Page 55 of Rune

“Use the spear, not the shields,” I pressed again.

The guard was back and picked up the ball and chain to help her onto the chariot.

“Tova,” I pressed once more. “I am still your sister. I don’t want to see you die.”

I saw her suck in breath, and she held it in her chest. Then she let it out. “Then you may need to close your eyes.”

She stepped on the chariot and didn’t look back as she was taken back toward the arena, where she’d be thrown in the cells again to count down the minutes until her duel.

I could throw up.

She would use it. She wouldn’t be stupid enough to die.

But the worries tangled themselves inside me until they were all I could feel. When my stomach lurched, I hardly made it to the bushes before emptying the contentsonto the ground.

Worries would do nothing. If Tova wouldn’t save herself, I would save her.

And when Ve came an hour later, I was still there, sitting on the steps, plotting.

“How did it go?” he asked tentatively.

I ran my hand over my cheeks. “Painfully.” I stood. “Tell me how to rig who wins.”

He was by my side in an instant. “Ruin, I admire your tenacity. You know I do. But some things cannot be interfered with.”

“Just tell me how.”

“There is no way.”

“There must be something I can do.”

He grabbed my hands. His eyes bore into mine. “Listen to me, this is a worse idea than when you decided to fight withFaðir. Do not get involved.”

I slipped from his grasp. “It doesn’t matter what rules you gods play by. I will dictate the winner.” I started walking away.

Ve caught me by the elbow. “You can have all of Odin’s favor, and it still wouldn’t keep him from destroying you if you mess with the integrity of the champions.”

I spun around. “You don’t know me well enough yet, but I need to make one thing clear. For my sister, I would burn Asgard down.”

Our gazes collided. For the longest while, there was only the steady sound of his breathing and the rush of my own pulse in my ears. He took the sight of me in, back in my Viking clothes, and once more with the axe on my back. As if time had changed nothing at all, and I’d only just been dragged here from the vineyard.

The look of it seemed to disappoint him, and I watched him deflate.

Then he asked a question I wasn’t expecting.

“Even if you burned me with it?”

The words dug into me. I didn’t have time to process what he was asking.

“I can’t do this.” I stepped away. The broken look on his face wasn’t one I’d soon forget. Like I was walking away from anything we might be. “I have to go save her.”

Before Ve could stop me again, I left him there, running off toward the one person who might be able to save Tova. I went to find Odin.

NinEtEEn

I TRIED NOT to think of how easily Odin could kill me. I tried not to think of how sharp his wolves’ teeth were, or how daring it was to force an audience with him. I tried extra hard not to think of all the stories we’d been told of how mercilessly Odin dealt with those who angered him—like twigs snapped between his fingers.

I failed miserably.

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