Well guys, here it is! The 'final' chapter! (As if I could leave it the way it had ended in the last chapter!) Expect an epilogue some time soon, and I am maaaaaybe working on a sequel. (Who am I kidding I am totally working on a sequel; keep an eye out for in in the next few weeks.)
Thank you so much for reading - you guys are all pretty much the best, I'm not gonna lie! It's been real!
"You bring her back", Tamsin says quietly, her voice raising as her anger does. "You can do that. You've done it before. So do it now."
Odin eyes her seriously from his throne, not flinching at all when Tamsin's voice raises to a yell and she ascends the stairs towards him. He barely bats an eyelash as she fumbles to find the small forgotten dagger strapped to her thigh and pulls it out, holding the feeble blade above her head as if she really believed it could do any damage.
"It is notthat simple, child. You know this."
"Not that simple? You brought her exgirlfriend back just for fucking kicks!", she yells again. Her eyes frantically dart back and forth, and hot angry tears begin to fall as she brings the blade up to her throat. The hard swallow she makes is visible by the blade coming just that much closer to her skin, threatening to cut her already. "Then take me! What if I do it myself? Then will you bring her back?"
Bo reluctantly rises from Lauren's side to snatch the dagger from Tamsin's shaking hands - the valkyrie turns and states daggers at the brunette through her tears, but ultimately falls to her knees to sob angrily into her hands. Odin extends a sympathetic hand to her shoulder but it is immediately shaken off.
"Tamsin", Bo says softly as she bends down, swallowing down her own tears, "Lauren wouldn't want that. You know she wouldn't want that."
"I don't care. I don't care! I just need her back", Tamsin sobs. She looks up at Odin, his hand still extended out as if he is too busy try to process the scene before him to put forth effort into pulling it back to his side. "Please just let me see her one more time, daddy. Please."
The brunette finds it hard to keep the tears down as she hears Tamsin begging, and a few strays fall down her cheek as she helps the valkyrie stand. Tamsin continues to beg, mumbling promises to her father that she is sure are falling on deaf ears. Odin simply stares on, still trying to think of a way to console his daughter.
"He said he can't do it, Tamsin. He said-"
"There might be a way", the gruff voice of Odin interrupts. He sighs and wrings his large hands together as he looks at his feet. His voice is quieter than Tamsin thinks she has ever heard it, filled with reservations and – thought Tamsin hardly believes her ears – regret. "But it will come at a price of which the human herself might reject if she had the choice."
"What is it"?, Tamsin blurs out. "Just tell me what it is, I'll do anything."
"Lauren Lewis showed immeasurable bravery today. She passed a test that takes even trained warriors days, weeks, to get through. I withheld from her that which she finds the most important and shielded it with a time in which her life was nothing but easy. But still, she made her way back to you." He smiles almost fondly at the thought. "I would be lying to you both, and to myself, if I said I was not impressed."
"So", Bo says, suspicious, "you'll bring her back? Because she impressed you?"
"I will. But I shall only bring her back as a valkyrie. She will be forever indebted to me and to the honor of battle. She was a heroic soldier far before she was a heroic doctor working for your Light far, and far before she gave her own life so that she would not have to end another. She is noble and has earned this honor, but only in exchange of her oath to me."
Bo shouts 'no' just as Tamsin shouts 'yes', and they both send side long glances at the other filled with confusion and anger.
"What do you mean no, Bo?!", Tamsin spits at the brunette, pushing herself out of the supportive embrace she had on her. "How could you not want this? How could you not want Lauren back? Forever?"
"Lauren just spent years indebted to the Light fae. Enslaved to them. Do you think she would want to trade that slavery for another?", Bo shakes her head, the anger bubbling inside of her slowing the fall of her tears. "One that she can never get out of? Forever?"
Tamsin looks over to Lauren's body, growing colder by the second, hair matted to her face with sticky blood, her clothing faring no better. She looks to Dyson, who has stood frozen in place across the room, his eyes not leaving Lauren's body since Brynja had unceremoniously dropped in in front of the throne. Ahe looks to Bo, fire in her eyes and her hands balled up in to angry fists, the dagger she snatched away from the valkyrie still hell tightly in her hand.
Get control of yourself, she thinks. What would Lauren want?
The blonde closes her eyes and takes a deep, hitching breath through her slowing sobs and pictures Lauren's smile – the way her chin would dimple when she laughs, the sparkle in her eyes when she would joke with Tamsin, how her eyebrows would knit together in worry whenever Tamsin came home from work, the way she kissed Tamsin at the end of the day as they lay in bed together. Tamsin remembered the many talks they shared over what the doctor wanted in life – how she wanted a small wedding in the woods someday, how she hoped her busy parents would make time for her special day, the white picket fence and the Corgi she always wanted, the baby names she had picked out long before she had even met Tamsin, and every single paint swatch she had hidden away in her utilities drawers, each labeled for the room the color would eventually cover in Lauren's dream house close to the bay.
Lauren planned a life that she never got to have because the Light fae took it from her. And now, her love of Tamsin had ended any chance she ever had of getting married in front of her closest friends and family, her father giving her away, raising little Ethan or Charlotte in a beautiful home by the water with a perfectly kept garden and a small, happy dog named Albert. Taking another deep breath, Tamsin knew that Lauren deserved these things.
Even more so, Tamsin knew that she wanted to give these things to Lauren.
"I don't care", Tamsin says quietly as she opened her eyes. "I know Lauren. Bo, you know Lauren, too."
Bo slowly nods, her grip on the dagger starting to loosen as her resolve does and the tears start to fall again. She did know Lauren. She always had.
"Lauren deserves to have all those things she whispered to me about when she thought I wasn't listening. But I was, daddy, I was listening. And I want her to have all of that. I want to give all of that to her."
Odin fights the proud smile that tugs at his lips – he knew what Tamsin would choose probably before she did. He always knew she was a noble woman, and an even more noble warrior. But in any of her many lifetimes she had never loved. His other daughters – biological or not – had each found love at least once. Even Brynja, who held her duty higher than all else, had fallen in love once. And yes, there was a clause that made loving difficult. But it wasn't always impossible. Tamsin's mother had taught him more than just the different kinds of heroes – she had taught him that love doesn't make a warrior weak. It makes her stronger and more determined. She would always say, love drives the woman to come home because there is something worth coming home to. Looking at his daughter, her blonde hair hanging around her face, cheeks and eyes reddened from crying, Odin did not see her as weak. He saw her as strong. Much stronger than he had ever viewed her.
"So", he says as the smile finally breaks free, "what will it be Tamsin? I leave it up to you."
"Bring her back to me. Bring her back to us. The world needs her." Tamsin smiles through her tears and looks down, almost embarrassed to be saying this in front of her father – the god of heroes. "I need her."
Odin rises and startles everyone in the room by pulling Tamsin in to a tight embrace.
"You have done well, Tamsin", he whispers as he places a soft kiss to the top of her head before he pulls back and smiles broadly at her, and then to Bo and Dyson.
"It shall be done."