Page 16 of Baldr's Secret Mate

“Yeah. My thoughts exactly. But she didn’t know who I was until it was too late, after she tried to run a blade through my heart.”

“Are you okay?!”

“I’m fine. The wolf side of me healed the wound in a matter of minutes. But my mother’s magic… well, let’s just say not even the witch’s shoes were left after that blast.” He chuckled under his breath. “It even destroyed her house.” Then he lifted his left hand, a smile curling over his face. “But not before she told me about this.”

I stared at the old leatherbound book. It wasn’t any larger than some of the books Baldr brought to read to me. However, the cover was inlaid with strange symbols I’d neverseen before. They looked much different than the letters in the books he read.

“What is it?”

“My mother’s spellbook. And I’m going to use it to set you free.”

“Can it do that?”

“It has to,” Baldr replied without missing a beat. “I just have to find the right spell.”

“Then what will we do?”

“I don’t know,” he said with a smile. “And it doesn’t matter. We’ll run away if need be. Without you here for Tyr to manipulate, his pack will be easy to subdue. Not to mention, any magic the witch gave him to fight should be fading by now.” His own words seemed to startle him into action. “That’s why we have to be quick. He’ll notice she’s gone when the spells start to fade.” He kicked the dome with a fair amount of malice. “I just wish this stupid thing would fade too, but she tied it to the land and to you from what I can tell. It’s not going anywhere as long as you’re still inside.”

“But if you can get me out…”

“Then it should disappear, yes.”

My heart was filled with so much joy I thought I’d float right on up and off the ground.

“Are you sure you can do it?”

Baldr hesitated before he said, “I’m going to give it my best shot.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Gather up whatever things you want to bring with you,” he said. “Because once I crack this fucking thing open, we’re gone.”

I smiled wide, feeling the giddiness well up inside me. My heart was racing and my limbs buzzed with energy as the adrenaline rushed through my bloodstream. I was finally gettingout. After all these years of being treated like an object and tortured by Tyr, I was finally going to be free. I didn’t know what to expect on the other side or what might happen when Try found me missing, but I didn’t care. All that mattered was leaving this hell hole with Baldr on my arm.

And maybe, if it turned out I wasn’t just projecting onto my friend, I’d tell him how I really felt about him.

What a happy life that would be.

Chapter Nine: Mist

It took me all of five minutes to gather my things into a scrap of worn canvas that had once been a bag. There was still one strap and although it was full of holes, they weren’t big enough to let my things escape. Over the years I’d collected a few essentials that Tyr had either left behind or had tossed inside the dome so I wouldn’t need him as much. Most of it was junk, and I was happy to leave it behind. But I did pack my least ratty wool blanket, a small hatchet that had been gathering rust at the point where the handle met metal, and a small leaf-shaped pin that I’d been wearing the moment I woke up in the dome.

The pin was the most precious to me and not because it looked like it might be made of gold. It was the only thing I had left from my old life. It was a simple design of a long stem with five bright green leaves with rounded edges growing from it. At the bottom was a cluster of three white circles that I assumed could be berries. I loved the way they shimmered a rainbow of colors as I tilted the pin in the light. The back was a long straight gold pin that I’d used several times to clip my blanket around myneck like a cloak. It was useful, beautiful, and sentimental all at once, so I couldn’t leave it behind.

The last thing I grabbed was my box of matches. It wasn’t exactly essential, and I knew we’d probably be going somewhere with a fire already going. Still, I didn’t feel right about leaving them behind. They had been my lifeline for so long and the difference between freezing or starving to death that I just couldn’t let them go. Old habits would probably die hard.

Once I had everything gathered up, I shouldered my bag and pushed my way out of the hut leaving the fire burning behind me. If Tyr did come looking for me, the fire would make him think I was still there, wandering around the dome. It might buy us a little bit of time if we were lucky.

Back at the northern edge of the dome I found Baldr standing with his face buried in his mother’s spellbook. I got a better look at the runes on the cover and a strange sort of familiarity stirred in my belly. Something about those symbols brought memories to the edge of my mind. However, as they got close, I felt them grow hazy. It was the same way I always felt when I tried to call up my past before the dome. Had I known how to read runes in a previous life? I wasn’t sure, but that was something we could remedy once I was out. For now, getting free was the most important thing. Reading, magical or otherwise, would come later.

“Find anything?” I asked, trying not to startle him. But he jumped anyway.

“Maybe?” he replied, clearly unsure of himself. “I flipped through the entire book and I don’t see a general dispelling ritual. Maybe that’s something that’s just too basic to put in a book like this. Everything else in here seems really specific.”

“Like what?”

He flipped a few pages. “Ah. Like how to kill a Draugr.”

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