Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 125422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
“Shut the fuck up!” I snap, spinning to sever another duplicate. It dissolves into mist, but more emerge, their laughter chilling.
I can’t suffer for my pride anymore. I call on my power, reaching deep into the kindling inside me and summoning light to burn them away. A golden flare erupts from my hand, but it barely pushes back the shadows. The duplicates absorb the light, their forms solidifying as if feeding on it.
My power flickers, falters.
I’m losing.
Desperation claws at me. Salainen’s blade whistles past my ear, her grin widening as she lands another blow. My knees buckle, blood staining the stone beneath me. I can’t keep this up.
Then I see it—a glint of white on her belt.
My selenite knife.
The blade I carried before she stole it, the one gifted to me. She doesn’t see me notice it, too focused on her relentless assault.
I feint right, drawing her attention, then dive forward, grabbing the knife from her waist. My fingers close around the hilt, and I roll to my feet, raising it just as she lunges again.
I stab downward and the selenite blade cuts through her shadowy form. She lets out a piercing scream. Her duplicates falter, their movements jerky, before they begin to dissolve.
“No!” Salainen shrieks, clutching at the wound. Her dark eyes blaze with fury and fear. “You can’t—”
I don’t let her finish. I drive the blade further into her chest, the selenite glowing with a brilliant light, not unlike the sun. The duplicates shatter, their forms evaporating like smoke. Salainen stumbles, her eyes wide with disbelief.
“This… isn’t… over…,” she gasps, her voice a faint whisper as her body begins to disintegrate.
“Oh, I think it fucking is,” I say, my voice steady despite the exhaustion in my limbs.
Her form collapses into shadow, and then she’s gone.
The oppressive darkness lifts, the library returning to its eerie stillness.
I drop to my knees, the knife falling from my hand. My chest heaves, my body trembling with the aftershock of battle. I wish I had some snappy catch phrase or one-liner to mutter, but her death will have to be enough.
The shadows at the edges of the library stir, and then the others burst through, their faces tight with worry.
“Hanna!” Vellamo reaches me first, her hand brushing my shoulder. “What happened?”
I look up, my gaze meeting hers. “It’s over,” I say softly. “The dumb bitch is gone.”
Vellamo frowns at my choice of words.
“Sorry, I meant Salainen is gone,” I clarify.
“I know that’s what you meant,” she says with a raise of her chin. “But I’m certain the Goddess of the Sun wouldn’t use that language.”
“No, that’s one hundred per cent my daughter,” my father says with a sigh. But when I meet his eyes, he breaks into a broad smile and comes over to help me to my feet. He pulls me into a quick hug, squeezing tight. “Welcome back, sweetie.” He looks me over. “Are you hurt?” he asks, his voice tight with concern as he looks over where I’m cut and bleeding.
“’Tis just a flesh wound,” I say through a wince. “We need to keep moving. Louhi’s not far. Tuoni needs us.”
The urgency in my voice spurs them into action. The group regathers, their expressions grim but determined.
I cast one last glance at the spot where Salainen fell, her essence reduced to nothing. The selenite knife lies on the ground, its blade dulled and cracked. I pick it up, slipping it into my belt. A piece of my past reclaimed, a reminder of what I’ve endured.
And who I’ve become.
All of the us run back out of the library, tensions high, ready to continue fighting.
Only to run right into a battered and bleeding Tuoni, with Sarvi behind him.
My husband’s victorious gaze meets mine over the sea of heads who rejoice around him.
He grins at me, tired and grieving, but relieved.
And I grin at him.
We won.
The realm is ours.
We are the King and Queen of Tuonela again.
CHAPTER 40
HANNA
Tuonen was laid to rest amid the waves and under a stone grey sky.
It’s ironic that funerals aren’t common in the land of the dead, but a ceremony was given for Tapio, and words and tears were shed for Rasmus, and so for Tuonen, the beloved Son of Death, we gave him a beautiful sendoff.
In the end, Tuoni chose to bury him at sea. We set out on boats from Shadow’s End, the few that Louhi and her cronies didn’t inadvertently destroy when they stormed the castle, and went out not far from shore.
Tuonen was wrapped in a shroud and his father’s cloak, with burlap sacks full of crystals tied around his ankles and neck. The crystals themselves were giant chunks of lapis lazuli, carnelian, turquoise, and jade, enough to weigh his body down in an eternal watery grave, the crystals themselves acting as conduits for good passage. It didn’t matter that Tuonen is floating in the eternal hell that is Oblivion. We all pretended that his soul was still around, and would finally be at peace.