Page 92 of Blood of Ancients

“Many humans would say the same thing over the wars fought in Midgard.”

They fell quiet, neither conceding the argument.

I cleared my throat, walking behind them, with Grim beside me, Arne and Sven directly behind us. “Gentlemen, perhaps we should write that off for another time. Don’t forget we have atask here. You just said we might be in danger every second we dally, Corym.”

“Aye.” His hair swished, golden and radiant as the skin of his corded arms. He looked . . . healthier here. There wasn’t a spot of paleness about the man. In Midgard, he had been hale and strong, but he never lookedshiny.

It made me wonder about how potent he felt in his realm.

Corym said, “If Magnus Feldraug traveled through the same portal we did, and ventured the same path, then we will find him here. Somewhere.”

My heart stuttered. “You mean he might not have taken the same route?” I grabbed his arm, spinning him to face me so I could see his expression. “Are you saying he might not evenbein Alfheim, Corym?”

The elf smiled, and the gorgeous expression on his face calmed me. The calming effect didn’t last long, because his words brought new worries.

“I believe he is here, because I’ve felt a distant disruption in the spirit energy of Kiir’luri since we arrived, disconnected fromourdisruptive energies. I am not versed well enough in the forest spirits to typically feel such an intrusion. However,lunis’ai, there is an important thing you all must remember here.” He smiled sharply. “There are no certainties when traveling through Yggdrasil’s roots.”

Chapter 25

Corym

RETURNING TO MY HOMELANDfilled me with an odd sensation. I thought I would be relieved to be back here; I’d pined for it ever since Vikingrune Academy imprisoned me.

Surely it was much better than getting beaten on a daily basis by Hersir Ingvus Jorthyr and his guards. And having my silver-haired goddess with me was only more comforting.

I wished we had come here under different circumstances, because it was not relief I felt. It was anxiety. Only I among our group knew the dangers we faced here. If mylunis’aiand her mates discovered my true relations in Alfheim, things could get . . . messy.

I didn’t feel I’d been keeping a secret from Ravinica. She simply did not know our customs here, or the breadth of the hierarchy that was so different than human stations.

I never suspected we would make it to Alfheim—surely nottogether—so why would she need to know what did not impact her?

Now, I walked with pride in my step but worry in my bones. The group deferred to me to lead, for good reason. Hersir Kelvar had the most questions, and he was the most cunning of the group, so I was sparse with my explanations.

The spirit-blood connection between our people and our territories was something that baffled human minds. To have a connection with the land around us, well, it was something the Vikings and humans had always wished they had, yet never truly grasped.

Still, they didn’t seem too entranced or doubtful over what I told them. They embraced the ideas, with Ravinica muttering, “I suppose that checks out.”

It made sense. Their people were the closest human-to-elf equivalents. Their pantheon was filled with living deities, just as ours was filled with living spirits. They did not worship an esoteric entity, or a singular God, but rather prayed to gods of specific things—war, fertility, wisdom, winter, and the list went on.

Their Asgardian gods were relative to our Vanir deities such as Freyr, Freyja, Heimdall, Njord, and others. So it wasn’t too much of a leap for them to accept that the spirits guided us and lived inside us in the same way they felt the gods guided and lived in them.

The group I traveled with was tense, whether they said so or not. They showed it in the way they moved, eyes darting around Kiir’luri, gasping on every snapped twig, glancing up at the odd turquoise sky.

They were on an alien planet.

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