by Lauren Dawes
But was she afraid of Korvain?
She shook her head slowly. ‘No.’
The snarl pushing past his bared teeth was frightening. ‘I’m a Shadow Walker, Bryn. I’m also the last pure-blooded Mare in existence. I can disappear like that,’ he snapped his fingers in front of her face. ‘I can get inside your head, alter your perceptions, feed on your fears.’ He laughed; a short, sharp sound. ‘I can even make you feel things you don’t want to feel.’ He stalked away from her, rolling his shoulders and neck as if working out a kink.
When he finally turned back around, he pinned her in place with his dark eyes. ‘I’m the guy you want on your team.’
She shook her head. ‘No. Kristy is my responsibility, nobody else’s.’
‘Dammit Bryn!’ he roared, crossing the room and taking her by the upper arms. ‘Why won’t you let me help you?’
This close up, her nostrils were filled with his spicy scent. His chest was heaving up and down, his lungs working like a bellows under his ribs. She could see the points of his fangs from beneath his upper lip and her mind instantly turned to sex. Closing her eyes, she turned her head away from him, desperately trying to stop his scent permanently embedding in her memory.
‘Because this is my own battle,’ she murmured. ‘And I can handle this on my own.’
Chapter Twenty-six
Eir rolled over onto her back. As the last vestiges of sleep slipped free of her mind, she tried to think what had woken her. She lay there for a moment, just listening to Bryn’s apartment. It didn’t make noises like her house in Beacon Hill did.
She remembered hating the noises it made when she’d first moved in back in the 1920s. Everything had changed for them so quickly that they were all left floundering, scrambling to find themselves, to establish new lives.
Kara had been banished and Bryn had learned the awful truth about her parents. Bryn had left Odin to care for Kara on Midgard with the humans, and without her there to hold them all together, eventually they had all left the All-Father.
Now they were starting to come back together. She sighed and rolled over onto her side. She’d forgotten how good it felt to be with her sisters again. She’d forgotten the peace she felt when she was with them.
Raised voices from the living room broke apart her silent thoughts. Rolling off the mattress, she padded to the door and opened it just a little. The hallway light was still on, blinding her for a moment before her eyes adjusted.
‘You have to tell her,’ Korvain commanded. Eir could hear the anger in his voice, but she could also hear his compassion. She wouldn’t have thought a man like that knew what compassion was, but she suspected where Bryn was concerned, he could have all the compassion in the world.
‘Don’t tell me what to do. I swore I’d protect them all,’ Bryn hissed in reply.
‘She has a right to know. It’s her sister.’
‘By blood, yeah, but by circumstance she’s mine. Besides, Loki doesn’t want Eir. He wants me.’ Eir could hear Bryn pacing, could see her shadow tracking back and forth along the wall. Her shadow hand ploughed through her hair.
Eir stumbled back from the doorway, the words bombarding her until she tripped and fell in a heap on the floor. Her sister. Her sister had been taken. By Loki. Her hand started to tremble and the nurse in her recognized the effects of shock.
‘Fine! If you won’t tell her, I will.’ Korvain warned. There was a rolling growl in his voice instantly making Eir’s heart beat faster in her chest. It was her fight or flight reaction, and if she’d been face to face with him, she would have chosen flight in a heartbeat.
‘No!’ Bryn yelled, closer this time. They were coming for her. Eir couldn’t be found in the middle of her room. The idea of standing up was a sound one—actually doing it was another story.
‘I don’t even know what you’re still doing here, morier,’ Bryn hissed. ‘I think you should leave.’
That same growl vibrated down the hall, leaving Eir looking for a place to hide. ‘I’m not leaving, Cupcake, so get used to it.’
‘Cupcake? Who the fuck do you think you’re calling Cupcake?’ Eir felt the vibration of magic when Bryn drew her sword. ‘I suggest you get out of here Korvain.’
‘Bryn, be reasonable,’ Korvain said in a deceptively soft voice. ‘Put your sword away so we can talk about this.’
