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“The sacrifices were necessary,” she said. Disgust and anger had me biting my tongue before I said something stupid.
My voice came out in a choked whisper. “What do you mean they were necessary?”
Hel looked as amused as ever, reaching down to pet something I couldn’t see, as if to show how unbothered she was.
“Think about it, Harlow,” she told me. Again she was being evasive, not outright telling me anything, and I suspected Kol was right and she couldn’t.
“I’m not here to play riddles with you,” I hissed as I paced. I could feel the stones moving under my feet and knew I was in the courtyard still, another confirmation I wasn’t losing my mind, this was happening.
Thoughts swirled in my head so quickly I could barely make sense of it. Until a realization dawned on me, a cold feeling slithering down my spine until I shivered against it.
“Wait... was that your way of telling me the answer?” I asked carefully. Her face beamed with pride, and I wanted to vomit on the spot. “You’re going to sacrifice me?” Even as I said the words, I protested them, shaking my head and backing away like it could save me from the fucking leader of Helheim.
“Well, you got most of it right,” she said with a laugh. “I can’t tell you the details, Harlow. But you are on the right track.”
My mouth was so dry it was hard to speak. “I’m going to have to die for you, aren’t I?”
My world shattered around me. Everything I’d fought for, everything I’d built, that I’d worked hard to keep close, would slip through my fingers and there was nothing I could do to stop it. A seer and Hel chose me and now my fate was sealed.
“Is that why you sent your adviser and warden? So they could kill me?”
She chuckled. “Or help it along,” she countered. She was so fucking nonchalant that I wanted to lash out. I’ve never been more hurt and angrier in my life.
“I won’t die for you, Hel. I have a life and I’ve worked hard for it,” I bit out. She would not take it all from me without a fucking fight. I knew five men who would fight beside me.
“Death wouldn’t be the end for you,” she said as if that would change anything. “That I can promise you.”
“And that’s supposed to help? What, I’m just going to have to live eternity as a fucking demon in your realm or a lost soul?!”
“You wouldn’t be a demon and you wouldn’t be a soul, you’d be something new,” she said. The way she spoke was like I was missing the point, and I wanted to punch the Queen of Helheim in the fucking face.
“No, I said I won’t do it,” I bit out again.
She leaned forward and glared at me. “You can try to outrun fate, Harlow, but it never works. Your fate has been sealed from the moment I chose you.”
“Then choose someone else,” I screamed. Anger was making my voice shake, and I hated that it would be seen as a sign of weakness. Right now, any form of weakness would be an issue. “Why give me the men and this life just to take it away?”
She shifted in her hair chair as she regarded me, shifting her long black hair over her shoulder.
“You all serve your purpose for me.”
This woman was not a leader, but a fucking narcissist. She couldn’t see past whatever fantasy she’d concocted to realize we were real fucking people.
“You think everyone in this world is just here to serve you, to be used in some fucked-up game that you’re creating.” I was grinding my teeth so hard my jaw ached. It was all I could do to not lash out and get myself killed.
“I didn’t start this war or the rebellion, Harlow. This is how it was meant to be. There’s only so much I can do from this realm.”
“I don’t believe that for a fucking second! You have shown your powers more than once,” I argued.
“Believe what you will,” she said absently, picking at some nonexistent lint on her arm before leveling me with an unamused look. “You can choose to cry, fight, and whine but at the end of the day you know what you have to do. You have your answers now, Harlow, leave me.” She waved her hand as if to dismiss me, and the air wavered until I was back in the courtyard.
“Harlow? Are you okay?”
Layne was beside me, her pretty face twisted in a worried expression since I wasn’t answering her question. She moved in front of me, tucking my hair behind my ears as she tried to study me to figure out what was going on. I couldn’t form the words, only tears, which wasn’t helping her panic.
“Is this some kind of psychotic break? Do I need to get a nurse?”
That was enough to make me laugh, though it sounded strangled. There was no way to put into words what I was feeling, the panic and fear choking me.
