A Queen for the Frost Giant (Legends of Rahasia Book 0)

Chapter Fifty

(Song is "Luna" by Iniko)

It was rumored, long ago, that Idriola once ruled the seas. A legendary sea warrior, riding dragon-headed boats, wished to settle her bones after many long, bloody years of looting...She won the title of Ruler of the Jötnar by defeating the king in combat. The giants, despairing at the loss of their leader, moved their kingdom far beneath the icy sea. Only the most loyal family of the giant king stayed for execution. The firstborn son, tired from fighting his captors, fell into a deep sleep beneath the mountain. His skin toughened into purest ice; his heart so frozen that none could thaw it.

She was my many-greats grandmother, twelve generations ago. I will wear her crown upon my brow when I bear a wound in sacrifice for another. This is how things are done.

**

​When I wake, Fell lies at my side, a reykr bauble device over his mouth. He's mortal now, becoming one of the humans he hated so much. The ones who betrayed him. Like me.

​He isn't moving.

In my hands, there's the trinket I made of Julius's heart. The last of the seiðr flows from Julius's vengeful heart and into Fell. The heart shatters like ice upon the ground when its magic leaves it, just an empty vessel for rot and decay.

​Slowly, I turn around, my hands on his chest, waiting for any movement.

​His eyelashes flutter, ever so slightly, and from beneath my fingertips, I feel it.

​His chest moves. His heart beats.

​It beats in a mortal body, but for now, there is Fell. Fell Hallvarðr the jötunn is lost to myth and legend, dead in the collapse of the children's mines of Dreki.

However. Fell Hallvarðr, the mortal boy, he lives.

And that, in my eyes, is better than any legend I could've dreamed of.

**

​I'm laid out on a mat in a healer's tent, breathing in through a bauble mask as Sigrid, grateful mother to Gertrud and Bran, has been making healing teas to ease my pain all night and day. Revna, the former right-hand-woman to the traitor imposter Julius, runs the task forces to offer aid and stolen goods back to those the Masked Men harmed.

​Fell is resting on a cot beside me. He doesn't speak much, spending most the day in slumber, his mortal body accustoming itself to the reduced levels of seiðr.

Lord Leif Kazmer holds a handkerchief dappled with red. Him and Quinn are grinning ear to ear. I scrunch my nose up at the sight of the bloody handkerchief in his hand.

"Toss that, it's filthy."

Him and Quinn share a look and a good laugh before turning back to me. I resist the urge to stick my tongue out at them. "What is it? Why aren't you throwing that garbage out?"

"Lords, one would think she would've got it by now considering her fancy royal education." Quinn laughs again, grasping my shoulder gently. "You shed blood to save another's life. You've done the trials of Cloelia Crispus Regina successfully. You can now ascend the throne." And here, she bows and then elbows Lord Kazmer to bow too, both of them so low that they almost duck out my view. "All hail, Queen Cassia Boadicea Dominus. Imperator of the Idriolan kingdom! Has a nice ring to it, eh?"

Lord Kazmer winks at me. "I've never tasted a sweeter sound upon my tongue."

I don't say anything for a heartbeat or two, and then it happens.

Laughter.

I'm laughing so hard that my makeshift nurse, the apologetic Sigrid, comes over to shake a spoon at me and wave more medicinal tea in my face. "What are you laughing for? You must rest! You just survived a cave-in, for gods' sakes."