Chapter 36 | Ravinica

Chapter 36

Ravinica

"GODS, THAT WAS . . . insane." My voice sounded faraway, drifting from the treetops.

It had taken me many long, agonizingly beautiful minutes to come to my right mind.

To my left, where my head was tucked against his shoulder, Sven said, "Are you disgusted with yourself, little menace? Ashamed?"

"Hell no," I spit back instinctively. "I'm just . . . surprised we did that, is all."

I couldn't believe I had given Sven Torfen my body. Grim was one thing . . . but my bully? The man who had tormented me when I first came here, with his siblings?

What would they , the other Torfens, think of us, together?

I told myself it didn't matter. What I did with these men was no concern of theirs, just like how what Randi did with Ulf was no business of mine.

I felt rejuvenated after our torrid threesome in the woods, under the shining light of the full moon. Tired, yes, but content. Because Sven had changed. Or else he'd shown who he really was on the inside of that smug, hard exterior. I had cracked him, without even needing to try.

He was as much mine as Grim and Magnus were, now.

I basically had Arne by a leash at this point. Corym was an outlier, a possibility I ached to explore, and by the end of the weekend I hoped to do just that.

For now, I basked in the warmth of these two men next to me, our backs on the grass, leaves and soil coating our skin like the animals we were.

I had never felt so full and needy than with these two men both inside me. I'd never felt so forward and dominant, either, despite having no control of my limbs or body in that moment. It was a surreal experience, and I knew it wouldn't be the last one.

Thinking about these two, and how our hearts were now entwined, my thoughts started to drift to other things.

The prophecy of Lady Elayina—that I meant something in the grand scheme of everything going on at the Isle. I hadn't thought of it for a long time, because I'd been so caught up on survival, passing my classes, and falling in love.

Now? It was hard to deny her words. Granted, these were only four men—five including Corym—with fates of their own. But how could my fate not thread with theirs, and the larger goings-on at Vikingrune Academy, when we were this close to breaking open a deep, dark secret?

The serpent's shadow . . . I thought, the voice in my head a trailing whisper. The phrase from Elayina, regarding the prophecy of her people. "The serpent's shadow will grow . . . to become greater than the serpent himself."

These men made me greater than myself. I wasn't selfish or na?ve enough to think I was the serpent, yet there was a connection there I couldn't quite understand—one that was starting to come into focus.

Magnus had also said the phrase, without knowing it had been recited to me by Corym and Elayina. He'd said that, if Vikingrune Academy was a serpent, Hersir Kelvar was its shadow.

Is there a connection there, too?

My thoughts kept drifting, even as my body regenerated and came back to life.

I sat up, recalling my studies in Mimir Tomes with Magnus. The secret I kept, that had little to do with the academy and everything to do with the four mates I had at my beck and call.

I gulped hard, realizing the time was upon me.

Sven stood, and I got distracted by his perfectly sculpted nude form. "Come," he said, "let us go to the river."

"Why?" I asked.

Grim got to his feet and helped me up. I felt weak and drained, standing, and wanted to be back on the ground, on my back. Legs spread, so these men can do it all over again and make me feel one with the gods.

"So we can cleanse your body and wash your soul, little menace."

My eyebrows lifted at that.

"Hm," Grim grunted, crossing his arms.

"What is it?" Sven shot at the bear shifter.

"I never would've thought you knew the meaning of aftercare, wolf."

Sven smirked in his devilish, smug way. "I may be a proper bastard, bear. But I'm Ravinica's bastard."

I smiled.

Gingerly, the men led me out of the clearing. We gathered our clothes but didn't bother putting them on. I limped, sore, and they took their time, not rushing me. Both of them had been rough with me, and it would take time to recover.

I wouldn't have had it any other way.

I was actually glad Sven had charged into the clearing, looking for blood. He had gotten so, so much more, and now I felt as connected with him as I did the others.

Before long, we could hear the babbling rush of a river nearby. Through the trees, Grim and Sven led me, until we came upon a snaking waterway that cut through the forest. It was narrow, shallow, and perfect for our purposes.

They held my hands, one shifter on either side like squires to a queen, as I stepped into the river to gauge its current. It was slow-moving, lazy, and the chill of it struck bone-deep.

I stayed near the bank, not trusting myself—worried I'd close my eyes and drift too far into the middle, then get swept away downriver.

Grim washed my hair, while Sven scrubbed my body, until I was glistening, clean, even more alive than before.

Yet my thoughts kept trailing. The realization that it was "time" wouldn't go away, and I worried they could read it on my face.

Sure enough, Sven said, "What's wrong, girl? Don't tell me the shame is hitting you now ."

I swallowed hard past a dry throat. Gazing up at the moon through the canopies above, I let out a sigh. "I need to tell you something. It's about both of you. And the others."

That got their attention, brows perking up.

"The others?" Sven asked, accusatory—still trapped in his possessive mindset.

"Magnus and Arne, specifically."

