Dagny, Sumi, Wendy, Bryn, and I stood around the map of Áibmoráigi that Sumi had sketched in the dirt. Finn had kept arguing against the idea—even after everyone agreed that it was the best course of action—so Tove and Loki took him back to girjastu.

Sumi’s map helped us lay out possible vantage points and potential coverage. It was hard to know what exactly we’d be walking into or how many of the Alfheim monsters would be waiting for us, so Sumi and Bryn ran through multiple scenarios and how to deal with them.

“Whatever happens, you two need to get as high as you can as fast as you can,” Bryn summarized. “The rest of us will run interference so you can take care of the wyrm.”

“How much sorgblomma do you have?” Wendy asked.

Dagny slipped her bag off her back and pulled out a corked bottle. It was half full of red liquid, and she sloshed the bottle. “We took everything the häxdoktor had on his shelf.”

“Are you sure that’s enough?” Wendy asked.

“Well, it’s all we have, so it has to be,” Dagny replied, and Wendy frowned.

“Ulla?” Sunniva called for me from the hall.

“Yeah?” I said as I went back toward the door.

“There you are.” She came into the room looking relieved, and Noomi was right behind her.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Not anything you don’t already know about,” Sunniva said. “And my auditory precogs are getting louder.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Maybe nothing, maybe something,” she replied vaguely.

“What are you doing here?” Dagny asked Noomi.

“I heard you were going to kill the wyrm,” Noomi said. “I want to help.”

“It would’ve been a lot more helpful if you hadn’t let the damn thing in,” Dagny countered icily.

Noomi’s jaw tensed and she met Dagny’s gaze defiantly. “I cannot go back in time. I can only fight forward.”

“You can fight with me,” Wendy said to Noomi. “We need all the help we can get.”

Suddenly, there was a far-off boom, and dust rained down from the ceiling.

“You all heard that, right?” Sunniva asked uneasily.

“What was that?” Wendy asked.

Sumi looked up at the ceiling. “Another rockslide maybe?”

Sunniva was standing beside me, and she reached over and took my hand. Then she took a few steps backward, leading me more into the center of the room.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“No matter what happens, we stay right here,” Sunniva said firmly, and her dark eyes were locked anxiously on the door.

There was another boom, louder this time, and more dust and pebbles came down from the ceiling.

“Noomi!” someone yelled, and a young thrimavolk came running in. “Noomi, the wyrm burnt down the stables, and it’s trying to get in through the front door!”