Page 130 of The Serpent’s Shadow

Chapter 38

Ravinica

I KEPT MY EYES ON Aswivel the entire trek. It was late, bone-cold, and dreary. The Isle looked so different than it did even a week ago, with trees blowing haphazardly, loose leaves sputtering around in whirls, and an eerie dread creeping through my blood. The moon was hidden behind gray clouds—an ominous sign of another downpour on the way—as if scared to show her luminous face.

I wanted to trust Arne. Truly, I did. This time, I felt it was different. I knew I was being foolish, following my heart rather than my logical mind.

If Grim, Magnus, or Sven knew I was doing this, they’d castigate me, and it would be well-deserved.

Arne was my only ticket to see Corym, though. I needed to see where we stood—if the draw I’d felt to the elf, and vice versa, was just a fleeting thing; if he wanted to go home to Alfheim in the portal his sister took, and forget about me.

My captor became something much more toward the end of our time together. Selfishly, I hoped Corym didn’t want to leave.

If he wanted to stay, I wasn’t sure what the answer was. Keeping him with the Lepers Who Leapt was dangerous. If Vikingrune Academy found out the Lepers were keeping a Ljosalfar in their midst, there’d be hell to pay. The academy’s laissez-faire attitude toward the magicless rebels would not fly. Soldiers would come down on them en masse.

So what was the alternative? Bring Corym toVikingrune?

The thought alone made me shudder. If I wanted to talk about being unsafe, that was the most dangerous option.

Right?

My body was tense as I trudged a few paces behind Arne through winding footpaths and dark trees. We snaked over no less than three rivers, heading southeast from the academy.

This was a section of the Isle I wasn’t familiar with. TheGray Wraithhad spit us out on the southern peninsula of the Isle, and we’d headed due north through Delaveer Forest to get to Academy Hill. This area, northeast from the shore, seemed desolate and untouched by human hands.

At least we hadn’t needed to take the underground path through the mountain to get off Academy Hill. My blood pressure hadn’t spiked yet, worried Huscarls would be waiting in those tunnels for our sneaky escape.

My heartbeat was starting to sing in my ears, thumping loudly, warning me and keeping me on my toes.

“No fear, little fox,” Arne said ahead. “We’re almost there.”

It was like he could feel the tension coming off me, even without looking back at me. I hadn’t spoken in over an hour. It had been nearly three since we exited Vikingrune’s southern gate and made our way down the back-and-forth mountain passage.

The sound of swiftly running water rang out ahead, stealing my thoughts. It sounded like a fast-running river, with splashing.

Through the trees, a huge waterfall poured down in the distance, atop a tiered, wooded mountainside. The drop from the top of the forest to where we walked was over a hundred feet.

I hurried my pace to keep up with Arne. “What’s that?” I asked him.

“Our destination. Norn Falls.” He bobbed his eyebrows annoyingly.

“Why is it called . . .” I trailed off as we drew closer and I realized the waterfall was not one, but three. The largest fall began at the top of that wooded hillside, but two smaller ones flooded out from lower tiers of the hill, all of them plunging into large rivers below that snaked in our direction.

“Urd Fjord, Verdandi Fjord, Skuld Fjord. The Three Norn Rivers we’ve just passed,” he explained. “The falls are taken after the names of the waterways.”

I hummed, curious. “Why in Odin’s name would it be our destination?”

“Because I’m not taking you to the Lepers’ camp, lass.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. I stuttered a step, nearly choking on my spit as alarm bells went off in my head. “Excuse me?”

He tilted his head at the blanched, pale expression on my face. With a smile, he muttered, “Not for some devious purpose, Vini. It’s because the Lepers don’t know we’re coming.” He winked at me. “Don’t worry. Your elf does.”

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