When I came to, I was leaning against the wall in the dungeon. Crouched beside me, and holding a blood bag, my father brushed my hair behind my ear when I opened my eyes. "There she is." The original hybrid greeted me, placing the blood bag in my hand.
I ripped into it, draining the blood in seconds. He helps me stand up. I hadn't been out long, considering that I was down here still. If I had been passed out for hours, I would've been brought upstairs and Freya would have worked some magic to help me. I haven't passed out from magic expenditure since I was mortal, so being a vampire had something to do with how quickly I recovered.
"The brotherhood." I rubbed my temples. My hands were still damp with blood. "They're loose in a city of vampires. We need to tell Marcellus."
"We will." My father placed a soothing hand on my shoulder. "For now, we should discuss what happened." I glanced over, noticing that Elijah, Freya, and Hope were there as well. I was certainly not getting out of an explanation this time.
"My Magic Nullifying Charm was tampered with. It's not a failure on my end, but an oversight of external forces. Odin's Restraining Array keeps them detained, but it allows outsiders to pass through." I walked over to the space where the dome had been, looking around at the blood splattered floor for some sort of residue left behind from whoever had helped the brotherhood.
"A magic Nullifying charm?" Freya echoed. "Since when has that ever been dependable magic?"
"Since I added vampire blood and mutated Henbane root." I crouched down and ran my fingers through the blood, lifting them to my nose. The only thing distinguishing was that it belonged to magic folk. The rest couldn't be deciphered. I glanced up at my aunt, who refused to admit she was impressed with my ingenuity. I could tell by the curious expression on her face that she hadn't expected me to use such a charm.
"They used a spell called Surtyr's fire. It burned through the array. I never accounted for such magic when I placed the array." I admitted.
"Why not?" Uncle Elijah asked, knowing that I was usually more thorough than that.
"It's not Clan Hela approved magic. It's been discarded for years because most witches and warlocks can't cast the spell. It requires a higher magical capacity, not even firstborns can cast it on their own. Surtyr's fire is also in a category of Viking magic that is generally regarded as taboo." I narrowed my eyes, reaching for a piece of the jade pendant on the ground. The stone had completed crumbled into dozens of pieces. I knew when I invoked the gods that I risked a magic surge, but it was the only opportunity I saw to keep the situation under control. So much for that idea.
The brotherhood are witch catchers. Clan Hela's elites. They wouldn't branch out of Clan Hela-approved magic on their own. It wouldn't have been their idea. And yet, they had immediately jumped at the opportunity to use Surtyr's fire, like they planned it. There was something I was missing. Whoever had helped them with the Magic Nullifying Charm was familiar with Odin's Restraining Array and Clan Hela histories and spells. They were clever, and had planned this perfectly.
They even got me to kill a hunter in the process, promptly giving me the hunter's curse.
What was their motive?
"What category is that?" Hope wondered, prompting me to continue.
"They refer to it as jötunn magic. All the spells and rituals are destructive. They require a ridiculous amount of energy, sometimes more than a dozen firstborns for one spell." I explain.
First Clan Hela used Mutated Noni leaf, then they mixed Germanic and Viking magic to recreate the brotherhood, and now they are returning to Jötunn magic. Clan Hela has become more and more willing to break taboos and traditions in the last few months than they have in the last hundred years. Why? What was different?
