I landed on the back of Sköll, my blade pointed downward. It sliced through his shoulder, driving deep.

The wolf howled and reared. I barely managed to cling to his massive back with my knees as I yanked the sword from his shoulder and stabbed again. His roar rent the night. He surged up on his back feet, releasing Cade from beneath him and throwing me off his back.

My sword pulled free of his muscles, and I tumbled off him, landing with a hard crash on the ground.

Next to me, Cade leapt up, growling and snapping his teeth as he lunged for Sköll. I stumbled to my feet and raised my sword, trying to look as big and threatening as possible.

Ha. As if that would fool Sköll.

The great wolf growled once at Cade, rage in his eyes, then turned and ran off into the night.

My muscles sagged, and I dropped my arms to my side. “Holy crap.”

Panting, I bent over, catching my breath. Fear bubbled through me, and I laughed, sounding crazy to my own ears.

Magic shimmered around Cade, and he shifted back to human. I stood, catching sight of his bleeding and mangled arm. More blood oozed from his side and the gash on his thigh.

Worry tugged at my chest. “He got you good.”

Cade winced, raising his arm to inspect it. “His jaws were fierce. You shouldn’t have fought the wolf.”

“Ha. As if I’d leave you.” I inspected his wound. Bile rose in my throat at the flash of white between the destroyed flesh of his arm. Broken.

“Let me help.” I stashed my sword and shield in the ether and raised my hand to hover over his arm.

“No, it’s unnecessary.”

“You need it. I can see your bones.”

He chuckled, then winced. “I can heal myself, remember?”

“Oh, right. Of course.” It had just been the weird poison in the Fae realm he hadn’t been able to heal from. But I was so ready to jump in and save him that I’d forgotten.

Yeah, I was definitely smitten with Cade.

I waited as his magic surged. The lines on his face relaxed as the pain faded, and his muscles unbunched. The torn skin and broken bone knit back together in front of my eyes.

“Wow, you’re good at that,” I said.

“Practice.”

“Yeah, I guess you’ve been doing this a while, huh?” I recalled his side gig fighting in wars for the good guys. He must have been injured a lot.

He just shrugged.

Now was not the time to poke around for more information, so I dug the compass stone from my pocket. It pointed us in the right direction, and we set off. I kept it gripped in one hand, with my sword gripped in the other. Best to be prepared.

The landscape didn’t change much as we walked, but eventually, the stone beneath our feet turned to dirt. There were still jagged rocks all around, but there were fewer.

In the distance, light glowed a bit more brightly. I pointed. “What do you think that is?”

Cade frowned. “Hate to say it, but probably a settlement.”

“Settlement of what, I don’t want to know.”

“Agreed. If we can just—”

He stopped talking as the ground shifted beneath us. Magic sparked on my skin, a warning that made my heart jump into my throat.

Then a root burst out of the earth. There were no trees for miles, from what I could see, but it definitely looked like a root.

Until it twisted into the shape of some kind of monster, with claws and fangs made of rock. It swiped out an arm, rock-claws glinting.

Cade swung his sword, severing the arm. He lunged, taking the head next.

I shoved the compass stone into my pocket and raised my sword. The next monster surged out of the dirt.

It lunged for me, and I beheaded it with a swipe of my blade. The featureless head tumbled to the ground, and the body followed. We fought our way through a field of the creatures, slicing and swiping as we ran.

Their claws dug into my flesh as they burst from the ground, somehow knowing just where I would run. They could probably feel me through the dirt. Every inch of me burned with pain as blood slicked my skin and dampened my clothes.

My sword glinted in the weird orange light from the fiery sky above as I beheaded monster after monster.

At my side, Cade was just as productive, leaving a trail of inhuman bodies. They didn’t bleed or make any noise.

My lungs were burning by the time the monsters finally stopped leaping out of the ground. We were nearly to a lake that gleamed black and slick. I stopped, panting.

Cade halted next to me, his wary gaze scanning the terrain that we’d left behind. The bodies of the monsters looked like broken sticks now. Totally unrecognizable as the beasts that had clawed at my flesh.

If the cuts all over my body didn’t hurt like hell, I might have thought I’d imagined the monsters. Cade didn’t look much better, his neck and hands slicked red with blood.

Why the hell had the monsters stopped?

The sudden thought made dread rise in my chest. Slowly, I turned to face the lake. Was there something here that scared them?

A head broke the surface of the water, black hair smooth against the skull. Huge dark eyes peered up from the water, stark against pale white skin.

The creature’s head was only half out of the water, hair floating around it like weeds. Its eyes were glued to me.

I swallowed hard, my skin gone cold. It looked like the creepy girl from that horror movie where she climbs out of the TV, except this creature was submerged in inky water, staring at me with evil gleaming in its dark eyes.

“Stay away from the water,” I said. “That’s the Nökken. It will try to drown you.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” he said.

As quickly as we could, we made our way around the dark lake. The Nökken followed us with its eyes, spinning in the water to keep sight of us. My heart thundered louder with every step. The Nökken’s steady silence and stillness were creepier than an outright attack.

Tension had tightened every muscle in my body by the time I made it to the far side of the lake.

