Vali groaned awake, feeling a cold floor against the back of his head and a pool of blood soaking through his hairline. It was black as pitch wherever he stirred, and it smelled of piss and vomit. Every move he made sent a scouring agony through his veins.
“You’re finally awake.” A flame struck to life, purging the room with a soft glow of light as Ivor tossed a match into a pit. The logs caught quickly, dry despite the moisture hanging heavy in the air.
It all started flooding back to him. Riding out to meet Ivor past the kingdom line, the pack of wolves that tore him from his horse. It was a mottled memory, but the bite marks all over his body reminisced the event in painstaking detail. He tried to stand but discovered a weight to his body that was over cumbersome. He was pinned to the ground, drained of magic and strength.
“What did you do to me?” he gasped.
Ivor stood from where she sat next to the pit. “We broke all your bones and then drained you of blood. Can’t use the power of the Aesir if it’s spilled across the pavers.”
“Why? Why are you doing this?” He spoke through gnashed teeth, determined not to show the wolven an ounce of his suffering.
“You got in the way, Vali. You were supposed to deliver Ailsa to Alfheim but we didn’t expect you to get this far. To fall in love. Certainly not bind your life to hers.”
Dread rolled inside the crypt of his chest at the mention of her name. “We?”
She paced around his body, her steps wading in blood like they were rain puddles. “The wolven. Though, we do have a notable ally helping us with our cause. Care to take a guess?”
He was definitely not in the mood for guessing games. “Frey?”
“The Volva,” she whispered excitedly. “Turns out they hate Odin almost as much as we do. He’s made many enemies on his path to becoming all-knowing.”
Vali grimaced as he tried to stroke the flames of his magic alive, but it was quiet inside his bones. Never had he felt so hollow. Like his body was sleeping and he was watching inside a dream. “What does any of this have to do with Ailsa?”
Ivor crouched where he writhed, smiling pleasantly. “Ailsa is at the center of everything, isn’t she? Everyone wants a piece of her.”
“Funny, you almost sound concerned.”
“Oh, I am concerned. You see, I’ve been watching Ailsa all my life. I was given the job to protect her until the line officially ended with the death of her sisters and she became the Last Daughter. I was the good little companion while we traveled so the Volva could keep an eye on our movements. I even nudged the Drieger brute and revealed your identity. The Volva helped speed things along with a helstorm storm, but you two are simply resilient.”
“You pretended to be her friend—”
“I pretended nothing!” Ivor spat. Her smug smile finally fell. “IloveAilsa in a way you never will, and I will do anything to keep her safe. Something you do not have the ability to claim. I am not the villain in her story, only yours.”
“You betrayed her!” he shouted, his voice scraped his voice raw.
“I amsavingher! Everything I have done on this journey, the events that led us here, has been to guide Ailsa to where she needs to be. And when we arrived in Alfheim I passed intelligence under the guise of gathering water from the river. We gathered our number with the Dark Elves and prepared for the final attack on the castle, but then Ailsa explained you were nowFraendi.
“Weweregoing to finally kill you, Vali. The Dark Elves wanted your family dead, to overthrow the Tyranny of Light so a new era could descend on Alfheim in exchange for the Dark Elves' secrecy. Ailsa would be captured and handed over to the Volva, so Odin could never get his hands on the power trapped inside her. We are still going to kill you, but now we must kill youcarefully.
His mind tried to process what she was saying. All the pieces were fitting together, all his questions answered at once. “I thought the wolven left Alfheim when Odin sent Frey to rule the land?” he asked.
“Not all of us left, just some. Just enough to breed a resistance and protect what is ours.” She stood and crossed the room back to the fire pit, grabbing an iron pole. “We are done hiding, Vali.”
“We?”
Ivor’s lip curled over serrated teeth. “The witches and the wolves.”
She stepped on his arm. The toe of her boot hammered his wrist against the ground. She hovered the blazing iron above the back of his hand before continuing. “This is so much bigger than your little realm, Vali. Soon, you’ll understand just how small of a piece you were in his game for power. How your very destiny was built on a lie.” She drew a symbol with the pointed edge of the blazing rod.
“Ironic, isn’t it? She did all this to save your realm, but your realm was never in danger. Odin knew this, too. He knew Frey’s magic was not the problem. He used you and your mother’s desperation to find the perfect seeker for his Tether. But this darkness is not spreading because of sedir, Vali. Your world is dying because there is no Light in the waters to source its life. Because the Light is afraid of something far darker than black magic, something far stronger.”
Vali could barely speak as she dug deeper into his flesh, relishing in his paralyzed agony. “What could be stronger?”
Ivor laughed and granted him a moment of pause as she lifted the rod from his skin. “What is the only being the Light is afraid of? Who is the only one who could chase away the sun?”
A new pain swelled in his chest; dread stuck to his ribs as he tried to gasp. His lips managed to mutter, “Fenrir.”
Ivor looked down at him and smiled, a torch now poised in her right hand. “That’s right, Vali. You led your mate into a pack of wolves, and this den is out for Aesir blood.”