“And you caught me.” Her head tipped slightly. “Yet you blame yourself. Why? You couldn’t have known the blood circle would detonate.”
I leaned forward, dropping my forehead to press against her thigh. “I didn’t want Dörr to die.”
The hole in his chest had closed, so she dropped her hand on the back of my skull, her fingers gently stroking. “Me neither.”
“My only thought was to catch you both.” I forced out a harsh laugh that shredded my throat. “He was willing to die to ensure you lived. Forgive me, my queen. I should have thought the same.”
“There’s nothing to forgive, because I would rather die too than ever live without any of you. I love you, Svar. If we were ever to fall again, I want you to try and save us both.”
Lokken dropped down beside us with a heavy groan and draped an arm across my shoulders. “Besides, if you hadn’t been so close behind them, I wouldn’t have been able to call the ice.”
Myrk pressed close on my other side though he shot me a glare. “Next time,youcarry the fucking bear, and I get the ice giant.”
“Deal,” I replied, some of my guilt receding. “I could barely wrap my arms and legs around him in the air. I’m not sure I could carry him very far in ice giant form.”
“I was rather useless in the whole thing.” Gunnarr laughed sheepishly. “Do I still get to join the cuddle pile?”
“Absolutely.” Helayna smiled up at him. “But you’re not useless. None of you are.”
Myrk opened his mouth and she looked at him, arching a brow. If he’d been about to disagree with her, he changed his words. “When do I get a nickname? Dörr’s the Darkest, Svar’s the Deadliest, Lokken’s the Iciest, and Gunnarr’s the Hungriest. And don’t anyone dare fucking say I’m the Grumpiest,” he growled with another dark look at me.
Laughing, I shut my mouth.
“Hmmm.” Helayna’s lips quirked, her eyes sparkling. “Do you want a D word to match the other dark alfar names? Or something unique?”
“A D word.” Myrk glared at Lokken and then Gunnarr too for good measure. “Don’t suggest Dumbest either.”
Dörr licked her wrist closed and sat up. His face twisted with pain for a moment, but then he snapped his wings straight and tucked them neatly at his back. “Sometimes a harsh tongue disguises depths of love and compassion deeper than the river Gjöll.”
Myrk spluttered. “Love? Compassion?Me?Surely you jest.”
Yet he’d always called me brother, even when he hadn’t understood why I couldn’t resist the rings drawing me back to the Endless Slough.
Helayna reached up and grasped his face in both hands, pulling him down toward her. “Kiss me, my Deepest.”
19
HELAYNA
In the moments where Dörr had lain injured and lifeless, I only had one thought. Save him. No matter the cost.
But now he was healed, and exhilaration returned with a vengeance. Blood magic coursed through my veins and spun through the night sky like glowing red ribbons.
My home was secure. My Blood were safe. A piece of Yggdrasil grew both outside the house in the new seed but also inside from the Ironheart throne.
I knew more about my heritage. The legacy. Even if I didn’t understand everything, I at least had access to it now. Tomorrow, we were going to visit the place my mother had grown up. Where my grandmother had ruled our House for hundreds of years.
Establishing my own nest and blood circle was only the beginning ofmylegacy. I, too, could have hundreds of years on the Ironheart throne…
With my Blood by my side.
I could have this. Surrounded by my beloveds. Their hands stroked me. Dörr’s legs were beneath me, his chest against my back. Myrk locked his mouth to mine, inhaling me with the sameburning hunger. Stretching out both arms, I silently offered my blood. Tongues licked my fingers clean, gliding up to the still-bleeding bites I’d torn open.
“Yes,” I gasped against Myrk’s lips. “Feed. All of you. I need you. I need—” Words crisped in the fire raging through me.
With a low growl of hunger, Myrk pulled me onto his knees and thrust up inside me. My head fell back on a ragged cry of release. Pleasure bubbled up like the wellspring at the base of Yggdrasil, a cascading tumult tossing me high into the stars. Chips of ice. Black velvet. The burning cold of Lokken’s lips on my wrist, slowly gliding up to the crook of my elbow. Svar gripped my other wrist in his mouth. I felt the shards of his teeth delicately teasing my skin. The rasp of his tongue probing the bite. Fangs in my shoulder. Obsidian shards on my other shoulder.
Connected. All of us. My pleasure spilled through the bonds. Myrk roared with release, his wings arching above us like black shadows. His cock exploded with barbs and spikes, pushing deeper, expanding, until I screamed with release and sank my fangs into his chest.
