Chapter 30 | Ravinica

Chapter 30

Ravinica

“ Anvari !” Corym yelled, rushing to Lady Elayina’s aid.

The fight was forgotten. The Dokkalfar had escaped into the mists like wraiths, while a handful of dead dark elves littered the swampy grounds in front of Elayina’s cave.

I was still, awestruck as I took in Elayina’s power. The ancient elf had flown through the air out of her cave like a catapult. She’d been wreathed in energy and roots, almost as if she was part of the great tree left behind in her sanctuary.

My mates moved toward Corym. Kneeling at the unconscious seer, he held her head in his lap. She looked frail now, her power sapped out just as quickly as it had come.

The rustling of footsteps and creaking of gear snapped me out of my daze, and I hurried over. “W-What’s wrong with her?”

Corym’s head whipped up with a pale expression. “She’s dying here. Her attack disconnected her from her roots.”

I bit my lip nervously. Grim, Sven, and Kelvar looked outward, in case the elves decided to attack again in our moment of recovery.

“Can we . . . reconnect her to the tree?” I asked, glancing up to the dark mouth of her cave. The sides of it were crumbling where she’d tossed that dark elf into the stones like a ragdoll, forming a crater in the shape of a body.

Corym shook his head, running a tender hand over Elayina’s wrinkled face. Her eyes darted under her lids. “No,” he said at last. “We must take her back to Alfheim. It’s her only chance of survival.”

“How do you know?” I asked, immediately feeling dumb for posing the question.

“Remember what I told you about our blood being one with the land? If we bring her into Kiir’luri, perhaps the organic energy in the forest will revitalize her.”

Perhaps? I honed in on that keyword. I said nothing, not wanting to dash his hopes, and only nodded my head. “Then back we go to Alfheim.”

Corym lifted the limp crone like she weighed nothing, holding her in bent arms. Fear marred his beautiful face, twisting his features into something foreign to me.

My mates had no objections. By the tautness of their bodies, the way they held their weapons, I knew they simply wanted to get the fuck out of here.

We started away from the cave, eastward, and I froze about ten feet away when I noticed we were missing someone.

Arne was on his knees, near the cave, staring down at the ground. His sweaty blond hair framed his face, curtaining his features.

My heart sank at the sight of the iceshaper, disheveled and defeated with sunken shoulders. “Arne—”

“I know, Vini,” he muttered, shaking his head and getting to his feet.

When he joined us, I took his hand and squeezed, opening my mouth to say something. Then I looked into his eyes. The pain in those brilliant blue orbs was too much to bear. I forgot what I was going to say.

“. . . I’m sorry,” I landed on. “I’m so sorry.”

I gave him a quick hug, squeezing his thin body tightly. He felt like he would crumble in my grip.

We had no time to commiserate and mourn our losses, much as I wanted to be there for Arne. The dark elves were still out there, and he understood that—we all did.

Minutes later, as our feet slapped through the marshland away from the cave, Arne spoke from the back of the group.

“I just . . . I can’t believe she sank so far, so fast.”

I assumed Frida had to be the only thing on his mind, despite the near-death experience and crazy fight we’d just been part of.

I knew what it was like to lose your family. To learn they were too far gone, that they had fallen out of your grasp and couldn’t be recovered. It was a painful, agonizing experience that never truly went away. It only got a bit easier with time, as acceptance set in, but the hurt would always pop up at random moments.

“I know you tried everything you could to bring her to the right side, my love,” I told him in a low voice as we made our way into the outskirts of Delaveer Forest.

“I didn’t try hard enough.”

“Nonsense—”

“It wasn’t enough!”

His voice was ragged, broken, and echoed off the branches of the trees around us.

I fell quiet then, knowing there was no use arguing with him. Arne didn’t want to feel better . He wanted to sit with the painful, raw emotions, and I understood that. Eventually, he would resign himself to the fact Frida had made her own choices and gotten lost along the way. It wasn’t his fault.

Today was not that day.

Learning Damon was only using me as a stepping stool, to try and leech off me? That was a tough pill to swallow. Learning Eirik didn’t share the same admiration and love for me I had for him? He’d shown his true colors, and it hurt even more than Damon outing himself as a rival and enemy. And my stepfather? He never loved me at all. Hel, the man didn’t even like me—his physical abuse was proof of that.

The worst, I realized, was the one person I had always trusted and seen as invincible. My mother, Lindi Foradeen.

I still loved my mother. We had not spoken since I’d come to Vikingrune Academy, and that wasn’t either of our faults.

It took many months for me to understand that, despite the love we shared for each other—mother and daughter, an unbreakable bond—she was also in it for herself . Seeing me to the academy was only so I could accomplish her goal of restoring our family name. The name affixed to her, titled after her.

Lindeen.

