“Doesn’t Sven have a front door?” I asked, looking down at the ground, three stories beneath us.
“Yes,” Margit replied. “But this is faster.”
Even with my new confidence coursing through my limbs, I hesitated on the threshold, unable to see past the dimly lit kitchen. Anyone or anything could be hiding in the rooms beyond, waiting to attack. And unlike when I’d faced Astrid, I really didn’t want to hurt anyone.
Tuck grabbed my hand and urged me gently forward. “C’mon.” He squeezed my fingers and I yielded, letting him guide me. Inside, the apartment was dark and dank and smelled like unwashed socks and boys. Tuck sensed my hesitation and wrapped one arm around my shoulders.
“They’re harmless,” he whispered, making my disembodied feeling worse by letting his lips hover a millimeter from my ear. “A bunch of kids. We could take ’em if we had to. But who knows, maybe they can help us find Graham. That’s worth taking a chance, right?”
“Just don’t leave me alone with them,” I whispered back. “They hate me.”
“It’s impossible to hate you,” Tuck said, surprising me with his earnestness. “Just use those huge baby blues and you’ll have them eating out of your hand in two seconds flat. It’ll be all too easy. Promise.”
Yet sure enough, when we walked into the living room, we were greeted by five pairs of hostile, suspicious eyes. Sven was sitting on the couch with another boy I recognized from the pickup soccer game and three girls who had taken the mean-girl stare to a whole new level.
“Just so you know,” Sven said, rising and looking only at Tuck. “If she tries anything, we have no problem taking her out.”
“Mind your manners.” Tucker’s tone was heavy with threats, even though he kept his response simple. “Or I’ll mind them for you.”
One of the girls rose and stood beside Sven, watching me like I was a sleeping saber-toothed tiger. She put one hand on his arm possessively, and I wondered if she was more worried that I’d hurt him or that I’d steal him for myself.
Sven squared his shoulders, trying to look tough, but the hand that hovered near his pocket was shaking. I could smell the metal and gunpowder of the nine-millimeter handgun he thought he’d hidden so well.
“Is this it?” I asked, looking around. “I expected more of you. Who were the men who tried to arrest my grandmother?”
“They’re getting ready to spend another night chasing after your relatives,” Sven snapped back.
Tuck took a quick step forward, his right hand balling back up into a fist. I caught it and uncurled his fingers until they rested flat against my palm. He met my eyes and kept his hand there, weaving his fingers through mine.
“Leave it, Tuck,” I whispered.
“Manners,” Tuck reminded Sven. “Lessons are complimentary and exquisitely painful.”
Sven’s eyes flashed down to our clasped hands. “I guess not everyone has to be hypnotized into obedience.”
Sven’s friends laughed nervously.
“It’s not obedience,” I told Sven as I squeezed Tuck’s fingers and he squeezed mine right back. “It’s friendship. Tucker’s known me forever—the real me. That’s why he trusts me. Look, I am what you think I am—I’m a Valkyrie.” It was the first time I’d said it out loud, and I felt an unexpected surge of exultation as I claimed my birthright. “But I’m not like the others,” I added. “I’m not evil or out to get you. In fact, I didn’t know I was one too until the other night, when they took my brother. What I am didn’t change anything. In fact that’s why they took him in the first place. But it could change how this ends.”
Margit had been standing behind us, and as I finished speaking, she cleared her throat authoritatively. “I believe her. They caught me and let me go.”
Sven snorted. “She tricked you into leading them here.”
“Why would she do that?” Tuck demanded. “If the other Valkyries didn’t want you, why would she?”
Margit gave Tuck a dirty look that actually made him shut up.
“You heard what happened at the soccer game,” she said to Sven and the others.
The entire room went silent, listening to her.
“We need to help them find the Vals tonight,” Margit continued. “They say they can plant a beacon on them. I think we should trust them.”
Stunning words coming from someone who utterly despised me.
