45. Callie

Iclung to Magnar like he was all that was holding me together. His strong arms engulfed me and I trembled as I buried my face against his chest.

I’d been lost to the darkness. Existing without feeling or thinking or truly being at all.

His hands were in my hair and running down my back and his touch was firm, demanding and possessive. He wasn’t going to let me go ever again and I was never going to leave.

“I can’t believe you’re really here,” he murmured and I pulled back just enough to look into his eyes.

They were filled with a deep pit of longing and I could feel the pain I’d left him in when Andvari had taken my soul.

“How did you find us?” I breathed, trailing my fingers along the side of his face.

A frown pulled at my brow as I noticed the translucent sheen to his skin, the way he seemed to be here right before me and yet not at all.

“No!” My lips parted in horror as I realised what that meant. My warrior, the man who had faced a thousand foes, fought against the most powerful creatures ever to have existed and killed a goddess, was dead.

I pulled back but he held me tightly, refusing to let me withdraw so much as an inch.

“I would die a million deaths for a moment with you,” he growled.

I shook my head, denying that what I could see with my own eyes was true.

Before I could voice any more protests, he pressed his lips to mine and every argument I’d been forming shattered to sand which was blown away as my heart raced with the love I felt for him.

Electricity poured across my skin as his mouth moved against mine and I wound my arms around his neck. It felt like the essence of our souls were merging with one another in that kiss.

Of course he’d come for me. Just as I would have come for him. I had claimed this man for my own and nothing, not even death, would tear us apart.

He gripped my waist and I arched against him as I pressed my tongue into his mouth and held his face between my hands. His hold on me tightened and I could feel his aching desire to keep me close forever more.

“What now?” Montana’s voice came from behind me and I withdrew from Magnar, though I couldn’t bring myself to look away from him.

The love burning in his gaze filled me up and lit every inch of me with a sense of safety. While I was with him, I was home. He would keep me from harm and love me with as much intensity as I would love him.

“We can return to Valhalla,” Erik suggested. “And live on in the great hall.”

“That’s not living,” I replied quietly, finally tearing my gaze from the man I loved as I turned to look at them.

“We aren’t alive anymore,” Montana said softly but I shook my head.

“We didn’t do all of this just to pay for it with our deaths,” I growled. “The gods owe us our lives. And what greater payment could we offer Odin for them than the death of a god?”

“You think he might agree to that?” Montana gasped.

“Only one way to find out,” Magnar said fiercely.

Erik nodded keenly and moved towards the pile of ash and bone which marked the place where Andvari had met his end. “Odin!” he cried, his desperation clear.

The black stone walls of the chamber trembled as a deep power drew near and Magnar pulled me against him, raising Venom an inch as if he half expected us to come under attack.

The rear wall of the chamber rumbled angrily and a terrible screeching sound split the air. Erik moved to protect Montana and the four of us drew together as my sister reached for my hand.

The wall ripped apart with an echoing boom and Odin stepped out of the devastation to stand before us.

I craned my neck to look up at the king of gods and his lone eye raked over the chamber and all that Erik and Magnar had achieved in their battle against Andvari before he finally let his attention still on the four of us.

“So, you have crossed into the realm of the gods and murdered one of my own within the walls of my domain?” he asked fiercely and his anger set the broken glass which lined the ground rattling.

“It wasn’t murder,” Magnar snarled. “It was justice.”

Odin’s eye fell on him and I could feel the power of his gaze pressing against Magnar as he fought to stand beneath it. His muscles bulged with the effort of remaining on his feet and his jaw clenched in pain as Odin tried to force him to his knees.

“Stop it!” I demanded, moving between them and forcing Odin’s attention onto me instead. “I won’t let you hurt him.”

Odin surveyed me for a long moment as Magnar tried to force me back but I refused to give an inch. He’d come through death to find me and I wouldn’t see him bow to one of the deities who had caused us so much pain.

“You still burn with all the passion of the sun,” Odin mused. “Even after your time in darkness.”

I glared at him, unsure how to respond to that and his eye swivelled towards Montana.

“And you still shine with the steady faith of the moon,” Odin added.

Magnar forced me back to his side and my anger started to quell into fear. This god was the only hope we had left and I had no way of knowing whether he would help us.

“Idun and Andvari were ever fond of testing my patience,” Odin murmured.

“You wanted this,” Erik accused. “Didn’t you? You wanted them dead!”

“I could not have turned against my own without inciting a war among the gods,” Odin rumbled in denial.

“Then it sounds as if we saved you a lot of trouble,” Magnar growled.

Odin sighed and the force of his power washed over us like a rush of water. Only my hold on Magnar kept me on my feet. The god stooped to pick up a sword from the floor by his feet and for a moment I almost thought he was going to smile.

“Dainsleif… I had my suspicions about Andvari’s involvement in your disappearance,” he murmured thoughtfully.

I exchanged a glance with Montana as I tried to figure out what the god was thinking. His gaze swept over us one final time.

“I accept this sacrifice before me,” Odin growled. “And I look forward to seeing you all at Ragnarok.”

A blue light built around us and I gasped as the air was sucked from the room. The light grew and grew and Montana’s fingers tightened around mine until I felt sure they were the only thing keeping me in place.

My body began to tremble and a deep heat flooded me, building in the pit of my stomach until it consumed every inch of my flesh. Just as I was sure I could take no more of it, Odin’s voice sounded in my ear.

Live well twins of Sun and Moon. Your sacrifices won’t have been for naught.

I took a shuddering breath as the heat spilled away from me and I tried to make sense of my surroundings.

I was on my back, laying on hard stone with my sister’s fingers still entwined with my own.

My heart pounded with fervour in my chest and a smile tugged at my lips as I heard someone inhale sharply.

“By the gods! You’re back?” Julius cried in surprise and Clarice shrieked excitedly.

My eyes fluttered open and I turned my head as I found myself in the chamber which held Andvari’s treasure once more. But Julius and the others weren’t looking at me. Their attention was on a deep fissure in the rock on the far side of the room which Magnar and Erik had just stepped through.

Montana shifted beside me and I turned to look at her with a wide smile on my lips as Julius and the others pounced on Magnar and Erik.

“We’re alive,” Montana breathed, grinning at me from ear to ear.

A laugh fell from my lips and Julius swore as he turned towards us next.

I pushed myself upright on the stone altar as the others all rushed at us and I couldn’t help but laugh again at the looks on their faces.

“How?” Fabian breathed in disbelief.

“That is a very long story, Brother,” Erik replied, his eyes fixed on Montana with so much love that it made my heart swell with happiness for her.

“Then we have to hear it,” Clarice insisted.

“You will,” Erik replied. “We’ll tell you on the way.”

“Where are we going?” Julius asked. His arm was firmly around Magnar’s shoulders and it didn’t seem as though he had any intention of letting him go any time soon.

“We have an empire to rebuild,” Erik replied. “And a lot of humans to set free.”

My heart raced with excitement at his words. This was it. It was finally over. Everything we’d ever dreamed of in the Realm had finally come to pass. There was no more curse, no more vampires and finally every one of the humans were going to be set free.

I pushed myself up, dropping from the altar and moving to Magnar’s side once again, feeling the warmth of his human flesh with a rush of happiness.

There were still some things to be done before the world would be set to rights entirely.

But it was finally time for us to begin our lives together. And I wasn’t going to waste a second of it.