A blink later a semi slammed into the side of his car.
“You knew,” he whispered to Anthony. “Somehow you knew.”
Then it all faded away, and Matthew was sitting in the boat again. When his eyes met Shannon’s, a tear was rolling down her cheek.
She had followed everything.
Everyone had vanished. Little Matthew. His parents. All that remained was a wide spectrum of greens, blues, and purples as they burst within the sea. It was the bottom of Odin’s Asgard or what modern day people called Aurora Borealis. Where on Midgard it was seen in the sky, here in Helheim, it was seen below.
He frowned. “Where did everyone go?”
But he knew. He had heard the story of what just happened many times. It was almost folklore amongst his people. Except he’d just experienced it firsthand when he converged with his younger self. Little Matthew was gone now. That was why his hair had been getting darker. For some reason, it was becoming the color it had been in his previous twenty-first century life.
“Everyone was just here,” Shannon said, answering his question. “After your mother saw little Matthew, everybody vanished.” She shook her head then cupped his cheek, her heart in her eyes. “Are you okay? That was…intense.”
“I’m all right,” he assured. Once again, she had resumed the role of caring about others despite how much it had affected her. The moment Anthony died. The violence. “What about you, Shannon? Are you all right?”
Pain crossed her face. “I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I never imagined…” She swallowed hard. “It almost seemed like Anthony knew what he was doing. That he had done it on purpose.” Her eyes stayed with his. “And that he knew you were there as he did it.”
“That is because he did know Matthew was there,” came a soft, feminine voice on the wind.
At first, it only seemed like a shadow, but within moments, a woman stood on the bench at the bow of the boat. The sail had stopped billowing, and she rowed methodically, as though it gave her pleasure. “Welcome home, Matthew Sigdir.”
He tensed as she turned, sat, and kept rowing. She looked familiar. A blond woman who he knew was part of the folklore told about this night. A woman named Aesa who had appeared with little Matthew. A great Viking warrioress, she had been wife to King Naðr and at the beginning, lover to not only him but also his brother Raknar. But none of that mattered as her features shifted and another woman appeared before them.
One so beautiful it blinded.
She wore leather from head to toe and had an admirable amount of weapons strapped on her person. He knew her. But from where?
“It was never Aesa who brought little Matthew here to visit his long lost mother so he could, at last, reconnect with her womb and find life that night,” she said. “But me. She who stayed with him those long years as his spirit tried to return to the land of the living again.” Her eyes found Matthew’s. “As you tried to find your way back.”
It seemed Shannon figured things out first because she whispered, “Oh my God…is that you, Hel?”
A pleased smiled curled the woman’s lips as she nodded. “Yes.” Her eyes stayed with Matthew’s. “Do you remember me yet, dragon?”
As he looked into her eyes, it all started to come back. How she had taken in his soul and given him shelter. He had downright refused to move on to Valhalla. He had to find his mother again.
Because if he did, he would someday find his mate and children.
“Even as a young child you were stubborn,” Hel said. “Because you were a reincarnated dragon, it was worse than usual.” She shook her head. “You wanted to find your family again and decided it would be best to haunt me until you figured out how.” Her eyes widened, and she patted her chest. “Me!” Yet he didn’t miss the affection in her voice. “How could I refuse a child that decided to haunt the ruler of Helheim? The land of the dead?”
“Why not tell me this sooner?” Matthew shook his head. “Why not tell all of us sooner? Why frighten everyone?” He frowned. “And why appear so…evil?”
“Everything on Helheim looks evil from Midgard.” She shrugged. “As I know you and Shannon figured out, that’s only because this world lives in its shadows. It is a land all spirits pass through before they go to wherever they are meant to be next, yes?”
“But consider this,” Hel continued before he could respond. “In many ways, Midgard shadows Helheim, does it not? It is brighter here. Far more beautiful.” She gestured at herself and cocked a brow. “And this is the real me. All you could see on the other side was my shadow.” Her eyes widened as she made her point. “And while I am still ravishing over there, it cannot touch what you see now, no?”
Shannon released an unexpected chuckle. When the goddess looked at her in question, she held up her hands in surrender. “No argument here. I’ve never seen anyone more beautiful.”
“So what happened with Anthony?” Matthew murmured. He squeezed Shannon’s hand in comfort but needed more answers. He wanted to understand. “He looked right at me before he got in that accident. I know he did. How is that possible?”
“Ah, the lovesick seer,” Hel murmured as her eyes found Shannon’s. “Powerful, that one, but he did it. He did what he set out and vowed to do.”
“I don’t understand.” Shannon shook her head. “What did he vow to do?”
“Thanks to his mentor, Eluf, and likely other seers, he saw into the future and found a way to reconnect you with your family, Shannon,” Hel said. “He knew it would mean his certain death, but he did it anyway. And it also meant loving a woman whose heart would never truly be his, but it didn’t matter. He loved you. So he found a way to be reborn in the twenty-first century so he could connect with you and Emily.” She shook her head. “As long as he died when he did, in the same way that Matthew had in his previous life, it would set you on the path you needed to go, Shannon.”
