“I hate to do this to you,” Oren said, and at least he wasn’t smiling when he said it. “But I told you what would happen if you went against me.”
I pushed myself up so I was sitting, still leaning back against the wall. He towered over me, and I steeled myself, waiting for him to hit me again. But instead, he went over to his chamber doors and opened them.
“Bring him to me!” Oren shouted out into the hall. He left the doors open and returned to me. He crouched, his black eyes meeting mine. “I warned you. I gave you every chance to join me. I wanted you with me, not against me.”
“I would rather die than serve you,” I said.
“I see that.” He reached out, meaning to wipe the blood from my forehead, but I pulled away from him, even though it sent shooting pain through me. “Well, the good news is you won’t die alone.”
He rose and stepped back from me. At the same time, Kyra—the Vittra I’d tangled with before—and another Vittra came into the room, carrying Loki with him. I hadn’t seen the other Vittra before, but he was huge, a barbarian of a man.
They were literally dragging Loki. They held him by each arm, and his legs trailed limply on the floor. His head hung down, and blood dripped from his temple.
“No!” I shouted, and Loki lifted his head at the sound of my voice. He looked over at me, and it was clear they had beaten the hell out of him.
“I’m sorry, Wendy,” he said simply. “I tried.”
“No,” I repeated and struggled to my feet. My body didn’t move the way I wanted it to, but I ignored the pain. “No, don’t hurt him. I’ll do whatever you ask.”
“It’s too late.” Oren shook his head. “I promised you that I would make you watch him die. And I am a man of my word.”
“No, please,” I begged him. I stumbled over to a chair and leaned against it, holding myself up, because I couldn’t stand on my own. “I will do anything. Anything.”
“I am sorry,” Oren said again.
He walked over to the wall where the two long swords still hung, the only things still intact in the room after I had sent it into a flurry. He pulled one down, the diamond-encrusted bell guard covering his hand.
I tried to use my powers to stop him. I held out my hand, pushing out what energy I had left. Some of the lighter things in the room stirred, like papers and a curtain, and Kyra winced. But Oren was unruffled.
“Loki’s met with this blade before,” Oren said, admiring the sword. “And it’s the same one I ended his father with. It seems fitting that it will be the one to finish him.”
“Please.” I let my hand fall to the side. “I will do your bidding. I will do anything.”
“I’ve already told you.” Oren walked back, stopping in front of Loki. “It’s too late.”
Kyra and the other Vittra held Loki higher, and Loki grunted. Tears streamed down my face, and I could think of nothing to do to stop Oren. My powers weren’t working on him. I wasn’t strong enough to fight him. I had nothing to barter.
Still staring at me, Oren lifted up his sword, and with one quick move, he stabbed Loki straight through the heart.
TWENTY-FIVE
mortality
Kyra and the other Vittra instantly let go of Loki, and he collapsed on the floor. They both held their heads, clutching at them, and at first I didn’t understand.
I couldn’t really think or feel anything, except that I had been ripped in two. It felt as if Oren had torn my heart from my chest. I had never felt such consuming pain or anger as I did then.
Blackness surged through me with an intense heat. I didn’t even really know what was happening around me. Everything felt like a hazy blur.
Then I saw Oren, squinting and touching his own head, and I remembered.
I could do something with my mind when I was frightened or angry. I’d done it to Tove when he tried to wake me, and I’d even done it on a smaller scale when Elora had been torturing Loki.
That feeling—that intense fear or anger—unlocked a power inside me. I did something to people inside their heads, causing great agony. It usually only lasted a few seconds, but I had never been as pissed off before.
As soon as I realized what I was doing, I harnessed it and directed it at Oren. At first he looked confused and simply started backing up. He kept squinting and tilting his head, as if he were staring at a very bright light.
In the back of my mind, I knew my body should hurt, but I felt nothing. I’d blotted out any pain. I walked evenly toward Oren, and he began to hold his head. He fell to his knees. He was moaning and begging but I couldn’t understand anything he was saying.
