was more focused on the shade. “Wait. What did you say about Galin?”
The shade had spun to face me, its eyes shining like stars. “You have come to steal the Levateinn?”
Good. That got his attention. I kept a pleasant expression on my face. “Yes.”
“Why?”
I arched an eyebrow. “To return my soul to my body, of course. And to bring myself back from the dead.”
I could tell by the tensing of Ali’s muscles that she was about to lose it. That she wanted to call Skalei and start stabbing. “Are you saying Galin is here in Hel?” she asked.
“Quiet, mortal,” said the shade.
All around us, the shades had gone completely still. They hung in the air limply, like black rags on a clothesline. Only their pale eyes moved, fixed on me, and they listened to every word. The lead shade turned back to me. “You can raise the dead?”
“Loki’s wand can transmute any form. It can change a fish to bird, a man to a woman, the old to the young. Of course, it can also transform the dead into the living.”
The shade looked to the throne, to Hela’s mummified form, and my heart sank as I realized my mistake. “What about a goddess?”
I felt the shade once again send ice into my veins, and my body went rigid.
He whooshed closer to me, eyes gleaming. “The entrance to the Shore of the Dead is within our realm. We will not allow you to travel to its bloody sands, to parley with the pale wyrm, if you don’t agree to our demands.”
“Hela is dead,” I stammered. “All the gods are dead. Ragnarok cannot be undone.”
“Everything can change. You just told us the wand can transmute any form,” said the shade. “Listen… do you hear her? Even in death, our queen calls to us. She asks to be woken, to once again rule over her domain. We are but her servants.”
“Your queen is dead. You are masters of your own destinies now.”
“False,” growled the shade. “We are prisoners in iron walls, forced to dwell in muck and darkness. Hela says she will free us. Our queen has not forsaken us, even in death.”
But this wasn’t possible. What they asked would destroy us all. “But that is not meant to be, I’m afraid. Ragnarok is known as the Twilight of the Gods. To raise one again would be a crime against Wyrd. Endless destruction would follow.”
“You will help us.” The shade moved close to me, and the chill of death surrounded me. “I saw how you looked at the Night Elf. If you do not raise our queen from her throne, your woman will remain within our walls forever. She will be ours to torment.”
Volcanic wrath poured through me, but I kept my mask of calm—the diplomatic expression of a prince—even as something like panic was rising in my mind. “May I remind you that you have no claim to the living. She has made you no sacrifice—”
I stopped right there as I realized what Modgud had required with her sword.
The shade’s eyes flickered. “Modgud gathered the mortal’s blood with the steel of her blade. She made a sacrifice to enter here.”
Ali looked like she wanted to murder everyone here, but she couldn’t.
“Skalei.” The blade was in her hand.
The shade spun, pale eyes blazing. “Do not challenge us,” it whispered savagely.
Fast as a viper, he lunged at Ali and pressed an inky palm to her chest. She fell to the floor immediately, her eyes rolling up into her skull. Her body began to twitch.
The shade was killing her. Shock ripped my mind apart.
“Stop!” I shouted. I wanted to threaten them—like I had with the guards for the last thousand years. I’ll drain your blood. I’ll rip out your throat.
None of that would work here.
The shade released Ali, turning again to me. “Have you changed your mind?”
I felt like someone had ripped out my lungs. There was no way I could actually help bring back the goddess of the dead, not when it would corrupt Wyrd and destroy the world. But there was absolutely no way I was going to let Ali die, to let the shades claim her soul. Right now, her chest was still rising and falling. I prayed she’d only have a terrible headache when she woke, that she’d still recover easily.
“Yes,” I said finally, “I will help you revive your goddess. On one condition.”
The shade’s eyes narrowed. “What is that?”
I pointed at Ali. “I’ll need her blood. Release her from your