Between the Blade and the Heart

by Amanda Hocking

  She’d just started reciting an incantation when Gugalanna clicked his tongue at her before turning to kick her with his back legs. I yelled for her to get out of the way, but his massive hoof was already colliding with her chest.

  Oona went soaring through the air before crashing down at the edge of the shore, her head lolling to the side in the water.

  I wanted to go to her, but Gugalanna had just picked up Asher, and he looked like a rag doll in Guga’s massive arms. With Sigrún in my right hand and Rök the shield in my other, I ran at the bull centaur.

  I managed to get in one good hit—my blade slid across his leg hard enough to draw blood—and he let out a howl of pain. He knocked me down, and stomped on the shield with all his might. It bent and groaned, but it didn’t give.

  Then he let out an irritated snort, with Asher held prisoner in his arms, and turned and ran out into the lake.

  “No!” I screamed, running into the water after them. “Asher!”

  The water began swirling, like a whirlpool rising up into a tornado, and Quinn chased after me, grabbing me before I got sucked into it, too.

  “Malin, stop!” she shouted. “They’re gone! You can’t go after them! They’re gone!”

  FIFTY-EIGHT

  Oona lay on the lakeshore with water lapping onto her, and her breath came out in loud, shaky rasps. Atlas knelt beside her, rummaging through her giant bag.

  “The blue vial,” Oona whispered, pointing weakly at her bag.

  “Oona!” I rushed to her side. She looked at me through half-closed lids.

  “I’m getting her something for the pain.” Atlas momentarily glanced up at me from his task. “How are you doing? Can you make it out of here?”

  I was bruised and scraped, but otherwise fine. Atlas and Quinn looked about the same—dirty and bloody in a few spots, but they would survive. Oona, on the other hand, wasn’t looking good.

  Atlas finally found the vial Oona was asking for, and carefully he held it to her lips. As she drank it down eagerly, he looked at me with worried eyes.

  “We need to get out of here, fast, if we want her to make it,” Atlas said in a hushed voice.

  Quinn was already loading up her gear and adding Atlas’s smaller knapsack on top of hers. “We’ll have to swim across and use those stairs over there.” She nodded toward the mossy staircase on the other side of the lake. “Atlas, will you be able to carry Oona?”

  He got to his feet, holding Oona’s limp body in his arms. Her head lolled against his chest as she let out another painful breath. He waded out into the lake, and when it became too deep for him to walk, he floated on his back, with Oona lying on his chest, and swam backward toward the stairs.

  Quinn went after them, but I waited at the edge, staring down at the water where Asher had disappeared with Gugalanna. Only moments ago the water had been swirling and rising upward in a supernatural tornado, but now the water was still, aside from the ripples Atlas caused as he made his escape.

  “Malin, we have to go.” Quinn stopped, with the water up to her waist, and looked back at me. “Oona needs medical attention, and you can’t go to Kurnugia. Gugalanna said the portal doesn’t stay open forever, and even if it did, there’s no way you would survive down there on your own.”

  I swallowed back my sadness and followed Quinn out into the water. I hated that she was right, that there was nothing I could do for Asher right now, but my only chance at rescuing him was getting out of here and finding help.

  The trek up the stairs was more arduous than I had expected because the moss made them slippery, but we all managed to make it. At the top was an amazing view of the Gates of Kurnugia—we could see how the maze stretched out around us, bending and winding around pyramids and dead ends.

  Quinn ripped a page from one of Oona’s books and hurriedly drew a map, sketching what we could see around us with a stick of charcoal Oona had in her bag. From where we were, we could see the fastest route to the plaza, and from the plaza it was a relatively straight shot to the entrance.

  It was a rather sheer descent down the outside of the cavern to the land below, but sliding down on our backs made for quick travel. Once we were all on level ground, Quinn got her map ready, and we raced toward the exit with the sun slowly setting behind us.

  FIFTY-NINE

  As I sat on the bench outside the hospital in nearby Caana City, I watched as a steady stream of patients came in. Somehow, even with head wounds and cardiac arrests ambling in past me, the night air felt strangely still. Above me the stars twinkled, shining brighter here than they did back home in the city.

  “Mind if I join you?” Quinn asked quietly.

  She was backlit by the bright fluorescent glow from the hospital doors, giving her an ethereal glow as she stared down uncertainly at me. She had a few stitches above her left eye and a bandage around her forearm, but otherwise she’d made it out of the Gates okay.

  I motioned to the bench beside me. “Go ahead.”

  “It sounds like Oona is going to pull through,” she said once she sat down, close enough to me that our thighs were brushing up against each other.

  “Yeah, the doctors said she needed to rest now, but I should be able to see her soon. So that’s good news, at least.”

  “You don’t look happy about it.”

  I breathed in deeply. “I’m happy about Oona. I really am.”

  “But you’re thinking about him.”

  The lump in my throat grew, and the tears I’d been fighting off since we had left the Gates stung my eyes. “I feel like I let him down. I should’ve fought harder or done more.”

  “Gugalanna was too powerful.”

  “Then I shouldn’t have let him come with us,” I insisted.

  “He had every right to be there, same as you.”

  “No, I should’ve—”

  “Malin, stop,” Quinn said sharply, so I looked up at her. “You couldn’t have saved him, okay?”

