by S. T. Bende
“I highly doubt that,” Ondyr said. “And that’s not your concern. What you should be worried about is the fact that your so-called spy is a double agent. He’s been working with Alfheim this entire time.”
“Oh, has he?” Rankin didn’t look convinced.
“He just handed Aura Svartalfheim’s protection stone—the one thing she’d need to deactivate the castle’s barrier, and come in and kill the entire top layer of government.” Ondyr panned the communicator over to me. While he’d been talking, I’d removed Narrik’s gag, and pulled Finna and Jande’s fake stone out of my pocket. Now I held it in my palm, and tilted my head to the floundering Narrik.
“Need any more proof?” I asked.
“I—she—they’re lying, sir!” Narrik spluttered. “I would never go back on our word. You know my loyalty lies with Svartalfheim—not this wretched hovel I was forced to endure for so long.”
Rankin’s eyes narrowed. “If they’re lying, how did they get our stone?”
“That’s not our stone! They’ve made it all up! It’s a knockoff; a replica that doesn’t even—”
“Silence!” Rankin held up one hand. He closed his eyes, adopting an expression I’d seen on Maja dozens of times. He was scanning. Narrik continued to plead, but after half a minute Rankin opened his eyes.
“It’s a match,” he glowered. “You’ve given them our greatest protection. How dare you?”
“No! Please, I would never—”
“You are dead to me.” Fire danced from Rankin’s eyes. “If I ever catch you on my realm again, I’ll rip you apart and feed you to the firewyrms.”
“But you need me,” Narrik pled. “I procured the princess’ trace for you.”
“And where is that trace? Mmm?”
“I—it’s . . .” Narrik’s chin dropped to his chest.
“Exactly. But no matter—I no longer have need of you. While I was waiting, one of my more competent servants delivered exactly what I needed to convince my wayward granddaughter to come home once and for all.”
“I’m never joining you,” I vowed.
“Oh, but you are.” Rankin’s cruel laughter filled the room. “And when you do, you’ll finally fulfill your prophesy and drive the realms to war. Daughter of Svartalfheim.”
“Where is he now?” Viggo growled. “I swear to Frigga, I will drive this sword straight through the hole where his heart should be.”
“Ah, but then you wouldn’t get to see your friend before she dies.” Rankin steepled his fingertips together. “Pity. I heard you had such fun getting to know her on your visit last week. That unicorn ride . . . I understand it was quite the event.”
Panic gripped my gut and I whirled to face Viggo. “Oh, gods. He has Idris.”
“Meet me at the top of Alfheim’s tallest waterfall.” Rankin’s lips thinned into a smile. “Alone. Unarmed. And ready to surrender. You have twenty-four hours until your friend dies.”
“No,” I whispered.
Rankin’s smile deepened. “Long live the queen.”
Chapter 13
“YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE, young lady.” Signy stared me down with the mom-glare I’d learned to loathe. It had kept me from sneaking out too often in high school, and no doubt she hoped it would keep me from traipsing after my homicidal grandfather now.
“I don’t really have a choice.” I glanced up at Viggo. “Do I?”
“Hell if I know.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “But I’m with your aunt—I don’t want you anywhere near the guy.”
“I don’t want me anywhere near the guy either.” I threw my hands up. “But what am I supposed to do? I can’t let Idris die!”
“Nobody is dying today.” Maja spoke authoritatively from the end of the table.
“So you have a plan?” I asked hopefully.
“Well, no . . .”
I dropped my arms and rested my forehead on the back of my hand. “Great.”
After Rankin’s announcement, we’d sent Narrik off with a team of royal guards. They were instructed to hold him in a dungeon I hadn’t previously known existed—a dank, holding cell located in the basement of the senatorial complex. We’d deal with him later . . . after we figured out how to keep both me and Idris alive. Now, Viggo, Signy, Maja, Jande, Ondyr and I were gathered in the regent’s office on the third floor of the senate building. The wall-sized window provided a devastating view of the fires still ravaging the capital. They’d diminished since our arrival, but our emergency crews were only so big. It would take a miracle—or an unexpected summer storm—to douse the blaze before daylight.
