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Tears pricked the corner of her eyes. “Let me go!”

She didn’t have time to react because Mímir kicked her temple with his steel-toed boot. Pain exploded over her head and the room shifted in blurs of darkening grays and blacks. She opened her mouth to scream, to shout, but the world was slipping away.

“—take them into a room—”

“And Eyfura?”

“That one? Take her too, just in case—”

Her world flickered to complete darkness.

24

When Kolfinna woke up,she realized they had been moved into another room at some point. This room was much smaller, probably a former dormitory room, but it was bare of all furniture. Golden runes were carved into the wall that readno magic is allowedand the doorway was covered in a wall of stone. Their only light source was a single window, but escaping would be fatal since the area beside it on the outside was bare of any solid footing.

Blár, Truda, and Magni sat in silence. Eyfura’s crumpled body lay in the center of the room. Her blond hair draped over her shoulders in loose curls, framing her face beautifully like a piece of art. So many artists would’ve loved to paint her face, Kolfinna thought with a strangled sob. But now she was a lifeless doll. Beautiful, but slowly rotting.

It felt wrong to have someone’s life force sapped from their being. When Kolfinna was younger and had tried taking the mana of the sapling, she had stopped when she realized she was killing it. Even then, as a young child, she had felt the wrongness of her actions. Manipulating and using a person’s life force to boost your own mana was simplywicked.

The beauty of a fae’s power came from nature. From nurturing and manipulating life—not human life, or animal life, but plant matter. Kolfinna had never met anyone else who used their power in a parasitic way.

Kolfinna didn’t want to think about Eyfura’s betrayal, but it was hard to ignore it when she was sprawled on the floor like that. Eyfura shouldn’t have been twisted in such a way. Her white and silver uniform shouldn’t have been so disheveled. Her laced silk gloves should’ve been immaculately clean and pulled tightly onto her fingers, not half-hanging on and half-torn from trying to rip away the rocks that had bound her. She should’ve been laughing and smiling and teasing. Not lifeless.

Kolfinna wanted answers. How could the same Eyfura who laughed cheerfully and smiled at everyone do such a thing? How could she befriend her with that motive? And why?

She should’ve never trusted humans, but Kolfinna definitely shouldn’t have trusted a fae either. She had been so blinded by Revna and everything she represented. Her history, her people, her power—she had wanted to believe in her so badly. If she hadn’t trusted her, if she had just left her alone, they wouldn’t be here. They would’ve been continuing their journey through the ruins.Eyfura would’ve been alive.

How could Kolfinna let Revna betray her twice? Blár had shown his suspicions from the beginning, but she had just brushed it all away.

She was such a fool.

Tears ran down her face and she didn’t care that they all saw it. They would all die anyway.

She started weeping loudly into her hands, her shoulders heaving. Her breaths came hitched and she couldn’t control the torrent of tears. All her pent-up frustrations, her hopes, dreams, everything poured out in seconds. She had been so stupid to believe she could become a Royal Guard. That she could have friends and fit in like other people. She had been so foolish to think she could have what Katla couldn’t have.

And she had been doubly stupid to trust Revna.

“Stop crying.” Magni sighed, but his usually serrated words and cutting tone were missing their bite. He refused to look at Eyfura’s corpse and instead stared at his hands intently, clenching and unclenching in silence. The stones had left a dusting of debris and powder on his white, crinkled uniform. He closed his red eyes, tone sharpening. “Why are you even crying?”

Kolfinna struggled to breathe between her sobs. Of all the ways she could’ve died, this was the least expected. It was also the type of most dishonorable death, because not only would she die because of her own ineptness, but everyone else here would die too. All because she had fallen for Revna’s lies and freed her.

“You guys are a real piece of work.” The back of Blár’s head touched the wall and he clasped his hands together on his lap. His words were aimed at Magni. “Planning to kill your own kind? Really? I thought the Royal Guard were classier than that.”

Magni didn’t look like he wanted to engage in an argument, but he spoke nonetheless, “She’s not a Royal Guard.”

“She wanted to be,” Blár countered. “And you guys were planning on killing her after you used her. I didn’t think Fenris had it in him to be such a snake.”

“I wasn’t in on that plan.” Magni sighed. “I had no idea they were planning that.”

Truda curled into a ball and rested her chin on her knees. “Who cares? We’re all going to die now.”

“You’ve been working with Mímir foryearsnow”—Blár’s voice rose higher—“and you never noticed he was a member of Ragnarök?”

Magni’s hands balled together tightly. “No. If I had noticed, I would’ve taken care of him. I wouldn’t have let …” The sentence hung in the air as he finally looked at Eyfura. He inhaled sharply and he looked down at his hands again. This time they trembled, but he tightened them again. Tight enough to leave marks on his ungloved hands, Kolfinna noticed.

“And maybe she wouldn’t be dead then.” Blár’s voice cracked like a whip in the quiet room.

“And what about you?” Here, in the close-quartered dormitory, stripped of his bravado, Magni looked so much younger than he actually was. Or maybe he finally looked his age. Wide, guilt-driven eyes bored into Blár as if trying to pierce him with a glare, but Blár was harsher than him. Harsh, like winter. Magni’s lips flattened into a straight line. “Didn’t you say you would protect us all? Look where that got us.”