Chapter 29
My bloodied clothes dropped to the floor with a whisper.
I stuck my toes in one of the geothermal pools to test out the temperature, steam rising between the stalactites.
With my mind swimming elsewhere, it was hard to enjoy the serenity of this place: Ryder only a floor beneath me, the impending war, the queen’s use of the demons in her efforts to gain back her power—her secrets.
If the entrance to this salt-licked cavern hadn’t sprung up first, I would’ve continued on my path to the archives.
But as those tendrils of heat wafted up the stairs, the calling to relax and freshen up outweighed the urge.
Plus, Olivia needed her space to do her research without me constantly interrupting—which I planned to do later, after I rinsed off, napped. Healed.
Slowly, I eased into the pool until I was up to my neck, the white muddy bottom soft and squishy beneath my feet.
Taking a deep inhale, I dunked. The water swirled around me, wrapping me in its velvety warmth, washing away the blood.
I bobbed to the surface, my body feeling lighter, thoughts clearer. Arms floating at my sides, I dipped my head back, and drifted.
If I just stayed there, Ryder’s touch might rinse off my skin. If I just stayed there, the silica-rich lagoon might swallow the crushing anxiety—another thing I was prisoner to.
Water splashing against my cheeks and rippling in my ears, I closed my eyes and let it all float away, until my nerves finally untangled from the ball they’d been wound in.
The call of sleep had my heart beating steadily…
“Enjoying your dip?”
Choking on a gasp, I thrashed to my feet, keeping everything from my upper chest well below the waterline. “Oh my God!”
Flóki’s bloodred lips curved into a menacing grin. “Interesting thing to say.”
“What?” I spat out, along with the gritty liquid that had flooded my mouth.
His gaze moved from my face to my exposed collarbone, dropping even further, fixated on something beneath the surface. I sunk lower. “Didn’t they teach you not to say that name in vain?”
“You know what’s interesting?” Despite being fully submerged, my arms shot across my chest. “Locking me in a dungeon full of demons.”
“There are standard inmates in there, too.” That smirk, that chuckle. It was all too sinister, all too familiar. “Anyway, I must have forgotten that door automatically locks.”
Even surrounded by the heat, I shivered. “What do you want?”
“This is a public place.” Fingers latching onto the hem of his shirt, he pulled it over his head, pale muscles flexing, marred with scars and tattoos.
I stilled.
He gripped his waistband. “Do you mind?”
Breath catching in my chest, I spun around. The clink of metal—his belt. The brush of fabric—his jeans. The thud of rubber—his boots. Counting down the seconds until he slithered into my space.
With a flap of my arms, I pushed myself deeper, farther away from him. “There are a dozen other pools. Can’t you find your own?”
Water swished. My stomach flipped.
“I like this one.”
My brows pinched in annoyance. Sucking in a lungful of air, I turned to face him.
He swam near the steps, treading closer, his piercing gaze heating my cheeks. “Your hair looks nice like that.”
The hollow praise probably worked wonders on others. There was something about him—burning blue gaze, a jaw that was all angles, an air of mystery—I just happened to see right through it. To know better.
Narrowing my eyes, I flatly said, “Thanks.”
He ran his fingers through his hair, biceps swelling; silver rings glinted against the black strands. “How’s mine?”
“Fine.” I looked away. “I should get going. I’m already a prune anyways.”
Bouncing on my tiptoes, I waded closer to the stairs, careful to keep to the outskirts of the pool, to keep myself covered by the milky lagoon.
Didn’t matter. I could still feel him, the intensity of his stare, the threatening shift in his muscles.
I was nearly out. Just a few more strokes to the shallows.
“Wait.” Wet fingers reached across the water, brushing my shoulder. “Super impressive, what you did today.”
My eyes could have burned holes in his hand. “You were there?”
He nodded, droplets dripping down the side of his face, plinking onto the surface.
“Oh.” My voice sounded small in the tightness of the cavern. “I must have missed you.”
“You seem to miss a lot.” The comment struck me like the fangs of a water snake.
I glared at him over my shoulder. “Excuse me?”
“Got a lot on your mind, angel?” That touch slithered closer, his foot grazing my ankle. “I can help make it disappear.”
Source tingled in my fingertips, heating with a rush of anger. “I’m good.”
Shrugging, he tilted his head back until the nape of his neck dipped beneath the surface, thin lines of a tattoo poking out from behind his ear.
