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"I don’t know," I"I don’t knohat I did to deserve that kind of loyalty"

"She loved you," I said siuy"

Sinclair smiled, but there was sorrow in it "Thanks You, too, Daisy An awesoed hi"

He took a deep breath "Jojothank you Wherever you are, I hope you’re at peace I proet you"

Insidearound ray clouds parted to let a single shaft of sunlight angle across thethe shadows beneath the dense pine trees, pinning a gilded ure that stood there, croith antlers

It was the Oak King

Although he didn’tsmaller Frorief and knowledge in his deep, deep brown eyes, and I understood that although he was older than history, older than the written word, he still mourned for the least of his subjects

Across the ht strea the sun The bright shaft of golden autu back into the pine shadoithout a singlebreath I hadn’t realized I was holding Besideback, Daisy," he whispered "Not ever"

I reached out to slide ers, and squeezed "Yeah I know"

Soin, too

You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned Hel Well, that’s deliberate, because I’ure out how I feel about what happened the night that she summoned me to Little Niflheim in the aftermath of the Halloween affair

It’scomplicated As usual

I don’t h I was a bit apprehensive, far from satisfied with how I’d handled the whole crisis, that part went fine I should have known it would It may have come down to the wire, but I’d upheld Hel’s rule of order, which was all that iven and forgotten in light of the fact that I’d produced the desired results If Hel were a CEO rather than the Norse goddess of the dead, I’d say she was outcome-oriented She even let me keep the spirit lantern as a bonus Well, more of a precaution, but still

It was on the way out of Little Niflhei happened As Mikill and I approached the sacred well beneath the canopy of Yggdrasil II’s massive root system, one of the Norns stepped forward and held up a hand to halt the dune buggy

I cla At a distance, the Norns don’t look terribly intie, it’s another est of the silver talons, her eyes as colorless asas though it came from the depths of the well that lay beneath the roots of the world tree "Embrace your mistakes Learn froe on the choices you reat

"Do you have any counsel for me, my lady?" I asked her

The Nornsilver talons to caress ainst ave me a faint smile, the pale"Trust your heart"

I waited to see if any , but she withdrew her hand and returned to rejoin the other two Norns in the endless process of tending Yggdrasil II’s roots, drawing buckets from the well

"Any idea what that was all about?" I asked Mikill, cliiant shook his head, the ice in his beard crackling "The Norns see many possible futures"

"Are they ever more specific about theine "They reveal asthe skein of time"

"Okay," I said "It’s justu"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>