my magic on pure, panicked instinct and forced it into my mate, forgetting all about his lessons of control and accuracy, because the only thought that filled my head was that if he died, nothing would ever matter again.
“I am not hurt,” Grim said, his voice calm, emotionless. He closed his fingers around my wrists, severing the connection between his chest and my magic.
Slowly, his words sank in. The glow around my palms died as I looked up at him, confusion mixing with the panic.
“It is not my blood,” he said softly.
“Then whose…?” My voice died as I stared into his darkened eyes. Ice-cold dread crept up along my spine and down my arms. I jerked away, unable to move my gaze from his as I asked, “Freya?”
He didn’t respond.
“Freya?” I shouted, still staring at Grim. It was written all over his beautiful face—what he’d done. But I couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe it. Because… Because it made no sense.
“It is too late, my mate,” he said, his voice soft like silk over ice.
“No.” I shook my head and took a step away. It couldn’t be true. It wasn’t. “No.”
Yet Grim kept silent as he looked at me, the truth staring me in the face in the absence of reassuring words.
I ran out of the glade and into the woods, some dark thread of horror yanking me along the mossy forest floor until I came to a waterfall.
By its side, half-hidden in vegetation, lay a slumped figure.
“Freya!” I cried as I threw myself to her side. My magic welled within me as I brushed my shaking hands over her, searching. She was unresponsive, and when my fingers touched her chest, they came back sticky.
He’d stabbed her in the heart.
“No, no, no! Please, goddess, stay with me,” I whispered. I was more conscious of my control as I directed my powers into her wound, searching for her heart.
The goddess spasmed once, and a wet gurgle escaped her throat. Slowly her eyes cracked open, her gaze finding mine.
“Annabel. Stop,” she croaked.
“I can’t.” I had never attempted to heal a damaged heart before, and I gritted my teeth as the broken flesh within knitted together, only to slide back open again, over and over. “Why isn’t this working? Please, please, help me!”
I don’t know who I was pleading with, but only Freya responded.
“You need to stop.” Her voice was so weak—barely a wheezing whisper. “You can’t… can’t save me.”
“I can,” I bit, forcing more of my magic into her chest. But her heart still wouldn’t stay fused, and I growled in frustration. “You can’t die!”
She closed her slim fingers gently around my wrist. “If you keep… trying… your child… will die. Please, Annabel. Stop.”
“My child?” I asked, uncomprehending. “I don’t—"
“You carry… his child,” she croaked. “But she is still… only a kernel. She needs your strength to live. I am… I am dying, and even your powers won’t stop that. Please. Save your strength. For her.”
The glow around my hands faded as I stared at the dying goddess. Her words echoed in my mind, through my chest, but I couldn’t take them in. Not now. Tears slid down my cheeks as I grasped her hand in mine.
“You can’t die. You are the Goddess of Love! There is no life without you. There is no stopping Ragnarök without you.”
“You have to keep trying. Until… Until the very end. I will give you… what I have left. You will need all five of them. If you channel… all your love… Perhaps… Perhaps it will be enough to bring you home.”
I wiped at my tears with my free hand, trying to comprehend what she was saying. “My mates? I can’t—Saga, Magni, Bjarni, and Modi can’t help me here. And Grim…”
The clutching, horrible darkness squeezed around my lungs, and I fought against the despair threatening to swallow me whole. I had loved him so completely, and it hadn’t been enough. He had still done this. He had murdered a goddess to stop me returning to the world of the living so I could defeat Ragnarök.
“Please don’t surrender the love you carry in your heart,” Freya croaked. “Please, Annabel. If you do, if you cannot find forgiveness… understanding… all will be lost. For eternity. Even if you… cannot find your way home… if you… remain here… with him… if you surrender to the darkness, there will be no more love…. ever again. For your… For your child. Hold on.”
Love him? She lay dying, pleading for me to love