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“Is that—?”
“Harvested from Yggdrasil. It took me many years to obtain enough for a wand. How many of them are there?”
Odin’s eye, the witch was powerful. It would have been impressive if it didn’t pose such a danger.
“Four, possibly five. I mean it. You should run.”
She flashed me a fierce grin. “And where would the fun in that be?”
“Crazy witch,” I muttered. Then, louder, “Come out brothers. This need not end in violence.”
The footfalls paused, and faint huffing breaths traveled to me on the winds. No predator likes to know it’s been spotted. They’d probably been planning an ambush, aided by the witch’s never-ending prattle. A wary enemy was harder to defeat. They’d have to reconsider their tactics.
Which was exactly what I’d been hoping for. At least one of them would have to shift back to speak with me.
Sure enough, familiar magic shivered in the air, and moments later, four of my kinsmen stepped through the gaps in the trees, placing themselves in a strategic semi-circle. The only escape was backward, and they were sure to have more men lying in wait, should we be cowardly enough to attempt it.
The first to emerge had me by a few inches and thirty pounds of muscle. He pulled to the front and unsheathed a short sword that was stained with blood. He must have killed recently. That, or he was reckless. The blade wouldn’t last long if mistreated.
“I am Sigrun,” he announced. “Alpha of the Timber Wolf Pack. The bowman is Nyk. His twin, the shield bearer, is Gunda.” A tall, red-haired woman bared her teeth at us.
Sigrun smiled arrogantly and gestured to a man brandishing a war hammer. “That is Bjorn. My second in command, Beta of our pack.”
Well, fuck. I’d heard of Nyk and Gunda, even though I’d never met them in the halls of Valhalla. Some tales carried to your ears and settled between them even when you tried to forget. If Sigrun had bested them both, he was more powerful than they were combined. It seemed inconceivable he wouldn’t have tales told about him. Did it make him less than, or just smarter than the rest of us? Harder to predict if no one knew you.
“I am Skarde Fatekissed, Conqueror of Norway, Son of Queen Katla and King Slothi,” I replied, shifting my weight in his direction.
Sigrun’s eyes flicked to Fyrcat, his lip curling in contempt. “And the witch at your elbow? What do you call her?”
Was he toying with us, or was it possible that he didn’t know who Fyrcat was and what she could do?
Fyrcat moved toward him, cheeks flaming with color. He’d managed to prick her pride. Just what I needed. A spiteful witch lobbing magic because her feelings were hurt. I thrust out a hand, holding her back.
Let me through, Fyrcat hissed, the thought dripping enough venom to make my skull itch.
I jerked in surprise. The pack could speak mind-to-mind, but I’d never met a witch who could claim the same. Not until Jovi, and she was of our blood, at least in part.
Can you hear me? I thought tentatively.
Yes, fool, she thought back. Any witch with real power could speak with you. Freya created wolves. Odin perverted their purpose. We share a connection, whether you like it or not.
The thought of being connected to a witch in any sense made my stomach ache. To be connected so intimately to Fyrcat was infinitely worse. She was a snake. Beautiful in the abstract, and deadly in practice.
You should go. If I am forced to shift, I am just as likely to kill you as they are.
I’d kept track of her in my periphery, so I caught the quirk of her lips, watched her full mouth shape the word to a spell. Her power coalesced in the air around us, and before I could stop her, she’d pushed up onto her toes and planted a chaste kiss on my lips.
Fire pulsed through me at the point of contact, scorched down my throat, and unfurled in my stomach. Her scent filled my nose and an awareness of her sprung into my mind.
What did you do? I roared.
Bound us together, she replied smugly. For the duration of our quest to save the insipid humans from the Aesir’s madness.
I wanted to shift, to howl my outrage to the moon, to rend and tear until there was nothing left of the seeress but bone and blood.
I will make you pay for this.
She shrugged. Perhaps. We have to survive first.
