“I do,” she managed, her voice gruff as she flung her arms around the two of them. “I really do.”
He heard sniffles all around that he realized belonged not just to his female kin but Kenzie’s.
“Now there are five of us,” Dagr murmured. “At least for now.”
“What do you mean, Son?” he asked, but already knew as did all dragons within hearing distance of the new little heartbeat.
“You know what I mean.” Dagr pulled back and met Eirik and Kenzie's eyes. “The three of us plus my sister and Hel.”
“Your sister?” he said softly as his eyes went to Kenzie’s. Their prayers had been answered. Her pregnancy had not been a fluke that might have vanished with Dagr’s arrival on Midgard but a separate soul. Now they had not one little dragon but two. She nodded, emotional, her eyes wet but very happy.
“That’s right, my sister,” Dagr confirmed, grinning as his eyes met Kenzie’s. “And she is in full agreement with me that no female but you should ever be near her father again.”
“Ha!” Shea exclaimed from somewhere off to their left, figuring out the fastest what they had all been curious about since Håkon and Sage’s adventure. “So Dagr’s the one who shoved me away from Eirik when I kissed him!”
Everyone chuckled along with many ah’s as Dagr nodded firmly and met Eirik’s eyes. “You kissed Hel, then Auntie Shea but no more of that. Only your mate from here on out.” He cocked a grin at Kenzie. “Only my other mother.”
The corner of her mouth shot up. “I kinda like that.”
“Other mother?” Dagr asked.
“Yes,” she confirmed, chuckling. “It has a ring to it, don’t you think?”
“I really do,” Dagr confirmed, considering her. “Unless deep down it offends you because you were, as the timeline goes, my original mother.”
“But not the one who birthed and raised you in this life,” she reminded. “Hel did that.” Her eyes grew moist and her voice hoarse with emotion. “She’s the one who kept you safe all this time.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “But she spoke of you so often, the woman you were both in that life and this one, that I feel like I have known you my whole life.”
“What?” Kenzie whispered, clearly overwhelmed.
“Don’t you remember now, child?” came a soft voice before everyone parted and Hel drifted forward. Not the Hel he was so familiar with but how Midgard mortals saw her. Shifting, black and with little definition. Yet her eyes were there. Eyes he had come to love that were now locked with his.
When he set Dagr down, their son tried to race into her arms only to pass right through her. He turned back, his lower lip wobbly though he tried to remain strong. “I cannot touch you anymore, Mother.”
“No, little one,” she murmured, as her black shadow crouched in front of him, her expression tender as she tried to cup his cheeks. “As I told you I hoped might happen someday, you are part of Midgard now and finally with your kin...your family.”
“But you are my family,” he said softly, sadness obvious in his voice. “And I love you, Mother.”
“I love you too, Dagr,” she said. “Always.” Her eyes stayed with his. “You must remember that you are son to two extraordinary women who love you very much and will see you raised into the most powerful dragon that Midgard has ever seen.” There was no missing the intent in her voice. “The most powerful dragon in Helheim and son to its ruler.” She shook her head. “That is no small thing.”
He nodded, his lower lip still trembling as he tried to be brave in the face of what was happening.
“You are not staying,” he said softly. “Are you, Mother?”
“No, I am not.” Her hands hovered over his cheeks for a moment longer before she stood and looked down at him as only a goddess could. “It is time for you to know your father and your,” she quirked the corner of her mouth briefly, “other mother.” Then she gave Dagr a very specific look. “And it is very important indeed, little dragon warrior, that you know your sister.”
“I sense that,” he agreed, his tone and words wise beyond his years as he glanced over his shoulder at Kenzie’s belly. “A dragon protected by elven magic upon conception.” He nodded once with approval. “That is no small thing.”
“You speak as though you have my kin all figured out,” came a small but very challenging voice before Thorulf appeared and sauntered around Dagr. He eyed him up and down with his hand on the hilt of a dagger at his waist. “Yet I have never seen you.”
