* * *
My heart stops and I can’t breathe. I look at my mom in terror, grasping for some sort of comfort in her eyes, some sign that this isn’t happening, that this is just an illusion, a nightmare that will all go away the moment I wake up. When I see my mom’s bottom lip quiver, and she starts to cry, I know that this isn’t an illusion—not a nightmare—this is real. I wonder if this was how my mom felt when my dad died. His death was a horrible experience, one I would never want to go through again, but when I lost my dad, I somehow knew I could continue on living. Losing Anthony, however, is different. His death has shattered me.
“I’m so sorry, Sonia,” my mom says, wrapping me in her arms. We cry together for a long while until I think that all my tears have dried up—but I know there are many more tears.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but Maureen and Olaf escaped through the Portal of Blufire,” Ross says softly, having just entered.
Skuld also comes over to us, her white outfit smeared with blood and dirt. “The castle has been secured, but we were unable to capture any of the Darkálfars—they vanished as well. We found the other governesses in the basement and they’re all alive.”
I don’t care about Maureen and Olaf anymore, other than maybe to have my revenge, but instead of dwelling on them, allowing them to have room in my thoughts, I allow myself to be selfish and to embrace the pain of Anthony’s death. Anthony’s face is lifeless, but peaceful, and I wonder where he has gone. How can such a being, so full of life, strength, vigor and love, suddenly be gone? Then, I feel a soft breeze on my cheek, and I think I hear a whisper. My eyes linger again on his face, and suddenly I notice that his features are becoming transparent.
“When a supernatural being dies, their body and spirit are removed from the realm of Midgard and are taken to Helheim,” my mom says.
“No!” I grab his hand and cling to it, feeling the warmth that is still there, still embodying all that we had together. Tears fall down my face, but I no longer bother to wipe them away. With blurred vision, I keep my gaze upon his body, but soon, his hand dissolves in mine, and he’s no more.
“Sonia, come,” my mom say. She takes my elbow, lightly pulling it, but I resist because I don’t want to leave Anthony, even if there’s no body to sit by and mourn. Instead, there’s only a pool of blood where his body used to lie; it’s the only proof I have that Anthony was just here a moment ago.
“Sonia—we must continue, even despite ourselves, even despite—” She pauses, and then her face crumples into a thousand shades of grief. She buries her face in her hands and weeps. I rise to my feet and envelop her in my frail arms. How gruesome they are, the ties that bind us, and though I don’t want to continue, somewhere in the depths of my darkness, I still see the small light of my mom’s love and strength.
I reach my arm around her narrow shoulders and we walk out of the room where Anthony no longer lies. Stepping into the foyer, I see the Viking ship mural to our left—the Portal of Blufire—I’ll follow Maureen to the ends of the earth and beyond to avenge Anthony.
“Does it only lead to the other portals?” I ask bitterly.
My mom thinks for a moment and her eyes narrow as if she’s carefully selecting her words. “I have sworn, as a governess in the Huldra Dynasty, to never reveal all the places and realms in which the Portal of Blufire can take you,” she whispers, as if quoting an oath.
Realms? Chills surge through me.
“It’s forbidden,” she continues, “for a Huldra to travel to the realm of Helheim, but if she hasn’t been inducted into the Huldra Dynasty, it’s not considered a transgression upon the law.”
There’s only one realm remaining, according to what Anthony said—Helheim, and that’s the realm where all supernatural beings go after they die.