Page 19

“What can you tell me about him that will help me see him?”

Axel faced me now, his green eyes swimming with consideration. “Two things, he is a thief, and his mother was a Valkyrie.”

My mouth fell open, and I stood there gaping at Axel like an idiot. So that made his son…half Valkyrie? And why shouldn’t I believe something so wild after I’d become a vampire huntress, killed a god, and learned how to restore a shattered soul?

Axel frowned. “As I feared, you’ll have to process this information before you can concentrate.” He was right. The shock left me disoriented and unable to focus my foresight on finding Soren.

“Let me practice again.”

“I’ll be right here,” he said as he lifted the blindfold to my eyes. “And Queen Lux, if foresight fails you with Soren, I should remind you that Odin could call upon Valkyries, just as he assigned tasks to the other gods. I hesitate to suggest this because my son is only half Valkyrie.”

“Assigned tasks? You’re saying I can call upon the gods?” I pulled the blindfold down and stared at him. That was Silver’s goal—control the gods. I had to admit, it sounded tempting to command divine help if I needed it.

“Odin was king of gods, as you know, but he didn’t have total control of them. That being said, he did assign Hel to Helheim and gave Loki tasks. You may be able to assign such tasks or ask for help from them, especially Hel, but I suspect that would take many years of practice. Odin had a lot more command over the Valkyries. Like…” he paused. “My son. But you’ll need practice to contact him.”

“How would I reach out to Soren? Just by calling his name?”

“I believe so,” he sighed. “But Soren is not a god, nor full Valkyrie, so I do not know if it works the same. Odin always ignored him.”

I nodded, and when his hand fell away, I fastened the blindfold and linens, and threw all of my attention into this power. I tried to project the foresight onto Soren’s life, but only darkness and wandering thoughts clouded my mind.

Before attempting to reach him again, I needed more time knowing him, learning about him, and thinking of him, so I switched back to focusing on the future from my mother’s perspective and on what might concern her. Again, it didn’t work. I only saw as far forward as her present moment, which was darkness. This was nothing but the back of her eyelids, and also constricted blood flow, tight chest, rapid breathing, just as she’d been doing for days now.

Struggling to breathe.

Struggling to survive.

And then screaming erupted in my head, from my own—my mother’s—lungs.

She was in pain and I needed to help her, so I tore the blindfold off and shoved past Axel toward her. Tendrils of dark hair with white streaks tangled across my mother’s face as she lay slumped against the side of the ship, alone. Reindeer was nowhere to be seen. I scanned the ship to find the worthless hunk of flesh had completely vanished.

“Where did her guard go?” I asked another member of the Grimward.

“He jumped in the water and swam to the other longship.” She pointed at a ship full of captives.

What the fuck? Whatever. Fine. Good. At least Laurella was free of his hovering presence. For now, she was calm and breathing steadily, but that would all change. When? How far into her future had I seen?

I didn’t need to wonder for long.

As her breath hastened, my mother’s eyes moved restlessly under her eyelids, her lips parting and her back arching in response. Dropping beside her, I cupped the back of her head to keep her skull from digging into the wood and waking with a headache. People from West Anglor stared at her in horror as they scooted away from us.

I didn’t blame them for being frightened or assuming that whatever made her shake was contagious, but I knew this behavior all too well. While my visions from Freya came when I pushed myself to unconsciousness, my mother’s were wilder and untamed, like a convulsion of sickness on top of her actual illness.

How was she having such a full vision after Yggdrasil had burned? Silver had sworn that by saving a seed from it the witches would still have some power, and though that seemed true for some of the most powerful, I didn’t think any of them would have full access to their visions as seers yet.

Not like this.

Laurella’s eyes popped open, and every tiny blood vessel turned bright red, streaking through the yellowed whites of her eyes.

“Mother,” I said. “I’m here.”

“Yggdrasil,” she rasped. Her gaze pointed to the low clouds hanging heavy over our ships.

With a gentle tilt, I turned her head toward me. “Breathe, mother.”

But she didn’t, instead only pushing out one last word before unconsciousness took her again. “Returns.”

Yggdrasil returns.