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Chapters (92)
  1. Cover
  2. TheEVERAFTER
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
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  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
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  17. 15
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  40. 38
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  54. 52
  55. 53
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  58. 56
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  60. 58
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  82. 80
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  84. 82
  85. 83
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  87. 85
  88. 86
  89. Epilogue
  90. GLOSSARY
  91. TheEVERAFTER
  92. By Amanda Hocking

He worked all the way up on the fourth floor, in the far southwest corner, and he always had a guard in a crimson satin uniform. While I waited for the guard to finish his security scan, I faintly heard voices from the Korva’s office. A man and a woman talking indistinctly. Dagny didn’t say anyone else would be here. Maybe Amalie or his assistant had decided to sit in.

The guard stepped to the side. “Go on in, Ms. Tulin.”

I mumbled thanks and opened the door. It was a long rectangle of a room, with the entrance at one end and Ragnall’s obsidian desk at the other. Windows gave a view of the ocean crashing at the cliff far below, and my footsteps echoed softly as I walked in.

Ragnall sat in the chair at his desk, while a young woman sat on the desk itself, facing him with her back to me. Her long dark hair was woven together in multiple braids, and she wore a cloak of cobalt blue. In her hand she held a vicious-looking weapon. It was a bardiche—similar to a spear with a wooden pole, but instead of the spearhead it had a long, curved battle-axe.

“Ah, our guests have arrived!” Ragnall said with his razorsharp grin.

As I walked toward the desk, the young woman looked back at me, and I froze. She only appeared a few times in my recovered memories, but I recognized her instantly.

It was Tuva, the head of the thrimavolk, who had held me prisoner along with the sadistic Noomi. They were the exact ones I had been trying to prevent from being able to cross the bridge.

And she was with the man I had gone to for help in stopping her.

Ragnall rose to his feet, rebuttoning his suit jacket. “I see you still remember my daughter, Tuva Ragnasdottir.”

“D-daughter?” I stammered.

“Her memory is resilient, but she’s not great with words,” another voice said with a short cackle of a laugh.

I’d been so stunned to see Tuva I hadn’t noticed Illaria standing by the window.

53

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Benevolent

“What are you doing here?” I asked. I’d meant it to come out angrier, but the shock left my voice breathless and weak.

Illaria had been leaning against the glass, and her hair nearly matched the overcast sky—a steely gray. She smiled at me, and it had the disarming effect of making her look like an evil doll. Her bottom lip was fuller than the top, giving her wicked smile a pouty twist, and her big eyes were framed by long lashes.

When she stepped away from the window, coming toward me, her hair changed color to match the interior of Ragnall’s office—first shifting to the rich brown of the Tralla leather chairs before landing on inky black to match the obsidian slab of Ragnall’s massive desk.