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“YOU!” she pointed at her.

Pricilla started to backpedal. “Get her! I don’t care if it takes a thousand of you, take her down!”

A loud cracking, like the splitting of a mountain, rent the air. Valeen skidded to a halt and turned toward the sound… toward the city.

“The wall is failing!” someone shouted.

“It’s going to break!” another yelled with glee.

Black rippled across the sheen, and she shook her head in horror. If that wall went down everyone inside would die… Aunt Evalyn, the children, their mothers, everyone. “It can’t break.”

And then she watched it fall, the shimmer faded into nothing, leaving the city wide open.

“The wall is gone!” someone yelled.

Thane risked glancing back as he wrapped Envar’s own chain around his throat. “No,” he said in disbelief.

In a flash, Hel appeared and took Soulender from her grasp, vanished and reappeared beside Thane to shove it straight through Envar’s eye, sinking it to the hilt.

Alehelm swung a golden chain around Hel’s neck again and it hooked tight. He and two others started dragging him backward. “You’re not as scary without your magic,” Alehelm jeered.

“Help! We need help!” Fennan stood shoulder to shoulder with Piper and Ronan with Leif on the ground between them. Her mind whirled, pulled in so many directions. Hel, Katana, her friends, Pricilla… a huge, scaled arm hooked around her throat from behind and dragged her to the ground.

Golden cuffs clamped around both of her wrists, keeping her magic caged inside her. “AHHHHHH!” she wriggled and bucked. This was how they captured her before. The dragon slammed her to the ground and shoved a knee on her chest, pinning her in the dirt. Another grabbed her ankles. “HEL!” More of the gods and goddesses closed in with those golden chains and cuffs.

A chain curled around her throat, and they lifted her off the ground.

“HEL!” Her heart beat so hard it hurt. She kicked and fought but the dragons were too strong.

Through the chaos of the fight, she saw Hel roll with the chains and shove Soulender straight up under Alehelm’s chin, blood ran down his hand and he jerked it free. But there were others surrounding him. Could he even see her now?

Thane was fighting off two ogres and three dragon shifters in their half-shifted forms. She wasn’t even sure either of them had seen them take her.

“HEL!” she screamed again as they carried her further away.

“Shut her up before they find out we have her!” the dragon holding her torso said. The goddess with silver hair holding the chain around her neck tore off her sleeve and shoved it into Valeen’s mouth.

Hel, I need you, I need you, I need you.

Bones cracked and a golden blade suddenly protruded from the dragon’s chest. A tattooed hand wrapped around his throat and threw him. With one swing, Hel cut the head off the other. Valeen’s back hit the ground, and she spit out the gag and rolled to her knees.

Prowling for the goddess still holding the chain, Valeen felt the fury rolling off Hel. It was a white-hot heat, pulsing out from him. His magic couldn’t be seen, but it could be felt—like a thick cloud wanting to choke the life from anything near. The enemy soldiers nearby backed away from him, terror filling their eyes. She couldn’t see his face but theirs showed enough.

The goddess threw a man in front of her and Hel cut him down. She screamed, holding up her hands. “Wait, I was only following orders. I was forced to come here. I’m not a warrior, I’m a goddess of flora.” Daisies bloomed around her feet. “See, I’m harmless.”

“No mercy.” The golden blade shoved through her heart. She gasped, then Hel pushed her to the ground. The daisies quickly closed around her making a strange cocoon.

Hel prowled back and lifted Valeen off her knees, put her over his shoulder and shot into the air. “I’m taking you away from here. We will not win this.”

“No! No! You can’t do this!” she beat against his back, then shoved at the golden cuffs on her wrists. If her bones could break, she would snap her thumbs to get them off, but she was immortal now. Nothing would break. “Thane and Piper and the others are still surrounded.” She spotted them as they rose higher. “You can’t leave him! He will die!” Tears blurred her vision. The booms of catapults launching boulders into the stone wall, the hammering of drums, the clashing of metal faded away.

The day she met Thane, the Elf King, at the pub in Briar Hollow came rushing back. Other memories too; Piper painting runes on her forehead before a battle with the dragon PrinceYoren. Leif laughing and jeering that she had childbearing hips and she quickly threatened to break his hand. Fennan throwing a saddle on a horse for her when he said the task was below the High King’s betrothed. The dayWarfound her heartbroken and took her home… it all flashed across her mind in moments.

The Ravens fought to get to their king but there were too many standing between them.

Ronan changed into his beast form, scooped up Piper in one paw and Leif in the other. His tail slashed out, knocking down all the enemy fighters around Thane and Fennan then he lifted. Fire shot out of his mouth, burning down all those in its path.

But that left Thane and Fennan alone surrounded by thousands. Valeen pushed at her cuffs again. Her magic fought to break free, bits of shadow trailed from her fingertips, but it wasn’t enough.