“Go!”I shout.“Now—I’m not sure how long I can block them.”
Why would you help me?She glares.You conspired to kill me.
“I guess both of us learned something today,” I say.“But for me, I just realized how senseless all of this is.”I turn for one second.“Now, go, please.”
Freja snatches me with her one good front claw and throws me up into the air, flinging me over her shoulder and back onto her body.You’re coming with me, ensnared.We have much to discuss.
She’s right, I suppose.If she’s willing to talk, then we do.
I hold the shield until they’re too far to harm us, and just before the strike blessed lightning hits us, we dive toward the small portal Freja’s capable of making.Her father will have to bring the others home, once she explains.
But when we reach Bjorn, all she tells him is that Freyr killed Frigg, but died in the process.She doesn’t mention Gorm, or my plan to kill her, or my decision to help instead.Her father leaves to recover the others, whoever hasn’t perished, and we’re left alone.
After flying to our cavern, I send the other earth children away.Before I can say anything, before I can explain, Freya sinks to the cold stone floor, her head collapsing on the ground.
I have something important to show you,Freja says.It’s the source of all my father’s power, and I think it may be the key to finally changing the world we live in, once and for all.It’s the source of my magic as well.
When she looks at me again, I see something I’ve never seen from her before, not once in all the time I’ve been here.
Hope.
17
Axel
Liz’s body has nearly hit the ground when I reach her, my claws closing around her bleeding and broken formjustin time.Even so, the impact of my talons on her soft human body when I wing my way upward can’t be good.
The strike blessed fry several men in uniform firing guns before I rip open a portal and wing my way through.They follow me back almost immediately.
Hyperion hasn’t even left the area.What happened?
Liz.I gently set her on the ground.Find someone with an ensnared healer of some kind.The humans shot her.
Hyperion flies away without a single word of argument.I crouch over her tiny body, listening for the telltale sound of her heartbeat.It’s faint, but it’s there.Only, it sounds erratic.Instead of the steady boom boom boom I’m accustomed to hearing, it’s staccato.
Boom.
Boom boom boom.
Pause.
I use just one claw to prod her gently.
She gasps, and blood spurts from the hole in her shoulder.Her eyes fly open.“Azar.”
I bring my head closer, my nostrils almost touching her.
“Throw me in the volcano.If I’m dying anyway, I may as well bargain with Freya before it happens.”
No.You aren’t dying.
When she laughs, blood sprays from her mouth.
What if she’s right?Is shedying?From one little bullet?
Asteria lands beside us.What’s wrong with you, moron?
“Yeah,” Jade asks.“Why are you letting her die?Do you hate her that much?”