‘Get. Out.’
‘You need me,’ he bit the words out.
She made a disgusted noise at the back of her throat. ‘Like a hole in the head. Now get out of my apartment, out of my club, out of my life, or so help me, I will tell Odin who and what you really are.’
Eir waited to see who would crumble first. The slamming front door gave her the answer. She sat there shivering, digesting what she’d heard. Korvain was a Walker. Bryn had called him morier. Now that she knew, she wondered how she’d not seen it before.
Hushed footsteps began down the hallway. Eir looked for a way to pull herself up when the door opened, spilling more and more light into her darkened room.
‘Eir, are you alright?’ Bryn was already at her side. She could see Bryn was shaking, her confrontation with Korvain still affecting her.
Eir blinked up at the other woman, her teeth chattering. ‘Korvain i-i-is a W-walker?’ she managed to spit out.
Bryn frowned as she helped Eir to her feet. ‘You’re shivering. Why?’
Eir met the other Valkyrie’s gaze, letting her see the truth.
‘Gods, you overheard everything, didn’t you?’
Eir nodded. ‘G-g-going into sh-shock. Wish I c-could heal m-m-myself,’ Eir replied, managing a shaky smile. Bryn took her elbow and led her back to the bed. Gently, she folded Eir back under the sheets, motioning for her to slide over a little.
To her amazement, Bryn slid in beside her, curling her body around Eir’s to share the warmth.
‘I’m sorry you had to hear that,’ Bryn murmured after Eir’s body stopped shaking.
‘Were you going to tell me?’
‘After I got Kristy back, yeah.’
‘But Korvain didn’t agree with you?’
‘Korvain,’ Bryn spat, stretching out onto her back. ‘Korvain lied to me.’
‘How?’
Bryn picked at her nails, avoiding eye contact. ‘He just did. Just like every other male in this world.’
* * *
Bryn had needed this. Eir was a healer; whether it was an active or a passive thing for her, she was still a healer. Bryn’s soul just couldn’t take it anymore. Korvain had lied about who he was, about what he was, about what he could do. And she had fallen for it all.
Hel, she’d almost fallen for him.
Almost? No, she had gone past the point of no return.
She had fallen for him.
She now wanted to know if the dreams were real, or whether they were simply engineered by him. They had felt real to her, and that was what scared her. What if he had created those illusions? If he hadn’t have stopped them, she would have given herself to him completely.
She blew out a frustrated breath. ‘Lies are what brought us here to the human realm.’
Eir nodded against the pillow. Her pale hair was loose, and with each movement, the smell of her cinnamon shampoo got stronger.
‘I remember.’
‘Yeah,’ Bryn replied bitterly. ‘So do I.’
Bryn had been with Odin for nearly a year. Every day, she had begged him to go see her parents. And every day, he had denied her.
‘Do you remember the oath you took, Brynhildr?’ he asked, looking stern—looking like her father would have.
Bryn let out a sigh. ‘Obey you in everything.’
He nodded. ‘I don’t want you to go and see your parents.’
‘Why not? I want to see Mother and Father again. I miss them.’
Odin cupped her chin and forced her to look into his eyes. The pale green one was compassionate. The black obsidian was not. It still made her uncomfortable to look upon it.
‘Although only a year has passed for you here, ten have passed in the human realm. Your parents have passed away. They are with Hel now.’
Angrily, she shook her head. ‘No! You lie. That cannot be true. It has only been a year!’
Odin looked affronted. ‘You don’t believe me, your All-Father?’
‘No!’ she cried. ‘I won’t believe it until I see it with my own eyes.’
The air began to crackle and spark. Bryn rubbed her arms, her eyes still not leaving Odin’s face.
‘Willful girl,’ he boomed. ‘You won’t rest until you see it for yourself, will you?’
Angrily she shook her head.
‘Fine!’ he replied, throwing his hands up. ‘I will take you down to the humans for an hour and you will see for yourself I have not lied.’