Both Kyra and the other Vittra were curled up on the floor, and Kyra was actually sobbing. I went over to Loki, refusing to let myself actually see him, to really believe he was dead, and I pulled the sword from his chest.
I walked over to where my father was slumped on his knees, bent forward. His hands were clamped to his ears. He was muttering at first, but when I raised the sword over my head, I heard him begin to shout.
“Make it stop!” Oren yelled. “Please! Make the pain stop!”
“I’ll put you out of your misery,” I said, and I swung the sword down, slicing through his neck.
I turned away so I didn’t have to see it, but I heard his head fall to the floor.
I stood there, still holding the sword, and looked around the room. The haze had faded away, and pain returned to my body. My body screamed in agony, and my legs threatened to give out beneath me. Kyra and the other Vittra had stopped writhing and they both sat up.
“Go,” I said, struggling to catch my breath. “Tell them the King is dead.”
Kyra looked at Oren’s corpse with widened eyes, and she didn’t question my orders. She and the other Vittra scrambled to their feet and ran out of the room, leaving me alone with Loki.
I dropped the sword and rushed to his side as quickly as my body would allow. I knelt next to him, and pulled his head onto my lap, but it lolled to the side. Blood stained the front of his chest, and I put my hand over the wound, trying to press the life back into him.
“No, Loki, please,” I said as tears streamed down my face. “Loki, stay with me. Please. I love you. You can’t leave me like this.”
But he didn’t move. He didn’t breathe. I bent down, kissing his forehead as I sobbed, and I didn’t even have words for the pain I felt. With nothing else to do, I began to wail.
“My god, I’m too late,” someone said, and I turned to see Sara standing in the doorway. She looked at the dead King, her husband.
Loki had saved her life once, and she was a healer. She would be the only chance I would have at saving him.
“Help me,” I begged and tried to hold Loki up to her. “Please. You have to help him.”
“I . . .” Sara didn’t answer for a second, and then she ran over to us, kneeling on the other side of Loki. “I don’t know that I can. He might already be gone.”
“Please,” I cried. “You have to try.” She took a deep breath and nodded.
“Do you have any energy left?” Sara asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. I felt weak and drained. Fighting Oren had taken everything out of me.
“Well, help me, if you can,” she said. She put her hand on top of mine, the one that covered the hole in Loki’s chest. “Give me any energy you have. I need all I can get.”
I nodded and closed my eyes, focusing on her and Loki. A warm tingling went through my hand, a sensation I was familiar with from being healed before. But something else happened. I felt it in my veins, owing through me, being pulled from me. Like hot liquid escaping out through my fingertips.
Then I heard it. Loki gasped loudly, and I opened my eyes.
He took deep breaths, and tears of relief slid down my cheeks. Sara’s hand was still over mine, and her skin had become wrinkled and loose. Her hair suddenly had gray in it, and her face had aged noticeably. She’d given Loki a lot of her life force to save him.
�
��Loki,” I said.
“Hey, Princess.” He smiled dazedly as he looked up at me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I smiled and shook my head. “Not anymore.”
“What’s this?” He took my hair and held it out so I could see. A curl near the front had gone completely silver. “I take a nap, and you go gray?”
“You didn’t take a nap.” I laughed. “Don’t you remember what happened?”
He furrowed his brow, trying to remember, and understanding flashed in his eyes.
“I remember . . .” Loki touched my face. “I remember that I love you.” I bent down, kissing him full on the mouth, and he held me to him.
TWENTY-SIX
home
Wendy!” Willa was nearly screaming, and I rushed to try to get to my feet. The panic in her voice made me forget about how weak I was, and I would’ve fallen to the floor if Loki hadn’t caught me.
“Easy, Princess,” Sara said, looking up at me from where she knelt on the floor. Loki had gotten to his feet and had an arm around my waist, holding me up. “You used much of your life force today.”
