“You’ve been masking the bond,” Damrion says, refusing to drop the subject.

“Faen,” Adriel swears. “How long?”

“I...”

“How long have you known your soul is tied to ours, Abigail?” Adriel demands, his tone short and clipped. He’s angry. Really angry. “How long have you been hiding the bond from us?”

“I was trying to protect you.”

Adriel growls wordlessly, his expression fierce as he stalks toward me.

“Protect us? Nei, Valkyrie,” Damrion growls, anger snapping in his eyes as he advances on the bed. “We are Fae. It is our right to protect you.”

Adriel's fist clenches at his side, frustration radiating off him in waves. "Damn it, Abigail," he snarls. "How are we supposed to protect you if you won't let us?"

"This isn't about protecting me!" I snap back, my own frustration boiling over as I jump to my feet. "It's about saving a life!"

“And we’re supposed to forget that your life is at risk, too?” Adriel growls, his hand slashing through the air. “Nei.” He steps up in front of me, grasping me by the shoulders. “I’ll let this world fall before I let harm come to you, bittesmå ljós.”

“Adriel.”

“Nei, Abigail.” He touches my cheek, his rough hand gentle. He’s killed thousands, but he touches me as if I’m priceless. Something fierce burns in the depth of his eye, searing his expression. “You must survive. If you fall, we fall.”

A tear slips down my cheek. He catches it, wiping it away.

“Don’t cry, bittesmå ljós.”

But I can’t help it. I’m living half a life, my soul torn into pieces because theirs are in pieces—shattered long before I was even born. And I don’t know how to fix it.

“You should have told us,” Damrion says from behind us, weariness and pain in his voice.

Damrion.

I pull away from Adriel, guilt crashing over me like a tidal wave.

“Damrion, I...” I spin to face him, my heart aching.

He refuses to meet my gaze, and I want to cry all over again. Without even meaning to do it, I’ve hurt him. Always, I’m hurting one or the other of them.

"We’ll talk when we return," he says, striding toward the door, "All of us. This...situation between us cannot continue."

My heart clenches at his words and the resignation in his tone. I want to reach out, to beg him to fight for us, but the words stick in my throat. I’m too afraid of what he’ll say.

Deep down, I know he loves Adriel just as intensely as he loves me. Their souls are bound to one another just like they’re bound to mine. And yet…he won’t fight for us. He won’t fight for himself.

I don’t understand.

I don’t want Adriel—at least, I don’t want only Adriel. My heart beats for both of them. My soul cries out for both of them. The same way I know his cries out for me and Adriel—the same way Adriel’s cries out for me and him. But he’s so wracked by self-loathing that he refuses to let himself feel it.

The first few months I was in Eitr, he was so reserved and distant. His golden eyes would meet mine across the courtyard, but there was always a wall there, impenetrable as the layers of ice capping the mountain.

It thawed in increments, so slowly I didn’t even realize it was happening at first. But little by little, it did. He softened, started coming to visit me, and then spending hours with me every day.

And Adriel... Gods, Adriel. His one dark eye would follow us, filled with anger I didn't understand. I'd catch snippets of their arguments sometimes, my name a point of contention between them.

"She doesn't belong here," Adriel snarled one night, not realizing I was close enough to overhear.

"She's Blooded," Damrion replied, his voice tight. "Where would you have her go? Who else would you have protect her if not us?"

I was devastated, thinking Adriel hated me. Even when he started coming to visit me a few days later, I thought he hated me. It took a while for me to realize that it wasn’t hate driving him, but fear.

The last time he let himself love, it nearly broke him. And now here I was, making him face it all over again. Making him admit that he never stopped loving Damrion, either.

He fought it hard.

He’s still so angry at Damrion for leaving him to die. And Damrion still carries so much guilt for it. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t know Adriel was alive and being held captive. But Adriel’s pain isn’t rational and neither is his grief. Is it ever?

If millennia hasn’t healed what’s broken between them, I don’t know what the Norns expect me to do. Tying our souls together seems cruel, but fate never cares what we want. If it did, I wouldn’t have visions.

I thought things were going to change between us the day the Forsaken attacked Eitr. In the chaos and fire, after I burned them out of the village, Damrion and Adriel found me.

“Abigail!” Adriel roars, rushing toward me through the courtyard, smoke a fiery nimbus around him. He looks like an avenging angel, Magn lighting him up like the sun.

Damrion is hot on his heels, blazing with golden Light, his eyes on fire. They race toward me, their steps perfectly in sync.

Somehow, Damrion reaches me first.

“Damrion!” I sob, flinging myself at his chest. He catches me, pulling me into him. But he doesn’t hold me alone. Adriel seams himself to my back. I’m caught between them, sandwiched between their strong bodies as I shake in their arms. “I...I burned them out! I killed them all.”

“Shh, ljúfr,” Adriel breathes, his lips against my throat. “Everything is okay now. We’re here. You’re safe.”

For the first time since the Forsaken attacked, I feel safe, as if nothing can hurt me so long as I’m in their arms. But it isn’t enough.

“Please,” I whisper, begging for something I don’t even understand. “Please.”

They know, though. They move as one. Adriel plunges his hand into my hair, craning my head back. Damrion’s hand curls around my throat.

Adriel's lips crash into mine, fierce and desperate. He kisses me like a man drowning, like I'm the air he needs to breathe. His tongue delves into my mouth, tangling with mine as he consumes me. I moan into the kiss, my body melting against theirs.

Damrion angles my head, allowing Adriel to deepen the kiss. I surrender completely, letting them take control, letting them possess me. In this moment, I am theirs, body and soul. Nothing else matters except the slide of Adriel’s lips on mine, the rasp of Damrion’s breath against my throat, and their hard bodies pressed to mine.

When Adriel finally pulls back, we're both panting. His single dark eye blazes with desire. I shiver, caught in his intense gaze, my heart thundering in my chest.

Then Damrion's fingers tighten on my throat, commanding my attention. I turn my head to meet his molten gold eyes, drowning in their heated depths. He lowers his head to mine, slowly, reverently. His lips brush against mine, soft as a whisper.

I whimper, straining closer, silently begging for more. He complies, sealing his mouth over mine in a slow, sensual kiss that turns my bones to liquid. Where Adriel devoured, Damrion savors.

He kisses me deeply, thoroughly, claiming me with each stroke and slide of his tongue against mine.