"Dani, don't move." Erik's command cuts through the air like steel.
The ice splinters. Gullfax's hooves strike air like solid ground, each step precise as he gallops across nothing to reach me. His teeth catch the hood of my coat just as the surface gives way, yanking me back to shore while dark water surges through the cracks.
"Let me go!" I thrash in Gullfax's grip, feet kicking uselessly. "He's down there, I have to—"
"The temperaturewill kill you in two minutes." Erik strips his weapons with military efficiency, each movement calculated despite the urgency in his voice. "I can withstand the cold. I'm faster. Tell me exactly where you sense him."
"There." I point to where the bond pulls strongest, voice cracking. "Right there, thirty feet out."
Erik nods once, silver eyes sharp with focus. "Stay here. Do not follow." He meets my gaze, and I see the fear behind his stoic mask for a split second. "I'll bring him back."
Bryn's arms wrap around me as I collapse into the snow. Shielding me from the biting wind.
"He'll find him," she whispers, but I barely hear her through the phantom sensations flooding our bond. Cold. So cold. The pressure crushing his chest, chains biting into flesh, the endless dark...
I clutch Bryn's arm as another wave hits, my throat raw from crying. Through tear-blurred vision, I watch Erik's form slice through the water where I pointed, disappearing beneath the fractured ice.
Minutes crawl by like hours. Bryn suddenly tenses, a sharp gasp escaping her lips.
"Bryn?"
"I can—" Her voice catches. "The cold, the pressure. Erik's... I can feel everything he's—"
My heart skips. Even through my pain, joy flickers—they've bonded. Finally.
"Send it back," I grip her hand. "Your strength, your warmth. He needs to feel you. He needs to know you're waiting." My voice breaks. "That's what the bond is for—to share everything—pain, love, power. Let him draw from you."
Bryn's eyes close, her breathing steady despite the tears freezing on her cheeks. Her focus shifts inward, channeling everything she is through their new connection.
We cling to each other in the snow, two mates waiting for our other halves to surface from the depths.
Minutes stretch into eternity. Each second without Rhyland's heartbeat next to mine is agony, the bond screaming with his pain. Bryn's grip on my hand turns bruising, her fear pulsing with mine.
Just as I'm about to break, to dive into the water myself—the surface explodes.
Erik surges through the shattered ice, a limp form cradled against his chest. Water cascades off them as he powers through the broken surface, silver hair slicked back, face set in grim determination.
"Oh my god." I scramble across the ice, boots slipping as I race toward them.
Erik heaves Rhyland's body onto the frozen shore. My world narrows to a pinpoint of horror.
His skin is corpse-blue, his lips purple-black and cold. Frost crystals glitter in his eyelashes and hair. Iron chains, rimed with ice, bite into the raw flesh of his wrists and ankles. His chest is still—too still.
"No, no, no..." The words fall from my lips like prayers as I drop beside him. His skin shouldn't be this color—this terrible, lifeless blue. What if I'm too late? What if those chains were enchanted, designed to trap his soul and body?
Erik shatters the icy restraints with a feral snarl, metal fragments scattering across the snow. I see the runes etched into each broken link—ancient symbols of binding, drowning, and eternal suffering.
My hands hover over Rhyland's still chest for one terrible heartbeat. What if this doesn't work? What if Loki made sure I'd find nothing but an empty shell?
No. I refuse to accept that.
I lock my fingers together and slam my weight down onto his sternum. "Come on, babe," I choke out, arms burning with the effort. "You promised me forever, remember? This isn't forever."
Each compression feels like pushing against stone. The cold radiating from his body seeps into my bones, but I keep counting. Keep pushing. Keep fighting.
What if he's already been taken somewhere I can't follow?
"I swear to god," I grit through tears, "if you die on me, I will follow you to Valhalla just to kick your ass."
