Page 75 of Fallen Gods

Another large piece of ice falls to my right, but I can see the mouth of the cave up ahead.

We’re going to make it.

Aric is turning around to ensure I’m right behind him when a sudden jagged shard falls right between us. He grabs my hand and jerks me toward him just as the ground starts to slide beneath our feet.

Another shard of ice comes at us, and this time it hits me square between the eyes. Pain lances out everywhere, and the last thing I think before I lose consciousness is…

We’re not going to make it.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Aric

I cough and shove a pile of ice away from my face. My eyes burn as I stare straight ahead. Rey’s in my arms, unconscious. The cave collapsed around us, but in front of me is pure light. I reach out to touch it, but a wave of nausea hits me and I feel my eyes roll to the back of my head.

“You’re not worthy!” the man standing in front of me shouts. “You’ll destroy the world and bring about Ragnarök! It was never yours!”

I’m holding a hammer straight above my head as lightning streaks through the sky and splits into the hammer—and into me.

“Do you really think you deserve to live?” I growl as a second man appears. “After everyone you’ve killed? Either of you?”

“We are Gods!” The sound rains down on my ears like thunder, like truth, but I reject it, I rejectthemas Mjölnir groans in my icy hands.

“You are weak!” I roar, sending the lightning directly at the Gods.

“You’ll end us all!” The man with a broken hammer etched into his golden armor and a helmet sliced half off his head takes a step closer. His eyes are blazing white as he points at me and collapses to the ground, silver blood spewing from his mouth.

I turn to a woman standing next to me, bloodied, bruised—it’s Rey.

What the hell is she doing here?

She reaches for me only to pitch forward, eyes open wide, like she’s just been hit by something. It’s too dark to see. Dammit, why can’t I see?

A knife sticks out of her stomach. “Aric!”

“With the perfect sacrifice,” a rough voice whispers, “Ragnarök…has already begun.”

My body buzzes with an electrified rush, and I can feel the power gathering in the hammer. The sky lights up with another flash of lightning, and suddenly I can see we’re on a battlefield. It’s bloody, everyone is fighting—we’re losing the war even with the hammer on our side.

We can’t lose.

Wecan’t.

We need it, the hammer needs it.

Frost. It needs frost.

What?

It’s a hushed whisper, but from where? The wind? The hammer?

“Do it now!” someone shouts.

Do what?

What am I supposed to be doing?

“No!” the man with the hammer on his armor shouts. “Don’t do it, you fucking abomination!”