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She lets out a caustic laugh. “You really don’t know anything, do you, Tuonen? Sarvi is a god in their own right; a god of servitude. We’re all gods down here.”
“Except for me,” not-Hanna says with a whine.
“You are a goddess,” my mother says to her fiercely. “You are my daughter.”
“Not by blood,” I point out.
Not-Hanna immediately twists my horn, sending more ice and pain cascading through my body, enough that I crumble to my knees. “Mother, please, stop her!” I call out.
“Hmmm?” Louhi says. “See, there you are. Youare my blood, and yet, I barely feel anything for you. Isn’t it funny, the way things work? I can give birth to you and feel like you’ve been nothing but a waste of space, licking your father’s boots your entire life and spurning me, and yet, here is Salainen, not of my blood, but definitely of my spirit. She was discarded, and I took her in, made her a queen. It was so selfless of me, don’t you think?”
“Take my horns then, if you must,” I say to her, grinding out my words. “But let Sarvi go.”
A low, guttural sound comes from her, and the snakes in the room all hiss at once.
“That’s why I know you’re no true son of mine. You have a bleeding heart, just like your sister and father. It’s so…messy.” She picks up the broadsword and holds it in her hand, brandishing it in front of Sarvi.
“I will take your horns, Tuonen, and I will take Sarvi’s too. There is such a thing as punishment, something your father’s side of the family doesn’t know much about dishing out. I caught Sarvi trying to leave, and it’s through Sala’s magic that I was able to gleanwhythey were leaving. It was because of you. You wanted to warn the Forest Gods and your sister about me. You wanted to cry for help, like a fucking baby.”
She moves her sword to her other hand then back again. “If only you had kept your mouth shut, son. If only you had trusted me a little more. You could have kept up the charade. I would have kept it up for as long as you let me, but you worried about your father too much, didn’t you? You immediately suspected me. Talk about playing favorites.”
“Where is my father?” I ask, though I’m afraid of the answer.
“He’s dead,” she says sharply, and it’s like a dagger in my heart. “Sala killed him. She’s a Godkiller, you know, someone you would want on your side. Sala killed him and then tossed Hanna in the cell with him. They’ll rot together in Inmost, the lovers they are. The last thing Hanna will see will be the Inmost dwellers running loose as they swarm to the surface to join the rest of the Bone Stragglers in my army.”
“You will pay for this,” I growl at her, fury rising inside me even though my heart is shattering like glass.
“Ha!” she says with a smirk. “I’ve already paid. I’ve made my sacrifices; I have since day one. Do you think I wanted to marryyour father? I didn’t. I did it to please my own father and to service the family line. And today, I will finally reap the rewards of all that I waited for. I shall start by bringing him back from the dead.”
Who?Sarvi asks, voice shaking.
“So the unicorn finally decides to speak,” she says. “If you had been paying attention at all, you would already know.”
Rangaista, Sarvi says through a gasp.
“Yes. My demon father,” she says with a nod. “One of the oldest of the Old Gods. Both of you will be instrumental to the process.”
At that, she swiftly raises the sword above Sarvi’s head.
“No!” I scream, breaking free of not-Hanna’s grasp.
I run down the aisle, but it is too late.
The sword comes down.
Not on Sarvi’s neck, but on Sarvi’s horn, slicing it in half.
Sarvi lets out a brutal scream, and the half-horn clatters to the floor.
I holler, running full speed at my mother just as she turns the sword toward me.
I can see my own death, see that I’m about to be impaled and sent to Oblivion, and that will be all that I will ever know.
But at the last minute, my mother moves the sword out of the way.
She quickly brings it up and across, severing my own horns at the tips.
The impact knocks me off my feet, and I fall to the ground, just to see her catch the tips of my horns in her hands. She then picks up Sarvi’s horn and takes them to the altar.
