“Well I certainly like the sentiment.” I dropped my arm over her shoulders, placing a kiss to her temple.
The group suddenly stopped up ahead and I realised why as Montana and I pushed through a wall of power hanging in the air around us. My mouth parted as I gazed at the sight before us, the strange bubble we'd passed into revealing it to us: the holy mountain. Rising high into the sky above the forest where birds circled and clouds clung to its peak, motionless.
“We made it!” Julius whooped, pulling Clarice into a fierce hug.
My wife jogged forward and crashed into Callie, the two of them hugging and jumping into the air at the same time.
Fabian pumped his fist above his head, turning back to catch my eye with a wide grin. “We found it Brother, after all these years.”
“I thought you liked being immortal,” I called to him with a note of teasing in my tone.
“I think I've changed my mind,” he laughed, turning and dragging Chickoa into his arms. She tilted her chin up and their mouths suddenly met. Everyone fell still, staring at them in surprise as she clung to him, scraping her nails down his neck as if they didn't have an audience. He groaned, grabbing her waist and I grinned at their display, so glad my brother had finally regained the love he’d lost all those years ago.
I watched as Magnar and Julius embraced fiercely then Magnar turned to me.
“Hey Erik.” He beckoned me over and I moved to his side with trepidation and excitement stirring inside me over what we were about to face.
“Yeah?” I asked and he answered by dragging me into the fiercest embrace of my life.
I was pretty sure one of my shoulders popped out of its socket, but the second he released me I found I was alright. I patted his face affectionately. “Always knew you had a soft spot for me.”
“Yes, when I was trying to rip your head off every time I encountered you over the years, all I really wanted was a kiss.”
“And you got a few in the end, didn't you?” I smirked.
He thumped my chest and I stumbled back a step, but he was grinning from ear to ear.
“Right then guys,” Julius said to the group with a hungry glint in his gaze. “Who's ready to break this gods-forsaken curse?”
The mountain towered overhead like an inescapable beacon, calling me on. My blood was alive with the magic of this place. The weight of the power in the air pressed down on my back, drawing me to it, calling me.
Montana held my hand and we led the way towards it in silence.
A deep rhythm started up all around us like the beating of a drum which rolled from the heart of the mountain across all that surrounded it. The deep ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam sang to me in a way I was powerless to resist and my heartbeat fell into the rhythm it created. Our fate was calling us on and it was impatient for us to face it.
The long grass before our feet parted in an unnatural breeze but instead of blowing in one direction, it split straight down the middle, carving a path into existence which hadn’t been there before. Even the trees bowed to it, their thick trunks leaning left and right as the pulse thrummed through the air.
Montana gasped. “My heart’s beating,” she breathed in astonishment, her hand pressed to her chest.
Neither of us stopped walking but I turned to look at her in amazement. Her features were still that of a vampire but her eyes were wide with the thumping of her heart.
As we reached the edge of the trees, we paused to look up at the holy mountain. Helgafell towered above us impossibly high. Its sides were sheer and covered in emerald green foliage which fell away to grey rock. I could see snow glimmering on its highest slopes just before it disappeared into the clouds which hung around its peak.
Birds of every size and colour swooped across the open plain before us, from brightest green to shimmering gold, pink, blue and yellow. Their cries were lilting and musical, combining to create a sorrowful lament which wound together with the beating of the mountain’s heart by perfect, unnatural design.
I could feel the others following at our backs but this place hadn’t appeared for them. It was meant for us. Twins of sun and moon.
Everything in our lives had drawn us here. Now that I stood beneath the mountain, I could feel it in my soul.
This was where our journey ended. This was what it had all been for.
Time to pay the debt. The voice rumbled through the fabric of the world and stirred my blood with the force of its power.
We stepped out onto the plain and the grass fluttered in a breeze I couldn’t feel, tossing side to side, shimmering silver then gold and back again.
Ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam. That heartbeat was my heartbeat. Montana’s. One and the same. We were bound together as one soul. Alive and dead. Before and after.
To our right the sun hung low in the sky, a burning orb of power which threw brilliant golden light across my flesh and sung with the warmth of every day that had ever passed.
To our left, beyond Montana, the moon had risen, low and fat, a shimmering ball of silver in a dark, star-filled sky. The light it cast swept out, highlighting my sister’s pale skin in a cool breeze which carried the depths of every night in the memory of the world.
Where our hands met, the two celestial beings collided, but instead of a struggle for power, the light found a natural equilibrium and an echoing sense of balance prevailed.
We crossed the plain and that heartbeat grew louder, stronger. We were in its grasp and I didn’t think we could have turned back even if we’d wished to. But we didn’t want to. This was our destiny. The end of our path.
As we reached the middle of the plain, the wind picked up and we paused as it swirled around us.
I felt the kiss of the sun and the brush of the moon on my skin, in my hair, weaving through the blood in my veins and the air in my lungs.
When the wind dropped away, I gazed at my sister in surprise. She was wearing a dress which seemed to have been carved out of moonlight itself. It spilled over the curves of her body and pooled at her feet in the deepest shade of silver. Her arms were bare and the pale, transparency of her skin glimmered faintly. Her hair seemed even darker than before, tumbling down her back in silky waves and her lips were deepest red as if they were stained by the colour of the blood which sustained her immortal body.
