Maude was quiet as she lay on Bryn’s shoulder, her hand tight on her ribs from the rage she knew her sister was containing. Quicker than Bryn thought possible, Maude spun onto her knees and faced her. When she looked into her sister’s eyes, she saw the fires burning behind the moss green she shared with their mother.
“It was Revna, wasn’t it?” she asked. “The soldier you sent to deliver your message?”
Bryn sucked in a breath at how quickly she had put together the clues. She nodded once.
“I swear to you that we will get our revenge on those who have wronged us,” Maude’s words landed heavily on Bryn’s ears, the weight of them silencing the world around them. “There are no words that will comfort you right now, and nothing will bring Revna back into your arms, but I swear to the Allfather and all other gods listening that I will not let Revna’s sacrifice be in vain.”
Bryn held her breath as Maude brushed one of her copper curls behind her ear before she spoke again, her voice thick with emotion, “It’s time our father realized he is not eternal. We will be his downfall, and whatever is raised in his absence will benefiteveryone—nobles,vitki, and the rest of the continent alike.”
Maude snagged her axe and quickly cut a long gash into her left palm before grabbing Bryn’s hand and repeating the same cut on her right palm. Her sister slammed their hands together, bronze fingers digging into her skin like a brand. The world stilled around them, like the Norns needed to hear what Maude was about to say, and Bryn was only able to watch in awe of her older sister.
“I swear this to you, Brynna Helvig, sister of my blood and the other half of my soul,” Maude whispered, her words dropping into Bryn like stones. “We will bring down Harald Helvig, even if we have to raze his palace to the ground. Together.”
Bryn gripped her sister’s hand as the words settled between them. Maude was apologizing for running all those years ago, but Bryn had already forgiven her the moment their uncle’s blade had pierced her flesh. Bryn brought her forehead to rest against her sister's, their skin burning with the flames that went unseen.
“Together,” Bryn said quietly. “In this life and the next.”
Light pulsed between their joined palms where Maude had sliced into them, promising their revenge. Warmth followed by cold so intense it was almost painful rushed from Bryn’s palm up her arm until it ceased at her elbow. That silvery light burst from their hands once more before it darkened again, temporarily blinding Bryn. Maude let out a small gasp as their eyes adjusted to the moonlight, prompting Bryn to look down at their still joined hands.
Starting at Maude’s elbow, silver ink swirled like shadows over her existing black tattoo down to her hand, where the intermittent silver strands joined together into thicker lines on the back of her palm that pulsed with starlight like it had its own heartbeat. The intricate design resembled the vines that grew up the moonstone walls in Nida, the fine-lined form of jasmine flowers appearing before Bryn’s eyes as the tattoo spread out over Maude’s hand and fingers before looping back and disappearing into her palm where the cut was.
The part that seemed to have shocked them both into silence, however, was that the same tattoo mirrored itself onto Bryn’s arm. Swirling silver ink covered her bare arm: jasmine flowers on the top of her hand and fluid silver vines on her forearm up to her elbow. The light that shone beneath their skin to illuminate the silver tattoo pulsed once and then settled.
When Bryn dislodged her grip from Maude’s, the silver ink flattened onto her skin, becoming permanent. On her pale skin, the silver was almost invisible, but on Maude, it stood out against her black ink and bronze pigment. If it was possible, her sister was even more captivating with the silver ink. It blended in with the black tattoo of flames that flared up to her shoulder, adding to the image rather than taking away from the fire.
“What in the name of the Allfatherwasthat?” Bryn asked, flexing her fingers in front of her so that the moonlight illuminated the silver ink on her skin.
Maude didn’t answer, her eyes on the new design that had been incorporated with her existing tattoo. She quickly gripped Bryn’s hand again, and more surprise flooded them when the tattoos became fluid. Maude released her hand, and the ink stilled again.
“I have no idea,” Maude said quietly, her eyes focused on the silver. “But there is someone who might.”
Liv sat at the table in the living space with Hakon as they quietly organized the weapons they would need for the morning. They were so close to freeing Herrick they could make no mistakes now. She shouldn’t have let him stay behind, but she had a promise to the Kingdom of Rivers that she would protect the Heir Apparent, even if the Heir Apparent had been acting like a real prick lately.
Deciding to be the first to cross the void that hadgrown between Hakon and herself, Liv turned to him. His usual calm and pleasant presence had been absent the last few weeks; the person next to her was now a stranger whose bitterness radiated toward her in waves that tried to push her away.
“I shouldn’t have let him stay behind,” Liv said quietly, keeping her eyes on the task in front of her.
Hakon sighed.
“My brother is his own person,” he relented, his tone hollow. “There was nothing you could have done to stop him. We got away because of him. I won’t take that away from him even if I am furious with him for it.”
Liv eyed her friend, the dark circles under his eyes purple and smudged in the candlelight.
“Are you going to be ready for this?” she asked.
He stiffened beside her for a moment before he abruptly stood, pivoting for the stairs. Liv's annoyance flared into fury toward her oldest friend.
“Hakon, wait,” Liv said as she stood from her chair and walked over to him. “I know you are angry and grieving. I know that everything that could have gone wrong has come to pass, and it feels like a never-ending uphill battle, but we’re not going to make it out of this alive if you can’t pull yourself together. Eydis is dead, and Gunnar might be next, Herrick is captured, Maude died and was reanimated, and the Lieutenant General of Flame has actually been working as a rebel and aiding Sigurd all these years. Things didn't exactly go as planned. Now, the King of Flame has his hands on the deadliest weapon he can hone, and it’s allourfault.”
Liv tried to calm herself as the torrent of truths spilled out between them. The words she had chosen were harsh, but they had been brewing for the last few weeks, getting harsher with every instance she had to pick Hakon up off the floor of a tavern or his living quarters.
Her patience had run out. The guilt Liv shared in their failures combined with her guilt over her deception of who she really was started to weigh her down. The lies upon lies she told her friends over the years in order to protect her species had come at a heavy cost as it was— she didn’t need Hakon’s emotions dropped on her shoulders either. Maude had been right to call him outfor his behavior.
Hakon had kept his back to her; his shoulders trembled from whatever pent-up emotion was about to unleash itself. She took his continued silence as an invitation to keep speaking.
“We haveoneshot at freeing your brother in a few hours,” she seethed, her anger becoming a living, breathing entity in her chest. “If you can’t talk to me or Maude, how do you expect to pull this off? Herrick needs you right now, and if I have to kick your ass all the way through this plan, we will failagain.”
At her words, his shoulders slumped slightly before he turned to face her. Though his face was unreadable, Liv could see in his sapphire eyes how her words had hit him. Hakon was haunted by their failures just as much as any of them, but he had never had to deal with them on this scale before.
