Page 19 of Children of Anguish and Anarchy

A sharp heat prickles through my fingers, daring me to get close. Though Taiwo wasn’t able to wield the weapon, after killing its owner, my hands are drawn to it. A magnetic force I can’t fight. I look to the dead Skull as I bend down.

When I grab the sculpted hilt, a quiet force erases all sound.

Blóðseiðr.

The foreign words fill my head. The sound of chanting men rings between my ears. My eyes go blank. My heart pounds in my chest. A new power surges through my body as my very muscles expand.

The blood from the wound in my arm leaks into the hilt. The crimson metal starts to warm.

I raise the weapon above my head as my axe glows with red.

“Argh!” I swing. The blade cuts straight through a Skull’s chest. Another Skull comes at me with his glowing hammer. I strike first, slicing through his neck.

The axe releases the rage buried deep inside. Crimson splatters in every direction as I fight. It coats my hands. My face. My tongue. But I can’t control the animal that awakens in me.

The more blood that spills, the more I need to see.

“The cells!” Kenyon points. Through the wild haze, I see the maji who’ve yet to break out. With a roar, I cut through the iron bars that have caged them for a moon. I slice through their chains, setting them free.

It’s working.

I stand in the center of the hall as the frenzy builds. With the axe, we have enough power. With this weapon, the Skulls have to cower.

“Get to the deck!” Kenyon roars over the maji. “Throw every Skull into the seas!”

I bring Zélie’s face back into my mind and head for the arched door.

I race to set my sister free.

CHAPTER TWELVE

ZÉLIE

RAIN.

Falling rain. It’s the first thing that finds me in the dark. Its steady patter rings through my ears. It drags my mind out of the abyss.

Sharp light breaks into my eyes, filling my vision with red. My muscles shake against the cold marble floor. I struggle to lift my hands.

Something warm glows above my heart. It burns every time I breathe in. I reach up and my fingers scrape gold.

Baldyr’s medallion is welded into my skin.

No.

My breath shrivels. I can’t believe what I feel. The triple arrowhead carved into the gold medallion pulses with light, synced to my heart like a breathing organ. My fingers shake as I pull them back. The sight makes my head spin. Something sharp pulses through my being, but it’s not the magic I know.

“Finally.” My ears ring as Baldyr approaches me, a zealous fervor alight in his eyes. His hands hover over my frame. In mere moments, I’ve become too valuable to touch.

But Baldyr speaks in his tongue. Why can I recognize the words? The foreign tongue keeps building in my head.

It’s as if the medallion changes me from within.

“Awaken.” Baldyr whispers the command. He smears the blood from his cheek across the medallion. In an instant, the captain’s quarters fade away. My eyes flash red as Baldyr’s memories hold me hostage, trapping me back in time.…

The land of Baldeírik comes alive. I run through its barren plains; I look up to its darkened skies. Navy flags whip through the air, each patterned with a seal of one of the land’s six tribes.

I see the round-faced child Baldyr once was. The turf-lined walls and thatched hut that formed his home. I hear his screams as warriors rip him from his mother’s shaking arms. I stare up at the maskless tribe leader who takes him in, counting the scars that fill the man’s freckled skin.

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