:I don’t understand.:
Darkness wrapped around me like black velvet, carrying me through the night sky. Molten rubies gleamed through cracks in the black. Opening. Spreading. The volcano beneath this part of Iceland?
I opened my eyes. Dörr’s obsidian eyes gleamed inches away, his face close to mine. His arms steadied me. But why was I so tall?
Relief flooded his bond and he tipped his forehead to mine. “You were gone. The tree took you. I couldn’t feel your bond at all.”
I let out a long breath, closing my eyes for a moment. Trying to understand what I’d seen. “Yggdrasil wants… something. I’m not sure what, though.” I sighed with frustration. “I also talked to someone, a man, but he didn’t say who he was. He said it was forbidden.”
“A new Blood?”
“I don’t know. I—” I turned my head and froze. The Ironheart throne had filled the entire room with roots, branches, and leaves. I was standing on a flat spot several feet above the floor. “Wow. How long was I gone?”
“Just a few minutes, my queen, but it felt like an eternity.” Lightly, he plucked a leaf out of my hair, which had grown again. Now it hung past my shoulders and down over my breasts. “How do you feel? Do you need to feed?”
I ran my tongue over the roof of my mouth. My fangs had retracted, and I felt no great hunger at the moment. Though mentioning feeding made my mouth water. I started to reach up to wrap my arm around his neck, and realized there was something in my hand.
Turning my palm up, I opened my fingers. An oblong brown seed, as big as my thumb. Reverence brought tears to my eyes. “Of course. Yggdrasil wants me to plant a tree here.”
Gunnarr peeked out into the hallway to be sure no humans lurked outside. Dörr carried me in his arms outside to the back part of the house. The seed pulled me, as if it already knew exactly where it wanted to grow. A large deck leaned out over the ocean beneath the clear night sky, but to the left, there was a walkway alongside the house. A courtyard nestled between the house and the cliff. Boulders tumbled in an arc as if placed by the goddess, forming a natural planting bed.
Dörr gently set me on my bare feet, and I knelt in the pillows of snow. I dug down with my other hand to the soil, not surprised in the slightest to find it as fertile and rich as the garden I’d seen in the vision. It was easy to dig a small hole and slip the seed inside.
The punctures on my wrists had already closed, so I reopened the bite on my right wrist so I could drizzle blood over the seed. I started to cover it with soil—but it sprouted immediately, already growing up out of the ground and above the snow.
“The circle begins here.” My words weighed heavy and thick in the air. Everything slowed. My heartbeat thudded, throbbing through my entire body. “Yggdrasil’s seed is the cornerstone.”
My Darkest shifted to his massive dark alfar form, his black wings blocking out the starlight above. He enfolded me in his arms and barked orders to the others. I heard the words, but they didn’t make sense. My ears were too full of my heartbeat. The rustling of leaves. A deep, soft grumble as roots pushed into the soil.
Rolling my head to the side, I watched crimson drop from my wrist, each drop blazing with power. Molten rubies of blood—not lava—gleaming against the black.
We soared through the night almost completely silent except for the occasional flap of leather. Even Gunnarr. I touched his bond to be sure he was with us. Myrk carried him, but instead ofcradling him against his chest like Dörr carried me, Gunnarr had a death grip around Myrk’s ankles. Lokken and Svar brought up the rear, though the dark alfar held my other Blood beneath his armpits.
My house spun below us. Steep black roofs reflected a million stars above. A dark shape perched out over the cliffs like a dark alfar, or gargoyle, guarding the beach below. It made me smile.
Magic pulsed higher. My ears hummed and throbbed with pressure. The red glow of my blood lit up the night like a thousand bonfires. I wasn’t sure if humans would see it or not. Hopefully no one came to investigate or feared the volcano was about to erupt. Dörr flew faster, his wings flapping more often in snaps that propelled us down toward the sheltered corner where we’d begun.
:Close the circle.:I turned my head and sank my fangs into his chest.:Then drop us down to the beach.:
He dipped one wing, wheeling us in a tight turn around the tree. My blood rained down on the sapling. Power surged through me, a blast that sent us tumbling through the air. Dizzy. My heart pounded so hard, so loud, I couldn’t think. See. Wind whistled around us, trying to tear me away from him. Thumps shook us, jarring my teeth. Snapping my head.
As if we rolled down the side of the cliff, bouncing off boulders. Spinning out of control.
:Dörr!:
18
SVAR
The blood circle snapped shut, and a wave of power blasted both up and outward, tossing us like leaves on a hurricane. Rolling to the side, I shifted my hold on Lokken, even wrapping my legs around his waist to ensure I didn’t drop him. I wasn’t sure if he’d survive the fall from this height.
Our queen and her Darkest fell, tumbling over the edge of the cliff toward the rocky shore below. He’d been at the head of our group and took the brunt of the impact. Dazed but unharmed, I wheeled after them, plunging over the cliff in a dive. Wings tucked, I watched Dörr crash against the rocky wall, his wings limp, twisted and mangled, though he never lost his grip on our queen.
:Shift,:I told Lokken.:We need your increased weight to catch them.:
The ice giant swelled outward, straining my grip around his massive body. We plummeted after them, closing fast.
:I’ve got an idea.:Lokken said.:But if it doesn’t work, toss me toward the ocean. That way you can grab them.:
