.
"I don't really have a plan." I admit and she snaps her face to meet mine. "I didn't think I'd have the balls to get this close."
"You're pathetic." She grumbles.
"I've seen first hand what happens to people like us, Delilah. Excuse me for not jumping for joy at the idea of interrupting a sacrifice."
"You're saving someone else's life though."
"I tend to be flight over fight."
"You mean cowardly?"
"I would call it self-preservation."
"I call it selfish." She states with a raised brow.
"It's called surviving, Delilah."
"Why did you want Heahmund to train you if you weren't going to utilize your skill?" She asks sharply and I glare at her.
"I said I run when things get difficult. I never said I wanted to be defenseless."
She doesn't reply, her eyes studying the woman about to perform the sacrifice. She licks the knife, swaying with the drums and the sick feeling grows within me.
Delilah's hand hovers over her axe and I glare at her.
"No, no, what are you doing?" I ask her and she eases closer to the crowd. The woman raises the knife to the first child's throat. "Delilah, don't—"
The body hits the floor of the Forrest, leaving the targeted child alive and the crowd turns to their right to see the origin of the axe that collided with the woman's skull.