Page 88 of Court of Heathens

It cannot be.

She cannot be gone.

I felt it though. It was the deal breaking, which only means one thing.

Freya is dead.

I fall into a pit of despair and fury, letting it burn through me as I bellow my agony to the world with a promise to make every single person burn.

SHA

I do not know where I am. All I know is that she is not here. I cannot sense her, and my body vibrates with anger at being torn from her.

She is mine. I need to get back to her.

I turn my head as much as I can, fighting the encroaching black dirt trying to reclaim me as vines crawl along my body, tugging me deeper. The sky or air around me is black, like my shadows, stealing my vision. I hate it, but I fight to get back to her.

She needs me, I remind myself as I tear through the vines and kick off the dirt, continuing to fight, my entire focus on getting back to her.

The tether that links me to her and this world . . . it snaps, ripping up my insides as pure terror and pain pump through me.

No, no.

Freya!

My roar can be heard across the world as the ground swallows me once more.

Freya, my mistress.

She’s gone.

Without her, the world claims me as its own.

CHAPTER 47

Isuppose I should feel something. I have spent millennia serving these worlds as a god, but I walked away, and the only thing I feel is freedom.

Have I given enough for my duty? Yes is the simple answer.

I have given enough, but I would give more to bring her back. Mors said there is hope, and I have to believe it. Nobody understands death more than he does. I never thought he would be on my side, but as he watched me go, I saw the truth he hides from them.

He stands with us, with the humans and this world, not the gods.

He might do his duty, but it’s for us, not them.

I do not know where to begin, but I have a vague feeling I must find Adder and Sha. If we are to bring our girl back, then we need all her pieces and bonds. One had a deal with her, and the other was created by her. We are tied to her.

Finding them is easier said than done, though, because the gods took them and didn’t tell me where they hid them. I know they are alive. I can sense their magic in the world. We were around each other enough to create our own bonds as well, and it is that which I follow as I wander aimlessly through the world.

I follow the tug deep into the Earth’s crust until my feet are rippedopen from the rock and I am spent and exhausted. I wander for days in the wilderness not even the humans dare explore. Deep in the earth, the air becomes hard to breathe and my lungs beg for oxygen. I become lightheaded, but I do not stop, and when I stumble around a corner, I still.

There, hanging from chains, snarling and biting like a wild animal, is Adder . . . but not as I remember.

Half of his body is melted, and he’s almost feral, fighting to free himself.

“Demon,” I murmur, stumbling over to him. I watch his muscles grow around the spelled chains. Snarling, I fling my magic at them and they snap, falling to the ground and hissing with the fire that flows from him.

He falls to his knees, his body shuddering and trying to heal, but he claws at the ground, a whine leaving his lips. When I fall to my knees before him, I realise it’s not a sound, but a name.

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