"Shield up, Jedi!" Bonnie bellowed when Guthrum allowed his defense to dip once again. "Stay on guard and remain vigilant for the moment to turn the fight to your advantage!"

For almost two months she and Sigurd had trained Guthrum within an inch of his life. Neither held back. For the stakes towered above them all. If he were to survive the next couple of battles he'd have to be battle ready. She'd help Hvitserk train each of Ivar's warriors and she knew every one of them were capable of blood drenched devastation. Ivar hadn't become sole king of England from simply wishing it so.

"I wouldn't worry overmuch for your young inquisitor," Ayanna said as she came to stand next to her in the clearing in front of her keep. "Once you offer him favor, he'll become as formidable a warrior as Sigurd."

"Inquisitor, favo—what?" She tore her stare from Sigurd and Guthrum to glare at Ayanna. "Guthrum isn't going to be my inquisitor and there's no way in a Christian hell I'll be showing him favor. He's just a child!" She hissed shouted. "A child I've come to love like my own."

Ayanna cocked a brow. "Then all of this is for naught and you intend to allow him to meet his fate on the battlefield."

"Of course not." She rolled her eyes back to the sparring twosome. "All if this is for the very purpose of properly preparing him for battle. To prevent him from meeting his end."

"Then why are you resistant to binding his fate to yours?" Ayanna glared at her from under a pair of crumpled brows. "You and I know well this is the only means in which you may thwart fate without consequences."

"We'll see about that." She raised her hand to call an end to training. "Enough! Let's head back to Kattegat so we can get cleaned up before second meal."

"There will never be another more faithful than he! Do not squander a greater fate for him because sentiment forces you to attempt to hold something as fleeting as yester rising." Ayanna gave her a pointed look before heading back into her keep.

Bonnie pushed Ayanna's warning to the back of her mind. She loved her foremother, seriously she did, but she needed to keep her opinions about Guthrum to herself. Especially, since she knew nothing of their dynamic. Guthrum was like a son to her. Inviting him to be one with her was a perversion she refused to contemplate or tolerate. She would save Guthrum and she would do it on her own terms.

By the time they made it back to Kattegat Bjorn was bringing about an end to his training session with the warriors and shieldmaidens. He approached them with his too intense stare locked upon her. Without breaking his stride he grabbed her arm and tugged her along with him. When they reached an enclosure near one of the outpost by the gate, he huddled her in and snatched her close to his chest. A fraction of a second later his mouth descended upon hers.

"Bjorn," she mumbled between a series of hot pecks. He lifted her so the bulge in his pants anchored her to the planked wall. "We've talked about this. Your married and this is not...ooh, right there, right there!"

He rolled his hips and bucked into her deprived center twice. "There?" He growled.

"Yes, my protector," she purred in his ear.

"Arg!" He groaned as he fisted her breast in a tight grip. "Invite me to your bed furs. Plead with me to rip you free of these," he yanked on her leather pants, "so I may plunge my prick deep within your depths. Give yourself to me, Mystical One. For there is only you and me."

"And your wife, Bjorn!" She thumped him on the shoulder to be put down.

Placing her on the ground, he frowned down at her. As if she'd been the one to run off and jump the broom on him. "Why must you always wedge her between you and I?"

"You mean your wife?" Her face scrunched while her mind searched for some sort of understanding to explain his ridiculous line of questioning.

"Ack!" He batted her words away with a flapping hand.

He attempted to turn away from her, but she grabbed his arm. "No! No, no! You asked a question Ironside. Do you not wish for an answer now?"

"Cast Guthrum from your keep this eve." He spun on her and crowded her back into the corner of the enclosure. "Allow me to come to you after second meal."

His hands slipped under her shirt to fondle her breasts. He hunched down to bite and suck at the crook of her neck. "I w-will not...it's Guthrum's home as much as it's mine. I can't just force him to leave because you wanna have an affair on your wife."

He released an exhale which sounded to be born of sheer annoyance. "It's not apt for you to live alone with him."

