I shook my head and stepped away from the water. I was back here to do something. Something important. I didn’t have time to wonder about the mysteries of the deep.
I made my way back to the tree and stared up at it, not understanding how the Norns were part of the tree. I kept imagining them living inside of it, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t how it worked.
I held my breath as the sound of hushed voices reached my ears, then suddenly silenced. I looked around, unsure of where they’d come from, then looked back to the tree. Not knowing what else to do, I reached up to the lowest branch and plucked a single leaf, then brought it close to my face. It looked like a normal leaf.
I gripped the leaf in my palm, then placed my other hand on the rough bark of the tree. The gentle ocean breeze pushed my hair back from my face, but everything else was still. I was about to remove my hand when I felt a gentle thrumming resonating from within the tree. The key at my neck echoed that resonance.
Excitement rushed through me, maybe I’d found what I was supposed to do. I felt the tree’s energy flow up my arm as the key thrummed fervently. Wait. No! I watched in horror as the bark beneath my palm grew gray with death. The gray area spread, then pieces of the bark began to flake off, turning to ash before they hit the ground.
I tried to pull away, but my hand felt glued to the tree. The dead patch continued to spread. Hot tears streamed down my face. Panic crushed my chest. The Norn had sent me back to Yggdrasil to do who knows what, and now I was killing it. I was killing the World Tree.
I fell to my knees, but my hand remained firmly against the tree. I could feel the key’s joy as we both filled up with energy. My thoughts turned to Alaric. What would he think if he could see me now? Killing the tree that gave life to his people. Our people.
Alaric’s face filled my mind’s eye as I focused all of my energy onto getting back to him. I needed to get back. There was still so much to do. Suddenly my hand fell from the tree, and I was overcome with a feeling of vertigo. I kept my eyes firmly shut as the sand beneath me seemed to solidify into hard, cold earth. Someone wrapped their arms around me, but I struggled away. I was a killer. The only thing I could offer anyone was death.
My entire body buzzed with the energy of Yggdrasil. I was pretty sure I’d broken away before I killed the tree entirely, but the only way to know for sure was to look at it.
I opened my eyes, and there was no tree. Suddenly the arms around me made sense. I was back in the cave with Alaric and Mikael. The latter of whom was standing a short distance away, looking at me like I’d grown a second head.
I slowly unfurled one of my closed palms to see the leaf still in my hand, still silvery-green with life. With the energy of Yggdrasil, I’d traveled forward through time. I craned my neck back at Alaric as he put his arms around me once more.
“I’m back,” I whispered in astonishment.
“You never left,” he explained. “The Norn came and you fainted.”
I looked down at the leaf in my hand again. “That’s not possible,” I said distantly. It had all felt so real, and the leaf definitely was real. I could feel Yggdrasil’s power running through my veins. It echoed in the little leaf.
“Hold on to me,” I demanded, though my voice came out as the barest of whispers.
Alaric’s arms tightened around me, but Mikael still stood a good distance off.
“Hold on to me,” I stated again, this time with more force as I looked up at Mikael.
I tried to steady my thoughts, but all I could feel was anger. Anger at the Vaettir for being so screwed up. Anger at the key for controlling me. Most of all, I felt anger at myself, for being an instrument of death and destruction.
Both of the men did as I bade them. I closed my hand around the leaf, crushing the remaining life out of it. Its energy zinged up my arm, and I was disgusted at the satisfaction I felt. I would have liked to blame it on the key, but I knew part of it was my own emotion. Emotion springing from that deeply repressed instinct that makes us what we truly are. I was death, and I enjoyed it.
I squeezed my eyes shut as the remaining power from Yggdrasil lit up my veins to make me feel all-powerful. Unstoppable. It was a wonderful yet sickening feeling.
I thought of the Salr back in our current time where the Norns were. This time the movement was barely jarring. Before I knew it, I felt cold stone beneath me.
I opened my eyes and saw blood. The floor was drenched in it, and the stone walls were painted with it. The cool liquid began to soak into my pants as I sat there, stunned.
Mikael and Alaric were both more quick to react, dragging me to my feet and away from the macabre scene. As my eyes fully focused, I saw the first of the bodies, its antlered head twisted at a strange angle, its bestial paw reaching out past its body, as if begging for mercy.
Alaric held me close to him. “You have to release them,” he whispered in my ear.
His voice seemed like it was a million miles away. My eyes darted around the room as I took in more corpses. “I can’t,” I replied numbly.
Alaric gave me a gentle shake as if trying to bring me back to reality. “Madeline,” he coaxed, “you can’t leave them in there. They’re like us. They need to be released.”
I shook my head. “No, I can’t release them because someone already did.”
It was the truth. I couldn’t feel their pain, or their deaths. They were empty shells, nothing more. I recalled the amount of power I’d received from releasing a single Norn’s life. Someone had come in here and released the lives of six. There were so many implications, but the one my mind honed in on was the fact that there was another executioner walking around out there with some serious juice.
Alaric had disappeared from my side without me realizing, and now returned to take my arm. “Sophie isn’t here,” he breathed, relief clear in his voice. “Neither is James.”
