1. Erik

1300 YEARS AGO

Itilted my face toward the sinking sun, drinking in its inviting warmth as I bathed in the cool stream. Summer was in the air, but the first kiss of it had yet to bronze my skin, the long, dark winter still staking its claim on me.

My village was far enough away that I could no longer hear the chatter of my people, and the peace here was a balm upon my soul.

“Hey wanderer, why are you off on your own again?” a soft voice called to me.

I turned, spotting the beautiful Kyla on the riverbank, stripping out of her clothes to reveal her inviting bare skin, the fullness of her breasts and the tempting curve of her hips.

“I’m not on my own.” I grinned as she joined me in the stream, sliding her hands around my neck. Her auburn locks brushed against my shoulders as she leaned in for a kiss, and I wound my hands around her hips, drawing her flush to me, feeling the graze of her hardened nipples.

“You know we’re going to get caught one day,” I said, evading her kiss with a teasing smile.

Her eyes sparkled with mischief and my cock thickened in response. “The Earl has five wives, he won’t miss one.”

“But you are his most prized wife.” I gave up on the pretence of holding back, dropping my mouth to the silken skin of her neck and dragging my teeth across the sensitive spot above her collar bone.

“Don’t pretend you care,” she laughed, and I nipped her skin as she arched into me.

People rarely came to this part of the stream. It ran into a larger pool further into the trees where most of the village washed. Despite that, Kyla guided me further upstream behind an outcrop of rocks, her eyes darting about like she really thought someone might catch us.

“You’re worried,” I remarked.

“Earl Haver is in a foul mood today,” she said, but her hands roamed further down my body, telling me she was willing to risk it. As always.

“The Earl is always in a bad fucking mood.”

“He knew I wanted you,” she whispered, digging her teeth into her lip. “He married me out of spite.”

I frowned at her words. I’d never really thought about taking a bride. It always seemed like something men did for power in my clan. But Kyla would have been my first choice if I’d ever wanted to settle down. Earl Haver had taken that choice away from me, like he did to many men in the village. He took the beautiful women for himself and killed anyone who challenged him.

His son, Fabian, was the only decent man in his family. He was like a brother to me, but his father had never liked me. I questioned his rule, never bowing too low or agreeing too easily. If he hadn’t been a drunk, I might have respected him more.

I was on the verge of losing myself in Kyla’s soft skin when someone shouted my name, “Come out, Erik! Quick!”

Clarice’s voice filled the air and Kyla’s eyes widened in alarm. I snatched her hand, tugging her after me as we waded out of the stream. Clarice thrust our clothes at us, not giving a damn about seeing us naked. She was one of the few people I trusted implicitly, and I knew she’d never give away our secret.

Today she looked fierce, her golden hair wound into a tight braid and her dark armour in place. She was one of the strongest shield-maidens in our village, and when she was dressed for a fight, it usually meant there was one coming.

“What’s going on?” I demanded, dragging on my clothes despite instantly soaking them through.

I picked up my sword as Kyla pulled on the last of her clothes and took out a knife.

“Our parents have gone insane,” Clarice spoke directly to me. “They’re ransacking the village. They say someone is coming for us. And they’re looking for something they say will appease them,” she said, her beautiful features pinching.

“What?” I blurted in confusion.

“Who’s coming?” Kyla asked, equally baffled.

Clarice shook her head. “They speak of the gods. And they have a fear in their eyes like nothing I’ve ever seen.” She quickened her pace to a jog, and I hurried after her through the trees, the chaos in the village sounding from up ahead as we climbed the steep path.

I took the lead as we arrived among the first houses and Kyla scampered off, not wanting to be seen with me. It didn’t matter though; Clarice had been right. The place was mayhem, and no one was paying attention to us.

Miles sped out from the nearest house, jogging toward me half dressed with terror in his eyes. “Erik, my father’s lost his mind. All of them have.”

I gripped his shoulder, my heart pumping harder. “What do you mean?”

He pointed across the village, and I spotted my own father tossing a woman’s things out of her house into the dirt.

“Father!” I shouted, sprinting toward him, and sheathing my sword.

He was in a frenzy, muttering to himself as he broke apart a jewellery box and rifled through the contents. His long black hair had come loose of its usual braids, and there was a madness about his expression that had my pulse rising.

“Stop.” I grabbed his arm, yanking him back, but his elbow smashed into my nose as he threw me off.

