Two skulls, on either side of her head, stared straight at her. Jess screamed, scrambling to get away.

In the time she fled to the opposite end of the basement, Sigyn found the trap door to join her. Jess was still jumping around like a giant bug was in her pants when Sigyn grabbed her arms to calm her. "Take it easy! Those don't move, they can't hurt you."

Jess shuffled to put Sigyn between her and the dead bodies. "You're not slightly freaked out?"

"Like I said: I've seen a lot." Sigyn walked right up to the foot of the bed to get a closer look. "I didn't expect their bodies to still be here." She couldn't tell if they were male or female, but they were wrapped in each other's arms.

"Its so creepy," Jess said.

Sigyn frowned. "Leave them alone, they're dead! Would you prefer them fully clothed with their mouths stapled shut and pumped for of chemicals?"

"It makes them look nicer!"

"God forbid the maggots chew on a rotting corpse."

"Death is a hard subject for some people!" Jess argued. "It's easier to pretend they're just asleep."

Sigyn shook her head. "The harder you ignore death, the harder it is to face. Our bodies aren't meant to be preserved forever. They go back to the Earth and break down to build something new. It's time these two got a proper send-off." She turned and marched out of the cellar and back outside. Not wanting to be alone with the dead, Jess stayed close behind.

"Help me find some wood," Sigyn instructed. "I wanna build a pyre. Send them to rest."

Jess planted her feet in the snow. "We can't just burn them! They're artifacts! This whole place - it's probably hundreds of years old!"

Sigyn gave her a look that made her swallow her words like a tough pill. "Is that how you honor your dead? Stick them behind glass?"

Jess helped build a pyre.

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The wood crackled in the orange flames. Rising heat created a hazy glaze in the air. Sigyn took a seat beside Jess on the front steps. The girl had a far-away look in her pale eyes.

"They were all alone out here," Sigyn said quietly. "No one else knew they were here until we came along."

Jess didn't know how to respond, but taking her hand felt right. Sigyn looked down at their joined hands and readjusted to intertwine their fingers. The movement gave Jess a clearer view of the tattoo on her forearm. It was the image of two wolf heads, woven together in a long knot. She asked Sigyn what it meant.

"Oh." Sigyn glanced down at it as if reminding herself it was there. "It's my family's crest."

Jess raised an eyebrow. "Do people still have those?"

"I don't know," Sigyn said, shrugging. "We're old-fashioned. Practically governed by rituals and ceremonies and symbols too old to date. Your crest, your family, and your lineage are a big part of who you are. At least...who other people think you are." She moved her forearm closer to Jess and traced the lines of ink under her fingers. "The two wolf heads represent a duality. Wolves are feared for their ferocity but also praised for their unity and relentlessness. The knot holding them together represents fate, which we are all subject to."

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She said that last bit with a sour look.

"You don't believe in fate?"

"I think it's a rather old-school way of thinking. Before we knew how big the universe truly was."

"Wouldn't it be nice, though? You'd have a sense of purpose. You can know that everything in your life happened exactly as it was meant to."

Sigyn pressed her lips together. "It sounds good in theory. In the real world, it does more harm than good."

The smoke lifted into a still gray sky, floating on the breeze towards the distant trees. A large raven sat in the branches, watching them. Jess thought it was a cool sight, so she pointed it out to Sigyn. Sigyn tensed, snapping her head toward the bird - a bit of an overreaction to Jess.

"Get inside. Now." Sigyn's lips hardly moved as she growled the words, her eyes focused on the bird.

Once inside, Sigyn locked the door behind them, but the crumbling wood walls were a weak barrier.

"Is everything okay?" Jess asked.

Sigyn opened her mouth to answer. Then shut it. Then opened it again. Jess took that to mean 'no.' "Use whatever you can find to block the windows. Hurry!"

The house was painfully vacant of suitable items. All Jess could do was drape old rags over the windows, while Sigyn pushed over a table to jam against the front door. Outside, a symphony of ravens loomed above the roof.

The two girls cowered at the top of the cellar stages, ready to duck at any moment.

"You don't have to answer," Jess whispered. "But is this...like, a phobia thing? With birds?"

Sigyn looked at her as if she were crazy. "What? No! Don't worry about it."

"There's not much else for me to do while we're trapped in here."

Sigyn put a finger to her lips. The crows had stopped, now replaced with the crunch of boots in the snow. The front stairs snapped and creaked as someone came closer. They pushed against the blocked door.

A woman's commanding voice announced something in a language Jess couldn't recognize. On the other hand, Sigyn understood the warning loud and clear:

"You think you're safe in there, Ransdottr?"

Sigyn wasn't that foolish. All she needed was time. Also, hiding Jess from things she wasn't meant to see was a major bonus.

Though ignorant of the true danger, Jess knew something was wrong. The air dropped at least 10 degrees. She pulled the zipper of her jacket up as far as it could go. Crackling ice reached through the gaps in the wood, starting around the door and expanding across the home, like cold spiderwebs. Jess had never seen ice form so fast.

She scrolled through her contacts to call her sister. "Elizabeth!" she whispered. "We need help! I'm with Sigyn, and I think there's someone outside...We're in a cabin a little off the northern trail, up the mountain-"

Sigyn snatched her phone and ended the call before returning it.

"Hey! What the-"

"You can't call anyone," she said.

"We need help!"

"No - you need to find the backdoor and get as far away as you can. Once you're out, keep running downhill until you find a lake. Cross it, find the road, and it'll take you back to the lodge."

"Then I'll send help for you?"

"No!" Sigyn awkwardly laughed it off. "Don't worry about me. This is something I have to deal with alone."

"Look, I get you might be worried about the police, but if you're in danger-"

"Trust me, this is way bigger than worrying about cops." Without warning, Sigyn shoved Jess' head below the floorboards. Before she could get angry, the glass windows shattered.

Frozen spikes stabbed the brittle wood of the walls. Sigyn had avoided them by centimeters. While she could spend all day dodging the attacks, she wanted to get things over, so she stepped outside. Åsa had a smug smile upon seeing her that Sigyn wanted nothing more than to smack off her face, but giving Jess time to distance herself from the fight was more important.

"Quite the abode," Åsa said. "Good to see you've upgraded your living quarters, Sigyn."

The jotuns around her snickered. Sigyn kept her arms crossed, refusing to acknowledge any spark of emotions the intruders provoked.

"Are you just here to put ice in my walls or what? Trym wanted me gone; I left. That should be the end of it. You chasing me around Earth is overkill."

"He wants you dead," Åsa corrected. "You can't fool us. We will not let our guard down and your father will not rest until you hang by your neck for all to see."

"I'm not going back. He can die mad about it."

Åsa nodded at the jotuns around her, who formed a tight line, cornering Sigyn between them and the house.

Sigyn gave Åsa a teasing grin. "What's the matter? Too high and mighty to get your hands dirty? You always let your lackeys do the work?" As her hand rested at her hip, a blade of ice emerged in her grasp, elongating into a wickedly sharp point.

The fight began in an explosion of ice and powder.