I hate Thunar. In this moment, I hate him and his father as much as I’ve ever hated anyone or anything.
I’m about to relent, to agree to their demands, when I see her. My mother’s standing just behind Gordon, and she catches my eye. Tears are rolling down her face, and she looks wrecked. She taps the side of her head, and then she pushes me a message. I can tell it’s hard for her—she never liked being bonded, so I imagine it is.
I’m sorry I always let you down. Consider this my true apology. Never give up. Never give in. Keep protecting the little ones. I love you. And then she slits her own throat.
I have a split second to decide—but this time, I choose differently. Power to dominate, Freya. I choose that. I unsheathe my swords again and leap at Thunar, who’s standing stunned, his eyes glazed.
I use both swords in a way I never have before, my wings propelling me forward as hard and as fast as they can, and I cross the swords, and then uncross them with every ounce of strength in my arms and back, decapitating Thunar the same way Odin recently took Rufus’s head. Covered in red splatter, very aware that Azar’s also half-dead, I spin and face Odin.
“I think we’re even now—enough people have died today.” I tilt my head and wipe my blades on my pants. “I’d like to propose a compromise. I’ll try to modify a hundred blessed each day, or as many as I’m able, and you will allow any or all of them that choose to stay here on earth to become permanent residents.” I lift my chin. “Will that satisfy you, or are we still enemies?”
Because he’s about one good fling away, and Thunar’s siblings are back by Hyperion. I have half a mind to try and kill Odin right now, too.
“We have a deal,” Odin says. “Though I doubt you’ll find any of my people will choose to stay with anyone so weak.” He glances at Axel with disgust, and then he projects to everyone. I am forcing this winged earth child to use the heart stone to transform you all. Demand the ability to shift into a human form so you won’t require an earth child bond. Odin shifts back into his dragon shape. You will never, ever want to use the shape you just saw, but it should allow you to consume fuel again. He roars. Everything about earth weakens us, because we are children of the sky. He vaults into the air, and good riddance to him.
As I turn, I notice the portals behind us have now closed, which means all the blessed are now on earth. Now I have to convince some of them to stay and fight like their cowardly leader won’t.
Chapter 23
Gullveig
It’s easier to see some things after the fact.
I should never have left the heart with Freya, that much is now clear. When I walk into her chambers, as I have been every few hours, to make sure she doesn’t deliver this egg alone like the last one, she’s whispering to the heart.
She’s talking to a rock, cooing, really, like it’s a baby or something.
And then she giggles.
“Freya,” I say. “It’s so good to see you awake.” And in her earth child form. She hasn’t taken that in a while. She’s been huddled around the heart like a mother bird guards her eggs, her tail twitching furiously as her magic ebbs and flows.
Her eyes shoot upward and meet mine. “Gullveig. You’re the only one I can really trust.” She holds up the heart, which is pulsing in her hand like a bowl full of lightning bugs. “You should try it, too.” She holds out her hands.
I debate whether to try taking it from her.
The last time I tried, she went ballistic, even though she offered it to me like she is right now. “Actually, you better keep it,” I finally say. I’d rather not set her off when she’s due to lay an egg any hour now. The last laying was a total disaster. She raved for weeks after.
“Yes, maybe it’s better,” Freya mutters, stroking the heart. “He only talks to me anyway.”
“He?” I can’t help raising my eyebrows, though I immediately wish I hadn’t.
She scowls. “Yes, he, and you know who it is.”
I do know who she thinks it is, anyway. “How is Veralden? Been talking to you much lately?”
She beams. “Of course. He’s my father, you know. He misses the sky children and promises to visit any time now.”
“You should ask what his timing’s like,” I say. “Our timing’s tied to the star that powers life here on this planet. Soon for him might not be the same as soon for us.”
Freya frowns. “I don’t bother him with things like that. I just tell him about the problems we’ve been having with the vanir. He says he did that on purpose, making them our opposite. They exist to keep things here in balance.”
“How lovely for us,” I say. “Balance is fun.”
“I did tell him how his plan was flawed,” Freya says. “His balance was meant to keep the earth children down, but we like the earth children. We just need to explain to him, when he comes, that we want to get rid of that balance—no more pitting us against one another so we stay strong and keep the earth children in the dirt.” She beams.
“So, you think he’s actually coming?” Even with the bond, sometimes it’s hard for me to tell when she’s being this crazy what’s real and what’s delusion. “Have you really spoken to him?”
Freya drops the stone by her side and pats the cushion on her bedroll. “Poor Gullveig. It’s been hard for you, taking care of me while I have all these eggs. I know I get upset and then I act a little insane.”
