The frustration and anger coming off my companions was nearly palpable. “We want Lydian’s shade. We need it released out of Helheim. He doesn’t have to come back to life, necessarily, him and his shade will do,” I demanded, and hoped I sounded a lot more sure of myself than I truly felt.

Hel threw back her head and laughed. The sound was like nails against a chalkboard, like shattering glass, and I fought not to cover my ears. “YOU,” she said, laughing. “You and your ragtag bunch of heroes think you can demand from me the shade of a member of my realm? What right do you all have to do such a thing? Even the mighty Frigga couldn’t bring Balder back from death and away from my realm. And yet you think you can offer me something the goddess queen could not, in return?”

I focused on breathing steady, keeping my body from tensing up. I shot furtive looks at the members of my party and they did the same as well as they possibly could. No one said this was going to be easy and being mocked by Hel was probably something we all should’ve expected. There was no use in getting angry or offended or even irritated by her. We had to keep pressing our point.

But it was impossible to stand in front of Hel and not feel incredibly intimidated by her size and features and the strength of her voice. Her straightened and squared shoulders as well as the way she almost lounged on her throne only proved how confident in her power she was.

“Frigga may be the goddess queen, yes,” I said, “but I am the stag, and as such, my jurisdiction is much different than her majesty’s.”

Hel let out another ear-splitting laugh. “Yes, you are the little stag who can barely control or use even an eighth of the power the real stag possessed. You may bear the mantle and you may have the name, but you are nothing—nothing—compared to the great beast the original stag was. Why should I concern myself with the opinions of a weak fawn?”

The goddess of death knew to hit me right where it hurt. Yeah, sure, I’d managed to do something in the water that I hadn’t before. I saw that trapped soul, her pain, her past, her grief, and set her free so she could pass across the water, but that was literally the only thing I’d yet to do with the stag’s powers that came directly from my own ability. She was right. I was less a stag and more a little white fawn. Weak and trembling in a world too strong for her.