Page 27

Air hissed through Finan’s bared teeth. “We need to keep moving. We need to put distance between us and the Grimward because they will seek me out. If you want my help leading you into Mara’s Keep, we will leave now, without the vampire.”

“Just try to get away from me.” Ragna smirked. “I’m twice as fast as you can even dream of being.”

Finan cursed under his breath, shaking his head as he turned on his heel and marched deeper into the Einnland woods. The journey to Mara’s Keep would be long and treacherous through the cold since we wouldn’t be able to take the main roads. Not until we drew closer to the castle and allowed Finan to treat us as his captives. Many would recognize me, so we had no choice but to stay in the shadows.

I turned to Ragna as we trudged further from the shore and deeper into the forest. Shadowed by ancient trees that smelled of nutty, mellow ash trees and thick oak. “Why are you here, so far from Skaldir? Where’s Rolf?”

“At home,” Ragna said easily. “Of course. Who else would be taking care of our house full of children? I came here to warn you. The vampires have been sent to capture you if Drukna didn’t already. Silver doesn’t have much faith that you’d make it back, even as a god, no—” she huffed, “especially as a god. She expected Njord and his sea monsters to claim you after what you did to Odin. But in the event that you didn’t get captured, she has nine vampires whose sole instruction is to find and torture you.”

“Njord no longer has access to our world,” I said.

“He didn’t…” she gritted her teeth.

“Yggdrasil’s seed is planted, then?” I asked, thinking of that tiny seed in my sister’s palm. I’d only glimpsed it before her claw-like fingernails wrapped around it and tore it away from me. That one tiny seed would bring back the gods’ reach in this realm, and undoubtedly, they all intended to gut me. Well, perhaps not all. Not everyone loved Odin, but they surely hated that they had no control over us anymore, no influence on humans, no entertainment—no toys to bat around like Freya’s cruel cats did with mice.

Ragna nodded. “Sprouted already. Amazing what a god’s tree can do. It takes us fucking months to get sprouts on the farm. With so many of our villagers now turned into vampires or become food for them, Skaldir faces a severe shortage of workers. I can hardly keep up with our farm, let alone help anyone else at home till and plant.”

“That’s what the captives are for,” I muttered, thinking of how Silver would force them into slavery before they were sacrificed or bled dry.

Ragna squared her shoulders and grabbed mine. Giving me a little shake, she said, “The vampires are hunting you, Lux. Come to Skaldir with me. I’ll hide you in the old sparring room beneath our house.”

I shook my head, gently tugging away from her grasp. The suggestion of running away to Skaldir meant giving up on Drak. My only priority preceding his resurrection involved placing my mother under the care of an expert healer, akin to those in Skaldir.

This is my chance to get her home.

My breath caught in my throat as I met Ragna’s gaze. “I can’t come with you,” I said. “But my mother needs your help.” I turned to Axel, who blessedly remained at my heels with my mother in his arms, and draped my hand across her forehead, where she burned hot as a flame. My palm came away clammy.

Ragna raked her gaze over my mother’s skeletal frame and thin, scraggly hair. The yellow and grey tint to her skin was the worst part. “I’m not turning her.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I would never ask that of you, and she’d hate being a vampire. Take her to the healers in Skaldir. They’ll care for her.”

“There are so few left⁠—”

“Please,” I begged, suddenly seizing her arm and clutching her as if my life depended on it. Her skin was as cool as Drak’s when he hadn’t fed for a few days. “Please take her home. If there’s even one healer left who worked with her…” My eyes drifted back to the weird angle of my mother’s neck. “That is her best chance of survival.”

“And you?” Ragna asked.

Breathless, I told her our plan. With my mother safe in Skaldir, we were free to search for the last shard of Drak’s soul. Instead of asking Soren to bring me to the healers in the castle, we’d go straight for the soul. The sooner we brought Drak back, the sooner Vylheim would be spared from Silver, and if that failed—no, I refused to consider that possibility. I had to see him again. I had to hold him.

Footsteps crunched behind us.

Ragna spun around, her thick braid flinging over her shoulder and landing heavily between her breasts as her eyes narrowed, and saw what we could not. “Vampires,” she breathed. “I will hold them off⁠—”

“No!” I whispered. “They’ll kill you. I can’t lose you and my mother. Take her and run.”

Ragna’s thin lips tugged downward as she stared at me until her jaw squared, and without another word, she ripped my mother from Axel’s arms. As soon as his arms were free, he reached for his weapon and drew a small dagger from his boot.

Ragna and Axel exchanged a look I didn’t fully understand. Their brief time together at Mara’s Keep had been fraught with Ragna’s painful transformation into a vampire, but he took care of her alongside the vampires who’d remained loyal to Drak. Apparently, they knew one another well enough to share an understanding without words, because Ragna stepped back and vanished into the woods with my mother faster than my eyes could follow, and Axel positioned himself in front of me.

“Follow Finan,” Axel said as he stepped out of the shadows.

“Axel?”

“I’ll hold the vampire off.” His voice faltered as a hooded figure emerged from the brush. The vampire didn’t see us yet, but she sensed us here. The confidence of her gait said enough.

“Run, Lux.” Even Axel’s demands were laced with calm stoicism. “Remember, you must stay safe. You must find Soren⁠—”

“I need your help to hone the projection of my sight.”