Page 73 of Fallen Gods

He doesn’t respond.

So I keep talking, words scraping raw on the way out. “But I forgot about the chains. The ones still wrapped around my legs. My mind might be free, my heart, too, but my ability to run? Frozen.”

He doesn’t say anything, but I swear I hear it anyway—the faintest whisper of wind in the car, carrying words he’ll never admit aloud.

Just like me.

I glance at my phone, desperate for distraction. Three missed calls from my father. Three unread texts. My pulse spikes.

Shit.

“So…the four big Ice Caves, right?” I ask, forcing my voice steady.

“Yup,” Aric answers without looking at me. “We’re going to the ice.”

A shiver runs down my spine. I plaster on a smile I don’t feel. “All right. To the ice.”

My phone dings again. I take a deep breath and finally gain the courage to check my text messages.

Odinfather:In class? Updates?

He rarely says please, so I’m not sure why I’m expecting one now.

Odinfather:I’m sure you’ve already made contact with Rowen. I sent him in so you’re reminded of what you will lose if you don’t succeed. The ice is very thin, daughter.

A choking sensation wraps itself around my neck. Dammit. This is one time I did not want to be right.

Odinfather:Rowen just told me you’re off campus. I didn’t send you there to play their games. You aren’t one of them. You never will be. You have a job to do. Do not disappoint me.

Rowen told him I’m off campus? It’s a school assignment! Whose side is he on? But I guess he had to tell his boss. And Rowen would describe without any detail, so it’s not totally his fault.

My phone goes off again.

Odinfather.

A picture of Laufey.

My stomach clenches. She doesn’t look hurt, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t.

I don’t need the reminder that she’s waiting, that the clock isticking. That her life hangs in the balance. I’ve seen Father kill. He’s heartless. Laufey risked the very real and unhinged wrath of Odin to give me that note. It has to be significant. I refuse to believe otherwise.

I read off the runes again in my head.

Raido. It was there, in the Hall of Ormir. It means journey.

Is this going to be my journey, then?

I turn my gaze to a very still and focused Aric. I’m used to disappointment, I bathe in fear of my father, but the last thing I need is to develop a weakness for my enemy and wish for the one thing I’ve never truly had.

A friend.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Rey

An hour of slow torture—no music, just the sound of the engine and my own breathing—and we finally pull into the gravel parking lot at the trailhead.

“Whoa.” The word slips out before I can stop it.