Her mouth parted as she took in the change in my appearance too. My dress was weaved from sunlight, though it was the twin of hers in all other ways. I could feel the warmth of it as it coiled about my flesh and twisted to the ground.
As I looked at our joined hands, I noticed the perfection of my skin with a hint of surprise; every cut and bite had been smoothed away as if they had never existed at all. And the warmth of my blood shone through it as if sunlight lived beneath my flesh.
My palm started to itch where it was clasped in my sister’s hand and I released her to look at it as the partnership rune which bound me to Fabian was stripped away. Montana held her left hand before her eyes, watching as the mark which tied her to Erik faded too.
Fabian groaned behind me and I turned my head to look at our friends. It was harder to do than it should have been, but eventually my gaze found his. Fabian’s eyes rounded with a deep pain for a moment but as the rune finally faded, his shoulders sagged and it seemed like a weight was lifted from him.
His eyes left mine and he turned to Chickoa instead, offering her the hand which had marked him as mine. She took it and I almost smiled in response but the mountain’s heartbeat was growing stronger, more demanding and it didn’t want me wasting any more time.
Montana took my hand again and we headed on.
At the foot of the mountain, a huge cave stood waiting for us, yawning wide like a mouth hoping to swallow us whole.
I couldn’t tell what was within the pressing darkness that filled it but I knew that was where we were going.
Ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam. On we walked and my eyes stayed fixed on that cave. Nothing else existed but that. Nothing else mattered but what was withi
n it.
The ring on my finger was burning, aching, pleading to be reunited with whatever lay in wait.
A harsh cry sounded somewhere behind us but I didn’t turn.
People were shouting, screaming, fighting. It didn’t matter. Destiny called us and we walked towards it on bare feet.
A small piece of me was aware of leaving something behind but it was what awaited me that truly mattered.
Montana’s grip on my fingers was firm and unyielding and we walked together to the end of the world.
Ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam. We stopped as we reached the mouth of the cave. Darkness stretched so thickly within it that I couldn’t see a thing beyond the next step we had to take.
Ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam- the beating of the drums ceased and the stillness it left behind stole the air from my lungs.
I looked at my sister and a faint smile lifted her red lips. This was it.
I almost stepped forward but something called me back and I could feel Montana hesitating too.
I turned my head, pressing my will against our destiny for one last look at the man I loved. He couldn’t follow me here. Once we stepped inside I knew none of them could pursue us.
Montana pressed against the compulsion to continue too and we both looked over our shoulders at the men we loved one last time.
My lips parted as my gaze fell on the scene behind us.
Valentina had arrived with an army of Biters to try and stop us from breaking the curse.
The rest of our group had fallen into battle to defend us from her so that we could go on. Erik was tearing the plain apart with his power over the earth and the air writhed with an unnatural storm in Valentina’s control.
My eyes found Magnar amongst the mayhem, his swords raised high as he carved a path between the Biters who sought to halt our destiny with his immeasurable strength.
My heart seized as I looked at him and for the briefest moment, his eye caught mine. Pain filled my chest as my love for him overwhelmed me and I ached to turn and run back into his arms. But I couldn’t. It was too late. Our fate called to us and there was no other way on but this.
A tear slid from my eye as I turned away from him and we stepped into the eternal darkness of the cave.
The mountain swallowed us up and we delved deeper and deeper into it as the world fell away behind us.
My sister’s hand was tight around mine and I clung to her as the pain of leaving Magnar behind filled me. We had come here for a reason and I wouldn’t turn back from it now. But with each step we took, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d just said goodbye.
Callie and I headed through the dark tunnel, the power of this place so oppressive I could feel it in my lungs like the heaviest air in the universe. We moved side by side into the blackness, walking ever on through the passage which held nothing ahead of us and nothing behind. Our feet were guided by the persistent tug in the air and nothing else.
My mind flitted to Erik and for half a second I longed to turn back again, sure he was in danger. But the power drilled into my body once more and I was a captive to it. Lost, confounded and aching for something I couldn't quite grasp.
Light suddenly grew from our dresses, the brightness tangling into an intense glow that lit the way forward.
An enormous golden door appeared ahead of us, seeming suspended in the darkness. A swirling mass of runes were inlaid in the metal, pulsating with the aura of the gods. My heart thundered at the sight and my gut clenched at the intense power which rolled off of it in waves.
Callie drifted closer to the door, sliding the ring from her finger and the runes moved as if drawn to it magnetically. She reached out, in a trance as she placed it against the door.
A heavy thunk filled my ears and the runes dissolved with a sound like falling rain. The door slowly swung open and my heart beat and beat and beat.
A groaning gust of air washed over us, thick and hot. It was the breath of a god. And their relief at our approach was clear. Silently, we stepped into the impenetrable darkness that awaited us beyond the door. With a clanging noise that filled me with dread, the door fell shut behind us.
All at once, my heart ceased to beat and the light of our dresses faded away, leaving us in the impervious blackness once more.
