Fury of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 4)

by Sky Purington

  Here.

  In this life.

  Maybe.

  His eyes went to Hel. He might have failed his family on Midgard in a previous life, but he had stood his ground on Helheim when he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Passing on to Valhalla wasn’t an option if he could find a way back to his family first.

  If they could finally live the full life they were denied before.

  There was no way to know why their four dragon spirits eventually got separated, but he would always be grateful that they had found each other again. Even if it were, in part, due to the peculiar involvement of ancient seers with questionable motives. Seers that he suspected might have known something about that massacre.

  Matthew’s eyes rose to the sail as the wind blew harder and they really started moving. Again, the Laben-rune shined brightly.

  “When Emily and I first arrived, you scared the heck out of us Hel,” Shannon reminded. “You said the symbol on the sail meant we were marked by the dead with life.” She cocked her head. “You said that could only happen if we’d been here before and if someone powerful was protecting us.” She frowned. “So who was that? Who’s protecting us?”

  “Is it not obvious?” The corner of Hel’s lips shot up. “I am protecting you.” Her eyes rose to the sail. “My enemies cannot see you past that.”

  “Then why act as if we were uninvited?” she said. “When it was you who invited us?”

  “Because I did not want my offspring to know I had. I wished to remain anonymous.” One eyebrow rose, as her eyes fell to Shannon. “Just as you suspected, I am protecting you from my son, Bard. More so, his nasty reincarnate, Hallstein and his troublesome mistress.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  NOT MANY PEOPLE could say death had helped them out. That Hel herself had leant a helping hand. And all because the goddess of the land of the dead had grown so fond of Matthew.

  “It is not just that,” Hel murmured, evidently following Shannon’s thoughts. “I have a certain fondness for those that help the dead, and you have done much of that in your life.” A dangerous glint entered her eyes. “Not to mention, you and Matthew can be of use to me.”

  Shannon figured as much. And it had to do with Hallstein.

  Her emotions were still raw from what she’d just witnessed. She had never experienced so much pain. So much loss. But she knew she had to keep it together. That now, more than ever, it was time to be strong. Because she had a feeling they would be seeing more of Hel’s son soon.

  “It is almost time to dock,” Hel said. “When we do, you two will no longer receive my help.”

  Shannon felt Matthew’s inner turbulence when it came to Hel. The way he regarded her now that he remembered everything. Almost as if she had been a mother figure to him. More than that, she noted the way Hel regarded him. If she wasn’t mistaken, the queen of death wasn’t just fond of him but had come to care for him like a son. She had been there for him like Anthony was for Emily.

  She closed her eyes as the reality of what he had done struck her yet again.

  The sacrifice of both heart and body he had made to make sure she reunited with her dragon family. Someday, she hoped she would have the opportunity to thank him. But somehow, based on how content he seemed when he vanished with Freydis and Sigrunn, she didn’t think she needed to.

  They had somehow come full circle, and all was well.

  “Where are we going to end up now, Hel?” Matthew asked. “Will we be traveling on to Valhalla?”

  Shannon felt his inner angst. His need to return to Håkon and Emily. It ran deep. Just like it did for her. Yet there was a certain sense of peace in knowing their children were well protected. That they were surrounded by people who loved them.

  Seers and dragons alike.

  “I told you I would help you if you helped me, Matthew Sigdir,” Hel said, her eyes on both of them. “Do you remember?”

  “I do.” He nodded. “And I will.” His arm locked tighter around Shannon’s back as the wind increased, the waves grew choppier, and the boat sailed faster. “You have been good to me, Hel. And you’ve helped me more than I ever could have anticipated. So tell me how I can help you in return.”

  “I will bring you both back to Midgard. You will return to life.” Hel’s eyes met Shannon’s. “With your inner dragons.” She looked to the horizon. “My son and she who hopes to usurp my throne are gaining strength.” Disgust flashed in her eyes. “I need you to send them a message. One that will resonate.” A sly smile slid onto her face. “One that will remind Hallstein that his mother is always one step ahead of him.”

