The next few days were bliss. While the dwarves were busy in the day and night rebuilding and expanding their territory, the first letter came to Freya and Adrian only a day after they killed the Exhumer. Someone wanted to buy their services, if they could kill the rogue creature that fed on their livestock at night. “What do you think?” Adrian had asked her and she’d grinned. “Hell yes!”That was five days ago and since then, Adrian and Freya had killed four rogue creatures that they’d been contracted to kill. News about them was spreading like wildfire and the letters kept on piling up. Somehow, she had found her way back to her first job it seemed, doing what she did best; killing. She met Adrian’s gaze from across the grove and he pointed. She followed the line of the pointing and nodded. She and Adrian had never been better. After a day of hunting and killing, she loved nothing more than being in his arms. Being with him was so simple because she didn’t have to think. When s
She and Adrian went with them of course. There were far too many of the crocodile creatures for her to put up a fight without casualties. “Perhaps she just wants to host us for tea.” Freya whispered and Adrian scoffed behind her. They were in a large boat with the crocodiles, sailing the sea towards the tall castle that was coming into view over the horizon. Adrian let out a low whistle when the castle came fully into view. “Impressive.” Adrian observed b“That’s even huger than the castle in my realm.” She agreed. A show-off then? Or someone that loved grand gestures?They pulled up to the bank and the crocodiles climbed off, prodding her to do the same.“Don’t touch her.” Adrian growled and gripped the crocodile’s arm. “Let it go.” She told him and got off. “Let’s find out what the bitch wants.”The crocodiles led them into the castle which looked like what a state of the arts castle in the human world would look like.They came upon a double door which was pushed open and made
Adrian struggled to his feet when the pain in his chest became a little more bearable. “Freya!” She was on the floor, her knees drawn to her chest, her eyes shut tight with her entire body shivering. “Freya wake up!”Her face was carved into an expression of terror but no matter how much he shook her, she never stirred. He turned on the queen with a furious snarl. She had her eyes closed, a smile on her lips and her hands extended towards Freya. “What are you doing to her?!” He lunged at her but the crocodiles were there, grabbing his arms and holding him immobile. He growled and his magic sparked. He had every intention of torching the entire stupid castle to the floor and the queen with it but reaching for his magic made his body start to seize. He dropped to his knees, his jaws locked as the seizures rattled him from head to toe and he tasted blood in his mouth. The magic never manifested because he couldn’t reach it. It felt like someone had built a wall cordoning him off from
Adrian peeled his eyes open with effort, disoriented for a second but the pain reminded him of where he was.A sound of pain made him startle and he found Freya, her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped tight around herself as tears flowed down her face in rivulets. “Freya!” His tongue was heavy and his speech slurred, thanks to the savages that broke his jaw. “Freya!”His body screamed as he stood but he dragged himself to her, putting both hands on the sides of the face. “Freya look at me.” Her eyes were wide open but she wasn’t seeing him. Whatever she was seeing was terrible enough to put that fragmented light in her eyes. He shook her but she flinched and retreated from him. “Mother.” She whispered, a single tear rolling down her eyes. “Release her!”He turned back to the queen with a hiss.“Or what?” She drawled, her lips curved with ecstasy as an invisible breeze lifted her hair. “What can you do, sorcerer? Have you forgotten you are at my mercy? You have none of your powers
Freya couldn’t handle it anymore, she found a way to deal with the pain, she locked herself in her subconscious but the nightmare was still replaying right in front of her eyes. She was rage, she was pain. What did her parents do to deserve to die like this? With every thud of her mother’s lifeless body, her memories returned, her mother smiling, twirling her in the air, kissing her forehead. Her father sandwiching all three of them into a hug, his laughter loud and hearty as he told her stories before bed. She remembered what a happy life she had had as a young child, her secure life cocooned between her father and her mother. It made the torture all the more exquisite. Riordan shattered her life. Since the day he walked into her house and murdered both of her parents, he called upon the darkness in her life and it engulfed her whole. He should have just killed her when he has the chance. She looked at her own bloody hands, shaking uncontrollably and she started scrubbing at her h
Freya woke up the next morning with an entire realm at her fingertips. Rule of the jungle; they overpowered the queen, the queen’s soldiers bowed to them in turn, as if they had actually been waiting for the right moment to turn against her. “I- I can’t do this.” She had whispered and shifted, retreating into her wolf form and the solace it offered. She allowed Venna to take charge and run as fast as her legs would carry her, taking joy in the delight of her primitive wolf thinking basic thoughts, doing basic things like hunting, following scents that intrigued her and offering her a reprieve from her constantly churning mind. When she’d finally stalked back into the castle, she was exhausted and had walked back into her mate’s arms and allowed him to drive the punishing thoughts from her mind. She woke up refreshed, a large screen over the thoughts that threatened to cripple her if she let them out. The scent of bacon made her sniff and she pulled the covers off her and followed t
Freya once thought that he nightmare ended once she broke out of the queen’s spell. To her horror, it didn’t. Her subconscious was broken, unable to get past that chink in her memory. She was still screaming as her mother’s body thudded to the ground with a sickening sound, and she was still screaming as her father’s body followed. The nightmare amplified the grotesque scene, the blood rapidly seeping out and seeping into her hiding place. Her eyes bugged out of her mind and she tried to get away but there was nowhere to go. The door was pulled open above her and her rage exploded. How could Riordan do this to her?She stabbed her dagger of shadows into his heart, half expecting the nightmare to return back to the start on a loop again but.. it didn’t. Riordan made a choked sound and his hood fell off, exposing his pained face, the spurt of blood from the corner of his lips-Her hands grew cold and she staggered back in shock at her actions. He fell heavily to the floor, his hands
Freya woke up with a smile on her face, immediately reaching for her mate but she found empty space. “Adrian?” She called and got off bed with a light stretch. The past few days had been blissful. She and Adrian had taken over the new castle and at his suggestion, they’d completely switched the timelines. She slept through the day now, and was up through the night. So far, his suggestion worked because she hadn’t had a single nightmare since then. Without the queen breathing down her people’s neck, her people were also blossoming. Adrian sent out all the resources the queen initially hoarded for herself to be distributed amongst the people that were suffering. At night when the creatures she let loose were active, Freya hunted, killing them all methodically. So far she’d added six more of the demented creatures to her belt.Perhaps Adrian was cooking, she thought with a smile. She awfully relished the times she woke up to find him in the kitchen. Like yesterday, though the turkeys