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"Come here."
I slowly make my way toward Dax, afraid of what he's going to say now that we're alone. Now that he knows I lied to him. It seems like the least of my sins at the moment, considering I also snuck out and came here. But it's the one that weighs the most heavily.
I draw to a stop in front of him as his lyststål winks out.
"Are you well,lyseste ljós?"
"Yes," I whisper.
"Good." He pulls me into his arms, clutching me to his heart. "Then you can explain to me what you thought you were doing. And you can explain it so well that I lose the urge to spank you into next month," he growls against my ear, his voice rumbling like thunder.
I burst into tears, not because he's angry. Not because I'm trying to get out of trouble. But because I feel his fear and pain. I hear them. And they break me wide open.
"I'm so sorry," I sob. "I didn't want you to kill him. But he ended up dead anyway. I…I…I was going to trade his soul for my mom's."
"Gods alive," Dax mutters.
"I thought if I could c-convince them to make a deal, it'd give us more t-time."
"What deal?"
"The souls of the damned in exchange for all the other souls." I press my face to his throat, letting my tears soak into his skin. "I didn't know they were all safe, Dax. I tried to get them to agree to leave Abigail and Eitr and humans alone too."
"You asked them for these things?"
I hesitate.
"Rissa," he growls, a warning in his tone.
"M-more like demanded."
He growls again, wordlessly this time. Not that I need words to understand the sound. He isn't very happy with me right now.
"I had to try, Dax," I whisper, pulling back to look at him. "You told me that the most important thing I had to do right now was survive, and you were right. But I'm not the only one who has to survive right now. We all have to survive. We all have to find a way to live to fight another day. Because this isn't a war we're going to win tomorrow or the next day. We have four more Valkyrie to find. I can't do that alone. I need all of you. The Light needs you."
"You have us, Rissa." He wipes the tears from my cheeks. "We're your army to command." His expression turns frosty. "But if you ever do something like that again, may the Gods have mercy on you, because this Fae will not."
"I can live with that."
"Ja, you can. You will." He presses his lips to mine as if sealing a vow. "I refuse to let you die."
"I won't let you die either, Dax." My gaze flickers past him to my dad. "I won't let you blacken your soul, either."
"But you'll risk blackening yours?"
"He was mostly dead when I tried to barter his soul."
"That doesn't make it better, Valkyrie."
"I know," I admit. "But some souls are so black, there is no saving them, Dax. If using his soul to free my mom's lessened the stain on it, then at least he did something right with it."
"Ah, lyseste ljós," Dax breathes, pulling me into his arms again. "He already did something right. He helped bring you into this world."
Chapter Fifteen
Rissa
"Dax." I grab hisarm, halting him as we walk through the living room, grabbing everything the Forsaken left behind. His brothers are checking the rest of the house, making sure we leave no traces of what truly happened here. Genevieve and Jessa are already on their way back home. If they remember anything, it'll feel like a fever dream to them.
