Page 61 of Vow of the Undead
He laughed. “There is a lot of truth I want to share withyou once we’re bound together. So what will it be? Marriage or death, my wife.”
“You can’t make me do this?—”
“You have until first light to decide.”
Every moment I thought he almost cared for me shriveled into distant memory. They were all lies. The monster standing before me had lost every bit of that desire for me. While he was once concerned for my bloodless hands, he now laughed at my sole purpose—the only thing I wanted.
My heart cracked.
“How can you be so cold?” I whispered. It was a foolish question because I shouldn’t care.
“How can you let Odin ransack your mind?”
I shook my head. “He hasn’t.” Odin never spoke to me, and the day he did, I would fall to my knees, rejoicing for the connection to Odin himself.
“Whichever God is speaking to you doesn’t matter,” he seethed. “Odin is the Allfather, the fucking origin of them all. I’d hoped you would become mine, but you already belong to him.” His mouth twitched, his fangs were no longer jutting out. “Unless you choose me. I will be your God.”
Everything about this claim was wrong. Twisted. Blasphemous.
I frowned, defiance building with fervor in my chest and in the fury lacing my voice. “You’re not a God. You’re deluded. You’re the king who ripped a mother from her children, twice.” And so many more times I could not count. Hundreds of other families with witches suffered the same fate.
He said nothing, clearly uninterested in trying to defend himself. Though I’d put a few steps between us, his powerful presence still seemed to tower over me. His chest heaved as if desperate for a ragged breath and his eyes locked on me.
Cast off this colorless cage.
That was what this marriage would be, a cage built with stone walls and an iron grip. I had to run from this betrothal.A betrothal that the thought of consummating shouldn’t have weakened my knees and left my thighs slick.
But this clash of feelings was chaotic and exactly what Loki loved.
I backed into the hall. In my absence, the heavy door slammed shut and I abandoned this horrible scene in my wake.
Still vibrating with the swell of energy, I ran faster than I thought possible in these heavy skirts. I had to run, because even if he exposed my secret, at least I didn’t bind myself to a lifetime beside a cruel king…a monster who murdered his own people.
Iran to the warmth. If nothing else, following the heat distanced me from King Drakkar. His words left me raw and coated in goosebumps.
I had until first light to decide if I wanted to give up everything I was, my connection to the Gods, my identity as a seer, hope for my mother and Ragna and bind myself to him—or die.
Heaving each breath left my throat tender. I couldn’t collapse, so I stopped running and allowed my pulse to slow. Loki wanted me to leave this place, but was that the trial? I hadn’t failed my mother if I could pass his and then Odin’s in time.
The Gods would lead me.
I had to believe it because I was no closer to the lost history than when I’d stepped inside Mara’s Keep for the first time.
“I’ll lead you.”
Loki’s voice penetrated my thoughts again. King Drakkar was right, I’d invited the Gods into my mind and I’d never regret it. Focusing on Freya had helped keep the darker side of me locked away, but Loki…
“Let it out.”His voice curled with satisfaction.
No! I’m not evil.
That was a lie.
He said nothing to confirm or deny this. Loki wouldn’t care as long as I followed whatever cunning plan he had designed, and for now, I trusted him enough to follow this plan. How could I not? The power to put the king into a trance—a monster at my beck and call—must have come from Loki. He was the only one wild and chaotic enough to imbue me with such magic.
I could control a vampire, and for a moment, I wanted to relish in this, because what came next was Odin’s trial. I had no doubt it would be the most challenging, more so even than Loki’s chaos.
Loki was always a necessary evil in the history of the Gods, and perhaps that was why he was part of these trials. Perhaps they were designed specifically for me and the wickedness the Gods knew I carried within me.
