Chapter 2
Axel
I spent over a year studying humans before my father sent me here to recover the heart. I must have asked him what exactly the heart was at least a dozen times.
Each time resulted in a beating.
If I knew what it was, he said each time, I would tell you. For a time, it was pure magic. Then it was housed in a stone of unbelievable beauty. When we left. . . He simply trailed off, then.
The last time I asked, he closed his eyes, and I thought he was trembling with rage. . .until he spoke. It merged with a blessed, a blessed who stayed on earth. A blessed who chose her love for the earth children over her own people.
Then he attacked me so savagely, I thought I’d died until I woke up a few days later, barely able to move.
Euphrasia nursed me after each attack, and she answered my questions about earth as well as she could. It was never enough. Other than my father, I’m not sure any of the blessed knew quite what the heart was. Or if they did, they’d either forgotten or been frightened into silence.
I knew it would restore our people’s ability to procreate. Without it, we had no future. Without it, we were doomed.
And the humans, the earth children, I was told that they would hide and protect it at any cost. Yet, this Liz says she voluntarily told me all she knew of it. What I can’t reconcile is why I would trust the word of a human, any human, even one I had bonded, when it came to locating the heart.
But Hyperion insists it’s true—she gave us the information that led to our trip into the volcano.
You threw me in the volcano, I ask, because I was defending her and wouldn’t force her in myself?
That really makes no sense. Why would I fight with my brother?
Why wouldn’t I kill any and every human I met in order to find the heart?
They’re nothing to us. Worse than nothing, really, since by all counts, their retention of our heart is what has harmed us for all these centuries since our departure.
She actually killed you first, and still you begged for her life. Hyperion’s expression is unbearably smug, like I’m the pitiable idiot.
It rankles because it’s true. I am the idiot here.
I apparently told all my people about my dual affinities, though why, I can’t possibly understand.
It’s always been my biggest vulnerability.
Speak plainly. Tell me the things I can’t remember, or I’ll unleash my fury.
We can see who should lead our people here in the search for the heart.
I forgot how tiring you could be before meeting Liz.
Hyperion drops to the ground, his head resting on the snow.
Hissing sounds of ice melting from the heat of his body are nothing to the cloud of steam it creates.
When I arrived, you’d been here for quite some time without checking in with Father.
You had already bonded the human, Liz. She was entertaining, for an earth child.
She changed you in many ways. . .you were happier than I’d ever seen you.
You were less. . .focused, too. Maybe that’s why you protected her so fiercely.
How? I can’t help asking. How did she ensorcel me?
Do you not appreciate anything about her now? Hyperion lifts his head and tilts it slightly. I find her entertaining, when she’s not making me want to flame her.
I concede she’s at least. . .intriguing. She seems remarkably unafraid around us, given the weakness of the earth children.
Meeting her was fortuitous. Memories from her childhood helped us know where to look for the heart.
You started our search in Houston, the city in which she lived.
She brought us here, to the volcano where she was taken as a child.
The creatures who wanted her to be sacrificed to them.
. .they live in the volcano, and they appear to be demons who change into some kind of cursed form of the blessed, trapped there by magic to burn forever.
I can’t help shuddering at that thought—trapped forever? I don’t burn, but for creatures that do, I imagine it would also be uncomfortable.
So I met her, bonded her for unknown reasons, and then she found out that we were seeking the heart and brought us here. When and why did I tell you about my two affinities, and why did we both enter the volcano?
Hyperion stands up and begins to pace back and forth. Finally, he answers. I threw the stupid earth blessed, the long serpentine one, and he knocked you and Liz both in.
My talons flex. You threw us in? The human was telling the truth?
You had lost your mind. He stops pacing and his eyes flash. You only cared about Liz. You didn’t care about the heart or our people or anything else. She has a mark of a heart on her chest, and the demons were calling for her—Gullveig—chanting it over and over when they saw her.
My own brother hurled me and my bonded human into a volcano teeming with demon-creatures, and his justification was that I was crazy. And?
This happened before you went into the volcano, but the humans gathered up their forces and attacked us after we traveled to Iceland, firing ice spears at you and I both.
They didn’t have a hope of harming us. .
.until Liz made you weak. They harmed her, and that weakened you.