“We obviously can’t let Aura go to Rankin.” Ondyr played with the string of his bow, which he’d slung behind his chair. “And we can’t let Idris die. Which leaves us with . . .”
“Not a lot of options,” Viggo finished.
“And not a lot of manpower,” Signy added. “I just spoke with Larkin—most of our warriors are still fighting off the intruders. Svartalfheim breached en masse, and there’s no way we can keep our citizens safe if we divert a team to the waterfall.”
“How did they open that many portals?” I asked. “We had protections in place.”
“True. But they had an insider familiar with our systems. And worse, familiar with the way our operatives think. We changed our protocols, but Narrik knew enough to find a workaround that hacked our altered systems.” Signy shook her head. “He screwed us over big time.”
I rolled my head to the side. “So, what do we do?”
“We wait for reinforcements,” Viggo said. “Maja, where are we on our backup?”
Maja glanced at her com. “My dad’s on his way. It’ll take a few hours, but he’s bringing half the faerie corps with him. The rest are remaining behind to protect the colony in case there’s an attack.”
I blinked. “When did you call him?”
“When the queen fell,” she said grimly. “I had a feeling things were going to get worse.”
“Thanks,” I whispered.
She shrugged. “That’s what friends do.”
I sat up. “Are you saying we’re friends now?”
Maja’s eye roll was her only answer.
“Think, team,” Viggo urged. “How do we get Idris away from Rankin? And Rankin away from Alfheim?”
“Can we use älva dust to extract the Crown Princess?” Ondyr asked. “It got you guys into the palace—maybe it can get her out of wherever Rankin’s holding her?”
“Maybe.” Maja tilted her head. “I’d have to be with her for the extraction, so if Rankin’s keeping her with him it won’t work. But if she’s being held somewhere else . . .”
Viggo nodded at Ondyr. “Have the warriors send you an aerial scan of the waterfall, and work with Maja to get an exact location on both Idris and Rankin.”
“On it.” Ondyr tapped his wrist device. He pulled up a holo-screen, which he shared with Maja.
“Professor Bergen, you and I need to figure out a way to distract Rankin long enough to cover Idris’ extraction.” Viggo leaned forward. “Maybe if we—”
“Rankin’s with Idris,” Maja interjected.
Four heads turned as one.
“He’s holding her here—in the open, on top of the waterfall.” Maja expanded the hologram atop Ondyr’s wrist, then pushed it forward so it hovered over the center of the table. “See those two signatures at the base of the cypress trees? One’s bound, gagged, and clearly in distress—that’s Idris. The other is emitting unnaturally high levels of . . . can dark elves feel glee?”
“That’s not good.” Ondyr turned to Viggo. “What’s plan B”
“There is no plan B.” My hands balled into fists. “If he’s that close to Idris, there’s no way Maja can dust her out. Rankin would kill them both before Maja even touched down.”
“There has to be another way,” Signy said firmly. “What if—”
“Signy,” I said quietly. “I have to go. Idris’ realm needs her.”
“And your re
alm needs you,” Viggo growled. “You’re not risking your life. Not on my watch.”
“What if she doesn’t risk her life?” Maja’s wings fluttered behind her. “What if we could protect Aura—set up a blocker Rankin couldn’t penetrate, no matter how hard he tried?”
Viggo’s brows furrowed in suspicion, but I leaned forward. “Go on.”
“After everything that went down last year, my mother and I started working on a new kind of protection—one rooted deeper in dark magic than anything we’ve worked with before. We modeled it off the clearing columns we used to break the cells that were holding the senators, but reverse-engineered the energy.”
“Meaning?” Ondyr asked.
“Meaning we double down on darkness, halve the light, and throw in a hit of älva dust to . . . um . . .” Maja glanced at me. “. . . to control the minds of whomever we use it on. Sorry, Aura. We got the idea from what Narrik did to your grandmother.”
“That’s kind of brilliant,” I admitted. “Using their own ideas against them.”
