Chapter 15 #3
Oscri’s eyes filled with pain as the wolf fought him, but he managed to take hold of my fingers as his brother came up behind me, lodging his arms around my waist. It was like trying to pull a ship on dry land.
I leaned as far back as I could without risking us following Oscri’s partner, and Kilia’s breaths came fast in my ear.
“Use your strength,” Kilia begged. “Please! Please help him!”
Fire burned behind my eyes, and I fought with everything that was alive within me. But it didn’t matter. For every tug and groan, the wolf pulled harder, and Oscri’s face went paler and paler, his grip on my hand weakening.
I tried to find that spark of magic, even if I knew it had been snuffed out forever.
Help me. Help me, Father, I begged. But no one came.
“Don’t you dare let go,” I snarled when something soft overcame the twin, an understanding I didn’t want to see—that I never wished was a reality—dawning across his face.
“Help him!” Kilia screamed as his fingers dug into my flesh. “What are you doing? Please help him!”
“Brother.” Oscri only said that one word, but it was enough for tears to swell in my eyes.
“No!” I shook my head, screaming through clenched teeth as I fought the wolf’s hold. “Let go of him. Let go!”
“I’ll see…” Oscri panted as he tried to get the words out. “I’ll see you…”
“Stop!” I ordered. “Don’t you fucking dare!”
Oscri smiled—fucking smiled!—at me as the gray wolf came to his other side, not hesitating for a single moment before she bit down on his free hand.
“Y-you’re good,” he got out as Kilia whimpered at my back.
What did that fucking mean?
More tears flooded my gaze as I lifted my gaze to Darcke.
“Are you just going to sit there?” I screamed. “Help him! Help us!”
The warrior didn’t move a muscle, his eyes only shifting between me and the wolves and his hands gripping the stone he sat on as if to show he would stay there forever if he could.
“Fuck you!” I screamed as Oscri coughed and hot blood coated my face.
“H-heir.” Oscri’s voice was soft—too gentle for what was happening. “It’s over.”
Kilia’s scream of pain nearly sent me to my knees.
“You’re still alive!” I gritted my teeth as I pulled at his brother’s hand, which no longer gripped me back but was slack between my slipping fingers. “You’re alive!” A dull sheen spread in Oscri’s eyes, and I tilted my head to the dark sky as I screamed at him. “Fight! Fight for us!”
The wolves moved slower now, but their bites remained lethal. They took turns ripping chunks out of Oscri’s body—playing with him—and his hand jerked in mine with every one.
I twisted around. “Help me,” I cried. “Save him!”
Tears streamed down his face while Kilia shook his head. “It’s too late. There is no honor in saving him now. What will his life be?”
“Fuck honor!” I shouldn’t be saying these things—I could hear Lika’s reprimand in the back of my mind—but what man watched his brother die and cared for honor?
“H-he’s… right,” Oscri rasped, more blood bubbling at the corners of his mouth as the wolves backed up. “V-Valhalla is w-waiting.”
The brief reprieve was not reassuring at all. On the contrary, every nerve within me sparked at the quiet.
I’d never been so fucking angry at being right. The silence only lasted half a second. Then the wolves lunged as one, and Kilia barely had time to reach out to pull me back, ripping my hand from his brother’s, as the gray female went for Oscri’s head, severing it from his body with one lethal bite.
A strange snap sounded in the air, and I turned my head into Kilia’s chest when Oscri’s body tumbled to the ground. We stood like that, quiet in darkness, for long moments before Kilia rasped, “I’ll see you in Valhalla, brother.”
His hands were cold when they pried me from his body, and that chill crawled all over my skin as Kilia left me behind, taking the final few steps to the stone.
I remained standing, staring into nothing, as the smell of fear and anger and desperation tainted the wind, more whispers coiling around us at the end the others had witnessed.
My soul hollowed at the wasteful deaths. I didn’t understand. The Hird was lethal—it needed to be to prepare us to become chieftains and warlords—and some lost their lives, but this seemed so fucking useless.
My breaths were ragged, sharp as knives as they filled my lungs, but it wasn’t until I looked down at the hands that cramped from holding on so fiercely that my heart stopped.
Kilia was no longer by my side.
He was. No. Longer. By my side.
I whirled to the stone. The twin was seated beneath it, his eyes staring unseeing ahead. In his lap lay his hands, where the severed rope hung loosely around one wrist.
I lifted my head when Darcke jumped down from his seat, the axe in his hands glinting in the darkness. He didn’t rush; he closed the distance with a heavy, rhythmic stride that made the earth groan beneath his boots.
I should run. I should hide. I should do anything other than just stand here.
But as Oscri’s proud eyes right before the wolf took him etched themselves in my mind, I spread my feet instead. Lowering my center, I lifted my hands, readying myself for him to charge.
I will not be a coward.
If it was my time, I would not run from death.
Darcke’s lips twitched again. “I’ve told you, it’s not in my interest to kill you.”
“I’m dead anyway,” I hissed. “I’d rather go by your axe.”
I wasn’t sure what Guner had in mind, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of being the one to take my life. Not after what he’d done earlier today.
“No.” The warrior gripped the arm of my jacket, dragging me with him as his body shielded me from the glen and the tree line. “No more death today.”
“I—” My words faded when Darcke ushered me to the stone, shoving me down beside the unmoving Kilia.
“Leave,” he ordered his men. “Wait for me on the ship. I’ll deal with the others.”
They did as he told them. Darcke crouched and used the axe to remove the rope from Kilia’s wrist, then took out another that had been hanging at his belt.
“It’s against the rules,” I said when he tied our hands together.
“I make my own rules.” Darcke didn’t meet my eyes as he finished the knot, using his axe to mess up the clean rope a bit.
“Why?” I asked as the warrior straightened.
Darcke was quiet a second before he responded, “You saw the chains.”