I splashed the water away from me, and a small wave curled with the force and my magic, breaking across Flóki’s shoulders.
He shut his eyes, throwing his arms over his head. I took his distraction as a moment to escape, slipping out of the pool and snatching my towel off a stalagmite.
“Tomorrow the queen is taking me to Earth’s lair,” I said, wrapping myself in the soft fabric. “After that, I’m on the next flight to California. Then we’ll never see each other again.”
“Tomorrow, tomorrow.” He laughed, and it was smoky and suffocating and wrong. “Why isn’t it ever now?”
“Do you know something I don’t?” I spat.
“I know Hildur finds you very useful.” He waded closer, as if he was going to step out—follow. I held my ground. “And you’ve been so willing to help.”
“Was I supposed to let those people die?” I bit back through gritted teeth.
“Why would she take you to Jarearbaeli?” he returned. “Keeping you around solves many of her problems.”
“I can walk out that door at any moment. I can find a way there myself.” Even as the words left my lips, I wasn’t sure I believed them.
He lifted his dark brows. “You honestly think you could navigate that glacier? Did you see the corpses, or were you too bewitched by the Galdur?”
Bile stung my throat. There… there had been a peculiar crunch beneath my crampons, but I’d assumed it was the culmination of ice and snow.
“Gunnar wouldn’t”—still stuck on the visual, I almost gagged—“Gunnar wouldn’t let me wander that wasteland until I was nothing but a pile of bones.”
“Gunnar has a duty.” Flóki licked his lips, as if to draw my gaze, then bit down, canines dimpling the plump skin. “Crush or not.”
My face heating once more, I gripped the towel tightly around me. “So I’m trapped here.” The Coffin Seeker, the jelmadag, Eldi—even those stories of Gryla—they’d all hinted as much.
Unbidden, my eyes tracked the vaulted ceiling, cringing at the hanging rocks as if, at any minute, they might come crashing down. “What do you propose I do then?”
He shrugged, bare shoulders flecked with water glistening under the low light. “You could enact elven law.” He phrased it like a suggestion, not a warning. Yet still… why did the words hit me like a gut punch?
I kept my voice flat, bored—the very last thing I was. “And what does that entail?”
“A fight to the death.”
My heart thumped erratically, the only sound ringing through the quiet cavern.
Flóki’s face cracked in a grin that was all too sharp. “Ha! You should have seen yourself.”
Was it me, or had his pupils doubled in size? “Ok, so what is it really?”
“It’s a way to get what you want.” With a jerk of his chin, he gestured to a towel folded next to his mess of clothes.
Grabbing it, I tossed it over and spun around, trying not to give in to the itch to turn at the sound of his wet steps. “How does it work?”
“You say the magic words.”
“And then what?” My muscles clenched at the trickling of water surely raining off his abs, at the swish of the lagoon—
At the patter of his footsteps, growing closer. “Hildur will grant you a pardon, a mercy, a wish.”
“A simple phrase and the queen just… gives me whatever I want? I don’t buy that one bit.” I knew how she worked—always strategic, always one step ahead. “What’s in it for her? What does she get out of it?”
“Alright, so she may not want to comply, but it’s an incantation so potent, so ancient, no one can interfere.” Energy prickled my back. He was standing behind me. “Not even the gods.”
Figures. Gods were never on my side, anyways.
“What’s the catch?”
“You simply have to prove your worth.”
“How?”
“You’ll be publicly pitted against an equal match.”
That could be anyone. A worrisome thought ran through my mind like the hair-raising drag of a claw. “Like in some kind of duel? What if I lose?”
“Hildur is the speaker of your fate.”
My stomach flipped.
“Besides.” A heated breath tickled the back of my neck. Every hair stood on end. “You’re stuck here, and you know it. So, what have you actually got to lose?”
Fingers tucked in tight, knuckles white and veiny, I asked, “And what are these so-called magic words?”
Lips grazed my earlobe. My insides coiled, every inch of me screaming to run. “We have to whisper. Eyes everywhere, you know.”
It took everything in me to keep those fists at my sides, to latch my jaw tight, to fight the unsteady lurch of my pulse.
“Aelphicas leges advoco. Ad veniam proelium. Ad misericordiam certamem. Ad gratiam mors,” he said, before stepping away.
When I turned, the cavern was empty.