"Why not? Guthrum and Hali used to spend more time at my keep than you and Torvi's," she said beyond confused at exactly what the hell he was attempting to imply. "In fact, Hali and Asa has been slumbering there for the past four eves."

"Can you not sight the boy is besotted with you? He's no longer the child you once doted on, he's a man with urges that are likened to one!"

"You're crazy! Guthrum has long since moved pass the innocent crush he had on me." She poked him in the chest to drive home her outrage. "You're the only one who's besotted with me despite your poor wife."

He once again waved off the subject of his wife. "Misremember her and speak to me of this, if he holds no affections for you then why does he follow you about? Why does he refuse to be trained properly by me in favor of being trained by you, hmm?"

Her eyes flared as offense snatched her mouth wide. "What the hell is that supposed to mean, Ironside?!"

"It's clear to me you understand my meaning," he said, folding his arms across his chest to regard her with the smugness that always made her want to beat him senseless.

"Guthrum chooses to train with me because he wants to learn from the star starting player and not the second string nobody." She placed her hand on her hip, saw his smug expression and raised him a smirk.

The smugness faded from his features as malice simmered in his eyes. "What did you say to me?"

"Oh, get the wax out of your ears!" She yelled stalking forth to stand toe to toe with him. "And Hear me, and I mean hear me well. While you were in the Mediterranean sunbathing, I was putting in work and knocking Saxon armies on their backs. So when I say he wants the best, I know you know well exactly what I'm saying!"

His eyes stretched as his head bobbed. "Is this so?"

"Kattegat's training grounds offers not only space, but opportunity as well." Her head bobbed and weaved as she gave him the business John D. Rockefeller style. "Anytime you wanna take advantage of that amenity then it's on go because I'm so not worried about you I won't even need notice."

"Ah!" A smile rippled across his face as his eyes glittered with a sheen one would've likened to hunger. "Since your certain of your teaching skills why not place a wager?"

She blinked. "A wager?"

"You say Guthrum chooses to train with you because your teaching skills are superior to my own, then why not place him in a sparring contest with my best warrior."

"What are the stakes?" She lifted her chin to stare down the length of her nose at him.

"If my warrior is victorious then you'll bathe and groom me until I'm too weakened to stand," he said reaching out to palm her breast.

She slapped his outstretched hand away. "And if I win?"

He lifted and dropped a shoulder. "Then I shall bathe and groom you."

"No!" She grabbed the front of his tunic and yanked him down until they were face to face. "If I win, you'll put in genuine time with Guthrum and not just deal with him in passing. You'll take him under your wing as you will Hali when he reaches his older brother's age."

He scoffed. "I don't-,"

"You'll treat him as a son you honor, for that is who Guthrum should be to you, Ironside!" She yelled into his face. "An honored son! You are the only father he's ever known and I'll not have Guthrum around here with daddy issues because you chose to impersonate a deadbeat and drop the ball. I've seen firsthand what those type of problems can do to an extremely talented and intelligent mind." She pushed him away and exhaled. "I refuse to allow that to happen to him."

"Yes, yes, yes, but if my warrior is triumphant then-,"

"If by the oft chance your warrior bests Guthrum in the contest," her eyes rolled as she stalked around him, "not only will I bathe and groom you, but I'll give you an eve that will remain engraved upon the walls of your mind long after you've swaggered through the golden gates of Valhalla."

"How's she fared since last I was here?" Ivar questioned Thomas as he peered through a slit in the cloth barrier. Freydis lay upon the mattress staring at a vision unseen by gazes other than her own.

"She's remained unchanged, King Ivar," Thomas said in a tone overran with indifference. "She refuses to eat, rarely sleeps, and she relieves herself where she lies. Sheila's taken to washing her twice a rising."

Ivar nodded, and then entered the small dwelling. Her gaze didn't even shift to him upon his arrival. She made no show she knew he was about. This had been her way since the still birth of their daughter. Upon first sight one would've assumed the babe to be fat with health. Much to full-bodied for a child born nigh four new moons early. Yet, when the seer placed the still babe within his arms he knew the right of it. One only had to behold the glow of blue cast upon his daughter's skin. The babe appeared as if life had been sucked from her tiny body. How could he not know? His guilt convicted him every rising when he awoke and every eve when slumber refused to take him. The gods had cursed he and Freydis for the mistreatment of their most high.

