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Finan finally turned back, peering down at her. “I thought you were the goddess.”

Flinging a curl over her shoulder, she fluttered her blonde-white eyelashes. “Why, thank you.”

He only shook his head and sighed.

Another scream echoed along the wind, but none of us flinched anymore. As soon as darkness fell, the cries came often enough that we’d grown numb to death. If the vampires did, in fact, drain their victims.

“The closer we get to the castle, the worse it’s becoming,” Finan’s voice came out rougher now. He cleared his throat and fingered the dagger tucked into the belt at his hip. It was a weak weapon compared with the sword strapped to his back and the ax he’d used to behead witches that was slung at his other hip. “We won’t last another night.”

“What makes you say that?” I asked, though every word was an effort to force through my raw throat. Tears still pooled at my eyelids.

His tenuous, grim smile said I was nothing but a pathetic child in his eyes. He was only doing this for Stasia. Who knew if he believed I could—that Drak could—overthrow Silver. “Do you have any clue how many vampires are in Mara now?”

I winced. I knew my sister was building an army to secure her reign in Vylheim, and she didn’t care how many people she killed to do it, but I didn’t stop to dwell on just how many monsters she would have made, or sanctioned the creation of.

Finan folded his arms across his chest. “I was witness to the making of many new vampires before we embarked for West Anglor. With so many young vampires, they feed often and savagely. The youngest vampires hang around the castle, and when hunger takes over, they lack the logic to be wary of a goddess. If we risk sleeping tonight, they’ll eat all of us without a second thought. Besides, it’s an ideal time to slip into the castle unnoticed. We will have kept pace with the Grimward and the captives. We want to arrive when it becomes crowded and chaotic.”

I grimaced. “I need to rest now if I’m going to figure out where I need to go once we get inside the castle.” I couldn’t deal with this pain and focus on thrusting my foresight into Soren at the same time. Because Drak’s soul didn’t react to our movement, the way it’d burned brighter on West Anglor’s shores, I had no direction to follow for the last shard. I needed the half-Valkyrie, and I had Odin’s magic to do it.

Finan was relentless. “We’ll be safer under Mara’s Keep than we are out here. Newly turned vampires get cast out of the castle after dark to fend for themselves. It keeps the villagers from revolting.” My stomach was going to revolt with every additional detail I learned about the kingdom under my sister’s reign. “We’ll sneak in through the old tunnels. At least there the walls will block this wind.”

I licked my lips, but said nothing. I didn’t have the energy to argue. Odin’s foresight would have to wait until we were under the castle. According to Axel, I’d have more access to Soren there, thanks to the painted tunnels.

Stasia stuck out her lower lip. “But if we don’t rest now, none of us will ever taste my sweet bread again.” She held up her slender fingers. “I can’t bake if these freeze off.”

Finan softened, but his stance didn’t change. “We keep moving.”

I didn’t fight it because I’d seen a young vampire before. When Drak turned Ragna to stop her from dying, she became feral during the transformation. Other vampires had been the only obstacle preventing her from attacking any nearby humans.

I tucked Drak’s soul back into my pocket, already missing the slight warmth emanating from it.

Stasia slipped a hand under the crook of my elbow and helped me to my feet. It was surprisingly easy, and I didn’t realize why until I stood and saw Finan on my other side. My left arm had gone numb, unable to feel his grip on my bicep as he gave me a lift to my feet.

I dipped my head in gratitude, but he didn’t react as he spun around and stepped into the darkness.

Hours passed with my heart skipping, and dark spots swirling in my vision. The pain lanced across my chest, leaving a lingering ache that sharpened like a flash of lightning beneath my ribs.

I had to keep going because I’d promised Axel I’d make it to Soren. I’d find his son and restore a kingdom that allowed him to be free again. Even if Axel would never witness that day, I could give both Soren and Drak their lives back.

Don’t fall again. Don’t succumb to the pain.

I’d take a weak heart a hundred times over the claws of grief that gripped my chest. My eyes perpetually burned with tears.

Finan probably mistook my weeping as a reaction to the agonizing screams and biting cold, but Stasia understood. Occasionally, she’d fall back and walk beside me, reaching for my hand and lacing her fingers through mine. I kept my other hand on Drak, and hoped his soul would pulse with life at my touch, but I was so numb now that I didn’t know if the crystal burned hotter or not. I clung to him and to the hope that this was worth it. The last remnant of him was within that castle. It had to be. Rarely did he leave Mara’s Keep as a vampire.

I suspected he most valued the moment he became king, but I wanted it to be the first time we made love. Either way, the last piece was inside those ugly grey walls.

My vision waned with black specks threatening to blind me by the time we stopped to rest. At the foot of the hill, we reached a clearing just outside the village. The unsightly castle stood out in the distance, featureless and merging with the clouds that matched its emptiness. The stone lacked any shine at all, only flat and dull except for something with color that dotted the front.

Long brown spikes stood every few feet at the castle’s entrance, like wooden bars in a dungeon. The oak spears jutted from the ground, and I guessed at the vague spheres that sat atop the spikes—heads. I didn’t know who Silver decorated the castle with, but she must have ordered the beheading of several dozen people.

My stomach hitched, but I had nothing to throw up. We hadn’t eaten since last night when Finan shared salted fish from the provisions he took off the longship. Only bile remained on my tongue where the flavor of salt and cod had melted away.

If Vylheim was miserable when a vampire sat on the throne, it was worse now. I never thought this kingdom could sink any lower than beheading witches and tormenting humans into survival mode, forcing them to live just long enough to serve as food for the vampires who fed on them, but Silver managed to make it worse.

Where Mara was once a bustling village with markets and children playing in the streets, the kingdom had fallen silent. Screams were the sole proof that people still lived, if not for long.

Behind us, a mass of bodies pulsed toward the castle, Grimward and captives, witches and sacrifices for Silver. She would decide if it was enough, or she’d send another wave of villagers across Drukna. We kept a steady hour pace ahead of them in the shadows, but my weak limbs and thundering heart dragged like dead bodies, and the crowd caught up to us quickly. Our arrival would coincide as long as they didn’t overtake us, and the ensuing disorder would serve as our cover.