“I don’t like it,” Sven said. “How do we know you’re not hypnotized too? This could be a trap.”
“Because you know it doesn’t work as well on girls,” Margit retorted. “It would never last this long.”
Which was an interesting tidbit I filed away for future scrutiny.
“Do you really think I’d need to go to these lengths to trap you?” I asked, feeling the power tingling in my fingertips. “If I were your enemy, you’d all look like this, and the argument would be over.”
I snapped my fingers in the face of the boy to Sven’s left, and his eyes went milky white. One more snap, and he was back to normal, blinking in confusion. Until that moment, I hadn’t known I could do that.
I thought I might have gone too far, terrifying and probably alienating them. Instead, Margit gave me a quirky grin. “That settles that,” she said smugly. “We need a strong ally like this.”
When I gave her a tentative smile, she added, “Besides, if anyone’s going to be in the line of fire, it might as well be a filthy Val.”
“That’s more like it, Margit,” I murmured. “I was beginning to worry we might be friends.”
“Not likely,” she growled. I tried not to look down at her fingers. Because she was snapping them softly, like a tiny part of her begrudgingly admired my power.
“See,” Tuck murmured. “No one can resist you.”
I nudged him to shut up. He was dangerously distracting when he dropped his voice and whispered so close to my ear. And at the moment, all our attention needed to be attuned to Sven and his friends, who were conferring quietly in the corner and glancing back at us suspiciously from time to time, like they thought we’d make off with their TV.
“We’ll help you,” Sven said at last. “We have enough coverage that we’ll find them if they’re within three hundred miles. What you do when you get to them is your business, as long as you plant our beacon.”
“That’s a polite way of saying you’re on your own,” Margit added. “We can’t help you if things go wrong.”
“We understand,” I said. “Thank you for helping us.”
“You’re welcome.” Sven nodded, which just made his girlfriend glower at me again.
“The others are coming,” Margit said, glancing at her phone when it chimed with a new message. “I think we should talk to them before they see you. Alone. Go home. I’ll pick you up when we’re ready.”
We followed Margit to the door leading out onto the rickety fire escape.
“Thanks, Margit,” I said. “For helping us, I mean. I know it was hard to take a leap of faith—to trust us.”
“I’m not doing it for you,” she replied. “Bring my brother back. And Kjell. Or don’t come back at all.”
WHILE WE WALKED back to my grandmother’s house, Tuck and I decided to check out the trapdoor in the basement. I kept hoping we’d find some secret Valkyrie neutralizing machine. Something that would let me defeat one of them, because I needed all the help I could get. My ribs ached at the memory of my last encounter with Astrid. Still, I had to find a way to become a full Valkyrie, stand my ground against Astrid, and follow her to Graham when I did.
And I had to do all that while keeping Tuck as far away from Astrid as possible. I’d seen Tuck be so reckless over the years, back when the biggest consequence he faced was suspension. I was terrified to see that edge in him now, when the stakes were so much higher. I wondered if he realized it or if he was past the point of caring. In the end, it didn’t matter. It just meant I needed to be prepared for anything.
All we found in the basement was enough ca
nned goods to last us a month, water, and an arsenal that belonged in a museum.
I was too frustrated and restless to keep rooting through the shelves of neatly labeled boxes, so I slipped upstairs to my grandmother’s room and grabbed her sword. A few swipes with the hand towel in the bathroom removed most of the dust. I carried it outside to the backyard, where I could try it out without having to worry about taking out an armchair or two.
I curled my hand around the hilt and carved the blade through the air in a wide arc, not even noticing the weight of it. As heavy and bulky as it looked, it was light as a feather when extended in my palm. The instant, organic connection gave me the confidence to try more and more elaborate stunts. By the time Tuck appeared in the doorway, I’d worked up the nerve to toss the sword into the air like a drum majorette. It rotated once before the hilt found its way back to my palm, clicking into place like a magnet. When I was ten, Tuck had wasted a whole week trying to teach me to juggle. We’d given up when I broke the mirror in the dining room. It was amazing how fast my entire being was changing.