Without saying a word, Ivar joined Freydis on the bed. He pulled her stiff body into his arms and held her to his chest. The grief she suffered was not foreign to him. In verity, it weighed upon him every moment of the rising. Mocking him in every child's laughter or every babe's wail which met his ears. There was no relief for him. So, he could only imagined the torment she bore after carrying their daughter. Feeling her move every instance of a rising only to have such an experience torn away. He indeed understood the fracturing of her mind.

"You shall be off to claim your home land soon," Freydis' brittle voice disturbed the chaotic silence of the room.

He exhaled. "This is true."

"Will you make me a vow, Ivar?" A wealth of emotion lowered her tone to nigh a whisper.

"A vow?"

"Will you vow to smite down the witch who killed our babe?" A sob tore from the depths of her small frame as fat drops of tears dripped from her eyes. "C-Cut out her heart as many times as it may take until she lives no more!"

He snatched her from him to glare down into her drenched face. "What are you saying? To whom do you refer, hmm?!"

"You know well who! Your heathen whore! That filthy disgusting dark witch!" She screamed as she began to pummel his face and chest with her fists. "She killed my baby! She killed my baby!"

He shoved her away from him. His personal warriors stormed the dwelling. When she moved to attack him once again, his guards seized her. She fought against their hold for several long moments until she grew tired.

Once she did and he knew his words would reach her he spoke. "Freydis, I know we've suffered a grievous loss, but you must remember yourself and censor your words. I'll not tolerate such irreverence spoken against my love's name!" He lifted his legs from the bed and rose. "Have you misremembered it was you who dared to trespass on what belonged to her? What we bear now are the consequences of our sordid actions."

"How can you say such things?" She wailed through fractured sobs. "How can your heart still turn to her after what she did to our babe?"

"My Bonnie would never harm a babe! Especially, a babe born of me," he said as his head dropped to consider his booted toes. "Children are blessings to her no matter their origins. No this is the will of the gods. For they know she'll never level judgement against me. So they do so in her stead."

She lifted her unnaturally murky blue glare to drill holes through him by visual means. "I shall celebrate the day when my Goddess devours all of your gods. Including the one you all claim as Most High."

"Freydis, our fate is no longer bound together by the life of our child." He lifted his gaze to regard her. "It is now pass time for you and I to part ways. Fear not, for I shall weight your purse before your departure. Yet, depart you must."

He moved passed her to exit the tent. She grabbed his arm, while fear snatched her eyes wide and round. "You mustn't cast me adrift, my king! I shall surely perish from grief alone!"

"I fare you well, Freydis." He studied her a moment longer, attempting to dredge up some sort of affection for the woman who'd birthed his only child into Midgard.

Yet, he felt nothing for her. Not the kinship a man would think to have with the mother of his babe. Not even an emotion as fleeting as infatuation. Only vacuous indifference dwelled within him when he looked upon her. With nothing further spoken, he turned from her and sought his leave of the small keep.

"IVAR!"

Ubbe slipped from Torvi's keep a couple of turns of the hour glass before first rising's light. He was minded to return to his dwelling, but nostalgia guided him towards the cove where he'd misplaced his heart. He'd only just approached manhood then. Yet, he knew Bonnie would own him until his time on Midgard lingered no more. If only his foolish mind would've known then what he now knew, she'd be his wife and her belly more likely than not would be filled with his fourth babe.

As he moved towards the water he noticed a figure lay by the shore. The stranger stared into the fading colors of the northern lights. His heart missed a beat...then two. For his heart recognized his love long before his eyes could. Without uttering a word he advanced, and then lay beside her. For several long moments they lay there in peaceable silence. Him content to listen to each of her breaths and drown in her intoxicating flowered scent. The wild and magical lilt of her fragrance always calmed and incited him all at once.

