The Last Valkyrie Series Complete Boxed Set

by Karina Espinosa

  I shut the books and hurried to the front in an attempt to check them out. Most of the history books got it wrong, but there were few tidbits we let slip for the sake of recording our history. We lived long lives and it was easy to forget our beginnings.

  The library would be the last place the police would come looking for me, especially since I’d ditched the car far away in the opposite direction.

  “I need to check these out.” I dropped the books in front of Charlie.

  “You can’t,” she said.

  I raised a brow. “Excuse me?”

  “Those books cannot leave the library. I told you I would need permission from the branch manager. We agreed to this.”

  “I’ll put a deposit on them if necessary and bring them back tomorrow.”

  She blinked once, twice, and then gulped. Straightening her shoulders, she tilted her chin.

  “You cannot leave with them. I will call the police if you try.” She tightened her fists as she set them on the desk, ready to throw a punch if need be. All to protect her books.

  I laughed. “Relax. I’m not a thief.”

  Her cheeks reddened as her chest deflated.

  “If I can’t check them out, I need a very private place to read them.”

  “We have tables scattered throughout the library. You can sit at one of those.”

  I shook my head. “Even more private. Like a room.”

  “Why?” she blurted. “I mean, the library is empty. It’s as private as it can get.”

  I wanted to slam my forehead on the countertop. This chick was nosy as hell.

  “Fine,” I grumbled and made my way to the furthest corner of the library. I had tunnel vision and wasn’t paying attention to the small footsteps following me.

  When I dropped the books on the table, Charlie plopped herself in the seat in front of me.

  “Shouldn’t you have some books to shelve or something?” I grumbled.

  “I don’t trust you.”

  “The feeling is mutual, Blondie.”

  She huffed a few times before snatching one of the books. “What are you looking for? Maybe I can help you and get you out of my library faster.”

  I peered up at the librarian and grinned. “Valkyries. I’m researching valkyries.”

  Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “Oh, they are fascinating. Stunning creatures in Norse Mythology.”

  I smirked.

  “You know, they say the valkyries left almost a century ago.”

  I snorted. “Valkyries aren’t real.”

  She leaned forward. “Then why are you researching them?”

  “School paper,” I retorted.

  “Oh. Well, they were very real,” she said. “They were warriors, goddesses who flew across the skies, collecting the souls—”

  “They were also bloodthirsty savages who would kill a whole battlefield just for kicks,” I interrupted.

  She shook her head. “They were beautiful—”

  “They were cruel with no regard for human life.”

  “That’s not true,” she whispered more to herself.

  I shrugged. She could believe what she wanted, but valkyries have a dark past that wasn’t as stunning as people thought.

  “Anyway, they sealed the realm to Valhalla and left us to our own devices.” Charlie sighed, twirling the tip of her ponytail.

  I raised a brow. “They sealed the realm?” That was too specific for a mere human to know. “How do you know all of this?”

  Charlie got red in the face and looked away. “Uh … I heard it somewhere, maybe in one of these books. Who knows?” she said flippantly.

  “No. There’s another reason.” I gritted my teeth as I spoke.

  She stood and took a step back. “Why do you care? You said you didn’t believe in this stuff.”

  I narrowed my eyes as I observed the librarian. She was obviously rattled by my inquisition. I’d been around a long time; I knew what lurked in the night. Humans weren’t the only things that roamed the earth. I wasn’t oblivious to that, but Charlie appeared so … plain. I couldn’t imagine her as a vampire, werewolf … hell, not even a Fae.

  “What are you?” I zoned in on her soul and struck a chord. Not a blemish in sight, it quaked in fear.

  Her eyes grew to the size of melons. “Excuse me?” She gasped. “I’m human, of course.”

  “Wrong answer.” I pushed away from the table and stood. “A human would have asked me what I meant by that. So I’ll ask again. What are you?”

  Her wide eyes searched the library for anything to help her out of this dilemma. It was almost comical. The old saying of being a deer caught in headlights was the perfect description of how she looked.

  “I’m not going to hurt you, Charlie. I’m just curious.” I shrugged. “I’m also not going to run out of here yelling your secret in the street, so you can loosen them stockings.”

  She swallowed a few times before she said, “I’m a banshee.”

  I titled my head. I hadn’t run into a banshee since maybe the late eighteenth century. It’d been a while. They were rare, especially in the western hemisphere.

  “What brings you to Oregon?” I sat back down. If I wanted to get her to talk, I would need to chill out. “Aren’t your people Irish?”

  “My ancestors, yes, but my family has been in Oregon for many generations.”

  “Interesting. Why a librarian?” I tossed my hand around us, gesturing to the room. “Seems mundane for what you can do. You’d make a killing in the black market.”

  “I would never abuse my abilities for monetary gain,” she scoffed. “And there’s nothing wrong with being mundane.”

  “If you say so.”

  She huffed a few times in agitation, her breath blowing stray strands of hair out of her face. “You know what I am, so what are you?”

  “None of your business.”

  “I told you—”

  “I never said I’d tell you. Don’t get your panties in a twist because you blabbed.”