Dagr narrowed his eyes at Thorulf’s blade. “I know that you do not know how to use that blade, Cousin.” He cocked a grin. “But I do.”
Thorulf puffed up and notched his chin. “Prove it.”
“Gladly,” Dagr vowed. “Did you not just see me astride my father defeating the enemy in the sky?”
“That was you?” Thorulf said, as quickly impressed as he had been ferocious moments before. “Truly?”
“It was,” Dagr confirmed, stealing Thorulf’s blade in passing without him being the wiser. Which, naturally, impressed him even more.
Just like that, friendship blossomed as the boys headed up the dock bantering all the while. Though Dagr never glanced back, Eirik knew that he continued to speak telepathically with Hel. That their love for one another was stronger than ever and his son would likely see her often as the years wore on.
“You should see to them, Ancient,” Hel said, her eyes on Leviathan. “You should always see to them.”
Leviathan’s eyes stayed with hers for a long moment as he seemed to understand something before he nodded and strode after the boys. It appeared she had just chosen a protector for Dagr beyond his kin, and Eirik fully approved. None would help watch over his son better than his old friend.
Hel’s eyes went to Kenzie next. “You have remembered everything now, yes?”
“Yes,” Kenzie said softly, as she recalled all of it clearly now based on her contented, even nostalgic expression. “I remember our time together in both lives.” She pressed her lips together as a tear rolled down her cheek and she whispered, “Thank you...for all of it.”
Startled by the fact Kenzie understood more than he did, his eyes shot to hers, but she shook her head. “I only just figured things out, and even if it had been sooner, it wouldn’t have been my place to say.” Her eyes returned to Hel. “Talk to your best friend, Eirik. She’ll help you understand.”
As if they understood this time was for him and Hel alone everyone began to leave.
“Not you, Gemini,” Hel murmured when Kenzie started to go as well. “You stay...wait for your dragon.”
As Kenzie nodded and meandered down the dock a ways, Hel drifted closer and spoke to him with the same genuine affection she always had.
“I wish I could have convinced you both to come and seek shelter with me sooner in that life but times were different then,” she said. “My powers were never as influential on Múspellsheimr as they are here on Midgard.” She paused before she continued. “You and Kenzie visited me often in that life, and I grew to love you both very much. Not so much romantically but affectionately.”
“That is an odd thing for the Ruler of Helheim to feel for fated Múspellsheimr dragons,” he murmured.
“Yes,” she agreed. “But as you already surmised, alliances were needed between worlds not just because of what was happening at the time but to prepare for what was to come.”
“You speak as though you knew of the prophecy and Níðhöggr’s vendetta against Skáld before either came to be,” he said. “How is that possible?”
“I knew the sort of dragon Níðhöggr was,” she murmured. “So I knew he would not let the last of newfound love perish in a war with nothing at the heart of it but vengeance and evil.”
He narrowed his eyes. What was she talking about?
“But I thought Níðhöggr sought vengeance out of pride?” he said. “Was that not his reason for cursing his nemesis? For sparking a prophecy? After all, he was one of the two mo
st powerful Múspellsheimr dragons ever to exist, and defeated by his enemy.”
Yet even as he said it, he recalled how Níðhöggr had appeared over Kenzie on their journey, seemingly saddened by what she had suffered. There was more to the Great Serpent than a dragon with nothing but bitter vengeance in his heart.
“That is right,” Hel murmured, following his thoughts. “As I know some of you have already begun to suspect, the Great Serpent is not the monster you thought he was. You are beginning to realize that there might just be more to Níðhöggr’s vendetta and his ultimate goal, are you not?”
He was actually, as were many of them. “Because of the love dragons found under his rule?”
“Not just that,” she replied. “But because an emotion that did not exist prior miraculously sprouted up on a planet that does not cater to it. Love blossomed in a place of rage and hate and war.”
“And then died with Níðhöggr’s death,” he said softly.
