“Everyone knows your mom’s with child again,” Soren growled. With his teeth gritted into a terrible snarl and his single eye shining from both pain and humiliation one might mistake him for an incredibly pissed-off cat.

“Not Lydian!” Seppo said cheerfully.

Lydian winced. “I must have missed the memo.”

“Well, yeah, with you being in Hel and all,” he said, beaming. “It’s with a guy she’s been with before. First kid turned out human, but we think this one is going to be a halfling.”

“Pass along my congratulations,” Lydian said, “in case I don’t survive this journey.”

“Yeah, I guess one kid is enough for some people, huh?” He shot a look at Rosamund who gave him the finger in return. “Why did you hide that tidbit, anyway, Rose?”

“I thought I made it clear that I desire no contact with him, deny any relationship with him, and all he is to me and my mother is an unwanted sperm donor. If I didn’t consider him my father and wasn’t raised by him, he’s not anything but someone who happens to share blood with me,” Rosamund said, green eyes glaring. “The only good thing about this is that I have a cousin.”

Soren half smiled at that, and my heart warmed at the sight. “It was a shock, but you’re really not so bad,” he said. “Your taste in males is questionable, though.”

There was a long beat before Seppo got the joke and gave an undignified “Hey!”

Lydian simmered by my side. “I’m finding it really hard to be calm right now,” he said. “I would very much like to rip his throat out, and I can’t imagine saying this, but thank the gods I never got with Satu.”

“Everyone thanks the gods you didn’t partner with Satu,” Soren said. “And welcome to the group, if you’re calm and not about to pull someone’s intestines out, something’s very, very wrong.”

THE SKY OF Niflheim neither got darker or brighter as we moved on, only an endless gray sea of mist that rose into the sky, going on forever into the void of space. We could’ve been walking in this silent realm of cold and mist forever until Lydian stopped us and pointed out a shelter we could sleep in.

It wasn’t anything special, a snow burrow that stood frozen as ice.

“Looks a bit small,” Soren commented, eyeing the burrow.

“It’s bigger on the inside,” Lydian said.