The winding path up the mountain was utterly silent as we made our way to Valhalla’s gates. Not a single soul met us, and this high up, even the battle for Asgard could no longer be heard. Not so much as a crack of thunder broke the eerie stillness.
“I guess everyone’s busy fighting,” Saga said as he looked over the edge of the path and down onto the battlefield in the distance.
“Without Níðhöggr and Hel’s forces, it shouldn’t be this evenly matched,” Modi said, a deep frown forming on his forehead as he stopped to watch the battle as well. “Why aren’t Hel’s forces here?”
“It was part of the bargain I made,” I said. “She will not join the battle.”
They all turned to stare at me. But if I’d hoped for admiration or praise, I’d have been sorely disappointed.
“What did you promise her, Annabel?” Magni asked, his teeth clenched and a distinctly no-more-stalling note to his deep rumble.
I sighed. “What I had to. I promised to find a way to free her, and in exchange, she swore to keep her army from joining the battle.”
Saga drew in a sharp breath. Magni’s jaw clenched.
“And if you fail?” Modi asked softly. “What price will she exact then?”
“I won’t,” I said. “We won’t.”
“Annabel. What is her price?” Grim asked, his voice firm.
“My life,” I said, already shaking my head when all five of my mates growled, nostrils flaring and eyes widening. “It won’t come to that. I swear to you, I will find a way to free her.”
“The other gods will never allow it!” Magni snarled, his green eyes sparking with anger and fear. “They sealed her down there eons ago, and they did so for a reason. No one wants the Goddess of Death roaming freely through the lands, and the only way to release her is if they all willingly undo the magic that binds her. There is no other way!”
I reached out and stroked a hand through his beard. “Then we will convince them. But there is no point worrying about it until we have stopped Ragnarök. Let’s keep going.”
He pushed his cheek into my touch more on instinct than agreement, judging by the glare he leveled me with. “If I lose you…”
“You won’t,” I promised again. “I would never do that to you. To any of you.”
“And what bargain did you make with our sister to be released yourself?” Saga asked, his voice silken, but with a dangerous undertone. They were all pissed at me. “If you already offered your life to keep her forces at bay?”
“My magic,” I said. “But not yet. In nineteen years, she will claim it.”
They all frowned, a shared look of puzzlement crossing their handsome faces. “Why then?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. And I don’t much care. She can have it. All I care about is that we get through this together.”
Saga’s gaze softened—I knew why. Of all my mates, he understood how much discovering my powers and finding my own strength had meant to me.
“Let’s go,” I repeated. “You can yell at me about my choices later.”
“We will,” Bjarni rumbled. He clasped a hand to my shoulder and nodded up the path toward Valhalla. “All right, then. Let’s go knock this Betrayer’s skull in.”
We all resumed our journey up the mountain, save Modi, who lingered for a moment longer, surveying the battlefield. When he caught up with us, he said, “It’s not just Hel and Níðhöggr who are missing. So is the Fenris wolf.”
“He will make his way here once he has run across Midgard and spread darkness and terror,” Magni said.
I remembered what Bjarni and Modi had told me about Ragnarök, and what Loki’s giant wolf-monster and sea serpent offspring would do to the human world, and swallowed thickly. Even if we won, even if we stopped the end of the nine worlds, how much would be left of mine?
“Maybe we should go there,” I suggested. “If we can stop Fenris and that huge serpent—”
“No.” Mimir’s voice was gentle. “If you travel to Midgard, plum, we will lose.”
“Will my family survive?” It hurt to force the question out of my too-tight throat.
“No one but the Norns can tell you that, and even they may not be able to see through the darkness of Ragnarök. All we know for sure is if we do not win, they will die, along with everyone else.”
He was right. All I could do was believe that by the end of this, I would get to see my parents again.
The enormous wolves that had guarded Valhalla’s entrance upon my first arrival were still sitting on either side of the gates. When we approached, they stood up, ears flattening along their skulls and teeth bared.
“Whoa,” Modi called, reaching both hands forward, palms up. “You know me, you daft beast. Let us enter.”
He barely managed to pull his fingers back in time before sharp teeth snapped the air where they’d been seconds before.
“Let me,” Bjarni said as he shouldered his way past the frowning redhead. “You don’t have the right touch with animals. Or omegas.”
Both Modi and I glared at his broad back, but he ignored us as he focused on the snarling wolf.
“Shh, shh. Be calm, little buddy,” Bjarni cooed. He knelt down just out of the chained canine’s reach. “We may be somewhat Jotunn-y, but we aren’t like those nasty buggers trying to break the wall down. We aren’t gonna hurt you.”
