Viking's Crusade (Viking Ancestors: Rise of the Dragon, #6)

by Purington, Sky

  She narrowed her eyes. “Then why do I feel so sad?”

  “Because I let you down, child.” He cupped her cheek. “I could not stop your inner dragon from breaking free that frightful day in the village any more than I could stop the man who killed so many.”

  “I don’t understand,” she whispered.

  “Yes, you do,” he murmured. “You had a soul determined to see your vow through, so I did my best to help you, to keep your inner beast at bay.” He frowned. “Yet a few years beforehand, your dragon must have sensed the prophecy coming because the connection we shared via the Portal and across time grew very unstable. Your inner beast was opening its eyes, Ava, enraged at the injustices around you.” He shook his head. “I could not stop its rage at evil that day.” His eyes never left hers. “It is long past time you realize it was not your fault.”

  “But it was.”

  “No,” he replied. “It was my fault for encouraging you to repress your dragon for so long. For thinking love had to be defined one way and not the other.”

  His eyes went to Soren. “To this day, dragons find love on Midgard, but I did not trust that.” His gaze returned to her. “I was ambitious in my need to see how far I could carry you, influence you, and it snapped that day, Ava. Because of the vow I would not release you from I was solely responsible for what happened to those people. Not you.”

  Though a part of her was furious, another part was relieved. Somewhat. While it was nice to know she wasn’t solely responsible for those poor people’s deaths that didn’t bring them back. It didn’t right the wrong. What made this any better, really?

  “So in essence,” she said. “The people in the village paid the price for me saving my people in another life.” She shook her head. “I freed one group of people to doom another.”

  “You doomed others only because I helped you keep your vow which meant repressing your dragon,” the elf said. “But you helped so many more before that not just on this world but Midgard. Never forget that, dragon.”

  Though she sensed Soren wanted to wrap her in his strong wings and offer comfort, she appreciated that he held back. That he let her stand on her own two dragon feet and face off with this elf the way she needed to. A species she had no idea held so much power. A fact she would be sure to share with the next generation.

  “While it’s hard to know if all the positive things I accomplished came from having a good soul or your influence over me, I prefer to think it was the former of the two,” she said. “That aside, I’ll now ask, are you prepared to do the same thing you asked of me for so long?” She narrowed her eyes. “Will you reciprocate the vow you forced me to keep? Will you ensure peace and do everything you can to get my people from Múspellsheimr to Midgard?”

  “Yes,” he said without hesitation, true regret in his eyes. “I will do anything I can to make up for the lives lost in the village that day.”

  Though anger still bubbled beneath the surface, the longer their eyes held, the more she understood his bone-deep need to right his wrongs. To see past his own arrogance and fix things.

  “Good.” She gestured at those suspended in time. “Tell me what comes next after you unfreeze them so Soren and I can lead everyone the hell off Múspellsheimr.”

  “Speed,” he said. “Though I could get you and your mate back to Midgard straight away with magic, I know you want to lead others, so that means moving very quickly.”

  “That'll still allow Skáld to follow us, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Perfect, how much time does he have to hop on our tail, so to speak?”

  “He is already on your tail,” the elf responded. “War has begun. Your people already see the light of your blades and follow it.”

  “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.” She nodded once. “Then let’s go.”

  The elf nodded once then the next thing she knew the others were unfrozen, and they were flying through a tunnel of roots again.

  “What the hell happened,” Tess exclaimed, teetering a little. “I feel off.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Sis,” Ava replied. “Just know that we’re better off now than we were before.”

  “Is that all then?” Leviathan said, clearly sensing more.

  “Actually no,” she replied. “Everyone’s going to have to fly their asses off real soon. Like you’ve never flown before.”

  The tunnel faded and the Múspellsheimr sky opened up to long, spindly roots. Seconds later, dragons and demons alike were on their flank, and they were battling their pursuers for all they were worth.