“Yes and no,” she said just as softly, her eyes finding his despite the barrier between them now. “Did love die with Níðhöggr because as I see it, it's simply being resurrected...remembered.” A gentle smile curled her lips. “Do you not remember how much you loved your Gemini Dragon? How much she loved you?”
“How much you loved us,” he added, saddened. “Tell me the rest, Hel. What did you do?”
“I did all I could for you both,” she murmured. “Though yours and Kenzie’s spirits traveled swiftly through Helheim, desperate to find each other again, an unborn child does not have that sort of...what is the word...sense of acute direction.”
When he frowned at her in confusion, she explained.
“Though unintended, you and your mate’s spirits left so quickly I could not track you,” she said. “Unfortunately, as can happen with dragon families in Helheim, though the parents try to stay with the children, it rarely happens. The minds disconnect until they can find each other again in life.” Her eyes held Eirik's for a moment before she continued. “Dagr’s spirit meandered, lost and alone, without the wings to fly for lack of a better expression. So I kept his spirit safe.”
“As you once did for my father’s?” he said, familiar with her acquaintance with Matthew.
“No, nothing like that,” she said. “Dagr had not even been born yet. His was but a spirit connected to yours that soon became desperate to find its way back to Midgard. Because though he initially meandered it was only a matter of time before he seized any opportunity to get back. To search you and Kenzie out even if he had to be reborn a thousand times to do it.” She shook her head. “Even then there are no guarantees it would have happened...so I stopped him.”
“Stopped him,” he whispered, having heard her use that phrase only a few times before. It was something she did in rare cases when she was determined to see people end up with who they were meant for. “You kept his soul from being reborn?”
“Yes,” she said. “In hopes that if you and Kenzie were reborn, I could...return him to you.” She shook her head, saddened. “Too often I have seen love, even dragon mates, separated by time and rebirths, never to reconnect again. So when you came along and were so inherently part of my Realm, I gave him back to you.”
“Yet you knew my fated mate would return,” he argued. “So why not wait and give him to Kenzie?”
“Don't you see?” she murmured, her eyes both sad and wise. “Every soul has a window of opportunity and this one, the journey you just had with Kenzie not only made her womb fertile again, but it was your daughter’s time to come. Dagr's fate was always to be your firstborn, so he had to come beforehand if he was going to come at all.” Her voice softened. “He will always be yours and Kenzie's though. A soul destined for the two of you.”
He considered everything that had happened. Everything his kin had gone through thus far. “Why not warn us this was coming? Why not warn us that we would soon be sucked into an ancient war? That Uncle Heidrek and Uncle Bjorn would be taken?”
“Because I did not know that would happen,” she said softly. “Any more than I knew when and where the prophecy would ignite.”
“Yet you knew of our own little prophecy when you birthed Dagr,” he countered. “Which could not exist without Níðhöggr’s vendetta being resurrected.”
“Yes, it could,” she replied. “It could have been any enemy not necessarily one of Skáld’s dragons you had to hand Kenzie over to.” She shook her head. “Nothing said Níðhöggr’s resurrected war would be raging. It could have been another situation entirely. Another war completely that had nothing to do with the ancient serpents.”
“Yet it did,” he murmured. “You had to know when I was reborn that the chances were good that the prophecy would ignite within my lifetime.”
“Mortal, I have been around longer than you could possibly conceive and have watched the same souls reborn hundreds of times,” she replied, reminding him that he spoke with a goddess. That she was to be respected, even worshiped. “So what makes you think you being reborn once would necessarily mean the prophecy was going to spark at this time?”
“Yet the prophecy within the prophecy said our son would be stolen and brought to the land of dragons,” he reminded, unable to stop himself. “That he would be brought to Múspellsheimr where he would suffer certain death.” He shook his head. “So you had to relate that to Níðhöggr’s prophecy. Especially considering Dagr and I were connected on Múspellsheimr in a previous life.”
“Not to mention,” he continued before she had a chance to speak. “You told Aunt Samantha and Uncle Bjorn years ago that they should not tell Davyn that his sister Dahlia continued to exist and grew alongside him in Helheim. That there was a reason for it. Something was coming someday, and when it did, they would reconnect. It would be the right time.” He shook his head. “You were convinced of it.”
