Page 114 of Vow of the Undead
When he dragged me to my bedchambers.
And then when I crawled to the door after he tossed me to the ground inside the room. A lock slid shut on the outside.
Everything that led me to being locked in Mara’s Keep and in a marriage with a monster was my own decision. The last night of the Polar Nocturne could have stretched endlessly. Each second tormented me as time crawled to first light, to the moment I’d take King Drakkar’s hand and marry the man who tortured my sister.
I came here for answers and I’d gotten them, but it changed nothing.
I came here to destroy him. That I would still try.
Sitting on the cold stone, I leaned my back against the side of the four-poster and released a coil of misty air. Nobody came to light the wood in my fireplace so I sat in the chill with my icy fingers tucked beneath my arms. Only a single candle beside the bed flickered with a warm orange glow.
I hadn’t gathered the strength to climb onto the bed and curl within the blankets.
Besides, Silver likely didn’t have the comfort of blankets, or a bed, or even the ability to take a full breath through her mouth. All of it was King Drakkar’s doing. Why the former king hadn’t executed Silver like we were led to believe, I didn’t know.
But I knew what King Drakkar wanted from her. His chosen witches, like Ragna, were set to summon Odin, though he’d never given me the full reason behind it. If she could compel vampires, she must have had a piece of the same powers I did and perhaps he believed her a stronger witch for it.
The hard wood of the bed’s bottom panel dug into the back of my head. I didn’t care to adjust for comfort.
Soon, the Polar Nocturne would end. The sun would rise, damning all the vampires to stay within the castle. This was my only hope.
I toyed with the chain of another necklace that’d been left in my bedchambers with fresh clothes. After locking me away, the king at least had the sense to send a servant to help me bathe. He didn’t have the sense to keep the jewelry from me.
I planned to wear the chain with my own pendant at the end, tucked into my wedding dress. I would stab King Drakkar with the pendant, and then run behind the throne through the servants’ door. After that, all I had to do was get out into the sun where vampires would weaken. All I had to do was get to an ash tree and fashion another stake.
Then, I’d return with a new weapon and all the determination in Midgard to become the huntress and cut down every single vampire for my sister’s sake.
I would never question Odin and Freya again. I was twisted enough to become their chosen killer, and now it was all I wanted.
Freeing her was all that mattered. First, I had to turn every one of her captor’s to dust, starting with the king.
Maybe I should have felt relieved when I saw Astrid and Sten alive. Or when I witnessed my sister alive, too, because that meant I’d never actually ended anyone’s life. But it gave me no comfort because I would have killed them, and Silver’s survival had nothing to do with me.
Until now.
I rubbed the soft pad of my thumb over the cold silver. The pendant shimmered against the glow of the single candle that burned on the bedside table. Tracing the shape of the Y, I swore to find the tree of Yggdrasil someday.
Someday, when all the undead were hollowed out and left in piles of ash, I’d take Silver with me and we’d find the tree Odin hung from for nine days. We’d gaze upon it and thank the Gods for the powers they shared with those of us who had a connection with them.
Without these powers, I had no chance of finding or destroying a vampire. I wouldn’t even know they existed. I’d be a simple girl in Skaldir with a desire to run but no purpose for it.
My head dipped forward. This exhaustion demanded rest. My body demanded penance for pushing it so hard. I’d need the energy tomorrow when I would stab King Drakkar in the throat with the pendant.
Even if it wouldn’t kill him, it’d hurt, it’d scar, it’d send a message. And if I was lucky, he’d be in enough pain that I could run.
It was a pathetic plan, but I had nothing else. I was locked in my bedchambers in a castle teeming with monsters. Maybe stabbing their king would show them that I would not give up. That I would do anything to get answers that could help free my sister.
Dozing tugged me into a dazed state. I slipped through the layers of consciousness and darkness until I nodded awake one last time and then finally fell into full sleep.
Tangled nightmares of Silver’s sewn mouth and the murder in King Drakkar’s bedchambers left me fitful and restless until the crunch of rough metal sliding over metal jarred me.
I woke to the groan of the door easing open.
A figure stepped inside, all wiry muscle. Blinking sleepaway, it took several seconds for me to place the clean-shaven face, the swoop at the top of his cropped hair.
“Kayn?” I whispered. He dashed to me, stooping to lift me off the floor. “What are you doing here? How?”
“We’re connected, Silver. I feel when you need me.”