Grim's face went flat, slightly concerned. Sven looked askance at me.

"What is it, little sneak?" the bear asked.

I didn't know how to start, so I just did. I began somewhere in the middle, rather than the beginning, telling them about my secret rendezvous with Magnus in Mimir Tomes earlier in the term.

I told them about the secrets I'd found there, concerning my family's history.

"Why were you doing all this?" Grim asked.

Fear nearly crippled me, clawing up my spine. I worried I was about to ruin everything—every good thing we had developed. My doubts nearly overwhelmed me completely, drowning away all logic and thought.

I knew I had to press on. I had come this far, speaking in a low voice while they bathed me, and I didn't want to predicate the bond we now shared on lies.

"Because I came . . . I came to Vikingrune Academy with a purpose, Grim."

Their hands had stoppd moving on my body. I sat on the edge of the bank, staring up at them. Curiosity and a little worry on their faces. My fingers fidgeting in front of my belly.

". . . And that purpose was to kill the people responsible for tarnishing my family's name. Or their descendants."

More curiosity on their faces, more confusion.

Sven chuckled, saying, "I'd do the same thing, were I given your lot in life."

"Yes, but you don't understand, Sven." I shook my head wildly, fighting back against sudden tears threatening to spill. "Because what I found out, it . . . it changed everything. And I can't hold it in any longer. I don't want to leave this term without telling all of you. I can't keep the weight of it hidden anymore."

"What in Odin's name are you on about, love?" Grim asked softly. He crouched so we were eye-level, the shallow river licking at his calves.

"The people who destroyed my family . . . were your families. All of you. The Kolls, the Tors, the Fels, the Gorns. I traced my lineage back to the time of King Dannon, and your families were all involved, in some way or other, in trying to eradicate mine."

My breath was short now, coming out shallow as I vomited words at a rapid-fire pace. I heaved, feeling dizzy, nearly passing out from getting the words out in the open—the weight of it off my shoulders.

A different, oppressive weight took over as silence filled the night sky around us. When I looked up, Sven and Grim both stared down at me, shock registering on their faces.

To their credit, they didn't deny it. They didn't get defensive. They didn't fight back.

Grim pulled at his beard, as if thinking hard, slightly nervous. Sven cradled his sharp chin in his palm, watching me, eyes narrowing.

The wolf said, "So you came to Vikingrune to kill . . . us?"

I bowed my head in shame, nodding. Waiting for the vitriol, the hate, the damnation. Perhaps even the violence of them working together to end me, now that the secret was out.

I should have given my mates more credit.

Sven laughed. He laughed.

My head whipped up, confusion furrowing my brow.

"Well fuck me on a barrow mound," he said through his laughter, shaking his head incredulously. "The Norns really do weave the strangest fates, don't they?"

"Stranger than fiction, surely," Grim added, smiling at Sven as he stood to his full height and reached a hand down to help me stand from the bank.

I took his hand, utterly confounded, and came to my feet. "What in Hel is so funny?" I croaked.

"Let me ask you, little menace. Do you still plan to assassinate us?" Sven raised a single brow.

I blushed, scratching my cheek. "Well, no. Of course not."

He threw his arms out. "Then I don't see the issue."

"W-What—"

"Don't you see, love?" Grim interjected. "We are yours. You are ours. The past has no hold over us, or you. If I could repair the damage my family has done to yours, surely I would. But until I figure out a way to do that . . . I can only work to be different than my ancestors. To heal and repair, rather than destroy and subjugate."

"Rightly said," Sven grunted with a firm nod, hands on his hips.

"You agree, son of Salos Torfen?" I asked, tilting my head. I said Sven's father's name because he was a notorious leader, holding absolute sway over his family and their motives.

"I've been veering further and further from old pa's light with every passing day I've known you, Ravinica Linmyrr. You are my guiding star now, not my pack."

My head reeled, shocked at his admission.

Sven shrugged. "In fact, you and these other shitheels might be my pack."

My face broke out into a crooked, silly grin.

Hope filled my veins, replacing the doubt and fear in me—doubt and fear that had been so deep, so visceral, and which they had so easily shrugged aside.

Grim said, "You must understand, Vini, you have given me purpose. The thing I've been searching for all my life, since the death of my fathers. Somewhere to belong, and someone to belong to ."

Sven piled on. "You've given me a new life. A new outlook, if I can say it. How could I let past history from people long dead take that away from me?"

I gawked, at a loss for words. Grim was trying to change his past, Sven was trying to change his future. Both of them, so different, yet two sides of the same coin.

The convergence, where they met in the middle, was me .

"The answer is, I can't. I won't . The bear said it right: If you can trust us, given what has happened to your bloodline, that it all we can ask for. I will cherish that trust, work to earn it, and do what I can to make amends for the acts of my family against yours. Deal?"

Who in Hel is this man and what has he done with Sven Torfen?

Blinking back tears, chin trembling, I nodded firmly, and smiled. "Deal."