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“Stasia will help.” He urged me away with the back of his forearm.

“I can see the future; let me fight.”

“You also have Freya’s blood damning your heart,” he said easily. “Drak was like a son to me, and I swore to protect his wife.” When he glanced at me, I didn’t need him to add more because his soft eyes said enough. Let me do this for you, and for Drak.

The vampire stalked toward us, marching faster than humanly possible, but not at her full speed, until she spotted him on the path before her. I had mere moments before she’d see me.

“Drak wouldn’t forgive me.” Desperation cut through my words, and my voice weakened.

“Go, Lux!”

With a huff, I pivoted and ran into the woods, following Stasia and Finan at their heels. My lungs and legs shook with effort and fear.

A painful memory surfaced of Astrid and Sten hunting me across the forest that bordered Skaldir. Absently, I reached up to the ring hanging on the chain around my neck—Sten’s ring. It brought little comfort, only the reminder that Drak had beheaded Sten just for suggesting that he’d fucked me. He hadn’t, and Drak knew it, but joking about it was enough reason for Drak to kill him.

The ring was a symbol of safety, and that safety was a wedding gift.

My pulse throbbed painfully, and black spots dotted my vision. The journey across Drukna had taken so much of my strength. My hand found the solid, jagged crystal in my pocket. It neither warmed nor cooled, but remained temperate but the firmness grounded me as Axel grunted behind us.

I could not look back, not with Stasia and Finan disappearing from my sight. Every step sucked air from my lungs, and my heart ached. Hope waned even though the memory of my days racing Ragna helped me catch up.

Running with what little energy I could muster, I prayed to no one that Axel would fight her off and follow us. I was the god who should have stayed to help him, but he’d insisted I leave, and my freedom was Drak’s salvation.

“I can’t keep running for long,” I said between breaths.

“Finn,” Stasia snapped. “Did you hear her? We have to stop and hide.”

A flame ignited behind my breastbone, just as Finan yanked us both beneath a crop of rocks. I collapsed with my spine against jagged stone, drawing painful, gulping breaths. Sealing my eyes shut, I slowed my pulse, slowed my thoughts, and focused on only one thing. Axel.

My foresight wasn’t perfect, and I didn’t know if I’d see the future or the past or the present now, but I did everything I could to connect with the man who offered himself as a sacrifice for my safety.

In the back of my eyelids, I watched the vampire seize him just as he thrust the blade into her rib cage. She sputtered with black blood seeping out from beneath her wound. Her clothes and skin surrounding the wound crumbled into dust as all vampires turned to ash, but the damage proved to be fleeting which meant her heart wasn’t punctured.

With her inhuman strength, she easily yanked the blade from her chest and threw it aside. “Fuck you,” she screeched at him and snatched his neck in her hands, sending Axel to his knees with her claws clutching his throat.

My chest cinched tighter. No!

The sound of his agonized grunt lingered in my mind, and it haunted me how easily he threw himself in harm’s way and sacrificed himself for me. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t want to be a burden that required others to make sacrifices. I never wanted to be queen, but Axel needed me to survive; he cared that much for Drak and for Soren, and once Drak reclaimed the throne, Soren would be free to live as he wished.

Tears stung hot behind my eyes. How many times had Axel saved me? He was the only one except me who truly understood Drak. If I were honest with myself, which had always been hard for me, I’d clung to an unconscious hope that Axel and I would find the last shard of Drak’s soul together. He knew about Drak’s life as a Draugr, and he experienced Drak’s life in Mara’s Keep.

Hel, I was in pain everywhere, but the worst part was not being able to return to Axel’s body and mourn him.

But if we hadn't kept running, all three of us would have been killed or captured. Would they behead us like executioners once did to witches? No, vampires were more savage. They played with their food first, as evidenced by the vampire that'd struck down Axel.

“Get up,” Finan’s voice sliced through my focus, and my eyes peeled open. “With darkness comes vampires. We need to get deeper into the forest before they smell us.”

Stasia helped me to my feet, and we were running again, leaving the only other person Drak cared about behind.

My heart slammed against my ribcage, and tears, hot and swift, coursed down my cheeks, a stark contrast to the biting, icy wind that sliced through the trees, its roar a chaotic din, unlike the predictable pulse of the ocean. The rustle of leaves overhead replaced the crash of waves as we drew further from Drukna.

Further from Axel.

Would Drak ever forgive me? I squeezed the crystal. I wouldn’t forgive myself.

Drak

Whatever it is Skald, I've already forgiven you. There was nothing Lux did that I wouldn’t forgive her for. I mean, Hel, she already killed me, technically. And maybe I told her to, but in the end, it was her choice. Nothing would drive me away from her.