30. Erik

Isank toward the riverbed, dragging Julius down with me as he tried to prise my hands from him. He pounded a fist into my cheek, but I didn’t stop. I had the advantage under water. I didn’t need to breathe. And Julius was already growing frantic as we dropped into the murky depths of the Hudson.

His nails clawed at my back as I locked my arm around his neck, forcing him to the muddy floor. As our feet hit the bottom, sediment rose around us in a growing cloud. Bubbles streamed from Julius’s nose, sailing above us toward the faraway surface. He landed a kick to my gut, managing to throw me off. Before I could catch him, he started swimming upwards, powering toward safety.

My eyes locked on an old anchor on the seabed and I snatched up the rusted chain attached to it, swimming after him with all my might. When I gained on him, I wrapped the chain around his ankle, and he jerked violently as the weight stopped him advancing.

I swam back a foot as he tried to swing a punch at me, missing me by inches.

Silence stretched around me, but a frenzied thump reached my ears as I watched the slayer flounder in the dark water. Julius’s heartbeat rioted with panic, his life hanging in the balance.

His eyes widened in fear as he fought to untie the chain, his movements growing jerky, keeping his fingers from following his commands. His heartbeat grew louder and louder. Faster and faster. And I watched, waiting for his end to come, seeing it growing closer with each passing second.

Montana’s pained expression filled my head, reminding me of how she’d looked when she’d seen this slayer in pain. And a realisation filled me which I wanted to ignore but I found it impossible. This man mattered to her. And doing this was going to hurt her too.

Julius’s body jerked as he took in a lungful of water, his eyes wide and haunted as he gazed up toward the sky that was too far away for him to reach.

Remorse found me in the darkness, ripping at my heart, begging me to be better than this.

I ground my teeth, willing myself to let this man die. He had hunted us all these years. He had put my family through hell.

“You caused his father’s death,”Idun whispered in my ear, and I shuddered as warm fingers stroked my spine.

I clenched my fists, willing away the doubts trickling into my body.

Julius fell deathly still and his heartbeat slowed to a dull thud, barely perceptible even to my heightened hearing.

“Let this happen. Let him die,”Andvari encouraged, and I glimpsed the whites of his eyes in the muddy water before he drifted away again.

Anger burned through my veins. The gods were playing with us all. We were just pawns in their twisted games. What were we fighting over that hadn’t been caused by them?

I stared at Julius as he floated like driftwood, moving with the pull of the tide. He was done for. And together, Fabian and I would be able to end Magnar.

I glanced toward the surface and a decision formed in my mind, not one that belonged to the gods, but one of my own.

Fuck.

I yanked the chain from Julius’s ankle, dragging him up to the surface as fast as I could, cursing my own insanity with every powerful kick of my legs. The waves were choppy above us and Julius was a dead weight in my arms. It might already have been too late. His face was ghostly pale and his lips were turning blue. We’d floated far out into the river and I didn’t think the others could see us here.

Good, because this never fucking happened.

I spied Magnar battling with Fabian before the statue. The twins were crying out to them but I couldn’t tell what they were saying as thunder boomed like a gunshot overhead, swallowing all other sounds.

I swam for shore, circling out of sight into the thick shadow of the statue which was leaning over the water precariously. One more hit and the whole structure could go over.

I threw Julius from the river and his back impacted with the rocky shore. He nearly coughed his lungs up as he woke, and relief swept into me.

I dove under the water before he saw me, swimming in the direction of the others.

You’re a fool. You had him and you let him go.

I shook off the thoughts, determined I’d made the right choice as clarity continued to consume me. It was what I had known all along, yet ignored until this very moment.

My fight wasn’t with him. Or with Magnar. It was with the fucking gods.