Wregen #3
“And what has Loki been doing since Ragnarok?” Finaan asks.
“Sifa told us about him and his efforts to steal her from Vanaheim and return her to the worlds she came from. Has he interfered here too?” Glow grumbles beside her, prompting my skjaldmaer to reach out and caress her head, adding, “Other than what he did to Glow?”
The chaos god has created trouble across these worlds. And he will continue unless we can stop him.
“What could we possibly do?” Svend demands, looking at the motley group assembled here. “We stand no chance against Loki. He’ll kill us all.”
“Are you mine, weasel?” I grunt as I spin my head to glare at him. “Do I have your loyalty?”
His eyes blow wide, bigger than I’ve ever seen them, and his chin dips to his chest. “Always, master.”
“Will that loyalty survive my return to Helheim, even my death?” My tone tells him exactly what I need him to say, and what the penalty will be if he doesn’t.
I have no interest in exacting it. I no longer crave his pain or blood.
But it doesn’t matter. He must swear himself to Finaan. She’ll need all the allies she can get.
“I’m your loyal servant until my death,” he blubbers, staring at the ground between us. But then he nods, almost to himself, and lifts his gaze. “I will do all that you command, whether you live or not.”
“Then this is your fight too. Your gift is more valuable than you realize. If you can offer anything to defeat Loki and protect Finaan and her beast…”
“And Ruxi,” Finaan interjects. “Your protection extends to your dragon.”
I don’t respond right away, watching my stubborn skjaldmaer.
She’s been resolved to bring us together since the turnip beast appeared.
But it no longer matters. Let the weasel swear loyalty to the dragon, too.
If it pleases my mate, it pleases me. I nod once, turning toward the dragon. “And the dragon,” I concede.
“I am their humble servant,” Svend mutters, staring again at the floor.
“Do the trapped dragons have a role to play in defeating Loki?” I ask Ruxi. “Is that why you’ve come for me, because the fates told you I need to free them?”
Not only them, rider. The Norns are spinning a new weave in the wake of Ragnarok.
Their threads tell many stories, but most include you and your beast. This new world will survive—the gods and the elves and the humans can prevail—only if you free the thunder and join them in fighting back against the chaos god and his allies.
“The Norns are wrong,” I insist. “I don’t know what the fuck they’re thinking, but it’s not possible.”
Still, that is what they see. That’s what must occur.
“No, you don’t understand. It’s not possible.”
“Why not?” Finaan demands. “Why can’t you free the dragons and leave here with us?”
“Svend has explained my magic to you, has he not?” I bark as I turn to her, frustration crawling up my spine to fester at the back of my neck.
“I know you can enthrall people, take control of them, like you did Svend,” she responds with a shrug. “But I don’t understand what that has to do with anything.”
“That is the simplest form of my power,” I explain. “A single raindrop in a storm. My true strength lies in my ability to draw them toward me, even across worlds.”
“Right,” she scoffs. “No elf has an ability like that.”
“No elf, but I’m not fully elf. Elves aren’t shifters, yet I am.”
“What are you?” Now I’ve got her attention. My skjaldmaer is nothing if not curious.
“I’m the son of Meili, the god of travel. And I hold his greatest gift.” I smile at her, every bit of pain I’m feeling in this moment of truth finding its way into that pathetic grin. “It’s why Hel embraced me. I gave her something even her father and brothers couldn’t.”
“What are you saying, Wregen?” Her voice trembles, and I wonder if she’d rather not hear what I have to tell her. But neither of us has a choice now. The path is set and we can only walk it.
“In exchange for giving me sanctuary in her kingdom and controlling a beast I couldn’t, Hel demanded a feat beyond my powers.
She tied my life to hers, took part of my soul, and bound us to the trap she compelled me to create.
The gods or the fates or whoever she implored to join us demanded my life in exchange.
When this trap fails, I will return to Helheim, whether alive or dead, never to leave again. ”
“And that trap…” she mutters, her hands clenched tightly in her lap. She’s leaning away from me, and I already miss her. But I knew what to expect. And I deserve this and so much worse for what I’ve done to her.
“That trap binds your dragon and the others,” I finish for her.
“My power was the final piece Hel and her ally, Nerthus, needed to win a war Nerthus raged in Vanaheim. I pulled you and the others to Helheim. I sent the dragons to the prison Hel created, which has held them all these years. They’ll remain there while I live.
My life is tied to their captivity. When I die, they’ll be released.
“That’s how we’ll free your dragon, my skjaldmaer,” I tell her as I watch her eyes flash, my mate’s pure, unadulterated contempt billowing toward me. “And then you can leave with her and live your life in the sun, where you belong.”