willingly surrender the spark you carry today to my servitude. Swear this, and you will be the first soul I free from my realm. Swear this, and I will not ravage the world of the living with my armies.”
Something about her wording caught me off-guard, but the power of her magic tangling with mine and the monumental importance of this moment made me push the nagging notion away.
“I swear it,” I said.
My power stuttered in my veins, as if something yanked on it before the spell released its grip on me, and I stumbled a step forward, my gaze sweeping up over the glass and the soul inside.
Her mouth was open in a silent scream, pale eyes wide with abject horror.
I recognized her instantly.
“Such a sweet present my brother sent me,” Hel purred by my side. She released my wrist and pressed her fingertips to the glass. “The Goddess of Love, tragically murdered by the man she tried to help. Love can be treacherous.”
“Freya,” I whispered, the tears I had managed to keep at bay for the other soul now trickling down my cheeks. I placed my hand against the glass in a futile hope to shield her from the dark goddess by my side.
“She is easy to love, isn’t she?” Hel mused. “So kindhearted, so beautiful… Who doesn’t love Love?”
“Please let her go,” I whispered. “The world won’t be right without love in it. Without her.”
Hel clicked her tongue. “I have already agreed to let you go, and now you ask for more? Greed doesn’t become you, sister.”
“Please,” I repeated. “She is innocent. She—”
“I don’t care who is innocent and who is guilty,” Hel snapped, her voice cracking like a whip through the hall. “They all come to me, every last soul not destined for Asgard—the good, the wicked, the unremarkable… Their bodies nourish the lands above, but their souls feed the powers of this realm.”
“Do you even know what a world without love will be like?” I asked. “It will be exactly like here—dead. Miserable. Is that what you wish to escape to?”
Hel chuffed. “I care little for love. But if you do, perhaps you should be the one to take this soul within you, hmm? If you cannot bear the thought of a world without love, I will grant you the chance to return it… after a fashion.”
I blinked. Surely, she couldn’t mean… “W-What?”
“Devour her,” Hel said, the glow in her eyes turning vicious. “Take her soul and make it yours.”
“No!” I jerked back from the prison, horror clawing at my throat. “Never! I could never do that!”
“What a pity.” Hel stroked her fingers along the glass. The air around Freya shimmered threateningly. “I think, if given the choice, our pretty goddess would prefer her final resting place to be within someone who believes in love. What say you, Freya? Who would you rather be eaten by? Me, or your protégé?”
The silvery soul within the prison twisted, her large eyes sliding from Hel to me. The naked plea in them was undeniable.
I swallowed thickly. Could I do it? Could I… devour a soul? The thought alone was so repulsive it made my stomach lurch, but between me and Hel…
Was I the merciful option?
The grim determination on Freya’s spectral features told me the answer.
“Okay.” Shaking despite my best efforts to appear strong, I placed my hand back on the glass. “I’ll do it.”
Hel pressed her fingertips lightly against my nape. “Good girl.”
I cringed at her touch, but managed to remain still, eyes locked on Freya’s.
The air around her vibrated more rapidly, blurring the edges of her already hazy outline. “I’m sorry,” I whispered through my tears. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“Take her,” Hel hissed. “Now.”
Light ripped out from the center Freya’s spectral form, shattering her. The pieces fell to the floor with the softest twinkle, a faint whisper of a melody, as the Goddess of Love ceased to exist.
A ribbon of white glided through the glass and into my mouth and nostrils. It tasted like summer rain and green leaves, and the first flowers of spring.
I swallowed on instinct, and then she was in me. I felt her sliding through my veins, filling me up not with horror, but with quiet sorrow, and the lightest touch of… gratitude.
She settled low in my abdomen, curling protectively around the still-invisible child growing there.
“See? It is not so bad, is it?” Hel purred. “Mayhaps you will even develop a taste for it.”
I glared at her through the tears still trickling down my