by Kiki Howell
“It is my understanding, little Valkyrie—”
“I’m not little.”
Sven shrugged. “Compared to us, ye’re little.” He smiled, sizing her up, his blue and hazel eyes roaming up and down her body. “I forgot how small a female could be, how fragile, how delicate—”
Erik smacked Sven on the shoulder again.
Adala smiled, feeling like her sister was there, cajoling her to say, “I’m not fragile. I haven’t fought for a few hundred years, but I have my wings back.” She let them tear through her T-shirt, which she knew would make for an impressive sight. “Height”—she flapped her wings, lifting herself about four feet in the air and hovering there—“is an advantage, isn’t it?”
Erik silently chuckled, and Sven gaped his mouth.
Erik grabbed a hold of her jean-clad ankle. “Get down here, little one. No more threatening with your pretty wings.”
“They’re feathers.” Sven made to touch Adala. She flew farther away but was still tethered to the earth by Erik so she couldn’t go far.
Adala touched the ground again, ruffling her wings in close, then tucking them inside her body.
“Fuck, they’re so pretty,” Sven whispered reverently.
Erik tried to block Sven from getting too close, rolling his eyes. “We’re around the Furies—beautiful, but none of them are interested in us. And they—well, they have bat-like wings, which are pretty too. But”—he smiled widely and blushed all the way down his neck—“yer wings are...lovely.”
Sven sighed, frowning. “I have such a crush on ye. Are ye sure ye want this Aaron, mortal man, even if he is a world-renowned hero?”
Adala shrugged. “I don’t know if he wants me.”
Sven straightened. “I’m here. I’ll let ye do whatever ye want to me. I can be yer sex slave. Whatever ye want, little Valkyrie. Odin’s beard, pick me.”
Adala laughed and tried to hide a blush that was creeping up her cheeks. “I’ll keep you in mind if Aaron...Tell me why your Furies would tell you he was brainwashing me.”
“Because of the dísir. They came to the Furies. They told them that human men were tryin’ to hurt ye. Ye and another dís. Honestly, I had no idea dísir even existed until the Furies told us.”
“Which of the dísir told the Furies that men were hurting us?”
“Yer leaders.” Sven nodded. “A Keira and Astrid, whom we have yet to meet.”
Adala straightened. “Those aren’t our leaders. Our leaders are the Norns. There’s three of them, always three. They look like teenagers. They’re little and adorable and mischievous. But I don’t think they would ever say anything negative about Aaron and Luke, especially not Luke. He’s Sam’s—Samuella, she’s a dís—boyfriend.”
“A dís has a human boyfriend?” Sven looked at Erik. “Can we do that? Can we have human girlfriends?”
Erik blinked, shaking his head as if in a daze. “Thor’s hammer, I don’t know.”
Adala rolled her lips in, trying not to laugh at the ancient Norse imprecations. “We didn’t know until Samuella and Luke fell in love. We’ve always heard that human and dís relations were fatal, like the man would go crazy and kill everyone he could, then commit suicide. And she’d die. See, apparently another dís had tried to...mate with a human before. You’ve heard of Guinevere?”
“Queen Guinevere of the Arthurian tales?” Erik’s dark brows furrowed.
“Not just a tale, apparently.” Adala bit her bottom lip for a second. “Before my time, but she, ah, well, there was a bad reaction between her and men. Arthur went nuts and killed everyone he could get his hands on, and she died because of her broken heart.”
“She died from a broken heart?” Sven looked genuinely perplexed and kind of adorable.
“All dísir die if their hearts are broken.”
Erik nodded. “That’s why yer sister drugged ye. She thought she’d try to circumnavigate yer death.”
“But you’re alive,” Sven said. “Does that mean...ye’re not so broken-hearted?” He wagged his blond brows a few times.
She couldn’t help but giggle. “I don’t know what it means.” Thinking more, and never having two males around before, she decided to ask, “Why do males go to anger when they’re emotional?”
Sven furrowed his brows. “What do ye mean by that?” he shouted, arm’s flailing about, and immediately smiled at his own joke.
