Page 85 of Thorulf

Chapter Thirty-Two

“SO WE DEFEATED Evilwith love,” Jade said not for the first time. She lounged beside him in a lodge he hadn’t slept in for years, so enticing with a fur barely covering her, he wanted to eat her alive. Again. Because he’d sampled her plenty over the past few hours. She grinned at him and sipped the ale he’d given her before setting it aside. “Not many people can say that.” She chuckled. “Especially people who didn’t believe in love to begin with.”

“Speak for yourself.” He lounged next to her, his back against the headboard. “I always believed in love.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She swirled the tips of her finger over the various tattoos on his arm. “I still can’t get over how it all went down. How well it worked out for you.”

“Us,” he corrected, never so grateful for how everything unfolded.

As Dagr had revealed earlier, the mountain peak Jade had led Evil to was one of the few visible from both the Fortress and the Stronghold. A peak where everyone could witness what happened. Those at the Fortress saw not an arguing couple throwing Celtic fireballs at each other but a couple embracing what could be very peaceful magic and loving each other. Coming together to defeat what might harm them. The Stronghold, in turn, saw a couple willing to do anything to protect them. A future King and Queen that would put their safety before all else.

“Do you really think it looked that magnificent?” Jade said softly. She trailed her distracting finger over his shoulder, then traced the blade on his upper chest. “That it looked like brilliant green fire driving away the darkness? Magic that worked alongside Thor’s to protect them always.”

“I think it was exactly like that,” he murmured, dropping a kiss on her temple, fighting to remain focused when he already imagined being inside her again.

Though Thorulf remembered little save wanting Jade in his arms again, Thor and Loki claimed it was a struggle at first. The purple dragon fought back. The black dragon warred in the skies.

Yet, in the end, Evil was no match for true love.

The purple dragon imploded, leaving nothing but a black trail of oily smoke. Weakened by half of its manifestation being destroyed, the black dragon exploded in blackness before what was left of it was sucked upward into the sky and vanished.

“Good riddance to Carman’s second son,” Thor had said.

Despite mumbling that Evil would have been a prize to trap in Mt. Galdhøpiggen’s underbelly alongside his brother, Darkness, Loki agreed. “Though it will never truly be gone, Evil will not cause us trouble again this war.” He shook his head. “It will never claim territory or worshipers on any Norse world.”

For that alone, all could sleep a tad better as the battles raged on. As they faced all that was coming next before this war ended altogether. Until then, though, Thorulf and Jade were taking a night to finally settle in. Confident their people were safe now, he had brought her to the kingdom they would someday rule. The kingdom he had wanted to bring her to since the very beginning.

Not surprisingly, Jade was an instant hero, adored not only for what she had done for everyone but for her personality. Her vivacious and adventuresome spirit. Naturally, the few baby dragons that called the Stronghold home flocked to her, having a grand time listening to all the fun she swore they would have together. His father and Ava had joined them and, with his new fated mate by his side, Thorulf enjoyed his home in a way he hadn’t in a very long time.

Yet sadly, they were minus one, however expected it might have been.

“And now Vicar’s in the wind,” Jade murmured, following his thoughts, referring to his brother’s disappearance after they Forged. She twirled her finger down his chest, making his renewed erection all the more painful with her teasing. “And Trinity has Loki’s Dagger.”

“So, as Vicar claimed before, like a lamb being led to slaughter, he flew off into the sunset,” Thorulf concurred.

They had no idea how Trinity could have gotten it, but Vicar seemed convinced. He’d claimed Jade’s sister knew more than she was saying and foolishly thought she'd taken control of the situation between her and Vicar. That she was in charge until he was fixed.