Chapter 4

Without the Fire Essence, my body had deteriorated to a critical threshold. I could no longer patrol the perimeter the way I used to. All I could do was drag my broken sword behind me and drift around the entrance like a ghost.

Lucas seemed determined to wear me down.

He started bringing Claire to Niflheim more and more often, but they never went inside.

They just lingered near the entrance.

He made a point of doting on Claire right in front of me. "Claire, put this coat on. I don't want you catching a cold."

"Lucas, you're so sweet to me."

They clung to each other, their voices dripping with a sweetness that turned my stomach.

I stood six feet away, leaning on the remains of a shattered sword like a statue left too long in the wind.

My vision had faded almost entirely. I couldn't make out their faces anymore, and I had to rely on the sound of their voices to track where they stood.

When I didn't react, Lucas made his next move with deliberate cruelty.

He reached into his coat and pulled out an amulet, a rune-carved pendant set with twin serpents coiled around each other in an eternal embrace.

I had spent ten years searching every corner of the Nine Realms to find it for him, a token of our bond.

"Claire, this old thing has lost its shine. It doesn't suit you." He turned the pendant over in his fingers with a lazy smile. "I'll find you something better tomorrow."

He tossed it without looking. The amulet tumbled through the air in a slow arc and landed right at my feet.

It cracked in two against the frozen ground.

Lucas watched me, searching my face for any flicker of anger or grief.

But I just glanced down at the two blurred pieces lying in the snow.

Then I nudged them into the snowdrift beside me with the toe of my boot, so they wouldn't trip any frost beasts passing through.

When I was done, I straightened up again.

"You two." I kept my voice steady and even. "Niflheim's inner territory is dangerous, and the storms here can kill. If you want to have intimate time, find somewhere else. Don't block the path."

The silence that followed was absolute.

Claire's expression twisted into something ugly.

She looked as though I had personally spat in her face.

"Evelyn, what the hell are you talking about?" She shoved herself out of Lucas' arms and stormed toward me. "You're nothing but a broken shell with no power left, and you think you can tell me and Lucas what to do?"

She stopped inches from my face. Her eyes swept over my features, pale but still striking beneath the frost, and a vicious spark of jealousy flashed through them.

"That pretty face of yours is wasted on you. All it does is tempt men." Her voice dropped to a snarl. "So let me do Lucas a favor and fix that right now."

She yanked the golden blade-pin from her hair and slashed it straight at my face.

Lucas stood his ground and made no move to stop her.

He crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for me to panic and beg him for help.

As if the moment I cried out "Lucas, save me," he would step in like some merciful god, call off Claire, and then mock me for being weak.

But he miscalculated.

I didn't flinch or call for help.

The system ran a rapid analysis through my mind.

"Hostile attack detected. The current physical condition is insufficient for an effective counterattack.

"Facial disfigurement would impair vision, increase the risk of infection, and reduce overall survival.

"An optimal strategy is to demonstrate willingness to die, forcing the invader to stand down."

Without hesitation, I raised the broken sword in my hand. I didn't aim it at Claire. Instead, I pressed the blade flat against my own throat.

Claire's pin hadn't even touched my face before my blade had already broken the skin on my neck, and blood began to flow immediately.

I didn't pause. I was ready to drag it across.

"Evelyn!" A ragged scream tore through the air beside me.

Lucas vanished from where he stood.

In the next instant, he caught the blade bare-handed as it cut into my throat. The rusted edge sliced deep into his palm, and his blood ran down the length of the sword, mingling with mine.

He stared at me, his eyes bloodshot and his breath ragged. "Have you lost your mind?! You'd rather slit your own throat than submit to me? Evelyn! What the hell is wrong with you!"

His voice cracked with a panic he didn't even recognize in himself.

I lowered the blade and let my clouded, sightless eyes drift toward him. I tried to focus on his face, but all I could see was a dark, shapeless blur.

I didn't understand why he was stopping me from carrying out the optimal protocol.

I tilted my head, genuinely confused. "Stranger. Do you know me?"