Page 80 of Soul of Fire

Amaya shot me a disapproving look, as if she knew exactly what blasphemy I’d been considering. “The Norns foresaw that no human, not even a Chaosborn, could wield the power of a goddess and survive long enough to close the Rift.”

“Why not have the völva seal the Rift then?” Eisa asked. “You have magic.”

Amaya shook her head. “It must be a human, for it was a human who opened the Rift. The universe requires balance. So they sent their guardians to give humanity the power they would need.”

“So any drage can wield them?” Eisa asked, looking between the three women. I didn’t miss the hopeful note in her tone, and my heart sank at Amaya’s answering wince.

“No…not exactly.” She glanced at Sigrid, who gave her a subtle nod. “Only one born of both worlds–a human with a soul of fire–is strong enough to destroy the darkness for good.”

The vaguest shimmering of a truth had started to materialize in my mind, but I couldn’t figure out how it would be possible.

Sigrid took Eisa’s hand, her eyes sad. “Which brings us to your mother, child.”

“My mother.” Eisa’s face had gone white, and she shook her head vehemently. “She wasn’t drage.”

She had said as much when Baldur had found her, and I knew that she was right. Her mother couldn’t have been drage.

Unless…

But no. There would surely be records.

“No, no. She was human.” The look she cast on my mate was as fond as any grandmother’s, but filled with regret. “Less human than you, though, child.”

“Less human?” Eisa looked at me, and I took her hand.

I squeezed Eisa’s hand and turned my attention fully on Sigrid, my heart pounding in anticipation. In terror. “Who are her parents, Sigrid?”

“It’s Mormor to you, boy, and exactly who she thinks,” Sigrid said huffily as if I were accusing her of lying. She looked at Eisa, her eyes softening again. “Your father was, I’m sad to say, a ne’er-do-well who lost all of his money gambling. But your mother loved him, once. She left this temple to wed him, in fact. Insisted to me that she would be happy and safe with the man she loved.”

Freya scoffed. “That didn’t last long.”

“Freya,” Amaya chastised. The older woman rolled her eyes, but remained silent.

“My mother grew up here,” Eisa said slowly, as if trying to weave the narrative together in her mind.

“She was a foundling,” Sigrid replied, sounding hesitant for the first time since beginning her narrative. “Born in the temple ruins and abandoned here by her parents as a babe.”

“Abandoned?”

Fuck. That’s why there were no records.

“They knew that she wouldn’t be safe anywhere else. Asked me to watch over her. I fear…” Sigrid shook her head, looking devastated, “I failed them, in the end. Them, and her.”

I kept my breaths shallow as the import of what Sigrid was telling us fully hit me. It wasn’t possible, but it was the only explanation that made sense. “They were drage.”

“What?” Eisa looked at me, but I kept my eyes on Sigrid, waiting for confirmation.

She nodded once, her gaze darting to my mate before returning to mine. “Born of two worlds.”

Holy gods above.

“It’s why you burn blue,” I took Eisa’s hands in mine as all the pieces finally clicked into place. As I fought the panic that rose in me. Having Baldur’s mate close the Rift had been all well and good in theory, but now that I knew what it would entail…what was on the other side of it…

Fuck.

“It’s why Chaos affects you so much more than the rest of us,” I continued. “Why you are sick with it. Why your mother was even more sick. There’s too much.”

Had Baldur known this whole time? He had warned me months ago.She is something new. Something different.And it had taken trekking across the continent twice for me to finally put the fucking pieces together.