The Unyielding

  His entrails slithered out of his body and across Erin’s arm, landing on the floor.

  Stieg slashed the sword one way, cutting an elf from his shoulder to his opposite hip. The other sword he swung back and up, taking the head of another soldier.

  As Princess Uathach’s troops pushed forward, Princess Seanait came around that corner. She held a sword in one hand and a dwarf-made axe in the other that she’d pulled down from the wall. With a scream that still made her sound completely mad, she charged into the fray, slashing, hacking, and dismembering her way through. In the tight hallway, the floors became slippery with blood, which both Erin and Seanait used to their benefit.

  Seanait slid under legs, castrating her enemy’s troops as she slipped by. Erin avoided weapon attacks by dropping into splits and attacking from below. Her blades left a string of swiftly killed elves who probably never felt a thing until they hit the ground.

  Stieg did what he could to clear the way until he reached the back door Seanait pointed out to them.

  He started to go through, but Erin caught his arm and pulled him back. She handed her blood-drenched blades to him so that her hands were free. Placing her palms together, she closed her eyes. Small flames popped between her fingers and when she pulled her hands back, she held a large ball of flame that grew bigger by the second.

  Stieg put his arms around Princess Seanait, turning them both away. Erin unleashed that flame and he felt the heat as it exploded that part of the building. Heard the screams of the elf troops on the other side of the wall, burning to death or getting crushed under an avalanche of stone and marble.

  He released the dark elf and watched her expression change from fascination to horror. It was the expression people got when they realized that some little redhead had taken out half a castle building with her flame. That was power.

  “Are you a witch?” Seanait asked Erin in awe.

  “No. But Skuld did tell me I was saucy.”

  * * *

  They worked their way through the remains of the castle wall. Bodies, weapons, and shields littered the courtyard. Some elves were crushed by falling stones. Others were still smoldering.

  Still, there were more troops to contend with. Archers, specifically. They stood on the western battlements with their bows aiming down.

  “How fast are you?” Erin asked Princess Seanait.

  “You’ve seen.”

  “Good.” She glanced at Stieg. “Then run.” She slammed her foot against the edge of a shield. It flipped up and she snatched it out of the air before crouching down and using it to shield her body as arrows rained down on them from above.

  A few feet away, Stieg’s shield barely hid his much-bigger-than-an-elf body.

  More elves ran out on the east side of the battlements, arrows already nocked.

  “Shit.” Erin moved so her back was to Stieg’s and her shield protected them from the east, his from the west. But they couldn’t keep this up for long.

  “Flame?” Stieg called out.

  “Not without exposing an artery.”

  “Shit.”

  Erin was thinking they might have to take a chance and unleash their wings, but she didn’t know how they would do that and not get shot down. Before she could do something rash and stupid, the rain of arrows slowly came to a stop.

  Erin peeked over the top of her round shield and saw the archers staring down. At first, she believed them to be staring at her and Stieg. But they weren’t. She looked over her shoulder. Dualtach stood in the rubble, his gaze examining everything.

  “We’re fucked,” Stieg muttered.

  He might be right. It was one thing to not like Princess Uathach, but quite another to betray your own kind. Although Erin had never felt like part of anything until she’d joined the Crows, she was still risking all to protect the human race, despite the fact that she found most people pretty goddamn ridiculous.

  Dualtach focused on a spot in front of Erin.

  She moved the shield enough to see what he was looking at. She sniffed. Oil. There was a puddle of oil in front of her. A puddle that came from . . .

  Her gaze moved up until it reached the base of the east battlements where the elves stood. And there, with a hole in the bottom from a piece of flying stone, stood a barrel of oil.

  “Get ready,” she warned Stieg before flicking the finger of her right hand and sending a tiny spark at the puddle. It hit the mark, flame swirled in the oil, and moving fast, tore back toward the barrel.

  The elves stared only a moment before they made a crazed run for it.

  The fire hit the barrel and Erin screamed at Stieg, “Go!”

  They kept their shields up because the archers on the west side began firing again, but when they neared the north battlements, Erin and Stieg unleashed their wings and took to the air just as the casket exploded. The power of it sent them spinning over the west battlements and out into the surrounding forest.

  The blast was so strong, Erin didn’t know if she was right side up or not. She didn’t know anything, couldn’t do anything but go with it.

  She hit the ground and rolled down a small hill until she slammed into something strong enough to stop her.

  Panting, Erin flopped to her back and ended up staring into fangs the size of her feet. “Oh, shit, we’re back in Jotunheim.” She sighed, despairing that she’d never get away from goddamn giants.

  The thing above her roared and Erin punched it. Just on principle. She’d been through a lot.

  It whimpered and took several steps back.

  “Oy!” a deep voice snapped. “Watch your hands.”

  Erin turned over onto her stomach, placed her hands down, and pushed herself up. She could see what was standing so close to her.

  Turned out it was an entire army.

  “Oh . . . shit.”

  * * *

  Stieg heard a roar and snapped awake; he’d been briefly knocked out when he’d landed on the ground. Worried about Erin, he stood, fell, and stood again. It was not pretty or graceful, but it was the best he could do under the circumstances.

