A Queen Named Victory

Chapter Thirty-Five

Grendel's POV

"Grendel?"

I dug my hands into the dirt to see the danger ahead. Thousands of troops accompanied by beasts of all sizes approached Tolkniat. They were led by pure evil in the flesh: my father. My muscles twitched involuntarily, spreading the all too familiar numbness through my body. We were bound to die if we stayed here.

"Grendel?"

He died.

He shouldn't be alive.

He shouldn't be here.

None of this was supposed to happen.

We were going to come in and go without any issues.

"My love?"

How can I keep her safe? He's here, alive and kicking again. My fingers clawed the soil. Sweat droplets fell onto the back of my trembling hands.

"I killed him with these hands," I murmured as I let the dirt fall from my hands.

I cannot accept death yet. Not when I barely had everything I ever dreamed of at my side. "Grendel!" Sigrid's muffled voice cleared enough to pull me back. She gripped my dirtied hands harder, pulling me into her embrace and soothing touches. I was an injured dove in her hands.

"Speak to me, Grendel. What is it?"

"Please, kiss me."

"Right now?" She looked more confused than before, but she pressed her lips to mine and kissed me like it was our last. Sigrid's taste and smell steadied my thoughts. She tethered me to truth and severed the troubled voices replaying in my head. Her hands combed through my hair down to my neck. That's right. I sat beside Sigrid: the light who kept me from madness.

My father led a frightening army our way and would take Montver and Ivar's kingdom with Tolkniat. Knowing him, he had his heart set on my wife. He would keep me alive long enough to watch her suffering. I reached into the dirt again to measure the distance. They were traveling fast. For once, I appreciated the mornings' glow on the horizon. We are safe for now. Sigrid moved my chin back to her face for another kiss.

"What are you planning?" she questioned between breaths.

"I promised you Tolkniat."

I also promised to protect her, no matter the cost. I stripped my foot coverings and boots, then my armor. Sigrid watched with visible confusion. She finally had enough, "Nope, nope. We can fuck after we finish off the Frost fey bastards."

I chuckled at her antics, "Again, you're the only one between the two of us with sex on your mind." Though, the thought of bedding her at this moment certainly tempted me. A cut in her blouse revealed a sliver of her breasts, and the bloodied trousers clung to her lower curves. It was especially tempting since she kneeled on the dirt.

Focus.

I flung my tunic onto the floor before leaving Sigrid's embrace and planting my feet on the soil. Sangyr hummed to life when I rand my hand along the blade's edge. She watched my blood trickle onto the soil before I returned my blade into my chest for safekeeping.

The land beneath our feet quaked violently, creating a tidal wave out of the hills. The crows in the sky dispersed well beyond the rattling trees. The push and pull of life flowed out of my fingertips. I felt the great Mother's heartbeat beneath the quivering dirt, stone, sand, blood, and water. The land between my father's army and Tolkniat's farmland erupted into a sea of cracks.

Sharp pains jolted my legs and shot up to my temple. This kind of magic was limited. It came with a costly sacrifice. One that I bared for as long as I could. The peak of the mountain burst from the cracks, rising to the beckoning clouds. I braced myself for the next wave of pain following the second and third mountains.

I could not defeat my father in this state, but I could delay him.

We needed time. Time to prepare. Time to raise a legion. Time to strengthen our defenses. My hope existed on the peak of the bordering mountains. Black and white spots flashed my eyes. I lost my grip on my magic. I heard Sigrid's faint call to me.

It despised the fact that I need her strength.

She put her hands on my back, spreading her warmth under my skin like the first sips of warm tea. Sigrid shared herself with me. Her energy caressed my body protectively. The rumbling mountains surrounded Tolkniat, creating the most reliable barrier between death and survival. That shielding warmth grew hotter till I screamed from the agony.

A fire burst inside, searing my innards.

"Grendel!" Sigrid cried.

Then there was darkness.

"Don't we need the girl, sir?"

"Nah, that one is too dangerous. I heard the His Majesty fears her," replied the other.

"Ay, she's a spooky bitch," the voice agreed.

My arms and legs were completely limp. I could not move no matter how much I wanted to beat the fools for talking their shit about my wife. In truth, she was a bit spooky at times. But only I had the right to say that about her.

"Oi, Holvi, he's movin! He shouldn't be movin! What do I do?!"

"I-I don't know! Didn't you give him the whole vial?"

I saw the blurry figures panicking and arguing. My head throbbed. Every part of my body throbbed and ached. It hadn't felt this sore since I last had sex.

"Oh, no. No. No. No. He's gonna kill us!"

"Not on my watch!" announced the other valiantly.

"You motherfuck—" I rasped but they stopped me with a punch to the face. That idiot missed my temple. "Gods! If you are going to knock me out, then do it right!" I growled with twice the throbbing than before.

They did it correctly the second time.

I woke in a plain room with little furnishings, but a mattress stuffed with brittle hay and a chair in the farthest corner beside the door. Ice chains with magic inscriptions bound me to the other half of the wall.

"If it isn't Ivar," I chortled. "Just wait until Sigrid hears of my whereabouts."

Ivar sat rigidly on the chair with the same annoyed expression he had when he was a child. This time he seemed more weathered by his role as a king. That makes for the two of us.

"Congratulations. I heard you married our little Ingrid."

"Shut up."

"That's no way to talk to your older brother, is it?"

"That's how I talk to my prisoners." He locked his cold glare on my chains.

"Great. So, are you going to tell me why you have me here?" I asked while leaning my back against the cold wall. Getting out would be a breeze with the setup he gave me. Ivar had his people fooled to think he was that cruel. He treated his 'prisoner' better than I would have. The Fairy King stood from his chair.

"You're going to help me retrieve my wife."