“And Ruxi,” Finaan interjects. “Your protection extends to your dragon.”
I don’t respond right away, watching my stubborn skjaldmær. She’s been resolved to bring us together since the turnip beast appeared. But it no longer matters. Let the weasel swear loyalty to the dragon, too. If it pleases my mate, it pleases me. I nod once, turning toward the dragon. “And the dragon,” I concede.
“I am their humble servant,” Svend mutters, staring again at the floor.
“Do the trapped dragons have a role to play in defeating Loki?” I ask Ruxi. “Is that why you’ve come for me, because the fates told you I need to free them?”
Not only them, rider. The Norns are spinning a new weave in the wake of Ragnarök. Their threads tell many stories, but most include you and your beast. This new world will survive—the gods and the elves and the humans can prevail—only if you free the thunder and join them in fighting back against the chaos god and his allies.
“The Norns are wrong,” I insist. “I don’t know what the fuck they’re thinking, but it’s not possible.”
Still, that is what they see. That’s what must occur.
“No, you don’t understand. It’snot possible.”
“Why not?” Finaan demands. “Why can’t you free the dragons and leave here with us?”
“Svend has explained my magic to you, has he not?” I bark as I turn to her, frustration crawling up my spine to fester at the back of my neck.
“I know you can enthrall people, take control of them, like you did Svend,” she responds with a shrug. “But I don’t understand what that has to do with anything.”
“That is the simplest form of my power,” I explain. “A single raindrop in a storm. My true strength lies in my ability to draw them toward me, even across worlds.”
“Right,” she scoffs. “No elf has an ability like that.”
“No elf, but I’m not fully elf. Elves aren’t shifters, yet I am.”
“What are you?” Now I’ve got her attention. My skjaldmær is nothing if not curious.
“I’m the son of Meili, the god of travel. And I hold his greatest gift.” I smile at her, every bit of pain I’m feeling in this moment of truth finding its way into that pathetic grin. “It’s why Hel embraced me. I gave her something even her father and brothers couldn’t.”
“What are you saying, Wregen?” Her voice trembles, and I wonder if she’d rather not hear what I have to tell her. But neither of us has a choice now. The path is set and we can only walk it.
“In exchange for giving me sanctuary in her kingdom and controlling a beast I couldn’t, Hel demanded a feat beyond my powers. She tied my life to hers, took part of my soul, and bound us to the trap she compelled me to create. The godsor the fates or whoever she implored to join us demanded my life in exchange. When this trap fails, I will return to Helheim, whether alive or dead, never to leave again.”
“And that trap…” she mutters, her hands clenched tightly in her lap. She’s leaning away from me, and I already miss her. But I knew what to expect. And I deserve this and so much worse for what I’ve done to her.
“That trap binds your dragon and the others,” I finish for her. “My power was the final piece Hel and her ally, Nerthus, needed to win a war Nerthus raged in Vanaheim. I pulled you and the others to Helheim. I sent the dragons to the prison Hel created, which has held them all these years. They’ll remain there while I live. My life is tied to their captivity. When I die, they’ll be released.
“That’s how we’ll free your dragon, my skjaldmær,” I tell her as I watch her eyes flash, my mate’s pure, unadulterated contempt billowing toward me. “And then you can leave with her and live your life in the sun, where you belong.”
Chapter thirty
Finaan
He's the Reason
WregentrappedPanta.He’sthe reason we suffered for three centuries, and the dragons still do.
I’m so fucking glad, so gods-damned deliriously happy, that I never bonded with him.
“How long have we been traveling together, Wregen?” I’m trembling, the struggle to hold in my fury—to not end his miserable existence right now—nearly breaking me. The heartbeat pounding in my ears is so loud, I’m surprised I can hear anything else.
“Long enough for me to have told you,” he admits with a shrug. But his eyes are full of shadows, and his leg has started to bounce the way it does when he’s uncomfortable or anxious.
“Make no mistake, my skjaldmær,” he continues, dropping a hand to the shaking thigh, which grows still. “I’m not a good male. I never claimed to be. I’m telling you now because I must. You need to know what’s going to happen. I have another secret, and I’ll give you that one because I want you to have it. But I won’t do it yet. You hate me enough in this moment. We’ll travel to the dragons without the utter andirrevocable contempt you’ll hold for me when you learn what I’ve done to you.”
“There’s something worse?” I demand, my thoughts turning cloudy as my limbs shift into rubber. I need to get away from Wregen—to shut off the spigot of words he’s barfing out—but I couldn’t stand right now if I tried. “You’re the reason we were trapped and the dragons still are, but that’s not the worst thing you have to tell me?”
