When I last saw my sister back at the fae castle, she accused me of having a heart as dark as Malak’s. She was afraid when I asked her to heal the Vandawolf that he would imprison me and separate me from her again. Her fears were well-founded after all the years Erik had kept us apart.
To her mind, I must have chosen him over her.
I heard the pain and hurt in her voice when she spoke harshly to me on the night I left the castle.
Her words were like daggers pushing me away.
I try to pull my thoughts back to the problem at hand. “Even if I can do more with my hammer than I previously thought, it seems I still need medallions. So I’m back to my original problem.”
“Graviter’s gold was the right metal for your hammer,” Erik says. “When he returns, we can ask him about the right metal for your medallions. We will find it, Asha, I promise you.”
He slips his arm around me and draws close, his lips brushing my forehead. “As for the problem oftime, I understand your worry. But your family is worth far more to Thaden alive.”
“I’ve been trying to tell myself that he won’t hurt them, but I can’t be certain. Not after he lied about who he is and the fact that he killed a dragon.”
“You’re faced with a difficult choice, Asha. You can rush back to your family without a medallion and risk that Thaden can defeat you. Or you can wait, forge a medallion, and risk that Thaden will hurt your family.”
Erik’s kiss eases some of my tension. “Whatever you decide, I’ll be beside you,” he says. “Whatever you need, tell me. I lost my family. I won’t let you lose yours.”
The conviction in his voice settles my anxiety. I may not be able to make longer-term decisions, but I can control what happens in the short term.
“In either case, Graviter will return very soon,” I say. “I want to be ready to leave when he does—either to find the metal I can use for a medallion or to find my family. I’ll decide once I have Graviter’s advice about the metal.”
“Then let’s prepare.”
We head inside the cabin and spend the next ten minutes preparing ourselves to leave, including dressing in fresh clothing. We each don long pants and tunics under our warmer clothing so we can remove the heavier furs if we enter a warmer environment.
We brought two satchels when we came here, and mine still contains my old toolbox. Inside the toolbox are Malak’s black hammer and three medallions, which includes the medallion that’s imprinted with dragon scales from Thaden’s palm.
Graviter Rex warned me to never touch Malak’s metal again, so I take care when I glance inside the box.
Also within it is the small, metal device that I pulled from Erik’s heart—the one Malak used on him to turn him into a beast.
Last of all is my grandmother’s silver pin.
It was given to me by a human woman calledMother Solas. She is the cousin of the last human king who ruled the Cursed City before Malak rose to power. My grandmother, who fought against Malak, had given the pin to Mother Solas for safekeeping.
When Mother Solas then gave me the pin, she told me she saw my grandmother in me. She promised there was hope for me.
Erik also selects two weapon harnesses from the wall of weapons by the door, pulling one on over his coat before depositing a number of daggers at the front and his father’s sword at his back. He also retrieves a bow and a quiver of arrows and positions them in separate slots in the harness.
He helps me slip a second harness around my shoulders and to position my hammer securely within it. Because of the hammer’s head, I have to slide it into the scabbard handle-first, so grabbing it will either mean trying to grab the hammer’s head—which is too large for my hand to wrap around—or the very top of the onyx handle where it meets the head.
Then he takes another dagger from the wall, holding it almost reverently.
“So long as you don’t have a medallion, you might need this,” he says, sheathing the blade and handing it to me. “It was my brother’s. He preferred a bow and arrow, but he kept this weapon sharp to keep me happy.”
Erik told me how he was the one who would fight up close with the beasts his family hunted in the forests of this mountain. His father’s words to him echo back to me now, the grim way Erik repeated them when he told me his story.
Erik will do the cutting.
His life was harsh even before he met me.
“Erik…” I consider the weapon for a moment before slipping it into my harness. “Thank you.”
He clears his throat. Gives me a nod. And finally turns to the door.
Now that we’re warmly dressed and ready to travel, we step from the cabin, the final embers from the hearth fire casting light across the snow before we close the door behind us.
