Page 66 of Vow of the Undead (The Bloodrune Saga #1)

T hough the Polar Nocturne came to its end and we had the reprieve of daylight against the vampires, we did not stay at the Hall of the Gods.

Staying in any one place for too long would only make us a target.

I wouldn’t risk my mother and Stasia too.

Now that Kayn and I had escaped and reunited with them, we moved as one, slipping through the villages under the cover of the chaos that had erupted in Vylheim since the wedding.

Not only did the Blood Council want to strip me of my powers and stop me from accepting the Calling, my own sister was out for my blood. I was no longer just running from the king’s demand that I marry him, I was also tracking Astrid.

A small village, west of Mara, named Ravensund, was where we heard the news.

Astrid had escaped the wedding unscathed and a woman named Silver had been seen in an encampment on the border of Mara and the wasteland.

The vampire and the human woman fled to the edge of the wasteland with hundreds of men and women with red eyes.

The Dawn of Exploration was stalled when the king demanded the exiled witches return to the castle.

Then he released them, not all, but several, and Ragna among them.

He’d been so adamant that Ragna was his witch, as if she belonged to him like an item of clothing, but he’d chosen to give her her freedom.

I didn’t dwell on it for too long because if I did, creeping interest for Drak, longing even, would seep into my heart, and that wasn’t an attraction I should have ever acknowledged.

I’d been so helpless to the temptation before, and I knew I would again be if I saw him.

We only dared travel to Skaldir for a single night, for me to catch a glimpse of Ragna in the field at her farm with Alva by her side. I had to see it with my own eyes to believe that he’d actually let her go.

This only comforted me for a few hours. Thoughts of the dozens of witches still under King Drakkar’s whims sent me spiraling.

Loki had won the chaos he wanted.

Vylheim wasn’t the same. The people were emboldened to fight the control we’d been buried beneath for so long.

Instances of attacks on members of the Grimward spread throughout the villages.

Some commoners even tried following the executioners back to the king’s castle where they tried fighting courtiers and council members.

I couldn’t fathom the bloodshed staining the streets of Mara. A war was brewing.

The unrest stirred as more gathered the courage to speak of what they’d witnessed in Mara’s Keep with the stake and a pendant in the shape of a tree at the center of the stories.

Even if I hadn’t exposed the full truth of the Blood Council, the weapons I’d brought to my wedding were enough to spark questions, and for once, the rumors and whispers cycling through the villages were all true, and they inspired witches to come out of hiding and dare to speak of the Gods.

Because if the royals fought against themselves, who would command the executioners to cut down the believers?

Villagers knew the truth told through pieces of events from that night. Monsters with fangs fought one another at the king’s wedding. His betrothed left with one of them and hadn’t been seen since. Perhaps the people assumed I was dead, but the vampires would know I wasn’t.

And so the shadows returned.

Weeks after the wedding, I glimpsed the one vampire who dared come after me knowing I was with the true king of vampires.

Kayn, my mother, and I sat around an open fire while Stasia slept peacefully beneath Kayn’s fur coat.

We couldn’t keep running like this. My mother was well again thanks to the medicinal concoctions and food Stasia seemed to produce out of sheer magic, but she was still worn from the stress and demand of constant movement.

“We can’t survive in the wasteland,” she argued.

“I don’t see any other option,” I said.

“Lux is right.” Kayn nodded. Something flickered behind him. I blinked and narrowed my eyes, trying to make out the shape among the trees.

Sadness tugged at the corners of my mother’s eyes. “I still don’t believe Silver would hurt you if we could just talk to her.”

“That’s not an option either,” I said, focusing my thoughts on the army she’d gathered to distract from the pain striking my heart.

Since my sister wanted me dead, she’d claimed a small victory over me, because something inside me did die when I saw her.

Or perhaps it was King Drakkar’s words that scarred me.

Had my father known of vampires and planned to give me over to one all this time?

“That’s a shame.” My mother’s vacant voice was distant to my ears.

We couldn’t waltz into an encampment with that many vampires when I wasn’t even the huntress yet. I couldn’t accept Kayn’s help, not after what Odin insisted. And I’d never defy the Gods’ Calling again.