Piecing things together, Mikael hoisted a small hand-ax up to his shoulder. “We need to make sure my people are alright.”
I nodded, still feeling numb. I’d take numbness any day over the fear I knew would wash in eventually. “Where’d you get the ax?” I questioned.
Mikael smirked. “You didn’t think I’d travel all the way back in time just to ask a few questions, did you?”
He turned on his heel and led the way out of the gory room. I did my best not to look at the corpses as we walked. If the Norns were, in a sense, our mothers, some serious matricide had just been committed. I felt a mixture of rage and guilt for their deaths. Rage, because they had been completely innocent, and guilt, because we had probably led the killer right to them. If we hadn’t used the Norns to go back in time, they might still be alive.
Some might say pain and anger are the best fuels for vengeance, but in that moment, I knew better. Guilt fueled the fires of vengeance like nothing else. I had no doubt in my mind that taking the lives of the killers would be justice, not murder. I wouldn’t be factoring anyone else’s perspective into it.
There were many moments where I hated what I was, and what I had to do.
This moment was not one of them.
23
Sophie twirled around like a dancer, a long blade in each hand. This is what she lived for.
The attack came during the night. Aislin’s people, by the look of it, given that Sophie didn’t recognize any of them.
Sophie’s blade met with flesh. She barely even registered whose life she had just taken, only that they were part of the enemy force. That was all that mattered. Aila had her back, swinging through the oncoming attackers with a giant ax.
To her left, Sophie barely registered Faas, releasing the souls from the fallen, and using that energy to injure or impede their enemies. With several attackers dead at her feet, Sophie took a moment to survey what had turned into a battlefield. Through the fighting, she thought she saw a glimpse of curly hair, and perfect, dark skin. Maya.
With a grunt of rage she rushed forward, leaving the ranks of Aila and the others.
It was an unwise move as it left her back vulnerable to attack, but she couldn’t help it. Maya had to pay for betraying her.
Sophie wove through the onslaught, darting around attackers like they were nothing. She knew her eyes and teeth had gone feline, and could feel her nails lengthening. She sheathed her dual blades at her waist as she ran. Killing Maya with her bare hands seemed a more fitting justice.
Just before she reached the area where Maya had been, something incredibly powerful knocked her off her feet. She fell to the bloody earth. There was a ringing in her ears, and she couldn’t seem to move.
We raced forward as the first tents came into view. The sound of fighting was all around. Mikael had known exactly where to go. He let out a cry of rage as we reached the scene of the battle, and his people fighting for their lives. He rushed off, leaving me and Alaric on the outskirts, hidden in the trees.
We took a few steps closer, then the pain reached me. Bloodlust and fear were distant echoes, unable to rival the emotions of both physical pain, and the pain of losing friends and loved ones. It was all I could do to remain standing.
Alaric stayed back with me, though I could tell he wanted to race forward to find his sister. His resolve to protect me hung on a tenuous string, and I didn’t blame him one bit. I would have rushed forward too if I could move.
Inside my head the key laughed, blocking out some of the pain. I stood a little straighter, grateful for the reprieve, but also fearful, knowing it was the key’s influence that helped me shut things out.
I turned to Alaric, about to say we should move forward, then something swept across the battlefield like a shockwave. I watched in awe as the Vaettir in the distance were thrown like rag dolls.
Alaric stood immobile. “What was that?” he asked in disbelief, finally taking another step forward.
I shook my head. I knew, but seemed unable to speak. I had felt that type of energy before, coming from my own hands.
“The power from the Norns,” I said finally, as if it explained everything.
Apparently it did. Alaric grabbed my arm and dragged me backward. “You need to hide,” he demanded. “If there’s another executioner here with that much power, they’ll kill you.”
I knew he was going to leave me to see if Sophie was alright. “They’ll kill you too!” I gasped.
He kissed me on the forehead, then pulled away. Before I could grab him, he was gone. To hell with that. I threw my body forward and ran after him, letting the key take control enough to block out everything on the battlefield. It was a mistake, but I saw no other choice.
I ran through the dark trees. Branches snagged at my clothing, inflicting superficial cuts on my flesh. It didn’t matter. My lungs burned with exertion. Luckily the fight wasn’t far off.
Moments later, I reached Alaric’s side. He turned to scowl at me, but the moment was short lived as he returned his attention to more immediate threats. There were bodies all around us, many dead, but some still groaning in pain. It was like a giant wave had hit them, only there was no water. Judging by their clothing, it seemed like many of the victim’s weren’t Mikael’s people. Everyone had been hit, with complete disregard for casualties.
At the center of the bodies stood a man, clothed in a form-fitting black coat, and matching black pants. Long hair that was either white or gray hung forward to cover his face.
Dark shapes milled about roughly twenty feet behind him. More enemy troops, ready to kill off any survivors.
Distantly I could feel death around me. It was enough death to attempt destroying the key, but what then? If I could absorb all the power, I might be able to focus it, but if the destruction didn’t take out the other executioner, surely he or the Vaettir waiting behind him would kill us soon after.
