“Always,” she replied easily.
“More than anyone?” Aldrik asked.
“More than anyone.” She forced a smile on her mouth in a hope to encourage him.
Aldrik nodded, and they rode on through the soundless wood.
Eventually, the trees grew thinner as they began to ascend out of the valley. It was a slow slope upward, and Vhalla hardly noticed they were heading up a mountain until it was already upon them. They had ridden hard through the night; the horses were beginning to struggle with the pace.
Aldrik had not said a word for hours. He hardly even looked at her. There was no sign of pursuers, and yet they rode as if a pack of wolves were on their tail. No one had known where they were going, and the heavily falling snow was slowly covering their tracks. Even if the Emperor had caught wind of his only remaining son running off with the Windwalker, he wouldn’t assume that they’d head for the Crystal Caverns.
Her horse lost its footing for a moment as its hoof slipped on some ice. Vhalla couldn’t stop a call of surprise, and she tugged hard on the reins to right the steed. The mountain path was thin with a sheer edge on one side. Vhalla looked down and realized they had already ascended quite far.
“Are you all right?” Worry marred Aldrik’s brow.
“I am.” Her racing heart indicated differently.
“Let’s take it a little slower. This path is not well maintained, and it can be a little treacherous in good conditions.” He pulled back on his mount’s reins. “We’re close now; it’s not much farther.”
The sun began to rise. The concealing snow clouds finally began to lighten and fade into gray patches across the blood-red sky. Vhalla took a deep breath.
“There!” He pointed up ahead. “There’s his horse.”
The path curved around the mountain and eventually reached a small cliff area. Set into the mountain face was a large, pointed archway, carved directly into the stone. It was a gaping hole that was taller than thirty men on each other’s shoulders. Vhalla squinted and made out a horse standing before it in the hazy dawn.
“We have to hurry!” she called back.
“Carefully!” Aldrik replied, and they increased their pace as much as possible, inching around the mountain wall.
The massive entrance to the Crystal Caverns made Vhalla feel even smaller as she pulled her steed to a stop before it. It felt like the gaping maw of a dragon that was ready to swallow her whole. The stone sculptures of wyrms and gods that guarded around the archway had to have been ancient, and yet they looked as though they had been polished to perfection that morning. Vhalla dismounted in awe.
Aldrik grabbed a pack from his saddlebag after dismounting, slinging it over his shoulder. “We need to go. We’re close now.”
“Right . . .” Vhalla was frozen in place. There was an epic and wild power and it sizzled against her magic. A primordial essence hung heavy in the air and warned her about crossing the threshold between her world and the Gods’.
Aldrik paused, something out of the corner of his eye catching his interest. He dashed over to the edge of the cliff and looked down. Raising a hand, he shielded his eyes from the rising sun, squinting at the horizon. Vhalla followed his stare. Six riders were barely visible at the edge of the valley.
“We need to go!” He turned and started running for the entrance.
Vhalla dashed after him, plunging herself into the Crystal Caverns. The darkness was dizzying after they entered. The advent of the sunrise could not penetrate the heavy atmosphere that now shrouded her.
Aldrik was one step ahead of the darkness and produced a crystal. Vhalla lost the opportunity to ask how or why he carried such a thing as it flashed a brilliant turquoise. He placed it carefully in the center of the pathway where they had been walking. Like water, magic rippled outward from the small stone and into the floor they stood on. Its glimmering pulse stretched forward, branching out at points and creeping up the walls like magical vines.
The caverns had to rival the palace in size. A pathway had been cut into the center that led forward through another smaller gateway. Giant towering crystal columns lit up the space. The roof glowed the same pale greenish-blue.
Vhalla was reminded of the ruins from which she had pilfered Achel. It was a cosmos of magic, sparkling infinitely before her. The shining colors bled from one crystal to the next in magical conversation. Vhalla could see dark pockmarks from where men had tried to claim powers from the cavern.
“There’s no time.” Aldrik strode forward, and she fell into place behind him.
Vhalla clenched her fists, opening her Channel. The crystals surrounding her compounded her magic, making it greater than she had ever felt. She tried to brace herself for any surprise that could lurk around any corner, and she prayed she would be ready.
VHALLA SHIVERED. IN the dim light, the puffs of air marking her breaths almost looked magical as they dissipated through her cracked lips. It was a long night after long days, but she felt awake and alert.
“Are you all right?” Vhalla asked. “Are the crystals affecting you?”
“They are, but I will be fine. We won’t need much time.” His voice was low and garbled, the light shifted strangely over his shoulders.
They crossed through a small archway into a different antechamber. The glowing light followed their movement, and the crystals responded to her footsteps in silent welcome. Vhalla searched for the place where Victor may be hiding, but she couldn’t find anything. It seemed a straight shot, almost like how a temple would lead to the Mother’s pyre.
Vhalla stretched out her magical hearing, but she couldn’t even hear breathing.
Aldrik stopped before a massive door. It radiated a similar power to what Vhalla had felt in the North, though deeper and stronger. Crystals had grown overtop it, resisting the glow that had been following Vhalla and Aldrik in shining protest.
“I need you to open those,” Aldrik ordered.
“Why?”
“Do you want me to risk touching crystals further?” he snapped.
“Oh . . . of course,” Vhalla mumbled. She started for the doors, her feet heavier with every step. Vhalla paused, her hand a breath from the crystal.
“What are you waiting for?” Aldrik growled. “Open it.”
“This-this is the barrier, isn’t it?” She turned and took a long, hard look at the man who had taken her to the threshold of fate.
He froze.
“Victor couldn’t have gone farther than here. He hasn’t . . .” Now that she was here, the idea that Victor could open the barrier because he was a Waterrunner like Egmun seemed asinine. This was a greater magic. “Let’s go back the way we came.” Vhalla tried to sound casual. “Maybe we missed Victor along the way. We can wait outside.”
She took a step, which he met with force and speed. His hand closed around her bare wrist, painfully tight. An agonizing feeling sunk through her suddenly shaking bones as her stomach plummeted from her body.
“Aldrik, your hands are cold,” she whispered in horror. She had relished in the hot lightning of his touch too many times to be mistaken when the fire was suddenly absent. She had learned to love her prince for all he was, for how the fire in his veins gave light to his passions and an inferno to his anger. Nothing about him was ever cold. “Let me go.”
He began to laugh slowly. The unfamiliar icy fingers bit deep into her flesh. The noise echoed disjointedly from his body, not belonging to the lips they emerged from.
Vhalla tugged hard against his grip. “Let me go!” She withdrew a hand, frozen in horror as Aldrik’s face rippled, dissipating like steam.
“No, I don’t think so, my little Windwalker.” Victor’s voice, cool and calculating, it echoed through her worst nightmares come to life. “Do you know how long I have bided my time? Waiting, waiting! Everything has been going according to plan, and you will not take this from me now.”