I’d left before. But my hunger always pulled me back.
Finality gleamed in his eyes. He’d come to fetch me one last time. If I slipped again… he would never return. I would never see my brother again.
Go with him. Or die in the Slough that made me.
There was no choice.
I laid my head on his chest. All the fight bled out of me.
Gathering me close, he flipped to his feet and sprang into the air. His wings snapped open, buffeting the deep walls of the pit. Onlookers roared and bellowed, furious their favorite killer was leaving. They tore at his wings, trying to shred the leather so he couldn’t fly. They leaped off the perches, flinging themselves at us. Weight dragged on my legs. Claws and teeth pulling me down.
Back to the Slough.
I would never escape. Not this Darkness. And now my brother would die here too.
A piercing shriek rolled from his chest, rising higher to a painful pitch. Waves of agony flooded the infinite space, rising higher and higher. A brutal, shrill weapon of sound. My entire body went limp, shorted out by the vicious frequency. Bodies thumped to the rocks. The rings fell silent for the first time in millennia.
While Dörr of the Black Mountain soared above the Endless Slough.
Remembering the sound of his shrill cry deadened my body again. I slumped forward. Falling. Unable to see or feel. I could only hope I wouldn’t crush my queen when I fell.
9
HELAYNA
Ipulled his face toward me as he collapsed, letting him fall against me so I could keep his head in my lap. I stroked his cheeks, smoothing my fingers over his face. “It’s alright, Svar,” I whispered soothingly. “I’m here. You’re safe. You’ll never have to go back to the pits again.”
His entire body shook with a silent, agonized cry I felt in his bond. He didn’t say anything, as if words were still beyond his comprehension. A tangled, heavy mass of emotions lodged deep in his chest. A blockade like the one I’d finally blasted apart to free the wellspring at the base of Yggdrasil.
Shame. Regret. Resignation. Grief. He truly thought I would send him back to Hel without a single reservation.
As if I could bear to be parted from any of my Blood. Let alone one of the original three who’d saved me when nothing else could. I understood his reasoning, even though it pissed me off.
Fury kindled hotter, crawling through my veins like angry fire ants. Fueling my power without a single drop of blood.
I pulled him up on the bed with me as if his massive dark alfar weighed nothing. He shouldn’t be on his knees. I rolledhim over on his back beside the man who’d saved him. Then I perched on his chest so I could glare down at him, silently stewing, waiting for him to open his eyes.
The longer it took, the more my rage burned. Fed by my hunger, stoking my rising power. Though it wasn’t the cold chill of death spreading through my veins. Not with so much of Dörr’s essence filling me.
Darkness. Devoid of color. A heavy blanket of shadow dimming the world. Until even the nuances between deepening grays ceased to matter.
Such Darkness should have been stifling. Smothering all light and love from the world. From my heart.
But I was a Daughter of Hel. Her Darkness was my heritage. While I might not fully appreciate the cold touch of death from the shore of corpses, I embraced Her Darkness.
Svar’s eyelids flickered open, revealing his rose quartz eyes. Though the sparkling pink was clouded with doubt. Stained by his memories. Darkened by the pits of the Endless Slough. He met my gaze but flinched, unable to look away.
“How dare you?” I whispered, my tone laced with fury and hurt. “Do you honestly think so little of my own sense of honor? Do you think I would doom someone who’d saved me to return to endless torment? Let alone someone I love. Or do you think my love is so thin and fragile I can’t understand or forgive the past that shaped the Blood I love today?”
His eyes widened, crystalline pink against the sheen of his obsidian skin.
I leaned down, dropping my voice to a low rumble more suited to my alpha’s growl. “I would never send you back to Hel, but especially not after what you showed me of your life in the rings.”
His throat worked, his jaws grinding back and forth before he managed to speak. “But I’m useless to you. Especially now.”
My eyes narrowed. “Why especially now?”
“I’m not safe for you.” He squeezed his eyes shut and averted his face. “You saw only a hint of what I’m capable of in this form.”
