Chapter Eleven

" B E CAREFUL, joRN," Rune warned when they heard a commotion outside their tent then the roar of battle. Fighting she had known was coming but hadn't expected it to be here in the woodland so close to where they were. But then the gods were strange like that, understanding their fates far better than she.

While Rune could have hidden them within magic, she knew the moment jorn looked out and saw a handful of his father's men clashing with Zane's warriors, he would step in and try to reason things out.

"Stay here," jorn said around clenched teeth. He chanted himself into supple leather suited for potential battle, grabbed his axe, and raced outside.

Meanwhile, Rune chanted the tent away and stood unseen, watching sadly as fate unfolded. She could only be grateful they were in the Forest of Memories, where shifters were wary of embracing their dragons, so they fought as men.

All men jorn and Rune had known since childhood.

"What is the meaning of this?" jorn roared, striding toward the fighting men, his inner beast blazing in his eyes. "Lay down your weapons, for we are allies!"

"Not anymore," one of Knud's men growled, swiping his axe at Zane's man, only for Zane's warrior to duck and slam into him, bringing them to the ground.

" Why ?" jorn roared even louder at the furious warriors going at each other. "Why are we not still allies?"

Her heart leapt into her throat when he put himself between two fighting men and used the flat of his axe to stop one of his father's men from driving his sword into one of Zane's warriors.

"Have you chosen the enemy over your own then, jorn?" Knud's man seethed, his dragon eyes flaring at him over their crossed blades.

jorn's dragon eyes flared back. " He is my own as you are my own."

"Again, not anymore," another of Zane's men fumed, driving his blade through the side of the warrior jorn had just stopped.

jorn's eyes widened in disbelief as the man he'd stopped fell to his knees, and Knud's five remaining warriors were taken down in a well-orchestrated slaughter before jorn could stop them.

"No," jorn roared but stilled when a blade came to his throat and his lower back, held by two different warriors and in locations that would be fatal.

Rune swallowed hard and bit back tears, rallying her inner strength to stay away. Moreover, forcing herself to keep from downing any who dared harm jorn in one magical swoop because this moment had to happen.

"Where do you stand, jorn?" the warrior with his blade to jorn's neck growled. "With your father, who so ruthlessly killed Zane's mate, or with Zane, who did little more than retaliate and get justice?"

"I do not understand," jorn said through clenched teeth, his narrowed gaze remaining on the warrior before him. Rune sensed him mapping how he would down all six men if he moved fast enough but worried, as he always did, that she might be left vulnerable if he failed.

"Have you not heard?" the warrior with the blade to jorn's back said, his voice dubious. "I find that hard to believe when you are related to the enemy and therefore more connected to his dragon than most."

"Yet I have not heard," jorn ground out, narrowing his eyes over his shoulder at the man with a blade to his back. "Although I hesitate to believe any warrior, be they Zane's or my father's, who would stab a man in the back and deny him an honorable death. Deny him a seat at Odin's table in Valhalla. Especially a man I know to be a good one and a longtime ally."

The warrior's gaze lingered on jorn's face for a long, drawn-out moment as he weighed how to handle things. Would he end the fates and lives of so many here and now? Because it would be that if he took Rune's love from her. She was strong, but not that strong. Not ever if jorn's life was snuffed out. May the gods strike her down for thinking it, never mind executing it, but it could all go very wrong if the warrior with his blade to jorn's back didn't make the right decision.

Even if it meant the loss of so very much—things more important and far bigger than anyone realized—if things didn't go as she hoped and jorn was killed, the wrath she would reap upon them would be enormous. Forget holding back and rising above it because she was a demi-god. She would lay waste to these men in unfathomable ways because righteous divinity and seductive seer aside, she still possessed a dash of Fire Demon, and nobody wanted to mess with that.

The moment lingered too long for her taste as Zane's man decided how to handle jorn, the seconds ticking by in a lethal dance before, fortunately for him, he made the right decision and stepped away, gesturing to the others to lower their weapons, too.

"Because you defended one of our own against your father's man, we will not battle this day." The warrior sheathed his blade. "But you will have to make a choice, and soon, jorn, for your father's commander killed Zane's mate, and, in turn, Zane's commander killed your father's mate, so war has begun."

