The Frost Giant & The Wolf

Chapter 22: Don't Test Me

As the night draws to a close, most of the guests have left. The servers and bartenders are slowly cleaning up while you're outside on the balcony. 

Your eyes are drawn to the twinkling stars in the sky as you lean your arms against the glass railing. Despite the light pollution coming from the city, the stars seem a bit brighter today.

In an attempt to distract your mind, you look for the pole star and attempt to make out some of the constellations.

The cold breeze blows across your skirt and bare arms, though you're not even remotely cold. Cold has never really bothered you before. 

Due to your ice magic, you keep yourself from freezing in cold weather, and in summer, you use it to keep cool.

Even though you are doing your best to distract yourself, you find that you are still thinking about Loki.

Your fight with him still bothers you, and you're angry with yourself for letting your mind linger on it.

You're just annoyed that you allowed him in as the man has many red flags.

On top of that, you had a feeling that you were going to get hurt, but you somehow ignored your intuition completely. 

Again.

That's twice in a very short amount of time.

How did this happen?

As your mind spirals further and further, you are reminded of why you didn't do love to begin with.

Over the years, many people have broken your trust, and it seems Loki is no different.

Five centuries ago, you finally embraced the fact that you didn't age like everyone else and that that wasn't going to change. After that, you were able to finally live your life to the fullest, and that meant you opened yourself up to making friends and forming relationships.

You ended up meeting a stable boy named Henry, whom you thought was your soulmate and eventually captured your heart. Both of you felt like you understood each other, though you never told him about your actual age. That seemed like a conversation for another time.

As his interests were the same as yours, everything worked out well. He wasn't the kind of man to force you to do household chores, though it was expected of a woman. Instead, you shared that duty while you helped him with the Duke's horses. Though, you were never allowed to ride them.

It seemed like everything was working perfectly between you two, but your instincts told you something was off about this man.

As if he was too good to be true.

He was.

One day, your neighbor learned that his wife was expecting, though he knew that the child wasn't his own. The man had been travelling far in order to tend to his sister, who was gravely ill. He spent months traveling to the south of Spain by horse and carriage.

When he confronted his wife, she confessed to her husband. She told him she wanted a child so she was less lonely during his travels and that he failed to give her one. She then admitted that she had shared moments with Henry and begged her husband for forgiveness.

Instead of responding to his wife's plea, he grabbed his shotgun and headed straight for Henry.

He pointed his gun at Henry as he opened the front door, forced him to come outside and face him in front of the entire village. Afraid and upset, you asked your neighbor what had happened.

The neighbor explained and asked Henry what he had to say for himself, and Henry laughed. There was no denial on his part. Rather, he confessed to the neighbor's wife that he loved her from the first moment he saw her. He also told her that his relationship with you was only so he could stay close to her as you owned the house next to theirs.