“I-I ran.” Daniel choked on his words, letting out a pained, strangled noise.
“What happened?” Jax pried.
Daniel held his temples and stared at nothing. He cried, rivulets streaking through the blood and grime on his cheeks.
“Daniel—”
“No! No!”
“Soldier.” Aldrik forcefully stepped into the conversation with a single sharp word. Daniel froze. “This is an order from your Emperor: report.”
Vhalla wanted to scold him for taking such a tone, but Aldrik had seen and heard something she hadn’t. The command snapped something back into place, and Daniel’s breathing slowed, his eyes regaining some sanity.
“It-it was only him. He walked right in, and no one even thought of stopping him until the first group of guards died.” No one needed to ask who “he” was. “It should’ve been easy, there was only one man. But every time one fell, he took their eye and turned it into one of those rocks—those crystals.”
Vhalla’s mostly empty stomach churned at the memory of the guard who had walked into the village closest to Fritz’s home.
“They rose. They fought for him. They were dead but kept walking until that awful, awful blue-green light faded.” Daniel turned to her, almost pleading. “What could we have done?”
“My father?” Aldrik asked, but by the look on Daniel’s face, Vhalla wished he hadn’t.
“His death was only the beginning.” Daniel turned to Jax. “It’s just us now, brother.”
“What happened to the guard?” A dark severity overcame Jax’s words.
“Raylynn tried to keep Baldair’s body from him. To keep him from disgracing it as he did. You know how those two were. Never anything, always something. She died defending him.” Daniel hiccupped. “The Supreme King shattered both Erion’s legs, stripped, and saddled him, then sent him back to the West. There’s no way he made it in this cold.”
“And Craig?” Jax asked after a long pause.
“Craig and me . . .” He was suddenly talking too fast, the words avalanching out. “Erion told us to bend knee. That we couldn’t help anyone if we died, too. Erion was better suited as a message to the West but—Victor kept us for his monsters.”
“Monsters?” Vhalla whispered.
“Those who displeased him went into the rooms. They were exposed to the taint . . . At first they were fine, but then, their screams, their flesh. It changed, they changed. By the Mother, their screams—their screams as they ripped open skin to make rooms for talons and wings and horns and scales and—”
He was crying again.
“Enough, that’s enough,” Vhalla tried to soothe.
“Don’t touch me!” The man seemed to be on reset. Alternating between disbelief, violence, and soul crushing sadness. “I killed them. The feedings began. Blood, they need to develop a taste for blood, the King said. They need fresh meat, the King said.
“Craig and I, it was us. We knew it would be one of us next. Craig told me, he gave me this chance. He offered himself to that monster knowing I would be the one to feed him to it—knowing it would give me the chance to run. He screamed for me as they ate him. He screamed for me as I ran.”
Vhalla sat in numb horror. Struggling to find words in the wake of everything Daniel was pouring forth and splaying at their feet.
“If he finds me, I will be food. Or he will turn me into a monster.” Daniel looked to Jax. “Don’t give me to them. Don’t give me to his revels for his blood guard, drunk on gore and control. Don’t let his court of sorcerers have me.”
“Brother, you’re fine now,” Jax lied.
Nothing about Daniel was fine. Nothing about their situation or the world was fine.
“We will take you home,” Vhalla vowed. “We’re going East now.”
This was her fault. She had helped Victor and unleashed this force. Beyond that, if she had kept Daniel closer and had been a better friend to him, maybe he would have been with them before now. Maybe Jax would have thought to get him before charging into that dark night for the Crystal Caverns. She had made so many mistakes. How many people she loved would pay for them?
“He’ll slow us down.” Elecia couldn’t keep her thoughts to herself.
“He needs our help.” Even Fritz was surprised at her cold assessment.
