“Isn’t that right?” I asked her.
For just a moment, I thought I sensed it. The hint of onyx leaking into her irises. The smell of rot emitting from her mouth. The wriggling darkness that lined her veins like a parasite. The ground rumbled again, the earth cracking apart outside the house with a deafening sound. The fire from the hearth roared out of control, spreading to the walls.
None of us turned our heads. We were all focussed on the Spider, too wary to let her out of our sights even for a second.
“Sig has made no deal with you,” I whispered, my grip tightening. “He’s quite the fighter. Could probably beat me. Want to try him out?”
I stepped away just as Sig stepped forward, but the house splintered, pots and pans colliding with the benches, the walls cracking apart. I released the Spider, Calder jerking me backwards as a huge chunk of the wall fell inwards, inches from crushing me. The world trembled as we tried to flee the house, piling ourselves out of the door leading to the courtyard even as the frame around it splintered and cracked.
I fought against Calder’s hold until I was sure that Frey, Bjern, Sig, and Herra were free. As soon as I relaxed, he released me.
“Where is she?” I demanded, my eyes on the collapsing house.
“She disappeared.” Sig ran a hand through his hair, looking disturbed. “Said a word and then she was gone.”
“What word?” I instinctively touched the third finger on my right hand.
“Edelsten,” he replied as I pulled my hand up before my face, horrified.
Calder swore roughly and loudly, staring at my bare finger. The Spider had tricked us again, trapping us with the wrath of the Darkness tearing apart the ground beneath our feet.
“Run,” he shouted to the others. “We need to get undercover.”
He took the lead and we followed, racing across the unsteady landscape, dodging cracks as they appeared in the ground, splintering out beneath our feet like nets, spat out from the world’s core to catch us and drag us down. I noticed Sig grab Herra’s hand, skipping up ahead of us, dragging her along. He was using his Vold energy to move them faster. I reached out both of my hands.
“Bjern!” I shouted. “Frey!” They caught up to me and clasped my hands as I reached deep inside myself and called on the Vold magic to propel my steps.
“Lotte,” I muttered, closing my eyes and imagining myself a few steps ahead.
I blinked forward, managing to keep my footing, and we had soon caught up to Calder, Sig, and Herra. The sun seemed to have almost swelled in size, hanging low in the sky, bleeding colour into the mountains behind Hearthenge. I couldn’t help my glance behind, almost losing my footing as I gaped at the mountains.
They weren’t bleeding.
They were on fire.
All around us, the air wavered and trembled with heat, while above me, the sky continued to weep red. It was like the sun had exploded, raining fire down over the hills and valleys of Fyrio. I was bathed in sweat, my grip of Frey and Bjern slipping. Little blisters formed on my arms, the air so hot we were choking on it.
“You have to hide again,” Calder yelled back to me. “Go back to the midworld.”
“I’m done hiding,” I hurled back.
And I was.
I stopped suddenly, my hands slipping, Frey and Bjern losing their grip of me. They continued running but glanced back at me fearfully. I closed my eyes, releasing my rage to the wind, feeling the shadows grow and swell within me. The pitter-patter of my heart grew louder, stronger, morphing into the sound of drumming. It grew so loud that I didn’t even hear my own voice as I screamed a name into the air.
“Fjor!”
“Took your time” came his silky reply, so quickly that I was almost convinced he had been standing behind me the entire time. “You really do like to tempt fate, don’t you, Skayld?”
The others were still running, grouped together up ahead, but Calder had turned around and was rushing back. I spun on my heel, ignoring the ground cracking open beneath my feet. Fjor stood before me in nothing but pants and boots, his belt adorned with the usual pouches and pockets—along with several weapon sheaths that I hadn’t noticed beneath his other clothing. It almost seemed like the ground beneath him was steady, despite the fact he was a step away from me and it was falling out from beneath me. I stumbled, but his hand caught me by the arm, dragging me into his body. My skin was raw and red beneath his touch. His skin looked completely fine.
“Get us out of here,” I gritted.
“What happened to your ring?”
“It’s gone.”
“What will you trade for a new one?” His grip tightened, his eyes flicking over my head. I could hear Calder behind us.
“I’ll marry one of you,” I spat out, just as Calder reached me, yanking me away.
My feet skittered over the collapsing ground, finding purchase again as Calder dodged to the side, setting me beside him, a small chasm now separating us from Fjor.
“Very well.” Fjor smiled—a purely savage movement. “I suppose you want me to take the others first—”
“Hurry up!” I yelled at him as Calder was forced to drag me back another step, and then another.
Fjor disappeared and we turned, stumbling to the left of where we had been running before. I wasn’t sure if there was any pattern to what the Darkness was doing—if it was specifically targeting us, or if it simply intended for the world to eventually crumble apart—but it seemed that moving forward was the only way to keep from collapsing through the ground.
“What did you give him?” Calder yelled as we pushed harder, the heat travelling into our lungs, making it difficult to breathe as we ran.
“What do you think?” I growled back, frustration riding my tone. I was angry with myself, and furious with the Spider. “I agreed to marry one of them. I had no choice.”
Calder made a sound that was swallowed by the tearing apart of the earth, and then his arm looped around my waist, pulling me up just as a huge chunk of the riverbed collapsed, causing a ripple effect that took the ground out right beneath my feet. It dissolved into the water as a mile-wide section of the river seemed to cave inwards, forming a waterfall into a jagged, crumbling chasm. He lurched to the side, managing to toss me up to the bank as he slid down. I landed on solid ground, scrambling forward to grab onto him before he could go over the edge, but he had disappeared.
“Calder!” The name was torn out of my throat in an agonising scream, the drumming sound flooding back into my mind in a dizzying rush that had black spots flashing over my eyes.
I crawled to the edge of the chasm, the water rushing at my back, threatening to push me in.
“I got him.” There were hands at my waist, turning me over, scooping me up. “Lavenia. Stop.”
Fjor.
I realised that my power was no longer drumming but screaming. It was a keening battle cry, wrought with fury and despair.
“The Captain is fine,” he said, an arm beneath my knees, another across my back.
The racket in my mind quietened and my eyes fell back to the chasm, to the water parting around Fjor’s boots, to the cracks appearing along the edge a few inches from where he stood, not daring to grow any further. He was untouchable.
I touched his jaw, conscious of the tears that blurred my vision. His skin was cool to the touch, his power brimming to the surface, a soft, coaxing whisper against my fingertips. The sun wasn’t burning him at all.