The night I fell asleep in front of a roaring blue fire before he did, closer to him due to the warmth that radiated from his body, lulled and comforted by it all instead of repulsed, I knew I’d lost the battle and I would continue to drift farther and farther into this world as we traveled. Drift farther and farther into him.

A voice in my head whispered no, whispered roots, but another voice asked me if it would really be that bad to fall into this place, fall into him, and I woke up in blind terror one night, gasping from the voices and feelings in my head.

There was something I needed to do. Somewhere I needed to go, and I couldn’t keep falling into this world. If I fell asleep, I would never wake up again, not to the world I needed to, somehow I knew. I palmed the knife that I was given so very long ago, the iron smelling unpleasant in the Permafrost, so strong that it woke him up from beside me. He gave me a resigned look, like he’d expected this to happen, and moved to disarm me, but I turned away before he could and began hacking at the exposed roots at the base of the tree I slept near, eyes widening as the roots began to bleed a thick, dark sap. I hacked and hacked, cut and jabbed, and then as the thick sap flowed, I took it in my mouth and drank like some type of creature was possessing me.

All of a sudden the fire fell away, the Permafrost fell away, the trees fell away, the horses fell away, and the goblin man beside me fell away, and all that was left were the roots. So impossibly long and thick.

And I was falling once more.

MY BACK HIT the roots as they spiraled down and once again the voice of Hel spoke. “You’re a clever girl.” The condescension in her voice was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. “Aren’t you? Or is it luck that keeps you from losing yourself completely in your other selves?” The void called out to me, shimmering like skipping a pebble over water, and I glared at the vast darkness.

“Did you truly have so little faith in me?” I snarled to Hel’s voice, but all I could hear was her laughter—grating and painful to the ears.

Her voice faded away as the other, more ancient voice spoke, By root, by fang, by iron, come back to us. By root, by fang, by iron, seal your fate. Though there was no speaker, the words brushed against my skin as if someone whispered softly against me. The words ran down my body like a gentle caress. Unlike the mocking of Hel, this voice called out encouragement as I closed my eyes once more.