She takes the time to stare each person in the eye. “Odin is missing, your aunt is missing,”—she waves to me—“and war is on the horizon.”
Her words are icy as each one slips through clenched teeth. She’s furious, understandably so, but I have no intention of letting her cast that anger towards the people who matter most to me.
The people that picked me up and helped me during the darkest of my days.
I nod, crossing my arms over my chest. “We know of all that already.”
Annoyance douses my fear.
This is my kingdom, my council room.
She may be centuries older than I am, but she does not outrank me, not here at least.
“And where is your mother?” she asks me, raising a brow as she shifts towards me.
The patronizing in that one arched brow is enough to tip me over the edge.
“Dead.” The word cracks like thunder from me as I level her with a look.
Her face shudders with shock and she lowers herself back into her chair.
“Tyr, help us,” she whispers under her breath, her head held aloft with her hands.
“I’m sorry—but do you know of anything useful?” Luna’s voice cuts across the room, and I bite my cheek to hold back a grimace.
Odr tenses and whips his head to her.
“We’re getting to that sorceress,” he spits. His lips curl with disgust as his eyes rake over her.
My blood boils at his audacity. “Watch it,” I snarl. My finger pointed directly at his chest.
Luna’s eyes swing to mine. Surprise and appreciation radiate in them. Freya raises her head, sensing the new spike of tension in the room.
“Odr,” she tuts, patting his hand before addressing me. “Myapologies, Lena. Tensions seem to be higher than usual due to the circumstances.”
I’m relieved she didn’t ignore the interaction or take his side, and instead tried to diffuse the situation. My shoulders relax a fraction.
“Thank you, Freya. Now—what do you know?”
“We have reason to believe the Fomorians have Odin. We hadn’t realized they could have had Odessa, too.” She grimaces and looks at the map beside us. “There have been signs and whispers among the realms. But most noticeable, were the impenetrable mists that began surrounding Toraigh. The Tuadanaan have the most powerful seers and even they can’t see through them.”
“We know next to nothing about the other realms, so forgive me. Are the mists not normally there?”
“Don’t you read the texts?” Odr asks, confusion creasing his brow as he looks between us.
“We have no texts. They burned our books.”
The harsh scraping of wood against stone pierces the silence as Freya lurches upright like she’s been set on fire. “Are you saying that someone destroyed your libraries?”
I heave a sigh, nodding, having felt the same when I first heard it too. “Yes, most of the books about magic, our enemies, and even our allies,”—I wave to her — “are gone. Besides the few we recovered from their lair.”
I feel the weight of so many stares upon me, and I square my shoulders, withstanding it.
“How?” Freya whispers.
“I don’t know.” I shrug. “I wasn’t here.”
A shadow crosses her brow and the flames around the room flicker violently. “You all believed the imposter so completely. Believed that your gods had forsaken you. And you what? Were just so ready to turn your backs on them? And the knowledge they granted you?”
