The Vittra Attacks (Trylle Bonus) Read Free Page A

would get away.”
    “You couldn’t have known that,” Sara said, trying to reassure him.
    “No, I did.” He paused. “I even hoped for it.”
    Sara’s jaw dropped and her eyes widened. “Loki!”
    “Oh, come on, Sara!” Loki looked at her, exasperated. “I know how much you want that girl, but what good
    will it do bringing her here? Do you really think it will make your life better? Or the King’s?”
    “We’ll both be happier,” Sara said, but she lowered her eyes. “Everything’s better when the King is happy.”
    Loki laughed darkly. “You really think she’ll make him happy? I’ve lived under the service of the King my
    entire life, and in twenty-three years, I’ve never seen him happy. Nothing makes him happy.”
    “You don’t understand.” Sara shook her head and stepped away from him. “And I can’t believe you’d
    purposely let her get away.”
    “Why is that so hard to believe?” Loki asked. “The King will treat her the same way he does you or me, and
    The Vittra Attacks (pdf)
    you know it. For once I wanted to see somebody get away. I wanted somebody to escape from the trap you and I are
    stuck in.”
    Sara kept walking away from Loki, the train of her long red gown dragging on the floor behind her. Her black
    hair had been pulled back in a severe ponytail, the way she usually wore it. She did everything she could to seem as
    strong and imposing as her husband, but there was something soft about her.
    Sometimes Loki was surprised the King had not broker her, but when she looked back at him, her brown eyes
    swimming with tears, Loki realized that he had. Physically, she may have looked the same, but inside, Sara wasn’t the
    same woman he’d met fourteen years ago.
    “You don’t understand,” she said emphatically. “The Princess will change things, and not just for me. For all of
    us. She has that power.”
    “Sara.” Loki sighed and stepped over to her. He put his hands on her bare arms, and she stared up at him, her
    lips quivering. “You’re been trying to change things for as long as I can remember. But nothing we do makes anything
    better. He’s never going to relinquish his power.
    And one girl isn’t going to change anything for us.”
    “Maybe you’re given up, but I haven’t.” She wiped at her eyes and pulled away from him. “I will never stop
    believing that we can be better.”
    “I’m not…..” He trailed off. “Never mind.”
    “But I don’t understand. If you think you did the right thing letting her get away, then why did you say you
    deserved what Oren did to you?”
    “Because of all that mess out there.” Loki motioned vaguely to the door, through which they could hear the
    grunts and groans from the soldiers. “They’re going to war over her. People will get hurt, some even killed, and I
    could’ve just brought her back and avoided this whole thing.”
    “Yes, you could’ve,” Sara snapped. “You don’t’ ever thing anything through.”
    He groaned and flopped into one of the King’s chairs. “I don’t need a lecture, Sara. You’re not my mother.”
    “Your mother was a good woman, and she’d give you a lecture much worse than this one,” Sara shot back.
    “You have to stop being so rash. The things you do have consequences.”
    “I was trying to do the right thing!”
    “You thought letting her get away would be the right thing?” Sara asked dubiously.
    “Kind of, yeah,” he admitted.
    Sara rubbed her forehead, as if talking to him gave her a headache. “You’re so foolish sometimes.”
    “I screwed—“
    “I don’t want to hear it!” Sara shouted suddenly and held her hand up to him. “You let her get away! And
    that’s unforgivable.”
    Loki didn’t say anything. Her voice trembled with hurt, and he couldn’t take that away. Swallowing hard, he
    stared down at his lap and let her finish.
    “This attack on the Trylle should work,” Sara said. “But if it doesn’t, you will do whatever the King asks of