Page 76 of Vicar
Trinity felt the sparks between them. Tor’s discontent over Loki. Revna’s frustration that Tor would be callous enough to point out she might not be as powerful as she thought.
“Ah, we had a feeling we might find you here,” came the last voice any of them expected. “We’ve come to fight alongside you,” Torc went on as he and Liv melted out of the darkness. “To finally bring the fight to the gods.”
Vicar frowned in confusion. “Why did you think you would find us here?”
“Did you not look outside?” Torc gestured that they follow him toward the exit. “There can be no doubt that this is where we take our final stance.” He made a flippant, dismissive gesture. “Despite you becoming mated.” The disappointment in his voice was followed swiftly by approval. “Yet I’ll concede Trinity was a good choice with her Múspellsheimr side. Your followers understand you won the pact, Vicar. That she submitted. They look forward to watching you keep her in line as time goes on.”
“In your dreams, asshat,” Trinity shot back, surprising Jade with her cursing. “Vicar and I are equals.” She frowned. “And why do Vicar’s followers think all that, anyway? I might have been shifted back to human and forced to ride Vicar the last time they saw us, but they had to have seen his dragon get taken down by Thor soon after.”
“They think such because that’s how Torc spun it,” Liv enlightened. She rolled her eyes and clarified her presence there. “And I’m not herewithTorc but for my kin.” She nodded once at Vicar and Trinity before bloodlust flared in her eyes. “I’m here to fight alongside you.”
Though she said as much, Trinity couldn’t help but notice the way she looked at Torc when he wasn’t looking. She had a plan where he was concerned.
“She does,”Vicar agreed telepathically.“But I can’t imagine it being something he’ll agree to.”
“Why?”
“Because Leviathan is the only one she would have considered taking as a single mate,”he said.“And even then, I doubt she would have been satisfied with him and him alone for long.”
Trinity felt out his meaning only to raise her brows in understanding.“She wants more than one mate.”
“She does,”he confirmed.“I know of two she’s already considered making hers. Torc would be the third.”
“Oh, wow.”Trinity eyed Liv, totally seeing it. She was a warrior through and through with a strong mind and an independent nature. Three mates, a reverse harem, so to speak, would be a good fit for her.“While I get it, I can totally see it being an issue for Torc. He strikes me as super alpha. The sort who would have his own flock of mates.”
“Which he has in the past,”Vicar said.“Yet now he seems set on Liv. He’s determined to make it happen.”
“That ought to be something to see,”she remarked.
“It already has been,”he replied on an inward chuckle.
“Wow,” Trinity said in awe when red appeared ahead. “Whatisthat?”
“The reason I’m here,” Torc replied as they drew closer. “The reason all of Vicar’s followers will be.”
“Holy shit,” Jade murmured, as caught by the sight as the rest of them. “Seriously, whatisthat?”
While a vicious godly storm churned above the mountain, it wasn’t like the storms before it. Rather it looked like fire sizzled in the clouds and lava fell in the rain.
“It’s Múspellsheimr,” Trinity whispered, shivering despite the heat coming off the storm. “Somehow, Violence has harnessed the power of Múspellsheimr.”
“No.” A slow, knowing smile curled Loki’s mouth. “Not Violence but you, Trinity.” His gaze went to Vicar. “And you.”
“How is that possible?” Trinity asked, surprised when fear didn’t fill her but unexpected strength. Power she had never felt before, never mind utilized. Instead of seeing oppression and violence in the blood-red clouds thickening overhead, she saw beauty.
Magic she had never seen before.
“It’s coming to your other half’s aid,” Vicar realized. “My other half’s aid.”
“I’d say they’re damn mad then.” She looked his way and offered a crooked grin. “That they’re in a fighting mood.”
He met her crooked grin. “I’d say you’re right.”
“Are you strong enough to fight it yet, though?” Jade worried. “Because we all know Violence is waiting somewhere in that storm. It's probably the only Norse magic he can withstand because it’s so violent itself.”
“It is.” Thorulf eyed the bubbling cauldron of bloody clouds mixing with jet-black. “Worse yet, I’m not sure how well our Celtic magic will work in it. It’s too darkly Norse.” He shook his head. “Too volatile all the way around.”
“Ja,” Thor agreed. “Yet it won’t go away without this happening. Without Trinity and Vicar defeating all that has held them back.” His brow swept up. “Or, perhaps, accepting it all.”
