My uncle, King Huttr, and my cousin, Prince Halfdir, come to usnow, glowing with the change that has been suddenly restored to them. My stepfathers, Svanhild Magnussen, Annika Eriksson, Mathilde Eriksson, Olander Mortensen, and everyone else we love who perished from the Black Dragon are with them, alive and well.
My lieges sink to one knee before my Bloodbond now, and we break from our kissing, taking in the vast honor they do us, humbled. But even as my King sets his fist to his heart, his head deeply bowed from what we have done for our Lineage, I kneel down. Raising him up, I clasp his arms, and he clasps mine. Then a booming laugh roars out of Huttr as he sweeps me into his arms.
Spinning me around in the biggest bearhug ever.
As he sets me down, my cousin Halfdir does the exact same thing. We are surrounded by friends and beloved family then, as they all come to us.
I am inundated by my stepfathers, as Bjorn is swept into Svanhild and Olander’s arms, and Ström is surrounded by Annika and Mathilde and all the sisters and family he thought he lost in this fight.
Those who perished at the Old Palace and Stockholm have not been returned to us, however. It’s only those who lost their lives here in this final battle in the far north; but it is enough, as I celebrate being alive again with so many people I love.
I blow a kiss to Maryse up in the skies now, feeling her celebrate our vast triumph, as I hear her roar out in the stars. My father and mother’s voices are with hers, loving and jubilant. They know, like I do, that we have found a different fate for our entire Lineage, as new magic stirs now in everyone.
What’s more, the Black Dragon and the energy it was bound to—and those who bound it—have been dissipated by the fires of our burning love, right back to the endless universe. As I hear their vast celebration out in the stars, I feel how Hedda, her drakes, and her Jormungandr are not there anymore, having dissipated back to the endless cosmos as we shattered the Usurper’s Void.
Because we burned up the curse on the Black Dragon’s heart andsealed the Black Rift; we eliminated the presence of that cosmic rift energy on our earth from our ancient Ancestor’s event, and everyone who was bound to it.
And we have restored Bloodwalker magic to our entire people. I know that magic will need to be nourished and tamed as it rises, as I suddenly understand a new angle to all of this that I’d never thought of before.
A deep responsibility grows inside me now to help my kin, as I gaze around and understand how so much is now different. But there are those who are no longer with us; a kind of sadness fills me now, to see the dead forms of Lithava and her four drakes lying so still beside the cavern’s rim.
I step over to them, lying dead upon the stony ground. A strong cadre of Kingsguard surrounds them, though I know from their half-open, glassy eyes they are gone. They have been freed of the Rift’s taint in their death; sadness fills me now, as I hunker beside my sister’s body and see her vivid blond complexion returned to her, though dull, as she is gone.
Running my fingers over her face, I contemplate Lithava and her drakes, as my King, my loved ones, and my drakes surround me. I take a deep breath, feeling how my sister and her Bloodbond are not even in the Void. They had been so bound to Hedda and her drakes via the black rings that they were burned back to the universe when the Usurper’s Void shattered.
Lithava’s violet gaze is no longer taken by black sigils, as she and her fallen drakes wait for whatever will become of them now. As my gaze peruses her, Bjorn’s gaze pins his dead father, Oggi Magnussen. Mikkel and Lærke’s gazes are firm as they take in Emil Beck lying upon the stony ground, Lars and Arvid’s motionless forms receiving a chill look from Mikka Halsbrand, standing with us.
I say nothing as a strong wind of compassion moves through me now; curls of white auric fire blaze off my skin, and I stand strong in my Bloodwalker power, united with my drakes.
Because we are alive and they are not; I can feel how the black ringsupon their fingers are empty also, just like their dead forms, as I gaze down upon them.
Finished—just like Hedda herself.
I say nothing now, as I raise my auric winds all around me, and my drakes do the same. Our united wildfire razes over Lithava’s dead body and all her drakes. They char to nothing but white ash now upon the wind, the last of their remains sloughing away, just like the Black Dragon.
As they go, Mikkel and Lærke watch the place where Emil Beck lay, a complex look in their eyes. Bjorn watches the spot where his terrible father, Oggi Magnussen, was for one moment longer.
Before wrapping an arm around me, and kissing my temple.
“Only the Ancestors know where their ancient fate lies now,” King Huttr says, as he steps to my side, gazing down at the place Lithava had been. As Insinio Brandfort and Heathren Merkami move through the throng to us now, their silver-black Archangel wings spread wide, I know it’s better that my sister and her drakes did not survive everything that happened here.
“Living out the rest of their days imprisoned would have been just.” I glance from the Archangels to my King. “But an eternal judgement faces them now, wherever they’ve gone out in the stars.”
“So it does.” Our King is magnanimous as we turn to the Archangels, and I nod. Nodding back, the Judiciary duo set hands to weapons, though I can tell both are relieved we won this fight today. Insinio gives a pleased grin and a wink, but Heathren is endlessly thoughtful now, as he takes me in.
As if wondering with me where my sister and her drakes’ souls have gone, far out upon the cosmic winds.
Our King has other business, however, as he turns to the Thorsen twins. Still gazing down at where Emil Beck had been, they wear pensive frowns as Mikkel bends now, retrieving his black ring from the earth.
For the black rings did not perish when our auric wildfire razed them. As a fell energy breathes from them now, I feel how Mikkel and Lærkesense it. I move to them, taking up their hands and startling them out of their twin-thoughts.
“What now?” I ask, as I nod at their betrayer’s ring, still in Mikkel’s hand.
“Head back to Denmark, get our entire empire he stole returned to us,” Mikkel says at once, as if the twins had already decided between themselves. “Return things to the way they should be, just as soon as we can do it.”
“As an enemy of the crown, all his holdings are forfeit.” A pleased gleam comes into King Huttr’s red-gold eyes as he chuckles, watching the twins. “I hereby cede these holdings to you both, Mikkel and Lærke Thorsen, as reparations for everything you’ve gone through with all this.”
“You are too kind, my King.” Lærke inclines her head deeply now as Mikkel places his hand on his heart. But from their gleaming, bright gazes, even though Mikkel’s eyes are still so very dark, I know they would have done it, anyway.
