“This is it. The end has come. The sun is gone but the realm is on fire. I can see them. I can smell the cooked flesh and burning forests. They are coming, and they will not be stopped.
I’m sorry, Elena.”
—Final Record, Archives of Asgard
“Can you stand?” I reached out to Loki. His face was paler than I’d ever seen it. He nodded and took my help. I pulled him up slowly, his arm over my shoulder. He reached for the dagger protruding from his chest, and I slapped his hand away. “If you pull that out, you’ll bleed to death right here. Hreidulfr, make us a path.” The edge of the battlefield wasn’t far. We just needed to make it to the woods. I could heal him.
Hreidulfr nodded. Váli leapt down from his back and hobbled forward beside him, biting ankles and tearing flesh as Hreidulfr went blow for blow with the einherjar that stood in our way. A pair of Jotnar looked for a moment as if they might attack but changed their mind when Hreidulfr cut down another of Asgard’s warriors.
I held Loki up, shouldering his weight as he hopped forward. We walked as quickly as we could over bodies and through the mud. His breathing was wet, laboured. We didn’t get far; his mangled ankle slowed us at every step.
Sleipnir pushed his nose into my arm, then sidled up beside me so that his saddle was next to us.
“Yes, alright. Loki, can you climb up?”
Loki gave a weak nod. I held him stiffly as he hooked his good foot into the stirrup and struggled to swing himself up. But he managed.
“You hold onto him, you hear me?” I forced the reins into Loki’s hands. I squeezed his hand. “I’ll heal you. I just need you to be strong for a while longer.” He tried to speak, but the words were a gargle, a choke. I cursed under my breath. “Go, Sleipnir. We don’t have much time.”
Sleipnir trotted ahead, careful of his speed. Too fast, and he’d jostle Loki off; Loki was already swaying more than I liked.
“Nearly there!” Hreidulfr yelled before taking a punch to the face. Váli ripped a hole in the shieldmaiden’s leg in answer, another body in the path.
The danger was thinning. There were so few einherjar left. We just needed to get somewhere safe, somewhere that I could treat Loki without—
A spear flew through the air and hit Sleipnir in the flank.
Sleipnir’s scream ripped through the noise of the battlefield. He stumbled, trying to catch his balance. But he couldn’t. He fell to his side, the spear jutting out towards the sky, and Loki crashed to the ground.
I ran to him, sliding into the mud beside him. He’d landed on his side and rolled onto his back. His skin was cool to the touch. Every breath was laboured, his chest expanding and contracting in desperation. There was no time.
“Protect us!” I called over Sleipnir’s screams.
Stretching out my hands, I placed them gently on Loki’s chest, avoiding the dagger that was lodged there. I drew long breaths in and let them out, focusing on the runes I needed to bring him back from the brink. There was so little energy left. I felt around for some hidden depth to summon for my own. There was something there, deep in the roots. I pulled it up with all the strength I had. A vague warmth ran through my skin, into the tips of my fingers and into Loki’s chest. It lasted for a moment and was gone again. I wouldn’t get anything else.
Loki coughed. Blood spattered onto his lips. It wasn’t enough. If I’d had a reed, poultice, disinfectant…but there was nothing. Everything I’d ever learned, and now the moment I needed it most, I was helpless.
Loki’s hand grasped at the back of my neck, pulling me down toward him. His voice was a wet, gurgling rasp. “You need—to go.”
“No, I won’t leave you.” My teeth ground together, fighting back the grief and anger. I touched my forehead to his, my tears dropping onto his cheeks. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He coughed again, and I felt the warm spatter of his blood on my cheeks. He choked out the words. “I love you. Go.”
I shook my head against his, clutching his hand in mine. Each deep breath brought a rattle in his chest, the bubble of the blood in his lungs. He was right. Without seidr, there was nothing I could do.
“I need you, Loki. Please stay.”
He inhaled deeply, trying to find a bit of air, but there was none. He struggled to speak, to tell me something, but there was no breath for words.
I released his hand and pulled my wedding band from my finger, shaking like a leaf. I slipped it onto his smallest finger, the only place it would fit. I could barely speak through the tears. “You take this, and you wait for me. I’ll meet you in Helheim, you hear me? I want it back.”