“Would that work on Rankin, though?” Viggo asked. “If he’s the dark mage everyone says he is, won’t he be immune to the dust?”
“Nobody’s immune to the dust.” Maja tossed her braid over her shoulder. “Especially if we’re hitting them with an unprecedented level of magic at the same time. It’ll work. Trust me.”
“But if it doesn’t . . .” Viggo trailed off.
“It will work,” I said. My gut didn’t doubt it one bit. “I can enhance Maja’s protection from the inside. And since it’s me he’ll be focused on, I’ll know if Rankin’s about to strike—or if he’s overcoming the dust’s effects for any reason.”
“I don’t like it,” Viggo said.
“I know.” I placed my hand on his arm. “But you’ve got to trust me—this is our best shot at saving Idris. And, if we’re lucky, at defeating Rankin.”
“Professor Bergen?” Viggo turned to my aunt. “What do you think?”
“I think Alfheim’s queen should not put herself in danger.” Signy’s stern expression conveyed her disappointment. “But . . .”
“But,” I urged.
“But I respect your loyalty to your friend.” Her eyes softened. “And I appreciate you wanting to be a different kind of leader than your predecessor.”
“So . . . you have faith that Maja can get this done?”
“I have faith that Maja and Sirra can,” Signy corrected. “I presume your mother is coming with the war party?”
“She is,” Maja confirmed.
“And I presume you’ve successfully conjured this protection before? Preferably in another high-stakes situation?”
Maja just stared at Signy.
“I see.” My aunt folded her hands together. “Maja, I’ll ask you this one time. Are you absolutely certain you can protect my Aura?”
“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t ask you to trust me with her life,” Maja swore.
Signy nodded. “Then let’s map out our plan. But if anyone thinks of any other way we can do this . . .”
I swallowed the fear that nudged at my gut. This will work. It has to work. We were going to save Idris. We were going to destroy Rankin. Because if we didn’t . . . if Rankin made my dark prophesy come true . . .
The realms would be driven to war. And it would all be my fault.
“Hey, Sorenssön. You have a minute?” I bumped Viggo’s shoulder with mine.
“What’s up?” He didn’t take his eyes off the smart board where he and Ondyr were sketching out an extraction strategy. They’d identified Rankin’s weakest points, and were determining attack positions for the incoming älva.
I stood on tiptoe to whisper in his ear. “I need to talk to you. Alone.”
Viggo finally looked at me. If he noticed the anxiety in my eyes or the tension in my hands, he didn’t out me. He just turned to Ondyr and said easily, “I’ll be right back. Keep working on this, okay?”
Ondyr tapped a spot on the bottom right of the board, adding an älva to the growing formation. “On it.”
I slipped my hand through Viggo’s and pulled him toward the door. “I’ll be quick. I promise.”
“Take your time,” Ondyr called. “I’m better at this than he is anyway.”
“Keep telling yourself that!” Viggo countered.
Despite my nerves, I couldn’t help but laugh.
I led Viggo into the sitting room adjacent to the conference room. The queen had an entire suite in this wing, and since that title fell squarely on me now . . .
I closed the door and pressed my back to its wood. Then I took a deep breath and turned to Viggo. “Listen, I just wanted to say—”
“I still don’t like this.” Viggo crossed his arms. He looked down at me with a glower so intense, it would have intimidated the fiercest dark realm warrior. But I knew Viggo too well. Underneath his anger pulsed a massive dose of fear—one I couldn’t help but share, though I’d commandeered mine into a much more compact dose.
“I need you to do me a favor.” I wrapped my arms around my chest and held tight. “If for some reason this doesn’t go the way we hope it does—”
“So help me Frigga, if you’re about to say what I think you are—”
“Just listen.” I squeezed my ribs. “If this doesn’t go well—if Rankin captures me, and forces me to do what the darker part of my prophesy says I’m fated to do—”
“You’re fated to lead the realms to peace from here. With me,” Viggo vowed. “I won’t let Rankin change that.”
“If he does,” I continued as if Viggo hadn’t spoken, “I need you to look after Alfheim in my place. Be her fiercest protector. Be both the Verge and the leader she’ll need to survive the darkness, and bring back the light.”
