Page 114 of Entwined

What’s going on? I hate feeling lost.

These are the sisters and brother of your bonded, Liz, Rufus says. You ordered us to protect them.

Who is this Liz? I demand, tired of hearing her name over and over.

She killed you, Hyperion says. She sided with the humans, and they used your bond to weaken you. Then she returned, and you all went into the lava, and now she’s back, or she was. . . Hyperion looks upward, at the bright blue sky.

I’m certainly not sitting around here any longer, feeling stupid. I’m going to find her, I say. I think she owes me some answers.

Find out whether she brought the heart, Hyperion shouts from below. Because if she didn’t, I’m dragging her back here and throwing her back in.

Epilogue: Liz

When I emerge from the lava, I’m sailing through the air, and without thinking, I spread my wings—my wings??—and fly. My siblings appear to be safe down below, next to a much larger, beefier version of Axel, but then, I can’t quite figure out how to stop flapping, so I keep going up instead of down.

At least Gordon and Rufus 2.0 appear to be caring for the kiddos, so hopefully while I figure out this flying thing, they’ll be alright. I sweep around and head the only direction I know to go from here, toward the place that Azar has carried me several times in the past.

Not that he’ll remember any of that.

I start winging my way toward Selfoss, and as I do, I pass not one, not even two or three, but dozens of dragons. All of them, like me, are flying for what looks like the first time. There are shouts of joy, exclamations of apprehension, and even some dragon swear words.

I’m shocked that, even without being bonded, I can now both hear and understand them. Now that I think of it, I suppose I could also understand Gaia and Phileas and the others, even before I rebonded Axel. Maybe it’s a once-bonded, always-dragon-aware kind of thing. Watching the earth dragons frolicking is a little calming to me, and it helps me to process the fact that my bond is, once again, gone.

I’m still a little surprised when I discover that I’ve flown, with my large, gorgeous feathered wings, all the way to the home of that old Icelandic woman. When I land in front of the steps up to her porch, it’s as if she can sense I’m there.

She opens the door with a whoosh and steps out onto her small porch. “Where’s the dragon?”

I shake my head. “I’m not bonded to him anymore.”

“You traded your bond for wings?” She’s frowning. “You’re a bigger idiot than I thought.”

“Not intentionally,” I say. “But I suppose I did.”

“Was it worth it?” she asks. “Giving up your dragon just to become a valkyrie?”

“A what?”

“I’m assuming that’s what you are. They’re the only winged warriors in Norse mythology.” The old woman grunts. “You must have met Freya?”

How could she know that?

“Don’t look so shocked. You were human before, and you return as a valkyrie? Only the queen of the valkyries could effect such a transformation.”

“She’s the queen of—but are there more people like me?”

“Not that I’ve met.” The crone cackles. “But who knows what Freya will do now.”

Before I can ask her anything else, a dark spot blocks out the sun.

It’s Axel—flying toward us.

That means the things I recall of my time with Freya really happened. I transformed the earth dragons. I wonder whether they know it was me who did it.

You’re Liz, Axel says as he lands.

“Who’s the gold dragon?” the crone asks. “You sure have a lot of dragons chasing you around.”

She has no idea.