ENTANGLED (#2 The Valkyries)

Chapter 36 - Secrets & Lies

Maybe it would be better to get Mist back to Asgard. Anna would be far more agreeable to having guards around her without feeling smothered. I couldn't do that to Mist.

Fury lent speed to my wings and after touching down, I shifted back to my humanoid form and sought the sea god.

Unsurprisingly, he was sprawled in the gardens by the saltwater pools.

"Why are you so insistent on Mist's return to Asgard?" I asked without preamble as I strode into the glade. "Do you doubt her loyalty to Asgard?"

Manannan's head rose from his hands, peering sideways at me through blue unkempt locks. It appeared he'd been moping in one of the chairs by the shore, elbows on his knees. I dropped into a companion chair as I waited for his answer.

He scowled. "No, but she doesn't seem to be pressuring you to return her."

I shrugged. "She knows she must work a five-year contract to earn the passage back to wherever she'd like to go. And it doesn't explain why you are here, attempting to press a claim on her." I kept my body relaxed like the question hadn't been eating at me, but I watched him carefully.

A flush rose on his skin and he shifted in his seat. "I... I care about her. Probably more than I should, given she no longer wants anything to do with me."

No longer? "You speak as if you had a prior relationship with Mist."

He looked away, staring at the waves rippled by the wind, then met my gaze again. "I did. We connected when her best friend was first kidnapped, then navigated a political situation that resulted in her best friend being soulmate-bound to princes of two different realms. I thought what Mist and I had was more than physical, more than sex, but without explanation, she stopped talking to me." He winced. "She's refused to have anything to do with me ever since, as you've seen."

I sat back in my seat. He seemed to be telling the truth and his thoughts mirrored his words. But it didn't fit with what I knew of Mist. She wasn't cold or cruel.

"You really have no idea why?"

He shook his head slowly. "No. We were fine in the morning and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company, then after her sparring session with her best friend and a highly accomplished elven warrior, she refused to so much as speak to me." He flung a hand out in a dismissive gesture. "I know I failed Inanna, driving her into your arms with my stubborn need to control her, but I swear I didn't do that to Mist."

"Inanna was a free spirit. As a Vanir fertility goddess, she was stubborn and as mercurial as the weather. You were lucky to have the time with her that you did. I envy you your daughter with her."

Manannan sighed, looking away to gaze into the watery depths. "I was out of my depths with her, so star-struck that a goddess more than three times my age would deign to even look at me, let alone become my consort and bear my child. Shells, I was an idiot." He gripped his hair with both fists, hanging his head. "I knew I wasn't her first relationship and that Aine wasn't her first child, yet I insisted on trying to keep her with me, to tie her ever closer. I smothered her."

I crossed my leg and leaned back, struck by his mournful tone. Certainly, he'd played a role in her leaving him, but I'd also deliberately tempted Inanna away. She'd been a sensual armful when I seduced her and she'd readily agreed to my mating bite. And by Tiamat, the knowledge of her carrying my offspring had overridden any guilt I felt about taking her from him.

Or at least, I'd thought the child was mine at the time.

In hindsight, it had been too soon after she'd been with him to be certain. It was possible that it was his. Not that I'd tell him that. Even three thousand years ago, we'd had few fertile females available to us. I would have raised the child either way, then done my best to create another with her.

Still, I did knowingly break up their relationship.

"I had no better luck trying to keep her safe. Her independent nature, while such an integral part of her, left her vulnerable to my enemy, Lamashtu. You aren't the only one who mishandled your relationship with Inanna," I revealed. Why I'd admitted that to him, I wasn't sure, but I did empathize with his loss. "Anna is her descendant. When Inanna died, she left your daughter Aine and numerous half-human offspring before either of us had met her. At least, I believe they were hers. It's possible they could have been her twin's children. Ishtar lives on Vanaheim, I believe, now that she's retired from being a Valkyrie, and I know she's had twin girls herself."

Manannan grunted. "I hated you for a long time, blaming you for Inanna leaving me. But I know I bear the brunt of fault. I don't begrudge your relationship with Anna, whether she comes from Inanna or Ishtar."

"Just my relationship with Mist?"

Before he could reply to my taunt, another voice spoke from behind us, "That, is none of his business."