Page 108 of The Edge of Darkness

“She said her name was Skadi.”

The creature’s eyes widened at the mention of the name. For a moment, she didn’t say anything, she only stood there, until fear crept like a shadow over her pale features. “That is not possible.”

She continued shaking her head, eyes darting frantically as if she were searching for an explanation that made sense for what I had just said. Then, she froze, and her face fell into a seriousness like death. “There were witches who stayed behind.” She paused, considering her statement, working through the implications. “They must have found a way . . .” When her eyes found mine again in the dim light, I felt the weight of their stare. “She has come to collect what was taken from her.”

Something uneasy stirred inside me. “What, exactly, was taken?”

She glanced at Nivelle with complete surprise. “Has the witch not told you?”

Nivelle, in her own defense, replied, “I do not know everything about those days. I was not alive then.” She then directed a very pointed look at the wraith. “Not all of us are gifted with a pool that grants immortality.”

Nivelle had a point. The wraith was the last living being—aside from Torin—that would have knowledge of anything that happened before they journeyed here from their homeworld.

I nodded toward the wraith. “Tell us what you know.”

She cinched the blanket tighter beneath her chin, as if a chill had set in. As if whatever she was about to divulge consisted of memories she’d long since tried to bury. “My father was the leader of our clan. A stubborn thing, he was. He refused to leave with us when we were offered the option to flee with Torin and her witches. It nearly killed my mother to leave him, but he was convinced there was no hope left anywhere but in death.

“Our world was in pieces from the war Skadi waged, and it had gone on long enough that entire clans had fallen. The witches didn’t fare much better.” She gave Nivelle a pitying glance. “Skadi had lost her mind to greed. She sought her father’s power, thinking she could somehow harness it and wield it alongside her own. But she could not deal the killing blow to him herself, as I’m sure you know⁠—”

“A god cannot kill another god,” Auren said.

“That is correct. So instead, she used the witches that had abandoned Torin, and forced them to cast a spell upon Erebus, binding his power to his amulet, making it inaccessible to him. Then, she commanded her own general—a being made from her own blood—to deal the killing blow. It was absolute madness. But even though she held all of Erebus’s power in her hands, she could not use it. Binding someone’s power like that is done by using dark magic, and only the witch goddess herself, or a witch with unprecedented power, can reverse dark magic. Skadi was not familiar with the ways of witchcraft, and the witches that had defected to her were young and naive. They did not take the laws of dark magic into account. But that did not stop Skadi from pursuing her destructive path.

“Torin knew there would be no winning against her sister, not with how unhinged she had become. And she knew Skadi would come for her, and force her to unleash the hold on Erebus’s power so that she could wield it herself. So, Torin sent a missive, offering a way out to anyone who wanted it. Every witch and every wraith—save for my father and a few dozen elders who had lost all hope and the will to survive—heeded Torin’s call to safety. We had no idea what was going to happen, or where we would end up, but it was our only option.”

She swiped her foot into the water as she spoke. “Torin opened a portal—the largest one we had ever seen. It took almost all her strength to do it. Some said it nearly killed her. We fled through that gateway and ended up here. A strange, bright world—the opposite of where we came from. The witches dwelled out in the open with the fae, while Karios found a place for them, but the mountains offered the only refuge for our kind.

“It wasn’t until we were here that we learned Torin had managed to steal her father’s amulet from Skadi in the final moments before she opened the portal. In theory, she was doing what she thought was best: preventing Skadi from ever gaining access to their father’s wealth of power, and therefore stopping her sister from causing any more damage. But in reality, I think she only bought herself time. And if Skadi is here now, that means she found a way to open the same portal. Impossible, for her. But there were witches that remained with her. If they were able to find a way . . .”

“So she has come for the amulet,” I concluded.

The wraith nodded. “To take back what she believes is hers by right.”

Nivelle remained oddly quiet. Upon seeing her face, I could tell that what the wraith had just told us was news to her as well.

“You didn’t know?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “Torin has never mentioned the amulet to us, and . . . I do not think our stories have made mention of it either.”

“Why would she keep that information from you?” Aremis asked.

“I do not know.” Her jaw clenched and unclenched as something like disdain crossed her face. “I have always been suspicious that she has much to hide.”

I exchanged a look with my second.

“She will tear this world apart for that amulet,” the wraith said. “And I imagine, for you as well, once she finds out you have somehow managed to be imbued with its power.”

“But I do not have the amulet. I’ve never even seen it. And how would it even be possible for Erebus’s power to manifest in me?”

Aremis took a step forward and offered his insight. “According to the Seidr, power can be bred, or it can be bestowed by a god—imbued, just like an object. And power that is given in that way is just as good as blood. Since no record of your power exists before Evander, that leaves us to assume a god had their hand in it. If this power ended up in you, it was deliberate. And it was done by someone who had the means to do so.”

“Do you think it was Torin?” Auren asked. “She had the amulet when she arrived here.”

“There is no way to know for sure, unless we ask her,” Aremis said.

“I do not think that would bode well for anyone,” Nivelle murmured.

Auren shook her head. “It would be counterintuitive for Torin to give it to someone else when she sought to protect it from falling into another’s hand. That would lead us to assume she still has it.”