Page 41

After three days of fighting to get to the castle, weeks of analyzing Brynhild’s words, and every hour of trying to reach Drak through the pieces to show me the way, I insisted that the shard had to be here. Drak had been too young to recall any life he had lived beyond Mara’s Keep. Certainly, the most significant memory wasn’t as an infant.

Soren only lifted one shoulder. The shield-maiden within me from my days as Myrah, wanted to smash his front teeth and see the blood spill onto his face, but that part of me quieted as quickly as it surfaced. The only fighting I’d ever done was for survival and to defend or expand our home—in every lifetime. So instead, I forced a grim smile and said, “Is that it? You tell me it’s not here and then shrug, nothing more?” The back of my eyes stung. “Wasn’t Drak your friend?”

A frown ghosted across his lips and his bright eyes sank to the blood bowls beside his father. After a second, he snapped his attention back to me. “You’d have to ask Drak that.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Hurt made the dimples on either side of his mouth vanish, and his lips pursed.

His father spoke before he did. “Drak promised me he’d find you.”

“Well, that’s a broken promise,” Soren said.

Axel put more effort into his voice, his gaze harsh and heavy on his son. “Only because Drak sacrificed himself for his queen. He died knowing Queen Lux would free our home from the gods’ wrath.”

The freckles dusting Soren’s cheekbones lifted with the curious tilt of his mouth. He eyed me. “Yes, I heard all about your loyalty to Queen Lux, but she’s here now and she can’t even free you.”

“Don’t play dumb, son,” he said. “You understand what it takes to reclaim the throne. That’s her objective, and it’s the sole objective I want her to concentrate on.”

That curious tilt shifted to a hollow, half-amused smile as he nodded. “Right. Find the soul.”

Axel stared at his son. “Drak was working toward a kingdom where you would no longer have to hide. Surely, that’s the future we always dreamed of for you.”

Soren broke our shared, tenuous gaze and looked down at Axel. “That’s your dream, Father. I’ll always have to hide.”

“Not if you stop stealing.”

“I’m a thief and I’ll always be a thief—” he cut himself off with an exaggerated inhale, and with a swing of his arm, he gestured toward the shadows. “Why don’t we get this over with, hmm? Soul fragments are typically discovered at the vampire's origin point. Drak turned while he was in Silver’s cell. It’s just down this hall. If you’re so inclined to believe you know better than me, then that’s the only place it could be. So, after you, princess.”

“Queen,” Axel corrected him.

Soren rolled his eyes. “We’ll be back for you, Father.” He brushed past me and the cell and melted into the shadows.

“No,” Axel said. “You will return only after this is over.”

Soren materialized again, half his body wisps of dark shadow and the other half visible. “Don’t tell me what to do.”

Axel laughed, and though it was rough and weak, a certain joy exuded from him. “I never could.”

“I’m not leaving your bloody old ass here to die alone. I’m stealing that key and I’m coming back for you.”

“Only after you find the last piece,” Axel argued. “There’s plenty of time for me. For some reason, Silver isn’t offering me as a vessel to her vampires, and she has not marked me for sacrifice. The one time she visited, she told Ylva and Darius I was too important to be killed, so I’ll persist. Vylheim is more important.”

Soren snorted. “Yeah, well, Silver is a delusional crazy person who invented fantastical stories and creatures just to talk about killing them.” He glanced at me. “Poor Drak had to listen to her murder tales.” I flinched. Drak loved listening to me tell stories and relay sagas. He had loved it since he was Rune, so maybe he wasn’t poor at all—maybe he liked listening to Silver because it called to his memory of us. His patience and curiosity made him the perfect audience, so it was no wonder he became friends with my sister all those years ago. Soren continued, eyes on his father now. “Do you really think Silver’s not messing with you right now? She’s playing with her food.”

“She’s not a vampire; she won’t eat me.” Axel spoke in a simple, matter-of-fact tone.

“Okay,” Soren shrugged. “She’s playing with her toy’s food then.” Hearing him refer to vampires as my sister’s playthings knotted my gut. She’d never had a real childhood, and now she was a twisted little girl on a throne, playing with people’s lives.

“I can pick this,” Finan said as he pointed to the lock on Axel’s cell. He stood taller than before, his chest puffed as he reached for a dagger at his belt. “I can pick at the lock.” I was unsure if Finan’s desire to help stemmed from pure altruism or if he’d connected with Axel on the longship and cared for him now. They rarely spoke, but Axel had a unique way about him; his calm, assured countenance could draw anyone to trust and love him, maybe even the Wolf. But as Finan took long, lunging steps toward the lock and chains, he shot Soren a grim smile. “Go on ahead; I’ve got this.”

I rolled my eyes because he clearly wasn’t helping out of the goodness of his Grimward heart. This was a pissing contest against the charming thief who’d outwitted him and his crew of executioners for years. Or perhaps he just wanted to prove himself in front of Stasia. Prove that he wasn’t a complete ass? Or just prove that he was handier and cleverer than Soren? I didn’t know.

Either way, the contest didn’t interest Soren. He remained silent and disappeared into the darkness, and a moment later, his voice emerged from the shadows. “Come, princess. The shadows will show you the way.”

From the inky blackness, a dark tendril unfurled, its form twisting like a shadowy finger into an almost inviting gesture. Something within me recoiled, but I trusted Axel, and as someone who also had access to Odin’s powers, however fucked up and distorted they became through me, I understood this part of Soren. The part that harnessed whatever winning cards he could from the hand he’d drawn, because I’d done the same thing with my powers.

And the other half of me? The witch who spent her life hiding behind lies? I only wished I had the ability to become a shadow.