  Just like it had been when they witnessed war here before, fire was everywhere. Giants, demons, and dragons slammed into each other. Fireballs and streams of fire roared every which way.

  “Holy shit.” Tess batted an enemy dragon away with her tail as another soared alongside her, clearly flying to freedom. “What a clusterfuck!”

  “Just fly, Sis,” Ava roared. “Fly and help lead!”

  “Skáld’s coming,” Soren said. “You and Tess go. Rokar and I will hold him off.”

  “No,” Ava replied sharply, sensing his dragon’s need to protect them. “Now's not the time to repeat our past, Soren. Fly for Midgard and fight him there. Fly home, and we’ll kill the monster once and for all as a team.” She looked at him. “What’s the point of all this if we don’t?”

  “You and your sister surviving,” Rokar grumbled.

  “Which is no kind of life without you and Soren,” Ava shot back, her inner voice firm. “Time to lead our people home, boys. All the way home. All of us.”

  Though she felt Soren’s hesitation, he ultimately listened.

  “My mate is right.” He flew even faster, urging the others along. “We need to get the beast back to Midgard. We need to finish him off as a team.”

  “Fuck, yeah,” Tess said, pumped as her dragon shot forward even faster.

  War might rage right on their butts, but they were staying just ahead, swarming toward the roots with demons and dragons right behind them. Halla’s magic veiled them but only sporadically likely because she wasn’t on her home world.

  “Come on,” Ava cried, ignoring the pull of Skáld in her mind. She focused on Soren as she urged everyone to fly like mad. “We got this!”

  They did too.

  Close.

  Closer.

  Closer still.

  Almost.

  Then it happened.

  They were inches away from the light blooming within the roots when Soren, who had been cruising alongside her, was suddenly yanked away. She looked back, and everything went into slow motion just like it had in their last life.

  Skáld had Soren.

  Life had ended before it had a chance to begin.

  Just like before, she would be going on alone.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  READY FOR THE bastard, eager to sink his teeth into him for all the harm he had done, Soren whipped around when Skáld grabbed his ankle and attacked him with everything he had. What he never could have foreseen were several things happening at once just before one of Skáld’s jaws clamped onto his neck.

  A powerful pulse unleashed from Ava, more so her womb, and pushed Skáld free of him.

  Moments later, lightning from the First Blade still secure in Soren’s grasp slammed into the double-headed serpent seconds before white elven light crashed into him from behind and whipped him forward.

  Soren had just enough time to see a tall, slender man-shaped light attack all those following who weren’t infected. Ava’s elf was seeing through his promise and making up for the harm he had done her heart. Making up for a blazing need for peace and love that had wounded her human soul when everything went wrong.

  “They know we’re coming,” Ava said into his mind. “Our kin can hear me and know we’re coming.”

  Even as their enemy went whipping by them, rolling over and over, caught in elven magic, Ava found inner calm. Focus. Clarity. Absolute determination to end their n
emesis at long last.

  He had never been more proud.

  While he did not appreciate what the elf had put her through, he suspected a great deal of it, as the elf had said, was due to who she inherently was.

  She saved people.

  Brought them together.

  Found peace.

  That was what genuine love meant to her.

  “She’s the calm within the storm,” Tess murmured out of nowhere. “The eye...”

  No sooner did her sister say it than the Portal opened, and everyone poured through including Skáld and several of his minions. Just as they had hoped, thanks to Skáld being half infected with love, the elf's extra nudge, and the vast power the enemy had been drawing from his Domain, he whipped right through. As to the minions who slipped through with him, they were not only caught in Skáld’s wake but protected by it.

  A flash later, searing white light shone behind them, a loud boom resounded, and they didn’t come up under Skáld’s Ash but shot out of Níðhöggr’s Ash.

  That’s when Soren realized the Great Serpent’s plan all along.

  When they all realized it.

  “This was the main reason behind the fluctuations in the atmosphere,” Leviathan exclaimed.

