Chapter Seventy-Five
Rey
“So,” I say once we’re out of earshot. “I’m going to need you to create a protected spot for us before we start so you don’t go boom and attract attention.”
“And you with me,” he whispers. “You do realize if I can’t control myself, you’re in the direct line of fire.”
“Yeah,” I say. “I do. But I’m not leaving you.” I grab his hand and lead him away from the noise. I know people are watching us, but I also know that by the time we make it to where we need to go, he can protect us.
Plus, if we go farther into the forest down their path, we’ll miss the location of the rune.
I squeeze Aric’s hand.
He looks down at where our palms meet as if thinking the same thing I am—will I ever hold you again?
“It’s not too late to change our minds,” I joke as the sound of an airplane flying overhead makes me pause. How easy would it be? Abandon everything, escape together.
I stop for a second, pulling on his hand so he stops, too.
“Would you?” I whisper as a breeze tousles my hair. “Would you run away with me, knowing that the world would eventually end? Knowing that the world would burn?”
I hug my arms around myself, shivering, suddenly lonely. Aric’s breath fogs in front of him, reminding me of everything he’s capable of.
“You’re hesitating,” I choke out.
His dark gaze holds mine.
“I can’t promise you,” he finally says. “Not until we end this.” My whole body deflates.
“So that’s it, then? We’re doing this.” I’m blushing, but I can’t help it.
His tongue slides across his bottom lip, then his jaw tightens, but his eyes remain locked on mine as a few flakes of snow catch my vision.
I shake my head. “I don’t need the cold,” I say. “I don’t want it.”
“But I still need your warmth.” His voice is deep, gravelly, and I know he means it.
Snow dusts his broad shoulders, which are now hunched over with pain.
“One of us is going to die.” I finally say the words out loud.
And deep in my soul, I know.
It’s going to be me.
Thunder rumbles in the distance. We start walking again, and I finally stop when I’m in front of the trail by our dorm. Where it all began.
Aric spreads his arms wide. “Why are we here?”
“Because.” I stare up at our dorm the same way I did my first day here.
“It ends where it started. With a simple misstep.” I reach down and grab the cobblestone I tripped on the first day I arrived.
It was a sign. “This was right here all along.” I swipe my hand over the stone. “The universe knew even before we did.”
Aric stares at the rock in my hand with the rune Thurisaz etched on it. “One of the most powerful runes, hidden in plain sight.”
“Powerful things often are,” I whisper, giving him a meaningful look and holding it out to him.
Aric takes both the rock and my hand. He guides me away from the dorms, angling us toward the water. “Let’s go to the other side of the lake.”
I try not to freak out, but my heart is pounding. This is it. The last rune.
“It’s going to be fine,” Aric says. “I promise.”
Points for trying to make me feel better.
We move quickly away from the festivities, past the admin building, where a macabre game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey is happening, freshmen blindfolded and searching in the dark.
Nope, not it. I shudder as we continue down the path, the air getting heavier, chillier with each step, until my breath starts to come out in quick white puffs that look like smoke.
Once we’re at the lake, Aric holds out his hands, and the water bubbles at the lake’s surface before freezing, A straight line of ice continues, bluish white against the dark water, bridging us to the opposite shore. “It won’t last long. We need to hurry.”
He grabs my hand, and we move quickly across the ice bridge. Over halfway across, I make the mistake of glancing over my shoulder. Choppy waves splash over the ice, melting and reclaiming it. My stomach drops through my feet, but I hold my breath and keep walking.
Within moments of reaching the shore, the ice bridge dissolves completely, like it was never there at all.
From the far shore, we can see all of Endir.
The stadium where the feast is celebrated, the buildings and dorms, the basalt arch.
Torches light the path for the Hunt. The smoke from the bonfires swirls toward the sky as music and laughter carry across the water.
Will we ever go back to those people? To the school? Or is this it?
Aric squeezes my hand. “Come on, there’s a cave just up here.”
We walk another thirty feet and reach the mouth of a massive cave that’s part of one of the rocky hills that surround the lake.
I let out a shaky breath as Aric pulls the runestone from his pocket. “Wait.”
He curses. “What? What’s wrong?”
