“How do you know?” Geord asked, far too snarkily for someone who could barely see out of the two black eyes Darcke had gifted him.
My second waved his hand toward the horizon.
As I turned in the direction he’d indicated, my eyes widened.
A veil spun from the northern lights whispered over the sea, shimmering like the most beautiful of fabrics as it swayed with the northern breeze. The waves beneath it didn’t reflect the colors. Instead it was a pure cerulean, breaking away from the dark, brackish water of our world.
An island rose from the depths of the sea, but it was impossible to make out anything atop it; it was shrouded in a mist so heavy I could smell the saltwater making it up all the way from here.
Darcke’s ship came to a sudden halt. He had to grip me so I didn’t fall overboard.
“We swim from here,” the shaman called from the king’s ship. “No ships are allowed in the Great Halls.”
The quiet returned, sharp enough to cut. Each heir took long, steadying breaths, making the air around us thick with nerves and pressure and hope.
This was it. This was the moment we’d each become the leader of our people and commander of a section at the academy. Or it was the end of our journey.
No one returned from the gods if they didn’t earn their runes.
When the others strapped their swords tightly to their backs and made their way over the railing, diving into the sea like silent warriors, Darcke slipped his hand into mine. I tried to pull myself free, but he didn’t let me, only dragged me away until the wind hitting the sails hid his words.
“Whatever happens now. Whatever your fucking gods decide,” Darcke said. “You are worthy. You deserve your magic. You’ve proved that again and again, and if they don’t see it,fuck them.”
My laugh was more like a nervous, hacking cough. “That’s easy for you to say. You’re not the one being sent straight to Hel if they disagree.” I looked down at my leathers, smoothing out the small patches of fur at my wrists and along the jacket’s opening. “I didn’t think to bring anything warm enough for a realm of ice and snow.”
Darcke’s fingers wrapped around my chin. “If you think that there is a place in this world I will not follow you, then you have notlistened. You have still not heard me.”
I traced my hand up his chest, settling over his heart. “You’ve suffered enough. I plan to change that, not bring more upon you.”
A flinch ripped across his face. “An eternity with you, even if that might be in Hel?” He whipped his head around, then crashed his lips against mine in one too-short, too-delicious kiss. “That sounds like my Valhalla.”
My cheeks reddened at the fiercenessof those words.
Darcke reached out and touched the back of his hand to my face, a weak smile trying to soften his harsh features. “Promise me,” he whispered as he took my elbow and led me back to the bow, where Rakkel was the last to dive into the water. “Promise me that whatever happens, you will fight like Hel to survive?Whateverhappens?”
“Of course,” I said, goose bumps racing over my arms. “Why?”
Darcke’s gaze went between me and the other heirs.
“You heard us,” I said slowly.
He didn’t respond, but there were far too many conflicting emotions within him as he pressed my hand before he launched himself backward, his body coiling into a tight arc before breaking through the surface with almost no splash.
For a moment I was the only one left on the ship, the evening quiet as the stars peeked through the aurora.
Looking up at the beautiful sky, I paused. I wasn’t sure what I’d face in there—what would happen as I dove into that sea—but I’d made it here.
Viljan was swimming beside Ivren, Vero to his left. Geord and Rakkel and their seconds followed close behind. The king and the shaman were transported atop a dugout, Torden and Borje and several other of his men pulling it and some protecting them from the waves around it.
Darcke treaded water, his blond hair pushed back from his face.
We’dmade it here.
Somehow my guard was safe, even if not with me. And the man I’d rather have seen eaten by sea monsters a few weeks ago was waiting for me, fear and worry shadowing his face, but also something else. Something we hadn’t said out loud but which was beginning to spread into every nerve of my body—something that kept my pounding heart from escaping my rib cage as I raised my hands over my head and dove into the water.
The sea was unnaturally warm. Even if it was summer, the Northern Seas didn’t reach these temperatures, but it did make our swim easier as we wrestled the strange waves that fought each other in patterns of no ocean I’d ever seen before.
Darcke’s sword glinted through the pale water, the hilt sticking up above the sea like a beacon for me to follow. While we swam in silence, whenever a wave sent us closer, his hand or foot or arm or leg brushed mine as if to make sure I was truly there.