Alaric tried to tug me behind him, but I refused. I didn’t deserve to be shielded. The key was muttering in my mind, near incoherent thoughts of excitement. It knew I couldn’t destroy it then. I needed it to survive, or so it assured me. It was right.
Someone stepped around the still form of the other executioner, a small woman in an out of place ballgown. She even wore a little sparkly tiara on her head, glinting in the moonlight. Her face appeared middle-aged. Her hair, its color indistinguishable in the low light, was done in soft ringlets like a little girl would wear. I could feel the centuries she’d lived echoing outward as her cold eyes found me.
“Aislin, I presume,” I called out, sounding much more confident than I felt. I could hear fighting in the distance, but it was far off. Those on the ground around us were all still.
“Smart girl,” Aislin replied, a hint of English to her accent.
The key thrummed around my neck, and I knew the next words out of my mouth were not my own. “It would be wise for you to bow to your new ruler, little Doyen.”
Rage crossed her face, but the emotion was almost instantly wiped away. She raised one delicate, gloved hand up to the executioner at her side, gesturing for him to act.
He threw back his arm, then began to bring it forward for another shockwave. In the split second I had to make a decision, I knew I had no choice. I opened my mind fully to the key. Suddenly, all I could feel were the dead around me. The key sucked in their energy, releasing their souls without me even having to touch them. The power flooded me, just as the other executioner’s wave of energy shot forward.
My hand raised in front of me of its own volition. I felt Alaric at my side, trying to move me out of the path of the shockwave, but I was like a mighty tree rooted in the earth. He couldn’t move me, and if he stayed where he was the shockwave would hit him too.
Just before the wave would have hit us, energy shot from my hand to intercept it. Though the individual energies would be invisible to the untrained eye, the collision caused an eruption of static electricity. It crackled blue in the darkness, from the ground to a good twenty feet up in the air. As the energy dissipated, both Aislin and the other executioner stared at me in awe, unharmed, but so were we.
The other executioner looked down at Aislin. His voice sounded strained as he said, “Her energy calls to me.”
I had a feeling I wasn’t supposed to hear him, but all of my senses were heightened. The key was still sucking in the life of everyone around me. Alaric stood at my side, strong and immune to my vampiric powers.
Both Aislin and the other executioner were staring at me. “Now is not the time,” Aislin said finally.
They retreated, and I let them. Not allowing myself to think, I reached up and snapped the cord holding the key around my neck. I focused all the energy I’d absorbed onto the key dangling from my hand, spinning and glinting in the moonlight. Its screams of rage echoed through my mind.
It fought against me. Our similar powers ricocheted off each other, much like what had happened with the other executioner. I had the energy needed to destroy it, but I only had one piece of the puzzle. I knew how to do it, but if the key could predict my every thought, it could counter my every move.
I lowered the key and grunted in frustration.
Alaric came up behind me, pressing his hands tentatively on my shoulders. “Maddy,” he said softly, “there are many injured. Maybe you can help them. I have to find Sophie.”
I looked out across the fallen, ashamed that I had momentarily forgotten them. I tied the key around my neck as it gloated in my mind. I tried to send my stored energy out to Mikael’s people, but the key blocked me.
I hissed in frustration. “We can’t have a war if half of our army is dead,” I said out loud.
“What?” Alaric called out as he scanned the dark for his sister.
I shook my head. What I’d said gave the key pause. A moment later, I was able to send my energy outward, searching for those who could be healed. I felt sick as I realized all the bodies nearest me were fully dead. I’d taken their lives without a second thought, even though some may have otherwise survived.
With a muffled sob, I turned my attention away from them and back to the wounded.
I may have given death, but I could also heal. I could feel wounds being knit in the distance as if they were my own. I could even sense each individual, which was something entirely new. I sensed Mikael, and knew he had been injured in the blast, but would live, and I sensed Sophie, cradled in Alaric’s arms as he found her, already healed, but dazed.
I stood in the cold moonlight, feeling two dozen lives in my mind, yet I felt entirely alone. I could sense the key above all else. It knew it had me. It knew I would never survive any of this without it. There was only one final choice to make, and the key offered it willingly. Would I be its partner, or its slave?
24
We burned the bodies. The battle here had happened far from civilization, but some hiker would have discovered the grisly scene eventually. Heck, with the cops likely combing the land after we left them guessing back at Mikael’s house, they might happen upon the scene sooner rather than later. We needed to minimize the evidence.
It felt odd to finally be back in modern times. The atrocities against Mikael’s village would never be investigated. No one would ever be brought to justice. I had to say, I mostly appreciated the justice system of the modern times, even when it worked against me.
Hiding bodies was an anxiety inducing prospect, but wasn’t the matter at the forefront of my mind. I’d missed my first chance to destroy the key. The whole purpose of starting a war was to give me enough energy to destroy it, but how do you destroy something that can see into your head? The answer, you don’t. Erykah was right. I had to learn to shield my thoughts, else all was lost.
Aislin’s people had retreated after I had neutralized her executioner. Aislin knew exactly what the key was, I was sure of it. She knew she didn’t stand a chance against it. I briefly wondered if she knew I’d killed her sister, or if she knew that her great-nephew James was among those her people had injured. He was fine now, except for the missing memory.
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