Chapter 7
Liz
At first, it irritated me when I woke up and Axel was there.
I was always complaining—telling him I needed to sleep alone.
But after we entwined, I slept better with him close.
And eventually, I wanted to wake up beside him.
After Azar died from that ice-spear attack, I spent every single day wishing he was close.
When I wake up, and he’s still beside me in human form, even with Thunar around, it feels. . .nice. He must trust that at least, for now, we’re okay. It also makes me hope that he wants to be near me, even without being entwined, even without his memories of our past.
I have no evidence of this, but I feel like if we can get close enough to entwine again. . .maybe he’ll recover his memories. Last time, kissing entwined us. We’ve done plenty of that, and nothing has happened. I’ve wondered whether to entwine this time, we need to do more. . .
But that would be a really big deal.
I’m not sure I’m ready for that, so I’ve put it off.
There’s one thing I just can’t delay, however. The second I open my eyes, I blurt out, “My mom was bonded to Euphrasia!”
Axel blinks. “Your—what?”
I shake my head and shove upward until I’m sitting, the blankets bunched around my waist. “I had another dream where I was Gullveig. I had just gotten the heart and my wings, and Freya and I escaped the vanir and joined the aesir.” I pause, and I stare right at him.
“I took Freya to ask my family for help, and Odin was there. He was a huge flame blessed with two massive, curved horns that shot back from his head like enormous curved swords. They were black.”
Axel’s eyes widen. “That sounds like my father.”
“But my mother—Gullveig’s mother—was a bright, and she was bonded to Euphrasia.”
“My nanny, Euphrasia? Are you sure?”
I nod slowly. “It was her—she looked identical to how she looks now. I think, I think she knew me, Axel. I think she’s known I was Gullveig all along, and she never said a thing about it, even when I got wings.
Even if she hadn’t recognized me in this time, the wings would be a dead giveaway.
Gullveig’s the only one with wings back then, too. I need to talk to her.”
“The Prime Minister has sent you some messages.” He holds out my phone. “There’s a holiday celebration in Germany and a similar celebration in Finland, and we’ve been invited to visit. They’re gathering together any brights who want to be bonded in each place.”
“Okay,” I say. “Do we have to leave right now?”
He shrugs. “We have a little time. I thought you’d want time to. . .” He frowns. “I’m not sure the proper word. Prepare?”
I do. He’s not wrong. Thankfully I now have several different outfits that I can wear over my wings, but I should really try to do something with my hair and look nice, as the representative for the bonded humans.
Even so. . . “Sometimes we have to skip things we want for things we need. Can you call Euphrasia? Or take me to her?”
He frowns. “Our interaction will be monitored, but I guess it can’t be helped.”
How bad can it be for Thunar to know Azar wants to see his old nanny? “It’s important.”
“What happened?”
I flop back on my side against the pillows, as relaxed as I can be with these dumb wings. “Well, at the end, I think the item of significant note was that in addition to Freya transforming from her human shape back into an ice dragon. . .I also managed to turn Odin into a human.”
Axel looks pretty skeptical. “Could these just be dreams? Crazy things that your brain’s having difficulty processing? I hear humans have them often. Sometimes they’re a result of their fears or something that has happened, or even a mix of things you wish would happen with things you fear.”
I sigh. “They could be nonsense, I guess, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt just like before, when I found out all the information about Jore and the origin of the heart—when I got wings.” I glance down at the edges of my wings now.
“I called her.” But Axel’s frowning.
“There’s a human phrase that goes something like, ‘never meet your heroes,’ because it can be hard when someone you love and trust turns out to be. . .” I trail off, unsure how to finish.
“What are you saying about Euphrasia?”
I shrug. “I’m not sure. But if it was a real memory, and if she was there. . .”
I hear her reach the door. Euphrasia has giant legs, for one, and for another, she wasn’t working to stay quiet. You called me here? When she sees Axel in human form, her eyes widen. You can shift into your human form again? Do the others know?
I stand up, swinging my legs out of bed and marching toward her. I try to look impressive and command her attention, but that’s hard to do in floral jammies. “I had a weird dream last night,” I say. “I’ve had a few now, and we have reason to believe they’re not dreams, but memories.”
Euphrasia turns away from Axel and toward me slowly. Then you know.