I stumbled, fury snaring me. “What the fuck are you doing!?”

He turned to me with a wild glint in his eyes, eyes the exact iron shade of mine. “Where is it? Andvari demands it. He’s found the gold. He knows what we’ve done.”

“What have you done?” I growled, grabbing his shirt in my fists and pulling him close.

He tried to shove me off, but I wouldn’t let go. Over his shoulder I spotted Earl Haver in a similar rage, his oldest wife Talia on her knees beside him as they smashed apart a wooden chest.

Their son Fabian was next to them, staring around at the madness in dismay. His eyes locked with mine and I released my father, marching toward him with intent.

Miles and Clarice ran to join me, and I spotted their own parents interrogating a group of children by the remains of the fire.

“Fabian, what’s happening?” I asked.

“Our parents have scorned the gods,” he spat, terror marring his handsome features. “They say they stole Andvari’s gold. Hid it in a mountain to the south. Now he says a piece of it is missing.”

I shook my head just as fire bloomed to life in one of the houses. My fucking house.

I stormed toward it, hearing a cry from within. Ripping the door open, I squinted against the roaring flames and hurried inside, lifting my shirt to cover my nose.

“Erik!” cried my younger sister and I turned over the table she was hiding beneath, dragging her out by the arm.

She clung to my side as I hauled her out into the fresh air as fast as I could. “Did you start a fire, Meredith?” I scolded, checking her over to make sure she was alright.

Her hair was singed, and her skin was flecked with ash but apart from that she was remarkably okay. She gazed up at me with a fierce expression. “No, it started out of nowhere, Erik.”

“Fires don’t start themselves. Why were you even in there?” I asked, trying to curb the sharpness of my tone.

I glanced over her shoulder as the small wooden structure I’d called home for years went up in smoke, my throat thickening at the sight.

“Mother sent me to look for gold.” She shook her head and shrugged her small shoulders.

Some of the village people appeared with pails of water but I knew it was too late. The roof was already caving in, but anxiety gripped me as I sensed this was the least of my worries.

I held onto Meredith’s arm, scouring the village for my mother, spotting her on her knees, weeping on the ground, her ebony locks in a mess around her shoulders. “Please give us more time. I know where it is.”

At her words, the parents of my friends stormed towards her, and my father was quick to follow. I kept Meredith close as I hurried after them, my arm locked around her shoulders protectively.

My mother was a strong woman and I’d never seen her like this, openly crying, speaking to someone who wasn’t there.

“Mother, are you alright?” I asked, pushing past Miles’ father and dropping to my knees.

She lifted her chin as I rested a hand on her arm. “Erik...you must find what he seeks. You must.”

“What are you talking about? Who is seeking what?” I begged, needing to end this insanity.

“The...ring.” Mother convulsed, falling into the dirt, her eyes rolling up into her head, and my stomach clenched with fear. Meredith wailed and I was forced to release her as I dropped to Mother’s side, gripping her arm.

“Wake up,” I gasped.

My father barrelled into me, dropping to her side and yanking her away from me, cradling her in his arms. “My love, is Andvari close?”

“He’s here,” my mother rasped. “Stop, please stop, Andvari,” she choked, jerking again in my father’s arms.

“Help her,” I commanded as Meredith started sobbing.

Father turned to me, his eyes wide with terror. “Son, gather the men and saddle the horses. We must run.”

“Are you mad? What’s happening?” I reached forward and pulled Mother firmly into my arms. She slowly stopped fitting and finally fell still, opening her eyes. “It’s alright, I’ve got you.”

“Oh Erik…” Her gaze shifted over my shoulder, and she gasped in horror. “No... he has come.”

“Who?” I growled, but my question was answered by an ominous voice behind me that planted a seed of dread in my soul.

“I have. Your god is here. Bow to me or face the consequences.”

I turned, finding a man behind me in brown robes which were so long they brushed his bare feet. His eyes were blank and nearly white; his hair was a dark tangle of weeds and his face was a ferocious yet beautiful thing.

Fear crackled through me as I absorbed the sight of him, the ethereal way his features moved, how he seemed to hold the power of the earth in his fist. This was no man...

He raised his arms and a harsh wind seemed to blow from his fingertips, forcing my entire village to their knees.