Loki nodded, trying desperately to drag the air into his lungs. Each breath was quicker, shorter. He was drowning, and I couldn’t save him. It would be slow, and I’d watched him suffer enough for one lifetime.
I took hold of the dagger’s hilt. Everything in me screamed not to touch it, begged me to do anything else. He was shaking, his eyes alight with panic, his mouth opening and closing searching for air. With my empty hand, I cupped his cheek and said the only thing left to say.
“I love you too.” And I pushed the blade deeper.
He seized. He sputtered, choking, his nails digging into my hands. Then he fell limp, the life gone from his eyes.
I collapsed onto him and screamed into my hands. All I could feel was the shaking of my body, the suffocating pressure pushing in on me. His solid, unmoving body under my hands. There were voices, Hreidulfr and Váli, but I didn’t know what they were saying. Someone pulled at my shoulder, trying to bring me to my feet.
“Come on, ma’am. We have to get you out of here.”
I pulled away, trying to stay with Loki, but Hreidulfr was stronger. He grabbed me by my arm and hauled me to my feet.
“No!” I reached for my husband, lying there in the mud. “Let me stay! I can’t leave!”
Hreidulfr picked me up and threw me over his shoulder. I lashed out, slamming my fists into his back. “Ma’am, where he’s gone, you can’t help him. I’m not about to leave you to die.” He started away from Loki, and my eyes caught on the shine of white and gold metal.
Sleipnir’s eyes were open, lying completely still, not two feet from Loki.
It was too much to lose. I collapsed against Hreidulfr’s back, sobbing into my hands.
“We need to leave. We’ll need horses.” Váli’s voice was as cold as ice. His father and his brother were dead and his mother a wreck and he was pushing on, because he would have to.
Hreidulfr tapped me on the back with his rough hand. “If I put you down, are you going to run off?”
I shook my head. “No.”
He put me down next to Váli and pointed to a group of discarded horses lazing around the edge of what was left of the battle. “I’m getting us two horses and coming back, and Yggdrasil shade me, if you make me chase you, I’ll knock you out when I catch you.”
“I won’t.” I sniffed, wiping the wetness from my face. My hand came away sticky and red.
Hreidulfr walked away, treading carefully towards the horses.
Váli was sitting near me, licking his injured paw, as silent as the grave.
“Váli, I’m sorry—”
“Don’t.”
I didn’t.
I turned back, toward the carnage behind us. The fire had spread. Surtr and his sword were heading toward Vanaheim, his heavy footsteps shaking the ground. He dragged the tip of his sword on the ground behind him, lighting everything behind him as he passed.
There was a mass of grey fur lying in the centre of everything. Fenrir’s carcass was splayed out over dozens and dozens of other bodies. His bottom jaw had been ripped from his face. A lake of blood was swelling up, swallowing everything that lay around him.
I hadn’t even noticed that he’d died.
Those left standing moved from body to body, finishing off any ally of Asgard who might still be alive. Among the dead would be everyone I’d ever known. My brothers. My father. Those who I’d once called friends. Idunn, Freya, Alruna, Frigg. Anyone who could fight or heal or help would’ve died here today to defend their home, their people.
In the distance, Jormungandr was still wrapped around the mountains of Jotunheim, struggling against Thor. Lightning crackled around them. Thor ran, leaping along Jormungandr’s back, toward his head. He brought the hammer down, and a sickening crack echoed. The serpent crashed to the ground and bounced, its weight pulling it back into the water. The destruction pulled the ground away at the edge of the sea, stirring up a wave that splashed back onto the battlefield, sweeping away swaths of bodies. Amid it all, Thor found his way to safe ground. He took a fumbling step forward and another. He hadn’t walked ten paces when he stopped short and crumpled to the ground.
Hel rose above the battlefield, her darkness swirling around her. She turned toward Vanaheim on Surtr’s heels, and the remnants of her army turned as well. How long would it take them to sweep across all the realms that offered resistance? What would be left when they were done?
The clomp of hooves caught my attention. Hreidulfr held a pair of horses by the reins, leading them back to us. He’d also managed to bring back a torch, torn from a burning bush and wrapped with cloth to keep it alight. “We’d best get going. That flood is heading right this way.”
