Page 106 of Veil of Blood and Bone

“It’s good manners.”

“I’m too busy for manners.” I push to my feet. “Hello. And goodbye.”

“Oh, did I interrupt something?” She bats her eyes. “I didn’t realize this was boy talk only? I thought if you showed your face here again, it might mean you’re willing to play.

“I’ll speak to you later, Nicholas.” Luca takes off like the opportunist he is, leaving me to fend off Moraine and her groupies alone.

Rather than acting on body language and getting the fuck away, she crowds closer. “Does it have anything to do with the torch? The one you can’t put out?”

Ice slides along my spine. “Helene is none of your business.”

She chuckles. “Is that her name now? You’ve found her again?”

Moraine has always hated Helene. It’s a matter of principle for her kind of woman. She despises what she cannot have, but the moment she gets it, the hatred seeps out and erases her affection, as well. There is no winning. I’ve steered clear.

“You should move on. Come to those who are willing to embrace you,” she adds.

The door is several feet away and blocked by a wraith and two Naga. How fast can I plow through them? “It’s never going to happen.”

“Why not?” Moraine corners me. “It’s time. Your precious torch won’t be around much longer, anyway."

Something in her voice stills me. “Oh?”

She laughs again, an annoying buzzing sound, and pushes white hair over her bare shoulders. “You heard Luca.”

“You were eavesdropping.”

“The whispers are true. Odin might take you down with the Valkyrie if you keep pushing. He’s not the only one. And even if you don't go down with her, well, the time of the Asgardians is ending. Other forces move in the wings.”

I whirl and grip her arms, fingers biting deep as I slam her to the wall. Moraine’s eyes pinch.

It doesn’t force the truth out of her. Moraine flashes fang with a hiss.

“Speak.” Command laces my voice.

She snaps her teeth at me, and I growl, my own fangs lengthening. Extending, sharper than hers.

“The gods are rising, only to fall,” she grinds out. “It’s written. Everyone knows that. Ragnarök."

“If you want to call it the end.” I push her harder until brick cracks.

“It’s coming. And where will your little curse be then?”

Everything inside of me begs to drain her. To take her immortality from her and finish this now. I shove away from her and stalk out the door without another word.

The end.

It’s always there. It’s always looming like a threat, like a nightmare. But it never comes to pass. There is only suffering in the meantime.

This reincarnation has been different from the start.

However or whenever the whispers reached me, instincts have me sitting up and paying attention.

We're out of time.

Because Moraine is right. If the gods are rumbling, if the structure of their empire is crumbling, then I’m going down with it. We haven’t found a way to break the curse in thousands of years.

What are the odds we’ll do it now?