“You pay attention, dragon,” she murmured.
Her eyes held his for a long, telling moment before she somewhat relented and told him something that surprised him.
“Yes, I did know something was coming and shared that with your elders,” she said. “What I did not know, however, was when precisely the prophecy would ignite. Though I started to suspect when you were reborn that the time was growing closer.” She shook her head. “Though I warned your kin trouble might be on the horizon there was very little anybody could do about it except continue to grow their tribes and remain strong. There was no way to pinpoint how and when the ancient vendetta would manifest itself. What it would entail.”
Her eyes held his for another long moment before she went on. “Though I suspected, even hoped, Kenzie would be returning, as I explained before, I had no choice when it came to Dagr. If he were to be reborn, it needed to be before your mate came. He needed to already exist when his sister was conceived which I did not doubt would happen shortly after your first encounter.”
“How could you know such a thing?” he said softly.
“Because I am Hel,” she reminded, her voice echoing as though reverberating off the heavens themselves. “Which means, as you well know, that I often see things others do not.” She shook her head. “Not all but enough to know Dagr's destiny has a design. Not only what has come to pass but what shall come to be.”
As their eyes held he realized this was not how she wanted to spend their final moments together. She didn’t want to have to explain her actions to such an extent. But then what god would? Nevertheless, he couldn't help but ask one more question. Something Kenzie had been curious about, but he had denied knowing the answer to even though he strongly speculated.
“When you took Kenzie at the beginning you truly were going to hold her hostage in case you needed to turn her over to the enemy, weren’t you?” he said. “Yet you ended up hiding her someplace you knew I’d be able to find her.” He cocked his head. “Why?”
“Because, as it turned out, she was still very much the same soul she had been before,” she said softly. “Therefore she deserved to have ever
ything taken from her returned.”
Souls often changed as a result of their previous lives and Kenzie's, above all, could have very well been altered negatively because of her traumatic experience. Yet it hadn’t been. Not in the least.
So Hel did the right thing in the end on all counts.
“Care well for Dagr, friend,” she said softly, her touch but a cool breeze against his skin as she caressed his cheek, her time with him clearly coming to an end. “I will visit him and teach him as the years go on, but he is your son to see every day now, Eirik. To hold and love and play with.” Her eyes softened. “You and Kenzie will give him a good life as you would have on Múspellsheimr had circumstances allowed it.”
“And what of you?” he murmured, grateful she had loved their son well and kept him safe. More than that, she reconnected the three of them against all odds. “What will you do now?” His eyes went to the clear blue sky cut with the first orange rays of morning. “Has the thinning veil between worlds been fixed for now? Did Kenzie and I coming together do that?”
“Better than I had hoped.” She looked to the sky as well before her eyes returned to his. “Love her and love her well, dragon.” A soft, knowing smile curled her lips. “And love your offspring well because if we win this war, you shall have many little Gemini dragons.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “Does Kenzie know?”
“She does.” Hel nodded once. “Her womb was only ever the way it was because of what had happened to her in her previous life, Eirik. By the multiple personalities she embraced to deal with Einnar.” She cocked her head and placed a gentle hand on his arm that again merely felt like a cold breeze. “Not only was her dragon terrified he might impregnate her in that life, but he was eventually part of her offspring’s murder, so it is no wonder that her human half tried to prevent the act altogether in this one.”
“But no more,” she continued before he could speak. “She is free of all that fear now and starting life anew with you...and your offspring. She no longer lives in the shadows of cloud cover but the sunlight. For the sun represents life, that which her dragon shied away from before because it always subconsciously sought out death within the shadows. It affiliated dark places with where it lost its family. So it grew stronger in the darkness thinking it might be able to use that strength to reconnect with its loved ones. Its child and you.”
Viking's Ransom (Viking Ancestors: Rise of the Dragon, #4) Page 23
