Page 19

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 Allfather was that?” 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 had grown 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 all our fault. ”

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 out for 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 have one shot 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 fail again . ”

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.

Liv’s entire life had been about survival: hiding her identity, spying for the Elven in a world that believed them extinct, following the fate the gods had laid out for her, and protecting the Kingdom of Rivers because it was the first place outside of Nida that had given her any hope for their continent.

But Hakon had been raised in a society that only prepared him for one secluded area of their world. He had been cloistered in the comfort of that bubble for far too long, hidden away to learn how to rule by the Queen of Rivers, who had not stepped outside of her kingdom in decades.

Liv’s features softened. Hakon was strong— a warrior like the rest of them— and he didn’t need someone to hold his hand through these struggles, but perhaps a swift kick in the ass would be enough to shake him from his internal spiral.

Liv extended her arm to Hakon, who grasped it briefly after hesitating. His fingers were like ice when they gripped Liv’s warm skin.

“You can count on me,” Hakon said roughly. “Not just in this, but from now on until we fix this.”

Liv nodded once before she squeezed Hakon’s forearm and released it. Hakon let out a shaky breath.

“You know, I still haven’t been able to reconcile the Liv that I know with the Elven I met in Nida,” he said, deflating some more before slumping into a comfy chair next to the bookcase. “It feels like everyone has been lying. I can't take another betrayal.”

“I’m still me,” Liv said, leaning against the long table where their weapons were laid out. “I’m the same person who can dance circles around you in the training yard. I just have pointier ears now.”

She grinned as the insult landed, forcing a quick bark of laughter out of Hakon. The sound was uncomfortable, as if he had never done such a thing before.

“I suppose you’re right,” Hakon laughed, a dim sparkle returning to his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling the thick locks. “I’ve been a real ass, haven’t I?”

Now Liv laughed, but the sound quickly died as she thought of Eydis. “You’ve had every right to be out of sorts after everything with Eydis in the Knotted Caverns. No one is asking you to stop grieving, Hakon. We just need you to be the strong and reliable friend that you are until we fix this.”

The smile disappeared from Hakon’s face and Liv regretted bringing Eydis up again, but it needed to be. They all grieved her, Hakon more than the rest of them, but Ahland had to come first.

“She haunts me, Liv,” he said, his eyes closing. “Every time I close my eyes, I see her. I still feel her with me, like she hasn’t left this world entirely.”

The wind picked up through the open window, and the dry breeze was gentle and comforting as it wrapped around Liv and Hakon. He opened his eyes, and the vacancy there brought chills to her skin.

“But you’re right, and so is Maude. Eydis would be furious with me for acting as I have,” he continued. “You’re both just looking out for me.”

Liv let out a chuckle. “Don’t let Maude hear you say that.”

“Too late!” Maude called from the top of the stairs, where she and Bryn started making their way down to them, a smirk on the former’s mouth.

Liv’s eyes lingered on Bryn, the red-rimmed eyes that she was clearly trying to hide. In the few weeks that Liv had known the younger Helvig, she had never seen such a direct show of emotion on her face before. Even when she sat at Maude’s side, her face had been stoic.

Now, however, the warrior looked vulnerable.

Liv wanted to find out what weighed on her so heavily that her sister was making a spectacle to draw attention. Still, she hesitated, uncertainty flooding her as Bryn brought those unreadable, bright hazel stare to Liv.

In two hundred years, Liv had never been struck silent by just someone’s eyes. Before she could pull herself together, Bryn had moved on toward the kitchen.Maude had just stopped in front of Hakon, the Heir of Rivers looking exasperated already. Liv chuckled.