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Lachlan hummed. “Only part kraken, now.”

“What do you mean?” I whispered.

“Skadi and he… bonded in adversity.” I listened as he told the story of their terrible fight.

“Lusca stabbed Skadi with my old dagger? Stupid squid.”

“Well, he more than made up for it. Skadi believes we’ll need him to help get you all free from his brother’s home. Eda⁠—”

“Don’t say his name,” I warned.

He nodded grimly. “Skadi was dying from the blade. So Lusca agreed to share his own power with him. Unfortunately, the mate bond you two botched a while back—oof!” He sucked in a breath and rubbed the kidney I’d punched lightly. “Brat. Let me finish. Skadi was truly poisoned in their battle. Lusca was almost killed. They’ve changed. They’re like brothers now. Sharing power and pain. They’re both still very weak, but Lusca thought you might have an antidote to the poison that’s eating Skadi from the inside.”

He didn’t need to tell me the consequences, if I couldn’t save the ice god.

“Does the thieving icicle still have all my potions?” I demanded, jumping up and going to the curtained area where I’d been making the tonics. The cofi had kicked in, though I still felt ridiculously weak. The mild aqila tea seemed to have taken the edge off the impending heat cycle, thank the Goddess.

“Lusca said Skadi dropped them on a glacier after the fight. He may still have a few.”

“Right. There might be a way…” I picked up a bundle of bloodstrand, an herb that could increase blood supply, though it had the side effect of making the one who took it incredibly hungry. “Adiah, do we have any of the sardines left from last night?”

“No.”

Shit.

“What’s your plan?” Lachlan asked. “I wasn’t sure there could be a potion that could heal a god.”

I winked. “I’ve got god-level skills, Omega. Watch and learn.” I pulled my obsidian shard out of my leaf tube and ignored his soft curse.

“What is that?”

“My version of a dagger of fate. I call this a shard of retribution.”

Adiah scoffed. “You do not.”

“Yeah, but we should, right? We all have them. Lots of shards means lots of retribution. We should make more today.” I scowled as I stacked my ingredients. I couldn’t see a way of making this work without the starflower antidote, or something just as strong. “I scraped Goran with my dagger once and thought I’d truly killed him,” I mused as I mentally calculated the time it would take to concentrate the blood.

Lachlan snorted. “Does he know that?”

“Nah. When he woke up, I told him it was just another minor poisoning.”

He sighed heavily, but didn’t interrupt as I fished through the bundles of herbs I’d managed to gather. Almost everything on Pict was poisonous, and only a few herbs were useful for healing. And to heal a god...

I leveled my gaze on Lachlan. “Go back to Skadi and tell him we need the starflower antidote, if he has it. Goran and I found a half-vial of it in the treasure room at Wargate Hall, and I kept it in a little malachite vial.” I thought for another moment. “If he bonded with Lusca, shared blood and power… I’ll need some of Lusca’s blood.” I closed my eyes, trying to estimate how much of a kraken’s blood would be enough to save a god. “Can you bring that, too?”

“You want me to ask my Emperor for his blood?”

“If he’s permanently connected to Skadi, absolutely. And I need my damned priest back.”

“Alexios? He’s on the island?” Lachlan sounded relieved. “What’s he doing?”

I hadn’t seen him since our meeting on the beach, but I thought about the fallen Alphas and the foam on their lips. “Skulking. Possibly sulking. Stupid Beta should be here apologizing on his knees,” I grumbled, then went to the door and opened it. I stepped outside, cupped my hands around my mouth, and whistled three times. Then I waited, and faced each direction, repeating the call. If he heard it, he would come.

I thought he would, anyway. During my ill-timed nap, the guards on the hill had settled or dispersed, at least. Since they believed the Omegas were trapped here, it made a sort of stupid sense that none of them had come storming into the longhouses.

We needed them to stay stupid for a few more hours.

Lachlan met me at the door as I stepped back inside. “Go back to the sea,” I directed him. “I don’t know how you’ll carry it, but come back with Lusca’s blood, at least enough to fill a small bowl. Maybe some fish, too. I’m gonna be starving.”