“I know you’re right,” he said to Colby. “But she’s just so young still, and innocent. Gretel was innocent, too, and look where that got her. She got mixed up with the likes of me, and it got her killed, brutally slaughtered. I don’t want the same kind of thing to happen to Brynlee, or to any of them.”
“Then honestly, Erik is your best chance of making sure it doesn’t.”
Cai stood slowly and started his walk into the forest again, this time more calmly than before.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m still going to find her; we need Erik for whatever scheme Norna has concocted. But I will be gentler than I was first intending.”
“Can I come along?” Colby asked.
“Don’t trust me?” Cai snickered.
“Nah, I do trust you. I just want to see it for myself,” Colby laughed. “You should still give him a little scare; Erik is a horny bastard for sure.”
“Oh, don’t you worry,” Cai replied with a smile growing across his face that looked eerily contorted in the shadow of the moonlight. “I intend to.”
When they got to the lake, Erik and Brynlee were still lying on the bank, resting from the enjoyment of their sexual satisfaction. Brynlee’s dress had washed up to the side of the lake and was stuck to a clump of land, sopping wet and muddied. Erik’s clothes were half on and half off. His pants were open and pulled down with his cock still very much pulled out of them. His shirt clung to his muscular chest, and his weapons had all been taken off and were more than an arm’s reach away strewn on the ground. Brynlee laid on his chest with her eyes closed and her hand held in his as she listened to the rise and fall of his breathing.
“You son of a bitch; I’ll kill you!” Cai shouted as he ran toward them with his dagger drawn.
“Wait, what?” Colby shouted. For a minute, he thought Cai was actually still planning to kill Erik; it was so convincing.
Erik leaped up and pulled a petrified Brynlee behind him, placing himself between her and the approaching Cai.
“Wait, calm down!” Erik shouted at Cai with one palm in the air toward him. He had no way to reach his sword.
Cai saw Erik’s dick hanging from his pants in front of him and made an exaggerated look of disgust toward it. “I should start by cutting off your cock.”
Erik’s face turned pale as he quickly shoved himself back into his pants.
“Cai, stop it!” Brynlee shouted as she tried to step out from behind Erik, but he put his hands out and wouldn’t let her.
He pushed her behind him again and covered her body with his back. He didn’t believe Cai would ever hurt her, but still, he didn’t want either of the men to see her naked body.
It was at that point when Cai saw what he had needed to see. He hadn’t intended to hurt Erik, just scare him and shake him up a little bit to see where his intent fell. By the way Erik protected and covered Brynlee—instead of reaching for his weapons or posturing against Cai—he could tell what Colby had said was true. Whether he liked it or not, Erik was good for Brynlee, and she was old enough to decide for herself what she wanted.
As Erik stood, still guarding Brynlee behind him, Cai saw the glint of color reflecting from her wet dress in the water and walked over to pick it up. He tossed Brynlee’s dress to Erik, who caught it in one hand and quickly handed it behind him for her to put on. It was a struggle for her to get back into her sopping wet dress, but she managed it awkwardly. When she was fully dressed, she stepped out next to Erik, and he grabbed her hand to hold.
Cai smiled at both of them and walked up to Erik with his hand extended.
“What’s this?” Erik asked.
“Sorry about that,” Cai said. “Just checking to make sure you weren’t as much of an ass as I thought you might be.”
Colby howled in laughter.
Erik was about to say something out of anger for having been put through that embarrassing ordeal, but he thought better of it and instead took Cai’s hand in a firm handshake.
“I will never truly understand men and your asinine behaviors,” Brynlee said, aggravated as she let go of Erik and started to walk back to the tree.
“Hey,” Erik said, calling after her and trying to match her quick pace. “That wasn’t my fault!”
Cai laughed as he and Colby followed behind the two of them.
“Yeah, she’s definitely got a hold on him already, it seems,” Cai said.
When they reached the tree, Brynlee was the first to enter, and Astra gasped at how soaked to the skin she was.
“Did you fall into the lake?” Astra asked.
“Something like that,” Brynlee said, annoyed. She reached for a blanket to wrap herself in while Astra went to find her something dry to wear.
She passed Cai on her way. “Please tell me you didn’t do something rash,” Astra said to him.
“Who, me?” Cai replied with a mischievous grin.
Astra giggled and smacked him playfully on the chest. He grabbed her hand when she did and pulled her close to give her a kiss.
“I’ve missed you,” he said against her mouth.
“It’s only been a few days,” she said softly. “And yet, it has felt like an eternity.”
“I want you to come back with me to Alfheim when we are finished with this. Please say you will. I cannot be another day without you by my side.”
“I will,” she said as she kissed him again.
“It is late,” Norna said to everyone. “And what we will need to do requires strength. We should sleep, and tomorrow we will restore the mortals.”
“But I thought we were ready now,” Brenna said.
“We are all here now, and that is good. But we will need every ounce of strength we can muster. We should rest first. One more day will not change anything.”
“Come,” Brandt said as he gently pulled Brenna toward him to come and lie down. “Norna is right, let’s get some rest, and in the morning, we will wake and face the task together.”
Brenna was disappointed. She didn’t want to live with the remorse she felt in her mind for a moment longer, but she knew what they said made sense. There wasn’t any point in jeopardizing things. They should all be rested and ready. So, she curled up against Brandt and tied to close her eyes.
The tree’s hollow was small but enough to hold everyone snugly. They all cozied up in corners or on top of blankets and tried to get some rest before the morning. Everyone had a bit of trouble falling asleep at first. The moon was full and bright and shone through the opening of the hollow with a foreboding light that made them both uneasy and excited at the same time.
Brynlee was still in disbelief over the night’s events, and she didn’t want to close her eyes for fear that when she woke, it would have all just been another one of her imaginative fantasies and not real. But Erik leaned up against the side of the tree with her in his arms and rubbed her head as he drifted off to sleep, and eventually, the comfort of being held by him lulled her into sleep too.
Cai and Astra slept hand in hand on top of one of the blankets in the center of the tree. He was happy to be back beside her, and she was looking forward to not being apart again. Colby saw Kemma trying to get comfortable in the corner of the hollow and went to sit beside her, offering his lap for her to rest her head.