  Finally steady, he blinked several times to make sure he wasn’t seeing a thousand of everything. He had that happen once when he drank that expensive tequila at Kera’s welcome party. Only then it was thousands of Valkyries in bikinis and it was perfect.

  What he saw now, however, was not that. Sadly.

  But to be honest, he was fucking fed up and probably had a concussion, which led him to do something very Viking. Using the one sword he still had, he cleared off the arrow shafts littering his shield, opened his arms wide in challenge, and bellowed, “You wanna fight? Then come on!”

  He felt a tap on his arm and turned to see Erin gazing up at him.

  “Whatcha doin’, buckshot?” she asked.

  “Dying with honor?”

  “Or we can hold off on that until we have, like, no other options?”

  Stieg’s head hurt so all he could ask was “Options?”

  “Like negotiations?”

  “Oh. Yeah, okay.”

  “I thought you’d already negotiated,” a deep voice boomed.

  Stieg winced. “Mind lowering that voice, dude?”

  “With them?” the male elf demanded, dismounting from his catlike beast. “You negotiated with them?”

  “It’s been centuries, you old bastard. It’s not like I had a choice,” Princess Seanait snapped.

  “Don’t bark at me, evil demon child!”

  “You left me there!”

  “They said they’d kill you if I didn’t!”

  “You’re here now!”

  “I was told to be here! But now I wish I’d ignored the message!”

  “Hey!” Erin roared. “Do you mind?” She dug her hand into Stieg’s hair and tugged until he put his head on her shoulder. “His head hurts. Think we can take it down a notch?”

  The elf male sneered. “I can’t believe you made a deal with a human, Seanait.”

  “Not a human,”
she smirked. “A Crow.”

  Stieg jumped when the troops suddenly lowered their spears and went into combat positions.

  “Okay,” Erin said, her smile so wide Stieg could feel it against the top of his head. “I need to know what those other Crows did when they came here to cause this reaction. ’Cause I gotta tell ya . . . I’m lovin’ it!”

  “She saved my life, old bastard, and I promised I’d get her and her Raven lover out of here.”

  “And a Raven?” the dark elf male whined.

  She snarled. He snarled back.

  “I’m guessing this is your father,” Erin said.

  “What do you think?”

  “I am King Tiarnach of the Svartalfheim,” the dark elf said.

  “And I am in your”—he sucked his tongue against his fangs in obvious disgust—“debt for saving my daughter.”

  “It was our pleasure,” Erin lied.

  “Now we must go inside this castle, kill everyone, then roast and eat the remains of Princess Uathach, our vanquished enemy.”

  Stieg’s head snapped up at those words, but Erin quickly pulled him back down, stroking his hair.

  “No,” she told Stieg. “This is not our issue. We have other issues.”

  “Would you like to join us?” the king offered. He turned to Stieg. “You’re a Viking and she’s a Crow. “There will be much raping and pillaging. Enough for everyone.”

  Erin’s hand slapped over Stieg’s mouth before he could say a word.

  “As appealing as that offer is to a female of any species,” and Stieg could hear the barely controlled anger in her voice, “King Tiarnach, we must respectfully decline.”

  He shrugged big shoulders. “There will be boys there for you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  Erin made a strange little squeak in the back of her throat. A sound Stieg didn’t think he’d ever heard her make before.

  “I really need to go,” Erin told Princess Seanait. “Now.”

  The princess motioned to the troops and a minute later an elf walked forward with two large creatures already saddled and ready for travel. “Food and water are already attached to the saddles.”

  Erin pointed at the animals. “What the fuck are those things?”

  “You said you needed transport.”

  “I was thinking horses.”

  The princess, the king, and the troops laughed.

  The king finally said, “Silly little Crow. Ride horses? We eat them.”

  “Unless you mean centaurs,” the princess suggested. “But we eat them, too.”

  “Okay,” Erin said, wiping one hand against another before throwing them up in the air. “I’m out.” She walked over to one of the animals. It was enormous, with giant fangs. And didn’t appear remotely friendly.

  Even worse, Erin didn’t really get along with cats. A few times stray cats on the street had actively stalked her as if they’d recognized the bird within.

  She leaned close and said to the black-furred beast, “Don’t give me any shit, and you and I will do just fine.”

  “Wait,” Princess Seanait called out. She held her hand out to her father and snapped her fingers. When her father did nothing but stare at her, she lifted her hand until it was right under his nose. “Give it to me, old bastard,” she snarled.

  “I should have drowned you at birth like your mother told me to.”

  “Which was one of the reasons I cut off her head. Now give it to me.”

  “They don’t need it.”

  “And if they stray into your brother’s territory?”

  With a surprisingly dramatic sigh, he reached under his armor and yanked off a chain, slapping the necklace into his daughter’s hand.

  She gave it to Stieg. “If anyone questions you before you get to the dwarves, show them this. It should protect you.”

  “Thank you, Princess Seanait. King Tiarnach.”

  “Good luck,” the king said, turning back to his travel beast.

  “You’ll need it,” Seanait muttered before mounting her own animal.