“But to where? There’s nowhere to run.”
I stared off into the distance, toward Asgard. Yggdrasil still stood in the distance, faintly illuminated by a realm on fire. Its branches hung over the empty city, awaiting an army that would never return. “We go to Yggdrasil.”
Hreidulfr gave me the reins of one horse, and we both saddled up as quickly as we could manage. Váli couldn’t keep pace with us, so Hreidulfr held him one-armed against his chest in the saddle. Waves licked at our heels as we rode, the sea swallowing up more land behind us, always coming closer but never catching up.
I tried to focus on the movement of the horses, the world around us, but I couldn’t. I kept seeing Loki’s eyes, the struggle of his breath. Kept feeling the crunch of the tissue under the knife in my hand.
At long last, the gates of Asgard came into view. As they did, the ground began to shake beneath us.
I turned back. Surtr was heading for Asgard, coming to burn it to the ground. I pressed my heels into my horse, challenging Hreidulfr to match my pace. If we didn’t arrive before Surtr, our chance at safe passage would be destroyed.
We raced under the gates of the city. There were no lights burning, no one in the streets. In all the time I’d lived there, I’d never seen Asgard so utterly abandoned.
When we finally made it to the base of Yggdrasil, the clearing was empty, Idunn’s cabin abandoned, its door wide open. The ground was shaking; Surtr was getting closer. Hreidulfr’s horse spooked and threw the boys off. I jumped down to help them up, and my horse bolted as well. It didn’t matter, though. The journey was over.
A light caught my eye above us. A leaf, smouldering bright with orange flame. The World Tree was on fire.
I turned at the sound of hooves, a horse bursting into the clearing, a Jotun on its back. White-haired, bloodied, and giant. Skadi.
I turned back to Hreidulfr. “Find the entrance to the tree. Take Váli to safety. Go.”
He shook his head. “I can’t do that, ma’am, I—”
“Go!” I screamed, and he did. Váli called out in protest, but Hreidulfr held him tight, racing toward the base of the tree.
Skadi stopped and dismounted, taking her time as if it hadn’t just run out.
I stood my ground. “Why are you here?”
She grinned, almost feral in the firelight. “A rat will always lead you safely from a sinking ship.”
I reached for the daggers on my belt. “So you’re running away from a fight? Are you always so loyal?”
She laughed. “As if I ever gave two shits about Asgard. I’m Jotun, little Goddess. I care about my own and having vengeance for what was taken from me.”
I let a little smirk creep onto my lips. “Perhaps we’re not so different in the end.”
She pulled her sword from her belt. “You want revenge? Come and take it.”
I stretched out my shoulders, letting all the grief and pain come to the surface. Everything I’d pushed down, everything I’d tried not to feel. I pictured the light leaving Narvi’s eyes, Skadi’s fingers pulling his entrails from him, Loki dying under my hands. When I opened my mouth, I heard Loki’s laugh spill out, angry and unhinged. “I think I will.”
Skadi charged at me and swung. She was twice as strong and twice as big as me. I’d never beat her in a fair fight. I dove, rolling to the side under her feet. I was close enough to touch her, so I slid my blade into her calf and rolled back out of the way. She shrieked and whipped around to find me no longer underfoot. I stood and waited for her to make a move, blades held out, one glistening with her blood.
“Hóra!” She lunged toward me and swung her arm, catching me in the chest. The force of the blow tossed me through the air. I crashed into a tree and crumbled to the ground, my body screaming.
“Is that all?” I wiped my lips, and my hand came away bloody.
She screamed again and brought her sword down from over her head. It lodged into the grass, narrowly missing me as I dove between her legs. The sword refused to come back out as easily as it went in, and I used the time to drive my dagger into her thigh. I pulled down, tearing the muscles in her leg. She fell to one knee, nearly pinning me beneath her. In the time it took me to roll out of the way, she had twisted around and grabbed me by the arm.
Hoisting me up and around, she held me in front of her, hanging by one hand. She couldn’t hide her pain or the sweat on her brow, but she clearly thought the battle was finished. All around us, leaves were burning as they fell, curling up and turning to ash on the wind. Somewhere in the distance, a branch cracked and plummeted to the ground.