Hel’s eyes met his. “And it would put Matthew where he needed to be. Here. Where he would reconnect with Veronica, be reborn and have Håkon.” She wore a quizzical expression. “I still do not know how the seers managed it so well. I imagine it took a lot of magic on their part.” Hel shrugged. “But they accomplished what they set out to do.”
“So Anthony and his fellow seers helped me reconnect with my dragon family?” Shannon whispered.
Hel nodded.
“That’s unbelievable.” Shannon shook her head. “Poor Anthony.” She frowned, confused, as she murmured, “Then why did such distance grow between us in the end? Why would that happen if he loved me so much?”
“Perhaps he was preparing his heart to be separated from you again,” Hel said. “It is hard to understand the whims of seers. They function within their own realm and follow their own set of rules.”
Why did he get the feeling Hel knew more than she was letting on? He found it strange that Anthony would go to such lengths to bring him and Shannon back together. Someone he had clearly envied in another life. Not only that, but there was no hope her heart might find true love with another. It would always belong to her dragon mate. There had to be more to this. Perhaps he had been part of the same pact as Shannon’s parents? Yet somehow that didn’t seem quite right either. He had sensed more in Anthony’s look before he pulled his car into oncoming traffic.
That’s when it hit him.
The message that was in that silent look.
“He didn’t start to remember any of it until your last few years together,” he murmured as his eyes went to Shannon. “Before that everything was controlled by ancient seer magic.”
She shook her head. “What are you talking about?”
“He wasn’t just catching on that you were something other than human, Shannon,” he said. “He was remembering everything. His previous life. Whatever he and his fellow seers had planned.” Matthew squeezed her hand. “That’s why he spent so much time with Erica. She was helping him cope...transition.” He shook his head. “They never had an affair. It wasn’t like that.�
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“You mean to tell me Erica might have known about all this years ago?” Her eyes widened. “That she knew Anthony would have to drive his car into...” She shook her head. “But his spirit didn’t seem to know anything. He seemed so confused. Especially after he first died.”
“Maybe he was. You said that happens to many people,” Matthew reminded. “But I would say he recalled more and more as time went on. Especially when you traveled back to Scandinavia. Back to me.” His eyes stayed with hers. “I think he tried to push us together after that. Even that time he acted so confused. It was a test. A form of instigation. One that worked too because one way or another it brought Emily and me closer.”
“You’re right,” she whispered.
There was more to this, though. He felt it in his gut. It went far beyond Anthony bringing long lost love together out of the kindness of his heart.
“Something else happened, didn’t it?” He frowned at Hel. “Something that tore us apart, to begin with.”
“Yes, there was...” The seer’s voice trailed off, and she got a faraway look in her eyes. “That horrible day.”
Matthew narrowed his eyes. “What horrible day?”
Hel inhaled deeply and eyed Matthew. It was clear she cared about him. A strange thing considering who she was. But that mattered little right now. If anything, it seemed he should be grateful.
“Tell us,” Shannon said as Hel held back. “Please.”
“I cannot tell you.” Hel’s eyes rose to the sky, and she murmured something. “But I can show you.”
All of a sudden hundreds and hundreds of dragons were flying overhead from different directions.
Every color.
Every size.
The sound that rent the air as the two fronts slammed together was deafening. These were Bjark’s dragons going up against Bard’s. Shannon’s ancestors were fighting their enemy.
Matthew and Shannon knew exactly what they were looking at. This was the massacre that happened after Eluf whisked Maeva off to the future. This was Bard’s promised revenge on her tribe.
It quickly became clear that things were about to go very wrong. Female dragons were typically better at stealth while their male counterparts were known for their size and strength. And Bard’s side had more males. Shannon and Matthew braced themselves. They knew what was about to happen. Mass genocide. Because Bjark’s side didn’t stand a chance.
“Matthew,” Shannon whimpered. Tears rolled down her cheeks as her ancestors started falling from the sky and crashing into the ocean.
He kept his arms around her while blood sprayed, heads snapped and bones were crushed as Bard’s beasts tore into Bjark’s. The sea turned red, waves frothing and crimson as more and more bodies fell.
Three, in particular, caught their attention.
They worked as a team and fended off the enemy better than the others. Two were black females and one, a green male. Shannon tensed, her words spoken through clenched teeth as her heart thudded as hard as his. “That’s me,” she whispered. “And Emily…and Håkon.”
She was right.
Though it was the most difficult thing either of them had ever witnessed, both felt immense pride as they watched their grown children fight.
They were ferocious.
Courageous.
Talented.
Suddenly, a loud roar rumbled across the sky. A massive sound that vibrated the water.
“Look.” Shannon pointed, excited. “Is that what I think it is?”
Matthew didn’t think he could feel more pride until he saw the heavy force of dragons heading their way. There was no questioning who they were.
Sigdir dragons.
And they were coming to help Bjark’s tribe.
Sadly enough, based on the vast carnage already around them and the sheer number of dragons sinking into the ocean, they were too late. But that was the last thing on either of their minds when a roar of pain split the air.
