A Midwinter Fantasy - Leanna Renee Hieber [104]
Odin rattled his staff against the ice in triumph. “Not invincible after all, are you, Troy?”
Vidar vaulted to his feet, heedless of his bruised muscles, wanting only to close his hands around Odin’s throat and squeeze until the monster shut up. Troy caught his shoulder and jerked him back. “No. We use this opportunity,” he said.
“Opportunity!” How could Troy call his daughter’s death an opportunity?
Distraught, Vidar lashed out, but Troy deflected his weak blow. Vidar fell to his knees at Sonja’s side and took her face between his hands. Her skin was warm, but when he reached to touch her mind, he found only a whisper of her presence.
Troy crouched beside him. “She’s still close. The remnants of the Crystal Crib and your bond hold her here. She’s inherited my gift, Vidar. Call her back.”
New hope surged. He had told Sonja she might have inherited her father’s ability to return from the dead, but Vidar had hardly dared hope it was true. He closed his eyes and recalled the sensation of touching Sonja’s mind and spirit. Behind him sounded the deadly hiss of metal sliding over metal, as Troy drew his sword to stand guard over them.
In his mind Vidar called Sonja to return: pleaded, cajoled, and commanded by turns. He clasped her hand, and the cursed ring fell from her finger into his palm. Vidar’s eyes snapped open. Odin always joked that Draupnir only released its victims in death. If Sonja returned from the dead, she would be free of the ring, free to leave this miserable place and have a life.
Without him.
Deep crystalline blue cradled Sonja in its familiar protective embrace. Her fear and uncertainty faded as the power stolen from her and locked in the Crystal Crib for two thousand years flooded her being. Far away, a man called her name.
His voice tugged at her chest, trying to drag her to him. A memory of love and tenderness whispered through her. Sonja wanted to go to him, but that meant leaving her safe blue haven. He called again, closer this time. An image formed in her mind of his lean body and dark hair, lustrous golden eyes that flared like flames when he looked at her. Vidar.
A gossamer web enclosed her heart, tiny filaments of connection that she sensed bonded her with him. Her blue haven dissolved, and she found herself again in Valhalla. Fragments of blue crystal covered the floor in a starburst of destruction. The memory of Thor smashing the Crystal Crib tumbled back through her mind on a wave of grief. When the crib shattered, she’d felt as if one of her vital organs was ripped out. She picked up a large crystal shard and clutched it lovingly to her chest. Her lost power streamed into her from the shattered blue crystal until she pulsed with energy.
Vidar called her name again and she turned, searching for him. She saw Troy standing like an avenging angel over her prone lifeless body, sword raised, protecting her physical form until she returned. He radiated light like a minisun, giving her focus. But she didn’t think he could see her.
Her heart fluttered as the translucent filaments joining her to Vidar quivered with his grief. Squinting against Troy’s brilliance, she followed the glittering strands to a shadowy form hunched over her body. It didn’t look like Vidar. She paused warily, raising the crystal sliver to protect herself, but the translucent strands pulled her closer to the dark figure. She studied the shadow and realized that it was Vidar. He was concealed beneath a dense, dark mesh.
Sonja dug her fingers underneath the mesh and tugged, trying to free him, but it clung, unbreakable wire. She looked around for help. Odin stood out like an oily black stain in the air. Trails of dark threads ran from the ring on his hand to other shadowy figures that must be Huginn, Muninn, and Thor.
Anger flashed through her, quickly chased by determination. A burst of tingling energy ran along her arm to sizzle across the blue crystal shard. She would not let Odin imprison Vidar through the ring’s evil any longer!
Taking care not to cut the translucent strands that linked her with