“Bollocks,” Soren cussed, putting more force behind his movements until the metal snapped open. Lydian toppled off the log, and Soren was faced with the angry Nidhogg staring at him.

“Don’t look away from him,” Lydian advised, and for once, Soren listened to his uncle, locking eyes with the angry serpent.

The stare down continued for an eternity with me and the others tensed and ready to fight as soon as the snake made its first move. Soren became unnaturally still, his eyes locked on the serpent’s while he slowly slid out one of the other longer daggers he’d kept in his sleeve.

The Nidhogg slowly began to lower its head back down into the sand as Soren breathed in relief. That is, until his dagger clinked against another weapon, and the Nidhogg shot forward, jaws open, and sank its fangs into Soren’s face.

The scream that came from Soren caused my insides to turn as all at once we sprang into action. My axe went down heavy on the Nidhogg’s side but it’s armor-like scales kept it from any injury the sharpened blades might’ve created. Seppo’s and Rose’s weapons were also of little use as blood gushed from Soren’s face. Lydian and Diaval met eyes and nodded once, an unspoken communication going through the two as Diaval started to chant in the ancient magical tongue while Lydian lunged at the Nidhogg, wrestling the snake away from his nephew and tearing its fangs out from his face.

Soren looked a bloody mess, and he held his hand over where one eye was, gasping in pain as a black, wispy circle formed around the six of us. The black wisps swirled around faster and faster, creating a dome that the Nidhogg couldn’t get through, I assumed from its frustrated sounds. Diaval clasped her hands together and yelled out a single word, and the shores fell away in the blink of an eye. Then we were falling and falling and falling.

We landed in a world shrouded entirely in mist with the ground already darkening from Soren’s blood.

PART THREE

THE IN-BETWEEN

17

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW

THERE WAS SILENCE on the frozen ground as we all lay in shock from the portal. Only Soren’s aching moans broke the eerie quiet that was the world of mist, Niflheim. It was a dangerous place, connected to Hel, and monsters and lost souls wandered around growing more and more unhinged at the darkness and mist. My father told me breathing in the mist of Niflheim would take all of your sanity if you did it for too long.