Chapter 35
Drak
An ethereal voice permeated the surrounding space, and I absorbed the words, unsure if they came from my imagination or from outside me.
“They dreamed of living a simple life on a prosperous farm in Vylheim. Husband and wife. Farmer and skald. Your Skald, Rune.”
Rune.
Was this a trick of my dreams? Or had Lux found her way back to me?
Stirring, I tried to lift the impossible weight of my eyelids until they finally peeled open.
I swore my head was split open and bleeding all over the ground, but it was my chest that had a hole in it.
As soon as I took in the sight of my body, I shot forward, sitting up with my palms clutching the empty space in my torso.
Slowly it sealed shut as my skin knitted back together.
The fabric of my tunic had no such ability and remained torn and ragged, baring my flesh to the elements, namely the sun.
Tendrils of steam rose from my healed skin.
I swallowed a curse and tensed, finally realizing both where I was and who was breathing fast behind me.
I twisted, and my chest tightened as she came into view. Her eyes were entirely clear now, beautiful and brown with flecks of gold. None of the blackness remained, but all of her fire did.
In the grey shadow of a looming tree, Lux sat on her knees.
She must have dragged my body into the shadows and peeled off my mask, because only where Sunna’s rays filtered through in a few narrow streams did the light reach me.
Though her back was bent, her neck curved to look up at me.
Strands of dirty red hair hung in her face, and her lips were parted.
I thought maybe I’d heard the echo of her voice, but she wasn’t speaking now.
Tears gave her cheeks a sleek and shimmery glow but shot her eyes through with scarlet lines.
Puffy skin swelled around her eyes, and I had no doubt her lips tasted of salt and sadness.
She’d been crying for me? Hel, I wanted those tears to be for me. Seeing her cry fucked me up, but if it was over losing me… damn it, I was a self-serving bastard if I ever knew one. And yet I still couldn’t help but wonder if her eyes were clear now, was her memory?
Her lashes dipped in a slow, wet blink. “Rune,” she whispered.
Before she had even finished saying my name, my hand shot out. My thumb and forefinger gently pinched her jaw, but I didn’t have to draw her toward me. Lux straightened, and I met her on my knees. Our arms tangled around one another, grasping for the firm feel of our bodies in this present moment.
Right now was all we had, so I kissed her hard, desperate to taste her and to relish the fact that this was my wife. Not the other half of a fake marriage, but the wife I’d married lifetimes ago.
The wife I left Valhalla for.
Whether she went by Lux or Myrah or shield-maiden, or witch, or Skald, she was the same.
Broken by this world, but healed by the sagas and stories she loved, keeping history alive even in modern Vylheim where The Blood Council had forbidden it.
That was what fascinated me about her. She dared to seek truth amidst the torture of the lies that’d been thrust upon her.
And she’d done it for the protection of those she loved: her mother and the other women beaten down for their ability to know the gods.
They weren’t to blame for the gods’ reach, or the gods’ selfish and power-hungry cruelty.
And then, the deeper part of me knew her. From the second I saw her, I had no choice but to bring her into my life, not because she looked vaguely similar to Silver, but because Lux captivated me. The gnawing inside me had never let go, only worsening when I saw her back in Skaldir.
My jaw tensed at the memory of how I’d approached her. I’d been too fucked up by The Blood Council and my obsession with controlling every angle of my life and the lives of others to see that she deserved better.
Her lips were warm and swollen, spreading to let my tongue between them as my fingers sank into her hair. Tearing myself from her, I placed my forehead against hers and listened to her breathlessness.
“You remembered?” I asked. She swallowed gently, her head bobbing almost imperceptibly. That single nod almost broke me. “They tore us apart,” I said.
“I know. Freya wanted me to join in her suffering because of what Odr did.”
“I recall every terrible detail of the saga. You tell it well, Skald. And then she cursed the blood of your rebirth to flow with her tears. I suspect that is why it burns vampires. Why your heart… struggles. She wanted you to remember that if you found a way out of Folkvangr, your fate still belonged to her.”
Her lips parted, and the horrified expression on her face melted into recognition. “That’s why I only get visions when I collapse. She wants me to suffer.”