I reached for Callie's hand; she was the only solid thing in this forsaken place and I needed to reassure myself that she was still there. The warmth of her skin tingled against my fingers and I gripped her tighter as the sound of our breathing filled the space.
“Erik,” I groaned, turning back to face the golden door, but I could no longer see it as the darkness pressed in. He was in trouble and I knew the only way to stop it was by ending this curse. We had to finish what we'd come here to do. There was no going back and I sensed my sister knew that too.
“Come on,” she whispered. “Let's get on with it.”
We started running and the ground met my feet though I couldn't see the way forward. I reached out with my free hand to try and find a wall to guide us on, but there was nothing there. We never faltered, just kept sprinting, hunting for our salvation.
We were trapped in this infernal tunnel, speeding through what felt like a nothingness between two worlds. And the further we moved, the more certain I was that we were leaving the mortal world behind and stepping into something far greater.
Nightmare was vibrating madly at my hip. I reached for its hilt, drawing on its aura to give me another ounce of strength as our feet pounded against the solid ground.
In a holy mountain the earth will heal, then the dead shall live and the curse will keel.
My blade sang the line of the prophecy over and over in mind until it resounded like the ringing of a gong.
“So close, we're so damn close, Callie,” I called to her, tightening my hold on her hand.
The Biters were outside. Our friends were fighting for their lives. The men we loved were powerful, they could hold them off. But not forever.
We could make it. We had to make it.
“Let's finish this,” Callie said through her teeth and a renewed spurt of energy guided my limbs.
No more blood. I'd never have to drink it again. Erik and I would be free to start our life together. Our hearts would beat, our love would grow and grow and the gods could watch until we were laid to rest and they forgot all about us.
A light grew up ahead and I dragged Callie on with every ounce of strength I had.
“Not far,” I urged and she nodded eagerly.
We tore into a room, arriving at the top of a huge stone staircase which led down into a cavernous space. Ornate torches burned with golden fire in sconces on every wall, illuminating the space. Words couldn't begin to describe the beauty that lay before me. My eyes swam with the sight of so much treasure.
A huge mound of glittering gold coins lay at the base of the steps, so high it was almost as tall as the stairs itself. Beyond the coins was a long stone plinth with an array of golden weapons laying upon it. A huge mirror stood behind that, oval and as tall as a man. The frame was silver and glittered like moonlight. Above us, a fireball flamed in a giant sphere, rotating like a hungry eye as it watched us.
Callie's breathing grew shallow and I sensed her anticipation of what we were about to do. I held on tighter, needing her strength as much as I needed my own as we started down the stairs.
We arrived before the plinth and I absorbed the sight of the weapons before us. An enormous hammer, a cross-shaped amulet, a curved horn, a dagger, a huge sword and a bow with a quiver of arrows. Each of them sat in a slot in the stone, carved perfectly to fit them. At the far end of the plinth was a space. A small, circular hole sat empty and I knew exactly what would fit into it.
Callie slipped the ring from her finger, releasing my hand as she moved toward the hole. She held my eye for a moment and my breath caught as she slid it in.
A thunk sounded through the space surrounding us like the world had somehow shifted. My heart squeezed with anticipation, hope, fear.
Is this it? Is the curse about to break?
A heavy rumbling filled the air and some of the gold coins cascaded from the top of the pile.
I trembled, looking to Callie, then to my hands. I pressed a palm to my chest above my unmoving heart, expecting to feel it stir as life was returned to my body. But there was nothing. No beat, no pulse. I was still a vampire. But why?
A deep, thundering laugh filled the air. It held so much joy that I could feel it running through my blood, driving the same emotion into my veins and curving my mouth up into a smile.
The mirror behind the plinth rippled and our reflection shimmered and changed, revealing Andvari instead. He wore a fine black robe, a stark contrast to his usual tattered brown rags. His face was perfect and terrifying, his eyes turning to a sparkling gold as bright as the treasure in the cave.
He pressed his hand to the pane of glass, stepping through it as easily as if it were liquid. The god stood before us in all his magnificent glory, his power emanating from him in waves. The mirth he was emitting left my body and fear found me instead, driving into my heart like nails.
“So you have returned it,” he sighed as his gaze fell on the ring and a strong wind pulled back our hair. “A thousand years is an awfully long time to wait. But I have been patient...and at last I have it back.” He reached toward the hole, taking the ring and pushing it onto his finger. “My love...Andvaranaut, did you miss me?” he purred to it. He caressed the ring and murmured to it in a language I didn’t know. When he was done his eyes lit with some knowledge. “I have seen all who ever kept my dear ring from me. Erik Larsen’s mother was a fool. She gifted the ring to a village to make peace between them and kept the truth of what she’d done from her worthless husband. The woman who led that tribe became the first slayer of Idun’s creation, then all those in her clan were gifted too. My ring has passed hand to hand, generation to generation until it fell to the likes of you.”
I shared a look with Callie, my mouth parting with that knowledge. That we were direct descendants of the first ever slayer. That our mother had held that same powerful blood in her veins. And this ring had miraculously remained within our family for a thousand years, only to fall into Callie’s hands as a treasured gift from our father.
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