  Stieg grabbed the reins of one of the animals and he walked with Erin into the woods. They heard the troops marching toward Princess Uathach and her subjects, but they didn’t turn around or try to intervene.

  Stieg didn’t get involved because he knew there was nothing to be done except risk their lives, which they were already doing too much of as it was.

  And Erin didn’t intervene because she didn’t like any of the parties involved and she was probably hoping they’d wipe each other out.

  He didn’t really blame her, though. These elves were assholes.

  Erin abruptly stopped and Stieg heard her talking to someone. He went around to the other side of the animal and found her talking to the witch.

  Dualtach handed over the Key and the map. “I knew you could hide the weapons, but not the hand. If they saw the hand, they would have found the map and everything else.”

  “No problem.” Erin tied the Key to her saddle and returned the map to her back pocket. “Are you going to be okay?”

  “I’ll be fine. King Tiarnach would never risk killing a witch.” He grinned. “It brings bad luck.”

  “Thanks for your help.”

  “And thank you for making things entertaining.”

  Erin again grabbed the reins and led her beast toward a clearing, but before, she got too far, Dualtach called out, “One more thing, Crow.”

  She stopped and looked at him over her shoulder.

  “For a human, you’ve been . . . I won’t say smart, but crafty. If I were you, I’d keep that up.”

  Erin gave a nod and moved on, Stieg right behind her.

  When he was close, he said, “Ever notice that even their praise still manages to be insulting?”

  “It’s like dealing with that aunt at Thanksgiving who really doesn’t like you, but doesn’t want your mother to notice, so everything she says is passive aggressive.” Reaching the clearing, Erin stopped. “All I can say is that if I had the power, I would set Alfheim and Svartalfheim on fire and let the whole motherfucking thing burn.”

  “Erin?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You will never be the passive-aggressive aunt.”

  “Oh, no. I’d be the fully aggressive aunt.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Erin and Stieg rode through the night and all the next day, leaving the royal nightmare behind them. When the sun went down again, they finally had to stop. Luckily, they found a river where they set up camp beneath some nearby trees. While he built a fire, Erin removed the bedrolls from their saddles and unrolled them.

  She was about to sit down when Stieg asked, “What do we feed them?”

  She had no idea until the beast she’d been riding roared and pawed the ground impatiently.

  She really wished the elves had given them horses. Whatever these cat things were, they smelled awful and tended to spit. It was disgusting. But, even Erin had to admit, they were fucking fast. Faster than horses and with a lot more stamina.

  “I have no idea,” she admitted. “But with those fangs, I’m doubting grass.”

  “We could let them search out their own food,” Stieg suggested.

  “And what if they don’t come back? Mine hates me.”

  “She really does.”

  Erin watched the beasts and noticed that they kept pulling toward the river.

  She walked over and took Stieg’s mount—she wasn’t going near hers unless she was riding the bitch—and led him to the water. He sniffed and sniffed and then dashed forward.

  Erin hadn’t been expecting that so when he jerked forward, she went right into the water, face-first. She dropped the reins and turned over. Stieg’s hands grabbed her waist, lifting her out.

  It wasn’t his laughter that bothered her, though. It was the goddamn cat’s! At least, she was guessing that wheezing sound was laughter as the giant beast rolled onto her back.

  “Are you okay?” Stieg asked.

&nb
sp; “I’m going to kill her.”

  “We need her.”

  “I’ll walk!”

  Burying his head against the back of her neck, Stieg held Erin so she couldn’t get away and do what she was threatening to do.

  “I still hear you laughing,” she told him.

  “Sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  “Bastard.” But she was laughing, too.

  Stieg’s mount seemed oblivious. Too busy hunting enormous river fish, killing the things with his fangs and tossing them onto the shore so he could share them with the other beast.

  “I’m tired,” she finally admitted.

  “Let’s get some sleep.”

  “No. Not yet. First . . . I want a bath.”

  He gestured to the river. “Milady, your bath awaits.”

  * * *

  They removed their clothes and took them into the river with them, soaking them to remove the copious amount of blood from their recent battles. As they cleaned their clothes and themselves in the shockingly but wonderfully warm water, they talked. Just talked. Like regular people. No discussion about gods and Vikings and Ragnarok and ass-kicking nuns. Just a regular conversation between two regular people.

  Well . . . sort of regular people.

  “You were on an episode of Cops?”

  “Yeah,” Stieg grudgingly admitted.

  “Why?”

  “I was in a car.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And they pulled us over.”

  “You gave them attitude?”

  “Not until they frisked me. And the more they tried to get me to submit—”

  “The more defiant you were.”

  “Pretty much. It changed everything, though. One of the Raven elders is a hardcore Cops fan. He saw me on the episode and they made it their business to track my ass down.”

  “Did you throw those cops around like stuffed toys?”

  “Yes.”

  Erin laughed. “I love it! I’ve gotta find that episode when we get home!”

  “You can see it online, and Siggy has it on DVD.”

  “What’s the video called online?”

  “Depends who posted it, but mostly Big white boy on meth beats up cops.”

  Erin laughed harder. “That’s the best!” She wrung her clothes out. “Here. Give me your stuff.”