Odin had taken Bryn down to her old village, and she had hardly recognized it. The port was in the same place, but everything looked weathered and dull. The grass that had grown close to shore was dead and brown. Even the houses looked like they felt the weight of the years. According to Odin, ten years had passed, but it seemed as if more time had disappeared.
Odin followed at her heel, shadowing her every move. At first it didn’t bother her, but as they moved closer to her old house, she felt unsteady with having him at her back. She turned to him.
‘Odin, can I have a minute alone, please?’
He studied her face for a long time before bowing and retreating a few steps to give her the space she so desperately craved. Bryn walked the rest of the way up her old street until she was face to face with the house she’d grown up in.
She couldn’t believe her parents were gone until she saw it for herself. Raising her fist, she knocked on the door. When it opened, a young woman Bryn recognized from the village stood there. Her belly was swollen with child, her hand resting protectively against the new life.
She frowned at Bryn. ‘Can I help you?’
Bryn knew this woman...at least she thought she knew this woman. ‘Ingrid?’
The woman leaned forward to look at Bryn’s face more closely. Recognition lit up her blue eyes. ‘Brynhildr?’
‘Bryn,’ she corrected. ‘Did my parents rent out my old room to you?’ she asked, looking over the other woman’s shoulder and into the house.
‘No, Bryn, they didn’t.’
Bryn looked at the other woman again and laughed. ‘Well, where are they then?’
Ingrid turned around when someone spoke behind her. She stepped out of the way and Davin, the boy she used to have a crush on, filled the doorway. His broad shoulders filled the space now, his forearms and biceps thick with muscle. No doubt he was a fisherman now, too.
‘Davin, where are my parents?’ she asked, getting a sinking feeling down low in her stomach. Davin stared at her with pity in his eyes.
‘Brynhildr—’ he began.
‘Bryn,’ she replied out of habit. She had stopped going by Brynhildr when Odin started using it to discipline her.
‘Bryn, your parents are dead.’
Bryn heard the words, watched them fall from Davin’s mouth, yet she couldn’t believe them for herself. Her head began to shake furiously, a tear escaping her eyes.
‘No,’ she whispered.
‘Bryn, they were killed after you were taken away. I saw it happen. A man with one black glass eye came to their house in the middle of the night with two wolves. He set the beasts on them both.’
More tears. They burned as they rolled down her cheeks. But still she refused to believe the words. ‘No.’
‘I saw it myself. I was coming home from the tavern when I heard their screams. The wolves dragged their bodies out into the street for everyone to see in the morning. It was a message from the gods.’
Bryn noticed Davin’s hand went to the stone attached to a leather thong around his neck. The rune for protection was carved into it.
‘We began to make more sacrifices to them, to appease them. We didn’t want any other people in the village killed. I heard about a year afterwards, some other families in the next few villages were also made examples of. Each time, a man and a woman were killed and their bodies were left out for the village to see. It only happened to the ones whose daughters had left the house unmarried.
‘Everyone was scared—they still are. Now, daughters are not allowed to leave the house until they are married, and even then some parents don’t let their daughters leave until they are with child. They know the gods would not strike down a woman carrying a new life.’
Bryn stumbled away from the doorway, bile burning up her throat. It sickened her to know that Odin had killed her parents, and probably the parents of every other Valkyrie he had brought into the fold.
She vomited up the contents of her stomach in front of her parent’s house before running. Odin caught her—of course—and demanded to know what was wrong. She told him everything and he didn’t deny it.
‘Why?’ she cried. ‘Why would you do that?’
‘I am your father now and you are a goddess. Those people were only humans.’
Bryn shook off the memories with a shudder. Even after all these years, she hadn’t forgiven Odin for the part he had played in destroying her life. And she knew deep down in her heart that she would never be able to forgive him either.
Not ever.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Korvain faded back to his house, rematerializing on the front steps when he heard a cry coming from the garage behind the house. He peered around the corner, seeing the place lit up. Slipping off the porch, Korvain hoofed it up to the garage and pushed open the door.