So I’d have to find a way to do this alone—or as alone as I ever could be.

Loki would sear through my temples with the resistance to my Calling while Freya and Odin beared down on me to kill.

This continuous battle within me left my head aching.

Only the calming incantations and grounding practices cleared their voices from me for long enough to drift into a few hours of restless sleep.

How long would it be until they drove me as mad as Ingrid had become?

“Once you complete Odin’s trial, I trust you’ll have the strength to enter the encampment.” Kayn added as a reminder of why we were so close to Mara again.

Visions of Astrid hiding out in Mara’s lower villages nearly led us back to the heart of King Drakkar’s kingdom.

“I’m trying. But this is tricky, and—” I shook my head, cutting myself off. It wasn’t a vision from Freya or a rumor I’d heard. My fear was simply an inkling. Astrid was leading us straight to Silver’s encampment where they could ambush us.

Without the huntress, they could wage war on humans far easier. But I didn’t want to speak this aloud, because my only other option would be to accept Odin’s trial by killing the one vampire I had within my reach. Kayn was the only one I wasn’t itching to destroy.

My heart skipped at a flicker among the leaves in the darkness. A shadow darted between the trees. Had a vampire dared to come to me? I stooped to pick up the stake at my feet and found myself drifting into the woods.

“Lux?” Kayn’s voice trailed me.

“Odin says I have to do it alone,” I repeated the phrase I’d reminded him of a dozen other times he’d wanted to be at my side since we’d been on the run.

Each time I hoped to catch a vampire in the dead of night, and each time it’d only been another creature lurking through the woods, a wolf searching for prey, a vulture feeding on a deer carcass.

Tonight, I sensed a difference. Though I didn’t get a vision, I knew Freya walked beside me, tracking the vampire who’d dare come near me.

A twig snapped beneath my boots. My skirts rustled over the dead leaves that coated the forest floor.

The dense woodland kept Mara separate from Torstad but neither village claimed the land as their own since executioners cut down every single man who dared to fight for control of the game-filled forest. Torstad suffered from the lack of meat while Mara’s farmlands flourished and produced enough food for half of Vylheim.

But suffering never mattered to the Blood Council.

As long as the people were alive with blood in their veins, they didn’t care.

It all came down to one twisted truth, we were just never allowed to waste a drop of blood.

Drops of blood were what I trailed now. Dark spots among the leaves, a streak of red across a tree trunk. Someone was hurt, and despite this, they darted through the trees with the speed of a vampire. My skin prickled as the figure stooped in the shadows. They were waiting for me to come to them.

This was a trick, but when I crept closer and caught a ray of moonlight filtering through the branches above, I didn’t care. Her cold eyes reflected the silvery glow of night and the cut of her cheekbone was indistinguishable.

My captor had come for me again. Though instead of ambushing me with Sten, she was alone.

Since he was destroyed and gone, she lured me to her where she must have thought she’d overpower me.

Perhaps Sten was the wiser one of the pair and without him, she wasn’t thinking clearly.

Why draw me out here when she was already hurt?

What had hurt her? Or was the blood part of the trick?

My heart skipped and I had my answer. Each drop of blood was supposed to bolster me to run toward her believing this would be an easy fight .

I knew better. I had Freya’s wisdom, Odin’s strength. I was almost the huntress.

The screech of a raven echoed from above and I gripped the stake tighter, ready to pass Odin’s trial once and for all.

If his messengers, Huginn and Muninn flew overhead and tracked me from tree-to-tree, they could return to the Allfather and tell him I’d cut down my first vampire.

Eradication of the Draugr was about to begin.

I took another step, pausing to wait for her impatience to overwhelm her.

If I remembered correctly, Astrid would rise to the occasion.

Her temper easily pushed her over the edge with only Sten’s shouting to snap her out of her and make her realize…

my blood had made her burn. She couldn’t drink from me. None of them could.

Wind rushed through the trees like an applause for my final trial. I barely breathed as I froze in the shadow of an ash tree’s trunk—a tree just like the one Odin hung from to gain knowledge. He’d sacrificed himself and it was time I did the same.