  “What?”

  “I cannot tell you.” A wicked gleam lit Hel’s eyes. “Or it would ruin the surprise.”

  Shannon wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that, the evasiveness, but stood by Matthew when he nodded. “As long as it does not affect my children.”

  “No.” Hel’s gaze remained on the horizon as the wind gusted harder and the boat picked up speed. “If all goes as planned, Håkon and Emily will be just fine.”

  See, that didn’t sound good at all.

  If all goes as planned?

  That sounded like an evil mastermind finally seeing their well-thought out plan coming to fruition. Matthew, it seemed, sensed the same, because he was about to say something but the wind gusted so harshly, he refocused on keeping a tight hold on Shannon.

  Moments later, everything started to change.

  Shifted.

  Darkened.

  Became less crisp.

  “Matthew,” she murmured. “I think we might be sailing into…life.”

  “Life?” He frowned. “What do you mean…” he started to say but trailed off as he began to understand. Hel had vanished. Brilliance was fading. Colors were growing dull. Their eyes had become so used to death that life wasn’t easy to adjust to.

  Not at first.

  Not until they saw Håkon sitting on the bench across from them.

  Then everything seemed a thousand times brighter than death ever could.

  “Håkon.” Matthew welcomed his son when he flew into his arms.

  “Father,” Håkon mumbled against his chest. “It is good to see you again. I had the strangest feeling I might not.” His eyes peeked out at Shannon. “That I might not see either of you.”

  Shannon bit her lower lip and fought back anguish. How it had felt watching her son die as a dragon. She’d felt his pain as if it were her own. And somehow she knew that’s why Håkon said what he did now. He had felt the eventual separation of their souls.

  “Where is Uncle Kjar?” Matthew said, still holding Håkon tightly. “Why are you not with him?”

  “I do not know.” Fear flashed in Håkon’s eyes as they went to the sky. “He just said I needed to be in Emily’s boat and now here I am.”

  “Matthew,” Shannon whispered, her eyes wide on the horizon. “Look.”

  He followed her gaze and smiled. “We’re home.” He kissed the top of Håkon’s head, sat him between them and started manning the rudder again as the sail billowed. “That’s our Fortress.”

  She put an arm around Håkon to keep him locked safely between them as she finally looked upon a place she had only heard about. A place where most of her sisters had ended up. It was all so breathtaking. The endless docks and long ships. Such a wide variety of Viking boats. Then her eyes traveled to the huge semi-circular wall that protected a vast village beyond. Behind all that were tall, jagged mountains steeped in clouds. While she had certainly felt among the Norse since she arrived, nothing could have prepared her for this.

  Nothing could have made her feel so Viking.

  “Look!” Håkon pointed. “It’s Emily!”

  If the brilliance of death hadn’t already dimmed enough when she saw Håkon, it snuffed out completely and life glowed as her eyes locked on her daughter. Matthew’s reaction was just as strong, his smile wide as she ran down the dock and waved.

  “Hurry up, Father!” Håkon grinned at
Matthew but leaned against Shannon. “I can’t wait to finally meet Emily on this side!”

  Both Shannon and Matthew laughed as the boat sailed closer and closer. She grinned when she spied Cybil, Samantha, and Lauren as well as several men, some of whom she recognized, some of whom she didn’t.

  Her sisters were waving, clearly glad to see her. Shannon narrowed her eyes. Someone was right behind them.

  Erica?

  Elation filled her. Her twin had reappeared. They were all together again.

  Well, almost.

  They just needed to get this boat to shore. Close. Closer. Almost. She could hear their calls of hello on the wind.

  She should have known it was too good to be true. But she was caught up in the moment. Caught up in what might have been a perfect ending if everything hadn’t gone horribly wrong.

  Because a second later, Håkon was snatched out of her arms.

  Just like in Cybil’s portrait back home, the enemy had him.

