I hurl my axe at him. It flies end over end. Time slows to a crawl as it sails between us. Odessa throws herself off the dais and onto the floor at the same time Julius lunges in the opposite direction, towards the throne.
I missed. My axe embeds itself into the stone right above him.
Fuck.
But Odessa is free.
“Go get the gods!” I scream at her.
She stands abruptly, grabbing the hem of her dress in her hands, still chained in front of her. I take a step closer to Julius, drawing my father’s blade, and throw one more glance in her direction. She’s frozen, her eyes darting between me and Julius.
“Odessa go!”
She gives me one last pleading look, tears cascading down her cheeks before she turns and flees. Running through the door, the guards had come through.
“She’ll never reach them in time,” Julius sneers, standing and drawing his own blade.
The room shudders. A ball of flame erupts through the hole in the stained glass window. It slams into the opposite wall, sending tiny sparks all throughout the room. I scan my friends, all alive, battling through the remaining horde of guards. But we’re still outnumbered three to one.
I look back at Julius. A slow, scathing smile stretches his lips wide as he slaps the hilt of my axe. Disgust writhes in my gut. “This is your end.” He points the tip of his sword at me.
My hand grips the hilt and the sapphires press into my skin. As we circle each other. My armor rattles lightly at the fury pulsing through me.I want to kill him.Kill him slowly so he can feel all the pain and suffering he has caused.
“And I’ll make you watch as I cut your precious friends up. Piece by piece.”
I scream. The rage unfurls in me like a torrent of flame from a dragon. And strike out at him.
His eyes widen, but he swats my advance away like it’s no more than a nuisance. Rage grips me, clouding my vision red, and fumbling each of my advances with amateurish accuracy.
Julius sidesteps me and swings. His sword grazes a gap in my armor where my shoulder guards meet my forearm braces. The blade slides along my unprotected flesh, slicing it open.
It burns, wetting my anger into something sharper.
The sounds of the battle rise higher. Grunts, clangs, and moans of the dying. I’m too afraid to look, to see if any of my friends have fallen. But as Julius circles me, the room opens up in my line of sight and I can see who remains standing.
Lachlan still fights, but his movements are sluggish. Mina stands in the protected shadow of Harald, who attacks like a bear, clawing and ripping men in half. Freya and Odr continue to work in unison, their silver armor drenched in blood.
Mathilda clutches her side, blood seeping into her hand from a wound I can’t quite see. But Tane is there, fighting off his enemies and hers. Piominko is on her other side. His jaw moves as he says something to her, and she nods, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.
There is magic here. She will heal.
Eira spits blood on the ground before wiping the red spittle off her lips and punching the man in front of her in the face. The pale blue ribbon is like a waving flag as she throws her whole body behind the punch. Balthasar cracks a weary smile and keeps slashing.
Thunderous booms echo as the giants try to find a way in. But the smell of death shoves its way up my nose. There are demons here, somewhere.
Julius sneers at me. “I see the rest of my troops have arrived at last.”
Fuck. We need our troops. I rub the runes on my medallion in a counterclockwise motion, before turning the entire medallion clockwise.
Open the gates. Open the gates.
My blood drips down my arm, splattering on the floor, and his eyes glow with glee. So much blood, everywhere. On the floors, on the walls, on us. Its coppery tang melds with the cloying stench of the demons and my chest tightens.
“I still don’t understand why,” I grit out.
He shrugs. “And you won’t—ever. You’ll never know what it’s like to desire power. To crave violence instead of the heat of passion. I yearn for the sticky warmth of blood, the feeling of lives extinguished beneath my fingertips. Not the steady, sure beat of a mate’s heart.”
“You’re insane,” I spit. And he grins broadly.
