That might mean saying goodbye to her sisters forever, though. Letting them go. She hadn’t met them yet, but they were part of her. Irreplaceable. So it hurt like hell when she knew what she had to do. When her sense ofrightallowed her to do nothing else. But truly, what else could she do when she knew they would be okay but others might not?
The moment she thought it, her tiny dragon whipped and tumbled before she shot out of the Forge. Though she had no real sense of direction, her soul seemed to know where it was going.
Where ithadto go.
First, she whipped straight through a pregnant woman who had been strolling through the Irish forest collecting herbs. Better yet, she passed right through Cian before he was born. Rage and negativity snagged at her, but she broke free, taking the part of him with her that would have made him a truly evil wizard, likely a warlock.
Next, she shot over the ocean until she whipped through what she realized was the Sigdir Fortress, only to shoot through another pregnant womb. This time the woman wasn’t as far along and in a great deal of pain.
Her child, Tor, and his little dragon were dying.
He wasn’t going to make it.
Or at least that was the case until she passed through his incredible essence and took what weakened him while giving him some of her own strength. It would help him hold on.
Help him fight to live.
Next, she rolled right up a mountain, catapulted over the top, ping-ponged between mountains, thenwhoosh, she was thrust straight into Mt. Galdhøpiggen. She tumbled along the rock until she didn’t pass through yet another pregnant woman but got snagged inside her.
She had stumbled right into the most powerful seer alive pregnant with a seer even more powerful.Revna.Worse yet, a seer who was half fire demon. While Raven knew she could break free if she moved fast, when she spied Revna, she just couldn’t. The tiny seer was being consumed by her own immense power. If she was born in this condition, her own magic would destroy her in days. She would have no time to learn how to control it.
Raven had no idea how to help her, but it seemed her tiny dragon did because she began soaking up some of that power. Enough to allow Revna a full life.
It was also enough to suck Raven into one of the two worlds consuming the seer.
Her little dragon was yanked this way and that, a tug-of-war between Múspellsheimr and Vanaheim before, thankfully, she was tossed into Vanaheim. Had the other world gotten her, she never would have broken free. She had soaked up far too much negative energy along the way.
Much like the Vanaheim grove and the caves affected by it, the world itself was wondrous in a dark, mysterious sort of way. Everything pulsed with magic, from the shiny black trees to the mirror-like mountains. She rode a howling wind made of haunting melodies and passed through crackling clouds steeped in sparkling black mist.
Mysterious beings like she had seen in her pre-Tor trance came and went, but she never quite caught their forms. Seers all, they watched her tumble along. Felt out her magic. Learned her story. What made up her soul. Her purpose.
How she had helped others, including one of their own.
She got the sense they were judge and jury. The only thing that stood between her endlessly tumbling from world to world until Múspellsheimr eventually pulled her in. Fortunately, while they didn’t like strangers, they took mercy on her and moved her along to where she belonged. Not before their influence made her whole, though.
Not before she was born on Vanaheim and became solid.
What they could never have foreseen when they assisted her back to where she began, was the price she would pay for all the good she had done.
“I’ve given away too much of myself,” she whispered, only to snap awake.
She blinked at Cian and Tor’s concerned faces.
Where were they now? Because it wasn’t where they had been before.
“It’s all right,” Tor assured. “We’re still in Mt. Galdhøpiggen.” He cupped the side of her neck and held cool water to her mouth. “Are you okay? That was a lot.”
“I am,” she managed, taking in her surroundings. The waterfall had vanished, and they sat near a cave entrance overlooking rolling clouds. Meat roasted over an inviting fire. She took a sip of water and inhaled the cool air, grateful Tor had wrapped his fur cloak around her. She needed his scent to calm her nerves. To soothe her as only he could. “How did I get here?”
“I carried you,” Tor said. “You were out cold, and the waterfall was freezing.”
“Did you follow what just happened to me?” She thanked him when he handed her a skin of what turned out to be whiskey. After a hearty chug or two, she wiped away a tear, overcome, once again, with too many emotions. She couldn’t stop all the crazy ups and downs. Then again, it wasn’t every day a gal whipped through three wombs and was almost thrust into the Norse’s version of hell. “Did you see...feel...”
“I did.” Tor’s heart was as much in his eyes now as it had been when they were unborn babies. “You saved me.” He looked from Cian to her. “You saved all of us.”
“Ye did.” Cian’s accent was thicker than usual. “And I couldn’t be more grateful.”
“Nor I,” came Revna’s voice before her ethereal form appeared in the smoke curling up from the fire. “My physical body stands by with my army as requested, but my spirit wanted to be here when you awoke. When you remembered.”