Erik turned from them both, looking out a window to the green meadow with foamy, yellow buttercups dotting the landscape. “It’s so we don’t cry.” He sadly smiled at the window. “Before I turned...into what I am now, I was a normal man with a normal, beautiful wife.” He swallowed after his voice cracked. “We’d fight. Quarrel.” He glanced at Adala. “Oh, nothing big would we fight over. The price of meat if I couldn’t hunt. Why Freyja hadn’t blessed us with children yet. Why I wanted to go a-Viking. Such pathetic arguments. Not that her arguments were pathetic. Had I known then what I know now...how I’d have to live without her because I turned into a berserker, how I’d have to watch my lovely wife from afar as she remarried and had the babies she’d wanted, how I never should have left...” He smiled as tears filled his brown eyes. “I don’t know who it was who first told a little boy not to cry. Some fool. But it took. So, we don’t cry. Or try not to. And anger comes out instead.” He shook his head. “It’s not right. By now, thousands of years of the same old shite, you’d think people would tire of trying to cover their emotions, but no.”
“We dísir were told not to cry too. Many human females are told not to cry. But, I suppose, it’s not as forbidden as it is for males?”
Erik shrugged.
Adala smiled. “You know, there are seventy dísir. I could introduce the two of you to them. They would love insightful males such as you. You’d have them lining up to be with you, I’m sure.”
Sven chuckled, while Erik said, “There are three thousand of us brother berserkers. And we often find more as we travel the earth.”
“Three thousand?”
Sven shook his head. “It is we who would be lining up. Oh, but that would be nice to...date, like the humans do. We could date the dísir and possibly humans.”
Erik had a nostalgic expression on his handsome face, and Adala wondered if he would make a good match for her sister, if Madde would like a deep-thinking former Viking warrior turned into a shape-shifting bear-man who was also immortal. She might. And Adala would love to make her sister happy. Ish. Happy-ish, since she wasn’t sure if Madde could ever be truly happy. It might break something in Madde’s face if she ever gave into a wide, carefree grin.
“You have to get back to your brothers and the Furies and tell them that Keira and Astrid are misleading you.”
Erik and Sven nodded and got out their own phones. But just then the room filled with electric sparks. Adala’s hair stood on end.
Gold and silver sparkles radiated from one corner of the lodge, not far from them and a brochure stand with old papers lining it.
“I think you’re about to meet the Norns,” Adala whispered as Erik and Sven glanced at all the glitter.
With a poof, Bear appeared with Madde and Aaron astride the big Pegasus. Beside them all three Norns came into focus, glancing at Adala and her two berserker companions. Ur, with her light blue hair and big brown sad eyes, waved her hand through the air, and immediately the Norns had shields of nearly invisible light with matching longswords. Madde was already bedecked in her Valkyrie outfit, but Aaron suddenly had on a chainmail tunic with a silver shield and longsword strapped to his back.
“Adala!” His voice cracked, intense worry pouring from him. “Adala!”
“Who’s this?” Vee asked, her pink hair looking more pale than usual. She pointed with her nose at the two males beside Adala.
She held her hand out, palms up. “They mean me no harm. How’d you find me?”
Madde jumped off Bear, Aaron behind her. Although it must have been difficult maneuvering in the mail, he made it look ef
fortless and, well, knightly. Adala nearly sighed with want. Oh, but it also hurt to see him, especially when he was handsome, and he’d just been a jerk.
“We traced your phone. Smart, leaving it on. Why aren’t you where I left you?” Madde reached for her sword’s handle. “Who are they? Why do they smell like wolf and bear?”
Aaron glanced at Madde. “You can smell that?”
Madde nodded and held him back as he tried to run for Adala. Madde pointed with her head to spread out, to surround Erik and Sven. Aaron looked like he internally regrouped and nodded at Adala’s sister. What was up with Madde and Aaron knowing how to work together? Fight together?
Adala held her hands up. “Hey! I mean it. They’re nice guys, even if they are part wolf and bear.”
“Even if?” Sven repeated. “I’m pretty sure my wolf is the best part of me.”
“Who are they?” Ur asked softly. Even she looked defensive. On edge.
“They’re berserkers.”