"My heart mourns," she uttered without tearing her gaze from the heavens. "It has been so since I sought my leave of Vestfold. Nothing relieves the ache at the center of my breasts. It's something I'm learning to live with." A long sigh crept from her beautiful mouth, lengthy in its exhale as a tear rolled from the corner of her eye. "Yet, there are times like this eve when the cries from within my heart are too loud for me to stand. These are the moments when I venture here and stare into the heavens for fleeting moments when I can see his face." She tore her gaze from the northern lights to consider him. "Only here, am I offered refuge and solace from the pain in irreplaceable memories of times gone by."

Then and there he understood who held her incomparable heart and who always would. The one whom they'd always pitied and thought to be lesser than them, she somehow believed to be the greater of them all.

"It was always going to be Ivar."

A smile bothered the corners of her lips. "And Hvitserk, and Bjorn, and Sigurd, and even you Ubbe. Despite the many times I cursed fire upon your crotch." Her admission narrowed his gaze and her blossoming smile took a wistful turn. "You and your brothers are fate's consolation to me."

"I..." He shook his head. "I don't understand."

"Long ago fate took something from me. Something which, though she's want to try, cannot be replaced." Bonnie's gaze returned to the heavens. "So she offers me pieces of my one great love in the five impressive foot prints he left behind. Yet, instead of helping me she has cursed me. For now my heart is divided and splinters more with each passing rising. This is the plight I bear Ubbe, second eldest son of Ragnar."

Though she claimed to love them all, the ever present sorrow in her eyes bespoke a truth her mouth wouldn't willingly admit. "It confounds me of there ever being a time when you could've loved my father." He laughed to himself. "Yet, I've long since learned you and logic aren't often amicable bed fellows. So I refuse to squander time attempting to make sense of the senseless. However, there is one verity I'll acknowledge." This pilfered her attention from the heavens and settled it upon him. "You declare to love us all, but the affection you have for Ivar somehow differs. It's more significant in its potency. We've all sensed it. Helheim, we've all resented and despised him such a fortune." She snatched her gaze away. "Do you deny it?"

Her verdant gaze reluctantly collided with his. She shook her head. "He's the sole keeper of my heart, and the one my sorcery has chosen above all. As much as I would like to repossess the battered organ from his careless hands, the mystical energy which flows through me will never allow it."

"He mistreated you," he whispered as he reached out and cupped her cheek.

"Oh, My Beautiful Dreamer," Her responding fragile laugh nigh devastated him, "he gutted me and still there remains a part of me that wishes for nothing more than to crawl back to him. How pathetic am I...your Most High?"

"You're not pathetic. You just deserve more than you've been offered. I saw it when you gave me favor and I see it now." He leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers. She tasted just as he remembered or perhaps even sweeter.

She broke the caress of their tongues. Her breaths came in short gasps. "You smell of Torvi and taste of her too."

His brows creased as his face scrunched. "What would you know of the way Torvi tastes?"

She offered him a smirk bred from secrets and mystery, before climbing to her feet. "I've gotta go. Guthrum is facing off with one of Bjorn's best warriors this rising. Before he does I have to be certain he's ready to make his father a believer."

"Alright, Jedi. What are the three most important things to remember?" Bonnie asked Guthrum as she slathered Vaseline all over him.

"When to take a hit, why to take a hit, and how to take a hit," he parroted back to her with his gaze fixed across the training grounds on his father who stood with a group of his warriors gawking at them.

She grabbed the sides of his face and returned his gaze to her. "Why is this important?"

He exhaled, and then nodded. "Because fifty percent of the battle is defense, and the only way to ensure a seamless defense is to learn the attack so that you may anticipate it."

"Absolutely." Pride swelled in her chest and burst her rib cage wide. She pushed his freshly braided hair from his shoulders to hang down his back. "Your father is Mike Tyson. He fights toe to toe when hand to hand combat ensues. So, it's more than likely he's taught his warriors to be baby Tyson's as well, but you mustn't follow suit." She gave her head a firm shake. "No you mustn't! If your opponent becomes Mike then you better make like the greatest. Float like a butterfly and sting like a steroid juiced up bee!" She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and glared into his midnight blue stare. "You better fuck him up!"