  “And why Níðhöggr harnessed the power of my mountain,” Vigdis marveled, standing below, looking up.

  “To bring us home,” Ava said softly. “Our first home on Midgard.” Raging mad, her dragon locked on Skáld. “To give us a chance not to end him just for Níðhöggr but to finish him off for all of us. For everything he put us through.”

  Skáld, finally stabilizing after being catapulted through the Portal by elven magic, crashed down in the center of the lake. He roared at the heavens, his heads rising taller than the highest mountain in the Realm but not quite as high as Níðhöggr’s Ash. His minions, perhaps three dozen or so, took up formation around him, their evil presence scenting the air with their stink.

  “They’re here,” Ava cried. “Everyone’s here.”

  Thanks to the time difference her message had made it to their kin hours before they arrived and Níðhöggr’s Realm was fully surrounded not just by those they had led out of Múspellsheimr but by the Sigdirs, the Ancients as well as Tiernan, Magnus and a vast host of Årud warriors.

  Not only that but every couple from the prophecy and their combined power.

  “The Portal is completely closed,” Vigdis confirmed, speaking within everyone’s mind. “Skáld cannot return to his world.”

  Sven’s dragon landed next to Bjorn's but technically spoke to Heidrek. “What will you have us do, Father?”

  “You should not ask me,” he looked to Leviathan, “but the new Tribal Leader, he who the New Tribe looks to.”

  Though Leviathan seemed slightly taken aback by the title, he acknowledged it then glanced at Soren and Ava. “I, in turn, ask those who led their people to freedom not once but twice. What will you have us do?”

  Ava and Soren looked at each other and didn’t bother to speak within the mind.

  They roared, “Attack!”

  After that, it was pure mayhem. Chaos he and Ava enjoyed every minute of as they bombarded Skáld with everything they had alongside the others. She could have held back, probably should have considering her pregnancy, but he would not ask it of her any more than his kin would have asked it of their mates.

  Yet their enemy was mighty.

  Be that as it may, he was not mighty enough. Not when faced with so many dragons full of rage fueled by love denied them. That was something they didn’t anticipate. So many Múspellsheimr dragons full of love and hate all at once.

  As it turned out, everyone played a part in the end.

  Halla hid her kin so they could ruthlessly attack their enemy without them knowing what direction they came from. The fire demons burned Skáld and his minions at every opportunity. Dahlia flew every which way, a distraction in her own right. Vigdis used her magical chants, a means to discombobulate their minds even more. Even the Realm itself took part, the lake often pinning down Skáld’s wings with its sheer force.

  Tiernan unleashed random bursts of magical blue light that crippled minions mid-air, leaving them vulnerable to demon fire. He also protected Ava every chance he got, often stopping an enemy dragon before it got too close. The frustration etched on the wizard’s face, however, told Soren he was struggling, clearly powerful one moment then seemingly without magic the next.

  Soren and his cousins killed many, battering Skáld alongside Ava and her sisters. Their intense power dwindled down Skáld’s minions in no time until only the double-headed serpent remained. Roaring mad, and severely wounded from hundreds of attacks, Skáld ultimately ended up facing off with the last two dragons he would have expected.

  Heidrek and Bjorn.

  “Your minds are weak,” one of his heads seethed in disbelief. It snapped at them but failed to cause any harm thanks to the lake’s power over it.

  Meanwhile, the two attacked him ruthlessly. Unfortunately, because they remained in each other’s bodies, they struggled to overcome the sheer power of the second head.

  “That is why we confused you so easily,” the first head mocked Heidrek and Bjorn, struggling in the murk of the lake. “Because you are weak.”

  “Yes,” Ava called out. Her dragon swaggered onto the shore and blinked several times as if confused. “They are weak...”

  Soren tensed. What was she doing? What was she thinking? Was she under Skáld's influence again? His vision hazed red, and he made to go after her but stopped at his son's words in his mind.

  “Stay back, Father,” Thorulf warned, both fear and pride in his internal voice. “Let your mate prove herself in battle.”

