Though a wing pump away from pursuing him, Eirik knew it was pointless. This was but a memory, and there was nothing he could do about it. Einnar, however, did follow, having weakened Eirik’s dragon enough that those remaining could pounce on him and tear him to shreds.
“Oh no, no,” Kenzie whimpered again as Einnar roared, “No, Brother!”
That’s when Eirik remembered everything with horrific clarity. The tyrant Einnar’s brother was. How determined he was to kill anything in his path he thought had betrayed him or Skáld’s army. So it was no wonder he followed Kenzie into Helheim if he thought he could kill some more.
What he was about to do to Kenzie, however, wasn’t all that came out of this. Not nearly. And Eirik could barely make sense of it.
“I didn’t stand a chance,” Kenzie sobbed, the sound more of a deep rumbling keen in dragon form, as she evidently didn’t remember everything yet. “Any more than our unborn baby did.”
His chest tightened with emotion.
What had Hel done?
Better yet, why had she done it?
“Kenzie,” he murmured, not sure how to say this...if he even should.
As it turned out, everything unraveled so quickly he had no chance.
Because of their connection to Helheim in both that life and this one, they had a unique perspective on things they might not have had otherwise. They could see things others could not. So as Eirik met his death by the teeth and claws of far too many enemy dragons, Einnar’s brother sped past the others and caught up with Kenzie. When he did, she had just enough time to look back in terror. That's when she met Einnar’s eyes as she had foreseen. When not him but his brother roared a long gust of searing hot fire at her before dealing her a swift death. He snapped her neck not all that far from Hel’s waiting arms. In fact, they could see the goddess looking down, waiting, unable to go any further as Kenzie sped her way.
Then they saw so much more after they met their deaths.
“Is that...” Kenzie whispered, her dragon trembling even more as they watched their former dragons’ spirits depart their bodies and head for Helheim. Not just theirs but their unborn child. “Is that who I think it is?”
“Yes,” he said softly, overwhelmed with confusion as the little black dragon joined his parents and vanished. “That was Dagr.”
“It was me,” came a small voice from beside them. “Because I have two mothers.”
When they peered down none other than Dagr’s little dragon grinned up at them. Not transparent but as much here as them.
Though she was as confused by the turn of events as he was, Kenzie wasted no time scooping Dagr up and holding him close between them before she keened some more.
He had never felt such conflicted emotions. Joy that he was actually touching Dagr yet anger because Hel had birthed him in this life. Why would she do such a thing? Why if she knew Eirik had a destined mate out there somewhere who might be able to birth Dagr instead? His actual mother?
Kenzie, however, didn’t seem upset in the least as she nuzzled Dagr as though his soul had never been separated from her womb. As though she still felt the strong connection they once shared.
“Because I do,” she murmured. “I began feeling it back on Midgard, and it’s ten times stronger now.” Her eyes met his. “He was mine...ours.”
Though he remained confused and intended to exchange more than a few words with Hel, they had bigger things to worry about right now based on the extra heavy thud of his heart.
“What is it?” Kenzie murmured.
“My heart,” he said softly into her mind, nuzzling Dagr as much as she was. “A connection I share with Halla, Rokar, and Soren. It’s warning me that all three are in great danger and we are nearly out of time. Midgard is nearly out of time.”
“Then we need to track down that sonofabitch and get our war on,” Kenzie growled, an eager gleam in her eyes.
“Yes, we do!” Dagr cried apparently catching that last thought. Excitement lit his eyes as they bounced back and forth between Kenzie and Eirik. “And that war’s in Helheim.”
“But I thought it was here,” Eirik said. “Hel said to come here.”
“Because that was the only way to remember me.” Dagr gave them a cheeky grin. “Once you did, you uncaged all of us so we remembered and could go fight our war.” He nuzzled them one more time before he issued a mighty little roar then took off. “Now let us go destroy our enemy!”