I clutched my mother tighter, looking for Meredith and spotting her between Miles and Clarice. Their own siblings had appeared too, Miles’ brother Tamrin and Clarice’s brothers Markus and Frond holding swords as they were forced to the ground.

“Who are you?” I breathed, though I knew in my bones that he was a deity; his body gave off a powerful aura that sank deep into my bones and wrapped around the essence of all I was.

“Andvari,” he purred. “Do you not even recognise me, human?” His hand whipped out and my mother was wrenched from my arms, rolling violently across the earth. Panic seized me as Andvari advanced on her, reaching out a hand and causing her to choke.

“Stop!” I roared, somehow unable to rise, to go to her or do anything at all as she writhed on the ground beneath him.

Andvari turned to me with a cold smile and terror clogged my lungs. “Son of traitors. Your mother and father have deeply wronged me. What is the name of the boy who would stand against a god?”

My throat tightened as his power relented and I rose to my feet, sensing my father crawling closer to me on the ground.

“Stop,” Father rasped, but I would do no such thing.

“Erik Larsen,” I answered the god’s question, though a tremor burrowed through to my core. “What is it they’ve done?”

“Not just them, Erik Larsen,” Andvari snarled, his cold gaze shifting to others in the village. Miles, Clarice and Fabian’s parents all cowered on their knees, their faces haunted with guilt.

“They have stolen from me,” the god continued, pointing at each of our parents in turn.

“We gave you back the gold!” my father cried. “We just need a little longer to find the final piece.”

“Your time is up,” Andvari snarled. “You have wronged me too deeply. I shall find it myself.”

“No – please!” begged Miles’ mother, Neela, her golden hair hanging in a sweaty mess down her back. “One more day, that’s all we ask!”

“You think returning the ring to me would be enough?” Andvari slashed his hand through the air and Neela’s head wrenched sideways, her face marked with a red palm print. The sight of such magic sent a shudder through me. I had worshipped the gods my entire life, and yet I had never witnessed them or their power.

Earl Haver stepped forward with a sword in his hand and Fabian strode behind him looking equally forbidding, his gaze moving to mine. I nodded, confirming I would stand with him.

“You wish to fight me?” Andvari mocked, punching the air, and forcing them to the ground with his power.

Fabian and his father collided in a tangle of limbs, scoring a path through the dry earth as they were blasted back and my fingers hesitated on taking hold of my own sword.

My heart tripled its pace as I tried to decide what to do. How could we face a god? We were only men, and he was all-powerful, built to rain chaos upon our kind if he so wished it.

Clarice ran to her parents’ sides, shielding them with her body in a bid to protect them from Andvari’s wrath.

“We’ll do whatever you want,” Miles said, pulling his brother and my sister behind him. “Just leave our families alone.”

Andvari started laughing, the sound so cold it sucked all warmth from the air. “Such loyal children...” His gaze snapped to my father, and I side-stepped towards him, ready to fight and die at his side if I had to. “I believe we can come to some arrangement here.”

“Yes, anything,” Father said, staggering upright.

He clutched my arm, trying to force me behind him. But I would not be shielded like a child, I would dive into battle and seek the blood of our enemy. I spotted my mother gaining her feet and my heart lifted a little at knowing she was alive, and energy surged through my veins as I prepared to defend her.

“Bring all of your children to me, Viking scum,” Andvari commanded, and a painful silence followed.

The people of my village were still on their knees, but weapons were in many of their hands. One word from the Earl and I knew they’d fight Andvari to their deaths. But that word never came. Earl Haver shakily ushered Fabian and his older sisters toward Andvari, making my stomach hollow out at the cowardly act.

“Father?” Fabian questioned, but Haver didn’t answer, grinding his jaw and avoiding his son’s gaze.

Fabian moved toward Andvari with his siblings and slowly, Miles, Clarice and their brothers came forward too, urged on by their own parents.

Meredith hurried toward me, and I clutched her in my arms, turning my gaze to my mother as fear pounded through me. I couldn’t let anything happen to my family. I would die before I saw them suffer.

“Please don’t hurt them,” Mother begged, but Andvari ignored her, directing us all to stand in a line before him.

I kept my hand around Meredith’s as I took my position, glaring at Andvari and brushing my fingers over the sword at my hip.

Andvari eyed me curiously, seeming to sense my indecision, but I slowly drew the sword, pointing it at him. “We haven’t wronged you. And I will fight to the death if you lay a hand on any of us.”

