Page 82 of Vicar
“Are we sure he's caught, though?”Vicar wondered, erring on the side of caution.“Or does he still have some control?”
“A little bit of both,”she realized, dropping beneath a fiery black cloud she swore had a nasty face in it. A visage with a gaping mouth and foul eyes.“He’s not entirely trapped. He can break free...but,”she kept following what her inner Múspellsheimr was telling her,“he doesn’t want to. He’s too drawn to the violence of the dragons within the storm. Too drawn to our Múspellsheimr powers.”She looked a little deeper, surprised by what she discovered.“Just like he was too drawn that day...”
When she trailed off, Vicar followed her thoughts.
Saw how this could work in their favor.
Violence was not only drawn to her inner Múspellsheimr in particular but could withstand the storm because he had gotten so close the day her soul came into existence. So close after her spirit had touched such dark, violent magic.
“Which means I hold all the cards,”she said. “As long as I go about things just right.”
It also meant something far worse. Something she sensed the more the storm seemed to cluster toward Vicar. He had soaked up so much of her Múspellsheimr magic over the years that he’d become a conduit, and Violence knew it.
Long story short, he had set a trap, and there was only one way to handle it.
Moving fast before Vicar sensed her intentions, she snagged Loki’s Dagger out of his talon, ordered everyone to protect him, dropped altitude quickly, and headed back for the base of Mt. Galdhøpiggen.
Though some might say her actions were glory-seeking, they were actually anything but. Surprisingly, they weren’t for prestige or for the sake of humanity but for Vicar. He might deserve a good usurp every so often, but he didn’t deserve what was coming for him.
More than that, she couldn’t quite stomach the thought of anything hurting him.
So she did all she could think of and prayed it worked.
“What are you doing, woman?”Vicar roared.
She didn’t respond but catapulted down until she flew into the mountain and kept going. All the while, she magnified and dragged her Múspellsheimr violence after her, hoping the enemy couldn’t help himself. That he wanted the feel of Múspellsheimr and Loki’s Dagger more than he wanted to possess Vicar.
Because that was his end game.
An ultimate goal that, terrifyingly enough, he accomplished when he didn’t take the bait but broke past everyone’s defenses and hopped inside Vicar’s dragon.
“Shit, sis, this is bad,”Jade roared.“Hope you’ve got a backup plan!”
She didn’t. Not really. Mainly because she had played her hand wrong. Got too cocky. Had assumed her powers and the dagger would prove irresistible. Now she had Violence on her tail in control of Vicar’s substantial power.
There was no backup plan. No way to...
She paused mid-thought, realizing therewasa plan. The same one she’d had years before. There was a snag, though. It could doom Vicar right along with Violence if she didn’t do things just so.
“You wouldn’t come to me at the beginning,”Violence said into her mind, using Vicar’s voice. His intense allure.“So now I’m coming for you, little dragon. Coming for all you can offer me.”
Grateful she knew where she was going, Trinity flew deeper and deeper beneath the mountain. The air turned frigid, then searing hot, then back to cold again. Slick oily walls made of debilitating magic closed in on her, then expanded, then closed in again, an endless maze of what most would consider pure terror.
Not her, though.
This place more than appealed to her. Especially when she started passing pockets of residual Múspellsheimr magic. Globs of violent power waiting for someone to touch them by accident. Because little was more harmful to dragons than Múspellsheimr magic. Shaken off by the original Múspellsheimr dragons who first arrived on Earth, it was remarkably lethal.
None so lethal, however, than that shed by the dragon who had led them here.
She remembered everything now. All the times she and Vicar had spent together when embracing not just their softer personalities but their mighty Múspellsheimr sides. One of her favorite memories was when he’d shown her his incarnate’s magical residue. While she’d found his actions on Múspellsheimr a little soft because she would have stayed and fought the whole of that world, shedidappreciate that he considered females his equals.
“It’s glorious,” she had said to him, admiring his seething red residue full of violence and hatred. Totally turned on, she had eyed him with a whole new appreciation. “Your incarnate was very powerful.” She’d nodded with approval. “Admirably ruthless before he fled.”
“But in charge when he’d fled,” he had replied. “Just like I will be again someday.”
Though she’d fully intended to claim the position even back then, she had appreciated his gumption. And, she’d reasoned, he had time and time again soaked up some of her Múspellsheimr so she could continue helping her sisters.
Now just look at where that had gotten him.
