The deeper they walked into the forest, the thicker the fog and mist became. The sounds of nature that had accompanied them into the thicket hushed, even the sounds of the water from the nearby spring were silent. Using their swords, they hacked through the hanging vines, slashing the tree limbs, leaves, and splashing through the thick muck and mud. The boggy ground was covered in moss, and the mud hung to their boots.
Mired in mud, they pushed forward until they came to a stone structure that was also covered in ivy vines. Set over the door was a large stone eagle. That guarded the door. Eagles in the Old Norse world meant death. It felt as though they were walking on holy ground, a sacred orchard where magic grew and blossomed.
Leif knew that the magic of the witch came directly from Asgard, and her connection to Freya, the Queen of Asgard, who had introduced the seer-like ways to Aesir. Over the years, he’d done much digging into what it meant to be a repugnant monster. And those thoughts had taken years to quash and quell.
The first century seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye, only peppered by the beauty of hope that she brought. She was what made him want to be heroic. She was what caused him to question his motives in why he’d done what he did, but blood was worse than a drug. Animals sacrificed for his blood thirst did not quench his desire to kill, only humans did that, and the secrets within his heart; the hate of it all, placed weights of guilt on his broad shoulders.
Those years were filled with bloodshed, anger, and hate. There was only one light in all of the darkness that surrounded him. He was the walking dead cursed to live a lonely existence, or he’d be forced to feed on the human he’d still somehow stalked. Could this woman indeed give him the option he needed to reverse this travesty?
Leif took point, with Erich a couple of feet behind him. The sound of a cannon going off erupted around them, and dropped down to the dirt, behind a thick tree trunk. “This here place is holy.” The eerie feminine voice was earthy, but Leif couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. “And I smell death on you both.”
Leif and Erich exchanged questionable looks. Leif rose back to his feet, with his arms raised, and stared at the woman of the woods. She was different, humanoid looking, with elvish ears, turquoise skin, black irises with flecks of amber, dressed in vivid royal blue- and blood-red priestess robes with long white sleeves, highlighting the purity of her position. A shawl hanging around her shoulders, embroidered with golden runic symbols accented her dress. In her youthful hand, she held the crown of an ornamentally carved staff. But it was the deep growling of the olive green and black spotted crocodile at her feet that kept him in his place.
“Shh, Leviathan, we seem to have visitors, and I smell Hel on one of them.”
With a thudding of her staff on the ground, the crocodile moved toward the thicket to her left, took a seat, and opened its mouth to stare at them. One false move and they might become dinner.
“Why do I find the son of Hel here at my door?” She inhaled deeply, “and the son of the Dragon Queen? Have you finally come to find out who is making the vampires and stop them, or maybe to cure the world of this ungodly plague?”
She turned and bade them forth. “Stay, Leviathan. You don’t have a reason to fear. He will not attack unless I ask him to. And buried deep in your bones lurks goodness that this world needs. Come, I bid you both enter.”
Leif expected a dilapidated cottage inside, but instead, the interior was more akin to a temple, pristine, and with a large shrine to the goddess, Freyja. “When I became the seeress, the history of the ancients passed down to me, thousands of years of wisdom and knowledge, but even I did not see something like this. The spirits of old speak to me. Sit, and we can start the ritual.”
It was not something Leif would deny. He took a seat on the wooden bench, and Erich plopped down next to him. She moved around the room, appearing to gather items that Leif couldn’t identify in small jars. She whispered an incantation, and a drum beat echoed in the room. He couldn’t tell if the sound was that of his slow heartbeat or coming from somewhere else.
“Sorcery,” Erich admitted.
“There shall be no secrets or lies here in this dwelling.” She walked around in a circle, passing over them, beating their shoulders with a bundle of wild grass scented with rosewater. She then took a salve and rubbed it on their skin.
From the scent, Leif recognized it as henbane, a poisonous plant.
