42. Erik

Two of Andvari’s forms came at me at once, one with boils lining his flesh and another with a twisted foot. I aimed for the weaker one, swinging Dainsleif towards his crippled leg. I missed the shot as the two of them leapt forward together, digging their nails into my flesh and biting into me.

I cried out as they started sucking the light from my soul, the strength going out of my body as I buckled to my knees. I threw elbows and tried to get my sword up to meet them but they held me down with a ferocious strength.

My mind became fuzzy and my thoughts were lost as quickly as they came. More of me was taken, memories of my childhood, my mother, my years in solitude, the battles with the slayers. I ground my teeth, bracing myself against the ground as I tried to recall why I was even here.

A vision flitted into my mind with a dark-haired girl, her skin as pale as the moon who owned every wretched piece of my heart.

“I’ll find you,” I told her as Andvari’s teeth sank deeper into my body. “And I’ll stay with you forever.”

A yell called to me from afar and a golden sword slammed into the bodies of the two Andvaris.

I hit the ground and the haze of light they’d stolen from me slipped out of the burning remains of their bodies and came back to me.

I sucked in a breath as Magnar dragged me to my feet and I blinked away the fog in my mind. Magnar grinned wildly, angling me to face the final Andvari in the room. The god’s skin was covered in coarse black hair and his face was set into a furious grimace.

We ran at him again but he stepped back into a mirror, his laughter ringing out as he sprinted through the panes. I threw the hilt of my sword into each one, breaking them so that he’d have nowhere left to run. Following him, hunting, stalking. I smashed more and more as his laughter rang out and Magnar joined me, shattering glass everywhere until only a few mirrors remained.

Andvari rushed out of one of them, darting forward with a menacing gleam in his eyes. He moved like the wind, a short blade appearing in his grip as he darted past Magnar and slashed open his side.

Magnar clasped the wound with a hiss and I turned to try and catch sight of the beast who’d cut him.

A blur of movement in my periphery warned me of his approach and I lunged forward, driving my sword through the air. I slashed a deep wound across his cheek and he yelled in anger, ducking low and slicing along the back of my thigh.

I kicked out with my uninjured leg, knocking him to the ground and he skidded backwards. Golden light dripped from his blade and he licked it off with a hungry smile.

“The gods will bow to me when this is done. I will have two more strong souls in my body. The twins of sun and moon were already so powerful but with how long each of you have lived, I will be all the more invincible,” Andvari laughed, running at us again.

Magnar snatched up the sword he’d dropped and swung both of his blades in his grip. He charged Andvari down and I darted forward so that we could intercept the final form together.

Andvari ducked and darted, faster than lightning as he moved about us, avoiding the deadly swings of our blades. Anger flooded me, heating every inch of my body as I released a bellow of fury, driving my sword toward the blur of movement in the corner of my eye. A blade grazed my back, the same moment my sword struck its target.

“No!” Andvari wailed, hitting the floor and scrabbling backwards as black blood leaked from the gaping wound on his stomach.

Magnar ran forward to help as I drove Dainsleif down into Andvari’s chest. Magnar skewered him too for good measure and I released a breath through my teeth as emerald fire burst to life at our feet.

I gazed across the remaining mirrors in the room, waiting for him to appear once more. But he didn’t come.

The black ash left by his fallen bodies started to shift, moving in an ethereal wind that carried it all towards one another, swirling in a vortex before us. We raised our swords and the floating ashes moved backwards as we advanced. We drove it toward the flaming mirror where the short, sickly pale form struggled to get out. As the ash slid through the pane, it tangled around Andvari and his final form appeared, holding features from each of the fallen mirages.

A naked, short, male squatted before us with yellow eyes, serrated teeth and a gnarled face. His body was coated in thick hair, one foot was twisted and boils lined his flesh.

Something in my blood told me this was his true form. Ugly as sin.

“No!” he wailed. “What have you done!?” He dropped down to all fours, clawing at his face.

I hounded closer, my heart swelling at the sight of him reduced to this wasted creature before me.