“A pointless threat. You would be dead before the tip of that blade was a yard from my chest, boy.”

I ground my teeth and my spine straightened as I prepared to die in the name of those I loved.

“I am no boy,” I spat. “I have twenty-eight years in this life, and I will give up all of them to end you.”

Andvari eyed me with interest then chuckled softly. “Go ahead.” He stretched his arms wide, and I felt Meredith tugging on my shirt.

“Don’t,” she begged, and I turned to meet her deep blue eyes, shining with strength.

Fabian lifted his own sword, gritting his teeth as he threw me a nod.

As one, we moved, a silent decision flowing between us, and I charged forward with a bellow tearing from my throat, my sword lifted high.

Andvari twirled a finger through the air and my legs moved of their own accord. I lost all control as I turned and aimed my sword at Fabian instead, the god’s power rolling through my body and latching onto me. He cried out, parrying the blow at the last second, stumbling from my ferocity, and I cursed, desperately trying to regain power over my own body.

“He has hold of me, Fabian,” I cried, and Fabian’s eyes widened before he came running at me, his own sword swinging towards my head.

“He has me too, brother,” Fabian gritted out, his muscles bulging in an effort to hold off the blow, but I was forced to swing my sword up to block the strike, the clash of metal ringing out across the village.

Andvari moved us like puppets, raising his hands in the air and crashing them together.

Fabian swung his sword once more, aiming to slice it into my side, and I darted back to avoid the blow, my hands forcing me to stab at him again. Fabian just managed to avoid the deadly strike and my chest tightened with the horror of nearly killing him.

I fought back with all my might as Andvari made me lift the sword above my head once more, and as Fabian came at me again, I was forced to kick out his legs.

He hit the ground and I brought the sword down in a deadly arc, his eyes wide with the oncoming tide of his death, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“No!” he yelled, and I cried out for Andvari to free us from his game.

My sword was an inch from Fabian’s face when my arms jerked to a halt, and I released a heavy breath of relief.

“Forgive me,” I murmured, and Fabian swallowed hard, knocking the sword away from his face as Andvari’s power withdrew from him. The dark taint of his power retreated from my own body, and I shuddered as it became mine again.

“It was not you,” Fabian muttered as I reached down, pulling him to his feet.

Andvari smiled widely, showing too many teeth, his eyes flickering with untold strength. “Back in line,” he hissed.

Fabian gave me a grave look, turning to re-join his siblings and as I moved too, a sharp tug pulled the sword free from my hand. Fabian’s flew through the air as well, and Andvari caught each of them in his outstretched palms, disarming us as easily as that.

With a ring of laughter, he raised them above him, and they began to melt from the blade down, dripping to the ground in a mess of molten iron.

Andvari observed us with a cool expression, tossing the hilts into the liquid remains of our blades. “Enough of this. It is time penance is given.”

He circled his hand through the air and a wicker basket weaved itself from nothing until it hung from his arm, a glimmer of gold winking inside it.

“I have thought long and hard on this punishment,” Andvari said with a dark smile that filled me with dread. “And today I have decided I will not punish those who have wronged me...it will be their children who pay the price.”

My heart juddered in my chest, and I pulled Meredith closer, needing to guard her from whatever fate was coming our way.

“No!” Mother cried.

Andvari forced her into the dirt beside my father, and though they struggled to get up, it was futile.

My mouth grew dry as reality closed in on us on all sides. Andvari was impossibly strong. There was no way to fight him, no way out that I could see at all.

Andvari’s long fingers trailed over the basket, and he plucked a round object from within it. A golden apple was clutched between his long nails, and I eyed it with unease even as saliva pooled in my mouth, the fruit more appetising than any meal I had ever laid eyes on. Its power called to me in a way that went beyond all reason, this simple fruit so tempting that I knew there were few things in this world I would choose above it.

“Idun’s apples were quite difficult to come by. However, not all of these are the fruit of the goddess...” His smile was a twisted thing as he walked toward us with an ethereal grace, then held out the apple to me.

“Take it,” he commanded, and I reluctantly reached for the golden fruit, knowing I had no choice.

It seemed to shine with hidden rays of the sun, its skin unspoiled and gleaming. When Andvari offered the next one to my sister, I lurched out and tried to knock it from his hands, but the god flicked his finger in my direction. My arms locked tight, so I was unable to reach it, only my grasp on my own apple remaining firm as Meredith took the fruit from the monster before her.

