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Shut up before I dig my dagger out of your scales and stab you with it, ass god.

I was your ass god as well, he purred. I explored all your holes and filled you with my icy seed.

I swallowed hard. Ah, seed? To my horror, he remained quiet. Skadi, what about your seed? For that matter, what about the rest of my mates? Fuck, for all I knew, I had a baby kraken starting a ten-year gestation in my womb. Or a selkie swimming around in there.

Or an iceberg. Shit. What sort of creature would a god’s baby be? Edan had thought he could breed me successfully. What if I was already pregnant?

I felt nauseous, though that was probably because Skadi was listing even more now. Was he going to drop me?

Little spy, calm yourself. You are not pregnant. More quietly, I heard him muttering, “An iceberg!” to himself, as if I’d insulted him.

Lusca’s laughter spilled through my mind. Isn’t your bargain with the Goddess still in effect, beloved?

I relaxed. It was. For five more moons, anyway. After that, the Goddess would probably throw me back into heat again. If I survived the next few days, I’d worry about the baby-making part of being an Omega. Maybe I could use some of the fertility methods on my mates. Or if necessary, my dagger on their⁠—

Look! The Alldyns Vug. Lusca broke into my thoughts about birth control, his mental voice slightly panicked.

Kellin and Lachlan had moved slightly farther away from me in Skadi’s grip. I ignored their concerned expressions and peered between Skadi’s toes toward the southeast.

Pict was close, only a dozen miles away. The Alldyns Vug wasn’t smoking, and no fire ran down its sides. In fact, it looked like a long-dormant volcano, a smooth cone covered with an even layer of ash. The wind near the top did pick up a small amount of ash with each gust, smearing a small trail of gray on the horizon.

My neck ached from the angle it took to see. I settled back into Skadi’s grip just as he dipped in the sky, as if he’d lost control of his wings. I almost dropped the tears, clutching at the side of his scaled foot.

No! Lusca shouted in my mind.

“What’s happening?” I yelled a split second before I felt something in my bond. A jolt of fear, panic, and then a feeling of falling, or rising, I wasn’t sure. But I knew which mate mark felt like it was being excised. “Goran!”

Hold on. Skadi folded his wings tight and dropped fast toward the island. But just as quickly, he extended them and shot upward. I started to ask why, but Skadi didn’t need to answer. An enormous cloud of ash surrounded us, pushing Skadi higher.

As we rose, my heart stopped beating. For the space of one breath, then two. Though I wasn’t breathing.

I knew what had happened. I didn’t see Goran’s body break into pieces. I didn’t need to; I could feel it inside me, in the claiming mark on my shoulder.

I have him, my Empress. Do not fear. Lusca’s voice was harsh and insistent, filled with power.

I will not let him go, Skadi ground out as he turned his head back and blew, hard, down at the ash cloud that chased us. He blew it away from the Alldyns Vug, revealing the surface of the mountain.

“It has changed completely,” Lachlan murmured as Skadi slowed his descent. “There is no visible fire.”

The top appeared whole, except for a chunk that was missing from the slope a third of the way down on the jungle side, where boulders and rocks were strewn down the smooth side. Hundreds of rocks in every size and shape littered that area, along with one crushed Warlord who lay still at the base of the volcano.

Skadi set me down beside him, and I sprinted to his side and kneeled. He was covered in blood, every bone broken, his face and jaw almost unrecognizable. The warrior’s beads at the ends of his braids glimmered in the ash, though his golden hair had been painted gray. His face was gray as well, his eyes closed.

“Is he alive?” Kellin asked. Lachlan collapsed on Goran’s other side and gently touched the arm above his crushed left hand.

“Vasyl, come back to us,” he murmured. I took his other hand and felt his wrist for a pulse.

There was one. Sluggish and faint, but his blood still moved. “Help him!” I demanded as Skadi’s enormous head bobbed over me. “Lusca, heal him!”

“I am moving his blood even now,” Lusca replied. His eyes were dark, his tone grim. “If I was in the sea, I might be able to stabilize him. If I was at full strength, and Skadi were not channeling the largest part of his power to your soul’s well.”

My what? I didn’t ask. I’d felt the god feeding power into me, but I’d assumed he had enough to spare.

“Fuck,” Lachlan cursed. “Can we carry him there?” It was miles to the water.

“I thought he would be safe!” I shouted. “You’re the Emperor of Emperors.” I heaved a breath. “Skadi’s a god.”

Skadi didn’t answer, but Lusca said quietly, “Yes, we are powerful. Yes, your bond to him connects us all. But your Alpha Warlord is still mortal. His body has limitations.”