Chapter 65

Do the thralls want to exterminate werewolves? “That doesn’t make any sense. They need us—”

“Needed us,” Tara stresses in the past tense. “They have all the arcane knowledge they need now, except for one thing.”

“Dominion over life and death.” Owen stands and paces the length of the room.

The earlier sense of proactive hope sucks from the room.

“They forced you two to breed,” Hannah says. “Dominion over life.”

“There’s more.” Tara steers us back toward her research. “After the gods fall and the earth is submerged in water, life begins again. Two humans

survive Ragnarök: Lifthrasir and Lif.”

“How do they survive the end of the world,” I ask, silently tacking on and who would want to?

“They hide. They run away to the woods and hide until everything is over,” Tara says with a shrug. “And when they come out, they repopulate the world.”

“That would be dominion over death, wouldn’t it?” Owen suggests. “Rebuilding anew on top of that destruction?”

“Are the thralls acting out Ragnarök, then?