Argnier finally blinks and tumbles backward, only to be caught by Crystal.
“She… she…shewas here.” Guilt burns in Argnier’s words, andCalder can no longer feel his body. “I couldn’t move. I was back in that damn Keep while she…”
“Who?” The tightness in Calder’s chest intensifies, and his breathing grows haggard.
“Lavinia has Aura.” Argnier slumps his head into his hands, while Crystal curses under her breath and rubs his back.
“Aura has been capturedagain?” Edmund asks incredulously to no one in particular.
Argnier sobs into his hands. “I couldn’t do anything.”
Calder stumbles away, clenching his fists at his side. The ground beneath his boots spins, and he fears he will collapse, consumed by the very earth itself.
Lavinia has Aura.
I broke my vow to protect the Princess.
Suspicions swirl in his mind like a spinning top. He grasps the back of his head as if it will provide any support for the storm of emotions assaulting him.
Aura serves as leverage for me to agree to be Makt’s vessel.
He lifts his gaze to the channel as the tail of a Skalor vessel fades into the distance. The air around them explodes with a bitter chill. He steps forward, kicking something across the deck.
When he crouches down, he discovers Sigvid’s blackwood axe.
Familiar cold laughter fills the air, and all four twist in time for Makt to materialize along the wharf's edge.
Today, he dons obsidian armor with a longsword fastened at his hip.“Don’t you love it when a plan comes together, my son?”
Calder unsheathes the God of Power’s great axe and bolts toward him, swinging in time to slash through his ethereal form. The black mist reconstitutes behind him.
“Did you honestly believe that could kill me?”
The Iss Drengr grits his teeth as the entire channel freezes. “What do you want with Aura? This is between us!”
His three companions rise behind him. The sound of his companions arming themselves is sweet music to his ears.
“Ah, Crystal,” Makt looks over Calder’s shoulder, “been a fewcenturies,wife. Something is different about you. Did you change your hair?”
She saunters forward, her head held high. “Makt,” she spits his name like venom on her tongue, “I can see your time with the Gods of Love and Stability has made you more charming than ever. Do give my regards to Freyr, I hear he’s had a bit of bad luck lately with his halvguds.”
Makt’s face contorts, and Calder can feel the pulsingseidraround him. “A good wife would have freed me from my prison!”
Smoke swirls around her, and pearly scales flutter across her skin. “Only one of you down there deserves to regain their rightful throne. And it is not the one who abused hisseidr.”
“Do not forget who raised you to your status,Wicked Wyvern. You forget what I can become in the mortal realm.”
She scoffs. “Should you crawl your way out of the Abyss,” she steps around Calder, rolling her shoulders back as she confronts Makt, “I am waiting to meet your frost wyvern. Talon for talon,husband.”
“Aw, don’t be jealous, Crystal.” Makt brushes a ghostly hand along her cheek. “Lavinia doesn’t have half of your power.”
Scales shudder across her skin once more, and Calder lays a hand on her shoulder, reminding her that lives are at stake.
Reluctantly, she shifts to his side with her arms crossed over her chest. White flames dance in her green eyes.
Makt slowly withdraws his gaze from Crystal to focus back on Calder.
“Lavinia and I offer you a choice, my son. Give yourself as a vessel to me and spare the life of your pretty little plaything, or, now, this is fun,” Makt chuckles, “your girl agrees to be my vessel.”
