6. Helayna

6

HELAYNA

M emory flickered inside me. Children sitting at the feet of an elderly woman, listening to her fanciful tales of giant trees and creatures of darkness. Grandmama, I thought, but I couldn't remember who the other child had been. Though I felt an echo inside me, as if I'd misplaced a part of myself.

I hoped that meant this sibling still lived somewhere.

With my three guardians' blood spreading through me, I knew what I needed to do. I could feel the goddess's compulsion pounding with every beat of my heart. I needed to get to Her tree. My life depended on it, but more, the plight of the worlds weighed upon me.

Something was wrong with the tree, and if Yggdrasil failed…

The nine worlds would fall.

D?rr strode swiftly toward the core of the giant tree, effortlessly stepping over treacherous roots and holes that would have taken me hours to navigate on foot. His face was grim, his mouth tight. He sensed my urgency, I thought, though I hadn't given him my blood yet.

He tripped, jostling me against him. His eyes shone like black jewels when he looked down at me, his mouth falling open with shock.

I arched a brow at him. "Yes, I fully intend to give you my blood. Is that not what a queen offers to her Blood?"

Aghast, he looked at his two friends as if hoping they could offer up a reason to refuse. Myrk humphed beneath his breath, while Svar flashed a wide smile at me. "If he's afraid to go first, I'll gladly take the first sip, my queen."

D?rr's jaws ground back and forth, but he didn't say anything.

"My alpha will go first."

He carefully didn't look at me, but the other two nodded and continued walking. It was obvious to me, at least, that D?rr was my alpha. He was the eldest. He had woken first to my call. He commanded the others. He'd fed me first.

Though he still seemed determined to save me from himself.

A huge black tower rose in the distance, stark against the deep purples and grays that swirled along the ground. Yggdrasil, the world tree, holding up the nine realms along its trunk. The roots were thicker, making D?rr duck occasionally to pass through the network of tunnels as we neared the trunk. It was colder here, which seemed odd. This close to the world tree, shouldn't the air be warmer, alive with its presence?

Instead, the air felt completely devoid of life. Maybe it was simply this realm's darkness. But the urgency humming in my blood indicated that something was dreadfully wrong.

He set me down on top of a thick root that arched out from the massive trunk.

A memory fluttered to the surface in my mind. Me, laughing and dancing in a forest. My red hair loose and flowing about my shoulders. I ran to a thick, tall pine and placed my palms on the tree. I'd felt its life inside. I knew that tree, inside and out. I'd whispered to it all my life.

I'd willed it to grow from a tiny sapling to a towering giant, ten or twenty times faster than it would normally grow. And that had been before I'd ever taken Blood or come into my power as an Aima queen.

I laid my palms against Yggdrasil's rough trunk. Closing my eyes, I sank through the thick layers of bark and outer wood. Deeper.

Seeking its source. Its heart.

But only dead, cold wood filled the tree. Even a dormant tree sleeping through a long winter would have some energy inside. A core of sap and life, withdrawn deep into its roots, waiting for the ground to warm and the sun to awaken its buds.

But I felt nothing inside Yggdrasil, the greatest tree of all.

It felt so… dry. A single spark of fire would set the whole mighty tree into a blazing torch.

"Isn't there any water here?"

D?rr shook his head. "There hasn't been water here for most of my lifetime, though the tales say that Hel once had many rivers. In fact, the wellspring of all the rivers of the nine worlds lies here and gives this area its name."

I hopped off the root into his waiting arms. "I need to go there, then."

"At once, my queen."

In a few minutes, we stood in a hollowed-out bowl in the earth. Roots arched above into an elegant cathedral-like ceiling. Pebbles lined the depression, and I could sense water deep below us. It boiled beneath the surface, pressure building relentlessly. Yet something blocked the source, strong enough to hold back the entire wellspring.

Whispers wound around me. Shades, ghosts, I wasn't sure. But they all said one thing.

Hurry.

