Page 108 of Soul of Fire

I nodded, letting Kindra take over in the familiar stretch and snap of shifting bone and skin. Arne stumbled back, and my lineof sight shifted from slightly below his eyes to ten feet above his head.

“Fucking gorgeous, aren’t you,” he said, reverently patting Kindra’s neck. She preened happily, and I was certain that Arne didn’t realize I could feel every graze of his fingers against her scales.

Kindra sank to the ground so Arne could climb upon her back, and he was careful not to snag her scales as he shimmied up awkwardly with one arm. “Ah cannae hold on that well, so ye’d better go–”

Whatever he said was cut off as Kindra launched into the sky.

Chapter thirty-five

Arik

Itwasn’tdifficulttofind the source of the destruction.

We’d left the temple as soon as Eisa was able to walk, packing whatever we could. She left her wedding gown with Sigrid, who made me promise to bring her back to retrieve it, but I knew from the looks on all three priestesses’ faces that they feared the worst.

“If we don’t return, go east. To Østrheim.” I said as Eisa hugged Amaya farewell. Even Freya looked teary, but Sigrid was stalwart. Steady. “My uncle will help you.”

“The third Tear is to the west,” she argued. “We must go in search of it.”

“Then he’ll give you horses,” I insisted.

Sigrid rolled her eyes, as if horses were a ridiculous form of transportation. “We’ll be fine, boy. You just make sure you bring her back.”

I nodded. “I swear it.”

Eisa hugged her goodbye, her face still pale and wan. Baldur had wanted to carry her, but Idunn had insisted on flying herself while Baldur carried the Book. Even the small act of fastening the Book, wrapped in three sets of priestess robes and stuffed at the bottom of our bag, to Baldur’s foreclaw had set off a nosebleed.

How will she read it if it hurts her?Baldur rumbled as we flew.

We will read it,I replied.How is she?

Her head still aches and her stomach turns.Baldur growled as if he could personally fight off the headache.I do not like this.

Me either. The others?I asked Baldur. Concern for our reirhold and our mate was a constant drumbeat in my mind, and I hated that I had no power to help with whatever Revna and the others were facing.

There was a pause as Baldur chased down our friends. Our family.Sigurd and Bryndis fight the odemarksdyr.

Odemarksdyr?

Fuck, there were odemarksdyr in Stalheim. We had already lost.

There are too many.Baldur’s voice was panicked.Kindra is with Arne. He is injured.

Shit. Let them know where we’re going.

Already done.

And call in the other reirholds. As many as can be spared.It would take twelve hours for them to arrive, and they’d be drained from flying, but we didn’t have a choice. If the odemarksdyr were here, it meant our battle was here, too.

It is done.

We followed the smoke in the distance, and before we had even crossed the Elfr, I knew what we would find. Where we were heading.

We were too late.

Hovedstaden was gone. And in its place…

It wasn’t the Rift. It couldn’t be. But it also couldn’t be anything else. A chasm at least twenty feet wide cracked the earth. Stormhold sat poised on its widest edge, as if a single gust of wind would topple the once mighty stronghold into its inky depths.