  Her eyes narrowed. No, not the enemy. The dragon that had scooped him up was smaller and multi-colored. She bit her lip and shook her head. It was the same dragon she had seen on the cliff. The one she felt was Erica.

  Maeva.

  A split second later, Emily screamed. She had been scooped up by a dragon none of them could mistake.

  Hallstein.

  “They came in via Helheim, Matthew,” Shannon said, surprised by how calm she felt. “That means only we can save them.”

  She relayed the same message into Cybil’s mind, hoping her sister heard her. Everyone could shift and try to fight, but it would be pointless. They couldn’t access both worlds. What they needed to do now was defend their village and people.

  Saving Håkon and Emily was up to Shannon now.

  And she wasn’t fucking around.

  When red shrouded her vision, she didn’t think but trusted her instincts, jumped, flapped her wings and took off. What she never could have anticipated was her dragon’s reaction to seeing its children in harm’s way yet again. Caught in the last horrifying moments of a previous life, she roared in rage and raced after Håkon.

  Her son.

  She had watched him die once and would never let it happen again.

  All the while, she felt Matthew in her mind. The blind rage he felt as Hallstein took Emily. He had watched his daughter annihilated once and had been unable to save her.

  That would never happen again.

  Seconds later, a roar of fury as loud as thunder rent the air and a massive emerald green dragon lifted into the air behind her. Matthew’s dragon was finally free, and by the looks of his lethal golden eyes, the enemy had better watch out.

  Confident that Matthew would save Emily, she went screaming after Håkon. Not surprisingly, he had shifted into a dragon and was fighting Maeva every step of the way. Shannon chuckled inwardly as she flapped once, twice, caught the wind just right and coasted even faster. It was as if who she once was filled her body and became who she was at this moment.

  And it seemed Håkon realized the same thing about her because he stopped struggling, hung upside down from Maeva’s talons, cocked his head and watched Shannon. No, he didn’t just watch but felt pride in her.

  As he was in human form, he was a little replica of his father in dragon form.

  “I know you, yes?” he whispered into her mind, quite at ease with his current circumstances. “We have met before?”

  “We have,” she confirmed but didn’t elaborate. “And I love you every bit as much now as I did then, Håkon.”

  As their eyes held, hers right side up as she tore after him, and his upside down as he cruised along in the enemy’s clutches, something, at last, occurred to him. He didn’t say what but he didn’t need to. She knew.

  He had figured it out.

  Håkon realized that she had been his mother before.

  While she felt his inner dragon flare with anger at what had happened, he handled it in stride.

  “I will not call you mother,” he declared, still hanging upside down and calm as could be. “I already have a mother.”

  “And I don’t expect it.” She pumped her wings harder, about done with anyone other than her carrying him. “We’ll take things one step at a time.”

  All the while, her mind’s eye followed Matthew.

  His set of circumstances wasn’t all that different than hers. It seemed Emily and Håkon were two peas in a pod. Like her brother, Emily hung upside down in Hallstein’s clutches, calm as could be as she cocked her head at Matthew who was trying furiously to catch up.

  “You’re sort of out of touch with how to make those big wings really work for you, huh, Matthew?” Emily said into his mind. Of course, connected as they all were now, Shannon heard every word just as she imagined Matthew and Emily could hear her and Håkon.

  Matthew was still blind with rage and caught in the throes of trying to save Emily, so he didn’t respond.

  That’s when she felt something else brush her mind.

  Håkon and Emily had already concocted a plan.

  A very dangerous one.

  “No!” Shannon roared, but it was too late.

  Their children bit the wrists of Hallstein and Maeva then poured the surge of magic they used to shift to add extra oomph to the bite. Enough that their captors would let go and Matthew and Shannon would have a chance to scoop Emily and Håkon up.

  In Håkon’s case, it went off just as planned. Maeva lost her grip, and he fell. As soon as he landed on Shannon’s back in human form, he shifted back to a dragon.

  Emily, however, was dealing with a far larger and more powerful beast.

