Wregen #2
Ruxi soars into this cavern before Garmr gets to the tunnel, and I gust out a sigh of relief. At least we’ll be fighting him here, where they can fly around. Before I can launch myself at the dog, though, another creature slithers after the dragon, and my heart erupts from my chest.
I don’t remember her.
I’d swear I’ve never seen her before.
But I know her, perhaps better than I know my own beast.
Glow. The name fills my thoughts, and I’m as certain as I could possibly be that it’s correct.
Even Wrath rumbles inside me, her presence drawing tendrils of his consciousness from the pit he’s been stuffed into.
He thrashes, more desperate to break free than he’s ever been, but Hel’s hold is tight.
“Wregen!” Finaan’s scream pulls me from the memories I started to chase, and I see that even with the wyrm joining them, they’re as outmatched as I’d feared.
Finaan’s on the ground, wielding a sword she must have stolen from one of the elves as if she plans to attack Garmr herself.
I’m torn between a need to throttle her for being so gods-damned reckless and burning the world to the ground for sticking her with a bastard like me, whose fatuity all those centuries ago brought this dog into her life.
Garmr’s untouchable, his razor-sharp teeth shredding through the turnip beast’s feathers as if they’re cotton every time the dragon gets close enough to attack.
They’re backing off occasionally to spit fire at him, but he’s Hel’s hound, impervious to even the fiercest blaze in her realm.
They won’t be able to muster a flame hot enough to slow him down.
If they’d listened to me, they’d have realized Garmr’s nearly impossible to defeat.
But we don’t have a choice.
I race toward the hound, acting as if I plan to fight by his side.
If I can get close enough, I might be able to force him into a weaker position, that the others can attack.
He’s all teeth and claws, spinning as he lashes out at the dragon and the wyrm, splatters of their blood decorating the rock around us.
I push my way closer to him, and shove my stick toward the wyrm, barely missing her as I feint an attack.
Finaan’s rage, married with a disappointment so deep it feels bottomless, ripples through me. “We came back for you, you bastard,” she screams. “And you’re going to fight with him? For Hel?”
Wrath is rumbling in my gut, thrashing against Hel’s hold as our mate’s fury rattles our bones.
Settle down, I mumble, pulling a thrust at the last moment as I struggle to fight by Garmr’s side without doing any harm.
I won’t be able to stop him if he doesn’t trust me enough to get close. Just wait gods-dammit.
My beast grumbles his assent, calming for a moment as I push against the wyrm and move her out of Garmr’s way in time to avoid a gash across her throat. The cur spins his head to glare at me and I’m certain that if Hel hadn’t told him to keep me alive, I’d be dead right now.
“Back the fuck up,” I yell as I shove my stick toward Ruxi’s gut, dislodging a few feathers but not touching their hide. “I can’t fight with you plastered to my side.”
Garmr growls, slobber and blood splattering my chest as his stench surrounds me.
But he steps back, gaze flicking behind me as his eyes narrow into red lines focused on his next target.
Launching forward, he opens his mouth for whatever he plans to attack.
And I shove my stick in as far as it can go.
Thick, dark blood spews toward me, coating my face with the stench of a thousand dead bodies, piled on top of each other, left to rot in the sun.
It’s in my mouth and my eyes and my nose and I’m gagging, but I can’t let go, because if I do, I’m dead.
Garmr is writhing, struggling to break away from me.
But before he can, Ruxi lands on him, pinning him down.
Glow slithers toward us, reaching for Garmr’s snout as the dog clamps down on the branch, impossibly strong jaws forcing their way through the wood before I can shove it far enough to stop him.
Her jaws wrap around his nose, pulling it up and away to stop him from biting it in half.
But it’s still not enough. He’s more powerful than any of us, twisting and thrashing against Ruxi’s hold.
“Flip him over,” I rasp, clinging to the stick as it digs holes into my palms.
Glow yanks on his snout, pulling him backwards, as Ruxi shifts and pushes him onto his back. And then Finaan is at my side, her hands next to mine, beautiful brown eyes smiling at me. “Together?” she asks, one eyebrow quirking up in that charming way I adore.
And fuck if my cock doesn’t take notice. We’re fighting for our lives, trying our damnedest to poke a hole into this beast that could kill every one of us, and the fucker is popping up for the mate he’s been demanding since the moment we laid eyes on her.
“Together,” I agree.
Leaning forward, we grasp onto our weapon and shove it through bone that’s hard as rock, standing between us and Garmr’s defeat.
It takes a long fucking time, and that dog thrashes against us every single second.
But I’m with my mate, and I’ve never felt more powerful, more complete, than I do in this moment.
Finally, a minute or more after we started, we feel it give.
Garmr was struggling before, but he’s thrashing wildly now, desperate to break free of our hold on him. He’s ours, though. In a blink of an eye, the tip slides into his brain and he collapses.
We all do the same, plopping down wherever we are as we gasp in lungfuls of air.
I’m on my back, Finaan’s leg brushing mine, and my soul is at rest for the first time in weeks.
Two weeks, to be exact. The two weeks since I saw her last. I wipe away the worst of the gunk covering me but can’t bring myself to move away.
“You fooled me,” my skjaldmaer whispers, the back of her hand grazing mine.
It’s almost an invitation, but not quite. I won’t push my luck and risk driving her away. So I stay still.
“I had to,” I explain, turning my head to look at her. “Garmr needed to trust me. He’s got few weaknesses. We’re lucky we were able to exploit one of them.”
“How is he so powerful? He’s smaller than Ruxi and Glow, but it took all of us to take him down, and you’re right that we were gods-damned lucky we did.”
“Hel’s given him many gifts,” I tell her, “including a hide that can’t be punctured and is virtually impossible to burn. He can withstand nearly any attack.”
“Is he dead?” Now she turns toward me, dark eyes bright and softer than I’ve ever seen.
“He also can’t be killed, not permanently.
” I stretch my fingers a bit, letting them brush against Finaan’s hand again, holding back my smile when she doesn’t flinch away.
Wrath is nearly purring inside me, this moment beside our mate feeding a need he feels even more fiercely than me.
“Hel created him,” I continue, loud enough for everyone to hear.
“He’s not dead, but he’s also not alive.
He’ll wake up sooner than we’d like. We need to trap him here if we can, and then get away fast without leaving a path. ”
“Will he be able to find us?” Svend asks, not trying to hide the fear in his words.
“He’s a dog,” I remind them. “If we don’t find a way to keep him here, he’ll chase us down. And he’ll kill us.”
“It’s good to have you back,” Finaan whispers, reaching out to wrap her pinky around mine.
“Fuck, yes, it is,” I drawl.
And then I lean forward, and I kiss her.