“Hey, you filthy vanir, come get me! It’s me, Gullveig.” I scream wildly, and the vanir who were attacking two small earth dragons pivot mid-air. They’re less skeletal, but egads, they still look horrible. “It’s been a week and you still look like crispy critters.” I shake my head and wave my swords. “Come and get me.”
As they approach my heart pounds and adrenaline floods my system.
I’ll roast them, Azar says. Prepare your shield.
Volcanoes don’t bother me, I say. I’m not sure I need one. But hold off for now. I’d like to get more than just those two.
As the cursed ones approach, I realize they’re storm vanir. It’s hard to tell with the charring—seems to be permanent damage from being contained in the volcano—but they look grey, and when they close on me, strong gusts of wind buffet me from the left and right, making it hard to fly.
“Nice try,” I say. “But that pathetic wind won’t work.” I reach out, right sword extended, but instead of slicing like I’m sure they expect, I yank my hand backward, using my entwined powers to pull as hard as I can, and it works. The charred storm vanir twists, bellowing as I yank it sideways against its will. Then my left arm plunges, the blade sinking straight into the center of its chest. I pull the sword free just in time to avoid plummeting downward with it.
Liz.
Azar’s flaming other vanir who are coming at us from the other side, leaving me to handle the four who peeled off at my taunt. His warning allows me to parry a strike from a deadly claw at my back. I beat my wings wildly, climbing up as fast as I can. “Is that all you’ve got?” I ask. “An earth child’s defeating you.”
More vanir down below take notice, and I realize I’m unintentionally speaking in the blessed tongue. Good. I hope they hear me. I hope they all do.
“How pathetic did that volcano leave you?” I laugh. “Now Gullveig can defeat you.” Vanir all over the courtyard screech, squawk, and scream. And then they disengage and launch into the air.
After me.
My wings beat furiously, but they’re still closing on me fast. Two good strikes with my blades keep the close ones far enough away that they can’t disembowel me, but I have to thrust with my limited and sometimes inconsistent telekinetic power three more times to keep the close ones from flaying me wide open.
And then it’s time.
Vanir are headed toward me from all directions.
“Now,” I whisper, knowing that thanks to entwining, Azar can still hear me. “Roast them all.”
What about you?
“Trust me—just do it.”
Azar pivots and heads for us, shooting upward below me at an impressive speed, and then a blast of pure flame billows upward, roasting the already charred vanir into barbecue. As the heat becomes too much, I push outward, and a bright red bubble pops into being around me, forcing the flames to billow outward harmlessly.
My own entwined can’t harm me. I knew that in my bones.
The one thing I didn’t consider is that I can’t really fly, not while I’m enclosed in a red bubble. There’s not enough space for my wings to beat, and now I’m on my way down.
I call out again. Azar.
I’m here. And then he is, slipping in beneath me. My hands grab the familiar ridges of his back and we soar wide, circling the destruction with a little pride. You’re the perfect bonded for me.
I can’t help smiling when he says that. Part of me actually believes it. Human and dragon. Prince and commoner. Our two people are oil and water. Our differences should make us incompatible, but somehow, they don’t.
We plunge back toward the ground, scanning everywhere for Hyperion, Asteria, Gordon, and Rufus, but we can’t find them anywhere. We don’t see any other living vanir, which I suppose is good.
Azar lands in the center of the square. Where’s Hyperion? Thunar?
An earth dragon I don’t know answers him. He’s black, large, and has feathers around his face. It looks less strange than I would have expected. Hyperion, Gordon, and Asteria returned to Australia at the start of the attack.
I can’t help blinking. “Hyperion went back right away?”
Thunar had launched to the skies, drawing away as many vanir as he could. Hyperion made a portal afterward and returned with all the humans interested in being bonded who could hear his call.
That makes sense, actually. It was smart not to lose them in a fight with the vanir. It’s still strange he went back, though. Hyperion’s not much for missing a fight. But also. . .
“Do you think he went back to keep Coral safe?” I ask. “Because if that’s why. . .”
