Read Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) for Free Online

honor?” I asked, but instead of responding, Connor tore into a dive straight toward the center of the ship that made my heart leap into my toes.
    “Come on, Lillim, what, do you want to live forever?” The words slipped from his lips right before he crashed into the center of the bow, splintering the deck of the massive ship and sending a shockwave of power rippling outward. Black smoke streamed off of him as a tsunami of energy threw everyone around us for several dozen feet in every direction.
    His power rubbed up against me as he set me lightly on the shattered deck. It felt like oil and emptiness, and as it washed over me, it sucked at my aura. Connor took two steps away from me and planted his fists on his hips, and that small distance between me and him helped me to ignore the devastating thrum of his power. Somewhere I’d remembered hearing about something like this, but as I tried to reach for the memory, it dissolved under the boom of Connor’s voice.
    “Hello, Vikings,” he called as the sails of the ship dissolved into streams of black smoke. “I come in peace.”
    Men and women who looked like they’d woken up on the wrong side of the bed for a millennia or two fixed us with glares that would have made lesser people run and hide. I didn’t do that because the idea of hiding in a zombie ship made of human fingernails didn’t strike me as particularly smart or hygienic. Not that there was any kind of smart to this plan, whatsoever.
    Instead, I readied my katana and hoped Connor’s plan was way less stupid than it seemed right now. Because right now, it seemed really freaking stupid.
    “Hrym! It is I, Lillim Callina of the Dioscuri,” I called, trying my best to project my voice outward. I even kept the tremor out of it. Nice. “You have taken something that is rightfully mine, and I have come to challenge you for it.”
    The ship beneath me groaned and listed as something immense below decks moved. The sound of booming footsteps filled my ears as a voice so deep it would have shaken a stadium echoed up from the lower levels of Naglfar.
    “What is it you seek from me, Lillim Callina of the Dioscuri?” Another creak grown caused the ship to list the other way, and I struggled to maintain my balance. “If it is death, I shall happily oblige.” Laughter filled the words. “Destroy them.”
    As the crowd surged toward us, I glanced nervously at Connor. The look of hunger on his face nearly made me forget where I was. He wanted them to attack us, to give him an excuse to lay waste to those before him. I almost let him do it, except, I was standing next to him, and even if he was going to wade through them like Ares himself, I was pretty sure this many Vikings would ruin our day really goddamned fast.
    “Hrym, I challenge you to Einvigi!” I called, trying to remember what Connor had said, and as the word left my lips, time seemed to stop. The Viking charge halted before it began, and Connor turned toward me, fear swimming through his eyes.
    “Lillim.” He swallowed hard as he met my gaze. “You just challenged Hrym to a no holds barred fight to the death.”
    “Isn’t that what you told me to do?” I asked as a sudden snake of fear coiled in my gut. Was I seriously going to go one on one with a frost giant with only one of my swords? I mean, hell, I was still pretty out of it from being asleep for months. How could I have thought this was a good idea?
    “No!” Connor shook his head. “I told you to challenge him to Hólmgang! That’s combat to first blood and has rules.”
    “Pfft, Hólmgang is for wimps,” I replied, turning my back to him and tightening my grip on my katana as I drove down the fear rising in me with sheer willpower. I’d killed lots of things before. Hrym would be no different. Besides, after everything I’d been through, if my story ended here, it’d be pretty sad. “So what’s it going to be, Hrym? Will you face me or are you too chicken?” Then I made a