  I grinned and enjoyed watching the various emotions wafting over her face. Charlie intrigued me. There was a certain innocence to her I hadn’t seen in centuries. I saw it the first time we met. And even if I hadn’t, it was written all over her face. She was an open book.

  “I could use your help,” I said to her as she was about to leave. “I’m a private investigator and there was a murder last night. This rune,” I pointed to it in the book, “was carved into a young woman. Her right eye was also removed. Any ideas?”

  Add a little white lie to the mix and omitting the truth was a specialty of mine.

  “This sounds supernatural. You should contact the SIU. This is their area of expertise.”

  Contacting the police department’s secret Supernatural Investigative Unit was a waste of time. The creatures of the night that roamed the earth knew very little about my people. They wouldn’t even know where to begin.

  “No.” Fuck the SIU. I wasn’t going to deal with creatures that could barely keep their own communities in order. This was a job only I could do.

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re extremely stubborn.”

  “I know.”

  “There’s not much I can do to help you. I don’t even remember your name.”

  “What does my name have to do with helping me?”

  “Because you’re a stranger!” she yelled. “For all I know, you could have murdered the girl.”

  Well then, Charlie was not as naïve as I thought she was.

  “My name is Raven, and I’m not a murderer.”

  “Good.” She straightened. “Now, I don’t know how much help I can be, but have you seen the Norns?

  I wanted to palm my forehead. Of course, the logical step for me to take was to go see the Norns. They were three sisters—Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld—who dwelled beneath the Yggdrasil, the tree of life and the center of the Nine Realms. They represented what once was, what is coming into being, and what shall be. If anyone knew who killed Kenda
ll Carter, it would be the Norns. And with knowledge comes sacrifices—those hags would want something in exchange.

  I pointed at her. “You are a genius.”

  “While I appreciate the compliment, I don’t understand what that has to do with the valkyries.”

  “I thought maybe there was a connection. You know, with the whole missing eye thing.” I tried to play it cool. “The daughters of Odin might know something.”

  “Oh …” Charlie nodded. “Unfortunately, they’ve been gone for some time now, so they’ll be of no help to you.”

  “Right,” I mumbled as I tried to keep my disappointment from showing. I didn’t know why I was bothered. They were gone—my sisters left me—and they weren’t returning. Ever.

  “There’s a traveler in the city. He can take you to the Norns if you decide to seek their guidance.”

  I ran a hand through my hair as I contemplated my next step. The smart thing to do was to see the old hags, but my dilemma was whether or not they would recognize me. No one besides my sisters knew I’d stayed, and I wanted to keep it that way. A lone valkyrie would be a valuable and easy target.

  “Thanks for the help,” I grumbled as I shut the books and slid them over to her. It wasn’t worth getting too deep into this murder. I was only asking for trouble.

  “What do you plan to do?”

  “Don’t know,” I whispered. “Mind if I use your restroom?”

  After putting away the books, Charlie led me to the front of the library and pointed to the restrooms near the help desk. I went to the sink and splashed ice-cold water on my face.

  I could cross the border to Canada and hop on a cargo ship to Europe. Flying was out of the question, and if I wanted to have a semblance of peace, I had to get out of the country. Kendall Carter’s murder would be national news, but it wouldn’t travel overseas. I’d have to wait at least a half-century before I could return to the Americas.

  Once I collected myself, I went back out to the library. Charlie’s back faced me, and she stared at a small television that sat behind the help desk.

  “Authorities are searching for Raven Romero. She is wanted in connection with the murder of Police Commissioner Chuck Carter’s daughter,” the newscaster announced. “Kendall Carter’s body was discovered early this morning in The Drunken Monkey, a bar in Downtown Portland—”

  A picture of my mugshot showed on the screen as the reporter continued, and Charlie gasped. I cleared my throat, and she squeaked as she stared at me with wide eyes.

  “You killed her!” she accused.

  “I didn’t.” I raised my hands in defense. “They found her downstairs from my apartment, but I did not kill that woman.”

  “Your face is on the news!” she shrieked. “They say your DNA was found—”

  “I’m being framed!” I took a step forward. She stumbled backward, and I froze. She was afraid. “Listen, whoever killed her is trying to set me up for murder or catch my attention. I don’t know. Why would I be investigating her murder if I’d done it?”

  “What are you?” Charlie whispered as she reached for something on the counter.

  There was no point in hiding it now. My face was all over the news and it was going to get harder from here on out. I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere in Portland without someone recognizing me. I was going to need help.

  With a deep breath, I took a risk.

  “My name is Raven Romero … and I’m the last valkyrie.”

  6

  Flashback

  The sound of gunfire was music to my ears as chaos erupted around us. While the world was painted red, we fed off the destruction. It was beautiful—a masterpiece. All we knew was death and we reveled in it.

  I flew above the battlefield searching for souls to take back to Valhalla. The dead were piled in mountains used as cover for those still fighting for their lives—for their cause.

  “Head to the ground!” Kara ordered.