  Overly aware of his offspring's sudden proximity, his eyes shot to the outer edge of the Realm only to see Thorulf and Dagr were indeed here. How? But then where would he have been at their age? Especially if he had a powerful demi-god as a comrade.

  Thorulf's dragon eyes met his across the way, and his son nodded with surprisingly calm reassurance. “Your mate is only doing what you asked of her, yes? She is using Skáld's love for her to distract the beast?”

  “Yes,” he replied, proud of his son for seeing reason where he could not. For seeing logic where love literally blinded Soren.

  Terror spiked through him when Skáld’s second head grew interested in Thorulf, but it was for naught. The enemy was already too imprisoned by what his other head was doing to get far.

  “Mate,” his first head breathed in worship at Ava, intrigued by her, enraptured.

  More importantly, vulnerable.

  That’s all they needed.

  Furious, ready to exact revenge, Bjorn and Heidrek pounced on Skáld seconds before their children and mates followed, then shortly after everyone else. All the while, Níðhöggr’s Realm, and its shifting land and weather kept Skáld at the mercy of his enemies.

  In the end, his mighty heads fell to the shore, one in Heidrek’s jaw, the other in Bjorn’s. Though there was no sign of Níðhöggr in those final moments, the former kings swore that something filled them that hadn’t been there before. Not just a profound and powerful sense of retribution as they tore at their enemy's throats but a sense of closure for hundreds.

  Not just Ava but her sisters and mates continued attacking Skáld, their rage at all the heartache he had caused them in another life fueling their hatred. With his powers diminished and his great body pinned down by Níðhöggr’s Realm, Skáld’s energy waned until he stilled beneath their weight.

  While years later some would say this or that finally felled the mighty beast, those closest to the double-headed serpent knew who had the final say. They saw Vigdis crouch in front of one of Skáld’s heads, which was still barely alive, and place her hand on his gasping snout. She met his eyes with her blackened ones.

  A gaze possessed by Ancient Matter.

  “Now I watch you die, enemy.” Níðhöggr’s gaze wasn't full of prideful hate but some
thing else. Something less sinister. The same thing that possessed his eyes when he tried to kill his daughter at the spring.

  Mercy.

  Because, as they all understood, if Skáld was capable of being infected with love, there had to be an ounce of good deep within him. “Might you find...redemption.”

  Then Vigdis lowered her head to Skáld’s great snout and began chanting.

  Magnus rested his hand on her shoulder and chanted as well.

  What happened after that was a combination of seer and demon power plus Níðhöggr’s magic as demon fire consumed Skáld’s body. Never had there been a more profound display than watching the enemy’s body go up in flames surrounded by the tiny specks that had been his misguided comrades.

  By the time his body drifted away in ashes, Vigdis was no longer possessed but in Magnus’s arms. In fact, nearly every couple shifted back and embraced as they watched the double-headed serpent at last meet his maker.

  A maker, as it happened, that carried his ashes away on a swift wind.

  Silence fell as the last of Skáld vanished, and peace settled over the Realm.

  A silence people weren’t sure they should enjoy until Heidrek raised his head and roared, “I am me again!” followed by Bjorn doing the same.

  Their mates, Cybil and Samantha, flew into their arms, teary as they welcomed their men home. Soren embraced first his son and Ava, glad she was okay, then his father, never so happy to have him back. Everyone crowded onto the shore, eager to embrace and welcome back their former kings as well.

  Yet all fell back out of respect when Dahlia landed beside her parents and Davyn, and they shared a bittersweet homecoming no one ever expected. What would happen now? Would she be able to stay, or would she have to move on?

  She eventually looked to Níðhöggr’s Ash as if sensing something and she wasn’t alone.

  Ava and her sisters were heading in that direction.

  “You should see to your mate, Son,” his father said. “She needs you.” His eyes swept over Soren’s cousins. “All of your mates need you.”