“And they just happened upon you?” Madde asked, frowning at the Norse males, as she and Aaron pivoted to advantage points.
“No, actually.” Sven smiled leeringly at Madde, which Adala knew would annoy her sister. “We followed you and Adala to the meadow. We have our own technology to trace humans, but it took a lot to figure out how to follow you when you fly. Which meant a whole new ballgame of magic was involved. Anyway, we watched you drug her, and then we tried to rescue her.”
“From what?” Madde swung her arms around, looking a lot like Sven had when he’d pretended to be angry.
“There’s something strange, well, even stranger, going on with Keira and Astrid,” Adala said, trying not to look at Aaron, but feeling hyperaware of him all the same. Why did he have to look so good? So pretty in his armor?
The Norns looked at each other, sighing, their armor and swords disappearing in a poof of sparkles.
“Did they set this up?” Vee asked.
Adala nodded. “They went to the Furies—”
“Who are the Furies?” Aaron asked.
Madde glanced at him. “I...I thought they were make-believe. They’re three avenging females, as strong as the Norn.” She glanced at her leaders. “Right?”
Skuld grabbed her phone from her skinny-jeans back pocket. “Schmitt. Schmitt. Schmitt. Schmitt. They involved the Furies?”
“We work for the Furies,” Sven began, rolling his hands through the air. “We’ve taken out pedophiles, rapists, murderers, and others for the Furies. They told us that the dísir were being brainwashed by some formidable men.” He pointed at Aaron. “That would be you.”
Aaron put his shield down and pointed at his silver-clad chest. “Me? I would never hurt Adala. I lo—” he cut himself off. After shaking his head, he glanced at Adala. “I would never hurt you.” He cringed. “Even though I just did. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean...I didn’t...I...I’m so sorry.”
Sven pushed at Adala’s shoulder. “I knew he’d feel like shit for whatever he did.”
Aaron’s blue eyes widened. “You told them about us?”
Adala shrugged. “They’re nice guys. And I needed to talk to someone, since Madde just flew off goddess knows where.”
Madde rolled her eyes, frowning. “I went to talk sense into Aaron. What else would I do?”
“You’d do that?” Adala held her hand over her heart. “For me?”
Madde’s frown grew. “Of course, I would. I love you. And I wanted to beat the shit out of him.”
Sven groaned. “I’m sorry Adala, but I love your sister too. She is your sister, right? You two could pass for twins.”
Adala smiled. “She’s my sister, yes. And she’s wonderful, as you can clearly see.” But she frowned at Aaron. “I’m mad at you, though. But we need to figure out how to stop Keira and Astrid from—”
More electricity poured into the room. Green and orange sparks formed right behind Erik. He turned, startled, his brown eyes wide as Keira appeared.
One minute, Erik was just standing there, smiling with his sad patient grin, the next his big body tumbled over, something hard hitting the wooden floor of the lodge, something rolling beside his body.
Adala screamed as she realized the berserker had been beheaded.
Chapter Nineteen
IT HAPPENED SO fast, just like in a firefight. Except this was completely different—the weird sparkles, another magical creature poofing into the quiet ski lodge, and then a man was down.
That’s all Aaron could think of when he saw one of the berserkers fall, his head no longer on his body, and hit the floor with a grotesque noise of bone punching wood. It all came back to him. Years of training, the seven tours he’d been on to perfect the training, to make him a soldier.
Everything moved in slow motion, but it was good that it did. Gave him time to think. To react.
The berserker’s buddy lunged for the fallen man, screaming. Not a good move because it put him closer to the woman who’d cut off his friend’s head with a sword. Aaron couldn’t have that. No more dying.
His only weapon he was unfamiliar with, but he pulled it from its sheath and lunged toward the woman whose own sword was falling on the grieving berserker, getting himself in harm’s way because of the shock of seeing his buddy go down. Aaron got that. Understood it too well.
He swung the sword up, against the woman’s downswing. The metallic clang rang through his ears, reverberating through his teeth, making it so the slow motion sped up to real time. Silver sparks radiated out from the sword clash, and he growled at whoever this woman was.
