Page 76 of Vow of the Undead
After a night of forced rest, I woke to Stasia shoving a crust of bread into my hands. Where she got the food, I had no idea.
“If you’re going to kill the council, you need to eat,” she said.
I dragged myself to sitting up in the makeshift bed Kayn had created with gathered blankets. Stasia shuffled to where my mother lay and pressed her fingers to my mother’s throat. After a moment without breath, Stasia nodded and I allowed myself to inhale. My mother’s heart was still beating. She was still alive.
When Stasia turned around, I pinned her with my stare. “Where did you go when King Drakkar showed up?”
Folding her arms, she shot a glare right back at me. “Eat the damn bread, now. And I was in hiding, obviously. He can’t know I’m still with you.”
“Why are you still with me?” I tilted the bread to my lips but did not yet take a bite. “What about Finan?”
She smiled. “I’ll catch him when they move the witches to shore. They have to go through Mara. We are between the wasteland and the most southern tip at the Sea of Skalds.There’s no way they’re going all the way up and around. Besides, you need your handmaiden if you’re going to survive long enough to supposedly kill the council. I’m rooting for you, Silver.”
Before I could thank her, she slipped through the door and outside. A blast of chilly air swept through the temple and a shudder rippled through me.
Though her offer to stick with me warmed me, goosebumps pricked my arms and I winced. A dull ache throbbed at the center of my chest. My heart had been working too hard with the effort of hiking to the Hall of the Gods, and then it nearly broke over the sight of my mother’s limp body.
After filling my belly with the dense bread, I climbed to my feet and tiptoed to my mother’s side. I listened to her heartbeat growing steadier when Stasia appeared again.
“There’s a fire outside with a pot of stew. I’m going to rest. You’re going to finish stirring it and then eat. Got it?”
“Okay, but where did you get food and supplies?”
“Again with the questions.” She rolled her eyes for a dramatic effect. “The temple had cooking supplies and there are villages nearby selling food. I think you forget we’re not isolated in the middle of miserable, frozen mountains like you Skaldir folk are used to.”
I shook my head but did not argue with her.
“Anyway,” she continued. “Kayn won’t stop talking about these trials you have to do. He says you need to be strong, so he’s been checking in on you even though I keep telling him that you need a lot of rest and even more food. In my book, strong means well-fed.”
“Kayn said that?”
She hummed her confirmation. “My guess? He’s worried you’re not going to run off and kill all the vampires he said he wants you to kill unless your mother tells you about it herself.”
His worry was spot on. I wasn’t going to run off and kill anyone, again. I’d already done that, and it haunted me. Ineeded a better understanding of what the Gods wanted, or maybe I needed more time, something that wasn’t just a cloaked vampire with broken fangs demanding I do what he wanted.
Stasia’s voice cut through my thoughts. “I don’t know what you’re really planning to do, but for now go eat the stew so you can get strong enough to at least wipe that damn smirk off the king’s face.”
Despite my mother’s condition, King Drakkar’s threat, and everything else, Stasia managed to make me smile. I stood and nodded, slipping out into the night without another word and hoping to find Kayn on my way to the stew.
With my mother unable to speak, I had to rely on whatever Kayn knew about Loki’s trial, which made my blood boil. Based on Stasia’s comments, he was already growing impatient with me and we’d only just arrived at my mother’s side. Not only was she sick, but she worsened, and I’d collapsed. What the fuck did he expect from me?
To wake vampires, apparently, and then kill them. I shook my head.
Waking vampires. It felt too dangerous, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from Loki, and I expected everything from myself. Dangerous or not, it was my destiny.
I rounded the corner of the Hall of the Gods to find Kayn pacing the yard, tracking the graves in the darkness. I wrapped my cloak tighter around me as icy wind cut through the fabric and sent a swath of goosebumps over my arms.
The fire and pot of stew by the graves were a welcome sight. I was endlessly grateful for all the supplies Stasia had spent time digging out from the cabinets in the temple. I’d be lost without her, and freezing to death.
Orange flames flickered and tendrils of black smoke licked up into the air. I had no doubt Kayn had helped her build this fire since it was so close to the graves where he seemed drawn to hover. I was grateful for all the help he’d provided, feedingmy mother and keeping watch over her here before we arrived.
He crouched beside the half-winged Valkyrie whose stone body lay grieving over the gravestone. His hand brushed over the dirt and weeds. In Skaldir, everything would still be coated in a thick layer of snow, unable to plant and cultivate. Everything there survived on stores during the Polar Nocturne.
Here, a dusting of snow melted away even in the persistent darkness.
When Kayn noticed my approach, he stood and weaved through the crumbling graves. Chunks of stone lay in his path, but he stepped over them and marched toward me. His cloak billowed in the wind behind him but he showed no signs of being chilled. I pulled my cloak even tighter to ward off the icy wind but it was no use, my body already convulsed in its natural attempt to keep warm.
I stiffened as I prepared to tell him, once again, that I didn’t know if I could let myself kill someone again. Even if Loki’s and Odin’s trials would lead me to it.
