“Only that you look radiant this morning,” Gideon announced.
Kyaerin narrowed her eyes as she set the box down on a nearby table. “Uh huh. I do hope you’re not threatening to toss my grandbaby into the well again, are you?”
“What?” Gideon gasped in feigned outrage. “Would I do that?”
“Yes,” Kyaerin and Valkyrie said simultaneously.
Chuckling, Valkyrie planted one hand on the table, the other on the back of her chair, and tried to wiggle herself up and out. But it was as though all the weight in the world had settled on her midsection and the slightest wrong move could send her plummeting face forward, or backwards.
“I got it!” she snapped when Gideon reached for her. “I can do this. I can get out of a damn chair!”
She couldn’t.
With a defeated sigh, she waited for Gideon to tuck his hands under her arms and heft her up. He was a smart man and kept his grin firmly tucked behind mashed lips.
Grumbling, she made her way to where Kyaerin stood at an awkward waddle that she would not miss.
“Can’t wear my clothes, my shoes, and now I can’t get up without a crane.”
“Hey!”
She ignored Gideon’s insulted protest.
“What are we making today?” She stopped on the other side of the table, one hand resting over the bulge in her belly, the other against the small of her spine.
“Just labelling the jars,” Kyaerin said. “Some of the old ones are faded and nearly impossible to read.”
Nodding, Valkyrie reached for one bottle at random and turned it over to scan the yellow sticker peeling off the side. The ink had smudged, making the neat script illegible.
“Basil, or...”
The bottle tumbled from her grasp and shattered across the floor as her hands flew to her abdomen where the sharp kick had literally knocked the breath out of her.
“Valkyrie?” Kyaerin reached for her, but Gideon was faster.
His hands closed over hers. “What’s wrong?”
“I...” Her words trailed off as she waited for another, her heart thumping in excitement. “I think I felt the baby kick.”
“What...?”
She grabbed Gideon’s wrist and flattened his palms over the spot and waited. She was almost certain neither of them were even breathing as they waited. Then they felt it, the sharp, precise jab.
“Oh my God!” Gideon gasped, staring at her stomach like it held all the secrets to life.
“Let me feel!”
Valkyrie, without moving Gideon’s hand, settled Kyaerin’s alongside it and held both in place.
The wait was shorter this time and came in the rapid successions of someone annoyed at being disturbed.
“She’s strong,” Kyaerin said, her blue eyes bright and shiny with tears.
Feeling her own eyes filming over, Valkyrie laughed. Her gaze went up to the man standing next to her, his hand still cradled under hers, over the life they’d made together. His silver eyes bore straight into her soul, bright with a love that was almost too painful to stare directly into. He kissed her deeply and it was enough to give her all the confidence in the world that they would be fine. That she would be fine.
“I’m going to the pond,” he murmured, fingers brushing her cheek.
“Is it that time of the month?” she teased him.
He grinned and flicked her nose gently. “Not my fault you wear me out, especially now what with your hormones giving you extra juice. Remember, I have several centuries over you.”
Valkyrie hummed softly. “Practically my grandfather.”
Gideon burst out laughing. He skimmed another kiss to her mouth and backed away. “Hey, this grandfather can still make you—”
“Okay, stop.” Kyaerin hurried around the table. “I can’t pretend being deaf anymore.”
Exchanging a final amused glance with Gideon, Valkyrie turned towards the table. Her gaze dropped to the bottle she’d broken and she sighed.
“I’ll get the broom.”
Kyaerin waved her away. “I’ll get it. Why don’t you two go have fun? I’m going to be starting supper soon anyway.”
Elated by the idea of watching Gideon strip down and transform into his selkie form, Valkyrie didn’t object. There was little else that made her insides shiver with arousal than the sight of him in all his raw and unhampered power, looking wild and vicious as he cut through the water as easily as a hot knife through butter. She loved tracing the hard lines and grooves of his torso, loved the sounds he made when she got him all worked up. She knew he would punish her once he was human again. He would torment and terrorize every inch of her until she couldn’t take anymore and she loved it. Loved every second of it.
