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I closed my eyes and followed Alexios’s mantras down in an imaginary spiral, following his chants in my memory until I arrived at what I’d decided lay at my center.

A pool of moonlight, reflected in a dark puddle on a cavern floor. The place where the Goddess had spoken to me once before, when we made our bargain.

I was there, only breath moving the water. She was not, of course. I was alone.

But not for long. The place that had been Hers, ours, was no longer dark and cool. It had become a swirling red lake of fire… a maw.

Rada! Serak’s voice was a scream.

My eyes flew open as a sudden searing cramp rippled through me, and then another. I felt like I might vomit.

I felt like I might run from the longhouse to find my mates.

Fuck. Pain wracking me, I struggled to stand and cross to the improvised apothecary we’d constructed over the past few days. The aqila tea had been set aside for Rielle, but I lifted the shell, considering it.

A bead of sweat trickled from my temple as I measured out a small dose, then added a few more drops. I pressed my hand on my abdomen. I couldn’t feel Skadi’s cold spot there at all now.

Had he died? Had Lusca vanquished him, or wounded him so badly he had somehow killed the god?

The idea of that vexed me. No one besides me was allowed to murder one of my ma— Oh, shit. Had I begun to think of the ice god as one of my mates?

The idea quenched the pain slightly.

Alexios’s stories of the Goddess, the ones he’d learned at the temple and had droned on about when we sailed across from Havira to Mirren in a fierce storm, had been all about balance. “The moon waxes and wanes, her light rises and falls. She knows that summer cannot come without winter. Tides cannot rise without falling. Acknowledging the balance of life is one way to honor the Goddess…”

The balance. If Skadi was meant for me, then so was…

Fucking hells, no.

I tore my mind from the sudden vision of Edan, naked and glowing, floating in the maw, reaching for me.

I knew one thing for sure. I’d been trapped by an Alpha and escaped. I’d been trapped by the Goddess and talked my way out of it.

I would not be trapped by that arserag. Not if it meant my life, though I was starting to think it would.

Hands shaking, I sipped the tea, wishing it were potato whisky, strength flowing out of me like I was wounded, bleeding out with something other than blood. Halfway through the draught, my chest exploded with pain.

Lusca’s connection flared to life, invisible hooks tearing at me. I pressed my hand to my chest, wondering why it felt like he was close. Closer every second.

The door toward the sea creaked, and a shaft of light fell over me. “Knock knock, brat. You gonna welcome me in?”

My eyes widened as light poured through the narrow crack, blocked only by one familiar head. “Lachlan,” I gasped.

“Oh, shit, princess, you’re in bad shape.”

At his last word, I fell into blackness, though I felt something soft under my head as I went under.

RADA

Iwoke up some time later, lying on a lumpy pillow that smelled like rosemary. “Lachlan.”

He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “Don’t do that again. You scared me, mate.”

I heard more than one whisper in the longhouse and knew the Omegas had returned. They sounded excited, even happy, though some were still hidden behind the filthy curtains. I tried to sit up. “Were they scared of you?”

“Not much,” Lachlan replied softly, helping me sit up. “It helps that I’m an Omega. And extremely charming. Impossibly handsome.”

“And already mated.” I reached up and grabbed two of his golden-tipped braids, dragging him down for a long kiss before I pulled back and examined him.