Page 17

RAGNAR

I left the room, slamming the door with enough force to make the whole damn house rattle. Maybe it’d knock some sense into the lot of them—or at least scare the girl into keeping her distance.

The destroyed kitchen greeted me like a bad joke, scratched walls and broken furniture scattered from my earlier entry. I hadn’t even meant to land here—I’d aimed for the back porch—but fuck it. Not my house, not my problem.

I reached for the far cabinet, pulling out the bottle of scotch and pouring myself a glass. The burn in my throat was more tolerable than the burn in my chest. Weak as hell, like everything else on this goddamn rock. Earth couldn’t even get alcohol right.

Footsteps echoed behind me, and I didn’t need to turn to know it was Xander. Composed, deliberate, and always fucking hovering. I knocked back the rest of my drink and slammed the glass down on the counter.

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“Ragnar,” he started, his calmness crashing against my raw nerves, “your behavior tonight was completely inappropriate.”

I barked a humorless laugh and poured another glass.

“Here we go again,” I grumbled, spinning on him and downing the drink in one go. “You really believe her? After everything we’ve seen? Everything we’ve been through?”

Xander crossed his arms, unbothered by my brewing storm. I hated that about him—how he always managed to look like he had his shit together. It pissed me off even more because I knew he didn’t. He was as fucking clueless as the rest of us.

“Why am I the only one,” I growled, stepping closer, “who can see through her bullshit? She’s a liar, Xander! She started that fire, I feel it in my fucking gut.”

The front door creaked open, then shut again, the sound faint but enough to tell me the girl was gone. Good. Maybe she’d heard me shouting. Maybe she finally got the message that she wasn’t welcome here.

My fists clenched, nails biting into my palms. I could feel Xander’s eyes on me, calm as ever, and it made me want to punch something. Preferably him.

“Maybe you’re right,” Xander said evenly, taking a step closer. “I trust your judgment. If you say there was more to this than she’s letting on, I believe you. But that doesn’t give you the right to talk to her like that. She’s frightened and you’re being too—”

I barked a laugh, sharp and humorless. “Too ‘what’, brother? Go on. Say it.”

“You’re too emotional.”

“ Emotional ,” I spat, slamming the empty glass onto the counter. “You think this is about feelings? This is about her. She’s hiding something, Xander, and I’m the only one here who sees it for what it is. A walking red flag.”

“This isn’t just suspicion, Ragnar. It’s personal. You barely know her, and yet, you’re letting her get under your skin,” his eyes narrowed. “Is this about Columba?”

I sucked in a breath, as my lungs seized up. The name hit like a punch to the gut, sharp and unforgiving, and I clenched the glass in my hand so hard it cracked. I’d locked those feelings in a box, and here he was digging them out of me with a rusty spoon.

Xander tilted his head slightly, his gaze cutting through me like he could see straight to the shit I didn’t want to think about. “Look. I see the similarities, too, but you have to keep it together.”

“Don’t.” My voice was more of a growl than anything human.

But even as I fought against his words, my mind betrayed me.

That girl—her stubbornness, her goddamn defiance—it scraped at something inside me.

Her expression—those pursed lips, pressed tight with an unshakable resolve that made my blood boil.

It wasn’t just stubbornness; it was an outright challenge.

The subtle tilt of her head, the set of her jaw—it all made me feel like I was being measured and found wanting.

The way she held her chin high, even when she was out of her depth, her gaze steady and unflinching, like she was daring me to try and break her.

Her voice, clear and cutting, sliced through every argument as if she’d already decided she’d won.

I’d been on the receiving end of those arguments too many times before, and it had almost killed me.

No. Eve wasn’t anything like her .

Xander didn’t respond, didn’t so much as blink.

The bastard didn’t need to. His calmness was infuriating, like a mirror held up to everything I couldn’t fucking control.

Memories I’d buried clawed their way to the surface, threatening to break free.

Her face. Her voice. The way she’d looked at me the day I’d lost her.

I shoved them back down, crushing them beneath an iron fist.

“I’m telling you, Xander,” I said, my voice sharp and cutting.

“There’s something wrong about this girl.

It’s more than just the fire. None of this was a fucking coincidence.

First, you tell me she was attacked out of the blue for no goddamn reason, and then—what?

The very next day, she decides to have a fucking bonfire with Itsy Bitsy? Absolutely fucking not.”

Xander’s expression shifted, just slightly, enough to tell me he couldn’t argue with the logic.

“The circumstances are… unusual,” he finally admitted.

I scoffed, grabbing the whiskey bottle from the counter. “Unusual,” I echoed, the word dripping with disdain.

“I understand, Ragnar, I do,” Xander continued, unshaken. “But you have to let her go, brother. All of this anger, this hatred for yourself that you’re carrying… It’s time. Columba wouldn’t want this for you.”

“Say her fucking name one more time.”

I closed the distance between us in two strides, glaring up at him. Xander didn’t flinch. He didn’t move a goddamn muscle. My blood ran cold, regret surging to replace the rage in an instant.

“Ragnar…”

“It’s got nothing to do with her!” I snapped, hurling the glass at the wall. The sound of it shattering wasn’t nearly enough to match the shaking deep within my core, but it was something. A release. A crack in the pressure. “And don’t you dare fucking say her name again or I’ll bury you alive.”

Xander looked crestfallen for a moment, but I’d had enough of his sympathy.

“Don’t come crawling to me when it blows back in your fucking faces.”

I turned and stormed toward the door, the bottle clenched tight in my hand, hoping it’d be enough to drown out the guilt—just for tonight.