Truth or Death Read online

  Truth or Death

  Bitter Ashes Book Six

  Sara C Roethle

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  1

  “Madeline, down!”

  I dropped to the dirt. A lock of my hair blew forward as Mikael’s axe whooshed over my head.

  The ghoul that had been reaching for me shrieked. Blood drenched my back. I stood, turning toward the sound of another shrieking ghoul. I lifted my hands and hit it with a burst of energy. The sickly-looking woman launched backward into a nearby tree. I tried not to think about the fact that the ghoul had once been someone’s loved one, but now was little more than a monster no longer held by its grave.

  Mikael swung his axe again, beheading the final ghoul. He lowered his bloody weapon, then peered out through loose strands of blood-streaked auburn hair. “I’m looking forward to the day these things stop rising from the grave.”

  Sloughing the blood and some bits of flesh from my hair, I looked around the forest, past the bodies. Yggdrasil’s root had to be somewhere nearby. We’d traveled down from Asgard with the sole intent of destroying yet another root. Each root destroyed helped restore balance by cutting off the pathway from earth to other realms. Unfortunately, the roots had been left long enough that wild magics had come through. The ghouls rising from their graves were one of the less strange occurrences, but also one of the most dangerous given their numbers. While I could control other undead to an extent, ghouls had no master, and they never would. They were bloodthirsty monsters, with nothing left of the people they used to be.

  Mikael approached, wiping the blood from his axe with an old rag. His black jeans and T-shirt didn’t show the stains of battle. Over the past few months, we’d learned to stop wearing light colors.

  He glanced around the dense forest, somewhere in Northern Idaho. The ground was now littered with dead ghouls, but that wasn’t what he was looking for. Though we’d traveled through Yggdrasil to find this place, the roots were never right where we landed. Almost like Yggdrasil was trying to keep us away. And since the roots were a huge source of magic, we usually met some beasties on our path back.

  I gave up on wiping the blood from my long hair. It was a lost cause. “At least it was just ghouls this time. I’d rather deal with them than the creatures strong enough to come through from other realms.”

  Mikael nodded. The bulk of his hair was braided back from his face, sparing it some of the blood that speckled his cheeks. He’d been smart. I really needed to start wearing my hair back. “Yes, better ghouls than trolls. That was a total nightmare.”

  The troll had been somewhere in Romania. Destroying that root had been particularly difficult. I closed my eyes, making it easier for me to focus on the surrounding energy. If I tried hard enough, I could sense when a part of Yggdrasil was nearby.

  I open my eyes, then started walking. “This way, I don’t think it’s far.”

  Brambles snagged at my black jeans and navy flannel as I led the way through the woods. The roots always tended to pop up in remote forests. I didn’t know why, but I was grateful. Humans had already become aware that some pretty strange stuff was happening. There was no way to keep the ghouls secret, or any of the other monsters running amok. The world was in chaos, but at least in the forests, no one saw us fighting them, though I kept waiting for the moment we’d run into a clan of survivalists. Having bystanders around would make it difficult to do what I needed to do.

  I spotted the golden root through the trees. It was taller than I was, and twice as wide, snaking out of the ground with curling tendrils. Since Yggdrasil’s trunk was regrown on earth, at least what I thought of as earth, all of the roots were here too. Yggdrasil touched the other realms with its branches. The few golden branches I’d seen from other realms reached down from the sky, and could lead to either other branches, or the roots. Unfortunately, all the creatures seemed to be choosing the roots, lured by the Well of Urd, forever embedded beneath the streets of Hillsboro.

  We’d been assigned by Odin the task of destroying the roots, thus cutting off the flow of magic into our world. The prize for completing our task was getting to leave Asgard with my child, Erykah. The thought of Odin trying to keep her made me sick. I wasn’t sure if gods could be killed, but Odin was definitely making me want to try.

  Mikael hoisted his axe beside me, his eyes on the root. “Are you ready?”

  I took a shaky breath. I was never ready for this part. To sever the roots, I first needed to suppress the magic, and the only way I knew how to do that was to absorb it, then shove it all back into the root, sending it in the other direction. After that, Mikael would have mere seconds to sever the root with his axe.

  I felt the air shifting behind me, and turned. Loki stood there, dressed in brown leather pants and a loose white button up shirt. His fiery red hair flowed down to his waist. “Am I late?”

  I glared at him. “If you mean, are you too late to help us with the ghouls, then yes, but we still haven’t severed the root.”

  He walked toward the branch, then circled around it, observing it. If he was worried about the task ahead, he didn’t show it. “Well at least I didn’t forget entirely and leave you stranded here.”

  That was the other difficult part of my task. I could find the roots by traveling through Yggdrasil, but once I destroyed them, I didn’t have a way to travel back. The solution was Loki, or Freyja, who could use cuttings from Yggdrasil’s branches to bring us back to the trunk here on earth. Yggdrasil wanted to be whole, and would attract the branches, but only a god could tag along for the ride.

  Mikael hefted his axe across his shoulder. “Let’s get this over with. I’m ready for a hot meal and a shower.”