“And now your questions shall be answered.”
Yep, psychedelic hallucinations, or so he thought when Lady Hel stepped out of a gathering mist. “It would appear that Mother needs to know best and intervene, dear seeress. We can’t leave this all to chance.”
She raised her hand and cast the witch into the corner until she crumpled. “Time is of the essence, and you two are too dimwitted to make it worth my while. Erich, I am your mother, now listen. The dragon is raising havoc, and the vampires he is creating will cause a grand war. If you wish to heal this land, you two, then you must catch the Eir, the Valkyrie who will heal you.”
“Catch a Valkyrie? What about the witch?”
“Charlatan. You can either believe my words or remain a part of the problem. While you two are having a bromance in the forest, Tink gets ever closer to roasting. She is like a daughter to me, and you don’t deserve her. You don’t even deserve to walk in her shadow.”
“I’m trying to make amends,” Leif admitted.
“No, you are thinking about yourself. Can’t you see what the dragon is doing? He is causing a problem to solve. Do humans not see what is at stake? I will not let anything happen to my children, and I protect my own. Are you ready to become one of my children, too, Leif?”
“Are you asking allegiance?”
“No, I’m asking you not to be a douchebag and save my daughter before I make your current existence even worse. I have a chamber in my kingdom for men like you. You play with her to survive, but where is the love that she so desires?”
“What do you need me to do?”
Lady Hel’s breathtaking face lit up in glee. “I need you to be a vampire, and when Eir, the Valkyrie, comes, kill her!”
To kill a Valkyrie would make an enemy of Freyja, or Odin. “And you will protect me?”
“I protect those who belong to me. Will you do that?”
Like a magnet’s invisible pull, she lifted him without raising a finger. “The best way to survive the wrath of the gods is to make sure that you are on the right side, for the fire shall rise and burn it all down, and you, you will be either a hero or a villain. So, Tink doesn’t have much time. What shall you indeed do?”
She then leaned over to Erich, clenched his cheeks in her hand. “Beloved son, necromancer, awaken. You don’t need the heart of a dastardly beast to rise. I command you to do so now. It is in your blood to reign. Call your army. It is now that we must invade. The Valkyrie is waiting.”
In a puff of smoke, she disappeared.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tink
“Eat.” Donovan stood over me, brooding. He presented in his hand what appeared to be the most delicious of apples I’d ever seen. Shiny, its crimson red coloring called to me like one of those fairy tales. It pulled at something deeper within. My mouth pooled with saliva, waiting to taste its juiciness.
He traced his index finger over my cheek and down to my upper lip. I couldn’t flinch away. As if paralyzed, I remained seated on the wooden chair in the keep. A hissing pain seized me, sliding like sharp knives through my ribs to bury and kill me from within.
My throat tightened, and my eyes welled. Donovan’s voice was in my head, commanding my movements. He licked his lips, and I felt myself fading.
“Eat,” he again commanded, and I opened my mouth to take a bite of perfection. The juices filled me with warmth, wiping away the agony in my throat. Like plummeting into an icy pond, I gasped for breath. I took in the scene of the fire around me, smelling the stench of the flame that flickered, simmered. Smoke billowed in what appear
ed to be a great cave, and there I saw her—Jaz. She fought against a massive jaw-snapping dragon.
“What do you see?” he barked.
I watched Jaz fighting for her life. Her blade sliced through the air, and her body was tossed to the side as the red dragon gave chase. I couldn’t force my lungs to breathe no matter how much I told my body to move. I hadn’t prepared her enough for this. And there she was fighting alone.
The vision pulled me deeper into this emotional abyss, and I glanced to the side and saw Donovan’s form in the back.
“If you kill the queen, we shall kill you,” he warned.
“You don’t need to worry, dear brother. No one shall take what is ours. This is our throne.”
The lies wove together. I knew that the throne was only passed down to the daughters of Baldr, and before Nanna, there wasn’t one of blood.