On this side, we were closer to the glowing light that hovered on the far horizon—the settlement.

The Nökken still watched us.

I was about to dig into my pocket for the compass stone when shouts sounded.

I jumped. Cade’s gaze collided with mine.

“Hide,” he mouthed.

I nodded, and we hurried to a tumbled pile of rocks and pressed ourselves into a crevice.

The shouts had gone silent, but I swore I’d heard at least three different voices. Who could they be?

I glanced at Cade, who was so close I could smell his storm-at-sea scent overlaid with the tang of his blood. It turned my stomach.

We could fight them. Or should we just hide?

Something heavy slammed over me.

A net!

I thrashed, trying to break free, but magic imbued the net, binding me tight. Next to me, Cade couldn’t even move. I couldn’t move.

I’d only been thrashing inside my mind.

A silent scream tore through my head, a dull roar brought on by the sheer horror of being incapacitated.

This was worse than anything.

When the figures appeared in front of us, I shuddered internally, still bound by the net.

They were tall and slender, with the pointed ears of the elves. Their hair was black as pitch, along with their eyes. Their skin was an eerie ice white, shot through with black veins. Strange clothes of textured black leather helped them blend into the dark surroundings.

Six of them inspected us, their gazes traveling over our bloody forms. Their noses wrinkled.

Without speaking, one of them flicked a finger, and we rose into the air, carried by the net.

My heart thundered like a bomb in my head as I tried to fight my way free. But I didn’t move an inch.

We floated along behind the silent contingent of Dark Elves. The Dökkálfar, they were called. Dangerous. Deadly. That meant I was right—this was the realm Svartálfar.

If only we’d gone to the realm of the Light Elves.

But nope!

Dark Elves for us.

My mind raced as we floated along, heading toward the glow on the horizon. We shifted in the air slightly so that I could see back the way we’d come. Behind us, a small ghostly white light flickered around the jagged rocks.

Following us?

I squinted toward it, but it disappeared.

Damn.

We shifted again as the elves moved our party around a large collection of rocks. With my neck frozen stiff, I could only see in the direction that they pointed us.

This time when I looked forward, the glow on the horizon had been replaced by a massive black castle. It was as ornate as a wedding cake for a princess, but entirely black, with dozens of turrets and bridges and twisty bits and flags. Light glowed from it, orange and bright.

Like flame.

Fear iced my skin.

I did not want to go in there.

Holy fates, I did not.

But they dragged us ever closer, and bile rose in my throat. The moat surrounding the castle bubbled like black oil, and the massive gate creaked as it opened. How would one ever escape?

We wouldn’t.

The courtyard was full of Dark Elves, all of them turning to watch us with their dead black eyes. Their skin was so pale that they looked like snow. One of them hissed at us, revealing long fangs.

Oh crap oh crap oh crap.

Frozen like this, unable to fight… It was a nightmare.

We floated through an ornate entry hall that was done entirely in shining black onyx, then into a long room with an arched ceiling. The floor was threaded with veins of gold. It reminded me of a fancy cathedral back on Earth, but when we were dumped onto the floor in front of a throne built of bones, all memory of church faded from my mind.

The elf that stared down at us was bigger than the rest, his cheeks gaunt and his eyes burning bright. He was draped in gold, gleaming like the sun.

“What do we have here?” His voice hissed like a snake’s, sibilant and smooth.

“We found them by the Nökken’s pond, my liege,” said one of the elves.

At first, I didn’t realize that he was speaking Norse. But the confusion in Cade’s eyes clued me in.

Apparently I could understand it as well as read it.

The leader pursed his lips as he studied us. “The female feels familiar. Strange.”

Those were contradictory terms, but I had no way to correct him when I couldn’t move my mouth. Not that it would be a smart thing to do.

The elf king tapped his chin with long fingers as he thought. “Lock them up while I try to determine what to do with trespassers on our land. I will call for the interrogator. He will get answers from them.”

The interrogator.

Oh, that sounded bad.

“We shall see what he says,” the elf king continued. “Perhaps they will go into the mines. Until then, put them in the dungeon.”

Something told me the dungeon or the mines were better options than the Dark Elf king figuring out that I was a Valkyrie DragonGod.

We were hoisted into the air by magic and carried from the room. As we drifted away, I stared back at the elf king. His gaze followed me, burning bright.

He’d figure out what I was.

No way I could let that happen.

The six elves accompanied us down to the dungeons. As we floated, the halls shifted. I could feel them moving, swinging through space and tilting up and down. It’d be impossible to find our way out of here.

I swallowed hard as we were taken deeper and deeper into the castle. Strangely enough, the floor down here gleamed with even thicker veins of gold, as if it were coming from the earth itself instead of being laid into the floor during construction. But that was impossible, right?

Except, we weren’t even on Earth anymore. Midgard was far way. This was Svartálfar, and anything was possible here.

We reached a heavy iron door, which the lead guard opened with a big iron key. They tossed us in, dragged the net off of us, then slammed the door.

I lay still on the hard ground, gasping. Trying to calm my mind.

Next to me, Cade sat up. He shuddered. “There’s something wrong with the air here.”