“Looky here,” Tuck said, wandering out the back door with an old-fashioned crossbow resting over one shoulder. “It comes with arrows you light on fire. You know, in case we want to burn down a medieval village.” He propped it against the garage and walked toward me, moving slowly, like we had all the time in the world. “Think I’ll stick with weapons from this millennium.”
“Probably best,” I murmured, hoping Tuck hadn’t seen how very comfortable I actually was with antique weapons. “You could hurt yourself with that.”
“Well, you’re one to talk, Zorro. Or are you auditioning for some sort of circus act?”
I blushed so completely, even my toes partook of my shame. “I was just experimenting.”
“Looked like you know what you’re doing, though.” He caught my wrist and turned it over to examine the way my fingers curled around the leather-covered handle. “Interesting,” he said. “It’s almost like a lacrosse grip, but more stable. Where’d you learn this?”
I shrugged. “I was just goofing around. Trying to keep my mind off tonight.”
“Just one more incredible thing that comes naturally to you.” His voice was low, meant only for my ears, even though there was no one else within miles. “I know it’s hard not to be scared after what Astrid did to you last time, but I don’t think she’ll hurt you unless you come at her directly. She seems to kinda ignore you otherwise.”
“What makes you think that’s what I’m trying not to think about?” I asked. “I’d be pretty hard to seriously injure anyway. Because I heal so fast.” My next words would annoy him, but I couldn’t get my worries out of my head, so I threw them at him in a rush. “But you don’t. And I might not be able to protect you this time. What if they hurt you?” I had to take a deep breath to force the next words out. “Or kill you, even.”
Tuck sighed. He lifted the sword out of my grasp and set it on the ground. Then he wrapped my hand in both of his. I tried to pull away, not wanting to be soothed like a kid, but he just shifted until he was standing right in front of me again. He caught my other wrist, locking me in place with his fingers resting right along my pulse line. There was no way to conceal my jackrabbiting heartbeat. “I’m comfortable with that risk,” he said. “You’re the only thing I care about right now. And Graham. I’ll get him back for you even if it kills me.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look up at him, so instead I stared at his chest, following the groove of his collarbone to where it connected to his shoulder. The kind of strong shoulder you could rest your head on forever. Even through his shirt, I could see the lines and planes of him. It was difficult to concentrate on anything else when he was standing so close. I wanted to wrap my arms around his neck and press my face against his throat. And not just because I was scared—although I was terrified of losing him, too.
“That wouldn’t solve anything,” I said in a small voice. I buried my longings so deep, it would take an excavation team to drag them out of me, because this was about something deeper than his flirty words and playful smiles. This was about a lifetime of friendship and rivalry that had somehow turned into so much more. At least for me. “You’re just as important to me as he is.”
Tuck’s fingers tightened around my wrists, and I wished instead they’d tighten around my whole body until I was so close I wouldn’t be able to think about anything but Tuck and his flawless smile and the fact that his arms were wrapped around me and felt just like I’d imagined they would. Graham and everything else would just disappear.
Tuck’s voice was hesitant, almost bashful, when he finally asked. “Do you mean that?”
I nodded. “I love you both. So much.” My eyes hit a glass ceiling, still refusing to drift above his collar. The idea of looking up at him just then terrified me. Of seeing whatever smug smile was waiting to declare his easy victory. One more heart to add to the discard pile.
“Ells, look at me. Please,” he said. Even though I’d never heard anything approaching doubt in Tuck’s voice, I recognized it instantly.
His unreadable gray eyes were waiting when I lifted my gaze, this time, offering everything I most desperately hoped to find.