The wolf’s only response was to lunge for his face. Its growl choking off on a howl when the chain dug into its windpipe and black magic pulled it back in place.
“You won’t talk sense into this beast. It’s been touched by darkness,” Grim said. He reached out a hand, and the other wolf was dragged back to the opposite side of the gate and held in place too. “Come. We should make haste.”
Bjarni shot the two animals a displeased look, but got to his feet. “It ain’t right to do that to innocent beasts,” he grumbled.
My sweet one. When it came down to it, Bjarni was much happier on the farm, tending to their sheep and cooking food for his family than he was mixed up in a mythic Armageddon. I wondered if their farm would still be there, if we survived. If it would be waiting for us, or if it would be buried under ice and devastation.
I frowned. Would Magni and Modi be happy settling down there? We hadn’t exactly had time to discuss what would come after.
As we entered Valhalla’s wide doors, I pushed the thoughts away. Planning for a future that might not be there was a luxury I couldn’t afford to get distracted by.
The great hall was dark. Only faint, gray light from the open gates behind us and the windows high above lit the abandoned long tables and benches. No fires blazed in the many braziers and hearths. No raucous laughter or bawdy songs filled the air.
Memories of my weeks in gray, sensory-deprived Hel made me clutch Bjarni’s hand. His warmth leached into my skin, and I breathed a sigh of relief as Modi’s bright-red hair came into my field of vision as he took up the lead. No matter what came next, at least I would face it with them.
My mates closed in around me as we walked, blocking my view of the darkened hall. One after the other, they drew their weapons, as if the silence set their instincts on edge as much as it did mine. There was something… wrong about it, like the great halls were never meant to lay in silence.
“What the—?” Modi stopped so suddenly I smacked right into his back, nose-first.
“Trud?” he called, disbelief coloring his voice.
“What are you doing here?” Magni asked, his brow locked in a deep frown. He took a few steps forward, leaving me with enough of a gap to see what was going on.
In front of us, maybe a hundred yards away, a slim figure sat on the throne on the dais where Odin had cast judgement on my mates, and later Loki. Long, blonde hair spilled over her shoulders, and on her head perched a golden crown.
It was Trud, Modi and Magni’s sister.
She regarded them with a blank stare, but didn’t speak.
“Trud,” Modi repeated, “get down from there. It isn’t safe.” He made to take a step forward, but stopped himself, not wanting to leave me exposed. I frowned. He thought his sister a potential threat?
“Trud?” I called. “Are you all right?”
Her blue eyes moved over the alphas until they landed on me. “Sister,” she said softly. “They got you out. And now you have come to fulfil your prophecy?”
“Yes.”
I didn’t get to say anything else before Mimir murmured, “Magni, step back. Protect the omega.”
I lifted my eyebrows at the prophet. “Against what? She’s their sister. She’s been helping them.”
Magni, however, stepped back and to the side without hesitation, shielding me with the bulk of his body.
Trud laughed, a pealing sound that echoed through the hall and raised goosebumps along my arms. “Brother! You believe the old goat when he suggests I would hurt your pretty mate? She’s right—I’m your baby sister! You used to bring me pretty trinkets and let me ride on your back, remember? I’m just a sweet, soft, harmless little girl.”
“Shit,” Saga swore behind me. He clasped a hand to my shoulder, and I felt his magic weave through mine, pulling on it until a shimmering shield rose around our little group. “She’s the one.”
“No. This can’t be,” Modi said softly, and the heartbreak in his voice made me reach forward and place a palm against his back for support. “Trud, this can’t be. You cannot be the Betrayer.”
“Why? Because I’m a woman? Because my heart is too soft to let me act when Asgard lays forgotten, and we are too busy quibbling amongst ourselves to do anything about it?”
She rose from the throne and pointed at us—at Mimir. “Ragnarök has been foretold for thousands of years. Who are you to decide it needs to be stopped? You, and those Norn cunts scrambling to prevent the inevitable. But this has to happen, prophet. The nine worlds will fall so that a new dawn can rise from the ashes—a dawn where no one will ever again forget who owns their fealty.”
“Trud,” Modi whispered. The devastation in that one word tore at my heart, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain radiating through my bonds to both him and Magni.
“This makes no sense,” I said, more to myself than to any of my mates. I glanced at Grim. My darkhaired mate had his jaw set and soft lips pulled into a thin line—but his focus wasn’t on Trud. He was scanning the walls of the great hall, mismatched eyes searching, searching…
“She isn’t the Betrayer!” I said. “She’s a distraction.”