She looked surprised, and as he heard Adala scream even louder, scream his name, the woman with crazy multicolored hair and a weird fuzzy coat sneered. “Stupid mortal man. You’re nowhere near as strong as me.”
He swung the sword against hers again, pushing her back. She didn’t fall but stumbled, looking surprised again. Her brows furrowing, she parried her sword against his. He stopped it just in time before it nicked his neck.
“The chain mail won’t help you, idiot. Don’t you know you shouldn’t play with immortals?”
“Keira,” Ur, the blue-haired girl yelled, “stop this at once.”
While Keira, the crazy killer with manic hair, was distracted with thinking up a comeback, he sliced at her again and again. Her sword defending every swing.
Just as he made out Madde in his periphery, he yelled, “Don’t.” Holding a hand out to the Valkyrie, he shook his head. “Protect Adala.”
“Fuck that,” Madde yelled, shaking her head, then she threw her sword at Adala who caught it, looking angry.
“Language, please, Madde,” one of the Norns chastised, of all fucking times.
“There are no children here,” Madde added, shrugging.
Suddenly, Adala landed beside Aaron, her wings stretched out, sword in hand, twirling the heavy metal in infinity swirls through the air. “Aaron, I can protect myself, you misogynistic jerk.”
His mouth gaped and he felt unable to move as she proceeded to pound into Keira, fighting unlike anything he’d ever witnessed. Not even in the best of martial arts movies had he seen moves like hers. She used her wings for power and height, but would tuck them into her body when she would bend and attack from below. She was everywhere at once, graceful and violent.
“How...how’d you get your wings back?” Keira asked, huffing for air.
“I”—Adala slashed up; Keira barely had enough time to defend herself—“don’t”—Adala slashed down; Keira looked like she was tiring and getting slow—“know.” Adala smashed and smashed at Keira, then took a measured step back, gazing predatorily at Keira. “Not that it’s any of your business, but it probably has something to do with Aaron, the man I just might love.”
Aaron’s heart jumped at the words. Adala might love him? Even after he’d been a jerk? Not just a yelling jerk, but, yeah, he’d thought her so fragile as to need protection. Man, he’d underestimated her. But she could fight.
Madde bumped him a
gainst his shoulder. “So, you gave her back her wings?”
He wasn’t going to answer that, not wanting to talk about sex with, hopefully, his future sister-in-law. So he glanced back at Adala, trying to figure out what to say. Or if he should do anything. Adala was doing everything, fighting off Keira with such fluidity it was hard to keep his eyes off her.
“Yeah, um, that was kind of cute, you wanting to protect Adala,” Madde continued, “but it doesn’t work that way with us, you misogynistic jerk.” She smiled up at him after quoting her sister.
Aaron pointed with the top of his head toward Adala. “But...but she makes doilies and embroiders flowers into everything.”
“That don’t mean she can’t fight.” Madde looked like he was the idiot Keira had called him. “You have so much to learn, human. She doesn’t like to fight. But she’s, man, she’s so good at it.” Madde smiled at her sister as Adala kept beating Keira back. “Like watching one of the masters, you know? Like watching Monet paint.” Madde sighed, looking like she was at a Sunday picnic rather than a sword fight. To the immortal-death kind of sword fight. Jesus, his new sister-in-law was weird.
Well, he hoped she’d become his sister-in-law. Just had to do a lot of talking—yeah, groveling too—to Adala. After she saved the day, of course.
The three Norns came close, Ur holding her hand up, the almost invisible shields and longswords back in their hands in a sparkly second.
“Keira,” Ur whispered, her sword pointed down, defeatedly, “what have you done?”
Adala took a step back, her sword at the ready, but she let Keira answer, “What needed to be done.”
“What do you mean?” Purple-haired Skuld held her sword over her shield.
Keira smiled. “You know it needs to be done. You know they have to go.”
Adala struck down against Keira’s sword, the sound so loud it resonated throughout the building, into Aaron’s bones. “The berserkers have done nothing to you. They are funny, sweet, kind—”
“Not them.” Keira laughed. “The humans have to go.”
“Keira.” Ur’s whisper was heartbreakingly sad. “No.”
