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“So … new mission: find the power Helena hid. Aidas claimed that Helena used Midgard’s ley lines to hide it in these caves after Pelias died.”
Bryce mused, “Silene had the Horn, but Helena had to use the ley lines instead. Yet both had a disastrous effect on the land itself.” She peered down at the blades again. “How do you propose getting the magic out?” Lidia challenged. “We have no idea how to access it.”
“You’re free,” Bryce whispered to Avallen, to the land and the pure, inherent magic beneath it. “Be free.” And it was. Light burst from the star, and the caves shook again. They rolled and rattled and trembled—
Bryce could feel it—the joy of the land at being seen, at being freed. She looked at Ruhn, and her brother’s face was bright with awe. As if their father didn’t lie beneath the earth, lost forever to the dark, his bones to be eaten by worms.
Bryce knew, and they might all die with it, but right now the paradise blooming around them, this awakened land, was proof of what life had been like before the Asteri, before the Fae and the Vanir. Proof of what might be afterward.
Her brother only pressed a kiss to her brow and said, “Long live the queen.”
“And avoiding that fate is worth letting them rule forever?” There was no sharpness to her question—just curiosity. “Part of me says yes. A very, very loud part of me,” he admitted.
Did she not listen to Ades?
“The Asteri organized a hit, led by Pollux and Mordoc, on every Ophion base. They wiped them off the map.” “Fuck,” Hunt breathed.
“And they dispatched their Asterian Guard to Asphodel Meadows. They … they said it was a hotbed of rebel activity.”
The land seemed to know her, small blooming flowers nestling around her body, some of them even curling in the long strands of her hair.
“But it’s the sheer quantity of black salt that keeps the Asteri out, not the mists, and we can’t replicate that. I think Urd wanted me to see that a society could thrive here. That I could be safe here, along with everyone I love.”
“I think Urd wanted me to see and learn all that,” she went on, “and have to decide whether to stay, or leave this safety behind and fight. Urd wanted to tempt me.” “Maybe it was a gift,” Hunt offered. “Not a test or challenge, Bryce, but a gift.” At her raised eyebrows, he explained, “For Urd to let the people you love be safe here—while you go kick some Asteri ass.”
“I’m with you. All of me. You and I, we’ll finish this.”
“I think it’s what the Prison—the island in the Fae’s home world—once was. When Theia ruled it, I mean. Before Silene fucked it all up. Maybe they’re linked in some way through being thin places and spilled over to each other a bit. Maybe back in that other world … maybe I woke up the land around the Prison, too.”
He considered. “It’s time to let Hel in, isn’t it?”
The star on her chest glowed. “We’re going to Nena. To open the Northern Rift.”
“What is the one thing Rigelus has constantly told us?” Bryce asked. “That we suck?” She chuckled. “He went out of his way to offer you freedom,” she said, nodding to where the brand was back on his wrist, “as a way to entice me to keep my mouth shut about killing Micah. And keep you quiet about killing Sandriel.” He angled his head. “You want to go public about it?” “I think Rigelus and the Asteri are nervous about the world finding out what we did. That their precious Archangels could be killed. By two apparent randos, no less.”
“I need you to make an antidote for the Asteri’s parasite.” Hypaxia blinked slowly. That
“It ended with my mom torn to shreds by her fellow Helhounds, and my father seized by the very angels he commanded and given the Living Death.”
Neither side of the family would take a half-breed, as they made sure to call me, so I learned how to fend for myself in the slums. How to keep hidden, how to listen for valuable information—how to sell that information to interested parties. I became good enough at it that I made a name for myself. The Snake, they called me, because I fucked over so many people. And Sandriel eventually heard about me and recruited me for her triarii—to be her spy-master and tracker. The Snake became the Helhound, but … I kept a few touches.” The memory of Baxian’s reptilian armor flashed through Hunt’s mind.
Who you are isn’t about what’s biologically in your system. It’s about who raised you. Who you are now.”
Baxian laughed, then glanced around. “Where is she, anyway? Off making more gardens?”
Baxian smirked, though. “Who said you’re in charge?” Hunt rolled his eyes. “My wife, that’s who.”
Just for the Hel of it, Flynn had grown a small grove of oak trees around them. His earth-based magic seemed to be exploding here now, as if the reborn land were calling to him to fill it, adorn it.
Bryce, seated on a large stone with Hunt beside her, said, “I am going to Nena. With Hunt. And my parents—I need Randall’s particular brand of expertise. Baxian will stay here with Cooper until they get back. You are going to take those two buzzards”—she nodded to Flynn and Declan, who glared at her—“and go back to Lunathion.” Ruhn blinked slowly. “To … die? Because that’s what will happen if we’re caught.” “To find Isaiah and Naomi. See if they can come join us. Their phones and emails are no doubt tapped—we don’t have any other way to contact them.” “You want us to go convince two members of
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“Baxian will stay here to help coordinate the arriving refugees, and lead in our stead.” Bryce gestured to herself and Hunt.