Trud’s lovely face twisted into a nasty smile. “Oh? You don’t think me strong enough, sister?”
She raised her hand, and a wave of light slammed against my shield hard enough to make me stagger.
“Shit, when did she get so strong?” Saga spat, and I felt more of his magic flow into me to support the barrier between us and the mad goddess.
“I don’t need help. Not yet,” I murmured to him as I gently pushed away his offered power. “Focus your strength on the fight ahead.”
It was true. My magic swelled within me like a great, untamed beast eager to rise to the challenge. It had always felt powerful to me, but now, after uniting with all five of my mates, it was something else. Something more.
I looked at Trud. “Borrowed power or not, you do not have the strength to stop us. And whoever is pulling your strings knows this, sister of my mates. Don’t make us hurt you to get to him.”
Something dark and alien flashed in her clear blue eyes.
“Watch out!” Modi snarled just as another blast of power zinged through the air and slammed into my shield.
But it was different this time. It wasn’t a wave of light. It crashed into my magic and ripped at it like a vicious dog, tearing at the fabric of my very being with strength that seemed to come from the core of the universe.
I screamed and dropped to the stone floor, every nerve in my body singed from the unexpected blast.
But my shield held.
Above me, my mates roared as one. Fury ripped through our bonds, and I felt the bloodlust descend. Lightning cracked through Valhalla and slammed into the dais up ahead, twice in quick succession.
I looked up and saw Saga, Modi, Bjarni, and Magni running at the dais where black scorch marks surrounded Trud.
She laughed as if she were delighted that her own brothers had attempted to kill her in retaliation. I cursed softly and slung my shield out to wrap around my four berserking mates.
Cool hands gripped underneath my arms and hauled me to my feet. “You have to harden off the connection through your magic to your core,” Grim said, “or he will use it as a connector and tear you apart from the inside.”
I looked at him and saw the battle lust dancing in his eyes as he stared at the fight in front of us. But he didn’t give in—he’d managed to control his instincts to tear apart the goddess who’d attacked his mate because he didn’t want to leave me unguarded.
“Is she in control of herself? Or is the Betrayer making her do this? Oh, fuck!”
The last bit I hissed out as Trud hurled another wave of that awful power against my shield protecting Magni, and it ricocheted through my magic and into my core. I managed to stay on my feet this time, but not without clutching Grim’s arm for support.
“It doesn’t matter,” Grim growled. “She’s going to kill us if we let her. We can’t afford anything less than lethal strikes. Now focus.” His words were followed by a rush of cool, soothing power trickling through my veins and finding its way to my innermost.
Like this, his voice echoed through my mind.
Dark tendrils wove around my golden light as he showed me how to harden the connection between myself and the magic within. I followed his lead, and the next blast that hit my shield around Bjarni only sent an unpleasant tingling sensation through my bones.
A rumble of thunder pulled my attention back to Modi. His teeth were gritted, his muscles bunched as he swung his sword at his sister with one hand while slinging lightning at her with the other. There was nothing but murderous intent in my redheaded mate’s eyes, but I knew what this would cost him—him and Magni.
I thought of the wolves guarding Valhalla’s gates and Bjarni’s complaint of what had been done to them to make them mindlessly attack. I also remembered my first meeting with Trud. Her genuine delight at my presence in her brother’s life, her gentleness and understanding of my nature and destiny. The kindness I had felt radiate from her.
This wasn’t her. Her attempts at killing her own brothers couldn’t be her free will. And it did matter.
“We have to find out how he is controlling her!” I shouted. None of the four men on the dais heard me—they only had senses for the fight in front of them. They worked together, darting in with blades and magic, intent on finding a way through the destructive power pouring out of the blonde goddess.
But Grim heard me.
“Annabel, it doesn’t matter!” he growled. “We don’t have time.”
“That’s Modi and Magni’s sister,” I hissed at him. “How would you feel if you were forced to kill your brothers when there was another way? She hasn’t betrayed us—someone is forcing her to do this. We will make time.”
Grim bared his teeth, frustration etched in every feature of his coldly handsome face, but I saw the surrender in his eyes as my words sank in. With a growl, he whipped back around to take in the fight. Moments later, his dark magic floated through the air and encircled Trud.
“There is… something,” he said through gritted teeth. “He is blocking me. I can’t see.”
I didn’t pause to think. I clutched Grim’s arm harder and sent a thread of my magic into him. It split my focus from my shields, and I clenched my jaw and forced my protections firmer, but Grim had already latched on to my offering. He grabbed the thread of golden light and forced himself at Trud once more.