"Valkyrie?" Ubbe thought to scold.

"Bonnie, perhaps you could be a little gentler in-," Torvi began.

"Now is not the time to pop a titty in his mouth, Torvi! Soon he'll engage in a battle for his very life against the savages who are not long for our shores." She growled through the clench of her teeth. "So hear me and hear me well when I say this...I need him gutter to hell with gentle."

"It's alright, mother," Guthrum said cutting an eye at Torvi. "Bonsie's speaks without error. Gentle will not see me without harm to the other side of this war." His serious gaze flicked back to her. "Worry not, my favored girl! I will fuck him up."

A grin tugged at the corner of her mouth as she pushed the side of his head. "You better or it'll be me you'll face in the training clearing instead of Sigurd!"

He bobbed his head in a solemn nod. At that moment, the warriors on Bjorn's side of the grounds parted. A massive man a few inches shy of seven feet stepped into the center of the battling circle. He turned to glare at Guthrum, bared his teeth and growled. What the hell? A Nephilim! Oh Ironside had tried it! Her eyes slitted to closed lid proportions as she stalked to the middle of the circle. The giant of a man dropped to one knee in a reverent bow. She marched pass him to take it to Bjorn.

"Oh hell no!" She bellowed as she went from Tony "Duke" Evers to mama bear in zero point one second flat. "Exactly, what are you trying to pull here, Ironside! This warrior is seasoned! He's nearly twice his size and age." Bjorn just smirked down at her without saying anything. Her head cocked to the side, before her head bobbed. "Oh okay." She shrugged off her cloak. "If you insist on fighting him, then I'll face him in Guthrum's place."

Guthrum grabbed her arm. "Bonnie, no!"

"You will not! We were in agreement that Guthrum would fight my best warrior and make no mistake this is not he," Bjorn said jerking a thumb at the still kneeling and bowing warrior. "This warrior is only in his second summer of battle training, without any battle experience. He and Guthrum are well matched. Asides, they're the same age."

Bonnie scoffed.

"Supreme, you used to tell me sagas of the tiny warrior Rudy who led his Notre Dame army to a championship despite his diminutive size," the warrior said peeping up at her from his bow.

Her eyes popped and her bottom lip dropped. The little boy she'd told those stories to was the smallest of all the kids his age. All of the other children bullied him, including Guthrum. Even his older brothers and father gave him shit for his size. She remembered, because he reminded her of Klaus with his crystal blue eyes and dirty blonde hair.

"Leif?" She spun around and gasped, beyond stunned by the sheer size of him now.

A timid smile worried the corners of his mouth. "Yes, Most High."

"Just look at you!" She rushed over to him and pulled his head to her breasts in an awkward hug since he still knelt. "Didn't I tell you little engines could?" Pulling his head from her chest, she peppered kisses all over his face.

Laughter rumbled through the gathered crowd. Bjorn stormed over and yanked her off the giant man boy by the arm. "Leif is my champion but make no mistake he will not be receiving the victor's spoils. All of your favors belong to me and me alone." He waved his hand in the air. "Now let us begin, first meal will not devour itself!"

"Supreme," King Svase said with a rather formal bow for the very informal setting.

"Most High," Princess Snaefrid murmured.

She nodded. The princess gazed back at her with googly eyes. She felt like a cross between Beyoncé and Rihanna at a Navy and Beehive convention. She gave Bjorn a pointed look before turning her stare on Guthrum and Leif who now circled each other. Each assessing for a weakened moment to attack.

She clapped her hands. "You got this Guthrum...you too Leif!"

Sigurd and Guthrum shot her a glare. She shrugged. Seriously, how did they expect her not to cheer for the underdog turned champion? The underdog used that moment to smash Guthrum in the face with a fist the size of a ham shank. A gasp tumbled from her mouth as her hand clutched at her chest.

"Vow you won't interfere," Bjorn hissed next to her.

She blinked. "What?"