The once-clear skies are now covered with rainclouds. I swallow the lump in my throat. “I’m afraid.”
Aric covers my hand with his.
“What? No saying it’s all going to be okay or that you’ll save me?”
His grin already has me at ease. “First off, you’re perfectly capable of saving your own ass, though it is nice to be needed. And second…I won’t lie to you. Ever. If we burn—we burn together.”
“You mean it?” A tear slides down my cheek.
“With all of my soul.” He nods. “Until the last breath leaves my body—and even after that.”
I hug him close, my hands drawing small circles along his bare back. “I…never expected this,” I start. “Never trusted anyone’s feelings because of my Aethercall. But with you…” Our eyes meet. “It’s real.”
He kisses my head, then steps away. We reach for our knives, make the shallow cuts on our palms, then press the blood onto the Thurisaz rune.
The stone crumbles.
The world around us freezes.
There’s no scream, no pain coming from his mouth.
There’s…nothing.
Nothing but pieces of icy crystals frozen in time around us and a very calm Aric staring me down, holding my hand.
It’s quiet. Too quiet.
Suddenly, the runes illuminate one by one down his back, like a key’s just been turned, like something has opened. His eyes widen and completely white out. An earsplitting roar escapes his lips as he crashes to his hands and knees.
And then lightning zaps directly from the sky into his back.
My mouth opens in a silent scream.
The lightning doesn’t leave, though. It stays there, trapping Aric in place like he’s a bug caught under a scientist’s pin.
But somehow, he’s not stuck. He slowly takes a deep breath and leans back on his haunches, then cautiously, methodically raises both hands, pressing them together like he’s reining in the power.
Thunder booms. I reach out a hand, wanting to help Aric, to protect him, but before I can get close enough, the sound of an explosion fills the air. I’m thrown back so violently, my vision blurs and my ears ring.
And then there’s nothing but silence.
The ringing is gone.
The crickets chirping, water lapping on the shore, the sounds of the Hunt—it all just stops.
Chest heaving, I look up and see Aric covering me with his body. And when I peek out from his frame, I gasp.
He just leveled acres of forest.
Gone as if it never existed.
I pick up the rocks at my feet, and immediately they turn to sand in my hands.
“Aric.” I test his name on my lips and slowly gaze up at him.
His eyes are pure white, his hair has lengthened, and tiny ice crystals twist their way through the strands, creating a sort of crown on his head.
His arms are covered in blue-and-white etchings, runes all the way down to his fingertips.
A blue line divides his lips the same way it did for his costume mask, like he somehow knew that it was his natural state. It’s majestic, beautiful.
He looks like he’s ice himself.
A king.
He finally opens his mouth and whispers so low that I feel the rumble in my chest. “Home. He burned our home, destroyed world after world.”
My stomach clenches.
“You were next.”
Tears burn the backs of my eyes.
“Give him the hammer, and he’ll stop at nothing. Give it to Sigurd, and he’ll get revenge. Take it yourself…”
“And Laufey dies.”
“Is one life worth more than a world?” he asks, his gaze piercing. “What would Laufey want?”
I know in my gut exactly what she would want. She gave me the note. Spelled out exactly what to do. I kept thinking it was too easy…because it was.
Find Mjolnir.
Save the world from Odin’s rule.
Forfeit everyone else—me included.
The note wasn’t a clue.
It was her final goodbye.
Her last gift to a daughter she failed to protect—so I could do what she couldn’t. So I could be brave.
“I kept getting visions of frost,” Aric rumbles out, his voice growing deeper by the second. He starts to clench his teeth like he’s in pain, then arches his back. The rune, it’s doing something, and he’s trying to hold it at bay. “Frost is the key.”
“What do you mean? The key to what?”
But he can only hold out a shaking hand. “The note—do you have the note?”
“I have it.” I reach into the bodice of my costume and hand it over to him.
“Frost,” he repeats. “The Giants would communicate with frost on what looked like normal letters, but only a Giant—” He clenches his teeth again, then starts to cough.
“Only a Giant’s frost can unlock it.” He breathes over the note, and ink appears between the runes.
“Trust in Aric,” he reads. “You are safe. Giants will rise. Gods will fall. Do. Not. Fail.”