I saw it this time—the dark, horrible entity latched onto the young goddess as Grim surrounded her with our combined power. Like thorns, it bit into her skull and seeped through the brightness that had once been her gentle spirit.
A flash of pain, followed by roar pulled my mind back into myself just in time to see Saga stumble a few steps before he renewed his attack on Trud. Blood seeped from a gash in his thigh.
I had let my shield around him drop, too distracted with Grim’s attempts at uncovering how Trud was being controlled to keep all five of my protective barriers as solid as they needed to be.
Cursing my own stupidity, I strengthened my shields and held.
“There is… a sigil. Or an idol. He is using… something. She is too strong-willed to be controlled with a simple command,” Grim gasped by my side. From the strain in his voice, it was clear that even with the help of my magic, this wasn’t an easy task.
“The crown!” Mimir called from the floor where he’d been dropped before my mates rushed at the dais. “It has his touch.”
Grim swore under his breath, then shouted, “Break her crown! Break her fucking crown, you idiots!”
Bjarni reacted instantly. Just as Magni grasped her arm and sent a shock of lightning through her shields, Bjarni rolled across the platform to get behind her and shot up, his heavy sword aimed at her head. The weapon struck Trud’s golden crown, and the impact rang through the great hall.
She shrieked and whipped around, lips pulled back and eyes wild as she focused her full ire on Bjarni.
I strengthened his shield just in time. The force of her attack was enough to make me stumble and grit my teeth against the aftershock, but my blond mate was unscathed. He struck again at her head, but it was Modi who connected with the golden metal from behind her. He hit her so hard that had she not been enveloped in magic, he would have cleaved her skull in two.
The power of his strike knocked the crown clean off her head and sent it flying across the dais past Bjarni.
Trud screamed and seized into a tight arc, her back bowing unnaturally.
Bjarni cursed and jumped after the golden circlet. He reached it before it tumbled off the edge and stomped his foot on the delicate metal, snapping in in two.
Trud’s scream broke as instantly as the powerful magic encircling her, and she collapsed onto the wooden platform in a heap.
Snarling, Modi raised his sword and swung.
“No!” My cry broke through the hall and I reached for him—for all of them—through our bonds. All four of them jerked backwards as if pulled by physical ropes.
“It was the crown!” I shouted, already running toward them as fast as my feet would carry me. “Don’t hurt her. She is innocent.”
I saw the battle lust fade from their eyes, and the horror set in in Modi’s and Magni’s as they turned back to their sister.
“Trud?” Modi whispered hoarsely, though he kept his sword lifted, ready to strike.
She only groaned softly in response.
I climbed the stairs to the dais two steps at a time and threw myself by Trud’s side before Saga could stop me.
“Hey. Hey, you’re okay,” I said as I let my fingers explore her face and skull with gentle touches. “You’re gonna be okay.”
She was bone-white and winced when I grazed the area where that cursed crown had sat. I let my magic spill out and found the festering wounds below her skin left behind by its thorny grip. It took more power than it should have to erase the ghostly talons from her flesh, but when it was done, Trud’s eyes fluttered open and she looked at me without a hint of malice.
“I’m sorry,” she croaked. “I’m so sorry.”
Behind me, Magni and Modi breathed deeply, and I felt their relief flutter through our connection.
Modi knelt by my side and cupped his sister’s face. “What happened to you? Gods, I… I nearly killed you, Trud!”
“I figured out... who betrayed us. But he found me before I could...” She coughed and rolled her eyes back to me. “You saved me. I was trying to kill all of you, and you saved me. Gods, if I… if I had succeeded…”
“It wasn’t you,” I said, gently stroking her hair out of her face. “Who did this to you, Trud? Who is behind this?”
A caw broke through the great hall, silencing Trud before she could so much as part her lips.
We all jerked in the direction of the sound just as a large raven swept through the doorway behind the abandoned throne and landed on one of its armrests. Its mirror image followed, perching on the opposite arm with another caw.
“Huginn and Munin?” Bjarni said, his voice pitching higher with surprise.
“Indeed,” a deep voice rumbled from past the shadowed doorway. “I have tried in so many ways to divert you younglings from this tragic course you have chosen. I have put in your path so many obstacles that you have persistently, petulantly climbed over just to meet your inevitable end at my hands.”
The shadows parted, and a tall figure stepped through. He was swathed in gray robes, matching his long gray hair and beard. The staff in his hand glowed softly as he paused next to his throne and looked at us one after the other with his singular eye.
Then Odin sighed and shook his head. “You have left me with no choice. The ravens are here to bear witness to the final moments of Ragnarök. Die well, young ones.”