40. Sacrifice
Sacrifice
Lovisa
G lass shattered, followed by gunshots and screams. The painful stitch in Lovisa’s side demanded that she stop running, but she couldn’t slow down.
The attack on Perle had come suddenly in the night, but if Lovisa guessed correctly, she knew exactly who was behind it.
Her family had planned for this possibility, and thus she had one goal: to reach her mother.
Lovisa’s feet flew like the wings of the Valkyrie down the hallways of the palace, only to stumble and stop around the next corner.
A group of men blocked her escape. On their chests, they wore the emblem of three linked diamonds.
Shiko! her mind screamed. She’s here.
Guns were pulled from holsters and pointed at her heart as the men spoke to each other.
“Is that her?”
“How should I know?”
“We have to be certain. The Empress wants her alive.”
Lovisa raised empty hands. “I’m going to ask you once to get out of my way.”
“The ring! That’s her!”
“Take her.”
Lovisa’s mind overflowed, not with fear, but with sorrow, thinking of the funeral they’d held for Aeron without the courtesy of a body. Anger boiled over the warning of her mother’s words as Lovisa raised her shimmering hands.
Energy pulsed from her palms, resounding off the stone walls and shoving the men back with the force of a tidal wave. Their bodies crumpled onto the ground, unmoving. But Lovisa’s sense of triumph gave way to exhaustion. She swayed on her feet, hearing her mother’s voice.
Be careful of overdoing it, Lovisa. You might hurt yourself more than your target.
Her knees cracked on the tile beneath her as she fell to her hands. In front of her, the men already stirred. Her idiotic mistake had cost her freedom. Any moment now, they would wake and take her to Shiko.
Broad arms wrapped around her chest, yanking her to her feet. A deep, familiar voice scolded her. “Lovisa, you know better.”
Angry golden eyes captured hers, but under the anger, Lovisa saw fear in her father’s face.
He grabbed her arm, and they were running again, away from the men who were struggling to their feet.
King Mikkel held his sword in one hand, and with the other, he clasped his daughter’s hand.
The gun at his waist shocked Lovisa; her father believed so strongly in the use of ancestral weapons.
He rarely bore anything apart from his father’s sword.
“What’s happening?” she asked in between breaths.
“Shiko came through the passageways,” Mikkel said. Sweat streaked his forehead and cheeks, and Lovisa saw flecks of blood on his cuffs.
“But no one knows about the passageways.”
“They do now.” He took another turn, guiding Lovisa up a second staircase. “I know we don’t like your mother’s plan, but it’s the only option left.”
A shard of ice lodged in her heart. “What about Darien? We have to find him.”
“Darien knows if anything were to happen, you were both to find your mother. We can only hope that he’ll be there when we arrive.”
He didn’t have to say what it would mean if Darien wasn’t there. Another funeral without a body.
The clomping of booted feet came from the hall in front of them.
They spun, but more footsteps came from behind them as well.
Losing no time, King Mikkel yanked a large portrait off the wall, revealing the gaping hole set in the wall four feet up.
They could only hope Shiko did not know about all of the passageways, or this would be a short escape attempt.
Lovisa pressed her palms on the ledge and clambered into the hole, scooting in to make room for her father. The light vanished as King Mikkel refitted the portrait over the hole.
“Faeir!” she cried out.
“Go, Lovisa. I’ll stall them; get to your mother.”
“Please, you have to come too! I don’t care about the prophecy!”
“I don’t either,” he murmured, his voice muffled through the painting. “All of Evrópa can burn in Hel as long as you are safe.” The footsteps drew closer. “Go, Lovisa!”
“It’s the King,” an unfamiliar voice shouted. “Kill him!”
Lovisa knew she should obey her father’s orders, but she froze behind the portrait, listening as shots rang out.
Then came the sound of steel on steel, grunts, howls, and the gurgles of dead and dying men.
More than once she wanted to join her father in the battle.
