Chapter Nineteen

S AVANNAH HAD NEVER felt so much love or pride for anyone than she did for Zane and now her daughter, Freya. She was everything she might have imagined a daughter to be and so much more. Insightful. Intelligent. Beautiful both inside and out.

Seeing Freya and then feeling her was one of the most powerful, heartfelt experiences of her life. The instant bond they shared had been untouchable. As though they hadn't spent a minute apart in over ten years. As if she had held her in her arms and gazed into her eyes from the moment she was born. An experience that, while denied her, lived within Zane, so would always be hers, too. Always be a connection Freya could feel when she was ready because dragon magic was unique that way.

Right now, however, all sentimentality had to be set aside, and again, she couldn't have been prouder of her daughter and Aeda for seeming so level and ready to face what came when time shifted and they were no longer with the Wolves of Ossary but back in tenth-century Norway. Though she knew the girls were grateful to see Tréan there, too, they seemed able to stand on their own two feet, destined to be warriors in their own right someday.

One, a dragon. One, a seer.

All that had cursed them yet somehow brought them back together.

"Something's happening," Zane warned the moment they reentered the cave where Rafe, Quinn and ?se waited. "Athena and Ulrik's magic."

He didn't need to elaborate for everyone to understand.

Time had returned to normal, and Zane's dragons were getting ready to storm his dungeons and take Savannah, determined to make her pay for her crimes and lift the curse. Of course, she wasn't there, so Athena and Tyr were in mortal danger.

"I will stop this," Zane vowed, striding for the entrance. "I will—"

"Do nothing," Rune warned, her voice echoing around the cave even though she wasn't there. "J?rn and I are with Athena and..."

She kept talking, but her words were garbled before fading away.

Yet it seemed Aeda picked up where she left off because her eyes grew strange, and she shook her head. "Get out," she whispered hoarsely, falling to her knees. "Get out before—"

Freya ran to her, determined to help her, but it was too late.

The curse was upon them in a terrifying way.

The same black fire created by the dark seers in Savannah and Zane's last life burst out of Freya as if pent up too long and shot out of the cave into the Realm, becoming a great deadly beast determined to consume all.

Savannah, Zoey, and Quinn cried out in anguish when not just Freya slumped to the ground but their mates and ?se, all consumed in darkness they knew all too well. All got paler by the minute. The only ones left standing were those without dragon blood and the Valkyries. Aeda sobbed, trying to figure out who she should go to first. Magnus, or Freya.

"This is a curse meant to destroy dragons," Tréan said calmly despite his obvious concern for Freya. He looked between Savannah and her friends. "One that has unleashed quickly now and will destroy not just your females but every last male unless you stop it. A curse fine-tuned by..."

Tréan didn't need to finish his sentence for Savannah to understand. The curse had become much more powerful inside Freya over the years. Repressed, fermenting in its own hatred, it had only intensified. Now, even though her precious daughter had been released from it, things were worse than ever.

Things those evil bastard seers had likely foreseen.

"Yet I was always told curses could be lifted or defeated," Aeda whimpered, ultimately falling beside Freya and resting her ear against her chest, hoping to hear her heartbeat. One that was still there, but time was running out, and Aeda seemed to understand that because she closed her eyes and nodded as if sensing what Freya would want her to do before she opened her eyes, sat up, and looked directly at Savannah, somehow channeling her daughter.

"All you need to do, Mother, is what Father would have done." Her skin glowed golden with Freya's inner Valkyrie, her little chin jutted out, and she nodded once. "You need to lead your people to a new life. Freedom. Remind them of the peace they seek."

With that, Aeda's eyes rolled back in her head, and she slumped down over Freya.

When Zoey went to rush over to her, Savannah caught her wrist and shook her head. "There's nothing you can do. Not here. Not directly."

"She's right," Quinn said softly, as pained as the rest of them by what was happening. By what lay ahead for so many they loved. "It's time to remember why we're here. What we were born to do in not one life but two."

"But how do we fight an unseen curse draining the life out of dragonkind?" Zoey looked between Quinn and Savannah. "How do we stop something we can't see? These dragons are already free. Already at..."

"Peace?" Savannah said when she trailed off. "Because we all know they're anything but. Not entirely, anyway."

"They aren't, are they?" Zoey murmured, understanding where she was going with this. "This whole curse was designed around hatred and dividing people. The breakdown of societies and the fall of nations happen through division."

"That's right." Quinn nodded slowly. "And when that happens, the line between enemies and heroes becomes blurred. False stories are built upon false stories until it becomes impossible to distinguish between fact and fiction."

"Something done far too often in propaganda campaigns back home," Zoey said. "Convince a population of one thing, and unless something shows them otherwise, it quickly becomes truth."

"And the real truth gets buried," came Keira's much-welcomed voice as she and Athena appeared in the cave, and five Fire Anonymous friends who once had fire issues came together again.

Better still, five Valkyries caught in a curse.

Five goddesses with so very much at stake.

"So what's the real truth?" Athena wondered, her gaze as compassionate as Keira's when she looked from Freya to Savannah, sympathetic for the time she'd lost with her daughter. "What helped ignite this curse in the first place? What began the conflict? Because there had to have been a starting point." She pushed up glasses that were no longer there and delved into the science of it all. "Everything comes from something. With the Big Bang Theory, it was—"

"Not this," Savannah assured, in no mood for anything else but getting straight to the point given her daughter and mate were lying near lifeless mere feet away. All she wanted to do was bring them back to her as quickly as possible.