I wanted to thank her for helping me and ask her exactly why she had. Loki’d already explained to me how close he’d been to Sara, but I had no idea how she might feel about the fact that I’d just killed her husband.
Before I had a chance to say anything to her, Willa appeared in the doorway to the King’s chambers. Her clothes were wet, her hair was a mess, and she had blood on her cheek.
“Wendy!” Willa shouted again and ran to me, throwing her arms around me. She would’ve knocked me over if Loki hadn’t been there.
“Willa, settle down.” Loki gently pushed her off me, so she wouldn’t smother me.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” She stepped back from me and scanned the room, her eyes landing on the King’s head on the floor, his long hair lying over it like a blanket. “So it’s true, then? The King is dead? The war’s over?”
“The King is dead.” I nodded and turned to Sara to see how she would respond. She was Queen of the Vittra, after all, and she could continue this war if she wanted to.
Loki followed my gaze and his eyes met hers. “The war is over,” he said, but I wasn’t sure if he was simply telling her or declaring it.
“The King’s reign of terror has lasted long enough,” Sara said. She got to her feet slowly and smiled wanly at us. “Our war is over, and I’ll be happy if I never see another one again.”
“Good.” Willa smiled in relief. “When that tracker came down and said the King was dead, the hobgoblins started retreating. A lot of them ran outside.”
“They’re happier in the woods than living indoors anyway,” Sara explained.
“So how did we do?” I asked Willa, my heart tightening at the thought of how our army had fared in the battle. “Did everyone survive?”
Willa’s expression fell. She pursed her lips and shook her head. “I don’t know for sure. As soon as I heard the King was dead, I went to find you. But . . . I know not everyone made it.”
“Who?” I demanded.
She hesitated before answering. “A few trackers. I don’t know for sure.”
Since Willa wouldn’t answer me, I had to see for myself. I started walking away, again forgetting that my legs barely worked. This time, when they gave out under me, Loki scooped me up, carrying me in his arms.
I wanted to protest and insist I could walk, but I couldn’t really. So the best I could do was direct him to take me down to the main hall, where Willa had told me the worst of the carnage was.
Loki carried me out of the room, with Willa at our side and Sara following a few steps behind. The upstairs didn’t look that bad, but I doubted the fighting had really made it this far. We did pass a small table with a hobgoblin hiding underneath it, and when he saw us, he took off running the opposite way, his little legs moving as fast as they could.
When we reached the top of the stairs, I asked Loki to stop and put me down. From here, I had the best vantage point to view the front hall. The top of the stairs were over twenty feet above it, and I could survey the entire scene.
“Wendy, I don’t think—” Loki tried to hang on to me, but I squirmed away from him, and he reluctantly set me down.
I grabbed the banister to steady myself and stared down. The room itself had once been lovely—plush red rugs, paintings on the wall, and all the furnishings dark mahogany, matching the walls.
Everything had been destroyed, and I do mean everything. The paintings were shredded, the chairs broken, the rugs burned. Even the walls were cracked. Most of the crystals on the chandelier had been shattered, but it still hung from the ceiling, casting the room in light.
Bodies littered the floor, most of them Trylle, but there were a few hobgoblins. Fortunately, they mostly appeared to be wounded, but not all of them had survived. I knew all of the dead—not well, but I knew them. They were mostly trackers and mänks, those least equipped to fight the hobgoblins, and I wondered if I had done the right thing by allowing them to come into this war.
Aurora was going around tending to the injured, and I was pleased to see her moving from Markis to tracker without appearing to care about their standing. She was going to whoever had the worst injuries and helping them first.
Laris had no visible wounds, so she was helping organize those who had been hurt and helping treat those with the least serious injuries, like wrapping an arm.
Bain was leaning against one of the walls. His clothes were drenched, and he had blood on his shirt, but he was talking to Tove, so he must’ve been all right. Tove was crouched in front of him. He’d torn off the sleeve of his shirt and was wrapping it around Bain’s leg, but other than that, Tove appeared to be no worse for the wear.
