tight circle. They were the reason I had to find a way to continue on. Them and the life I carried. His daughter. He had given his life for us; I could not let that be for nothing. I wouldn’t.
I pressed my hand firmly against my abdomen as we crossed through Valhalla’s ports and began the long journey through the quiet hall.
“Trud?” Magni mumbled, his quiet voice cutting through the silence and jerking my gaze up. Ahead, in the middle of the destruction left behind from our first fight with Odin, Modi and Magni’s blonde sister sat hunched over a crumpled figure on the floor.
I opened my mouth, but nothing but a hollow sob came out. Grim. Seeing his body hit me with grief all over again, and something fragile inside of me broke.
I ran. I tripped over the scattered debris and slipped on the floor, but it barely slowed me down. The second I was by his side, I fell to my knees—and dissolved into tears.
“Grim. Grim, my love. My soul. Please come back to me. Please!”
I bent over him and let the weight of everything that had happened press me into his chest. He was so, so cold. My beautiful, haunted soulmate. My fifth. I had only known the true him so briefly. It wasn’t fair. He had lived in darkness and pain for a millennium, and I was supposed to be the one to finally show him what true happiness was like.
“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry,” I sobbed. “So, so sorry.”
“Don’t… cry.”
I stilled at the hoarse whisper, my insides flicking from a painful, agonizing mess to numb stillness. My shuddering breath sounded like a thunderstorm in my ears as I slowly, so slowly turned my head.
My eyes slid over his wide chest, up the column of his throat, and finally to his face.
He was as pale as ever, but his eyes… His eyes were open—barely more than cracks, but enough that the pale blue and glowing amber of his irises were visible. He… He was alive?
“Grim!” I cried, relief combusting in my chest so hard I burst into another bout of tears.
He only groaned weakly in response.
A warm hand touched my cheek. “He will live, my sister. But he is very weak. Be gentle.”
I didn’t look at Trud—I couldn’t take my eyes off Grim’s face, not even when Bjarni and Saga fell to their knees on his other side and gripped his hand and arm.
“Brother,” Saga choked. “We thought we’d lost you.”
“How did he survive?” Modi asked. He and Magni knelt on each side of me. I was grateful for the pressure of their bodies, because my head felt too light and my muscles were quickly losing the battle against the flood of emotion.
“I don’t know,” Trud said quietly. “His matebond was broken. He was dead.”
“You are… my soul,” Grim rasped. His hand twitched as if he was trying to raise it, but he couldn’t manage. “He… He did not… break… that bond. I… felt you. Found… Found my way back. To you.”
“The soulmate connection,” I whispered. “It called you back?”
He groaned a confirmation.
“Thank you,” I whispered, though I didn’t know who I was thanking—Grim himself, perhaps. With a deep breath, I pulled myself together and focused inward.
My magic came slowly, like mud being pulled through too-narrow tubes. Magni grabbed me from my left, and I felt his power flow into me, supporting mine. A moment later, Modi joined him. Their magic was almost as depleted as mine, but their support was enough for my golden light to enter Grim’s body.
Two more hands clasped onto me, and Saga’s magic joined mine while Bjarni offered his fortitude.
There was little damage to Grim’s body, but I still filled him with our essence, willing our combined magic to give him strength.
After a few long moments, Grim wrapped his chilly fingers around my wrist with little more strength than a newborn kitten. “Stop, Annabel. That’s… That’s enough.”
My vision swam when I opened my eyes again, but Grim looked… not well, but better.
“He needs time,” Trud said. “Time and care. But he will heal.”
“He will have all the time and care in the world,” Magni rumbled. He kissed my shoulder and clapped a hand on Grim’s thigh. “Thank you, brother.”
“Thank you,” Saga echoed. Then Bjarni. Then Modi. Then me.
“We did it,” I said softly. The relief of Grim’s survival numbed any joy that should have filled those words. “We killed Odin. We stopped Ragnarök.”
“Of course you did,” Grim whispered. When I clutched