“So that’s it, then,” Ruhn said. “Come dawn, we’re scattering to the winds?” “Come dawn,” Bryce said, and her chest flared with starlight that lit up the entire countryside, “we’re retaliating.”
They surely had some other sneaky-ass shit up their sleeves, but they’d reveal it when the time was right.
She was attached to him, even if he treated her as little more than a broodmare. But he kept her in comfort all these years, as a reward for birthing him a son. She was always grateful for that.
Who is his mother?
But I, too, wondered, about my mother after that, she said quietly. About Hecuba. Wondered what the Queen of the Valbaran Witches made of her ex-lover’s death. If she thought of me. If she had any interest, any at all, in reaching out to me after he died. But I never heard from her. Not once.
I see you, Ruhn, she said gently. All of you.
“The Northern Rift, Mom,” Bryce said through chattering teeth, “is in the north.” “There’s a southern one,” Ember muttered.
????
He’d offered Jesiba a vial upon telling her the news, but the sorceress had said, It won’t help me, pup.
Why not?
A massive arch of clear quartz rose forty feet into the air, its uppermost part nearly hidden by the drifting mist. They could see straight through the archway, though, and nothing lay within it except what could only be described as a ripple in the world. Between worlds. And more mist on its other side.
A bronze rendering of the Embrace—the sun sinking or rising out of two mountains—was displayed in the window of the guard station. And it was because he knew Perry so well that he understood that this small decoration was her way of telling the city that there were some in the Den who mourned, who were praying to Cthona to comfort the dead.
It had always been a long game for the Viper Queen. Not only to amuse herself, but to use the knowledge of what he’d done to her advantage. Her relationship with Sabine was strained—so why not sweeten it with a little peace offering?
He extended the sword to Ithan. “Ithan Holstrom is my heir.”
Make your brother proud. And as his howl finished echoing, he could have sworn he heard a male wolf’s cry float up from the Bone Quarter itself.
But for right now, his focus was on finding the two members of Celestina’s triarii. And trying not to get caught in the process.
An otter in a bright yellow vest leapt onto the quay, dripping everywhere. It rose onto its hind legs in front of Tharion, whiskers twitching, spraying droplets of water. Sathia grinned. “Stop it,” Tharion muttered. “It only encourages them to be cuter.”
“I suppose I should wish you congratulations on your nuptials, but I instead wish you luck. With a male like that for a husband, you’ll need it in droves.” “I thank you,” Sathia said with such sincerity that Tharion nearly bought it, too. “May your good wishes fly straight to Urd’s ears.” Okay, maybe he’d underestimated his wife. She seemed more comfortable in this setting than he was.
Holy gods, his wife had balls. Tharion wisely wiped any sort of reaction from his face, but Ogenas damn him, if they survived this meeting, he wanted Sathia to teach him everything she knew.
“Our people are ancient,” the River Queen said. “My sisters and I remember a world before the Asteri arrived and caused the land’s magic to wither. Entire islands vanished into the sea, our civilizations with them. And though we were limited in our power to stop them … we have tried, each in our own way.”
“We remember the power the thunderbirds wielded. How the Asteri hunted them down. Because they feared them. And when I learned one had been killed, her thunderbird brother on the loose … I knew those were assets the Asteri would seek to recover at any cost. I might not have known why, but I had no intention of letting them attain either Sofie or her brother.”
“I see the male that you are,” the River Queen said, and it was more gentle than he’d ever heard her. “I see the male that you shall become.” She nodded to Sathia. “Who sees a female in trouble and does not think of the consequences to his own life before helping.” A nod, grave and contemplative. “I wish I had seen more of that male here. I wish you had been that male for my daughter. But if you are that male now, and you are that male for the sake of this city …”
The Harpy was a horror. Hunt could feel her lack of presence. The emptiness leaking from her. The Asteri had raised her from the dead, but left her soul by the wayside.
It was Celestina who said, “Perhaps the age of Archangels is over.”
Bryce swung her arm out in a grand, sweeping gesture as the Prince of the Chasm stepped through the Northern Rift. “Welcome back to Midgard,” she said. “Hope you have a pleasant stay.”
“Of course it bothers me. It’s bothered me for fifteen thousand years. But
“Pollux intercepted the Depth Charger as it dropped people off at the edge of Avallen’s mists. He slaughtered a bunch of mer, and … I don’t know how, but he knew about Lidia’s sons. He took them. He’s holding them at the palace.” Bryce nearly dropped her phone. Outside, Hunt was a shadow against the darkness and snow, their companions more shadows around him. “I guess the Asteri figured out how to lure us to them,” Bryce said quietly.