“Meredith, don’t eat it,” I ordered under my breath, and she gave me a small nod, her eyes twinkling with tears. My chest crushed at the sight. I was unable to help, to do anything to stop this.

When all of us had an apple, Andvari watched us with mirth in his gaze. “Eat,” he ordered, but none of us moved, that simple command as certain as a death sentence.

Our parents started screaming, begging for mercy, but a wave of Andvari’s hand silenced them.

The village was terrifyingly quiet and nothing but the summer breeze rustling the leaves sounded around us. The sun was low on the horizon, turning the sky to a dusky blood-red, and I wondered if it was the last sunset I’d ever see.

“Eat!” Andvari demanded once more, raising both hands, and my arm lifted under his power, the urge to bite into the fruit overwhelming me.

I battled as hard as I could, but my shaking hand raised, and the gleaming apple met my lips. Meredith sank her teeth into her own, her eyes clouding with fear and remorse at being unable to stop.

No, don’t eat it.

I was forced to take a bite, and the sweetest juice I’d ever tasted seeped over my tongue, sugar and power washing together, enchanting me. I chewed through the soft pieces, suddenly unable to stop, intoxicated by the flavour and needing more. So much more.

As I swallowed, Andvari’s power released me, and I threw the apple to the floor with a wrench of determination. Meredith discarded hers beside mine, but unlike mine, it turned ashen grey and rotted away before our eyes.

She fell forward with a whimper, and I caught her with a cry of fear, dropping to my knees as I held her.

Others were falling too, but I could only see my sister, my heart tearing in two and leaving me raw.

“What have you done!?” I roared at Andvari, but only his cold laughter came in reply.

Meredith jerked in my arms and foam spewed from her mouth while pain ripped through the core of me and left me barren. Her eyes rolled back into her head and blood joined the mess around her lips as death came swooping down on her.

“No, stay with me. I’m here, I’ve got you,” I promised, shaking her to try and stop her eyes from closing. But slowly, she stilled in my arms and her eyes fluttered shut before a rattly breath left her lungs.

“Meredith,” I begged, my voice cracking, grief crushing my heart in its unyielding fist. “Don’t go.”

But she was already gone, the stillness of her body barely pressing down my lap like she suddenly weighed nothing at all.

My throat tightened and pain captured my soul in its grasp, the suffocation of her loss too much to bear.

My body spasmed violently, and I was certain death was coming for me too, grief ripping through my throat. I turned to find that Clarice, Miles and Fabian were the only ones still alive, their siblings dead at their feet or trembling in their arms in the final throes of death.

Clarice screamed her pain as she clung to her brothers and Fabian stood in shock, taking in his fallen sisters with a roar of utter agony leaving him.

A force struck me like nothing I’d ever felt before, causing me to buckle forward, my hands pressing to the dirt. Electricity coursed through my veins and thrummed through my muscles, leaking a powerful energy into my body that felt akin to a fire eating through my bones.

My mouth ached; my canines grew and sliced into my tongue, then a hundred scents flooded me all at once, everything from the campfire to the earthy smell of the dirt beneath me. Sounds grew louder, pounding into my skull, and a scream tore through the air, making me wince with the sharpness of the noise.

Andvari had released my village from his spell and chaos descended around us, but I couldn’t turn my head to learn why.

Above it all was the slow, dying thump of my sister’s pulse, still barely clinging to life. It called to me. Surrounded me. But as that sound finally fell quiet, I lay Meredith on the earth, crawling away from her, battling the horrifying sensation taking over my body.

The grief fell away, taken hostage by a growing need at the base of my throat, a need that went beyond all logic and reason. I desperately wanted something. I hungered for it more than I hungered for air in my lungs. It was a need so fundamental that it defied all other human needs I possessed, becoming the sole purpose for my existence.

My vision shuddered, growing keener until the world before me was alive with colour, so bright, it was as if I’d never seen the world clearly before. But one colour stood out above all else. Red.

Blood was flowing from Neela’s neck. Miles was atop her, ripping into her throat with his teeth. His own mother. And as the scent of the blood hit my senses, a burning thirst carved through my throat that demanded quenching. I lost myself, spiralling down into a dark pit within me and losing grip on who I was.

