Page 11

Wrong.

Drak’s frown deepened. “You don’t believe me because this infiltration of your mind is just like what the gods did when they were messing with your thoughts. I’m like the damn selfish gods.”

“No—”

“I shouldn’t be in your head, Lux.”

“But you always have been. When I’m needy and aching for you, you have always been able to hear my thoughts, right? Don’t leave me.”

He didn’t argue this. Falling silent, his throat bobbed with a hard swallow. “Fine. But you’ll tell me if this is too much?”

The crack in his voice revealed that this wasn’t just a dream. I could hear him. I finally fully believed that this was more than my imagination. Drak was speaking to me from somewhere beyond this world. I’d restored his mind, and this part of him had found me. Even in death and the ether of non-existence, he’d found a way.

“It’s really you,” I breathed.

“It’s really me.”

“How can we keep talking like this?”

He sucked air through his teeth. “I don’t know. Our souls hold a connection. I can hear you speak aloud and your thoughts intermittently.”

I smirked. “When I need you?”

He laughed. “Not only then. I think it is when you touch my soul. Keep it close to your skin when you can.”

“But what if I want to hear you?”

“I’m sorry, Skald. I don’t know.”

“Then I don’t want to wake up again⁠—”

Icy water dumped over me and ripped me from the dream. I jolted forward with my back peeling off the ship’s rough wooden ledge, and I shrieked as I nearly slammed my forehead against a man’s crotch. Craning my neck, I scowled up at the asshole standing over me while I sat soaked in frigid water and shivering. A wolf’s mask tilted to the side, and bright green eyes stared at me from beneath the bone-white mix of skull and clay. Finan held an empty fishing bucket dripping with seawater.

I opened my mouth to curse at him, or question him, or something. The fates knew I shouldn’t curse at the man who helped me, but the shock of the icy seawater didn’t just piss me off, it ripped me away from Drak.

Finan dropped to a crouch and raised his finger to his lips, visible because the mask cut off below his nose. “Pretend that I’m scolding you. Look afraid, not angry.” The Grimward’s loud laughter was a stark contrast to his soft whisper.

My brain struggled to catch up with the situation. I glanced at the other Grimward members as they poured ale and enjoyed the calm waters, drinking and eating their fill of the salted fish while the captives and witches went hungry and thirsty. If only Hel herself could come and drag them to the underworld. With Odin’s powers, could I call upon her to do such a thing? The thought skittered away when Finan spoke again.

“Look afraid,” he repeated. I widened my eyes and let my mouth fall open. “I’m sorry to wake you like that. Stasia says you need rest, but there’s talk of…” He twisted, glancing back at Stasia and Axel who sat together a few spaces in front of me. Sighing, he faced me again, still with that odd tilt to his head. I wasn’t sure what Stasia loved about Finan. While I respected him, the man was as cold as Niflheim, whereas Stasia embodied warmth and comfort. Perhaps this difference was what made them such close childhood friends. “The executioners aim to kill you and present your severed head to Silver.”

My heart stalled. “What?”

“They believe you stole that crystal from Silver.” His eyes dipped to my fist.

I still held fast to this piece of Drak’s soul. Lifting it slightly, I stared, open-mouthed, at the glowing shard. It was as beautiful and brilliant as ever, but the heat it radiated nearly burned my palm, and I still didn’t let go.

This was Drak’s promise fulfilled. Which meant the dream was real—his words, anyway. All of them. A shiver overtook me as remnants of the pleasure he’d drawn out of me trickled through me.

“It’s nothing.” I lied.

“It doesn’t matter what it is. They want an excuse to kill you after what you did to Serpent and to gain Silver’s favor. They don’t know what it is, only that Silver spoke of something like this, and that you weren’t supposed to have it.”

“So they’re going to kill me?” I asked beneath my breath. I could fight them, maybe not all of them at once in this small space, but I could try. With my glimpses into the future, I’d have a good chance at defense. I’d taken down Odin, after all, but of course, he wasn’t in his right mind when he’d come down and possessed a vampire’s body just so he could kill the other vampires in my stead.

“Not if you let me hold on to the crystal,” Finan said.

My gaze slid to Axel, who was nodding as if he knew what Finan had told me. They must have planned this together while I slept. Axel wanted me to stay safe, but what he didn’t fully understand was that this crystal was a part of Drak; the king he’d stuck beside until the bitter end. I didn’t know if I could give my husband’s soul to someone else, someone I barely knew, and a masked man, of all people.