“You cannot change the fate of souls.”
Rune clenched his jaw. “Then I will simply get rid of his.”
His declaration made the air still, as if the universe had paused to listen.
She stared at him warily. “You would be in contempt of Divine Law…”
The words echoed like scripture.
There were many laws of the Heavens but none as sacred as the Divine Three:
Do not desecrate souls.
Do not resurrect the dead.
Do not disrupt the flow of time.
And yet, two of those laws had already been broken.
Rune smirked. “Need I remind you who broke Divine Law first? Besides the obvious, was it not you who resurrected your mate from the dead?”
Sunnëva’s answering smile was a blade.
The temperature dropped so sharply the air itself cracked. Frost raced across the floor, splintering from her bare feet toward Rune’s boots like grasping thorns.
“I did,” she said quietly. “And I rememberclearlywhat drove me to it.”
Rune had not driven the talon into Jökull’s back himself, but he may as well have.
“And yetyouwere spared any consequence. The Heavens do have their favorites.”
The frost thickened. Ice climbed the pillars. The torches guttered.
“Spared?”Sunnëva hissed, her eyes turning glacial. “The cost was our immortality. Jökull and I remain divine, but our existence is now bound to death itself as yours is to the dark. I am permitted in the Mortal Realm long enough to guide souls through the Gates. I have mere minutes before I begin unraveling. Minutes, Rune. That is all I am granted with my children before I begin to deteriorate.Thatwas the cost.”
The frost at her feet fractured and crumbled away like shattered glass.
They stared at each other for a long, heavy beat.
Her demigod children were adults, he almost said. They didn’t need her anymore.
It did not lessen her loss. It merely revealed his own.
“A life for a life.” Sunnëva held his gaze coolly. “I wonder, how much valueyouplace on yours.”
Oh. A threat.
And Rune knew who it came from.
The shadows swallowed all light, leaving the scarlet glow of his gaze. “Tell my father should he interfere in mydestinyany further, the wrath of the Primordials will pale in comparison to what I will unleash upon you all.”
Sunnëva’s eyes widened and she vanished in burst of frost.
Rune clenched his fist, his chest heaving with shallow breaths. The candlelight returned and he glanced up at the mirror, his red eyes flaming in the dark. His monstrous form was draped in shadow, illuminated by the molten marks pulsing on his body.
He didn’t like caging her, but Rune couldn’t take the risk of death stealing her away before she ever truly became his.
He would not lose her.
