Page 40 of The Viking in the Vault (Galactic Librarians #2)

I take a sharp breath as I realize the horrible truth: my crew has no idea that they have been trapped in the ice.

Others have gathered around now, all regarding me with questions in their eyes, and it occurs to me that I am not equipped to answer them. I was angry when I first realized what had happened…shocked. I will have to deliver this need to my crew, and not all of them are as even-tempered as I.

“We should talk,” I murmur, addressing Axl but looking around at the others. “How many of you are there? Any missing?”

Axl frowns, but doesn't question me. “A few…Eivan, Syf…”

They pause at my grimace.

“What…?” Axl’s voice drops, wary.

I sigh. “Syf’s pod failed. I found her in a chamber further back, separated from the rest of the crew. She’s…she’s dead.”

There’s a heavy silence. Axl’s shoulders stiffen. Around us, the gathered Skoll are quiet, one letting out a choked sob while another mutters a prayer to Yrsa.

“And Eivan?” Axl asks.

“No trace,” I murmur. “Not yet.”

It is a promise I cannot guarantee, but I need them to have hope. I need them to know I am still their captain, even as my allegiance—my heart—belongs to the female beside me.

“I need to explain something,” I continue, turning in a semi-circle to meet the eyes of the others gathered around.

Their skarnhounds are lying at their feet, panting, some still sniffing each other.

A few of my crew look broken, others look optimistic.

I hate that I’m about to destroy that. “You’ve been… asleep a long time.”

Axl’s gaze sharpens. “How long?”

“More than four thousand years,” I breathe.

Gasps ripple through the group. One of the youngest of the crew, Wyman, stumbles back a step, visibly shaken. Another drops into a crouch, burying their face in their hands.

“Four thousand…” someone mutters.

“It’s not possible…”

“It is,” I say, sober. “The crash took us down into the ice on an alien moon, but the cold and the pods preserved us. The ice was later sampled and brought to an archive, and somehow, against all odds…we were inside that sample.”

“An archive?” someone asks. “Where?”

“M’mir,” I tell them. “We are on M’mir.”

“And the war?” Axl asks.

This is the one bright spot in the bleak news I have to give them. “The war…it’s over. The Borean Empire fell, and each and every one of those devils now lies dead. The stars we knew…they’ve changed.”

“Did Kanin survive?” someone calls from the crowd.

I nod. “Kanin survives, and thrives.”

A collective breath escapes the gathered crew, exhales of relief and awe. Some slump where they stand, others reach for each other—gripping shoulders, whispering prayers, swearing oaths. Axl exhales shakily beside me, their hand briefly touching their chest like they might steady their heartbeat.

“But…what happens now?” Wyman’s voice breaks through the murmurs. “Do we go back?”

A hush falls again. All eyes swing to me.

Do we go back?

That’s the question I’ve been dreading.

“You will find the world we emerge to is much changed,” I admit. “Our mission…our battle…everything we trained for belongs to a different era. Kanin, as far as I’ve been told, is now a planet of vast cities, safe villages, spaceports…the world we knew is gone. You are Skoll without a war.”

Axl tilts their head, studying me. “And what are you, Captain?”

I look to Elena, who stands just outside of the semi-circle, her arms wrapped around herself.

“I am a mated male,” I say. “My future is not in the stars—it’s beside her.”

Another ripple goes through the crowd. I don’t know what they expected, but not this; not a declaration of love in place of command.

But I am no longer the man who climbed aboard the Stormcaller with vengeance in his veins and war in his heart. I am the man who woke up to find the universe changed…and still found something worth holding onto.

“You’re um…” Elena chimes in, only to realize that my crew don’t have translators. “Ragnar, will you—will you translate for me?”

I nod.

“You’re welcome to stay,” Elena says. “M’mir is safe. There are settlements here, civilizations. It’s not the world you left behind, but it’s a good one.”

Several heads turn toward her, intrigued by this strange, small, antler-less female.

“You trust her?” Axl asks.

I nod. “With everything I am.”

Axl studies me for a long beat…then their gaze shifts back to Elena, narrowing not with suspicion, but curiosity.

“She doesn’t look like a warrior,” they say dryly.

Elena bites her lip. “Ragnar? Can you tell them they can’t understand me but I can understand them?”

I snort. “Axl, you had best watch your tongue; she understands our language.”

Axl’s cheeks flush bronze, then they look sheepishly to my mate. “My apologies, Vethari .”

My heart swells at Axl’s use of the word—an honorific used only for a Skoll captain’s mate. I watch her smile at my crew with a quiet pride that builds in my chest like flames.

My mate

My fenvarra…

Vethari of the Stormcaller.

Axl’s voice raises, and pride swells again at how my navigator has taken on the leadership role here. Axl was always shy…but they have come into their own in my absence. It gives me hope—hope that I can stay with Elena, that someone else will take charge.

“Tonight,” they announce. “We light a bonfire.”

The murmurs begin again, questions blooming, but Axl lifts a hand and quiets them.

“We will mourn Syf,” they say. “And we will celebrate the Captain’s return. We will honor our survival. We will grieve what was last. And we will welcome his mate—our Vethari—to our clan.”

There’s a beat of stunned silence…then a soft, reverent cheer ripples outward. A few fists are raised high, voice echoing in agreement. A skarnhound begins to howl, and Fenrik howls along with it.

Axl turns to me with a small, wry smile. “You’ll have to tell us what humans eat at sacred gatherings,” they say. “I assume dried rations are not on the menu.”

I look to Elena, half-expecting her to say that we should return—but she laughs. “We actually brought some better food, if that would be preferable.”

I pass on the information, Axl nodding along, eyes widening. “Yrsa blesses us,” Axl says. “Of course your Vethari has brought us food…the fishing has been poor here.”

I hum in agreement. “So…tonight, we feast. And tomorrow we return to the world above…victorious.”