Before jorn had a chance to respond, Zane's men melted into the woodland, leaving him alone amid six slain warriors he had once called friend. When he fell to a knee in grief and lowered his head, she went to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. There were no words to express how sad she felt for him, those who had fallen, or what had begun.

"Yet you need find your words," jorn said roughly. He stood and frowned at her. "What is this, Rune? What has begun? Is this the true onset of the Age of Embers?"

"It is." She rested her hand against his chest and gazed into his eyes with all the sorrow she felt. "Yet it will be seven long years before the embers rise and fate takes everyone where it will. I'll tell you more, but first, we must see to the dead and wish them a safe journey to Valhalla, for they have earned it this day."

Though desperate to understand what was happening, jorn had just as much respect for the dead as she, so in the way of Viking dragons, he helped her lay out the bodies with their blade in hand so they might carry it to their All-Father. They then covered them with stones, as setting them adrift on the sea in a fiery pyre was not an option from so high up in the mountains.

After praying to the gods over the fallen, Rune chanted the two of them back to the home of the seers, Mt. Galdh?piggen's Peak, and jorn pulled her onto his lap in front of a small fire. As always, a light layer of fog swirled over the floor, forever giving her glimpses of the past and future. The sun peeked out here and there from behind black-bellied clouds, dabbling the sea in flickering gold light.

"After today, things are going to change rapidly, min store kj?rlighet, " she said softly, manifesting a cup of ale on the small wooden table beside them lest he need it. She knew, however, he would not bury his grief in anything mind-altering but face it head-on so he might understand. She also knew he was torn between staying with her and going to his father's side. He worried about not just Knud but also his brother, Magnus.

jorn's brow furrowed, a heavy frown settled on his face, and his steady gaze remained on the flames. "What can I expect?"

"The sort of unrest and division you saw today for many years to come." She pressed her lips together against a wave of emotion. "You will have to pick a side, jorn."

"And what of us?" he said, his voice hoarse with emotion when he looked at her. "What becomes of you and I, min lille elskling ?"

"That I cannot say other than it will not be for a while." She cupped his cheek, inhaled deeply with just as much emotion, and nodded once. "We have time, jorn."

"Which tells me there will come an end to our time, and you cannot say if we will find our way back to each other." His jaw tightened when she gave no response telling him he was right. Yet his love was as fierce for her as hers was for him, so he said all he could. What she'd said mere hours before. "I can tell you, as you have told me, we will find our way back to each other because you are my mate, and I love you, my final flame."

"And I, you, my final flame," she swore, closing her mouth over his because that was all she could do now. Not just that but she wanted to, craving his taste as if it had been gone from her too long, even if it had only been mere hours. His life had nearly been taken, so these precious moments meant more now than ever.

Feeling the same and needing the escape intimacy could bring, not to mention desperate to be close before they were ripped apart, jorn repositioned her until she straddled him, chanted away their clothing, and sank deep inside her. Their groans mingled, and pleasure speared them, taking them away from it all, at least for a brief time before he had to leave.

She kissed him deeply after lovemaking, then watched his great black dragon swoop out over the sea toward King Knud's kingdom and into a new future.

The time they had just spent together, wrapped in one another's arms, drowning in pleasure, would eventually become stolen moments, then cease altogether until, by the grace of the gods, they found their way back to each other. Until then, they would find happiness.

More than either could have hoped for, given the darkness ahead.

Kings and kingdoms would fall into disarray, warring and illness would take root, and mayhem would last several long years until the Age of Embers finally caught fire, and King Ulrik was drawn to a woman across time. When that happened, it would begin an era that would either see dragonkind flourish or come to its mighty end in the embers born of its own fire.

Rune would become an intricate part of everything, destined to travel a thousand years into the future to help five women who were so much more than they realized. Better still, she would help five couples and fated mates find each other across time, which would make everything right again or do the very opposite.

Yet there was hope in that.

A chance.

Hope in five more final flames born of the Age of Embers.

How else could it be given she and jorn's fire was right there at the beginning, leading the way as a loving, burning, and eternal final flame?