“Even though everything is shit right now,” Mikkel chuckles as he glances at his sister, “Lærke and I finally know why we smile. Not because we’re about to stab someone in the back who’s betrayed us—but because we’ve found true love with you and your Bloodmates. And it’s real, and good.”
“You cherish us for nothing more or less than who we are.” Lærke has a matching ring of white fire in her eyes, just like Mikkel’s. “I’ve never been cherished before, other than by Mikkel, and for a short while, Ström. It gives me hope now that I can find a mate of my own someday. One who cherishes me just as much.”
Though so much goodness fills me at the thought that Lærke might one day find a mate of her own, as she mentions Ström, the bitter depth of everything we’re up against with my First and Second Drakes comes crashing back.
Mikkel and Lærke are quietly serious now as they stare me down; something deep moves in both of them as a vast love for Ström wells up inside them.
They’re not a threesome anymore, but like me, both twins care about him. Sorrow for what he’s going through fills us, as that deep sadness clenches my chest, swamping it.
All our hearts are breaking for my Second Drake and everything he’s lost, thanks to this attack. My heart breaks for Bjorn also, and how his father perpetrated it all.
Right now, my Second Drake is the one we need to address, however, as I manage to struggle up in bed, drawing the duvet over my nakedness as I get right down to it.
“How is Ström?” I ask because I can barely feel him through our Bloodbond right now. He’s in Harnakje, that I can tell, but he’s walledhimself off from me again. Although it’s not all the way, because he knows I can break it now.
I can tell he doesn’t want to risk me fatiguing myself by breaking down his walls—but he won’t let me inside his head right now, or his heart. It makes me beyond sad, as both my inner dragons wail and rake their claws through me, to feel how my best friend in this Bloodbond wants to keep his wrath and sorrows away from me.
I can still feel him, though, surging like the storm he’s named for. I never knew why Ström’s mother gave him that name. Now, I do, as I feel something like a dark hurricane of wrath churn inside my Second Drake, endless.
Setting a hand to my heart, I grip it, because if I don’t, I might just sob. Still, a tortured sound comes out of me as we all sit in this terrible place, feeling Ström’s emotions through our Bloodbond. Lærke can’t feel it as well, but I know she can feel it enough, her intense gaze worried as Mikkel sits up beside me in bed.
“I don’t think we need to answer the question,how is Ström,” Mikkel says now as he wraps one arm around me. His energy is tight-strung like a live wire, as we all feel the vast inner darkness swamping my Second Drake. “Suffice it to say, Ström’s been like that ever since everything went down. He’s refused the Jarldom, you know. Instated Annika as Jarl-In-Arms, for now.”
I raise my eyebrows at that. Jarl-In-Arms is a temporary position, used in times of war for when a Jarl perishes and someone needs to jump into that spot immediately. It’s usually used when there’s no Jarl-Heir and one needs to be found.
Not when one has been there all along, trained up and ready to go.
“That’s bad.” I close my eyes now, feeling down through my connection to Ström. I feel him turn as he senses me search our Bloodbond for him; for a moment, he regards me, as I see his handsome face rise in my mind, his emerald eyes burning, vivid.
But those eyes are devoured by darkness, malachite, as the crimsonbrimstone around them burns. They’re eyes of war rather than love, as we watch each other a moment through our Bloodbond.
Then Ström shuts me out once more.
I don’t push this time, because he’s not shut our connection down all the way. It’s bad news, however, as I come back to the moment with the twins.
And see their knowing glances.
“Ström’s in a bad place, because of the attack and his Jarl’s death.” Lærke fills me in now, as I feel the twins’ vast concern flood me. “They estimate they lost about seventy percent of their clan in the attack, plus almost all their best fighters. Ström lost fifteen members of his family, including his Jarl and four sisters. They’ve pulled in all their reserve fighters here to Harnakje over the past two days, and emptied their villages into this stronghold to protect them. Harnakje has its own protective magic against the Black Dragon, apparently, so it’s been used as a secret hideout for the True Knights for generations. It’s why all these inner ruins were already fortified and ready to go.”
“I’ve never seen any fortifications here.” I lift my eyebrows now, amazed at how prepared Jarl Jorg Eriksson was against such a calamity as this.
“No one has.” Mikkel chuckles as he lifts an eyebrow with a sly smile. “Those Erikssons are a wily lot; apparently, they’ve fortified this place with their most ancient clan-magic for generations, hiding everything that matters from prying eyes. They let the most devastated parts of the heritage site be seen and visited by those who are curious about history. But the vast majority of it,” Mikkel whistles now as he shakes his head, “has been hidden for millennia by stronger magic than even Lærke and I devise for safes in our clubs. Good stuff.”
“Bone Magic, and Bloodwalker.” Lærke nods, her gaze flicking from Mikkel to me. “Apparently, it was a deep secret in their Lineage, which only those inducted into the True Knights were party to. We’re safe here for now, and provided for. But all talk is about Stockholm now, which iswhy Bjorn has been back and forth, discussing what’s to come with the King and his still-loyal Jarls.”
“Still-loyal Jarls?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“The Jarl’s rebellion has become official, with Jarl Oggi Magnussen’s attack on the Old Palace.” Mikkel fills me in now on everything I’ve missed. “Over two-thirds of the Jarls in the northern clans have split from the King and defected to the Magnussen boarder-lands to follow Oggi, along with the Danish Blood Dragons, led by Emil. The southern Swedish Jarls are caught in between, though the Norwegians and Icelanders are with the King. Some are feeling pressure to side with the rebels before war comes from both sides, however. It’s a dangerous situation, which the King and Prince are trying to control from Stockholm with intense last-minute talks between all the yet-loyal Jarls, and even a few of the rebels who will hear him out. But an all-out war within the Blood Dragons is imminent. And the rebels know Jarl Oggi has the Black Dragon on his side now.”
“Jesus.” I whistle low as I process how much of a shit-storm all this has become. I sit back in the pillows as I take a deep breath, letting it out.
Knowing at last where all this divisiveness is coming from.
“That cosmic sundering energy. It wants us to fight,” I say now, as I regard both Mikkel and Lærke. “That divisive cosmic force we were taken by in the stars—that’swhat’s linked to the Black Dragon, and what creates the Black Rift. That energy is behind all of this, creating war amongst us, driving us to fight and kill each other off, because the Black Dragon has been released again in the world. That cosmic destruction energy… itwantsall of this to happen. Itwantsus to kill each other off and feed it through the Black Dragon, and its Black Rift, so it can devour all the stars in the cosmos. All our brightest lights. To put those lights out forever… as it grows, and grows, and grows.”
I don’t know where my tirade of thought just came from, but I feel the ancient truth in my words, as Mikkel and Lærke stare me down. Because both are aware now, just like I am after our terrible battle againstthat malevolent, divisive energy in the stars, thatthisis what we’re up against.
The Black Rift was only its manifestation in ancient times, just like the Black Dragon was created from the Rift’s energy later. We know now, however, that the origin of that energy in our world came from the Void.
