The echo of a vow

[Snippet chapter 1]

The snow beneath my cheek was a strange comfort—soft, cold, so different from the sun-warmed stone of my childhood. A roar cut through the battle—a man’s voice shredded by a grief I felt in my own soul.

Through blurring vision I saw him: a force of nature cutting down any man between us, blood splattering the grim set of his jaw. My Northman—the man who crossed oceans to find me and loved me enough to bring me into his world of ice and legend.

He fell to his knees, gathering me close, calloused hands pressing the wound I could no longer feel. The clang of swords faded; only the pain in his beautiful green eyes remained.

“Don’t you leave me, Aurelia!” he begged, voice raw, cupping my face, his thumb brushing my cheek. “Look at me!”

But he was fading, the light behind him growing, swallowing his form. My eyelids felt like stone; I let them fall. No pain now, only the echo of his words, a desperate vow against my cold skin:

“…I will find you again…”