They glanced at each other, pride in their little one replacing all else before they took off and joined their offspring. What neither voiced and prayed wasn’t the case as they raced toward Midgard, was that Dagr had simply been an unknowing manifestation of the child currently in her womb.
Because as it was, they had just been witnessing a previous life.
Could it be the Dagr they now knew had just been reincarnated?
After all, his, their, son’s sole existence had always been in the afterlife.
Chapter Thirty-One
KENZIE HAD NEVER felt such an onslaught of emotions as she pursued Dagr until the fiery world of Múspellsheimr fell away, and the vividly clear world of Helheim swallowed them. No longer weakened by this place, she reveled in the bright colors even as she braced herself for battle. Dagr still tooled out ahead of them, an ambitious little thing as he flapped his wings and raced along the sparkling ocean.
“Focus on your heartbeat, Father,” he cried into their minds, clearly enjoying himself despite what they faced. Obviously, what had happened in Múspellsheimr had invigorated him as much as it had them. As if he had come into himself.
“Does he mean the heartbeat you share with your cousins?” she said.
“I think so,” he replied. “I told him about it a while ago. I did not think he remembered.”
“It seems he did,” she said. “Or maybe he simply caught the entirety of our private conversation in Múspellsheimr.” Not surprising really. “Do you possess extra strength because of the heartbeat thing? Does some sort of magic ignite?”
“No, not really,” he replied. “Not until Halla’s heart seemed to bring her wherever Pierce was on Shea and Davyn’s adventure.”
“Hmm,” she murmured as they flapped their wings, grateful when their ship appeared on the distant horizon. “So why do you suppose it’s so important to Dagr?”
“I don’t know,” he replied. “But I will listen to him.”
“Good idea.” She grinned, eying Dagr with renewed pride. She didn’t have to give birth to him to feel what she felt. It was just there. “Because he seems like a pretty knowledgeable little dragon.”
“That he does,” he said fondly.
She followed Eirik's thoughts as he focused on his heartbeat, wondering what it would accomplish. How it would help. Moments later, he got an unexpected answer when Einnar and his brother appeared on Helheim’s horizon only for his brother to be broad-sided by Rokar’s dragon. He knew with absolute certainty that their heartbeats had synced and his cousin had come to their aid.
“Holy shit,” Kenzie exclaimed as they flapped their wings harder and caught up with Dagr. Before his son could argue, Eirik swooped under him, forcing Dagr to ride him.
“Hold on tight and stay put, Dagr,” he said. “Or I will hold you rather than let you ride me, and you will miss the battle altogether.”
“But we’re supposed to fight as a team,” Dagr grumbled. “Not apart.”
He started at his words as did Kenzie.
“Pretty sure Hel warned us about this moment,” she said. “When she told us we needed to fight with our heads, not our hearts. And that we need to work together not apart.”
Though he knew she was right, it didn’t make the situation any easier. Because the fact of the matter was his heart urged him to keep Dagr safe. Even so, his head knew that might not be the best course of action right now. His son might be young, but he was both dragon and demi-god. The only others that could claim such were Heidrek and Cybil who were demi-gods once removed
and through their bloodline, Soren.
“Soren’s a demi-god?” Kenzie exclaimed. “How did I miss that?”
“He’s a demi-god twice removed,” he said. “And not very boastful about it.”
“Apparently not.”
Surprisingly enough, Heidrek’s bloodline came from Thor, son of Odin and Cybil’s from a union between Celtic gods Brigit and Fionn Mac Cumhail. So Soren and Thorulf had some interesting ancestry. Nonetheless, Dagr still possessed more godly power because he was a direct descendent of Hel. That made him, in turn, the most powerful dragon born to the Sigdirs. Likely the most powerful dragon ever born though he was still too young to know how to harness that. Not to mention, he had spent his entire existence in Helheim, so it was impossible to know what he was capable of on another world.