He’s scowling mightily. Then they killed Azar.
But I’m fine. I don’t understand.
I didn’t know about Axel—that he was also you. I thought you’d just died. There was a horrible hole in the earth and you burned and burned. . . I’ve never seen Hyperion upset, not like this.
But then when you checked, all that remained was Axel?
He snorts. Not even close. You must have burrowed down in the earth—you didn’t reveal your secret.
Then, when?
The humans took Liz. We thought she was dead. She looked dead when they dragged her off. But she returned.
And she came to tell you that she was back?
Hyperion shakes his head again. No, I found her with you—Axel. That’s when you told me you were both. You begged me not to take her to the volcano, but the creatures called to her. I wanted to throw her into the volcano to recover the heart, and you adamantly refused.
Once Azar was dead, you could do as you pleased.
Hyperion huffs, but doesn’t argue.
I tried to stop you, but as Axel. . .
You told me you were Azar, but I didn’t believe you, not at first. I thought you were just making up more lies to save her.
I revealed my secret to try and convince you to spare Liz.
It didn’t work. Hyperion obviously cared less about my wishes than our father’s orders, and I can’t blame him for that.
Honestly, I have no idea why I would care more about protecting one human, bonded or not, than about Father’s orders and the future of the blessed.
The volcano didn’t kill her, clearly, but it did restore you—the Azar half was dead, and now it’s alive. Liz came out changed as well.
Wings, I say.
Yes, but it’s more than that. Hyperion sits again, his eye ridges bunched in confusion. She’s. . .sad. Or. . .I don’t know. I’m not as familiar with humans as you, but something’s wrong.
She said she doesn’t have a clear memory of what happened, so I locked her up until she recalls.
Throwing her in got the earth blessed a big upgrade and restored Azar, Hyperion says. I think we should just throw her back in and see what happens this time.
Or maybe we try sacrificing some of her smaller human family members. If they’re related, that should motivate her to remember what happened, and we can test whether it’s just her the volcano wants, or any human connected to her.
You really don’t remember anything, do you? Hyperion shakes his head.
What do you mean?
Liz will hate you forever if you do that.
She fixated quite a lot on keeping them safe.
Other than you, and saving all the humans she can, it’s all she cares about.
Maybe we can use that. I stand up. If we threaten them. . .
Hyperion laughs and shoots up into the sky, trumpeting. I follow him, my body coming alive as we do what we were meant to do—fly. My brother swings around wide, circling the volcano we just left. I pick up my speed and pass him, dropping in to fly right in front of him.
His great wings beat frantically, and he’s gaining on me when I notice something.
Why are so many blessed heading for the volcano?
Eyjafjallajokull?
The one we just left? I wheel around and begin flying toward it, too. It’s almost hard to approach. Strike blessed dart and dip, vying for the space to land by the entrance to the cave.
Earth blessed teem on the rocky ground, and as we near, I notice quite a few water blessed as well.
It’s true, a water blessed says. Azar’s alive.
What’s going on? Hyperion asks.
The blessed around us all freeze.
As we circle, they shift and jostle and generally shove each other aside until there’s room for Hyperion and me to land, at least.
My brother asked why you’re here. I direct my demand to a group of earth blessed. They should, at least, answer the questions.
Is it true you’re also Axel? Gaia’s an earth blessed with an interesting and unique brain. I like her. If I didn’t like her, I might bite her head off.
Yes, I’m also Axel. Answer the question. Why are you all here?
The warrior human’s no longer bonded, Halfdan says. He’s fairly intelligent and was always quite strong for an earth blessed. He’s even stronger now that he has grown forty percent larger. I hear she got wings, too. Everyone wants to bond her.
She knows me, Gaia says. I carried her here—helped her escape the humans and find Axel again. Her sideways glance at me is almost apologetic. I think she’ll pick me.
She liked me too, a large, strong water blessed—Plumeria, I think?—says. She said she would bond me if she were looking for a new blessed. And now? She scowls at me, as if she’s judging me. She is.
They’re all here. . .to bond the winged human?
My winged human?
Who said that she could be bonded? Hyperion bellows. The earth blessed can’t even bond humans.
Who knows? Halfdan says. Maybe we can, now.