I scream for the others, and they come racing to my side. “You must find Loki, warn him. She can’t protect him any longer, can’t protect them. Odin is killing her.” Shocked silence follows my words, then a flurry of action. “Yggdrasil,” I scream again as I feel her dying. I crumble, collapsing into the dirt once more. Emma falls to her knees in front of me. We bury our hands, trying to send her our power to save her.

A wave of warmth flows to us, and as it fades, I hear her once more. ‘He will still be there. Look at the whole picture.’ I feel her fade away and I lock eyes with Emma. Tears stream down my face as she, the one who represented life and renewal for thousands of years, is just gone. Killed, no, murdered by a madman who is coming for us next.

Kai jerks me to my feet, and Jason does the same to Emma. Then they start shoving us towards the portal. I stumble over a root, which makes me cry harder because now it's just a root, no longer an extension of her. Before I hit the ground, Kai has lifted me into his arms and continues to jog into the opening, and Jason and Emma are right behind him. Even when we reach the other side, they continue to run, racing to Danu’s home. We are met by the others, and everyone's face is wet with tears and covered with shock.

Morrigan and Danu hold each other tightly. Kai only stops running when he reaches their side. He sets me gently on the ground. “Odin killed her, cutting away her roots. She had come to me to warn me that she could no longer protect Loki. I felt her die.” My voice is strangled on the last word.

“How?” Danu cries.

“Hephaestus. Odin had him make a god killer. He knew she aided us all. Like us, he knew he must weaken us and especially Loki.” I don't tell them the rest; remembering her words, I will bear the burden of her secret until the right time.

“He will begin his attack in earnest now. There's no time to lose. We must move against those we know.” Hades’ anger rolls off of him like a storm.

I only have to listen as they plan. Nestor and some others had located those from Persephone's list while we were in New Orleans. He has gone now to warn Loki and Cora. The boys move into the house to work out the details, but I stay on the hill by the lake. I feel Emma's eyes on me and the whisper of Kai’s magic. Sending him reassurance so that I can ease both their worries, I stare out at the water, shimmering like diamonds.

I turned her words over and over in my mind. I'm both intrigued and terrified. Another race of aliens, because that's what all of them are, here thousands of years before the others. Ones that did so much damage she destroyed them all. I have that moment of fear -- what if it's all lies? What if her secret really was that she planned this all? What if she is who is driving, orchestrating everything Odin has been and is doing?

‘Sparrow, you only have to use the gift you were born with,’ Kai’s calm energy flows through me, and I smile. I guess we will bear the burden. ‘Always. You were born with your gift; she only boosted it. Think of her, really think of her. Does she seem evil? What did you feel the first time when she moved through you?’

He's right, of course. I think of that first moment, her first caress over my skin, and I can feel the love. It wasn't just the love for me; it was a love for us all. It was a mother's love. That realization has me clenching my teeth as my heart begins to pound, not just in grief but in anger. I close my eyes, and my head falls back as my heart breaks. He has stolen, ripped away something I didn't even realize I had. Yggdrasil’s love had partially filled a massive hole left in my soul from my mother's death. I slam my hand over my mouth to hold back the anguished cry that is trying to erupt from somewhere deep inside me. Without me even realizing it, she had begun to fill a small part of that hole, and the absence of something I didn't even realize was there is crushing.

Kai leaves me to my sadness, always there but giving me privacy, protecting me but understanding some things I have to do on my own. I let them plan, knowing that he will keep me with him when it's time to attack. Sinking to the ground at the water's edge, I dip my toes in, pondering her words once more. A small smile curves my lips when, moments later, I hear Emma's footsteps.

“You okay?” Her shoulder bumps into mine as she sits, joining me by the water.

“Did he send you?” I glanced at her before leaning my chin on my knees.

“Didn't need to. I know what kind of love that was, the love that she sent to us, wrapped us in. I've got mama and still I feel the loss. How could you not be hurting?” Her fingers close over mine as she falls silent.

“We're going to lose, aren't we?”

“No. I know she told you something, something important.” She holds her hand up as I open my mouth. “I don't need to know but I felt her faith, even at the very end. That faith was in all of us, but especially Loki.” I close my eyes, trying to block out the image Loki ripping at Pow’s arm, at his fiery red eyes. I saw, in that moment, the beast that he has starved. It stared out at us, gleeful in the chaos it was causing. Once it is free, it will not be happy with just Odin's destruction, just like Odin it will hunger for power, for control, and for domination. Gone will be the honorable man who has fought it for millennia. He will no longer be the man who loves Cora.

“She did tell me things, secrets, but I don't understand them and I don't know how they would help.” I turn my head, my cheek laying on my knee, and lock eyes with her. My best friend. I feel like I need to cling to her, cling to all those that I love because, like Yggdrasil, our time is ending.