Lachlan holds me at arm’s length, tears spilling over the rim of his eyes. And I wish for all the world I could stop time and hold this moment forever.
“I will always be with ye. Right here,” he breathes, touching his finger to my chest.
No. No, it was supposed to be one sailing.
“I will find ye again.”
I shake my head, my lip trembling and my eyes burning.
“Go!” He shoves me and whirls around as the advancing demons hit the first line of our defense. Freya screams with rage.
If I find the gods in time, I could save them.
But I would have to go right now.
A groan shudders from me as I turn and sprint down the hall. Leaving my entire world behind me.
With each strike of my feet across the ground, pain sears through my chest, tightening my lungs and making breathing difficult. I hurtle through the halls, an invisible wind at my feet. Paintings of my ancestors flash by. My legs and arms pumping as fast as I can push them. The medallion around my neck slaps against the outside of my armor.
Go.
Lachlan’s face is seared in my mind.
I need the gods. But where are they?
I slam to a stop. My joints bark in protest, but I close my eyes.
Listening.
Feeling.
My chest heaves with each breath, the air stutters out of me and I choke, gasping to breathe around the emotion constricting my throat.
A tremble through the floor has my body shaking.
They had a hidden cave in Idirhalla. Behind and below the Great Hall.
The runes on my necklace flare, the magic in this realm healing my injuries. Stitching me back together, but nothing can fix the break in my chest.
The ground trembles again.
They’re below us.
The path me before opens up like the pages of a book. I haven’t been here before, but I know the way. A nondescript door at the end of the hall glows like the runes on my medallion.There.
I bolt towards it. A tiny wave of electricity goes through my hand as I jerk the knob open.
A yawning maw of darkness opens before me. The distant clang of metal behind me pushes me across the threshold. My toe hangs over the edge of a winding staircase.
Go.
Throwing myself down the stairs, I run, down and down, around and around.
Nausea churns in my gut and my head spins. The stone stairwell turns darker, muskier, and the smell of saltwater rises from below me. Murky, watery light shines from way above me.
Dim light.
And then shadows.
