Finaan #3
“More than I like to admit.” I bump her back and then turn again to Sifa. “And then we were here, and trying to figure out how to destroy Nerthus. Fantasies of yanking out her heart were the only thing that kept me moving sometimes in Helheim but I never thought I’d get the chance.”
“So you knew, even then, that it was the Dróttning that sent you to Helheim?”
“Hel made sure we knew. She bragged that Nerthus was a dear friend in the eons before their worlds lost the path to Vanaheim. That sea serpent Jormungandr kept them connected and gave Nerthus what she needed to move us and our dragons to Helheim.”
“We’ve never figured out why Vanaheim disappeared, or how Nerthus expelled everyone to Helheim,” Sifa points out. “Do you know?”
“I have my suspicions, but I want to explore them more before I give them voice.”
Sifa watches me for a moment, a question in her eyes that I’m not ready to answer, before shrugging. “As you wish,” she agrees at last. “So, we pulled you back here from Helheim and threw you right into battle with the Dróttning…”
“Can we all call her Nerthus, please?” I interject, my voice more frustrated than I intend. “That was a title of honor in my days. She never deserved it and I won’t grant it to her.”
This grin is vicious. “Fitting,” Sifa growls, her dark eyes sparkling. “We dragged you here and you helped us kill Nerthus, but when did your bond with your dragon appear?”
“The moment we stepped into this world, I felt her. I just couldn’t focus on it until later.
” I sigh, my mind filling again with the relief, the utter joy, I felt when the spark that belongs to Panta ignited in my gut.
“I’ll never forget those seconds after watching Nerthus fall, the weight that lifted from me when I realized we were back and she was dead. ”
“It was a good day,” Jorunn declares, lifting her cup in a salute before taking a huge drink.
“And even better when my thoughts stilled and I could focus on the tug of my bond with my dragon. It had disappeared the moment I landed in Helheim. For all that time, I believed Panta dead. I’m not imagining the pull of our connection now. I’m sure of it.”
Dani opens her mouth but before she can respond, her gaze flies to her left, her face lighting up.
Mikkael must be back. Nobody except him and her dragon Vulryn can draw that kind of reaction from her.
Her copper beast, though, is in the air above us, watching the enormous blue dragon that Mikkael rides soar toward her—named Ziselaer, but called “Z” by everyone here.
“It’s about time,” she declares, tossing her hair back as she stretches her legs in front of her and watches him dismount and stride toward us. “I was about to bathe without you.”
Mikkael jerks to a stop, his hand lifting to cover his heart. “My salacious little spy,” he growls. “Have you been hungry for me?”
Dani scoffs but her eyes never leave her mate. And who can blame her? He’s one of the sexiest males in our group, dark skin and hair but light in everything else. When the world seems bleak and impossible, he brings the spark that brightens our day.
We’ve needed it. Despite our hopes when we killed Nerthus, this land was much darker than we expected in the weeks that followed.
They all thought Konungr Beron—Nerthus’s husband—too weak to withstand the rebels after we killed his wife.
He turned out to be anything but. He took control of her soldiers immediately, deploying dragon bolts across Vanatia to prevent any further attack from the beasts that abandoned him and joined their brethren in the rebellion.
We’ve lost a dozen dragons during our assaults on Beron’s strongholds without a single thing to show for it.
Fhord finally ordered a retreat, bringing us to a spring in northern Vanatia that holds water with magical properties.
We shuffle between here and the island the rebels control, Lumaria.
We’re safe but resolved. Beron holds as much blame as Nerthus for the horror she forced on everyone—dragons, elves, and humans alike—and he can’t remain in power.
That’s a problem for another day, though. Dragging my thoughts from that quagmire, I look again at Mikkael. He has eyes for Dani alone. It took about a minute of being around them to see that he’s utterly smitten with her. If they’re in the same place, they’re together, like Sifa and Fhord.
They also have voracious appetites. We’ve all heard them …
expanding their horizons … in the relationship that I’m told started when we lost elves returned.
My cheeks have bloomed with embarrassment more than once as I listened to one or both of them squeal or scream or plea for more.
With nothing but canvas between us at night, there are no secrets here.
Not that I’m attracted to him. I’m just alone and still feeling lost. This isn’t my world anymore, but I need it to be. It’s the only one I have. And if I’m ever going to find answers about my dragon—which I intend to do, no matter what I have to sacrifice—I need to start here.