When Tuck kissed me, it was a question—a question I’d known the answer to for so long. And I had my response at the ready. My fingers traced along the muscles in his arms as they tightened around me, to where they joined his shoulders, and finally came to rest around his neck. So that he could never get away. It was impossible to imagine ever letting him go, and from the way his body wrapped around mine, I knew he was thinking the same thing.
I didn’t let myself wonder what that kiss meant in the grand scheme of things, or about the fact that Tuck’s hands were everywhere, pushing things pretty far past anything resembling friendship. Maybe this would ruin everything. Maybe Tuck just wanted me for that day—to slash and burn the undergrowth of longing that had rooted itself in our friendship. And maybe even if we wanted more, it would never work in the real world, back where Tucker Halloway was my brother’s best friend and a boy who collected crushes like other boys collect comic books.
But I didn’t care. All that mattered was then, that moment. All I knew was I wanted him too. I’d wanted him for so unbearably long that I ached with relief to finally stop fighting it.
We must have been like that for a half hour, pressed against the railing of my grandmother’s porch, until I heard the crunch of gravel beneath tires. Margit had arrived—ready to drive us to our doom.
“Crazy about you, Ells,” Tuck said, breaking away and kissing my forehead. “Been fighting it for as long as I can remember.” He towed me toward the front of the house, but I dragged my feet, not ready for the night to begin and seriously needing a moment to fix my shirt.
“Why? Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Scared.”
“Of what? Me?”
“You don’t go after your best friend’s little sister.” His voice was strained. “Especially when he’s Graham. No one was ever good enough for you.”
Even though I dreaded the answer, given that he’d used past tense, I had to ask, “So what’s different now?”
“Nothing.”
We both knew he was lying. There was an army of bloodthirsty Valkyries standing between us and Graham’s disapproval. Valkyries who might very well kill all three of us before the night was out. If I pushed my line of questioning any further, I knew I wouldn’t like the answers I got.
Margit had climbed out of her car by the time we reached her. “Were you two just kissing?”
“I know, right?” Tuck grinned. “It was even better than I imagined.”
Margit rolled her eyes. “I don’t care.”
I was mortified, but Tuck smiled at me like I was a sunset he’d painted all by himself.
He dragged me into the back of Margit’s car, and I did a double take at the enormous radio consuming the entire passenger seat.
“It’s from
a fishing boat. The range is hundreds of miles,” Margit said, following my gaze. “We’ve made contact all over Norway. If the Vals act tonight, we’ll know. We just have to hope they hit close enough that we can get you there fast. Not everyone agrees we should delay evacuation for you. Since no one’s actually in charge, there’s not much we can do to force the issue. We’ll stick to the central highway—best route to everywhere.”
“I really appreciate everything you’re doing,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Don’t think you can be nice and win me over,” Margit growled, but all the edge was gone. “And I still don’t care what happens to you tonight. No puppy-love act will change that.”
That made Tuck laugh as he reached out and wrapped one long arm around me. For once I was glad European cars were so cozy. I could have sat like that all night, with my head resting against his chest. It was enough to make me forget everything and to just relax into a moment of pure contentment, even if it lasted only for an instant
We drove up and down the highway for thirty minutes before we heard anything over the radio other than static. The first crackly voice that broke through the sizzling silence was just calling for a status check. Each of the surveillance teams radioed in to report that they’d seen nothing. I counted twelve different groups out stalking the Valkyries that night. I had to believe it would be enough, and that we’d find them.
“What if they don’t show up tonight?” I whispered. We’d put everything on the line. It was just five short hours before dawn. This plan could not fail.
Tuck squeezed my shoulder, but that was hardly enough to reassure me as minutes fused into a half hour. Just when I was ready to explode from impatience, the radio crackled to life a second time and a voice spoke excitedly in some sort of code. A series of numbers that sounded like coordinates. “They’ve found them,” I said. This was it—our last chance. The jittery feeling was back, shooting through my body like electricity.
Valkyrie Rising Page 21
