Page 15 of A Game of Queens
Staring up at the dead branches, my heart ached with despair. There were so many branches that were dark without their queens. Hundreds of branches, lost and silent. I had no idea if it’d even be possible to spark those branches back to life. Every drop of blood in my body would be a drop in the bucket.
So many. Yggdrasil was never meant to be so dark and still.
I dropped my head forward and wiped my tears away. Something brushed my cheek, startling me, until I realized it was short curls tickling my face. I couldn’t remember having such short hair. My hair had never been cut until now.
That sacrifice had broken open the wellspring. Not my blood.
I felt a deep resonance inside me, confirming the truth. The power to return water to Hel had been in my hair. Exactly why Jörmungandr had been so determined to devour it, and indirectly, me. He hadn’t wanted my blood at all.
Unlike my Blood. My three dark alfar stared at me, frozen in the rising flood. I could see them clearly, and I wasn’t afraid. How could I be? They’d done nothing but put their own bodiesat risk to protect me. Sparkling onyx and obsidian, they glittered like glass, reflecting the rainbows off their slick, shiny hides.
Dörr’s face was twisted with grief. Realization gleamed in his midnight eyes. He couldn’t move, but he was aware that we were rising. We were leaving his realm and returning to mine.
He fully expected me to leave them behind and never return.
Silly gargoyle.
Water shot us out into blue sky. A place of green grass and sunshine, though the grass was buried beneath snow and the air was crisp and cold. Lying on my back on a pile of relatively dry needles, I looked up at the pine tree I’d grown as a child in a matter of years. Home. I pushed up on my elbows and looked out across a frozen lake. I remembered this place.
In the middle of a large lake in Minnesota, my grandmother had forged her nest on a tree-covered island. But none of the trees had grown as tall as mine.
In the summertime, boats would dot the water. Houses lined the far shore, but our island was large enough that it was quiet, even in the busy party season. My brother and I had sat on the dock, dangling our feet in the water and giggling about what the humans would do if they knew our vampire island existed.
My brother. My twin. Eivind.
We’d always had a deep connection. He immediately flooded my mind.:Helayna! Blessed be, goddess be praised. I’ve looked everywhere for you.:
I clung to him in my mind.:Loki took me to Hvergelmir and gave me to Jörmungandr. How long have I been gone?:
He hesitated. In our bond, I felt his chin on the top of my head, his arms around me, the same way he’d held me when our mother had died.:Over two hundred years.:
Shock splintered through me. So long? I hadn’t been trapped inside Jörmungandr for a hundred years, or I’d never have keptmy sanity.:Time must flow differently in Hvergelmir. Goddess, I can’t believe so many years passed. Where are you?:
:I’ve been all over the country searching for any hint of you. The Isador queen said that she saw you trapped in darkness with a giant snake. So I never expected to see you on this side of the tree again.:
Could it be the same queen who’d visited me in the darkness? It wouldn’t surprise me.:She told me to call my Blood, and I did. They helped free me.:
I turned my head and allowed my brother to see through my eyes. My three Blood crouched around me as massive stone statues.
Unmoving.
Biting back a cry, I went to Dörr and cupped his giant face between my hands. I knew it was him, though his gargoyle features were even heavier and more misshapen than his dark alfar form.:Come back to me.:
He stared back at me, unblinking. Frozen.
:It’s the sunlight,:Eivind whispered reverently in our bond.:Dark alfar. Of course. Well done, Helle.:
It’d been forever since he’d called me that. Blinking back tears, I leaned against my stone Blood, willing him to awaken. :They can never see the sun?:
Eivind started to pull away. I felt his pack howling around him, calling their wolf king back to run the forests.:Not in this form. I’ll head north to see you, but it’ll take me a week or two at least.:
:Take your time,:I replied numbly.:I’ll see you soon, Wolfie.:My nickname for him.
His words echoed in my head.Not in this form.
So I needed tochangetheir form. Their dark alfar aspect would probably fare even worse in full sunlight. I didn’t want to only have them with me at night. I wanted them to walk theisland with me. I wanted to show them all the wonders of my world. They deserved so much more than a life of only endless night.
I refused to consider a limited existence for them. Not these men who’d risked so much to save me. I didn’t think a kiss would waken a gargoyle, but even if it did, I didn’t want him to be forced to walk around as a stone statue.