Since I wasn’t going to go through with the assassinations she had tasked me with, and the spell of revenge over me had been broken, what would she say when she saw me?

Surely she would be disappointed and angry but . . . would she still love me the same?

Yeah, I definitely understand how you feel, Arne.

Gritting my teeth, I tried to put the future behind me.

The weight on my soul was too much.

“It’s my fault,” I croaked, trying to take the burden off Arne by shouldering some of the blame. Blinking back a tug of emotions, I added, “If I had not opened that stupid fucking portal—”

“Don’t,” Magnus grunted, with everyone looking at me. “Don’t do that to yourself, silvermoon. It’s not your fault.”

Arne gave me a tiny, sad smile—even if he couldn’t feel better, he was determined to make me feel better. “He’s right, little fox. You didn’t turn Frida into what she is now.”

“But she wouldn’t have had the means to do what she’s doing without the portal.”

Grim said, “What’s done is done, Rav. You did what you did to save a man you love. Anyone of us would do the same to save you . We’d risk our entire world, as foolish and selfish as it may be, to make sure you are safe.”

Sven grunted, “Well said, bear.”

“Best to move forward, love,” Grim added.

I glanced over at Corym, who marched in a hurried pace. He made no comment, staring straight ahead, and I dropped the topic. One fire at a time. They’re right. I took a deep breath, with my throat wheezing.

None of us were in any shape to run to the portal like we had to get to Elayina. The brawl had exhausted us. Yet we moved on, and I cherished each of my men for digging deep and staying upright long enough to do the right thing.

Another reason I thought of only them as my family now.

Tension was high among our group as we moved in silence, listening for any sounds of enemies nearby.

Magnus said, “Frida lost herself to greed and a hunger for power.”

Leave it to him to not mince words.

Corym shot back, “Such is the way of humans.”

“Not all of us,” I snapped.

He bowed his head, his biceps flexing with Elayina cradled in his arms. “True, lunis’ai . Apologies.”

“It’s okay.”

I was angry, but deep down, I knew he was right. Frida was not the first human who had tossed aside her conscience and become power-hungry, and she definitely wouldn’t be the last. It was our way, more often than not.

Even stretching back to the time of King Dannon. Why had the man wanted the Runesphere for himself, and was willing to nix his alliance with the elves to get it? For power, of course. To make sure he was the top dog, and could take on his “allies” if it ever came down to it, by using their own magic against them.

That was why Midgard needed people like me. Like my mates. Men and women who would stand up and say, “Wait a minute, this is wrong. This doesn’t belong to us, and we don’t need it.”

It was like a millionaire’s incessant drive to become a billionaire. Vikingrune students already had magic and could Shape runes. Did we really need that next billion, when we had enough? What did we need it for? What was the target—the marker that constituted “enough”?

Through some twisted internal thinking, I was starting to understand I had no desire to “retrieve” the Runesphere for Vikingrune Academy. I never had.

Gods save me, we didn’t even know what it did!

Therein lies the problem. People think it’s the answer to our issues, and that it’ll help us ward off the elves, goblins, jotun, and other adversaries from other realms.

I knew it wasn’t so simple. Whatever it did, it was just a tool. A powerful one, undoubtedly, but not a necessary thing to own and hoard like it belonged to us. The elves had possessed it for a thousand years.

While it only took little more than an hour to get to the Niflbog from the portal, it took us nearly two to get back. My men were breathing heavily—not complaining, making no sounds of concern or worry, yet I could tell easily enough.

Grim wore only some scraps of clothes he’d picked up before we’d left, since his has exploded when he shifted. He looked freezing. His multiple flesh wounds across his giant body had bled until they were scored shut by the cold. The man looked grisly.

Magnus panted the hardest, clenching his jaw as he moved. Bloodrending always cost him immediately after, and I had a feeling he’d expunged a lot of energy to fight like he had against those dark elves.

Sven had his original gear on, because turning into a wolf didn’t destroy his garb like it did for Grim, since he was smaller as a wolf. His eyes were half-lidded as we marched, darting into the dark trees and trying to stay alert.

Arne remained dazed, staring ahead. His cheeks looked gaunter than usual. Kelvar was near him, at the back, inspecting our trail and wiping away our bootprints with quickly drawn runes, using his stealthy tactics to our advantage.

Corym hustled, breathing hard through his elegant nose, and led our group. I was closest to him. With his long strides, it was hard to keep up. That dark elf woman had gotten a good shot at my jaw with her roundhouse kick, and it was sore. Some of my teeth felt like they were loose, which wasn’t great.

Worst of all, our adrenaline was wearing off. We had killed nearly half the dark elves with our ambush, and with the help of Lady Elayina. I wasn’t sure if we could withstand another attack.

We drove forward through the thawing snow, putting one foot in front of the other. Trying to save Elayina from expiring in this cold, heartless realm she had been trapped in for eons, but had never called home.