“My virtue isn’t safe with her,” Gideon remarked, even as he slid his hand along Valkyrie’s back and drew her into his side. “She’s really quite deviant and such a pervert.”
Valkyrie swatted him.
His mother shook her head, but said nothing as she settled down to start labeling.
Laughing, Gideon propelled Valkyrie through the kitchen and out the backdoor. It was the only one not sealed during the day so the boys could go hunting without having to keep reboarding the front. Soft, dewy grass rustled beneath their feet as they started towards the woods. Brittle twigs snapped and wet legs clung to their boots. Gideon kept a firm grip on her hand, guiding her over roots and down the steep incline. At the bottom, he caught her into his arms and held her with such care, she almost believed herself made of fine glass.
“Have I told you how much I love you today?” he asked as he did nearly every day.
But no matter how often he did, it still sent a thrill through her.
“You might have this morning, but that could have been yesterday so you should say it anyway.”
Chuckling, he lowered his head and rested his brow against hers. “I—”
A resounding crack of wood splintering shattered the moment. It froze both of them even as an unnatural silence descended upon them. The air had shifted, growing fraught and dangerous.
“Gideon...”
“Get back to the house.” He shoved her towards the incline. “Go and don’t stop.”
No sooner had she turned when something shrieked through the trees. The air whistled.
Valkyrie whipped around, his name perched on her lips, but he had already gone down on his knees. The arrow jutted from the place between his shoulder blades.
“Gideon!”
“No! Run!”
The second arrow lodged into his lower back. His scream echoed hers.
“Run, Valkyrie!”
Blinded by tears, Valkyrie turned and ran. Her heart roared in her chest, pounding with an urgency that burned. Fear clawed with razor sharpness up the soft tissues of her esophagus, filling her mouth with the vile tang of bile. Her boots slid on wet leaves, stealing her momentum and driving her every progression back several steps. Damp earth sunk beneath her nails and soaked into her pants as she clawed her way to the top.
Below, she heard Gideon give another piercing cry as a third arrow penetrated into his body. The sound bore straight into her very soul and she nearly turned back.
The baby! was all the voice in her head had to say and she knew she couldn’t. She had to protect the life inside her no matter what the cost. That was what Gideon would want, no matter how much it killed her.
Her lungs were throbbing by the time she scrambled her way to the top. Her hands left dirty smears across the front of her coat as she clutched her middle and ran for the manor.
“Magnus!” she screamed, not even sure if they could hear her in that enormous place. “Help!”
Pain exploded across her back in a shower of flickering embers that sent her crashing to her knees. It was pure reflexes that propelled her arm out to catch most of her fall. The world cartwheeled in a repulsive whirl of brown and gray and it took her a moment to realize someone was wrenching her over. There was a violent tug at her back and the
pain ... oh, the pain was beyond any world. It ripped through her with such violence, she vomited. Her entire body seized. Blinding pools of light shattered through the knot of branches above and transformed the hulking figure above her to a black smudge. It reached for her.
“No...!”
Her movements were dull, like she were fighting through sludge. A few times she got him, but it couldn’t have been more than a child’s swat.
“Calm down,” a booming voice told her. “The poison will only pump faster through your veins if you fight.”
Poison?
“My ... baby ... Gideon...”
He was jerking at her clothes, tearing open her coat and yanking her top up to the cold air. He didn’t speak again. Valkyrie kept trying to fight him, but she wasn’t sure her arms were even lifting anymore. Her entire body seemed out of her control, frozen from the neck down. But she could feel everything he was doing to her, could hear the rip of her pants, the tug as it was jerked down around her thighs.
“No...”
