Thorne (Random Romance) by Charlotte McConaghy

the crowded dining hall, I grinned to see that it had been decorated with fishing nets and sand all over the floor. Shells adorned the walls, and beautifully carved pelicans sat on the bar.
    Every patron stared at Thorne, and I saw with chilling clarity several gazes turn white. It became obvious how much danger we were all in, and I grinned. Jonah requested two rooms and I ordered us some ale. I’d be damned before I cowed in fear from these bigoted idiots. Shoving my wayback through, I saw that the boys had found us a booth, and I slid in beside my brother.
    ‘Cheers!’ I announced, clanging my pitcher against Thorne’s and spilling half his drink on the table.
    He was watching the people around us with a calculating gaze. Penn was fidgeting nervously, sensing the animosity in the atmosphere. Jonah simply gazed into his ale moodily.
    ‘Gods almighty,’ I sighed. ‘You lot are boring.’
    ‘Don’t do anything stupid, Finn,’ Jonah warned.
    ‘Me?’ I asked innocently. ‘Have I ever done anything stupid in my entire life?’
    Despite his mood, it made Jonah laugh.
    Thorne wiped the spilled ale with his sleeve and I saw my chance, reaching out to do the same and pretending to bump against him. He was too swift though, removing his arm before I could get skin to skin. He gave me a funny look and I arched my eyebrows innocently.
    Three men arrived at our table, fishermen from the village. Wind-bitten cheeks and blond beards. Hard, white eyes.
    ‘Your kind aren’t welcome here,’ the one in the middle said to Thorne. That hadn’t taken long.
    ‘Actually,’ I said, ‘legally they’re welcome anywhere.’
    The fisherman scowled at me. ‘The great northern brute needs a little girl to speak for him?’
    ‘Careful,’ Jonah said. ‘You’ll sound like the northern brutes yourself with a sexist comment like that.’
    ‘Stand up and face us,’ a second man said.
    Thorne rose slowly to his feet. I could see the reluctance in every one of his muscles. And a terrible kind of resignation. They weren’t expecting his size, regardless of what they knew about men from Pirenti. He towered overthem, and I saw their expressions turn to fear. Which meant there would be violence here. I could feel it.
    My hands came up without me noticing. Jonah grabbed them, squeezing them tightly to stop me from doing anything illegal.
    ‘We’re not afraid to face your kind,’ the fisherman said and to his credit, he didn’t sound frightened.
    Thorne leant forward, a strange light in his eyes, and he breathed in deeply through his nose. Very softly, so softly I almost missed it, he murmured, ‘Your scent says otherwise.’
    It struck cold inside me. And I think it did the same for every person who heard it. But the difference between them and I was that I also felt a deep, gut-wrenching thrill.
    Several things happened at once.
    The fisherman’s hand went to his cutlass –
    Jonah rose to his feet –
    Thorne reached out –
    I lurched forward –
    And then everyone froze.
    Somehow, there was a glinting knife at the neck of the fisherman. I blinked, peering around to see what looked like the glimpse of a ghost in the tavern. She was snow white and blood red. She looked like a demon and had appeared out of nowhere. And she held two long, sinister knives to the man, one at his carotid, the other at his kidneys.
    ‘Move and you’ll spill all over the floor,’ she told him gently. And Gods there was something terrifying about the sound of her voice. Something in the desire of it. I couldn’t tell if she was a child or a woman, so small and slender was she. Hair and skin so white it was purest snow; eyes of the bloodiest red I’d ever seen.
    ‘What the fuck?’ the fisherman grunted, then hissed at his friends, ‘ Do something .’
    We now had the whole damned tavern watching us in alarmed silence. I imagined this must be what it was like for Thorne all the time in his own country – fighting in tavern brawls and the like –