In the shadows, behind Jaz, I saw the shadow of Leif. I squinted and chased after him, leaving the fighting behind me. Following what I thought to be him, we landed at the holy catacombs. “This is where the truth shall be found,” he whispered and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Was it really him or Donovan playing tricks on me?
There in the middle of the room rested another massive tome, like the one I’d searched for, but this one was made of red leather, with a green dragon embossed on the cover. The book fell to the floor, and out of it stepped a woman who looked like me. Dressed in a red dress, her hair pulled into a loose chignon, she stared at me.
“Hush.” She leaned in. “The craziness of today is nothing to compared to the madness of a lifetime. You can’t continue to run from that which you’ve done. There is no escape for you.” She smiled, but it wavered. “You see, in the walk of life, dreams mean nothing without desire, faith, and gumption. You’ve been asking for your path to be gilded, but not fighting the war within.”
“Who are you?”
“Don’t you see? It tears us apart.” Her face cracked. “This year has been more than difficult, and yet, here you stand again fighting a useless fight. You’ve asked for others to keep your heart safe, but you can’t do it for yourself.” Another piece of her skin flaked off. “You’re asking for solutions to your problems, but you are it. Come, discover what you could be. You must only open the door and walk through it.”
I fisted my hand and punched her in the nose, watching her stumble backward. “There’s no time like the present to fight my demons. And I always was one full of shit!”
Jaz was the appointed one. There was no way even I was going to get in the way of destiny. I raced back toward the ring where Jaz would be fighting. The floor grew muddy, my feet sticking. I clawed at the stone walls to get a grip, to pull me forward. The mud was like invisible hands seeking to hold me back. The more I struggled, the tighter they held on.
I opened my arms wide and collapsed back into the thick goo, and allowed the mud to pull me under. Come what may, the only way I could save Jaz was to find a way to first rescue myself.
The goo spat me out in the castle’s corridor, as if time was repeating. I walked along the hall. Light from the full blood moon shone in, while candles in sconces provided slight illumination.
My body tingled as if being watched. I slowed my step, fisted my hand. Until now, no one had dared approach me, corner me, or even really talk to me. It was almost as if I was in this cocoon of what it meant to be chosen by the dragon.
Suddenly, I heard a door swoosh open behind me, and a hand lashed out. But before I could turn, I was pulled backward toward an empty room. I kicked out my foot behind me, feeling the attacker’s knee give from the kick. He extended a loud “oomph,” but didn’t release his hold on me. “I need you to stay quiet and out of sight.” He panted into my ear.
It was Leif. I stopped struggling.
“Why do I see you here? It is magic, a magic that makes this true.” I turned toward him and touched his shoulders, feeling hard, cool muscle.
“Meet me tonight. Time is of the essence.” With that, he raised my hand. Shivers raced through me; my stomach knotted. His loaded gaze was filled with so much. He wrapped his lips around my index finger, nicking it with his teeth, only to frown. “Your blood has been poisoned, and you are no longer your own.” His face shifted and, with canines descended, he leaned toward me as if to take a long drink.
I took a step back. “No, I’m still me.” Looking beyond him, the sight of a flying being caught my attention, but it was neither Donovan, nor Jaz in dragon form, as these dragons were different, smaller even. Instead of four-legged creatures, these had only two and looked more like wyverns. They swarmed outside, but from where were they coming?
“The wyverns are waiting for Donovan to call them forth. They will eat his offering. His growing of the army is pretty ingenious, all under the guise of another plague. It’s not witches. It’s in their spittle, transmitted through the air. The sickness floats, infecting anyone who either breathes it in or touches the area of contamination. It then incubates and creates these creatures akin to what the locals are calling vampires.”
“But they are not dragons, not as strong or mighty?”
Leif nodded. “But easier to control. What’s the issue if some of them cause a problem or two? It is about numbers. An army needs more than one to serve and die.
