Page 61 of The Serpent’s Shadow

We would figure them out.

For now, having my mates close was enough.

I considered Magnus and Grim my “mates,” though Arne had been well on his way before . . . well,that. Sven was a mystery. He wasn’t telling me much. I hoped he would in time, and that his bullying ways wouldn’t come back once we returned to Vikingrune and he had his “reputation” to keep in line with his kinfolk.

Corym E’tar was the newest possibility I couldn’t get my mind off of. We had gotten close and friendly in an unorthodox way—through training and mutual learning while I was his people’s prisoner. Then he pulled the rug out from under me by agreeing with the elven elders that I couldn’t leave their camp on my own volition after learning I was a map to Lady Elayina.

It was a mini-betrayal, in hindsight. Nothing we couldn’t get past. He had stayed in Midgard to be with me, to protect me from the Huscarls who wanted to steal me away. Corym hadabandoned his sister and brethren to stay, and I couldn’t even imagine how much that pained him.

Of course, I had abandoned my family too—knocked out my half-brother Damon, and left Selby Village to join the academy. But this was different, because Corym actually liked his sister, and looked to her for advice.

I hoped he would miss his sister the same way I missed my mother Lindi. I was sad to be away from her, but I knew it was for a good cause I’d flown the coop. I’d see her again.

And now, the Lepers Who Leapt were going to take him from me. After the ordeal we’d just been through—the two of us running and fighting for our lives—it seemed criminal he was going to be ripped away from me.

What was the alternative? Take himtoVikingrune?

The idea made me nauseous. If I thoughtIwas hated at the school for being a bog-blood, he would be downright persecuted. Wouldn’t make it a week before I’d find him strung up from the highest gable of the tallest building, no doubt.

The thought was hard to fathom. I swore to myself I would see him again—I’d find out where Dieter and Frida were keeping him, and I’d come searching once things settled down on Academy Hill.

There were other people I missed on that hill, too. Dagny, my cat-shifting, bespectacled friend with the black-and-white bobcut. Thinking about her made me smile.

Randi made me chuckle and made my heart hurt, because my bestie always managed to stay so chipper and bubbly despite being the only dark-skinned girl I’d seen in a sea of white people. She made her own life and happiness, and didn’t let anything or anyone stand in her way.

I could learn a thing or two from Randi Ranttir.

And then, of course, there was my half-brother Eirik. I was ashamed I hadn’t thought of him as much as I should have whilein the elf camp. My torrid memories with Grim and Magnus stole my mind more often than not, along with Arne’s betrayal.

If I was ashamed . . . then what was he? It was shocking to me that he hadn’t joined this group to come rescue me.

My own flesh and blood?Damn.

At the base of the hill where countless soldiers and Lepers had died, a river wrapped around a copse of trees. In the distance, I could see it expanded into a wider lake.

The first order of business was washing the blood and fight off our bodies, I told everyone. They all agreed, and I noticed the lust-filled looks a few of the men gave me.

Grim’s smoldering expression and Magnus’ intense brooding in his gray eyes made me shiver. Even Sven had a haughty I-know-what-you-want smirk on his face, which was stupidly alluring but also concerning. I didn’t know him like I knew the others. Arne looked lost, trying to avoid eye contact with me, and Corym appeared forlorn and calculating, trapped in his own thoughts.

I wondered if the elf was deciding the same thing as I had: How he was going to find me once we were separated.

We helped Dieter, Frida, and the other Lepers drag their fallen comrades away from the fight so they could be buried. With everyone working together, it took little more than an hour to bury our dead in loose soil.

Dieter said a short eulogy over their nameless graves, all of us standing in a circle around the four rectangles of packed earth.

“They fought for what they believed in,” Dieter began, clearing his throat. “They made the leap to join a cause they held dear, not to be so simply discarded by the same institution that had once called them sisters and brothers. The fact they died fighting against that same institution is proof of their validity and vindication. They’ll go to Valhalla to feast with the gods andwage eternal wars against their enemies. Forever may they leap freely, lepers no more.”

“Lepers no more,” Frida and the rebels echoed in a quieter voice.

We bowed our heads, gave the dead a moment of silence, and wandered off toward the base of the cliff.

As we passed the battlefield—the scorched earth from the burnt and icy magic, the bodies already swarming with flies—I wrinkled my nose and frowned.

“What should we do about them?” I asked no one and everyone, gesturing at the body of a man who had been speared through the face by Arne Gornhodr.

“They made their decisions,” Magnus said simply. “They were not our allies, so they shouldn’t be treated as such.”

Magnus Feldraug had the benefit of not being weighed down by emotions like I was. Must have been nice. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was not a purely “living” human, or because of the trauma of his past—maybe even the magical amnesia that had displaced his childhood memories—that made him what he was.

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