Shaking, I joined him, barely able to keep myself upright.

The room was small, the walls covered in a dark mist. It seeped toward me, chilling my muscles and creeping into my mind.

“Magic,” I said.

Cade shuddered again, his face pale. He climbed to his feet and inspected the walls, pressing his hands to the stone. The black mist darkened his skin. He pulled them back.

He went to the door. Tried the handle. Of course it didn’t work, but I couldn’t blame him for trying.

Then he threw himself against the door, leading with his shoulder. It didn’t budge. Again and again, he hurled himself at the iron barrier. The blows were so hard that the entire room shook—but the door didn’t break.

“Knock it off!” a voice shouted in Old Norse.

Cade stopped, panting. “What did he say?”

“Knock it off,” I translated. “Somehow I can speak Old Norse. The king is calling someone called the interrogator. They’ll try to determine why we’re here, and then possibly put us in the mines.”

“We can’t escape from there.” Cade was still pale, an unusual sight for the brave god.

I didn’t like being locked up, but he was taking this harder. The guy who threw himself at a giant wolf and would fight anything single-handedly did not like being locked up. He’d made the damn walls shake with the force of his blows.

I didn’t rise—my muscles felt too weak—but I lifted my arms. “Come here.”

“Why?”

“We need to figure out how to get out of here, but first, I could use a hug.” I didn’t say that he could also probably use a hug.

His face softened. He came to sit next to me, and pulled me into his arms. My muscles relaxed. My mind cleared slightly.

“This black mist affects us,” I said.

“No kidding. I don’t like dungeons.” He didn’t shudder, but I could hear one in his voice. “But this is worse than most.”

“You’ve spent a lot of time in dungeons?”

“As a child. But that’s a story for another time.”

My heart ached. I was desperate to ask more, but he was right. We didn’t have time for a chat. We had to plan. But I didn’t let go of him. Touching him anchored my mind in the real world, farther from the horror of this place and the magic that sought to incapacitate us.

“The mist is a good idea,” I said. “It’s probably supposed to make us weak and frightened. Ideal prisoners who won’t try to escape.”

“It won’t work. We’ll find a way.” He was more hopeful now that we were touching. The mist couldn’t affect us as strongly like this. He studied the door, brow creased. “It’s enchanted, so I can’t break it. We need the key.”

“Maybe we can ambush the guard.”

“We’ll have to avoid that net.”

“Won’t be easy. But maybe—”

A glowing white light drifted through the door. It took me a moment to realize what it was. When I did, my heart leapt, joy flooding through me.

“Mayhem!” I whispered.

The ghostly pug fluttered in front of me, her wings keeping her aloft. Instead of a ham in her mouth, she had a key. Holy fates!

“I can’t believe this.” Stunned, I held out my hand.

She dropped the key into my palm. I still had no idea how a ghost could manipulate objects, but if she could chomp down on a real ham, she could chomp down on a key.

“She stole it from a guard.” Cade grinned, giving me an appraising glance. “Mayhem has chosen you.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’ve heard that the Pugs of Destruction occasionally choose a companion. She’ll help you from now on.”

Mayhem nodded her little head, looking like she wanted to bark but knowing better.

“Thanks, Mayhem. You can eat ham in bed anytime you want.”

A doggy smile creased her wrinkled face, and her tongue lolled out of her mouth.

“Let’s get out of here,” I said.

I broke contact with Cade—immediately feeling more weak and miserable as a result of the magical mist— and stepped up to the door. Mayhem pressed her ghostly form against my hip, her wings fluttering through me.

Cade drew his sword and shield from the ether. I cranked the key in the lock.

It clicked then swung open.

I peeked out into the hall. A form was slumped against the wall on the right. A Dark Elf.

I looked at Mayhem and whispered, “Your work?”

She nodded.

“Do you know how to get out of here?”

She shook her head, her eyes saying, “No freaking clue.”

“That’s okay.” Hopefully the compass stone would help us.

We slipped out into the hall, and I pulled the stone from my pocket. I didn’t know how it worked, but I silently begged it to lead us out of here. The needle swung, then pointed us down the hall, away from the passed-out elf.

I drew my sword from the ether, and we hurried along on silent feet. As we ran, the halls changed, shifting and moving.

When a passageway spilled us out into a massive room full of Dark Elves, my heart stopped. They turned to look at us, onyx gazes bright. Over their heads, sharp pikes stuck out of the wall like horrible, deadly decorations.

“Oh, shit.” I spun to run back down the hall, but it had disappeared.

There was just wall behind us.

“Double shit.” I shoved the stone into my pocket and drew my shield as I turned to face the elves.

Cade hurled his shield, beheading two elves. Their blood sprayed into the air.

One of the elves turned into black mist and hurtled toward me, a ghostly apparition that moved faster than my eyes could follow.

It slammed into me, entering my body with a sickening squelch. My stomach turned and my mind fogged.

Panic raced through my veins.

The shadowy elf was inside of me!

Pain burst through every nerve ending in my body. I raised my sword, my head turning to find Cade. I stepped toward him, my muscles screaming.

No.

I was going to kill Cade. This elf was going to force me to kill Cade!