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“What does it mean then?” I yelled because I couldn’t help it. Who cared if the entire kingdom heard me? If Soren had a chance to save my mother’s soul from the gods, nothing else mattered. “Tell me, Axel, what the Hel does it mean that he’s the son of a Valkyrie?” I jabbed my finger past him, pointing down the hall where the stone twisted and led to a pathway that went beneath the castle. Buried under stone and silence was the secret girl and all the sagas and runestones we read together. Stories that told me exactly what a Valkyrie was capable of. “Because from what I know, Valkyries can harness souls.”

“Yes,” he said calmly, not blinking as he stared down his straight nose at me. “For Odin. How is it that you think even a full Valkyrie could save a soul from Odin when they’re bound to him?”

My lips twitched. While he had a point, that wasn’t the extent of a Valkyrie's abilities. “If a Valkyrie can sway the tides of war, what’s to say they can’t sway my mother’s mind? If they can free a soul from the bonds of a failing body, why can’t they free a soul from Odin’s grasp?”

“It isn’t her soul he has. It is her mind.”

I shook my head, a grimace twisting my face. “It’s both, and you know it as well as I do. You’ve watched her descent into madness and did NOTHING about it!” Spinning, I bolted down the hall and left Axel in my wake. With searing lungs and burning eyes, I barely noticed the vampire who passed me in the hall, save for the placid look on her face. How would it feel to be completely numb inside? Like the Blood Council and courtiers; they got angry, fought, laughed, and cried, but I didn’t believe any of it was as genuine or as deep as a human’s emotions. Even in injury, they only bled for moments before healing again. None of their experiences were as deep as a human life.

I wanted to heal like that, and to have the power to change my circumstances, if nothing else, and now I found out my best friend possessed power greater than a vampire.

A Valkyrie’s son. What. The. Fuck? Now I knew exactly why he wasn’t afraid of the monsters he pranked.

I shoved through the door of my bedchambers and marched straight into the massive fireplace. Stepping over the dying embers at the fireplace’s foot, I was met with the faint scent of smoke and the stark darkness of the corridor on the opposite side of the room. A cold wind blasted my face. Here, and in the other hidden passages throughout the castle, Soren spent most of his time. I thought he had to hide after getting into trouble, but apparently Axel kept his son a secret from everyone because he was half-Valkyrie.

The lanky boy sat with his legs crossed and a frayed paintbrush in his hand. He used the crushed petals of roses dipped in an ink paste to paint roses on the walls, like giving tribute to the very flowers he killed by painting them. He once mentioned this helped him pass the time when all other activities proved to get him into trouble.

Light flickered from a weak candle in a copper chamber stick on the ground beside him.

“Soren,” I barked. “What the Hel are you doing?”

He shrugged, unbothered by the anger cracking in my voice. “Painting, obviously.” When he tilted his head to look at me, the yellow glow danced across his freckled face, highlighting his perfect shade of thick white hair like Valkyries were said to have. Soren’s human half showed through with one shock of the same black hair his father had. The black streak set him apart already, but the freckles dusting his nose and cheeks simmered with a nearly invisible and undeniably preternatural gleam too. How had I never noticed before? Like his freckles, his chestnut eyes glittered, but rather than something unexplainable, this was merely mischief. “Did you know?” he said, unaware of my fury as I stormed toward him. “That the sight of roses sends King Roderic into a rage?”

As soon as I reached Soren, I grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet. The paintbrush streaked blood-red across the wall, making the rose he was painting look like a blur.

“Hey!” he yelped. “What are you doing?”

When he tried to pull away, I held on tighter and dragged him behind me. “You’re going to save my mother.”

“What?”

“You’re a Valkyrie, Soren!” Spit flew out from between my teeth. “You can save her soul.”

“Drak, no!”

“Yes,” I bit back, still yanking him along behind me. “I didn’t understand why you took crystals from vampires, but now I get it. Those are pieces of their souls, aren’t they?” Glancing back at him, I caught the horror filling his brown eyes. “When vampires become vampires, their souls turn to crystal, and you steal them.”

“Drak. Father told me to stop doing that.”

“And do you ever listen to Axel?”

His shoulder slumped. “No.”

“You’ve still been stealing their souls, right?”

“Yes.”

“So you can find a way to steal my mother’s soul from Odin.”

“It—it doesn’t work like that.”

I stopped and whipped around. Shoving him against the stone, I spoke through clenched teeth. “Why?”

“The vampires. They—they’re not Odin’s. I can’t go against him when the soul is still within his reach. Their souls are…I don’t know. Broken or something. I just like that they’re shiny, and I can sell them in the market.”

I furrowed my brow. “That’s where you go during the day?” He nodded, eyes still wide, frightened…of me. “You sell souls.” Damn, that was intense.

“They’re just pretty crystals. The ladies like to display them to brighten their houses, or put them on jewelry.”