The girl smiled amid the wrath burning her from the inside, a different kind of strength shining in her eyes. Then she lifted the celestial knife and pointed it to her chest.
“I can’t do that,” I whispered.
Her smile widened.Why not?
I felt my frown mar my forehead, but hers remained smooth.
Why not?I wasn’t sure why not. Because the gods said no? But they’d left this here.
Because of the future Frigg had sent me? But that future wasn’t set. I could change it if I wished.
One of my braids fell over my shoulder, and as I pushed it back, I felt Darcke’s touch when he’d woven his hands into my hair, groaning as I traced the faded rune on his chest.
I blinked at the water, watching it rise like a shield around me, spinning slowly for now, but awaiting a decision that it would allow only me to make.
“Who is that?” I asked Darcke during our bonding.
“It’s who you think it is,” he replied.
“Njord,” I whispered.
Eyes that weren’t eyes at all but still consumed me with how much they saw filled the water. The Lord of the Ocean’s presence was softer, gentler, not as intrusive as he walled me off from the Aesir.
I blessed your bond. And I bless your choice now, too, child.
“But what should I do?”
That only you can answer. But child, life does not need to be only sacrifice. A leader does not have to kill to earn respect. There are new winds turning in your realm, and you can set your sails to those instead, leaving the past in the past.
A vision of the ones I’d left behind reflected in the water.
Darcke was fighting for his life protecting the heirs, standing back-to-back with Viljan. Geord stood beside Rakkel and her mother, covering Ivren’s body, where his chest still moved. Vero and Torden were backed up against the towering gates, and the latter took a strike to the arm to keep a dagger from reaching her.
“Is this real?”
For now.
I coughed as the image flipped, showing the sea of steel closing in on them. They might be alive right now, but soon they wouldn’t be. Frantic, terrified urgency took hold of me. I was only one person. What could I do?
The knife rattled on the ground.
“But magic doesn’t work in there.”
Theirs doesn’t.
My heart beat a frantic war drum against my ribs. So much had changed in so little time. I wasn’t who I’d been. Neither were any of the people I was watching being shoved closer to death’shalls. Perhaps not every decision had been mine, but my life wasn’t over yet. It didn’t have to be over yet.
I shook as I reached for the knife.
As I ripped open my tunic, I closed my eyes. Darcke’s chest, the breaths heaving against my lips as I traced his rune with my tongue, guided me, and with a stroke that didn’t waver, I carved the rune for water into my skin.
A song filled my ears as my blood dripped into a pool of crimson, pausing there before seeking its way into the wall of water surrounding me. I’d never heard it before, but I still knew every word. It was a welcome-home and glad-to-meet-you all in one, the call of the waters dripping through my veins until I could speak its tongue fluently.
“Down,” I ordered.
The shield indulged me, merging with the dark waves surrounding me as if it had never been there at all. That bright light shimmered over me, but it wasn’t as intimidating anymore. Especially as the Aesir continued to argue.
A strange mixture of calm and anticipation fell over me. I flexed my hands before my face, savoring the power flowing through my body.