The people before me suddenly meant nothing, just moving bodies which housed the one thing I needed to sate this hunger. I rose to my feet and ran toward a man with long black hair. He tried to scramble away, but I caught him by the throat and pinned him to the ground with a snarl tearing from my lips. My instincts told me what to do and I wrenched his head sideways, biting into his neck until blood poured into my mouth, and relief slammed into my chest over seizing this prize.

Nothing existed to me but that taste. It was metallic, sweet, and set my mind rushing with a monstrous need for more.

I drank until there was nothing left, and the man stopped begging. As he fell still, he muttered to me, “My boy...I’m sorry.” For a second, I half-remembered who he was, a thousand memories of my father hovering on the edge of my senses. Regret and terror found me for a fleeting moment, my shaking hand reaching for his face, but in the next moment, all emotion fled again, leaving me in this ravenous state with a single need I had to satisfy.

I moved through the village, ripping out throats, drinking from everyone I caught and finding I could move with the speed of the wind. I killed without care. And I was so fast, no one could evade me as I hunted them down and let my fangs pierce their soft, breakable flesh.

I tore into a girl’s throat with auburn hair and skin as white as pearls, the scent of her rousing a familiar tug in my chest. She called my name and begged me to stop, but I didn’t know that name any longer. I didn’t have the will to stop, and I didn’t care to either. All that mattered was blood, and this creature possessed it.

When the girl lay lifeless beneath me, I lifted my head with an animal-like snarl, scouring my surroundings for my next prey, her blood spilling over my lips.

I must satisfy this need. I must drink every drop of blood I can find.

The village was burning around us, smoke billowing from the houses and coiling toward the red sky, and Andvari walked among it, bathing in the carnage as every man, woman and child was cut down around him by Clarice, Fabian, Miles, and me.

Soon, the four of us were the only ones still living, and I stood above my final kill with blood soaking my clothes and dripping down my chin, gazing across the devastation. No breath moved through my lungs; no guilt reached my heart. I was nothing but a monster in the aftermath of a frenzied slaughter, and still I craved more.

Andvari approached me, and my thoughts slowly began to realign, memories slipping back to me along with the clarity of who I was. Of what I’d done.

Emotion slammed into my body, and I blinked heavily as I became me again, reality painted so cruelly before my eyes that I released a noise of utter agony.

I lifted a trembling hand to my blood-soaked lips, the metallic taste of my entire village flooding my tongue.

“Gather,” Andvari commanded, and my friends moved towards us, their eyes haunted as they awakened from the bloodlust. Miles and Clarice held onto one another while Fabian clawed a hand over his face and stared at the blood on the ground in horror.

They were the same people I’d known my entire life and yet, they weren’t. Their beauty was startling, their features enhanced and any blemishes in their skin smoothed out. It was more than that; they radiated an aura now that was like birdsong on a spring morn, the inviting lull of it drawing me to them in a way I had never felt before.

Clarice reached me first and she gazed at me in fright before eyeing her own bloodied clothes. “What’s happened to us?” she whispered, her shoulders shaking.

I wanted to comfort her, but there were no words spoken in this world that could soothe the pain of what we had all done. The regret and loss burrowed into the depths of me, finding a place where they could torture me forever more.

My mother...my father...my sister...Kyla. They were all gone.

“You are undead creatures of the night,” Andvari announced, looking between the four of us. “Immortal beings who feast on the blood of the living and cannot stray into sunlight.”

“We’re not alive?” Miles asked, resting a hand on his heart as if to check.

My own hand moved to my chest and no reassuring thump came in response, the profound silence sending shock twisting through my bones.

“You will be frozen in time, living but not alive. Dead but never at peace. Everything about you is designed to tempt humans, and you will always hunger for their blood. This is your curse in payment of your parents’ crime against me,” Andvari snarled, dark flames flaring in his eyes and an echo of power lining those words.

Fabian clawed at his long hair, snapping out of the shock which had left him frozen. “No! No, you bastard. Take it back!”

He lunged at Andvari with a furious roar, but the god knocked him back with a single waft of his hand. Fabian came crashing into me and I steadied him, our eyes meeting and our bond sharpening within our shared torment.

“That, I cannot do,” Andvari purred. “But I will give you a single way to break the curse.”

“How?” Clarice demanded, her hands trembling as she gazed across our devastated village.