Aggression, anger, determination and...fear tainted the air, stinging his nostrils. Adrian glanced up at his arrival and the air seemed to thicken. The other Mare stared openly at him, a series of undecipherable emotions flashing in his eyes. That one look made Korvain uneasy, unsettling him like he was sitting at the edge of a pit filled with vipers with nowhere else to go.
Adrian dropped his defensive stance for a second, but that was all the time Taer needed. She took advantage of her brother’s distraction. Leading with her right hand, she stepped back, cutting the practice blade upwards before stepping forward and bringing the blade back into contact with Adrian’s chest.
Adrian toppled over, dropping the matching blade he had in his hand and falling to his knees. Taer stepped back, lowering her weapon—tip pointing at the ground. Korvain couldn’t see it, but knew she’d have a huge shit-eating grin on her face.
Korvain laughed out loud just picturing it. The noise startled Taer, who spun around and brought her weapon to the ready again. When she saw who it was, her face turned red and her gaze dropped to the floor.
‘Excuse me,’ she muttered, placing her weapon back into the rack on the back wall and fading in front of his eyes. When Korvain looked back at Adrian, his best friend’s eyes were latched onto his face, glaring. ‘What was that about?’ he demanded, stashing his practice blade next to Taer’s.
Korvain hadn’t told him what had happened between him and his sister, and there was no way in Hel he ever would. Ad would have castrated him right there and then. He shrugged. ‘Beats me.’
Adrian’s cool green eyes narrowed on his face before he turned away, scooping the rest of the sparring equipment up off the ground. That same uneasy feeling as before came over Korvain.
‘Want to go out and play some pool or something tonight?’ Korvain asked, clapping his best friend on the shoulder. He had to take his mind off Bryn’s refusal to see things his way.
Adrian flinched away from the contact and Korvain noticed the lines branching out from around Adrian’s eyes and mouth. He looked...strained, like an enormous pressure was weighing down on his shoulders.
That was when the thought hit him.
Darrion had already spoken to him, and if Korvain knew Darrion, the bastard had made it impossible for his best friend to refuse the contract.
‘He’s done it, hasn’t he?’ Korvain asked; his
voice flat—hollow sounding.
Adrian dropped his gaze, unable to maintain eye contact with him, but nodded his head. ‘I can feel his will working on me right now,’ Ad confessed.
‘Fuck,’ Korvain spat, lacing his fingers behind his neck and staring up at the ceiling, his mind working.
That was what happened when it came to an assignment. If Adrian had agreed to the terms put forth by Darrion, Darrion’s blood would begin to work within him. His will would push against Ad’s mind. It would start off as gentle whispers—a simple hushed breath that could be easily ignored—but as time wore on, the voice would get louder and louder until the only way to silence it would be by completing the assignment.
‘I didn’t want this, my brother,’ Adrian said. There was defeat in his voice—such defeat that it made Korvain’s chest ache for him.
Korvain rested a hand of Adrian’s shoulder, gripping it so he would finally look him in the eyes. ‘I know.’
Adrian tilted his head in a jerking movement, his eyes closing for a moment then reopening. The compulsion.
‘You alright, my brother?’
‘Darrion’s blood is strong. The compulsion is working quickly, but I think that’s because I’m standing right beside you.’ He repeated the process; his head jerking, his eyes closing then reopening. When his pale eyes met Korvain’s face again, he asked, ‘Is this what it’s like for you? Do you feel his will so strongly?’
Korvain had never felt Darrion’s will. The truth was his pure blood had burned through Darrion’s compulsion almost as soon as the ink had dried on his tattoo. But Darrion didn’t know that, and neither did Adrian.
‘Yeah.’
Adrian’s head dropped, his chin touching his chest. ‘How can you stand it?’ he whispered.
Korvain shrugged one shoulder. Up. Down. Slowly. ‘I don’t wait to kill my mark. I just kill them.’ It sounded logical and easy, but for Adrian it wasn’t so simple. ‘What did he threaten you with? Adding years to your contract? Indefinite servitude?’