Everything swayed between light and dark. Her heart was slowing. She could feel the weight settling over it, crushing it into stopping. Somewhere, through the haze, an angry scarlet haze rose up into the air. It bloomed over her as she fought to stay conscious. But the pull was just too great. It overpowered her and she crumpled into a black pit.
Chapter Thirty-Three
She didn’t wake gently. She woke with a choked cry, reaching and fighting an invisible force as her mind and body rampaged between reality and dream. Her own breathing splintered through the inky calm before it was interrupted by a rustle, a creak of weight shifting on wood. Then there was a dip in the mattress and familiar hands were pulling her to them.
“It’s all right.”
Woozy, Valkyrie clung to Gideon. “I had the worst dream,” she gasped into his shoulder. “I thought I lost you and our baby.” She squeezed him tighter. “I’ve never been so scared.”
He said nothing. The only sound came from his breathing and the quiet, rhythmic strokes of his hand over her hair.
“Gideon?”
His hand tensed. The fingers curled into her hair. His heart escalated against hers. Still he never spoke.
“Gideon, what...?”
Her hand froze at her stomach. Where there should have been a smooth bulge was nothing but flat, toned muscle. There was no indication she had ever had a baby inside her, no swelling in her breasts, no flare in her hips. Nothing.
“Gideon...?” Her voice was small and weak even to her own ears. The fear that wove through it broke her. “Where’s my baby?”
Gideon shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Her heart was screaming in her ears even as she shoved him away. “Where is she?”
“We’re going to find out,” he promised her. “Everyone’s downstairs right now with the—”
That was all she needed to hear.
Throwing back the covers, she catapulted herself out of bed. The darkness spun as her knees revolted beneath her. The corner of the mattress barely caught her.
“Valkyrie!”
“Don’t touch me!” she screamed when his hand closed around her elbow.
Uncaring that she was clad in nothing but her bra and panties, she charged out of the bedroom. The corridor tilted and bounced beneath her feet, but she stumbled her way to the stairs, only partially aware, partially caring that Gideon was right behind her.
She heard the voices first. They seemed to echo endlessly off the kitchen walls. It was impossible to tell how many there were, and she didn’t care.
She missed the swinging doors when she threw her hands up to slam them open. The momentum sent her crashing into them with her shoulder and nearly hitting the floor on the other side. She was saved solely by Gideon’s arms. Wrenching free of him, she faced the room, the small crowd of people and finally settled on the one tied to a chair.
“Where is she?” Her snarl came out more animal than human.
“Valkyrie...” Magnus moved into her path when she charged.
Valkyrie didn’t stop. She didn’t slow down. She swung blindly and yet with deadly accuracy and plowed Magnus in the jaw with enough force to send him crashing into a table. No one else tried to stop her and she was on him, on the bastard responsible for the pain washing over her in tidal waves.
“Where’s my baby?” Her hands closed around his collar and she hoisted him up to her as far as his binds would allow. “Where’s my baby?” she screamed.
The world went red when her suffering brought a cruel smirk to his face. Raw fury pulled back her arm and the sickening crack of her backhand sang up her arm with a satisfying crunch. Blood burst from the gash splitting open his lip.
“Where is she?” The same fist drew back and slammed into his face full blow, shattering nasal bone and spraying them both in blood. “Where is she?”
The room spun and for one horrific moment, she thought she was fainting again. But the floor was vanishing beneath her feet and she was going up, not down. Hard hands clamped about her middle and she was hoisted against a strong chest like a small child. She was being drawn away, away from getting her vengeance.
Unhinged, she screamed and thrashed, kicking and punching at the air. But the person holding her never relented. The hold only tightened until she couldn’t breathe. Her anger dissolved into gut wrenching wails of agony that seemed to crash through the entire room and resonate through her skull. Her knees deserted her and she sank to the ground. The hands grabbed her. They lifted her just as the darkness took her over.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Valkyrie gave herself a night. One night to huddle in the dark corner of her locked bedroom and let herself grieve. She refused to allow herself more than that. She refused to wallow in her misery when her anger was so much more productive. Her mind was raw with grief and all the things she should have done different. Guilt was a solid force of pain tattooed into her every heartbeat. Every part of her wanted to die and she couldn’t bring herself to do it, not when the person responsible was just downstairs, laughing at her.
