After her chains are broken, she floats from the room as if carried by an invisible wind.
I look at Odessa as she leaves and we both shudder with relief.
The next god is Tyr.
Massive heaps of muscle, greenish tattoos all along his body offset his fiery red hair. If you ever tried to picture the god of war, it would be him. Light red stubble coats the harsh line of his jaw and full chin. Like the blood of a million men reduced to tiny specks upon his face.
He’s terrifying and yet beautiful.
I remove his rune.
Green eyes flecked with gold pierce my soul.
He says nothing as he rises, staring us down. There’s no malice towards us, or kindness. We’re as insignificant to him as a blade of grass.
Pain cracks my chest wide open again and I tremble, wrapping an arm around myself to hold it together.
His eyes slide from Odessa to me, narrowing slightly on his rune upon my flesh.
“War,” he breathes. The sound is like two mountains colliding. My flesh erupts with goosebumps.
One arm is chained to the slab, but the other is missing. Like Tane. I fight back tears that threaten to fall and step up to remove the shackles around his ankles.
He slides off the table, and the earthquakes again. A broadsword the size of a tree trunk appears in his hand as he breaches the door.
Two more. Just two more.
My feet falter as I make my way to the Morrigan.
Raven black hair, and pointed features. She looks just like the carving in the mountain cave.
Odessa swipes her fingertips gently over the rune, but as shebends closer to the Morrigan, the similarities become undeniable. They could be twins.
Dark blue eyes the color of sapphires blink open. A lethal smile spears across her face.
“It is time,” she breathes.
I remove the manacles from her and she hops off the table. Long black hair ripples like silk. The body of a goddess stretches before me as she raises her hands up to the sky. Onyx wings appear, and she grins over a shoulder at me.
“Thank you, girls.”
I nod, but she’s already charging for the doorway as her armor unfurls around her like the petals of a flower.
My chest heaves as I take a deep breath. Just one more.
We approach Badb. Odessa stares at me from across the amethyst slab. Hope mingling with sadness in her gaze.
“It’s not too late,” she whispers. Wiping the rune off of Badb’s forehead.
Dazzling golden and emerald eyes flash open. I gasp.
“You thought I would curse you?” Her words come out raspy, but the humor in them is undeniable. “Never, my darling.”
A breath whooshes from my chest and I smile for what feels like the first time in my life.
“Free me and I will make this right,” she purrs.
Raising my axe again and again, I remove her restraints. She clambers off the table. She’s much smaller than the others and there’s a familiarity about her I just can’t place.