"Swear here and now you won't attempt to use your sorcery to aid Guthrum."

"O-Of course I won't," she sputtered, unable to tear her eyes away from her Jedi who'd took another fist to the gut.

"Swear it!" Bjorn demanded.

"I swear, I swear!" She yelled swatting him away, wanting nothing more than to concentrate on her protégé who at this point was getting beaten worse than a well-used tambourine.

Sigurd sidled up next to her. "I know we taught him how to take a hit, but did either of us remember to teach him how to land one?"

She cut an evil glare at Sigurd. "Guthrum knows exactly what he's doing. This is all part of a grander scheme."

Bonnie cast her gaze back to the beating taking place front and center. Leif had managed to pick up Guthrum in a bone crushing bear hug of sorts. Agony twisted his features into a purplish red testament of excruciating suffering.

"Come on, Jedi." She muttered to herself. "You've everything you need to back him up off of you."

Soon as the words crossed her lips Guthrum head butted Leif. Blood gushed from the giant boy's nose and mouth. Stunned he dropped Guthrum and staggered a bit. Not sparing an opportunity her Jedi Knight kicked his disoriented opponent in the knee cap. Leif bent forward to grab his injured leg, Guthrum drilled him in the face with his own knee, and then followed up with a punch to the throat.

Bonnie laughed and jabbed a thumb at her chest. "I taught him that!"

Leif crashed an elbow down on top of Guthrum's head and dropped him faster than Nike dropped Pacquiao. Bjorn grinned as he folded his arms across his chest. "And I taught him that."

Leif moved to finish Guthrum with a kick to the face. A ripple of mystical energy disturbed the air before Leif's trousers fell around his ankles. Gasps and laughter flowed through the gathering. Bjorn slitted glare discovered her wide disbelieving stare. She raised her hands and shook her head. Guthrum snatched their attention back to the match by jumping to his feet. Hitting a soaring back flip, he drove a powerful kick fueled by potent mystical energy in to the back of Leif's head. When the hell did she show him the Jaden Smith version of Karate Kid? Forcing herself through the shock, she moved to see to Leif. Without intervention such a blow would kill him. Silence fell over the crowd.

"Bonnie?" Guthrum called as she rushed pass him.

When she fell to his side the over grown boy had already began to choke on his own blood. His pupils appeared fixed and distant. She sliced open her wrist by thought alone and placed it to his mouth. "You don't get to sup in the Halls of Valhalla tonight Little Engine. You've a name to make for yourself, just like Rudy," she whispered next to his ear. "Come on back."

She felt it when his dormant energy and spirit drifted back to his body. When his gaze focused on her, she released a breath. He reached up to touch her face. "I wasn't going to Valhalla. The woman called it Nirvana," he said with renewed strength in his voice. "She says that's where warriors go when they choose you."

Before she could answer him warriors came over and helped him to his feet, while others congratulated she and Sigurd on Guthrum's training. Bjorn just stood to the side with a smile on his face as if his warrior had won. Guthrum hurried over to hug her, but she stopped him with a palm to his chest.

"You and I will have words after first meal," she said nailing him with a no shit taking glare.

He nodded before moving on to speak with his mother and Ubbe.

"I'll expect you in our keep by the inlet after second meal," Bjorn's deep baritone greeted her ear.

She scoffed. "I know that's wrong, Viking! My warrior nearly killed yours. If not for me then...shit!" She'd interfered.

He grinned at her, and then turned to address his warriors. What the hell? How in the world was she gonna avoid cashing out a debt her ass didn't have the funds to cover? Bjorn had carried around multiple of her sexual IOU's for years. She highly doubted he'd allow her to slide him another one. No, her bill had come due and he had every intention on seeing she paid in full.

Bonnie entered her keep after first meal to discover Guthrum attempting to nurse the injuries he'd received in the contest. Instant guilt assaulted her. While his defeated opponent moved about Kattegat damage free. The son of her heart and confirmed winner of the day's match appeared two shallow breaths from the hall of Eternity's doors.