He held one clawed hand up to try and keep us back. “Get away!” he snarled. “I am not this. This is not me!”

“This is exactly who you are,” I growled.

He lurched away but there was nowhere to go. He was trapped inside the glass and couldn’t break out.

“No!” he begged again, clawing at his eyes as if it would be better to gouge them out than to see himself this way.

Magnar and I shared a nod, a silent decision passing between us as we grabbed one of the final mirrors and angled it to face him.

I wanted to see him squirm and beg and fall apart under the sight of his own reflection. I wanted to strip away any ounce of hope he had left. Because he was done. I was ending him. The man he’d tormented for over a thousand years. Who he’d forced to do unspeakable things. Who he’d taken everything from. And now he was going to fall at my feet.

His eyes opened and he shrieked in horror as he gazed at himself.

“Erik Larsen!” he begged, shuddering as he squinted through his eyelids to look at me, his face contorting in a pathetic effort to find mercy in me.

We moved the mirror closer until he was forced to gaze upon only himself. He groaned, trying to pull the dark hair from his head, scratching at his cheeks, his neck.

Magnar and I threw the mirror we were holding to the ground and I strode toward Andvari with a snarl. “I am not your pawn, I am not a slave to your curse and my name is not Erik Larsen. I am Erik Belvedere, Andvari. And I am your death.”

He screamed as his hands scraped uselessly against the glass. He had nowhere to go, his connection to the other mirrors was broken. And we’d stripped away every one of his forms until this was all that remained.

Magnar ran forward, taking hold of the edge of the burning mirror and I grabbed the other side of it. Andvari screamed and screamed, pounding his fists against the glass as he begged to be released.

We forced the mirror to the ground with a fierce push, yelling our victory. Andvari’s cries rang around the room, so loud the noise tore and bit at my ears. The pane hit the floor and the glass was dashed to pieces with the sound of a thunderclap.

Magnar and I were thrown to the stone floor as a powerful blast ripped through the air. Every memory, every ounce of my soul was returned to me in a swathe of amber light. I sucked in a breath as I held onto all the precious moments he’d stolen from me.

The glass scattered in every direction and black blood poured from within it. Teeth and bone and fingers skittered amongst the devastation, Andvari’s true form obliterated along with the mirror.

Andvari’s screams echoed away and silence fell, the only noise the tinkling of the shards as they scattered across the room. The power in the space lifted, departing from this domain as if it had never been. Andvari was dead. Our revenge was dealt. Our sole purpose of living had come to an end.

Silence reigned eternally.

I turned to Magnar, his chin held high as he gazed upon the remains of the god who’d thought he could win. But our love for the twins had prevailed. And in this final act we’d done them justice.

Though it didn’t soothe any of the grief flooding my body.

I pushed myself to my knees as it overwhelmed me. I’d known this wouldn’t be enough. But it was something. It meant the beast who’d taken my rebel from me was no longer a plague on the world. That he’d never hurt anyone as he had hurt me or my family again.

Magnar placed a hand on my shoulder, dropping down before me, his knees crunching against the glass. He cupped the back of my neck and pressed his forehead to mine. “It’s done,” he sighed.

“Yes,” I breathed, knowing what came next, but holding onto this brief moment with Magnar a moment longer before we departed from this world. Neither of us could remain here without the twins. And if only eternal darkness awaited me when I destroyed my immortal soul, then I knew that was far better than existing in a world where Montana didn’t.

“I am humbled to have truly known you, Brother,” Magnar said, the weight of his final words tearing through me. He handed me one of his swords and my brows raised at the incredible gesture.

“I’m glad my last fight was at your side,” I said firmly. “There is no greater honour than that.”

“That is true. My final hour has been spent well in your company.” His eyes dropped to his blades between us. “It is a fine death to die by these swords.”

“Then let us go,” I said, the last ounces of my resolve fading away and a strange peace washing through me as I rested the hilt of the sword on the ground, angling it toward my heart.

“These blades are capable of killing gods,” Magnar growled as he did the same. “They hold the power to end us.”

I nodded firmly, the tip of the blade biting into my skin. “Go well, dear friend.”