“I don’t need you to change,” I tell him, because I’m not stupid. I won’t demand the impossible. “I need you to act like you’re a decent elf, even if it’s an act.”
“You want me to pretend? Shall I lie to you too?” he asks with a quirk of his eyebrow.
“No,” I declare, “because I’m going to need your promise on something, and you can’t break this oath.”
“If you think I’m giving up our bargain,” he growls, “you don’t know me at all. I’ll soon fix that, though.”
“You don’t have much leverage,” I point out with a smirk. “Why shouldn’t I demand that?”
“You want your dragon,” he points out with the barest hint of a shrug. “I’m your only hope for freeing her. Which is why I don’t know why in the fuck we’re playing this game right now,” he adds in a voice that bounces around us, the walls even responding to his anger. “Get. Me. Out.”
“Ruxi came from there. They can return. I don’t need you for that.” My tone is blasé. He can’t know how worried I am that Ruxi won’t be able to find their way back, or something else could stop us from freeing Panta.
“Do you actually believe it would be so simple?” he asks, barking out a laugh with the last word. “I’ve told you before, you need me to release her. Don’t be daft, my skjaldmær.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I ignore the bugs starting to crawl through my gut. I’ve missed something, and I don’t like it when I don’t have the information I need to make good decisions.
“Don’t you think your dragon would have followed if she could?” he asks, the smirk that sparks all kinds of conflicting emotions in me appearing again—this time to reveal a dimple in one cheek I’ve never noticed before. As if Wregen needed another weapon to make me want him.
“Ruxi left to find a way out,” I posit. I’ve wondered why they came alone, but without a way to speak withthem while we’re out of Panta’s reach, there’s no way to know. “Once we have our escape route, we’ll go back for the others.”
He spits out another laugh, and I’m ready to turn around and walk away right now. I really despise the condescending asshole who is somehow staring down at me, even with most of his body trapped in the ground.
“I barely know the beasts, but I have no doubt they wouldn’t separate if they had any choice.”
“What then?” I demand, throwing my arms out to the side as a ripple of frustration rolls down my spine.
“I am connected to Hel,” he rumbles, “and Ruxi is connected to me. That dragon found a way to slither through the magic that holds the beasts in place because of the bond they’re trying to trick me into accepting. But Hel’s power has no other breach. If your dragon could escape, she’d be here too. When you find your dragon, you’ll only be able to stare at her across the divide that separates those beasts from everything else in any of the worlds. Unless I’m with you.”
“What could you possibly do?” I snap, ready to get to the end of this story Wregen is determined to spell out for me. I know where he’s going—and I know I’ll soon have no choice but to save his sorry ass—but I need him to say it.
“Oh, my foolish skjaldmær,” he murmurs as the earth swallows his nipples, nearly reaching the area under his arms. His breathing is growing more shallow, the pressure squeezing him as the ground continues to suck him in. “I’m Hel’s, and I wield her magic. I can free Panta and the other dragons. I alone can give you what you most desire.”
Fuck. Me.
I guess we’re going to pull him out.
Chapter fifteen
Wregen
I Crave Her Fight
Myrebelliousmatedoesn’tlike what I told her. I’m surrounded by gravel, struggling to breathe—but determined not to reveal a single bit of weakness to her—and my cock is nearly as hard as the rocks surrounding it. Wrath is rumbling in our gut, as turned on by her as he is angry about the earth’s attempt to swallow us whole. And terrified that it will succeed.
Fuck, does her rebellious attitude twist our emotions. We’re feral for her fight, even as our soul hungers for her submission. It’s almost enough to break my beast free of the dread that’s crippling him.
And he’s fucking crippled. My treacherous brain keeps vomiting out memories of the day the earth nearly swallowed us in Midgard, even as I try to focus on something—anything—else. We won’t have a single chance if we’re so paralyzed by fear, we can’t convince Finaan to help us. But we’ll ruin everything if we start spilling out secrets, like Wrath seems determined to do in his desperation to find the key to coaxing her.
My skjaldmær doesn’t realize that the turnip beast is here only because my magic trapped the dragons in this world. I’m still not sure how the fuck it happened—because like my mate, the dragon the fates chose for me should be immune to my persuasion—but some confluence of the mating bond, along with mine and Hel’s magic, pulled Ruxi here. It just couldn’t hold my dragon with the others, once I drew close enough for our bonds to connect.
Wrath and I can never let Finaan know my role in removing the elves and dragons from Vanatia—or the fact that Hel wouldn’t have been able to do it without me. Finaan can go on believing that my relationship with Hel alone will give me the ability to free the other dragons.
A spiral of emotions flickers across Finaan’s face, leading to the frown that tells me she’s accepted my half-truth. She throws her shoulders back, though, and narrows her eyes at me.
“I think we’ll take our chances,” she declares. “We’re resourceful. We can figure it out.”
“Have you so little regard for the beasts trapped there?” I wonder. Ignoring Wrath’s terrified blabbering, I keep my gaze focused on my mate, even as I feel myself slip further into this web the earth has spun around me. “You’re a smart elf. Smart enough to know that if there was a way out, they’d have discovered it. Or do you think them too dull to find an exit without you?”