With the approach of dawn, she showered and dressed in her boots, leather pants, and black halter. She drew on her coat and strapped her sword to her hip, followed by both daggers inside her boots. Her father may have been many things, but he had been right about one thing: Harvesters were not weak. She would find what happened to her baby and then she would kill whoever was responsible for taking her away.
“Valkyrie?” Kyaerin spotted her in the doorway of the parlor first.
The surprise on the woman’s face, the surprise on all their faces, made her think that maybe her rebound wasn’t a common thing. Maybe they had thought she would grieve for longer.
“Where is he?”
“Kyrie.” Gideon rose from the sofa, hands up as though afraid she might lunge at him. “You should eat—”
“Where. Is. He?” She stressed each word through gritted teeth.
“I will take you to him.” Serinda climbed carefully to her feet, her armor glinting off the early morning light rising against the windows. The sight of her sister momentarily made Valkyrie forget the others in the room. “But first you must listen.”
Valkyrie stared at her, not sure what to make of her presence, or the presence of the other two warriors sitting mutely on the sofa in the place Reggie and Magnus usually sat.
“What are you doing here?” Her fingers unconsciously tightened around the hilt of her sword. “If you think I will return with you now after everything that has happened—”
Serinda shook her head. “That is not why we are here. If you will allow us to explain, I will tell you.”
Seeing no other choice, Valkyrie moved deeper into the room and stopped when she was just behind Kyaerin, putting a sofa, three people, and a coffee table between herself and her sisters. And her mate. But she didn’t dare glance his way. His hurt thrummed through her and she knew she would break if she met his eyes.
“Speak.”
>
Serinda remained standing. “Your child is not gone,” she said. “It has been taken, but is still alive.”
“Where?” Even to her own ears, the single word rang with the pain and desperation clashing inside her. “Where is she?”
Serinda put up a hand. “We do not know, but!” she said quickly when Valkyrie opened her mouth. “We are working on him.”
“Him?” The hand she had no memory of grabbing the back of the sofa tightened. “Who is he?”
“Devlin.” Kyaerin’s voice was barely audible. Valkyrie would never have heard it if she hadn’t been standing just over the woman’s shoulder.
“Who’s Devlin?”
Kyaerin rose and moved away from the group. Her hand shook as she raised it to her mouth.
“I ... I thought he was dead,” she choked. “I had no idea...”
“Grá mo chroí.” Liam started for his wife, but she shook him away.
“He was my friend,” Kyaerin explained. “I loved him once.”
“Your ... friend, did this?” Valkyrie tried and failed to contain the anger in her voice.
Kyaerin raised her head. Her blue eyes glittered with unshed tears.
“He wouldn’t ... I...” Her small, pale hands wrung together like frail little birds. “I don’t know why he’s doing this. I don’t ... I don’t understand.”
“Talk to him!” Valkyrie shouted.
“I have tried!” Kyaerin cried back. “He’s changed. He’s not the Devlin I knew.”
“Then I will talk to him,” Valkyrie stated. “I will make him tell me—”
“It is not that simple.” Serinda reached into the leather pouch hanging at her waist and gingerly removed a small sliver of wood from inside. She held it up. “This is the arrow head we pulled from your back.” She dropped it back into the pouch and fastened the top. “It has been dipped in siren’s blood.”
“It is also what was used to kill Reginald,” Liam chimed in. “I knew I recognized the smell. It has been eons since that type of poison has been used.”
Now Valkyrie wished she’d taken a seat whilst she’d had the chance.
“Why?” she asked, suddenly feeling exhausted. “Why is he doing this?”
Gideon's Promise (Sons of Judgment Book 2) Page 46
