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Too addled with pain, she only shook her head as she met my gaze. Gods, I was broken.

Never again would I know peace after doing this to my wife. Even if I got out of this alive, I’d throw myself into Drukna. How could I live with myself, knowing I inflicted these wounds?

Silver’s voice was further now. “Now aim for her heart⁠—”

“Foresight, Lux.” The words tumbled out of me, interrupting Silver, though the thread of her compulsion remained just as powerful. I was her puppet and she, my master.

I reeled back with my fist gripping the hilt harder when Lux dragged her bloodied arm up and met my wrist with the heel of her palm. This wouldn’t last, though, because even as a human, I was stronger.

I was human, not vampire. Being almost wholly human, I could fight this.

Despite the pull of the invisible thread, I flexed and froze in place long enough for Lux to focus. Clarity brightened her eyes, and her gaze bored into me. “Hel can help…” she whispered. Before I understood the situation, she threw her head back and invoked the goddess of the underworld. “Hel!” Something unrecognizable flashed in her eyes and they shifted to a temporary all-white, as blinding and strange as Silver’s dress.

“What is she doing?” Silver asked, an edge of panic slicing through her voice.

“Hel, heed my call,” Lux continued, desperate, but I already saw she wasn’t strong enough for this command. “Heed Odin’s power and come claim my sister’s soul for Niflheim⁠—”

Silver shrieked a string of curses behind me, and the compulsion suddenly snapped. Even if Lux couldn’t reach the other gods, Silver didn’t know that, and sweet freedom flooded me.

My lungs filled with a desperate, sucking breath as the string released from my muscles. Still holding the dagger, I leaped up and away from Lux. It felt a part of me now, like an extension of my arm, as the weight of my maker’s command slammed down onto me again, only seconds after I was freed.

“Turn it on yourself, Drakkar,” she said.

Lux struggled to roll to her side, but slick blood had her slipping, and her eyes squeezed shut with obvious agony. Her lips, cracked and bloodless, moved in a rhythm calling for Hel again, and though Odin had assigned Loki’s daughter dominion over the souls going to the underworld, she did not answer Lux.

And Silver seemed to realize this too. Hel may have been bound to the assignment Odin gave her once, but she didn’t care for him now.

“Stab it through your heart, Drakkar,” Silver said. “Between the fourth and fifth ribs.”

Sweat trickled down my brow as I gained the slightest resistance. The longer she forced this compulsion, the more it felt as though her power slid back and I could regain control.

But not enough.

I turned the tip of the blade to my chest, and it punctured through my tunic and flesh.

Silver’s, Lux’s, and my blood mingled on the blade as it sank an inch. I held my breath, knowing that if I allowed myself to feel the pain, I would not keep up this slow-building resistance.

“Listen to me, goddess,” Lux spat out each word through the pain. “Please. Please heed my call and help.” As she spoke, she dragged herself to her feet, but her legs shook and she swayed. Any second, she’d collapse back over the stone, doing more damage to herself than good.

“Kill yourself, Drak!” Silver screamed, but her voice was distant, her compulsion fading, and when I thrust the blade forward, I tweaked my wrist and angled it up and into the soft spot just below my shoulder.

Pain bolted through me, and a cry escaped me as the weapon buried deeper and deeper until I drove it completely through, and the tip protruded from my back.

I slumped forward, releasing my grip on the weapon and splaying my hand out to catch myself as I fell to my side.

“You’ve lost, Silver,” Lux’s voice filled the space around me. I let my eyes slide shut as I tried to breathe around the weapon in my chest. “Look at this temple! Look at your army! The vampires are falling⁠—”

“And you failed,” she hissed. “Our mother is dead and now Drak is dying. What the fuck will you do with that throne alone, sister? Sit there and cry? Drakkar…” her voice was low again, lethal, the tone of compulsion. “Take it out and aim for the heart this time.”

I was too weak, broken, destroyed. Fighting back became impossible as I grabbed the hilt again and ripped the blade out of me. I lined it up with my heart and thrust.

“Drak!” Lux was already kneeling beside me before I could make sense of how quickly she moved. Knowing what was coming, her hands grasped mine before I could push the dagger in completely.

She stopped me from slamming it into my heart, but I was still stronger. Life poured out of my open wound, pulsing faster with each beat, and now I’d stabbed myself again, nearly piercing my heart. Lux’s fingers, chilled and blue, cupped mine, grasping at the weapon. Her help was enough to stop me from immediately dying, but not enough to stop the slow bleed as the battle raged around us.

“I’m sorry,” I said again.

“Drak, don’t.” Her voice cracked. “You can’t die.”