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Blár blew out some air, and the temperature momentarily chilled. “We can either camp there or search this whole place for them. But this place is huge, and I’d hate for them to decide to run away once they realize we’re gone. And you’re right—they’ll have to come to that room to physically free the others.”

Magni seemed to consider those options. “I think we should wait in the room. That way we can prepare for them.”

“How would we prepare?” Truda asked.

“By removing the runes that don’t allow us to use magic,” Kolfinna piped in.

Another set of bones, this time looking alarmingly similar to a human’s, crunched beneath Blár’s feet.

“They won’t expect us, so we have the upper hand when it comes to that. And if we can use our magic, we have an even greater chance of winning,” he said. “But I must ask.” He gave Kolfinna a side look, and she didn’t miss the hesitation that momentarily flashed over his face. “What makes this time different than in that room we were locked in?”

Kolfinna paused with the rest of the party when they reached the open doorway to the coffin room. Magni and Truda watched her as well, waiting for her answer. She knew the weight of those stares—if she wasn’t able to break or modify those runes, their plan to sit tight in that room would be gone.

“There’s one key difference in this room versus the other room,” Kolfinna answered. “Revna was the one to write the runes in the previous room. I believe Revna’s rune magic is stronger than the rune magic already set by this castle. I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it? This castle is meant to train fae warriors to become adept at rune magic. They wouldn’t make it impossibly difficult. I was unable to modify those runes simply because Revna made them. I’m not at her level of proficiency yet. But this room …” She glanced inside the room—the stone coffins were exactly where they had left them, and the upturned stones from when Revna had attacked them were still there too. “This room has runes that I might be able to change, because I’ve proven that Icanmodify the runes in this castle.”

That seemed enough affirmation for Magni, because he traipsed inside without a second thought. Truda followed after him. Blár lingered in the doorway, his icy-blue gaze regarding her carefully.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said quietly, searching her face for something—maybe apprehension, or maybe a hint that she didn’t want to battle Revna?

Kolfinna kept her voice low. “I know, but I want to do this. Ineedto.”

Blár reached forward and grasped a single lock of her hair that had come undone from her braid. He inspected it between his fingers, and for a moment, she forgot to breathe.

“You don’t need to do anything.” He released her hair, watching her intently. “If you’re doing this because you think it might help you become a Royal Guard, then I’m telling you that you don’t need to. You’re basically an average civilian. You have no proper training, and no one will fault you for not fighting in this battle.”

It would’ve been so easy to back out and tell him to take care of the rest, but that couldn’t be an option for her, because they needed her. They needed her to break the runes, and they needed her to fight alongside them. It wasn’t just a human problem.

And even if it wasn’therproblem, she couldn’t let him and the others fight alone.

“I’m going to fight,” she said.

He looked her over once more, and then nodded in Truda and Magni’s direction. “If that’s the case, you can count on us. Magni might act like an assmonkey from time to time, and Truda’s got a stick up her ass, but they know how to fight, and they can fight well. Don’t feel shy to rely on them.”

Kolfinna didn’t need to ask if she could rely on him, because she already knew the answer. She knew the answer back in the desert dimension, and she probably had an idea of it the first time he saved her life too.

A loud crashing sound jolted Kolfinna into a fighting position, but it was only Magni pushing one of the coffin lids off. Her heart was still thumping loudly as he called, “All the bodies are here.”

“It doesn’t look like they’re awake,” Truda said, inspecting one of the bodies. “They haven’t come back hereyet.”

Kolfinna turned to the runes on the walls while Blár ventured deeper inside to also examine the bodies.No magic. Clause: except for Revna.Her fingers brushed over the clause runes Revna had written on the wall. She likely wouldn’t be able to erase the runes, but it was worth a shot. She closed her eyes to better envision the runes crumbling beneath her mana. Her hands warmed with mana and she wrapped it around the runes securely, then tightened her grip on them. Tighter and tighter until she could imagine them cracking and becoming flecks of nothing.

Sweat broke out on her forehead, but nothing else happened.

“What do we do about the bodies?” Truda asked. “Killing them would end everything that’s happening, wouldn’t it? If their mana is running these ruins, then killing them would put a stop to everything. Isn’t that what we want?”

“But if we kill them right now,” Blár said, “that’ll alert Revna and that backstabbing weasel that we killed them and there’s no reason for them to stay here, and they’ll run away then. Because aren’t they just going to different dimensions right now and freeing their sisters? If we kill them, then poof, the sisters disappear and Revna realizes they’re dead. Then she’s on the run, and we’re stuck here waiting and waiting until we realize they’ve already run away.”

Kolfinna glanced at the bodies uneasily. There was no telling what these women were actually like and if they were truly ‘evil,’ but if they were all as proficient as Revna was at rune magic, they would be in trouble. “But what if Mímir stabs them when he comes back and then we have to fight all of them?”

“That’s a possibility, yes,” he said. “But remember why Revna kept us alive? To feed our mana to these guys. I’m guessing when you wake up from the coma, or whatever it is, your mana is drained. Especially since these ruins are already sucking them dry every day. A lot of ancient artifacts have a give-and-take policy to make them work. That dagger Mímir used, for example, theGenfødsel Kniv, gives you the ability to put someone to sleep, but it takes years of your life, right? I’m guessing the same applies to when you stab them again to wake them. Maybe the dagger takes the mana of the sleeping person to activate it.”

“That’s a lot of maybes,” Magni said, unconvinced. “Let’s say you’re wrong, and all these fae wake up with their mana and are ready to fight, there’s a chance we might die. Especially if we can’t use our magic.”

“Also, I hate to poke holes into your theory,” Truda added, “but Revna had used rune magic soon after she awoke.”

“True.”

“Alright, but they’re probably pretty drained.” Blár shrugged, and then pointed to Magni. “Worst-case scenario, when Mímir and Revna are here, you burn the bodies. That way, there’s no possibility to wake them up. And then if theydomanage to wake up, they’ll be half-dead anyway.”