“Good try,” she panted. “But this was never going to end any other way.”
I laughed, flashing a grin at her. “You’re a monster, Skadi, but you’re not that bright.” I pulled myself up and drove my dagger into the flesh of her hand. Reflexively, she pulled her hand back, letting me drop to the ground.
I struggled to stand, the pain of the fall ringing in my knees. Skadi pulled the dagger from her hand and threw it aside. She hauled herself up, and I backed away, letting her come to me. She wore fury like an old mask, eyeing me up, waiting for my move. We were at a stalemate.
“Come now, Sigyn. Wouldn’t it be easier to just die like your kid?” Her knuckles were white as she clenched her fists and stretched them again.
A shape moved behind her. I smiled, letting her see my teeth. “It would. But I still have things to do.”
Skadi screamed. Váli, against everything I had said, had returned and leapt up onto her back. He drove his teeth into her neck, shaking his head and tearing the meat from her throat. He came away with a mouthful of tattooed white flesh.
Skadi fell to her knees once more, blood gushing down the front of her armour. I strode up to her and kicked her solidly in the stomach. She stammered as she fell back, staring up at the burning carcass of Yggdrasil.
“We have to go.” Váli licked his teeth and turned back to Yggdrasil.
“Not yet.” I stepped over Skadi, watching the sheer terror in her eyes. I knelt, my face close to hers, the tip of the blade against the leather armour at her stomach. Her eyes protested, but she couldn’t speak. I pushed the dagger through the leather and into her stomach, carving her open. Her body lurched.
“It’s almost poetic, isn’t it?” Recognition passed over her face as I echoed the familiar words back to her. She even whimpered. I dropped the dagger and shoved my fist into her stomach, grasping whatever entrails I could reach and pulled them out. I kept pulling, inch by inch, until her chest stopped rising and falling, until she was finally dead.
I stood still, looking down at the woman who had helped murder my boy and imprison me. I tried to calm my heart, tried to breathe. I wiped my wet hand on my trousers and laughed, nervous and desperate, terrified of myself.
Váli padded up to me, watching me with wary eyes. “What in the nine… Mother, what the hel was that?”
I stretched my neck and stepped over the corpse, toward the tree. “It was a long time coming, that’s what it was.”
A crack sounded from above. The tree was nearly entirely ablaze, and from the shake in the ground, Surtr was here. I’d wasted valuable time, but I wasn’t sorry for it.
Váli ran as fast as he could manage with his battered leg, and I followed on his heels. We ran until we saw Hreidulfr standing in the entrance to the tree.
“You scared me half to death! I thought you’d both gone and died on me.” He waved us down and pushed me inside.
Yggdrasil still smelled like decay, with a new scent of ash and smoke. The flame was working its way down to the base, lines of red visible above us. The pathways to the realms were still open. We could go to Jotunheim if the flood and the fire hadn’t reached there as well. Midgard would be a wasteland. Vanaheim was gone. Our options were limited.
“In here.” I ran forward, moving quickly down the slope. We had to move fast; falling was the least of our worries.
The root went on forever. The smoke became thicker, invading the air even as far down as we were. Behind me, Hreidulfr was whispering to himself like a prayer. “Yggdrasil protect us, shade us in our moment of need—”
At last, the light appeared at the end. I picked up my speed, afraid that the tunnel would collapse before we could reach safety. I bolted out of the root and into the blinding light.
The sound of the waves washed over me like a balm. My eyes adjusted slowly, and I looked out over the water. The swans were still there, floating lazily near the cliff. Standing above the water were three women, looking down at us as if they’d been waiting.
Hreidulfr shielded his eyes. Váli nuzzled his snout into Hreidulfr’s chest to protect his own. “Where are we?”
“Those are the Nornir.” I waved to them, and they began their descent from the cliffs. I walked towards them, forcing him to follow.
“By the nine realms,” Hreidulfr breathed, his face turning pale. “I think this is about as much as I can handle today.”
“Welcome.” Skuld reached her hand out to take mine. “We thought you’d come.”