Then I heard a faint rasping sound echoing in the distance. The rough sound that a snake's coils would make as it slid over roots and rocks. J?rmungandr wasn't awake, at least not completely, or it would already be too late. But the snake was so massive that he could be sending his coils out, hoping to ensnare me once more.

According to Loki, the snake had already been feeding on me, even before I'd taken Blood. Now that I had them…

I was stronger. Their blood had lit up parts of my power that had never been accessible before. A queen needed her Blood to power her magic, and now that I had three Blood of my own, I would make an irresistible snack for the giant snake. Maybe my new power would be enough to break him free and start Ragnar?k, exactly as Loki had planned.

I kissed D?rr's cheek. "I know what I need to do, and it's risky. I need to give the spring my blood, but when it rises up from the blockage, it'll be like a mighty geyser. We may not survive."

He pressed his forehead to mine. "Then I thank the goddess below that She allowed me to hold you at least once before we perish."

Something crashed against the thick tangle of roots above us. We were out of time.

"Set me down, D?rr."

He immediately lowered me to the ground. My injured foot settled on the dry spring, my blood seeping into the barren ground.

Gripping his forearms, I pushed my awareness down into the ground, using my blood to power the thrust. But it wasn't enough. My power thudded against the block, but couldn't push through to the water on the other side. It had to be one of Loki's tricks.

"Hold on to me."

D?rr gripped my waist, freeing my arms, and the other two gripped his arms, anchoring us both. I tore open both wrists and held my hands out to either side, letting my blood drip all around us.

"Great Mother, please hear my prayer. Allow Your waters to flow forth and water Yggdrasil once more!"

A coil taller than even D?rr crashed down beside us, twisting across the ground. My Blood tightened around us, locking me between them. Their bonds weighed heavy in my mind, hard and grim as a reaper's blade. They formed a black, shining wall around me, using their big bodies to shield me.

"Hold firm!" D?rr yelled. "We mustn't wake him!"

I willed my blood to flow faster, sprinkling the ground like rain. Closing my eyes, I pushed more power into the blockage. All my determination. I wouldn't die here, crushed by a snake. Neither would my new Blood.

I carried the blood of a goddess inside me, and She wanted me to stand here. Fearless and strong and fierce, even as J?rmungandr closed around us.

My heart pounded, my stomach rolling at the thought of being inside the snake again. The pain. The crushing weight of the mighty snake slowly draining my energy. My life.

Gritting my teeth, I shoved harder, driving like a spike into the heart of the wellspring. I could smell the water, pure and sweet, untouched for thousands of years. Fresh from the Great Mother's womb. I pulled on that water with all my strength, shoving my power through thick, sticky tar, smelly and disgusting. It smelled like dead bodies and shit. Maybe it was J?rmungandr's toilet, jumbled with massive boulders. Some of them seemed to have a familiar shape.

Heavy rock statues. Gargoyles. All dead, as far as I could tell. Thousands of dark alfar, tossed into a pit to block the wellspring from which all waters flowed.

Deeper, I wormed and pushed through tiny crevices. I only needed a small crack in the blockage. Once the water found a way out, it would explode through on its own. I felt the first hint of moisture. I could taste it on my tongue, even though it was hundreds of feet below. Straining, I pulled on that water. I willed it to flow free, even a trickle.

But nothing happened.

Pain seared me in all directions. Not mine. Theirs.

Through their bonds, I felt the mighty coils tightening around us. Svar's leg buckled beneath the coil. Myrk couldn't breathe. Yet he pushed back against the snake, trying to keep it away from me.

Giving me space to breathe and work. Keeping me whole. Even as they broke and shattered beneath J?rmungandr's weight. D?rr leaned over the top of my head, bracing his arms around his brothers' shoulders.

Taking the brunt of the snake's weight on his back.

I felt his spine bowing. Breaking. Yet he refused to give way.

Crying, I lifted my hand up to him. Trying to reach him. If he could taste my blood…

J?rmungandr rolled over the top of us, ripping me from their arms.