Page 68 of A Curse Carved in Bone
Behind me, Snorri gurgled out a curse, and Harald said, “It has been a pleasure to steal your fate, old friend. Give my well-wishes to my half sister when you arrive in Helheim, and my thanks for her restraint.”
Half sister?I remembered, then: Hel was Loki’s daughter.
That was why the roots hadn’t attacked him.
And I had no doubt that if I tried to curse him now, Hel would not answer my call.
Whirling away from the barrier, I raced to Snorri’s side and pressed his sword into his hand. “You’re an arse and I hate you for all that you have done,” I said. “But you are no coward. May Odin take you into Valhalla if for no other reason than to put you in your place.”
Snorri’s hand tightened on the hilt, his eyes fixed on me. “Protect…the…blood.”
“I will or will die trying,” I promised, then watched as the light faded from his eyes. Beneath me, the ground trembled, and anger burned in my heart. Pressing my hands to the ground, I whispered, “Hel, grant me your powers.”
Simmering strength filled me, and clenching my teeth, I said, “You will not take him.”
All too familiar anger smashed against me, my divine mother enraged at being denied something she wanted, but I warred against her. “No.”
The ground shuddered, Snorri’s body bouncing with the force of it, but I only dug my fingers into the wet earth. “No.”
The ground went still.
“Impressive,” Harald said. “But in the end, of little consequence. I control your fate, Freya. And soon I will control all of Skaland.”
Think,I ordered myself.Think of a way out of this.
Yet all thought vanished from my head as Bjorn let out a roar and attacked the barrier. Over and over, he smashed his axe against the barrier, the noise deafening, but each time, the wards threw him back.
Harald threw back his head and laughed, which only enraged Bjorn further. He flung himself at the wards, clawing at the magic, screaming in wordless rage. Harald only came closer, stopping when he was inches away from Bjorn. His eyes burned with delight as he watched Bjorn rage, the pleasure he took in the hurt he’d caused making my stomach turn. “Stop.”
In his frenzy, Bjorn didn’t hear me. I leaped to my feet. “Bjorn, enough! This is what he wants!”
But all he seemed to hear was Harald’s laughter. Desperate to stop him from hurting himself, I waited for the magic to throw him back, then wrapped my arms around his neck and heaved.
Bjorn fell backward on me, weight driving the air from my lungs, but I held on even as I managed to gasp out, “He…wants…this.”
He was shaking in my arms. “He killed her. He killed her.”
“I didn’t kill Saga, Bjorn,” Harald said. “You did. You set the fire that burned her alive.”
“Be silent,” I shouted at him. “Haven’t you done enough harm?”
“It’s never enough.” Harald’s grin was all teeth. “I never grow weary of watching others bring themselves low.”
“You were hurting her.” Tears ran down Bjorn’s face, his knuckles split and bloody from attacking the barrier. “Disguised as Snorri, but it was you hurting her. Threatening her. Why? Was it because she knew that you were a trickster?”
“She did not know.” Harald tilted his head, that awful smile still plastered over his face.
“Why, then? What did she ever do but be a friend to you?”
“Yes. A friend.” Finally, Harald’s smile fell away. “That is what she did—chose poorly by favoring Snorri over me. My goal was to break her bond with him, turn her against him so that she’d come to me ofher own free will. Then you spoiled my plans to make her the cornerstone of my cabal by killing her.” Hate replaced the amusement. “I considered leaving you to die but it felt too easy an end for what you’d done. You needed to lose everything. Snorri needed to lose everything. And Tyr’s fire was no small addition to my cabal. So I brought you to Nordeland and oh, what a game grew from that decision. It has been a pleasure from beginning to end, and I think that the best is yet to come.”
There were no words. No words for the depths of Harald’s cruelty, so I only tightened my arms around Bjorn and tried to will my strength into him so that he could endure this horror.
“What do you want?” I demanded. “What is the point of all of this? Power?”
He smirked. “As though I can be reduced to one goal, you little fool. My goals are without limit, but the pleasure is in making all those around me dance to my drum and love me while they do it.”
“It was your Nameless who kidnapped me, wasn’t it?” All the countless ways he’d manipulated me were falling into place. “Not Snorri. You sacrificed your own thralls to convince me that the threat was real and imminent. But it wasn’t. Snorri wasn’t sailing to Nordeland bent on conquest—he truly believed he was coming to rescue us.”
