The Seidr’s gaze turned toward me, heavy with sorrow. “It will rip her apart. Without balance, the power will consume one of you. And the war outside these walls will mean nothing if the beast inside him is unleashed.”
The riddles made me want to scream, dig my hands into her and shake her for a straight and clear answer.
Rykr stiffened. “What beast?”
The Seidr gave him a faint, eerie smile. “You already know, don’t you? She told you.”
The spark vanished from her face. The Seidr blinked at us blindly, as though she could no longer see us there.
“Explain what you mean,” I managed, despite my horror. “How can the bond be balanced?”
“He will take the bond.” Some of the teeth that had once formed her gorgeous smile clattered to the stone floor. One by one.
I gagged. Was this Seidr going to drop dead before our eyes? “Rykr has to take the Oath of Bryndis so I don’t die?”
She lifted mournful eyes at me, reaching a trembling hand toward my cheek again. Her words grew muffled, hard to hear. “Yes. But the consequences …” She breathed out slowly, her ribs protruding with each breath. “He will release a great evil inside her. The threads of fate are fixed.”
The Seidr reached for her cloak, then fled beyond the curtain.
Chapter 33
Seren
Rykr kept his arm around me as we hurried from the temple. The Seidr’s transformation had been appalling, but her words—those had been terrifying.
I wasn’t even sure if I understood them correctly.
“Did she say I’m dying?” I managed at last.
Rykr didn’t falter. “She was a deranged old woman. I wouldn’t think twice about anything she said.”
I pulled away from him as we reached the street.
Being under the mountain of Emberstone suddenly choked me. I wanted to run in a field, feel the wind on my face, see the stars. The noise, the streets, the dizzying amount of people overwhelmed me.
I need air.
Rykr searched my gaze, surprisingly calm. Then again, he hadn’t just been told that a divine oath might kill him. “For all we know, that Seidr was a part of Haldron’s games. She found us, rather than the other way around. She may have been ordered to say that.”
“Then how did she know the things she knew?” I pointed back at the temple. “She clearly knew things—things no one could have told her. And if she’s right, it means …”
I’m really dying.
If the bond killed me, wouldn’t Rykr die too? Wasn’t that how it worked?
The Seidr hadn’t said that.
Rykr scowled. “Seidrs are masters of manipulation. She could be lying … or telling the truth in a way that only benefits her.”
His words made sense, but my unease didn’t fade. “What if she’s right?”
Rykr frowned, but he set his hands on my shoulders. “Half the nonsense she spewed didn’t make any sense. And why would my taking the Oath of Bryndis unleash evil within you? It didn’t happen to me, did it?”
I hesitated. Seidr spoke in riddles, but their words weren’t lies. Their magic was the same as Ibarran—and I trusted that.
“Seidrs pass along prophecy. Just because we don’t like it doesn’t mean we can change fate.”
Rykr’s mouth turned downward. “If you believe all fate is fixed. But we have choice, Seren. We can make our fates. If you didn’t believe that you’d be more frightened of your twin brother and sister, wouldn’t you?”
