Page 152 of Fallen Gods

“Rey,” I warn. “You have to hurry.” I start to get up, but my legs suddenly give out underneath me. My head spins. “It’s too much all at once. I’ll be behind you—just run. You need to get it or we can’t save everyone. It’s up to you now.”

Her eyes widen as she takes me in. I have no idea how I look, but I do know that every muscle feels taut, my heart beating a scattered rhythm behind my eyes.

“Rey,” I warn again. “Go. Now.”

“I can wait with you—”

“RUN!”My entire body shakes with tethered power as I hold out my hand, and ice immediately builds across the lake. I’m stunned for a moment. I barely thought it and there it is, sturdy, beautiful.

Rey starts making her way around me while I attempt to stand. I still smell her fear. But she can do this. I know she can. I stumble after her, trying to get my power under control. She’s already on the bridge. Good.

Sweat pours down my temples.

Something feels wrong.

My heart’s beating too fast.

My eyes burn.

I hear her short breaths as she runs across the ice. I need her. I miss her, feel weaker without her. What’s going on?

With a roar, I lunge after her, only to have someone block my way. Dizziness washes over me as chains come flying at me from all directions. They burn when they collapse onto my skin like they weigh a thousand pounds each.

I try to lift them, but it’s nearly impossible.

“A runed trap,” a familiar voice says. “Asgardian chains etched with the very runes meant to cripple a Giant. Sigurd does know his stuff.”

I blink through the haze and look up.

My heart sinks like a stone.

I barely feel the rueful smile on my own lips as I nod and say, “I should have known.”

We’ve already lost before we even really began.

“Yes,” he hisses. “You should have.”

“The seventh circle of hell is reserved for people like you.”

Suddenly, pain radiates out in unbelievable waves from my stomach. Looking down, I see a spear has been shoved through my back. Someone else is behind me?

Blood pours out in thick rivulets from where the spear pierced straight through my abdomen. My vision wavers.

He leans down. “Be sure to say hi, then, when I send you there.”

And then he winks.

It’s the last thing I see before everything goes dark.

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Rey

I wake up to the heady smell of water and incense, my eyes blurring as I glance around me. I’m in the Hall of Omrir. What the hell happened? I was running across the ice bridge Aric made, and something grabbed me. Or someone?

Ice covers the floor, shard-like daggers impaling the walls, like a glacier detonated. Torches glow from stone corbels, casting shadows among the high wooden arches of the temple.

My head aches and my stomach hurts, but I fight to stay conscious.