53. Maddy
Chapter 53
Maddy
I 'm back on the ledge.
For a stunned second, there's silence.
Then Freydis pulls the tiara from her head and lifts a shaking hand. She points at Mother. "You… How could you…"
Kain makes a guttural sound and advances on my mother.
"Wait!" I shout.
He halts, without taking his eyes from her. "It was her. All this time, it was her. She killed them all and let the world believe I did it. She murdered my people!"
"I know. I'm sorry. But please, wait. I need answers."
Everything is spinning. I can't breathe properly; my mind is trying to shut down. It's too much to process, and the tug of the gallery is almost taking me under.
Escape.
Slow the thoughts.
Make this all go away.
"I saw everything." Thyrvi's voice in my head is like an anchor in the raging turmoil, and I cling to it. "Now that I am with you, you will never be made to do anything against your will ever again."
My eyes get hot, but I can't cry.
I'm half numb, and half on fire with rage.
My mother's gaze is fixed on me.
"What happened after that?" I say loudly. Snow is storming over my head.
"You slept," she says. Her voice is hard. "Both of you. For almost two hundred years."
I suck in air, and Freydis makes a small, strangled sound.
"That was how the tiara was broken," I say.
"Yes. And you didn't just wipe the Valkyrie's memories. You wiped the entire palace. Only those with royal blood were protected from Skadi’s magic and retained any memory of what happened. Of either of you."
I gave up. Freydis just told me that if she was dead she couldn't be used, and I gave up the fight because I was in the wrong.
In doing so, I removed us both. The memory magic backfired, the tiara exploded, and I deleted us from history and put us both in a centuries-long coma.
"And when we came around?" my sister chokes out.
"I paid handsomely for a minunn candle. It's nowhere near as powerful as Madivia's memory magic and only had one use, but it was enough to implant fake memories of your youth. We realized early that Madivia had suffered permanent mental damage, but that Freydis had escaped the worst of it."
"And when I was selected to train at Featherblade?" I ask.
Mother throws a vicious glance at Erik. "This fool had no recollection of what happened two hundred years ago. When we got wind that a new batch of Valkyrie were going to be trained, I realized that we stood to become even more powerful. So I contacted him and told him that I knew of a particular Frost Giant friend of his we could help. In return, Erik was supposed to ensure Freydis was selected. Ishild had become an established leader within the Frost Giants. With her and Erik now under my influence, we are poised to re-establish control of the Frost Giants, and potentially even Featherblade."
"I just wanted Ishild returned to me!" Erik says, looking at me. "I… I didn't know any of this. Until now."
He looks at Kain, and the fire-fae snarls. "You were willing to let everyone believe I killed my own family."
"To save my mate? Yes."
Kain bares his teeth, and Ishild speaks.
"I will not fight for someone who used the Frost Giants against their will like that." She is glaring at my mother. "You made a deal with Erik, with no intention of fulfilling it. You have no honor."
Erik moves to her side. "Nor will I. I have been tricked."
"The past is irrelevant," barks my mother, slight panic in her eyes now.
A howl from Skoll, long and terrifying, blows along the ledge.
"Irrelevant?" Kain's voice makes my skin crawl.
He takes a step toward my mother.
"The past is irrelevant ?" he repeats. "You let my wings get taken from me, and my skin was cursed to never touch another living being again. You let the Valkyrie believe I murdered my own family." His voice drops with every sentence, and primal fear churns through me. "You used your own child to murder an entire race. You tortured and abused your other child for political gain. The fae I love. You deserve to burn."
He flies forward, and time slows.
"No!" Freydis shouts. "She's our mother. Please don't kill her!"
I'm vaguely aware that I'm not okay with killing her, but all I can do is stare. He reaches her, wrapping his hand around her throat, and her body turns to ice as she cries out.
Then Ishild is standing, trying to pull Kain off her.
She said she wouldn't fight, and for a minute I'm confused. But then I see Freydis with the tiara back on her head, a pained look of concentration on her face.