  I swung my golden-brown wings back and dove toward the ground, the wind whipping my face and my eyes squinting from the harshness of the night air. My boots thumped on the soil as I landed in a crouch, and debris flew up around me. Bullets bounced off my armor as I retracted my wings and marched through the battlefield. There was a building up ahead. We’d gotten word it was a concentration camp where lifeless souls had been discarded on top of one another; those souls were easy pickings for us.

  I placed a hand on each chest of the dead, feeling for their dimming soul and checking if they were worthy of Valhalla. Many of them were. They were warriors in their own right and had endured torture no human should be strong enough to handle.

  “Over here!” Hildr shouted and ran into the building.

  As we passed chambers and rooms with surgical utensils lining the walls, the odor of pure alcohol and musk was overwhelming. It smelled of death. Metal lamps swung from the ceiling, and women were strapped to hospital beds. Leather belts in their mouths were tightened around their heads. Some cried endlessly, the pain unbearable, while others lay unmoving and staring aimlessly at the ceiling, already dead inside.

  “How are they still alive?” Hildr muttered. We stared at their open chest cavities. “How are they awake through this?”

  I approached one of the women and followed the needle in her arm to the liquids that were being pumped inside her body.

  “It seems like some kind of paralytic,” I said. “I think this is meant to keep them awake.”

  A look of horror crossed my sister’s face. “This is who our father wants us to bring back to Valhalla? These humans aren’t worthy. Look what they do to one another.”

  I rolled my eyes. “They survived the Spanish Inquisition. This is just—”

  “That was centuries ago, sister. They should have evolved by now, but they’ve become monsters.”

  “Our purpose isn’t to care. We collect souls and move on to the next battlefield. Now hurry before Kara comes looking for us.”

  Moving from bed to bed, I searched for the dead. Their souls were fragile in my hands; if I squeezed too hard they would shatter.

  “There have been talks. The valkyries are tired of this. Tired of the humans,” Hildr whispered.

  I glared at her. “Blasphemous. Pray the gods above did not hear you, especially our father. You know how Odin feels about the humans.”

  Her face fell, and disappointment was written all over her face. “You’ve become just like Kara. Cold, detached, soulless.”

  “It’s how we’re supposed to be,” I snarled.

  “It’s what we’re taught, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be who we are.”

  “Words like those will get you killed, Hildr. We will not speak of this again.”

  The whole conversation made me uncomfortable. Looking at the multitude of bodies made something inside me stir, but none of that mattered. We had a job to do, and we couldn’t let anything distract us. My sister would be wise to follow suit. No valkyrie had ever disobeyed, and I wouldn’t let Hildr be the first.

  With hundreds of souls in hand, we flew back to Valhalla and put them to rest. It’d been an exhausting day. I wanted to get some sleep before we flew out again.

  When I arrived at our sleeping quarters, Hildr wasn’t there. I hadn’t seen her during our trip back home, so I assumed she’d arrived first. I was too tired to go searching for her. Rolling onto my bed, I shut my eyes and fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

  A pounding on my door stirred me awake. The hinges squeaked from the force, and I feared whoever it was would knock my door down.

  Irritated, I got out of bed. Upon opening the door, I was met with Kara’s stoic face. Her hair was pulled back and wrapped tightly into a bun.

  “Common room. Now.” She turned and left. Without question, I grabbed my sword and followed her.

  The common room was mainly used as a meeting room for the valkyries. It was meant to be a place where we could relax, but there was no such thing for us.

  Every single valkyrie fr
om all battalions was crammed into the room—some sitting, but most were standing. Kara marched to the front and stood on a table to address us.

  “It has come to my attention there have been whispers of abandoning Midgard and no longer accepting humans into Valhalla,” she said. I scanned the crowd for Hildr and found her at the front. I squeezed my way through the crowd to get to her, and she smiled at me when we stood side by side.

  “This is going to be good,” she whispered to me.

  “As many of you know, Odin has disappeared. He has been gone for quite some time and there has been no word from him. I would be ignorant to believe your concerns are not valid,” Kara continued. “Sisters, the only option I can think of is to vote. Do we wish to close the gates of Valhalla forever and leave the humans to their destruction, or wait for our father to return?”

  A small gasp escaped me. Of all people, I never thought Kara would be one to agree with this. It wasn’t our place to make these decisions.

  “Sister!” My eyes went wild. “How is that even an option? How can we abandon the humans, a race that our own father loves? He would be angry if he learned of this.”

  “He is not here,” Kara said. “Odin has abandoned us too.”

  “And the humans? The innocent ones? We cannot turn our backs on them!” My stomach sank as I looked around the room. No one agreed with me.

  “Innocent?” Kara scoffed. “They’re all animals! They do not deserve to pass our gates.”

  Hildr took hold of my forearm and pulled me closer to her. “Do not argue. You know this is the right choice.”

  “You accused me of being cold and detached. That is what you’re displaying, Hildr. Do you not see that?”

  My jaw dropped as I watched my sisters. I didn’t recognize any of them. Our job wasn’t to feel, and I was displaying emotions that were rare, especially for me.

  “You surprise me,” Kara said. “Compassion is a trait you do not have. Where is this coming from?”

  “It’s not compassion. It’s duty.” I didn’t know why I was saying anything. Kara shook her head and looked away to address our sisters.