As I scanned the room, accounting for everybody, taking in the losses with a pained heart, I realized that Finn was absent from the room—not among the living or the dead.
“Where is everyone else?” I asked Willa without taking my eyes off the front hall.
“Um, I’m not sure,” Willa said. “We told everyone to meet in the front hall once the fighting had stopped.”
“So what does that mean if they’re not here?” I asked, already fearing the worst about Finn.
My heart had already begun to panic when the door to the dungeon swung open. Finn came up the stairs, walking into the hall, with his father’s arm looped around his shoulders. Thomas didn’t look so good, but he was supporting some of his own weight, so that was a good sign.
Finn’s face was bloodied and bruised, but when he glanced up at me at the top of the stairs, I saw a mixture of pride and relief in his eyes. I smiled down at him, happy to see him alive. Just because I’d ended things with him didn’t mean I could handle him being dead.
Finn and Thomas hobbled past a tipped-over buffet table on their way over to where Aurora was treating people. My eyes were following them, and that was when I saw legs sticking out from underneath the table. They were clad in skinny jeans, and I only knew one person ridiculous enough to wear skinny jeans into battle.
“Duncan!” I shouted and raced down the stairs. Fortunately, adrenaline had kicked in, propelling my legs to move despite the pain.
I tripped when I reached the bottom step anyway, but Loki was right there, pulling me back up to my feet. When I reached the table, I collapsed next to it and immediately tried lifting it up. Obviously, I didn’t have the strength for it, but Loki lifted it easily.
And it was just as I feared. Duncan had been crushed underneath it. As Loki moved the buffet table away, I scrambled over to Duncan’s head, kneeling next to him. His chest was bloodied, and I could actually see a bone sticking out of his side.
“Duncan,” I breathed, with tears sliding down my cheeks. I brushed the hair back from his forehead and tried not to sob. I’d tried to protect him, and I’d made him promise that he would do everything he could to save himself. And all of that had been in vain.
Suddenly he coughed, bl
ood coming out of his mouth.
“Aurora!” I shouted and looked back over my shoulder for her. “Aurora, I need you!”
“Princess?” Duncan opened his eyes and smiled dazedly at me. “Did we win?”
“Yes.” I nodded fervently, cradling his head in my hands. “Yes, we won.”
“Good.” He closed his eyes again.
“Duncan, stay with me,” I begged, trying not to cry so my tears wouldn’t land on his face. “Duncan. That’s an order. You have to stay with me.”
“Aurora!” Loki was yelling for her now, since she wasn’t coming fast enough.
Duncan coughed again, harder this time, and finally Aurora appeared at my side. Her hands were already covered in blood from helping the other Trylle, and she pressed them against the bone protruding through his skin.
He groaned loudly when she did that and tried to jerk away, but I held him still. Aurora pushed on his side, and once the bone was back in, with the skin healed over it, she pulled her hands away.
“I can’t heal him completely,” Aurora said as Duncan took a deep breath. “I need to save my energy to help the others.”
“Thank you.” I smiled at her. “I understand.”
“Do you need my help?” Aurora asked, holding her hands out toward me, but I shook my head. “Are you sure?”
“I’ll be all right,” I insisted. “You go take care of them.”
She nodded and left to do just that. Duncan stirred a bit, but I told him to rest. She’d fixed him enough so he wouldn’t die, but that didn’t mean he was in good shape.
Willa had gotten some bandages from Sara, who had apparently joined our effort to care for the injured, and she took over the care of Duncan, wrapping up his wounds.
When I had been yelling for Aurora, Tove left his post next to Bain to see if he could help. Once Duncan was stable, I turned my attention to Tove. He held out his hand and pulled me to my feet. I had to lean on him for support, and Loki was nearby, in case I needed more.
Trylle Page 72