She's controlling Ishild.
"Freydis, stop!" I scream.
Ishild finally gets Kain to release his iron grip on Mother's throat, and launches him backward.
"Kain!"
A flaming bear appears out of nowhere, smashing me to the ground. Thyrvi barrels toward it as I scramble to my feet.
Ishild has turned on Freydis, and she's waving her hands. "I'm sorry, I had to. She's my mother. I'll never do it again, I swear!" My sister is crying, but the Giant is furious, advancing with murder in her eyes. I try to sprint, but I'm too slow. I won't make it in time.
But Kain does. His speed is enough, and he takes the deadly blow meant for my sister, tumbling across the ice once more.
Fire explodes across the ledge, an inferno roaring along the earth and melting the snow instantly.
Ishild drops to her knees, shouting in pain, and I throw a wall of ice over Freydis as my own body freezes solid.
"Where the fuck did that come from?" roars Ishild, her own ice magic dousing the fire around her.
I look around, and my stomach flips. My mother has not risen from the carpet of flames. She was unconscious when they came. She used no magic to protect herself.
I move toward her as Freydis yanks the tiara off and throws it at Ishild's feet. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please! I'm sorry!"
Ishild isn't looking at her, though, and nor are Kain and Erik.
She's staring at the center of the growing inferno.
It's Inga, leaning on her bear, flames roaring around them both.
Oh gods. She's wearing the Helm of Embers.
It must have been her who stole Kain's half. And now, she's found the other half in my bag.
"I knew it was them who destroyed us! I've always known! But nobody would listen to me. Why would they? I was the only fire-fae in a shadow-fae family. Why would they believe me that the ice-fae destroyed us?" Inga shouts.
Erik answers, and his voice has returned to the one he's used for weeks at Featherblade. Calm. Paternal. Gentle and encouraging. "How did you know, Inga?"
"He told me."
"Who?"
"Stutr."
Oh fuck . Stutr is the lava god.
Panic appears on every face.
"You can't have been talking to him before that helm was made whole again," Erik says, his own panic masked in the gentle tone.
"I can. Through this." She holds up something that looks like a lump of charred rock. "From what's left of the Fire Court. Of anywhere I might have belonged."
The fire crackles around her, spreading farther across the ledge. Crates turn to ash as they reach them.
She's crazy.
"Did Stutr tell you about the Helm of Embers?" Erik asks.
"Yes." She winces, and staggers against her bear again.
"The helm hurts?" Kain asks. I can hear something in his voice I've never heard. Fear .
"Yes."
"You need to take it off. Before he gets control of you," he says slowly.
He moves toward her.
Her eyes widen and she steps back. The she screams. Her dark skin flushes everywhere, and her bear roars.
Kain is at her side in seconds, trying to wrench the helm from her head. But it won't move.
"She's not strong enough to take his power!" he roars, and her skin bursts into flames.
She keeps screaming.
"Kain, stop her or we'll all die!" shouts Erik.
Flames explode out of Inga, and her bear rears up before being engulfed. She collapses, turning to ash before me.
Kain whirls to face me, his eyes fixed on mine, the helm in his hands. Fire is pouring from it, suffocating magic spilling across the ledge, making it impossible to breathe.
Terror swamps me. Devastating inevitability makes time stop.
"I'm sorry," he says.
"Kain…" I whisper, my eyes filling with tears, my heart ready to explode.
"I'm the only one who can try. It's me or everyone here."
"No!"
He rams the helm onto his head.
His immediate roar of pain almost floors me.
I try to run to him, but the fire melts my ice too fast.
"Get out of here, now!" bellows Ishild. Erik's wings open.
Freydis screams, "Mother!"
I beat against the fire, unable to see through my tears, unable to hear anything but Kain's agony.
He just gave up his life for us.
The fae accused of cold-blooded murder and dishonor just gave up his life to save ours.
I can't let him die.
And if I can't save him, then I can't let him die alone.
He's been alone too long.
If he has to burn, then I will burn with him.