  Part of me knew that was true, but I just kept replaying all the moments over and over again. How when he kissed me, he made everything feel better, and when he put my hand to his chest, promising me I would be all right but knowing that he wouldn’t.

  I hadn’t realized it right away, but that’s what he was doing. He’d been given the horrific truth that he wasn’t going to make it out, maybe so he could prepare himself or leave, but instead of worrying about himself, he only tried to make sure I would be okay with it.

  “He knew I couldn’t save him, and he went anyway,” I said in a shaky voice.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Something he said.…” I trailed off as tears spilled down my cheeks.

  “Wow.” Quinn sounded awestruck. “I didn’t realize.… Were you in love with him?”

  “No.” I wiped roughly at my tears with the palm of my hand. “Don’t be ridiculous. Valkyries can’t fall in love.”

  “What are you talking about? Of course they can.”

  I shook my head. “No, we can care about stuff, yeah, and we can love things, but we can’t be in love. It’s not possible.”

  “Are you serious?” Quinn asked, and I looked over to see her gaping at me.

  “Yeah. That’s what Marlow always told me, and I’ve never known of any Valkyries in any kind of serious relationship, so … it makes sense.”

  She leaned back on the bench, looking in shock. “Damn, Malin. Is this why you broke up with me?”

  “No. I mean … I guess, maybe, it was part of it. I just didn’t see the point if we…”

  “Malin, I loved you.” A pained smile had spread across her face. “I was absolutely completely in love with you. So I know that Valkyries can fall in love.”

  I lowered my eyes and swallowed hard. “I … I don’t know what to say to that.”

  Quinn sighed and then stood. “You don’t have to say anything. I’m gonna go see how Atlas is doing.”

  SIXTY

  I stayed out on the bench a few minutes longer, planning
to get myself under control before going back inside to check on Oona.

  All night patients had been heading into the hospital, but for a few minutes there was a lapse. The entrance was quiet. But quickly I realized it was too silent. I couldn’t hear any cars or anyone talking.

  Far off in the distance I heard crickets and howler monkeys, but that was it. Everything had gone away.

  I stood, preparing to go see if the hospital was the hive of activity I knew it should be, or see if perhaps I had head trauma that was blocking out sounds. Then I heard a bird—the flapping of wings and a loud caw.

  The raven appeared out of the night sky and landed on a light post in front of me.

  “What do you want with me?” I shouted up at it. “Why are you following me? I thought you were helping me, but you disappeared when I needed you back there! Why are you doing this to me?”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help,” a deep voice, thick with a British accent, came from the left of me, and I jumped back in surprise.

  While I had been focused on the raven, I hadn’t noticed a man materializing outside with me. He was tall and broad-shouldered, larger than Atlas, even, with dark skin, and his left eyelid was withered shut. He wore an impeccably tailored suit with a charcoal-gray duster over it, and he stepped slowly toward me.

  “That’s my raven, Muninn.” He gestured to the bird. “I sent him to watch over you and help you, but unfortunately there was only so much I could do to intervene. My hands are tied in a lot of this.”

  “Who are you?” I asked, taking a step back from him. “And what do you want?”

  “I’m your boss,” he said with a smile. “Odin.”

  I gasped. “Holy hell.” I ran my hand through my hair and tried to figure out if I should bow or kneel or what was the proper protocol when meeting with a god of his caliber. I’d never met a Vanir god, and from everything I had learned, they almost never came to earth anymore.

  “I can help you get your friend back,” he said, drawing me out of my panic to look up at him. “All is not lost for him, not yet. But I need you to do something for me.”

  Even though I knew I would do whatever it took to get Asher back, I waited a beat before asking, “What?”

  “I need you to help me take on Ereshkigal. We must stop her before the entire world belongs to Kurnugia.”

  Since there didn’t seem to be much of a choice—I couldn’t exactly let the world end, and I wanted to save Asher—I nodded once. “What do you need from me?”

  ALSO BY AMANDA HOCKING

  Switched

  Torn

  Ascend

  Wake

  Lullaby

  Tidal

  Elegy

  Frostfire

  Ice Kissed

  Crystal Kingdom

  Freeks

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Amanda Hocking is the author of more than twenty young adult novels, including the New York Times bestselling Trylle trilogy and the Kanin Chronicles. Her love of pop culture and all things paranormal influences her writing. She spends her time in Minnesota, taking care of her menagerie of pets and working on her next book. You can sign up for email updates here.

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  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  In the Time Before …

  Epigraph

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

  Thirty-Nine

  Forty

  Forty-One

  Forty-Two

  Forty-Three

  Forty-Four

  Forty-Five

  Forty-Six

  Forty-Seven

  Forty-Eight

  Forty-Nine

  Fifty

  Fifty-One

  Fifty-Two

  Fifty-Three

  Fifty-Four

  Fifty-Five

  Fifty-Six

  Fifty-Seven

  Fifty-Eight

  Fifty-Nine

  Sixty

  Also by Amanda Hocking

  About the Author

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  BETWEEN THE BLADE AND THE HEART. Copyright © 2017 by Amanda Hocking. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.stmartins.com

  Cover design by Kerri Resnick

  Cover photo illustration by Peter Bollinger / Shannon Associates; Norse symbol on spine © Katja Gerasimova / Shutterstock.com

  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 978-1-250-08479-8 (trade paperback)

  ISBN 978-1-250-08481-1 (ebook)

  eISBN 9781250084811

  Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.

  First Edition: January 2018