54. Chapter 54
Chapter 54
O n edge - despairing - determined
A few days later, Dryden texts me to come to the Main Hall. I don’t ask what for. I already know. For days now, we’ve been ready to leave for Uppsala. We’ve only been waiting for him to finish working on the solution for the problem of Cain.
Taking a deep breath, I get up and leave my room. There are many feelings waging war inside me, but it’s mostly guilt and sadness. Guilt because I wish there was another way to go about this. Sadness because almost everyone else — Raven being the only exception — agrees that I shouldn’t feel bad about it.
He’s a ruthless killer, they tell me. The way we’re treating him is already more than he should ever expect.
It’s with a heavy heart that I enter the Main Hall and find them all gathered there.
But it’s Cain my eyes fix on as I walk — my biggest source of confusion, anxiety and sadness right now. His gaze snags on mine, but only for the briefest moment.
I find him in the exact same position I always seem to find him — sitting in the corner from which he has the clearest view of all of us, his legs spread, his forearms resting on his thighs and his eyes relentlessly scanning his surroundings.
Every time I lay my eyes on him, I wonder how he does it. It’s been days since we brought him here, and he’s still not sleeping, eating or drinking, all the while making it seem as if none of it is bothering him in the slightest.
It’s only when Dryden comes to block my way that I snap out of it, realizing I’ve been walking straight towards Cain. I stop and glance at the collars he’s holding out. “Whenever you’re ready,” he tells me.
Not without hesitation, I give him a nod.
As soon as I do, I feel the burn of Cain’s eyes on me.
It needs to be done, I tell myself. It’s the only way to go on missions without worrying about him escaping or hurting anyone.
Even before Dryden turns around and activates the gas, I spot Cain get up, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
Once he realizes what’s going on, he lunges at the bars, grips them tight and locks eyes with me with hatred twisting his face, but the gas is already doing its thing. I watch his eyelids start dropping and his body sway in place.
He drops to the flood with a thud.
As soon as he does, we get moving. I take one of the two matching collars and snap it around my neck. Dryden opens the cage, gets inside and starts trying to lift Cain to put the other collar on him.
But the moment he touches him, Cain’s hand shoots up.
My eyebrows shooting up, I hear everyone around me inhale sharply.
Before anyone can react, Cain grabs Dryden and flips him over, pinning him to the ground, and his words are slurred, but he still manages to snarl, “Don’t you dare touch me.”
I freeze, my heart breaking.
“Help,” Dryden calls out with panic in his voice.
Nuala snaps out of it and rushes over, making everyone else follow. Despite him clearly being under the influence of the gas, it takes five Embers to restrain Cain and lift him to his feet.
Watching him thrash in an effort to break free — his muscles tense, his teeth gritting and his eyes accusing as they direct all their hatred towards me — it takes all I have to walk over to him and to actually snap the collar around his neck.
“Let him go,” I order the second I do it, his ‘Don’t you dare touch me’ echoing in my mind.
“Careful, Cain,” I warn, gently but sternly, as soon as they release him and he stumbles back. “This magic is powerful, and it’s designed to prevent you from doing anything that would cause me pain.”
I watch him throw me a disgusted smirk right before he moves as if he’s going to summon his Shadow Wings to escape.
Just like it’s supposed to, the act makes the collar around my neck send a shock of pain through my body. It’s so blinding, I barely manage to stay on my feet, Raven coming to lend me a hand.
The same doesn’t seem to happen to him , though. He only grits his teeth, making me fear the collars aren’t working after all.
Still, he does fail to use his magic. Regaining my footing, I breathe a sigh of relief.
But the next thing I know, he’s gone.
My heart stops beating as another shock of pain goes through me. I close my eyes shut, feeling Raven’s hand squeeze my upper arm.
There’s a long moment of silence filled with anticipation. Then the pain subsides, and I sense him coming back.
Opening my eyes, I turn to look at him, registering everyone else retreating but keeping their eyes on him.
As soon as I feel the collar magic stop threatening to kill him, he stops walking, and he’s seething, but he’s back.
It’s working.
“You can’t leave because that would cause me pain,” I explain. It must be obvious to him by now, but I want to somehow turn the situation around. “I’m afraid that for the time being you’ll need to remain right where I can see you,” I continue gently. “But hey, no more cage for you, and we’ll keep having dinner together, every evening.”
“No,” he grits out.
“I’m afraid it’s non-negotiable.”
To my surprise, his lips curls into a smirk. Before I can properly register anything, he’s whizzing past me and I’m spinning around only to see him grab Nuala by the throat, lift her up, and take her wrist in his hand.
The next second, there’s yelling all around me, people are shooting magic at him to let her go and she’s thrashing in his grip, while I find myself frozen in place.
Completely unfazed, Cain locks eyes with me. Seemingly reveling in my shock, he gives me a vicious smile and drawls, “On second thought, dinner sounds nice.”
I see a flash of fangs just before they sink into her flesh.
The act makes me snap out of it. “Stop it, Cain,” I yell out as soon as I feel pain from the collar again.
Doing my best to block the pain, I move to shoot a thunder whip at him, but before I do it, the collar does its magic, he grits his teeth and he drops Nuala to the floor.
“Nuala,” I yell out as I rush over to her along with everyone else.
“I’m fine,” she spits out, angrily waving us all away as she pushes herself into a seated position.
Still, she lets me heal her.
Trying to suppress shock, anger and concern over all the Embers looking at Cain as if they want to kill him in the slowest way possible, I get to my feet and turn back to him.
He’s watching us all intently, his jaw working.
It’s in a voice that’s no longer gentle that I say, “I’m afraid that hurting people counts as causing me pain as well.”
He doesn’t say anything.
This is not the real him, I tell myself. It can’t be. I take a deep breath and soften my voice again. “As long as you’re… good, you’ll avoid pain yourself, I promise,” I tell him as I start walking over to him.
“I don’t care about the fucking pain,” he grits out as he takes a couple of long strides back, “I want you to stay the hell away from me.”
I stop walking, desperation starting to flood me.
“Anna,” I hear Nuala call out, reminding me of the mission.
“Alright, I’ll stay away,” I tell Cain. “But you’ll need to come with us now.”
He throws daggers at me.
But when I give the signal and we get going, he does follow, however reluctantly.
I remain tense the entire way to the Pull. But once we land in Uppsala, Sweden, and find ourselves right before Odin’s temple, I manage to force myself to shake it off, to start ignoring his presence and all the anger radiating off him.
This temple was my first choice for a reason. If there’s any place on Earth where his bones could be found, it’s this one.
Exchanging a glance, we first let Dryden check the perimeter.
Once he signals to us that it’s safe, we all get going, entering the temple and searching it from top to bottom.
We find nothing, but that’s okay. I wasn’t expecting to find anything in doors anyway.
The next step is to check the graveyard to the back, where, as expected, we find runestones shooting up from the cold, hard ground.
I take the paper with all the runes related to Baldur, Odin and Frigg out of my pocket and unfold it for everyone to see.
Then we start the search, but find nothing. Not a single rune that would imply the bones of either Baldur’s mother or his father could be buried there.
Desolate, I stop the search and just stand there, looking around.
“It’s alright,” Dryden comes to tell me. “We have plenty more of these to check, right?”
Letting out a sigh, I give him a determined nod. “Yes, it might take us some time, but we’ll find what we’re looking for.”