She moved into the room and took the seat next to him on the sectional. The wet strips of fabric slipped from his hands as he stared up at her through a slitted swollen gaze. If her heart hadn't already been dust then the look of him would've surely obliterated the damn thing. Unable to stand the sight of him any longer, she lifted her hands and allowed her mystical energy to seep from her palms in a heated haze. The golden vapor drifted over him, healing every injured part of him at every point of contact. Once done, he once again appeared to be her perfect boy.

"Guthrum," She began, her voice stern but gentle. "How long has your sorcery been active?"

He stared down at the scrap of fabric now twisted in his fingers. His shoulders rose and fell. "Since you sailed for the Mediterranean."

"Why didn't you tell me when I returned?" She placed her hand on his to draw his gaze to hers. When his sapphire stare collided with hers, she continued. "I could've helped you understand what was going on with you."

"Because upon your return it was decided you'd be departing again." He offered her a forced smile. "To avenge Ragnar. This was of more import."

"No, Jedi," she cradled his cheek in her palm, "You are more important to me. Nothing matters more to me than you, Hali, Asa, and your mother's well-being. You all are my family, and family always comes first."

"Even before Leif?" He muttered in a rare spike of jealousy. His gaze rediscovered his lap.

She suppressed a smile with a press of the lips. "Guthrum you and the other kids were horrible little assholes to Leif. You and I both know you deserved to be beaten like Tommy Lee's drums."

His brows scrunched. "Who?"

She waved him off. "No worries, your next lesson will be in the future of music when this is all said and done. Now come, show me what you can do."

A hint of a smile interrupted the normally indifferent slant of his mouth. Amber fire lit his indigo eyes before one of the fresh flowers sitting in a vase in the middle of the dining table floated across the room to place itself in his palm. He laid the blossom on her lap. Her gaze dropped to the white lily as she considered what Guthrum having active powers could mean. Extremely potent active powers. Once honed his sorcery would be a force that even nature knew nothing about. Was this possible because of Jarl Borg his biological father?

"Jedi, we're gonna add more time to our training regimen," she pressed her forehead against his and rested her palm on the nape of his neck. "Magical training will become part of your curriculum as well. When I'm done with you, you're gonna be the greatest battle sorcerer Midgard has ever known."

Bonnie stared up at the moonless cloudy night sky. She'd trekked through the forest to the cabin next to the inlet to offer Bjorn the better part of her mind. She'd gone over the agreement made between them during the match in her head. Although she vowed not to utilize her sorcery to aide Guthrum, she never vowed such a thing about Leif. The fact he'd attempted to lure her into his bed with such an underhanded deception spoke volumes of the man who'd actually returned from the Mediterranean.

Without knocking, she barged into the cabin expecting to discover some romantic trap that would ease the parting of her thighs. Yet what she found was a pacing Bjorn who appeared as nervous as she pretended not to be.

Upon her entrance, he halted and spun to regard her. "Mystical One, though I want to take you to my bed furs, it wouldn't be well of me to do so by such means. Guthrum triumphed over my warrior by no aid of you. Leif is fortunate you favored him enough to keep him bound to Midgard. For war will be upon us soon and every sword has to be accounted for." He began to pace again. "I also believe Kattegat's warriors and shieldmaidens would all do well if we both trained them in a joint-,"

"Oh shut the hell up and kiss me, Ironside!" She launched herself into his arms and covered his mouth with hers.

They kissed and grinded into each other for several long moments until Bjorn tore his mouth from hers. He gazed down at her with a heavy lidded stare. "Let's not move with haste. We've the entire eve, and if Odin still favors me, we shall have many eves to come."

She nodded, almost shy in her reply as he placed her on her feet. Taking his hand, she led him back toward the cabin door with every intention of bathing and grooming him in the inlet. As they stepped on the porch, clouds parted and gave birth to the most magnificent full moon she'd ever seen. Her heart dropped to the opening of her vagina. Bjorn's gaze snapped from the heavens to her.

He pulled her into his arms and gathered her close to his chest as their eyes sought out the moon once more. "And so it ends."

Bjorn's words struck deep and resonated throughout her.