and soil and other detritus rained down on us in sudden bursts, and it was all I could do to try to anticipate where it might land so I could redirect our shield.
My alphas were in their glory at last, cutting through any stragglers foolish enough to think us easy prey. We were not only blazing a trail through Ragnarök; we were leaving a wake of blood, heralding Odin’s fall.
But that didn’t mean the god-king wasn’t still dangerous. As we neared, he raised his hands, not to command the forces around him, but to drain them of any magic, any power, residing in their blood.
For all his talk of my borrowed magic, it seemed he had no qualms about outright stealing some of his own. But Mimir voiced the greater threat.
“If he regains his strength, we’re doomed!”
I wasn’t going to let that happen. I might not have been able to save Grim, or Freya, or even my parents, but I could sure as hell save everyone else. All I had to do was—
Here, Grim had told me with his dying breaths, touching my chest. I’m here…
I skidded to a halt, dropping our shield. My mates stopped beside me, weapons drawn and stained with viscera. Together we gazed up at Odin, the source of so much misery, so much death, so much needless destruction.
He thought he’d won. He thought he’d weakened us by destroying Grim. But there was still a piece of my Mistborn mate inside me, one he’d given to me in Freya’s glade when we’d finally reunited with the others.
“I love you,” I said, calling upon that last vestige of him now.
His magic burned cold in my chest, dark tendrils wrapping around my own golden light, not to overcome it, but to help it along. It bolstered me, strengthened me, embraced me from within, caressing me like I wished its owner could do just one more time.
As Odin took his sweet time gathering power, mine was at the ready, eager to serve. I let it free, hurling at him all my hate, all my rage, all my grief and sorrow.
When Odin fell at the gates of Asgard, it was to a wolf composed entirely of magic both light and dark—just like the original prophecy had predicted.
Only the world didn’t end. The skies cleared. The horns grew silent. The Jotunn hordes fled, save for the Mistborn, who held their spears and swords above their heads to signal their triumph.
We did it. After so much loss and so long a journey—we’d won. And Grim had been there too, in the end, though now…
Now he was gone. That last bit of him, the magic he’d gifted me, had dissipated along with Odin’s life. It was over, both the battle and any lingering connection I had to him.
As the survivors of Ragnarök celebrated, I fell to my knees in the dirt, hid my face in my arms, and sobbed.
Thirty-Four
Annabel
I was only vaguely aware of the cheers erupting across the battlefield. Adrenaline still thrummed in my veins, but I couldn’t take in any of the euphoria spreading among the einherjar and Valkyries as Surtr’s army fled, the rift between Asgard and the human world healing in a ripple of golden light.
With every pulse of my heart, the ache of loss penetrated deeper now that I had no purpose left. I had done my duty. I had fulfilled my destiny.
And I had lost part of my soul in the process.
“We should go back. To Valhalla,” Modi said softly. His warm hand closed around my shoulder. “Grim gave his life for every other living being. We owe him a vigil.”
“We owe him a lot more than that,” Bjarni rumbled, the grief in his voice echoing through my own anguished heart.
Saga drew in a deep breath through his nose, visibly steeling himself before he sheathed his sword and turned to me. Gently, he pulled me up into his arms and hugged me tight to his body still caked in Jotunn blood. “Come, Annabel. We need to give him this final honor.”
We left the battlefield amidst cheers, but it felt like they came from somewhere far away—like they weren’t part of the dark, numb world we walked through.
Grim, Grim. Come back to me, baby. Please come back.
The walk up the path leading to Valhalla was a blur, and I don’t think I could have made it on my own. Saga carried me in his arms, like a lost child, and Bjarni, Modi and Magni surrounded us in a