That meant looking at this logically from a psychologist's viewpoint.

"What turned the tide in this era was undoubtedly the moment Zane and King Knud slayed each other's mates, whether they actually did the deed themselves or not," she said. "As far as I can tell, the cart came before the horse because the curse made me shun Zane, and that, in turn, made his Múspellsheimr dragon act far more violently." She looked from friend to friend, certain she was right. "So we need Zane and Knud communicating rather than fighting with all facts in hand to see if we can't undo all the damage because we know that's what some part of them truly wants."

Her friends stared at her for a long moment before Zoey finally nodded, and the corners of her mouth turned up slowly. "I like this plan."

"I do, too." Quinn nodded in agreement and tilted her head in question. "But will it work?"

"I think maybe it might." Keira nodded once at Savannah with approval, behaving like the queen she had become. "If the curse was born of us and, most specifically, another's hatred of dragons, then it makes sense to return to what made it flourish. What gave it roots." She looked from Zane, who lay close to Freya, almost as if he were trying to get to her, back to Savannah. "That said, our sole focus must be on resurrecting those roots and bringing them together for all to see because all will see. We'll make sure of it."

Everyone nodded, as not just their inner dragons but Valkyries understood. While they didn't have the power to rouse kingdoms full of cursed dragons, they should be able to bring a select few back and make sure a magical tether connected everyone to what transpired between the two leaders. That could very well turn the tide of so much bad blood and, with any luck, lift the curse altogether.

"Where should we do this?" Quinn wondered.

"Where most can see upon waking," Keira and Savannah answered at the same time.

As it turned out, Keira, having grown all that much more powerful, no doubt fueled in part by the babe in her belly, chanted everyone present, be they awake or slumbering within a curse to one of the larger balconies of the Keep. A place Savannah marveled at, feeling at home already at the monstrous gothic castle overlooking the Realm—a castle and people ruled by Zane in Ulrik's absence.

Not surprisingly, Rune and J?rn were there as well. Rune looked from Valkyrie to Valkyrie. "You can do this. It's all within you now." Her gaze grew loving. "We have brought you this far. Now you need to see Odin's wishes through."

Instinctually understanding what they needed to do, Savannah and her friends formed a circle, held hands, and chanted something born of memories. Of dreams caught in nightmares. Of peace over war. Kindness over hatred. Something born of rising up from the ashes and burning brightly once more.

As they did, their skin glowed gold with their inner goddesses until they appeared as pillars of gentle flames. Embers no more as their flames spun into a large fiery circle over their heads. The very circle Rune and J?rn had created in another life to give them a chance.

With the rising circle, they felt a growing connection to all dragonkind in this era. A tether as gentle as the fire that had ignited inside them. As strong as a dragon in flight and a Viking at battle. And though their Valkyrie flames dwindled, and they returned to normal, the tether and fiery circle remained.

Moments later, their mates stirred awake.

"What is this?" a low growl asked. A tall warrior who looked to be in his forties with blonde hair and a beard appeared nearby, leaning against the railing, discombobulated. Just as caught off guard and confused as Zane appeared to be when they locked narrowed dragon eyes on each other.

Zane staggered to his feet and went for his blade, but Savannah touched his arm and stayed him. "We brought King Knud here." She gestured at not just Freya lying with Aeda but urged him to look down on his Realm. "Every dragon far and wide is caught in this curse and fighting for their lives right now." She bit back a fresh wave of fear when she glanced from Freya to Zane. "Our daughter is fighting for her life."

Savannah looked from Knud, who eyed the burning circle and endless prone bodies below, some in dragon form and others human, back to Zane as she went on. "My friends and I, fellow Valkyries all, think the peace we're seeking, peace that will be our only weapon against the annihilation of our species, needs to begin with you two." She looked at Knud again. "You started this, and now it's time to finish it. To find a resolution for the sake of everyone you love because I guarantee what plagues everybody now will not be fixed randomly, like your mate's health. In the end, she will be every bit as susceptible as the rest of us."

Knud nodded at his sons, clearly relieved to see not just Magnus but J?rn too, before noting Ulrik and his fellow Sigdirs were there as well. All the while, however, he eyed Zane warily before his gaze settled on Zoey. "You truly believe this is what it will take to end the curse, my new daughter?"

"I do." Zoey nodded. "The best way to fight this is together." She shook her head and looked from Sigdir to Sigdir. "To create one big alliance. A show of unity that works against everything this curse was hoping to achieve because its evil underbelly has always been designed to divide and conquer. The more that took root, the easier it's become to drain dragons, beginning first with our females, because what better way to create division than take away the ability to breed?"

"She's right." A fiery crown manifested on King Ulrik's head, and he gestured at a table that appeared a chant later. "To that end, as your high king, you and Zane must sit, Knud, and find peace once and for all."

Silence fell as Knud and Zane glared at each other for a long, disgusted moment, their hands dangerously close to their blades before Knud eventually spoke first, revealing something that could very well make all the difference.