“Even more, they are not true vampires, but ill humans who are fed upon by the wyverns, and who feasts upon more things that contaminate them.”
“Me?”
“You’ll be their yummy snack. Along come the wyvern to feast upon your flesh bit by pretty bit.” Again his face shimmered. It looked like him, but the way his eyes flickered and changed, I recognized Leif for who he was: Donovan in disguise.
“You see, first he will put you on a spit, and with his dragon fire, roast you.”
I covered my ears. “I don’t want to hear this.”
“And then, then, he will call the wyvern over to feast, to decimate, to plunder, and to create an even greater army that no one will be able to defeat. And when your heart is on its last beat, I shall rip it out and feast on the heart that Freyja loved, and that betrayed her.”
Leif nodded and cocked his head to the side. “That is part of the sacrifice.”
I turned my hands over, seeing nothing new or strange.
“His poison seeps into your bones, wiping away the human who remained.” He shook his head. “No, love, your dragon has made you like me.” Leif cupped my face in his hands. “You will have to fight back, back against the darkness that will call you. Think of me.”
“What will thinking of you do for me now?”
“The darkness will be like a hurricane battering you, but hold on to me. Don’t doubt it, don’t question it. Love it. Let love be your light.”
Donovan’s touch brought me back sputtering. “Trust me,” he said. “Now tell me what you saw.”
“Nothing.”
“You saw the things that meant the most to you. I saw them, too, as well as what is to come.” He paused and paced. “It helps no one for you to lie. For through the power of my blood, you can now communicate across the realms, for sure.”
“What have you done to me?” I couldn’t figure him out, but he passed me an apple. As soon as it touched my hand, the delicious red apple turned black, decomposing.
The bitter scent of gray magic wafted around me.
“I made you my ultimate weapon. You are now my witch and will open the door for me to reign supreme. Nothing shall stop me.”
With that, he ordered me to bite into the rotten apple. When I did, the apple tasted of copper, pleasing. “There’s nothing like a wicked heart to get the juices flowing. Come, we have much to do, witch.”
Unable to disobey, I jumped to my feet and followed Donovan into the castle’s tower.
This was the beginning of a nightmare.
LEIF
Leif and Erich came to, and the witch was still slumped over in the corner.
Cold air blew, and Erich, once so
shy and introverted seemed different. His eyes were now filled with confidence, and a magical blue glow shimmered around him. The ground hummed.
What is that? Leif wondered.
“My mother is correct. If we wish to attack the dragon, we will need all of the help we can get. My men are buried in the marsh.”
“You’re a necromancer. You can create your own army of the dead.”
A half-grin was Erich’s response. This was the Erich he’d known, the blood-thirsty Black Knight who took heads without issue or consequence.
Erich removed his dagger, sliced his hand, and like a snap of his fingers, he was the powerful necromancer. His body radiated power, might, and the scream that burst forth made Leif’s bones shake. The ground rumbled. A loud horn blew in the distance, a summoning of the dead.
“Come, we head there.”
They stepped out of the stone house and found the horses ready. “The further we walk, the more of the dead will come to follow us.”
Tink was in trouble. He could feel it. She was his one true love. If he lost her, if somehow he screwed this up and she died, he’d never forgive himself.
Waiting next to the horses was also the child-like vampire. “Master Leif, there is also much you must know. The Lord, he brings winged beasts.”
“Like him?”
“No, wyvern, stacked hundreds deep. Every sacrifice makes them stronger, as they feast off of the magic and the flesh of the women chosen.”
“Making them also stronger to infect more people. Why do you betray him?”
“I don’t betray him. Instead, I survive.”
That was a good enough answer for the moment.
Leif teetered in his saddle. It would take them another couple of hours to make it back to the castle, and nothing was going to make this unit march faster.
“Onward,” Erich commanded, and they all marched ahead.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tink
A Dragon’s Witch Page 16
