They would love that,Azar says.They’re complaining even more now than before.
You would be too,Asteria says,if the one thing you desired was given to another group instead of to you.
They’ve been so obnoxious since the earth blessed got wings,Hyperion says.Far whinier than the earth blessed ever were.
But I’m not listening to Hyperion.Asteria’s words are still echoing in my brain.It feels like I’ve heard them before, and then it clicks.That’s very nearly what Freya said to me, when she knew she was dying.Her last words were, “The one thing you truly desire, it’s always been in your grasp.”
Are you alright?The others are still chattering away, but Azar’s looking at me with concern.
We’ve come such a long way from when he was expelled from the volcano with no memory—nothing but contempt for the human whom he’d previously bonded.We’re in a much better place than we were, but she’s right.
I do long for something—two things, really.
I want Azar’s memories returned, but she said only he can do that.
And I want him to be able to take a human form.It’s selfish—it benefits no one but me, but I yearn for it all the same.Except, then I recall what I said to Jörð when I was Gullveig, what I asked her to do for Freya...
I asked her to know.
It is selfish that I want Axel to take a human form again, yes.But it’s also a gift that the goddess of earth gave herself, to help Freja understand us.I’m not sure where the earth dragons came from, or why they’re so different, or even why there weren’t any back in my memories.
But becoming human, it’s notjustfor me.It helped the dragons too.
It helped them understand us—it helped the children of the sky live in harmony with the children of earth.It helped bridge the wide and difficult divide between our people.So while they’re all talking, I creep back into the back room of our new home, tomyroom.
And I pull the heart out from the carefully carved box where we keep it.It’s pulsing, even now.It’s stunning, and it feels almost alive, like a real heart.I stroke it carefully, and then I bow my head over it, and I reach for the light and energy that always surges inside it.
Once I’m full of it, the bright light, I pause.“Please, Jörð, please grant me this wish.Let me help Azar to know—help Axel to understand.Let him take a human form again.”
And then I wait.
All the light churns and surges with nowhere to go.
After a few moments, I release it back into the stupid rock, disheartened.Azar’s standing in the doorway, his head tilted.Are you alright?
I sigh.“I’m just being greedy, I guess.”
How so?
I flop back on my tiny bed, shoved into the corner of the still cavernous room.“You used to be able to turn into a human.”
Useless ability.
“I know you think that,” I say, my voice small.“But I miss it.”
He walks carefully toward me and lies down beside my bed, his enormous scarlet head resting on his front legs.I am sorry my lack of humanoid shape upsets you.I don’t like when you’re upset.
“I know.”I shake my head.“And it’s fine.Things are—well, they’re better than I could have hoped, especially with the release of all those vanir, and you know, everything else.”I close my eyes.
But you wanted to try and restore my ability to shift?
I don’t want him to feel like he’s not good enough.“It’s not that I don’t like you as you are,” I say.“It’s just that—Freya said this weird thing.She said that I always had the ability to have the thing I most desired, and other than your memories coming back, that’s what I want most.”
Maybe I should take a nap.I’m clearly cranky.
“I just wish—I’ve wished for a very long time that Jörð would allow you to take a human form again, like me.”
Why?