Then there was Eirik's other curiosity. One he had asked Hel about, but she denied. Was Dagr the reborn spirit of her former son? His parent’s arch nemesis in the great war that took place when he was conceived? No, she had vowed, yet he wasn’t so sure he believed her until now.
Because Dagr had definitely been Kenzie's.
“Well, I think we’re about to find out how powerful our little guy really is,” Kenzie barely had the chance to say before Dagr released another one of his mighty roars from Eirik’s back.
Though it might have been a rather small roar, it clearly carried godly weight as they saw its sound wave ripple out ahead of them. In fact, his roar was so powerful it caught Einnar and his brother unaware based on the way their dragons wobbled and flailed in the turbulent wave while trying to fight off Rokar. A sound wave that had no effect on Rokar which told them Dagr knew full well what he was doing. He knew how to keep his magic from affecting his kin.
“I can’t believe Rokar's fighting over the ocean,” Kenzie said as they drew closer and closer.
“Nor I,” he replied before the fiery emblem on their sail seemed to sense them and flared to life, brilliant in this world.
“I only saw one little dragon face, not two before it sizzled down to one this time,” she murmured. “What do you suppose that means?”
As she followed his every thought, she realized that he wasn’t sure what to think. Did he want it to mean Dagr was somehow going to be reborn on Midgard via Kenzie? Or that he would make it there on his own? Yet it all boiled down to a singular truth. He hoped they were two separate souls. He wanted two children. Three. Even more in time.
Many more with her.
“Two dragons helped free you from your paralysis,” he reminded. “That is all I know.”
“You’re right,” she replied, sifting through her emotions but at the same time tempering them as they closed in on their enemies and attacked.
Though Rokar had been here battling one moment, he vanished the next, only to be replaced with Soren’s dragon. He proceeded to battle Einnar for several moments before he vanished as well only to be replaced by Halla’s golden dragon.
His cousins had come to the call of Eirik's heartbeat.
“Loki’s cock,” Eirik roared, not pleased to see Halla here. A precious Sigdir female dragon. “This is my battle, Cousin. Go back to where you are safe.”
“This is our battle too,” she lashed back, doing fly-by nips of Einnar as Kenzie went after his brother. “You called to us, and we followed our hearts to help you.”
So their heartbeats allowed them to transgress worlds just like that? Interesting.
Thankfully, Halla wasn’t around long before she faded from Helheim only for Rokar to reappear, roaring mad as he continued to focus on Einnar’s brother.
“Uncle Rokar is vicious,” Dagr praised with glee. “Just like you, Father.” They heard the pride in his son’s telepathic voice. “Just like Kenzie.”
While she sensed Dagr was eager to call her his mother, he would not hurt Hel because she was just as much his. And though it was an odd realization, she was grateful for it. Because one way or another, Hel had made sure they were all reunited. Or so it appeared.
“You’re not so sure about that, are you?” she murmured to Eirik, making sure their conversation was firmly cut off from Dagr this time. “You don’t think Hel brought us back together?”
“Yes, I think she did,” he replied. “I just wonder at her methods.”
“Why she gave birth to Dagr?”
“Yes.”
“I guess we’ll find out eventually,” she said, roaring fire at Einnar in a fly by. “But then we don’t know yet if she really did or if he’s...”
When she trailed off, not able to find the words, Eirik offered comfort. “I do not think he is the child in your womb but his own soul...our son’s soul from that life.”
Though she almost said, “I hope so,” she bit her tongue. Like him, it was hard to know what to want in this situation other than she truly hoped there were two. Though she would be blessed to have one, how could she not want two? Three? More? Just like she always imagined.
It was still hard to believe she was pregnant.
That this was real.
Yet she felt the child in her womb giving her strength as she battled.
Einnar might be strong and larger than them, but he was no match for Kenzie, Eirik, and Dagr’s fury. If they weren’t battering him from both sides, he was continually thrown off kilter by Dagr’s small but deafening roars.