  “No!” both Shannon and Matthew roared as she did the same thing Håkon had. She bit Hallstein’s wrist then used the power of shifting to give it that little extra punch. Unfortunately, all it did was tick him off.

  With a quick flick of his talon he rolled her up his wing toward his mouth, using the wind shear and his muscles with such talent, the eye almost didn’t catch that he was about to eat her. His mouth was so large he could swallow her whole.

  “No,” Shannon sobbed.

  Yet she had to keep it together because her battle wasn’t over. Maeva had swung around and was heading back her way. Shannon urged Håkon to settle between her shoulder blades and to hold on tight.

  “Not again, Hallstein,” Matthew roared, still focused on the larger dragon. “You and your ilk will not hurt my daughter again.”

  Shannon breathed a sigh of relief as Matthew caught Emily seconds before she ended up in Hallstein’s mouth but cringed when she saw what happened next. The enemy flipped around and attacked. Matthew wrapped Emily in his talon a split second before they slammed into each other. Wings flapped as they struggled, then crashed down into the ocean.

  “Emily will be all right,” Håkon assured, but she didn’t miss the waver in his voice. “Right now we have bigger problems, yes?”

  Shannon narrowed her eyes on the multi-colored dragon heading their way. The vicious look in its eyes. It didn’t feel like Erica was in there. Not at all.

  “I have no idea what to do,” she muttered.

  “Fly right at her,” Håkon roared. “Stare her down while you do it. Then, when she turns coward, seize the opportunity to rip her out of the sky.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that.” She was more aware by the moment that while Håkon might be a dragon, he was still just a little boy. Because what he was talking about was called playing chicken when you did it with cars.

  And she was no car.

  More so, this was her first time flying, and she needed to protect Håkon at all cost. So she decided a game of cat and mouse might be better. Just as Shannon knew would happen as she evaded, she and Maeva flew in and out of Helheim several times. Despite his ongoing battle against Hallstein, Matthew sensed an opportunity and time slowed just as she and Maeva crossed into Helheim again.

  Trapped in perpetual slow motion, Maeva didn’t stand a chance against Hel.

/>   Or so she assumed because when Shannon crossed back to the other side, Maeva didn’t follow. She had vanished.

  Matthew had been true to his word and helped Hel.

  “She’s gone!” Håkon whooped.

  Shannon didn’t respond but raced back toward her family in a panic, all the while passing in and out of the land of the dead just like the others.

  Emily was still wrapped in Matthew’s talon as he battled Hallstein for all he was worth.

  Heart in her throat, she swooped down low wishing she could help somehow but unwilling to leave Håkon alone. There was no stopping her whimper as the two huge dragons fought and thrashed both above and below water. It was a vicious and relentless battle. How could Matthew possibly be keeping Emily safe through all that? How could he keep himself safe? Why didn’t he slow down time again? But she knew. He was too weakened by what he had done for Hel. It drained his energy. And it became obvious as the enemy thrashed him again and again. Matthew no longer fought back but took up a defensive posture, his every thought on protecting his precious cargo.

  She couldn’t lose them again.

  She couldn’t lose her family.

  Shannon didn’t miss the low keen of worry Håkon started to release as he cuddled closer to her neck. Like her, he knew this had gone too far. Their family was in trouble yet again.

  Then the worst happened.

  Hallstein got a firm hold of Matthew’s neck in what she now referred to as the Dragon Death Grip.

  As it turned out, it was one thing to experience it firsthand and another altogether to watch it happen to her mate. It felt like her heart was being torn out. When he curled his wings tight against his chest, she knew what he was doing.

  Using the very last of his strength to tuck Emily close and keep her safe.

  Seconds later, and with perfect timing because they were currently visible on Midgard, multiple dragons slammed into Hallstein and tore him off of Matthew.

  Heidrek.

  Bjorn.

  Tait.

  Sven.

  Then more.

  Cybil.

  Samantha.

  Lauren.