“Aura.” Viggo’s voice wavered over my name. “If there’s any part of you that thinks this isn’t going to work you have to tell me. ”
“My gut says it will work,” I said. And it did. “But there’s always the chance something could go wrong. And if it does . . . then I need to know that Alfheim will be okay without me.”
“Stop.” The word was fierce, but Viggo’s eyes were pleading. “I can’t go there.”
“Well, I need you to go there.” I forced my arms from my chest, and reached out to grasp Viggo’s hands in my own. “If I’m taken, and the dark realms believe Alfheim is vulnerable, they won’t hesitate to swoop in. They’ll power down the Alfheim Tree, they’ll force the älva back into camps, they’ll use their dust to control Midgard, and they’ll convert all of our light into darkness until the cosmos is pure chaos. They’ll enslave our citizens, and make their lives a thousand times worse than they were under Narrik. If I’m taken, our world—and all the worlds—stand to suffer more than you and I could possibly imagine. And if that happens”—I drew a shaky breath—“then I need you to step up and be the leader Alfheim needs.”
Viggo pressed his lips together. His eye twitched. Was he fighting back tears?
“Promise me,” I urged him. “Please.”
“I will always protect Alfheim.” Viggo’s voice cracked over the words. “Just as I will always protect you. If you’re taken—and that’s a big if, because I will fight to the death to make sure that doesn’t happen—then you have my word that I’ll look out for our home. But my first priority will be to get you the Helheim back. Do you understand me?”
“Your first priority has to be Alfheim,” I said quietly. “If I’m a threat to it—if whatever Rankin does to me makes me a liability in any way—then you cannot come after me. What’s that thing we learned in our Key class? ‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?’”
“Screw Key class.” Viggo squeezed my hands. “If you’re putting me in charge, I make the decisions. And I will never decide to stop fighting for you. Never.” His eyes sparked, emerald fire emanating from their depths.
“Viggo, listen—”
“No, you listen, Glitre.” Viggo stepped closer so our chests practical
ly touched. “From the moment I met you, you’ve ignored me and infuriated me and overall been a massive pain in my butt.”
“Hey!”
“You have. When you caught me talking to Ondyr in the woods, and I told you not to get involved—you ignored me. When I swore I’d kick your butt in our Verge final—you upped your game just enough to beat me. Barely.”
“I crushed you on that exam,” I corrected.
“Keep telling yourself that.” Viggo shrugged. “Watching you learn that dark stuff with Maja last year nearly destroyed me. And now—seeing you walk into this situation? It’s killing me, Aura. Nobody in their right mind would be okay watching the girl they love risk their life like this. It’s insanity.”
My body stilled as my pulse thundered in my ears.
Viggo loves me? My eyes locked on his. “Wh-what did you say?”
“I said this is insanity. And I know you have to do this, that you’d never let your friends suffer beca—”
“No. Right before that.”
Viggo’s brow furrowed in concentration. “That you’re killing me?”
I bit down on my bottom lip. “Did you say you . . . love me?” The last two words came on a whisper.
“Well, yeah.” Viggo tilted his head. “I thought you knew that.”
“You’ve never said it,” I whispered.
“Isn’t it obvious? We’ve been together for a year and a half. We train together, we’ve had each other’s backs in every life-or-death fight we’ve been through—which is entirely too many, considering we haven’t even graduated yet. We work together, I’m your plus-one at all state functions, and whenever either of us has a problem, we turn to the other for help first. Plus we have these marks on our wings.” Viggo reached up to tweak the tip of mine, and a shiver of pleasure vibrated down the appendage. “And we make out. A lot. I thought you knew.”
“Yeah,” I breathed. “But you’ve never said it.”
“Ah. Well, in that case . . .” Viggo’s dimple popped. “Aura Nilssen, I love you. I love your generous heart, and the way you’d do anything for your citizens. I love your stubborn mind, and the way you refuse to yield to me ever, in anything, no matter how much sense it might make to admit I’m right.”