More than once she knew she should flee into the passageway as he had ordered, find her mother, and get to safety — but she could not leave.
A bullet tore through the portrait, embedding itself in the wall next to Lovisa’s shoulder.
She flinched, cracking her head against the wall, but still she could not leave.
A thin stream of light filtered through the minuscule tear in the portrait.
Her father’s last words echoed in her mind. Then all was silent.
Lovisa scrambled to her knees, pressing one eye against the ripped canvas. Blood sprayed the once spotless walls. Bodies were strewn across the floor. Her father knelt in the middle of them, having fallen to his knees. His robes were torn, pierced, and stained not only with the blood of others.
A young woman stood before Mikkel, holding his sword.
Petite, with black hair tucked into a smooth bun, the woman looked harmless.
Until she turned. Disdain and disgust shone from sharp eyes.
There would be no mercy. A tall, five-pillared crown dripping with diamonds adorned her head, the gems reflecting the blood from the walls.
Lovisa had only ever seen the young Queen in passing, across ballrooms, but Lovisa knew it was her.
Shiko, the Diamant Queen who’d plunged their nation into chaos.
“Where is she, Mikkel?”
“Gone,” he spat. Droplets of blood splattered the hem of Shiko’s black gown. She hadn’t even bothered to wear armor to the fight. “You won’t find her until she’s ready for you, and then you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
Shiko smiled, cocking her head to the side as though listening to a friend whispering secrets in her ear.
Then she lunged, driving Mikkel’s sword straight through the King’s chest. Lovisa shoved her fist into her mouth, biting down hard on her knuckles to muffle the scream clawing up her throat, but nothing could stop the tears.
She fled, crawling away from the Diamant Queen, away from the bloodshed in her halls, away from the sound of her father’s body hitting the floor.
In the pitch black of the passageway, Lovisa rose to her feet and fled by memory. How often had she snuck around the palace in these passageways during her youth? How often had her mother and father scolded her after losing her in them? Her father would never scold her again.
A small whimper slipped past her lips, but she shoved it down.
This wasn’t the time to allow her feelings to consume her.
She crawled on, ripping her pants and scraping her palms, only stopping when she bumped into heavy fabric.
Lovisa knew it was the curtain on the fourth floor.
She waited for a moment, listening for the sound of intruders.
When nothing but silence met her ears, she pulled the curtain back and slid out of the passageway, crouching low to the ground, her eyes scanning in all directions.
She slipped into the room beside her, praying that the AEsir would hear her.
In the room, Queen Stjarna rose from her chair, relief chasing the worry from her eyes. “Lovisa!”
Lovisa locked the passageway door behind her, then collapsed into her mother’s arms. Through her sobs, she praised the gods that had heard her.
Stjarna’s hands rubbed Lovisa’s back, brushing back the hair from her daughter’s face. “Where is your father?”
Lovisa couldn’t meet her mother’s eyes. “She killed him.”
Queen Stjarna’s hands froze. Daring to look up, Lovisa saw her mother’s face holding a mixture of desperation and determination, even as her eyes filled with tears.
A low moan revealed Darien, who lay unconscious on the couch with a large bloody welt at his temple.
Lovisa scrambled to his side, her fingers lightly brushing over the wound.
She pressed her lips against his forehead, not caring that her mother was watching.
She praised the Norn that he was alive. “It’s okay, Dar, I’ve got you. ”
“If Shiko is already here, then our original plan won’t work.” Stjarna paced away from her daughter, speaking more to herself than to Lovisa. “There’s no way out of the palace. Vereandi, I summon you!”
Lovisa’s questions died in her throat at the sight of a young red-headed girl who emerged from behind the dressing screen. Her freckled face was alight with excitement, but her skin glowed as though fire raged beneath it. Lovisa sucked in a breath.
“I knew you would call for me,” the girl said, a smile playing on her lips. “Skuld told me so.”
Lovisa rose to stand beside her mother even as her legs shook. This was no mere child before them; this was a goddess.
