Book Six: Chapter 186

“I’m never alone,” she whispered, calling to the fallen dead. She wasn’t at full strength, not yet, but the shades of the fallen stepped from the darkness around her, ready to defend their queen. There were maybe two dozen of them, weapons held ready.

“What an interesting trick.” Grýla laughed heartily and stuck her hand in the snow, then ripped free a massive rock. “Tell me, Jack. Can I eat them?”

“My name is Freyja,” she declared, summoning armor made of ice and snow. As a winged helmet settled across her brow, she drew a blade made of frost and pointed it at Grýla. Her soldiers all readied their weapons, their spectral forms flickering in the light. “And the only thing you’ll taste tonight is my blade.”

Freyja and her soldiers charged forward.

***

Yuki stepped out into the cold, pulling the door shut behind her. It didn’t take long before something leapt out of a nearby snowdrift, all teeth and fangs. She summoned a massive spike of ice from the grou