Final Flames (Viking Ancestors: Age of Embers Prelude)

Chapter One

S candinavia

983 A.D.

Seven years before the Age of Embers begins.

“ jorn,” RUNE WAILED only to bolt upright, not to utter darkness consuming him but to her spacious cave at the top of Mt. Galdh?piggen.

“You had the dream again, my daughter,” her mother Revna murmured from her perch near the fire. Outside of Rune herself, Revna was the most powerful seer ever born to Midgard. “Only this time, you saw more.” Her dark, luminous, knowing gaze settled on Rune. “You saw your closest friend consumed in darkness.” She cocked her head and considered Rune. Flames flickered over her skin, a reminder of her inner Fire Demon. “But then we both know he is much more to you than just a friend.”

“Yet I get the distinct feeling he should not be,” Rune said softly, not about to deny it when her mother sometimes knew her better than she knew herself. She pulled her legs up to her chest, rested her cheek on her knees, closed her eyes, and sighed. “Now more than ever I sense we will be torn apart should we ever come together.”

“Yet you call out for him in your sleep more often than not, sweet child.” Having closed the distance effortlessly and without sound, her mother’s gentle hand landed on her shoulder. “Call out for him because love cannot be denied no matter its outcome. Especially love that has existed since the moment you laid eyes on each other as babes.”

“Such love,” Rune whispered before she could stop herself. She opened her eyes and stared into the flames beyond her mother, who crouched by her side. “I still remember the first time we were laid beside each other before we could even walk.” She fondly recalled how fascinated they had been when they gazed at one another, and his dragon eyes flared to life for the first time. “He was a late bloomer until that moment.”

“He was,” her mother acknowledged softly, brushing hair back from Rune's forehead. “Yet in that singular moment, looking into your eyes, he shifted into a dragon for the first time and stood guard over you.”

“I know.” Fighting emotion, she pressed her lips together. Despite her tender age at the time, she still recalled staring up at his little black dragon in awe. “I wondered even then why he was so protective...then continued to wonder over the years.”

“He was protective because he loved you.” Her mother wiped a tear from Rune’s cheek she didn’t realize had fallen, and with good reason. She didn’t cry. Ever. Revna steered Rune’s chin until she had no choice but to lift her head and meet her mother’s eyes. “And now the time has come to find out where that love came from because we both know it came from somewhere.” She pressed her palm over Rune’s heart. “It did not ignite the first time you gazed into one another’s eyes, but far sooner. Before your hearts beat for the first time in this life.”

“Yet you will not tell me where our love first blossomed,” she whispered when she couldn’t quite find her voice. “When I know you and my father, Loki, could give me the answer. Loki, a god above all gods.”

“Not above all gods,” her mother chastised gently. “That is a role only filled by Odin, our All-Father.” Fire flickered over her mother’s skin, then traveled over Rune’s, reminding her while she might not have inherited much Fire Demon, she still possessed its element and resilient, unwavering strength. “Your answers lie in your dreams, daughter. They always have.”

“Then my answers lie with jorn,” she replied, never so certain of anything.

“ I would hope so ,” his deep voice rumbled in her mind before he appeared at one of several entrances to her sky-high mountainous sanctuary. His great black dragon landed, shifted into his equally glorious human form, and he scowled at her. “What was that, Rune? Why did I just see you in the worst nightmare I've ever experienced?”

She glanced back at her mother only to find her gone, undoubtedly back amongst the gods with Loki. While she still walked this mortal plane when she chose to, her heart would always be with the God of Chaos. A god she’d found great love with who had given her a daughter she loved just as deeply.

“Tell me about your nightmare,” she replied to jorn, sure to wipe away any remaining tears before he got a good look at her. Pretending to be sleepy as if just roused awake, she pulled her fur around her and squinted at him. “And good morn to you as well, jorn.”

“ Is it good?” jorn grumbled. He sat on the boulder across the fire from her and narrowed his eyes. “Because it did not feel good when I tried to protect you from magical flames born of a lightning bolt only to see you swallowed by darkness.” His dragon eyes flared, telling her just how distressed he was. “You died, Rune. Right there in front of me.” He clenched his strong jaw, and a vein ticked in his temple. “I’m certain of it... right there in front of me even though I couldn’t see you.”

“Yet here I sit,” she reminded gently, fighting the urge to rush into his arms and hold on tight. Never let go. Unlike their nightmare, he wasn’t shirtless, but it didn’t matter. He was as handsome as ever in his black leather tunic, pants, and heavy boots. Every inch a Viking with numerous tattoos and a sizeable, well-sharpened battle axe strapped to his back.

Yet despite his impressive bearing, he was different from his warrior brethren in a way that had long appealed to her. While multiple small braids were woven into his dark locks and a few into his beard on occasion, the talismans woven into his hair warmed her heart. How could they not, given they had collected them together as children? All had a story, too, whether it was a tiny feather or something else.

All had been part of a journey that only ever brought them closer.

Not as close as she would have liked, but close enough because he was here now, comfortable seeking her out in a place most dragons didn’t dare frequent. More so, approach a seer who made those outside of their immediate kin and friends wary.

“ Ja , there you sit,” jorn agreed, echoing her words. His ebony eyebrows bunched, and his narrowed light sage green eyes remained trained on her. “Yet I sense it has not been easy for you either.” He shook his head. “That you are in as much distress as I despite trying to appear as though you just woke.” He sniffed, and one eyebrow rose slowly. “Suspicion lent credence, given your mother was just here, and we both know she only appears when you need her most.”

She both hated and loved that he knew her so well.

Especially right now.

“Mother was worried,” she granted, determined to keep busy and distract him with food and drink, only for jorn to chant a cup of icy cold water into her hand.

She frowned at him. “I do not need this.”

“It’s the best way to rid yourself of the residual Fire Demon that steamed your skin overnight,” he countered. “So you do need it, and we’ve long talked about how you should begin every morn with it.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest and kept eyeing her, not about to let her distract him. “Tell me what you dreamt, Rune. Tell me what you saw.”

While tempted to lie, something about staring into his eyes, especially when he was in this sort of mood, made her confess.

“I did not die in front of you, jorn,” she said, setting things straight. She sipped the water, grateful for its cooling effect on skin she’d hardly realized steamed because she had been so worried about him. Doing her best to suppress emotion she didn’t want him seeing, she clarified what had happened. “ You died in front of me .” She buried how terribly impactful that had been in a few more sips. “Terrified for my safety, you ran toward the fiery remnants of a lightning strike, thinking I was in harm's way until you were gone.”

She swallowed hard and shivered at how intense and heart-wrenching it had been. How real it had seemed. She could still smell the burnt wood. Hear the explosive crack of fire. See the sizzling flames.

Despite trying to hide it, she knew he could tell how upset she really was and wanted to hold her and lend comfort as he had in their youth, but he hesitated. Uncomfortable coming too close, he held back.

She understood it, too.

Understood why they should never be together like that.

She was head seer now and had obligations. He lived in a world where political ties between dragon kingdoms became increasingly important. Tensions were rising, and it seemed they were all on the precipice of great change.

Change where there was no room for a seer and a dragon shifter to be in love.

Change she feared might go one step further in due time, and she wasn’t sure why she felt that way other than division was descending, and when that happened creatures tended to remain amongst their own kind .

“So we shared a nightmare,” jorn said, pulling her back to the here and now. He stood and appeared to be heading her way as if determined to lend comfort after all, only for the last thing they expected to keep him away.

Something that made it clear their mutual nightmare had undoubtedly happened for a reason, and an unforeseen, daunting journey lay ahead.