“Can you hide them both?” Queen Stjarna asked.
The child-goddess ran a hand along Darien’s temples, brushing over the inflamed and bruised skin. “He’s pretty, if you look past all this.”
Lovisa clenched her fists but stayed where she was.
Galdr radiated from the child-goddess, but it was not any type that Lovisa had ever felt before.
Wild and untamed, it seized Lovisa’s attention.
She could focus on nothing else. Beneath the girl’s hands, Darien’s skin knitted itself back together.
The girl tilted her head at her own handiwork. “Much better.”
“Can you hide them?” Queen Stjarna asked again.
“Yes, but remember our price. We’re not sure you can pay it for them both. It might be more than even you can withstand, Queen of Dreams.”
Lovisa’s trance broke at the goddess’ words. “What price? Móeir, what is she talking about?”
Queen Stjarna cupped Lovisa’s cheeks in her hand. “This is the only way. Vereandi will hide you and Darien. She’ll bring you back when it’s safe again. You must be brave, my love.”
The three of them turned at the sound of yelling and running feet outside the chamber door. Their time was up. Queen Stjarna kissed her daughter’s forehead. Lovisa felt the tremble of her mother’s hands on her cheeks. Then her touch was gone.
“I’m ready, Vereandi.” Queen Stjarna held out her hands to the child, who grinned from ear to ear.
As if playing a game, Vereandi placed her hands on the Queen’s palms. With closed eyes and a low voice, she chanted, “ Urer, Vereandi, Skuld, Urer, Vereandi, Skuld, Urer, Vereandi, Skuld. ”
Lovisa’s skin tingled at the names of the goddesses of fate.
Other voices rose, one gravely and the other deep, mingling in with Vereandi’s high, sweet tones.
The goddesses’ voices rose; the words melded together until Lovisa could no longer distinguish the names.
Overwhelming surges of galdr robbed Lovisa of her breath and burned her skin.
The names of the goddess were like blows raining down on Lovisa’s mental walls. There could be no resistance.
Lovisa fell to the ground as the floor shook.
She held onto Darien’s body, for her sake and his, to keep him from falling to the floor.
Pounding erupted against the door, which cracked and splintered.
Queen Stjarna’s hands shook under Vereandi’s.
A white-hot glow enveloped them. Lovisa shielded her eyes from the sight.
A flash of light revealed the truth of her mother’s actions as galdr flowed from Queen Stjarna’s body and into Vereandi’s.
“Móeir, stop!” Lovisa screamed. “It’s killing you!”
Drops of blood fell from Stjarna’s nose and gathered at the corners of her mouth.
The pounding on the door intensified as Shiko’s guards attempted to break through, but Lovisa could not look away.
Even as the flush fled Stjarna’s cheeks, even as the light died in her mother's eyes, Lovisa could not look away.
At last, Stjarna turned toward her daughter. A small smile crossed her face, but her eyes were already unseeing. “I love you, Lovisa. I don’t regret my decision.”
The door collapsed, but that was nothing compared to the shattering of Lovisa’s heart as she watched her mother’s body fall at the feet of the child-goddess, who glowed with new light.
Lovisa knew the coming footsteps meant death, but she welcomed them.
There was nowhere left to run. A gun was cocked, its barrel pressing against the back of her head.
Just let it be over , Lovisa prayed.
Before she shut her eyes, Lovisa glimpsed the child-goddess she’d nearly forgotten. The girl’s eyes burned with the same glow from her mother’s hands. Her wild red hair danced in the still air as though on fire. She turned hard eyes toward the men behind her and spoke a word.
Then the world went quiet.
There was nothing but a field and a tree and a well.
Lovisa felt nothing, thought nothing. She did not exist.
For a long time, there was nothing but the nothingness.
O ne day, there was a voice in her ear, telling Larissa to rise.
It was time to start her day. She pushed past the grit that coated her eyes. A young girl with pigtail braids and bright green eyes hovered over her bed with a wide grin.
Halla .