“I will end you for what you did,” Dagr cried, shooting Einnar a condescending look when Eirik whacked him with his tail, and he went tumbling across the sky. All the while, their son remained crouched on his father’s back with his wings in an aerodynamic position as if he were the one battling Einnar.
In all truth, he was with his little sound waves. Not to mention, she suddenly realized, because of his presence in Helheim to begin with and his connection to their past, Einnar had been trapped here. There was no way to know how long that would have lasted, but it didn’t matter now. What mattered was that his inability to access them on Midgard during their adventure could have very well made all the difference. Because it had bought them time to rediscover each other.
To fall in love all over again.
Now here they were, fighting as a team with everything they had and Einnar was going down. Bit by bit, they attacked the monster that had taken part in separating them in another life. Kenzie rammed him then Eirik with Dagr roaring all the while. Over and over, again and again, before they plummeted into the ocean and continued attacking him.
In the end, Einnar didn’t stand a chance as Eirik pinned him to the ocean floor and Kenzie seized the sensitive area beneath the scales on his neck. Though the heart was more vulnerable, she wanted his death to be slow. She wanted him to suffer as he had made her suffer. Yes, his brother had ended her life, but she had little memory of it because it happened so fast. Nothing had been fast or merciful about her time with Einnar though. He had been at the root of the greatest heartbreak and grief of her life.
Losing her mate and offspring in one fell swoop.
So she dug her claws into the ocean floor and held on tight as she sunk her teeth into him. She held on as she watched his blood slowly but surely fill the water around them like red fog in a murky storm.
Only when the world became less colorful and dulled some, was she convinced his heart had truly beaten for the last time. Only when Helheim shifted away, and they were once again on Midgard, was she positive he was finally dead.
“It’s over,” Eirik murmured, tossing Einnar aside before he pulled her after him toward the surface. “He is gone.”
Was he? Truly? Was it over?
“Where’s Dagr?” she said, trying not to panic when she couldn’t sense him. “Please don’t tell me...”
Had she found her son only to have to start over? Because she didn’t want to start over. She wanted the Dagr that had just fought alongside them. The ferocious little dragon with the mighty roar that had been raised by Hel.
“I don’t know where he is,” Eirik replied, equally troubled as they broke the s
urface and launched into the air, not to Helheim but most definitely Midgard.
The sky had returned to normal, and there was no sign of dragons or other worlds skirting theirs. While that was certainly a very good sign, all she could focus on was Dagr. Where was he? Did Einnar’s brother get him? Was he back in Helheim? She couldn’t think straight she was so panicked until she spied the Fortress docks and saw the very last thing she expected.
Something she never could have imagined.
Chapter Thirty-Two
AS HE AND Kenzie shifted then landed on the end of the dock, Eirik blinked several times, wondering if he truly saw clearly. If this was real.
“It is, Son,” his mother said, tears rolling down her cheeks as Emily and his father stood on either side of her. “I’m holding my grandson.” Her eyes went to Dagr who was braced on her hip in human form. “He’s real and right here.”
Unable to move at first, he simply stared at his son, wondering if he was caught in some sort of spell.
“You’re not,” Kenzie assured softly as her gentle hand landed on his shoulder, her voice thick with emotion. “He’s right there...Dagr’s right here on Midgard.” She shook her head. “Not Helheim.”
“Free from his cage as are you all,” came a distant voice that echoed in both his and Kenzie’s minds.
“Was that... Níðhöggr?” Kenzie whispered before she and Eirik flew forward, not really caring if it was or not. All that mattered was that Dagr was real, as felt so clearly when his mother handed him over and Eirik embraced him.
Truly held him for the first time in his life in human form.
He bent his head over his son and tried to remain gentle though Dagr’s embrace was impressively strong anyway. Kenzie stayed back a step, trembling, unsure, her eyes wet as she watched them.
“Kenzie?” Dagr murmured against Eirik’s shoulder. “Do you not want to hold me as well?”
Viking's Ransom (Viking Ancestors: Rise of the Dragon, #4) Page 22