Was she finally recognizing the gods’ cruelty?
Curling her lip inward, she chewed on it for a moment. “You really left Valhalla?”
“With my father’s help, yes.”
Her brow twitched as she processed this. “I wish I could recall how I escaped Folkvangr. Because if I die again—” her voice fell away.
“We’ll be separated.”
She didn’t confirm whether this was her fear.
The world fell quiet around us as we both climbed to our feet.
My body had gone too long without sustenance and fresh blood.
Even my bones felt brittle, barely holding my body together after the Valkyrie’s attack sapped the rest of my strength.
I felt like a boy again, weak and hungry, when King Roderic withheld food to punish me for speaking my father’s name.
We turned to Yggdrasil and stepped into the light. I replaced my mask, though hers remained unnecessary.
Lux moved easier, fluid in her footsteps through the gods’ domain, while every step I took grew heavier.
My very skeleton seemed shot through with the quiver of weakness.
Fuck, I didn’t want to have to crawl the rest of the way, but my legs shook.
I almost grabbed my thigh and used my arms to drag my leg forward, but my arms were as useless.
This wasn’t going to work. I needed rest that we didn’t have time for.
I stopped, ears straining as a distant crowd-like murmur reached me.
Down the mountain, the brown haze clung to the valley, and at its edge, the fog stirred.
I sharpened my gaze, honing in on the spot where shapes moved among the haze.
Silhouettes emerged from the toxic fog, advancing into the gods’ domain.
The sun and fertile earth slowed them, but not like they slowed me.
With human vessels at their side, the fresh blood gave them an extra boost of strength.
Silver’s army was still miles down the mountain, but they were closing in, slowly gaining on us after the Valkyrie’s attack.
If we didn’t pick up the pace, I wouldn’t have time to hang from Yggdrasil before they attempted to burn it, and Lux would be left alone to fight all of her sister’s sworn vampires.
Whether a Valkyrie would try to stop them too, I didn’t know.
I couldn’t depend on it. The gods certainly weren’t going to make this easy for any vampire, but especially not for me.
I kept to Lux’s footsteps, moving as she moved, eyes fixed ahead on our destination.
Every muscle in me tensed, aware of Silver trailing behind us.
I didn’t need to tell Lux. Her focus was sharp, but the danger at our backs hung like a shadow we both felt.
It was only a matter of hours before they’d come into view again.
As I dragged at her side, she finally addressed my admission. “You said your father was in Valhalla. Does that mean he died before you were born?”
“No, I barely had any time with him, but I knew him. I knew him better because my mother spoke of him often. She’s not unlike you in the way she gives life to words.
Or she used to be before Odin fucked her up.
” I swallowed my rising anger. We couldn’t afford distractions, not with the little time Lux and I had left.
“I don’t know how to explain it. But once you’re in Valhalla, you know both the past and glimpses of the future.
Maybe it’s because there, you’re at Odin’s table.
You’re in his presence, and he has the eye of wisdom.
That’s what I made sense of when I was there.
Before I left…” My voice suddenly tensed.
I’d left for her, and I’d do it again and again.
“Drak,” she murmured, frowning. Even in her sadness, I adored her face.
The scar across her cheek, the rose warmth of her skin, and the faintly crooked canines that hinted at fangs like mine.
“The gods are…” Her breath grew shallow as she denied the gods she had devoted her life to.
She was stripping away the heart of her faith, realizing that the gods only looked after those in Midgard when it pleased them.
“They’re selfish,” I said, helping her come to terms with this. My knee gave out, and I had to steady myself by reaching for her arm.
Her brow pinched tighter, forming a deep crease above her soft nose. “They’re as good as dead.” Anger coiled through her voice, and her hands curled into fists at her sides. “If you don’t kill them, I will.”
For a second, I just stared, and then a smirk formed. “You want to kill the gods, huh? And you told me not to call you a killer.” Her anger was new and fierce, and it lent power to my steps.
“I wasn’t yet. But I can’t bear this madness anymore. I don’t want to forget everything again. Sometimes, I can’t hear anything but Odin, and he tells me—” the words caught on something in her throat, and her palm splayed on her chest. “He’s obsessed with me killing you.”