Estus/the key watched me, confused.
I smiled. “Love has given me more strength and bravery than fear and pain ever did. Love is what makes us face our fears. Love shines light into the darkness. Love is the glue that holds fate and life together.”
“What are you babbling about?” Estus asked snarkily, though his voice quavered. Good.
“Love is more powerful than chaos,” I continued. “It’s more powerful than death. I may be death itself. I may be capable of darkness. But my love will always shine more brightly.”
I took a few more steps forward, putting us face to face.
I hugged him, and he was too stunned to react. Yggdrasil required the energies of fate, chaos, and all that the Morrigan had embodied to be reborn. She might not have been with me, but I had that energy too.
“If you regrow Yggdrasil this way, we’ll both die!” Estus shouted into my ear.
I continued to hug him as I opened up my connection to the earth. I could feel the energy of the ocean pounding in my skull. I could feel the lives slowly leaking out of my loved ones around me.
This was the right thing to do. My child and I would become part of Yggdrasil, along with the key. The lives of the few to save the many.
Power swept over us as Estus/the key began to cry in my arms. Chaos is love too, I thought. It’s love and hate, life and death. We’re the same, I realized.
That was something I had to accept long ago, a voice echoed in my mind. Mara’s voice.
As I thought of Mara, she was suddenly there. She pushed her phantom form between Estus and I, forcing me away as she embraced him.
Suddenly knowing what to do, I pressed my hands against her back, pushing all of my energy forth. I released the energy of the Norn into them both. As the last bits of power left me, I was thrown back into the sand like I’d been hit with a turbulent gust of wind. The forms of Mara and Estus lit up in a golden ray of light. It shot up into the sky, and down into the sand.
I tried to sit up, but the power of it forced me flat onto my back. All I could do was watch as the golden branches of a tree formed. They stretched up endlessly while the light at the center of the tree increased. Mara and Estus could no longer be seen.
I laid in the sand and sobbed like a baby. Mara had sacrificed her soul to save me. She’d been hated in life. Feared. Now she’d sacrificed everything to save the race she’d once despised. To save us all.
I stared up at the golden light as it wove its way through the sky like tiny veins in a giant leaf. The sand beneath my back grew warm, and suddenly I realized why. It was lit up with that same golden light. The roots of the World Tree were taking hold.
Suddenly there was a presence above my head, then hands gripped beneath my armpits to pull me backwards. Soon I was nestled in someone’s lap, with my head against a muscular chest. Alaric turned my face enough to kiss me, encasing us in his dark hair.
I felt another presence at our side, and pulled away to see Sophie. Her wound was gone. She sat in the sand beside us, staring up at the glowing tree.
Next came Mikael, then Faas and Aila, all uninjured.
I stared back up at the tree, surrounded by my family, and smiled despite my sadness. This is what Mara and the Norns had wanted. How things were supposed to be.
The air grew chilly. I sensed the banshees at our backs. Though Mara was gone, they were still here. Still ready to serve me.
It’s pretty, one of their voices sounded in my mind, speaking of the tree.
I had to agree with her. It was a miraculous sight. The golden branches reaching up into the sky would bring the old gods down upon us. Wild magics would be released into the world, and we had no idea what that might mean for any of us.
There would be many consequences to come, but for now, we had won.
“You’re free now,” I said out loud, speaking to the banshees. “Your task is done, I release you.”
Alaric watched me, his face close to mine, but didn’t comment.
You must return us to the earth, one of the banshees replied.
No, I thought back. It’s time for you to let go. Your true Phantom Queen is now free. So too are you.
A flurry of confusion raced through my mind, then excitement. The banshees had waited a very long time to be free. It was probably a bad move to give up my best weapon, but I knew what it felt to be used for the goals of others. I wouldn’t be anything like Estus or the key.
I relaxed against Alaric. We’d still have to deal with the old gods, but we’d do it just like we’d done everything else.
Together.
26
Three Months Later
“You need to eat more,” Faas chided, shoving another piece of buttered toast near my face from his seat next to me at the table.