Miles looked to me, and I drew him closer by the arm, gripping the back of his head and resting my forehead to his. I had little comfort to give, but I could be here for him. My friend. My brother.

“Erik,” he croaked. “I cannot bear it.”

“Silence,” Andvari snarled, and a powerful energy tore Miles and Fabian away from me, forcing us to stand and listen to him.

“Tell us the way to break the curse,” Clarice snapped, a sob catching in her throat, but even now she let no tears fall. Or perhaps we were no longer made to shed them.

I was on the verge of breaking just as my kin were, of going mad with the horror of what we’d done, but if there was an answer, I had to hear it.

The full moon was rising in the evening sky, gazing down on us with its watchful eye, judging the monstrosities Andvari had caused.

The god started chanting a riddle, and the air pulsed with the power of his words.

“A warrior born but monster made,

Changes fates of souls enslaved.

Twins of sun and moon will rise,

When one has lived a thousand lives.

A circle of gold shall join two souls,

And a debt paid rights wrongs of old.

In a holy mountain the earth will heal,

Then the dead shall live, and the curse will keel.”

Andvari fell quiet, but the words echoed on in my mind, making no sense at all.

“What does it mean?” I growled.

“The answer lies within the riddle,” Andvari laughed lightly as if this was all some game. “If you decipher it, you shall return to your human forms.”

“How? It doesn’t make any sense!” Fabian cried, his hands curling into fists, his need to fight clear. I felt it too, that roaring warrior in me who had fought and bled at the side of my brothers and sister, and who ached to do so now. But this was a battle we could not win.

Andvari turned, ignoring him as a snarl twisted his features into a demonic glare. “Idun! I know you are here!”

From the smoke winding its way through the village, a beautiful woman emerged with golden skin and fiery eyes. She was clad in a silken white dress which seemed to float around her willowy body, and her golden hair fanned out behind her in a wind that wasn’t there.

Idun, goddess of immortality. A deity I knew from the tales of old, yet seeing her in the flesh was something else entirely. Her gaze was unnaturally probing and slid over all of us, her fury evident as I felt it strike me like a lightning bolt.

“What have you done?” she spoke softly to Andvari, but her tone held a strength in it that made the air shudder.

“I have borrowed your power to avenge myself,” Andvari said, the coldness to his voice revealing his dislike of the goddess.

Idun’s face contorted with rage. “I have hunted for you, Andvari, and now I find you have done the unspeakable with the fruit of my immortal tree. I will never forgive this.”

Her eyes fell on me, and a power slid through my body like vines curling around my heart. I crumpled to my knees, clawing at the dirt as my organs squeezed. I was surely dead, the pain too immense, the crushing of my lungs assuring me they were about to burst, yet through the agony I remained.

“You cannot kill them,” Andvari spat. “They have your gift now.”

“Undo it,” Idun commanded, her voice causing a furious gust of heated air that blew out the fires devouring the houses around us.

“By the gods,” Miles gasped, his hand clasping Clarice’s.

“Erik,” Fabian called, reaching for me though Andvari’s power held him at bay.

Idun’s cruel magic released me, and I gasped for a breath that wouldn’t come, finding I didn’t need to breathe at all. I scrambled to my feet, my movements agile and the pain from her attack lost to me already. I was death embodied, this skin nothing more than a prison for a trapped soul.

“They are bound by the curse; nothing can undo this except the answer to my prophecy.” Andvari stepped toward Idun and lifted his palms, fire scorching the earth between them in a wide line, warning her off.

Idun opened her mouth and sharp teeth were revealed, marring her beauty. “You are altering nature for your games, Andvari. Take back what you have done.”

“I cannot!” Andvari bellowed, and a tremor rocked the ground beneath me, the earth cracking from the power that flowed from his being.

I eyed the others, and they gave me a desperate look. We had to run. We had to get away from these monsters.

“Then I shall destroy what you have made,” Idun whispered, but she didn’t come for us as I expected. Instead, she turned and disappeared into the smoke, cast away on the wind as if she never was.

Andvari’s form rippled as he faced us once more, half here and half not at all. “If you do not break the curse, blood will be your payment. You will hunger for every human you meet until the sun bakes the earth and you are turned to dust.”

He vanished and all that remained was the hollowness of my soul, the smoke weaving its way around our broken home, and the tang of my family’s blood on my tongue. A taste I knew I would never be rid of.