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And then suddenly, I’m sucked through the rest of the way.
Submerged underwater.
Turning around in the sea just in time to see the portal behind me collapse.
Trapping my father and my husband inside.
“No!” I scream, but the sound is muffled by the sea as water pours into my lungs.
My husband had the magic that would let me survive this journey.
My husband is now buried in a tunnel at the bottom of the sea.
I’m starting to drown.
I do what I can to twist around and kick back down to the portal, to try and push through the veil, but my hands barely sink in, and all I see on the other side is dirt, like there was never a tunnel at all.
And then, my vision starts to fade.
My lungs burn, and I have no air. All I want is air, to breathe.
All I want is to live.
But I won’t live.
Because everything goes black.
Chapter 23
Lovia
The Half-Brother
Istare at the man, blinking, as he walks toward me on the Liekkiö Plains.
The smoke swirls around him, the flaming children in the distance coming closer and closer, but he doesn’t pay them any attention. All his attention is on me.
“Rasmus?” I say, my grip sweaty as it tightens around the hilt of my sword.
He grins at me. In some ways, he looks like a mere mortal, one I could easily picture being Hanna’s half-brother. That would be their father’s side.
But then there’s a glint in his eyes that doesn’t seem all that mortal to me. Wicked, perhaps a little deranged—that would be our mother’s side.
Considering he just put an arrow through the head of the Magician, there’s no doubt he’s Louhi’s son through and through.
Now I have to figure out what he wants from me, and fast.
“You should put down the sword,” he says, still approaching me like I’m a wild animal. “That’s no way to treat family.”
“You are no family of mine,” I tell him, moving the sword from side-to-side, flashing the metal at him. “Now, stay back if you know what’s good for you.”
“I know very well what’s good foryou,” he says, reaching back and grabbing a bow from his quiver.
“I’m pretty sure your beloved mother would disown you if you were to kill me,” I tell him, flashing him the sword again.
“I’m not going to kill you,” he says. “Just disarm you.”
“You will never disarm me,” I growl back.