I snatched the toast from him with a glare and placed it on my plate, just as Alaric added another heaping scoop of scrambled eggs from my other side.
I sat back in my chair and pouted. “You guys are going to make me fat.”
Mikael smiled at me from the other side of the table. “You need to eat more if little Erykah is going to grow up to be a proper Viking.”
I rolled my eyes at him, then placed a hand on my rapidly growing belly. Little Erykah, named after the woman who’d lost her life to the key, and who’d helped me learn how to defeat it, was currently jabbing my bladder.
Still, I smiled through the discomfort, overjoyed that she’d be born into a brave new world of our creation.
Three months had passed since we’d regrown Yggdrasil, and things were slowly beginning to change. Though we were yet to see signs of the old gods, we had little doubt they’d be coming. Strange magical occurrences were popping up all over the world. The humans still weren’t aware of the cause. Many now believed the apocalypse was coming, and an alien invasion was heavy on conspiracy theorist minds.
It was all building toward something. We weren’t sure what, but as long as it wasn’t the key returning to destroy us all, we could handle it.
Mikael and I had gone ahead with our plan to rule as Co-Doyens. After the tree had been regrown, we’d realized that Estus had just transported us to a different place, not a different time.
It had taken us a few days, but we’d eventually made it back to the Salr in Washington to find it wasn’t there. None of the Salr were. At first we’d been horrified that those within had disappeared along with the magical structure, but eventually we found them under the care of Silver. He’d had faith Mikael would return, and thus found residences for everyone using a huge chunk of the money Mikael had amassed over his long life. Mikael had been a little pissed, but was also glad his people were safe.
Since then we’d done the best we could to get everyone settled into life outside of the Salr. It was difficult to assimilate into human life when most of the Vaettir had no forms of ID, and little knowledge of modern technology, but we managed.
Estus/the key had lied when he said his people were all ready to assault humanity. A last ditch effort to get me to cooperate. I was glad, because if the Vaettir had started attacking humans, we’d be worrying about a lot more right now than making sure everyone had a place to stay.
For now, the humans were safe. The rest of us were preparing for the worst, while enjoying our freedom. The key’s warning still hung heavy on my mind. Would the old gods want to kill me for being an abomination? We still didn’t really know what I actually was, not really. Maybe if they didn’t jump right to killing us, the old gods could answer some questions.
I would have liked to ask Marcos what Hecate thought, but he’d disappeared while we’d all been in awe of the newly grown tree. No one had seen him since, but I had little doubt he’d be popping up eventually. Whether he’d be popping up as friend or foe was anyone’s guess. He’d claimed Hecate wanted to regrow Yggdrasil, but hadn’t divulged why. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know.
For the time being, I was just going to enjoy my life with my odd little family. Erykah would be bo
rn into an environment filled with love, and would learn how to be a tough little spitfire from her aunties Sophie and Aila. Her uncle Mikael would probably try to teach her how to fight and drink whiskey, but I’d do my best to hold him off until she was a bit older. Uncle Faas would be there to make sure she got proper nutrition, if nothing else.
I leaned my head against Alaric’s shoulder and smiled, watching my family chat and eat, then Kira and Sivi walked into the room hand in hand.
Sivi was a different woman since getting her sister back. She’d lost her motivation to destroy to all humans, given that motivation had sprung from the death of her sister, which was a lie. She still scared the living bejeezus out of me, but as long as she wasn’t killing anyone, I was happy to have her and Kira around.
I lifted my head from Alaric’s shoulder and sipped my coffee. Sophie and Aila returned to the dining room with a fresh pot of coffee, chatting in cheerful tones neither of them ever directed at anyone besides each other.
I laughed to myself. Life was strange, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I might have spent most of my life without a family, but I had one now, and that was all that mattered.
Now one might ask, “Since when does death get a happy ending?”
The answer to that is quite simple.
Since death grew a heart.
Note From the Author
I hope you’ve enjoyed the fourth installment in the Bitter Ashes Series. Please take the time to leave a review!
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Book Five, Shoots and Tatters, can be found here:
Shoots and Tatters, Book Five
Duck, Duck, Noose Page 25