  While both things sounded nice, I really just wanted to see my daughter. The past three months had been difficult, being away from her every day while we hunted down the roots, and being away from Alaric, who stayed behind to look after her. Part of me always feared that something would happen and I wouldn’t be able to get back to them. That they would be trapped in Asgard, and I would be stuck on earth. Odin had given me his word that it wouldn’t happen, but I really didn’t trust the word of someone who had manipulated me into such an impossible situation to begin with.

  Feeling itchy with tension, I focused on the root. “Make sure you don’t get too close until it’s time,” I said to the men behind me. They were strong enough that I probably wouldn’t accidentally drain any of their life force, but better safe than sorry.

  I put my hands on the golden root. It was warm to the touch, pulsating with energy. I pulled the energy into myself. My body began to feel hot, too hot, and oddly full. I could only hold so much magic. My body was still technically mortal, and wasn’t meant for this. I continued pulling in the energy until I could barely breathe, then pushed all of it at once back into the root.

  I hopped back. “Now!”

  Mikael moved quickly. He swung his axe in a well practiced arc, severing the root in one swipe.

  The earth rumbled, knocking me from my feet. I sat up, my breath held as I watched the root in anxious anticipation. The golden light in what remained of root pulsed wildly, then went out, leaving just a normal gnarled root stump sticking up from the ground.

  Loki let out a low whistle. “I never really get used to seeing that. It seems so . . . wrong.”

  “It is wrong.” I took Mikael’s offered hand and stood. �
�Yggdrasil is how it is meant to be, and we are slowly killing it.”

  Loki came to stand in front of us. “I know. It may be a vague memory for me, but I do recall how it was supposed to be before your people destroyed it.”

  “It was Hecate too.”

  Loki smirked. “Yes, and she’s rotting away in a prison cell for her crimes.” He removed the golden branch where it was looped through his belt, then held it out to us. “Take hold, kiddos.”

  I wrapped my hand around the golden branch, right above Loki’s. Mikael put his hand above mine. Dizziness overcame me. I always tried to keep my eyes open for this part, if only to understand a little bit better, but every time we appeared in front of Yggdrasil’s trunk, my eyes were closed and I didn’t remember closing them.

  My hiking boots sunk into soft sand. I took a refreshing breath of the sea air and opened my eyes, then peered around the desolate beach. This next part I was able to do on my own. I faced Yggdrasil, then placed my hands against its golden trunk, attuning myself with its energy. No other mortal could do what I was about to attempt, but I’d been the one to regrow the tree. I could feel my energy mingling with its ancient magic. I thought of Asgard, where Erykah and Alaric awaited.

  The next thing I knew, we were being spit down into Asgard. I tumbled across perfectly green grass, ending up near a small ornamental fence. The sun overhead was slowly setting. I let out a sigh as I climbed to my feet, then my knees buckled. I gripped the little fence for dear life, then finally managed to straighten. Destroying the roots always took it out of me. It was like when I returned the magic, a bit of my own energy went with it. I would recover in time, but it was still unpleasant.

  Loki approached and patted my shoulder. “Well, I’m off to find a drink. Find me when you’re ready to do another root.”

  Mikael moved to my side and took my free hand, keeping me standing as we moved away from the fence.

  I looked to Loki. “I’ll need a few days.” It was getting worse. It was more difficult to recover every time, though I didn’t understand why.

  “Ooh, a few days off, lucky me.” Loki opened the little useless gate in the fence, then ambled away across the well-maintained grass.

  I looked to Mikael. “Help me get to Alaric?”

  He nodded. While there was still an odd tension between us since he’d declared his feelings for me, I knew he was excited to see Erykah. He’d taken to her like an uncle, or perhaps a second father, and she seemed just as taken with him, though at three months old, her expression was limited.

  He helped me through the ornate gate surrounding the space where Yggdrasil’s branch reached down, then across the grass toward a cobblestone path. Alaric and I had been given a small cottage, though we were rarely the only ones in it. Faas and Sophie were usually around, and sometimes Aila, Alejandro, Tabitha, or anyone else who wanted to visit Erykah. A baby was a bit of a novelty for the Vaettir, a race that rarely had children.

  I didn’t mind their presence. The more Vaettir around to come between Erykah and Odin, the better.

  Mikael maintained his grip on my arm as we walked, though I was beginning to feel more steady. He glanced at me. “It’s getting worse.”

  I winced. So he’d noticed. Why wasn’t I surprised? “I’m probably just tired. We’ve been doing a lot lately. It was bound to catch up to me eventually.”

  “Stop lying, Maddy.”

  I huffed. “It doesn’t matter if it’s getting harder. We have no choice.”

  His hand squeezed my arm. “We won’t let him take her.”

  I glanced around the darkening scenery, at the perfect shrubs lining the paths, at the gardens beyond. It would have been a nice place if I didn’t feel so trapped. “Let’s not talk about that here.”

  He nodded. “You’re right.”

  I didn’t really know if anyone was around to listen, but we were dealing with gods. We were way out of our depth. We might have gathered a few allies, but for the most part, Asgard was a hostile place.

