Private Lo, they do call to me

"I kept my blood circulating through my body with my magic until I could grow a new heart."

She said it so matter of fact, as if it should have been obvious. But Hella supposed that it wasn't for someone who didn't know how her blood magic actually worked. "I had worked so hard to save her, when she flatlined I couldn't think of anything else to do. The heart is a powerful magical catalyst, and I knew that I wouldn't need much blood to make myself a new, if underdeveloped one."

"I should be dead several times over," Hella corrected, her lips drawing together in a thin, serious line. "And yet here I am. Alive despite the world's best efforts."

Sylvi's next question brought memories of the night flooding back. The words that still echoed in her head and made her want to vomit up the very blood she'd used to do the surgery.

"The monster was wrapped around her heart, or maybe replacing it. I'm not entirely sure. But I had to remove it to separate the creature from her. So yes, I suppose she did. That was why I gave her my heart."

Hella hadn't been smiling, but there had been a cold confidence on her face as she had explained herself to Sylvi. But as Sylvi rebuffed her, that expression soured and fell and was replaced by something closer to malice.

"Worse?" she seethed under her breath, then let out a sharp laugh that was as unexpected for Hella herself as it probably was for the valkyrie. "I have lived through the worst hells that man or Fae can imagine. Don't presume for a moment that anything the Aesir can put me through would even pale in comparison."

There was no small amount of contempt in her voice, but she didn't raise her volume at all. All the same, the skin around her eyes began to give way to black scales and her fingernails lengthened into claws. She wasn't trying to look threatening, but very likely still did.