“Were you bonded to my mother?” I can hardly believe it. “Why didn’t you ever say?”
Are you Gullveig, then, Elizabeth Chadwick? She frowns.
I drop one hand on my hip. “I’m not, but she might have been me. Or, you know what I mean. When you met me, you said nothing about a connection.”
Did all the blessed have wings? Axel has climbed out of bed too, and he shifts into his golden earth-dragon form. Before we left earth, before I hatched, did you have wings?
Euphrasia turns away from me right away. It’s clear which relationship matters the most to her. We all had wings. Her frown deepens. No one discusses it. We don’t like to talk about what we’ve lost.
The earth blessed and the water blessed both lost their wings? Axel asks. But why?
She shakes her head and closes her eyes. It takes her a few seconds to open them again. There were no earth blessed. Only the water blessed lost their wings. Her voice is the barest whisper of a sound in my head. It was my fault for defying Freya, and no one knows, and I never talk about it.
Axel’s bellow could probably be heard halfway across Australia. You will talk to me about it now.
I drop one hand on his leg. “Let’s not summon anyone else inadvertently, right?”
He exhales and nods.
“So here’s the thing. You’ve known a lot of things for a long time, and you didn’t share any of them. Why not?”
Axel’s fuming a little, and I pat his leg again.
You are Gullveig. She tilts her head slowly. But also, you aren’t her at all. You’re at once harder and also younger. You’re kinder, and also less resilient. You may have been made of the same material that she was, but it was clear you didn’t share her memories.
It would have been helpful to know whose memories she was getting, Axel says. And to know that she had a past life that was connected to all this.
I’m sorry for not sharing. Once you know more about the story, it will make more sense why I tried not to alter the course of destiny and what was meant to happen in the order it was meant to unfold. As Jore’s ch—
Why don’t you tell us more of what you’ve kept hidden, and I can decide whether you were trying to help by not sharing. Axel’s really bent over this.
“Here on earth, there are lots of things we humans don’t tell our children, not because we don’t love them, but because we do.
Once they’re old enough or the time is right, then we share.
I wonder if it was like that? I’m sure Euphrasia meant well.
” And now I’m defending her. I was outraged moments ago, but now that I see her, it feels obvious.
She’s not the enemy.
“We do have to leave pretty soon,” I say. “We have that little matter of finding another ten thousand humans to save all the new dragons, remember?”
What memories have you regained? she asks.
“I first had one of myself talking to my brother Gorm’s children, just before Freya was set to marry Odin. That was a shock, since I’d met Freya in human form in the volcano already. Then I saw how Freja bonded me when I was Gyda, and then I saw the two of them locate and steal the heart.”
Euphrasia nods. I do worry that whatever I share might alter what has been foretold.
Foretold. . .by my mother? The one who stole the heart and sent all of us to die?
Euphrasia’s eyes look sad. Freya became my very best friend in all the world.
She was a very good vanir, and she wanted what was best for all of us.
It’s true; I knew Gyda. Her mother was bonded to me.
Then I met Gullveig. Gyda bonded Freja and returned with wings, the heart, and a new name.
She showed up one morning quite early, after Odin returned to question myself and my bonded again about the failure of our plan.
“As I see it, our main questions are, what happened to the water dragons’ wings, where did earth dragons come from, and why did you have to leave here in the first place?”
In order to answer those, there is much you must first know.
There’s a loud crash outside, and I jog to the edge of the platform around our room that overlooks the porch and courtyard outside.
I have to poke my head past the red bubble to really see well.
Hyperion has crashed in the courtyard, and his inelegant landing appears to have destroyed all the cobblestones Gordon put down.
“Sorry.” Coral waves. “Hyperion said I could drive, but I’m not very good at it yet.”
“Drive?” What’s she saying? “Drive what?”
Her cheeks flush. “Him. I was telling him when to go up and down, and when to turn right and left. You know, like that dragon movie.”
“But he’s not injured,” I say. “You can just ride.”
“I can,” she says. “But I wanted to try to fly myself.”
“You have no wings.” I frown.
“It’s almost time to go.” Coral tosses her head. “Why do you look like a makeup remover commercial?”
My pajamas. Right.
We’ll be ready to leave in five minutes, Axel says. I’m finishing up some things with Euphrasia for the water blessed.
When I duck back into the room, Axel and Euphrasia are staring at each other.