  We reached our small cottage, set far back away from the path. We both stood looking at it for a tired, worried moment. A few other cottages could be seen in the distance, though I didn’t know who lived in them. I hadn’t been keen on chatting up the neighbors. I’d never take our chaotic, Vaettir-filled home on earth for granted again.

  We found Alaric rocking Erykah in the bedroom. She was fast asleep, cradled in his arms. His silky black hair draped over his shoulder, trailing down to touch her sock-clad feet.

  He looked up as Mikael and I entered the room. “I thought I heard something. I trust you checked in with Faas on your way through. He clucks like a nervous hen the entire time you’re gone.”

  I hardly heard his words. I bent down in front of him, then took Erykah. Though I’d just held her that morning, I couldn’t help but feel like she was older now. Like I was missing everything. I supposed sacrifices were needed if one wanted to not only save her family, but the world.

  I straightened with Erykah in my arms, then looked down at Alaric. “Nothing happened while we were gone?”

  He shook his head, then smiled. “No, we just puttered around the cottage,” he waggled his eyebrows, “lonely and missing you.”

  “Well,” Mikael interrupted. “That is my cue to depart.” He touched my shoulder. “Get some rest.”

  Alaric looked from me to Mikael. “It’s getting more difficult for her, isn’t it?”

  “I’m fine,” I interrupted. Having Alaric going all protective on me would only make things worse.

  He tsked at me, his dark gaze utterly serious. “Maddy, the bags under your eyes are more blue than your actual eyes. You’re clearly about to collapse.”

  “Fine,” I huffed. “It’s getting harder. Are you happy?”

  Alaric shook his head. “Perhaps as you seal off more roots, the magic in those that remain grows more powerful.”

  I shrugged. “It’s a thought.” Erykah woke up with a gurgle. Her gray eyes lit up as they landed on me.

  Mikael reached over my shoulder to tickle her belly. Her little hands reached for his finger, and the look on his face was all I needed to know he’d protect her if Alaric and I didn’t survive.

  He caught me looking at him, then offered me a small smile. “I’ll leave you alone then. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Alaric stood and put his arms around me from behind as Mikael left the room. He began to lean into me, then tensed. “Your hair smells like foul blood.”

  I looked down at Erykah. I really didn’t want to let her go, but I needed to shower. “Ghouls,” I explained.

  Alaric stepped around my side, then took Erykah from me. “Let’s have her visit with uncle Faas so I can get you clean.”

  My heart hurt as I let her go. “I may be tired, but I know how to shower.”

  “Ah, but isn’t it more fun if I help you?”

  I laughed, shoving away my sadness to be dealt with another time. “You are a good scrubber, I’ll give you that.”

  Cradling Erykah with one arm, he put the other around my waist to guide me out of the room. “Oh I’m good at many things, Madeline. Or have you forgotten?”

  “I guess you’ll just have to remind me.”

  He kissed my cheek as we went in search of Faas. With Alaric’s presence, the stress of the day seemed to slowly melt away. I could almost forget that Erykah was depending on me to carry out Odin’s task. I could almost forget, but only for a night.

  The weight of the world would still be waiting for me in the morning.

  2

  Midnight found me within the main estate in Asgard. Though I was free to come and go as I pleased, I did not visit frequently. When I did, it was late at night, after Alaric was asleep. If he knew what I was doing, he’d probably try to stop me. Hell, half the time I tried to stop myself, but there was a part of me that still needed answers.

  I nodded to Morgan, the dark-haired guard on duty. He was young, around my age, though he was really decades older than me. He�
�d just been around my age when he’d been taken to Asgard. I made sure to only go when I knew he’d be around. He wouldn’t stop me, or question what I was doing. He was as much a prisoner here as anyone else, serving out the sentence he’d taken on in exchange for his wife’s life.

  His smile didn’t quite reach his eyes as he looked me over, it never did. He held the door open for me. “You look like hell.”

  “I feel like it too,” I said as I walked past.

  There was another guard inside. I didn’t know his name, only that he wasn’t half as friendly as Morgan. I nodded to him, and he pushed away from the wall to walk ahead of me. He knew exactly where I was going. Hopefully he wouldn’t tell anyone else.

  We walked down a cell lined corridor all the way to the end, where the guard produced a key to unlock the final door. He opened it, then stepped aside for me to enter. As soon as I was in, he shut it behind me.

  There was only one prisoner in this part of the dungeon. She sat hunched on her bed, her auburn hair covering her face. She’d lost weight since she’d first been imprisoned. Her loose white clothing hung off her bony frame in a way that was uncomfortable to look at.

  I stood there until she lifted her face. Her eyes seemed to flicker in the firelight of the single sconce on the wall. Often times she was left to sit with no light at all. Someone else must have been in to visit recently.

  I slid my back down the wall across from the cell and sat on the cold stone beneath my feet.

  Hecate watched me, but did not speak.

  I settled in, but couldn’t find a comfortable position leaning my back against the stone wall. “I sealed off another root today.”

  Hecate tilted her head. “Did you come here just to tell me that? You should have saved yourself the trip, I felt it happen.”