Chapter Seventy-One
Aric
I’m so pissed, I can’t see straight.
Reeve’s—Loki’s—betrayal. Rey’s misguided attempts at protecting me. Granted, I hold so much of myself in when I’m around her, she has no concept of what I’m capable of, but still…I’m not the one who needs protecting.
I left her back at the dorms to get ready for the Hunt, and as I closed the door, I thought: If only we could run away. Leave this all behind. Just you and me, together.
But running from problems doesn’t solve them, and this is bigger than either of us.
Tonight, we finish it.
But first…
I nearly take off the door to the admin building, barely keeping my rage in check as I stomp up the stairs. Sigurd’s door’s open, like he’s waiting for me.
I storm in, and he smiles.
“I do hope we can make this quick, Aric. We have a busy evening ahead.”
He opens the blinds at his window and stares out. Catering trucks are unloading food, and tons of cars are starting to pile up along the main drive, waiting for the event coordinators and valets hired for the evening.
He lets the blinds drop back into place as I approach him. “So,” he murmurs. “Have you figured it out yet?”
“Figured what out?”
“Your awakening. I had my suspicions, though I never really imagined they would have sealed their power into you. Yet in a strange way, it does make sense.” He sighs. “It all makes sense now, doesn’t it? Why they were so weak in the end, why they…perished so easily. What a pity.”
“What?” I begin. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Your parents, Aric. The very power oozing from your body comes from them, you know. You were born a Giant, but even with your powers suppressed, even with that side of you sleeping under the protection of the runes, you’re dying to break free.
You hold the power of three. Your parents and yourself.
“Isn’t this a lovely twist,” he mumbles, more to himself than me. “Have you planned to let her finish awakening you, then?” He glances at his Patek Philippe wristwatch like he’s about to schedule it if I haven’t yet.
For the last few years, he’s kept me locked down, isolated, medicated, always telling me to have control. To never let my Giant free.
“It’s time to break out of the shell your parents put you in,” Sigurd says. “Maybe then we can finally defeat Odin.”
“Without Mjolnir?”
His head whips in my direction. “She told you? Splendid. You’ve done well, befriending and seducing your enemy, Aric. I’m proud of you.” Why the fuck is he so calm about all of this? He used me. He used her! And he looks seconds away from popping off for a quick lunch followed by a massage.
My stomach clenches, but I keep my expression even.
“You can find it. Your true self knows where it is. You will find it. And let her claim it. The moment she possesses the hammer, though, we strike. We can avenge your parents’ deaths.” He sighs like he’s at peace. “She won’t even see you coming for a death blow instead of a kiss.”
That’s fucked up. Even if Rey had remained my enemy, if I’d never felt her warmth or tasted her lips…I wouldn’t be able to kill her like that in cold blood.
Sigurd tilts his head. “You’re not falling for your enemy, are you, Aric? In this war, sacrifices have to be made.”
My mind goes to the sacrifices that my parents made for me. Why did they give me their power?
“How did they die again?” I cross my arms. “My parents. You said they gave their power to me and that’s why they perished so easily. How do you perish easily in a car wreck?”
Sigurd goes very still. “It’s in the past. Focus on the task at hand, Aric. Be stronger than they were.”
His words don’t sit right with me. But a horn sounds across campus, the long, haunting note that only comes from real bone.
Sigurd smiles. “The festivities will start soon, and then it will all be up to you.”
“Do you really think you can convince Rey to use it for your own purposes?” I ask.
“Me?” He laughs. “Absolutely not. You? Yes. The time of the Gods is over, Aric. The rise of the Giants has just begun. You’re either for everything your family built—or against it. Pick a side.”
I almost laugh. “Both sides have chosen to eliminate each other. Is there no peace? No middle ground?”
Sigurd slams his hand down onto his desk so violently that it cracks right down the middle.
I jump back, shocked at the gesture and the strength—the anger—behind it. If he’s trying to remind me that he’s the first Giant, he’s doing a great job.
“Do you want to see me dead?” Sigurd demands.
“Odin plans to break my body and rebuild his world with it. He will stop at nothing to take over realm after realm in his name. This is the man who burned Jotunheim to the ground. He’s responsible for your parents’ deaths.
If that isn’t enough motivation, then maybe you never loved them at all—or me, or Loki. ”
I snort out a laugh. “So you’ve always known, then.”
“Just like you, he was forced to choose. You chose poorly two years ago.” With a swish of his hand, the cracked desk splits in two, the halves slamming into the walls. Books fall from the shelves, and pottery crashes and shatters.
Sigurd steps over the pieces toward me.
He’s stronger, more vicious. I see it, the look in his eyes. He’ll kill me. Right here, right now, in this very room if he finds my will lacking.
And I may be strong, but I’m not yet awakened. I can’t defeat him as I am now, just like I can’t defeat Odin.
I need access to my power even if it kills me.
“I won’t fail, Grandfather.” I meet his stare and hold it. “I’ll bring you Thor’s hammer. And then I’ll bring you Odin’s head.”