Everyone had begun the fight of their lives. The final standoff.
Fireballs rent the air. Seer magic exploded in bursts far and wide. Mighty roars boomed across the heavens. Ancients, Múspellsheimr, and Midgard dragons took flight, at last fighting alongside their gods. He sensed his kin fighting beside their mates. Torc and Liv battling together instead of bickering. His parents, defending the Fortress. Thorulf and Jade, the Stronghold. Leviathan and Destiny, the Keep.
Most importantly, though, he knew Violence had been released, destined to go running back to his mother, Carman. Unbeknownst to him, Trinity, Vicar, Thor, and Loki would follow, and the battle would, at last, be behind enemy lines.
It would rage from the inside out until there was a final victor.
And just like Raven had hoped, Mórrígan didn’t seem the wiser. Why would she when she was so terribly arrogant? So confident nothing could harm her? Rather her sole focus was on Tor and the many ways she wished to take him. Ride him.
Then enslave him.
“I will keep you after this is all said and done,” she mused, far less concerned about his offspring now but rather all she would have of Tor over the eons to come. “So many eons,” she began before trailing off as though she lost her train of thought. “You will service me...you will....”
Though he despised the risk Raven was taking, he kept the goddess talking. He gave into Raven’s essence within her, which made it harder and harder to think straight. “What will you do to me?” He couldn’t help a low growl of approval when she shifted even closer. Then to play the part well, say what made sense, act like the goddess was still herself. “What could you possibly do to me that would ever touch what my mate is capable of?”
Mórrígan responded, but he barely heard her because of how riled up his inner dragon was getting. Roaring and seething and desperate for Tor to pay attention. Not because of Mórrígan and her Raven-allure but because he sensed something he hadn’t before. Realized something he hadn’t earlier because Raven muddled not just Mórrígan’s mind but his. Yet his dragon was narrowing in on something. Something he cursed not questioning even moments ago.
What would Raven do with Mórrígan’s spirit once she got it inside her?
Because there was no reality in which she would set it free to possess another. There was also no reality in which she would not protect him and their unborn child by any means necessary.
That’s when he finally saw everything clearly.
She would do what it took to keep them safe indefinitely.
Terrifyingly enough, he realized her intentions one second too late when Raven, with a swift chant, pulled the rest of Mórrígan into her. There was no time to think. Act. Do anything at all. Raven had planned everything in advance. She was one step ahead of him.
And it was heartbreaking.
Soul wrenching.
Before he could blink, his mate called Loki’s Dagger to her and plunged it into her own heart. There were no words to describe how that made him feel. The pure anguish. The mind-blowing torture.
There was no greater pain.
The goddess’ body slumped to the floor, and her spirit wailed from within Raven. A long, deep, terrifying sound that shook the heavens and revved the war up even more. Stunned, frozen in time, Tor could only stare at Raven lying on the ground. Stare at the spirit of the goddess struggling to break free from her. Struggling to get out of a dying body impaled by the very dagger that had made Raven prey to her in the first place.
Everything seemed to go into slow motion as he watched the nightmare unfold. As he watched his soulmate drown in pain made all that much worse by the fury of the goddess dying within her. He could only imagine the excruciating torture. And it was just that.Imagining.Because Raven had blocked him from going through what she went through. Blocked her mate from suffering alongside her.
Or so she thought.
Because hewassuffering every bit as much in a way that went beyond physical pain. Far beyond anything he had ever felt. He experienced the agonizing sensation of losing his other half. The dragon destined for him.Madefor him.
And that was the one thing Raven hadn’t taken into consideration when she concocted this plan.
He might have a son to care for, kin that meant the world, a Fortress to rule someday, but none of it mattered when faced with Raven’s soul drifting further and further away from his. None of it mattered when his dragon faced an existence without hers.
So said him shifting to his dragon without realizing it.
So said him roaring in denial and closing the distance between him and his mate.
It didn’t matter how noble Raven’s intentions. It didn’t even matter if she was single-handedly destroying their greatest enemy and likely saving all of humanity. His dragon would not let her go.
Hewould not let her go.
Not thinking twice, most certainly not thinking clearly, some might say, he lowered his great body, cocooned her in his wings, and did what he did best.
He set to healing her.