Håkon.
Matthew stood and braced his feet when Shannon did. A behemoth of a dragon had just slammed into their son, and they both went crashing into the water. Meanwhile, Shannon and Emily’s dragons were fighting like mad to keep others from joining the one fighting Håkon.
Yet it was a losing battle, and that became obvious within moments.
The Sigdir dragons attacked, even Matthew, his body as large then as it was now as he took up rank beside his wife and daughter. He had faith in his son to defeat his enemy. He was strong and able.
But something happened.
No sooner had their attack begun when a retreat was called. Or was it? It had to be because the Sigdir dragons were leaving. Abandoning Bjark’s tribe. Yet something about it felt odd, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Though they were clearly Sigdirs, they suddenly felt different. Not quite right. As if they were being compelled or lured away. It was strange. He shook his head and watched with a mixture of anger and confusion as they left.
Then things happened very quickly.
The struggle between Håkon and the dragon he was fighting came to a brutal end when the enemy finally got a solid grip on his son’s neck and snapped it. Matthew didn’t just hear the sound but felt it right down to his soul.
While the vast majority of Sigdir dragon’s left, Matthew’s and a scant few others stayed behind and continued fighting. He wasn’t entirely sure why but got the impression that they too had mates in the battle. A family connection that allowed them to break free from whatever lured away the main flight of dragons.
As Matthew’s dragon battled then killed another, Shannon’s released a cry of anguish, then dove and attacked the one that had ended their son. She might be vicious, but her opponent was nearly triple her size. If that wasn’t enough, near paralyzing fear blew through him as he watched far too many enemy dragons heading her way.
“Father,” his daughter roared into his mind as she headed for her mother. “If we go down, we go down together. And we do it with the satisfaction that we ended my brother’s killer first.”
Matthew and Shannon watched from the boat as Håkon’s body vanished beneath the water and his mother fought bravely. But her battle was short as the dragon tore her neck open. Matthew’s dragon roared in pain and rage as he and Emily’s dragon simultaneously attacked their nemesis.
The damage they managed to inflict on the massive dragon in a very short time made everything else they’d witnessed pale in comparison. In agony over the loss of Håkon and Shannon’s dragons, they were ruthless. Brutal.
Within seconds, more enemy dragons started attacking them.
Emily’s dragon was the first to go as she was viciously mauled from all angles. Matthew’s dragon roared in anguish as he tried to get to her, tried to protect her, but it was far too late for that.
Like she had said, they were going down as a family.
And they did.
As Matthew held Shannon’s back to his front with a supportive arm around her midsection and his feet still braced to keep the boat steady, they watched the last of it. Every moment of horror. They faced it and remembered their past. Remembered, just like Hel had warned, how awful that day had really been. How heartbreaking.
By the time it was finished, they were all dead and had slipped beneath the water.
Their only consolation was that the massive dragon who caused so much destruction was crippled. So much so, he couldn’t fly or swim. And his kin didn’t seem to care. Because even though they could have assisted, they flew away, too wrapped up in their own arrogance and a sense of victory to help a wounded comrade.
“Matthew,” Shannon whispered, her voice choppy, her emotions high. “Look what’s happening.”
He kept her close and released his own ragged breath as dragons started bursting out of the sea far and wide. They were still in Helheim, so he knew what they witnessed.
Dragon spirits on Midgard.
Shannon choked back a sob as first Håkon shot into the air followed by her ow
n dragon, then Emily’s and Matthew’s. They circled above the boat a few times, almost as if they were acknowledging their presence, before they followed all the others and flew off.
“They’re heading for us now. Or where we were before,” she whispered. “All of these souls that died are the dragons I felt.” She watched their family vanish on the horizon. “And they’re the four dragon spirits that surrounded us.”
It was hard to respond.
He felt too much.
But when she turned in his arms and looked at him, he found his voice. “I have never been prouder. At least of our family.”
“Pride,” Hel murmured, still sitting where she had before. “Mankind and dragonkind alike give it too much credit, I think. Even most gods.” Her eyes rose to the sail as it filled with wind. “But not me. I do not think pride is worth the price you pay for it. In my experience, it often causes more harm than good.”
Matthew urged Shannon to sit as they started moving. He wiped the wetness from her cheeks, searched her eyes and put her needs first. “Are you all right? That was a lot.”
“I am,” she said, her voice soft and raw. “Though hard to watch, it brought back every little detail. Not just the battle but our lives before. I thought I had remembered everything already but something about seeing that, watching how we all were together, made more memories return. All the tiny moments we shared together…that we shared with them.
He nodded. Understood. Because the same thing was happening to him.
Somehow, the last veil between that life and this one had dropped, and all was laid bare.
“How about you?” She ran her finger along his jaw. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” He brushed his lips over hers. “Better than I have been in a long time.”
And he meant it.
Like she said, that had been hard to see, but somehow it made him lighter. As if his soul had been carrying a great weight. As if it were caught in perpetual guilt because he couldn’t save his family. Yet somehow he had in the end.
Fury of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 4) Page 27