by Charley Case
It also helped that they had helmets with radios in them, so they could talk without shouting. Penny, who was riding in Mila’s hood, was out of luck on the conversation front, but she didn't seem to mind in the least. Mila could feel her little body curled into a ball in the hood on her back, and every once in a while, there was a muffled shout of joy from her when Finn took a turn at high speed.
Mila had to admit she was starting to enjoy herself.
“So, you fought Rougarou and a crazy witch who was trying to raise a fucking Drude from its slumber, and you waited this long to tell me about it?”
“Well, I knew it would come up eventually,” Mila said.
“That would have been the first thing I said when I got home if it happened to me. Sounds like you had all the fun.”
Mila laughed. “Only you would think what I just told you was fun.”
Finn chuckled, then focused on the winding mountain road.
The bruised spot on Mila's leg started to ache and she reached down to rub at it through her jeans, but it only seemed to get worse. The ache started to burn. At first, it was just a mild warmness, but after a few minutes, it felt like she had rubbed hot pepper oil into the skin in that one spot.
“Hey, pull over. I think there’s something wrong with my leg,” Mila said, putting pressure on the spot with the palm of her hand.
“Uh, there’s not much room on this road. I think there’s a pull-off about a mile up. Would that be okay?”
“Yeah, I think I can tough it out, but don't be afraid to go a little faster,” she encouraged.
Finn took the hint and fed the bike more gas.
They were all alone out on the seldom-used road, the only light was from the still-rising moon and the bike’s headlight. So when they made a fairly sharp blind turn, Finn never saw the four eight-foot-tall Rougarou waiting for them in the middle of the road.
Finn jammed the handlebars to the side while slamming on the brakes. The bike slid out from under them, and Mila could feel them going down.
Instinctively she threw up a shield, but instead of the normal half-sphere shape, she created a complete sphere around her, Finn, and Penny.
Golden light flashed all around them as the shield hit the ground and rolled, sending them tumbling but protecting them from damage.
Finn managed to wrap Mila in his arms and keep them from flailing into one another.
Eventually, the sphere shield rolled them into the mountain and they came to a crashing stop.
After they had fully stopped, Finn loosened his grip on her. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Penny?”
The dragon crawled out of her hood and gave them a thumbs-up.
Mila pulled her helmet off and took a look around. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw a dozen Rougarou on the road, stalking toward them.
“I’m guessing your work followed you home,” Finn said, pointing the other way on the road.
Mila saw a figure in a long dark coat and red pigtails come out of the darkness, a maniacal grin on her face.
“This isn’t good, Finn. We can't handle this on our own.” Mila reached for her phone to call Victoria and felt a chill run up her spine. She checked her pockets to be sure, but she remembered leaving the phone on the bedside table.
“Finn?” Mila said slowly, watching Seline stalking toward them and knowing that Azoth could be out there just waiting to consume them.
“Yeah?”
“ I don't have my phone. I can't call Victoria to come and help.”
Finn pursed his lips, looking from the Rougarou to Seline on the other side. “You think you can take the witch?”
Mila's eyes went wide. She was about to say no, but then she remembered the tattoo Finn had created for her, and she felt ashamed that she would give up so easily. A true shield maiden would fight with tooth and nail if need be. She would do the same.
“Yeah. I can take the bitch,” Mila growled, reaching back for her Ivar and Gram, and realizing she didn't have her corset harness on. “There might be a little problem, though.”
Finn pulled out Fragar’s handle and activated it with a whispered word. The short hook-bladed axe unfolded and glowed purple with dwarven power. Its surface was covered in so many runes that there was barely an unmarked surface on the entire weapon.
He handed the axe to Mila. “I noticed you forgot your weapons. Should probably make a habit of always having them. You know, for next time.”
Mila took Fragar and swallowed. She had used the axe before in practice, but this was the first time she would use it in battle. She felt like she should apologize to the weapon.
“Penny, I need you to fly back to the condo and send a message to Victoria. Azoth has followed me to Denver, and they need to get here as fast as possible. How fast can you get home?”
Penny glanced toward the city and did a quick bit of math. “Shir.”
“Okay, we can hold out for five minutes,” Mila said, her confidence coming back a little. “I hope.”
Finn took her face in his hands. “You are a motherfucking Valkyrie. You pulled the soul from the Dark Star. You’ve cut down your enemies to make a path of blood to victory more times than I can count. This is no different. That’s why you’re my shield maiden—because you’re unstoppable. You deserve to win. You have to win so that others might live. That woman is evil, and we vanquish evil. This is your fight.”
Mila felt her hackles rise in anticipation at his words. He was right; she was more than capable of doing this. She had to win. There wasn’t any other choice.
“Right,” she said, her brow furrowed in concentration as she stared Seline down. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Hello?” Seline’s childlike voice cut through the growling Rougarou. “You in the shield. Miss Valkyrie. Can you come out? My Lord wants to eat you.”
“Wow.” Finn shook his head in bewilderment. “You did not exaggerate how creepy that is.”
“Did you like my little trick?” Seline smiled. “I knew you were going to get away, so I put a tracking spell on you. And as a bonus, I can make it hurt!”
She pulled out her wand and traced a pattern in the air, and searing pain exploded in Mila's leg.
Mila screamed at the shock but quickly clamped her jaw shut, willing herself to fight through it. She could endure. She was stronger than this psycho. She was a Valkyrie.
Heat was building in the back of her skull, but unlike the searing pain in her leg, this heat was the warm pool of magic that resided in her, golden and pure. It wanted to be set free. It needed to be set free.
The first thing Victoria had taught Mila was how Valkyrie magic worked. It was unique in the universe because, unlike all other magic that worked by the caster’s desire, a Valkyrie’s magic worked by their conviction.
Mila hadn't really understood what Victoria was saying until now. She wasn't even sure Victoria truly understood the concept. But somehow, Finn understood. He hadn't given her that pep talk to rile her up, he was giving her the keys to her conviction.
No one should live in fear of a tyrant.
This witch was a tyrant. Her Lord was a tyrant. In order to stop them, her powers would obey to the best of their ability.
And just like that, the warm pool of magic trapped at the back of her skull was set free.
She felt warmth spread through her, scrubbing her clean all impurities and filling her with a newfound strength. When the magic reached Seline’s tracking spell, it obliterated it, removing the infernal magic from existence.
Mila noticed her vision was sharper and cut through the darkness with ease. Her hearing more acute, letting her not only hear more but process it as well.
She felt like she had woken up for the first time in her life.
“Finn.” Mila smiled, focusing on Seline, who was shaking her wand, not understanding why Mila wasn't crying out in pain.
“Yeah, darlin’?” he rumbled.
“You are the be
st thing that’s ever happened to me. You just unlocked a puzzle that’s been driving me nuts for six months.”
“Glad I could help. You’ll have to tell me what I did later,” he said with a smile as he eyed the swaying pack of Rougarou.
Mila laughed. “I love you so much. I just want to bite your toes off.”
“What the fuck?”
She laughed. “It’s called ‘cute aggression.’ Look it up when we get home. It’s very common.”
“I’ll trust you on this one. I don't think I want to look up “biting toes” on the Internet.”
“Shee?” Penny interrupted.
“Right. Sorry. On three,” Mila said, hefting Fragar with one hand and setting her legs for a quick start.
“One.” Seline seemed to finally understand that her tracking spell was gone.
“Two.” The number of wolfmen had grown to over thirty.
“Three,” Mila whispered the power word for her mythril armor.
The shield dropped, and Penny shot into the air faster than Mila had ever seen the dragon move.
Mila heard and felt Finn roar behind her as he charged the pack of Rougarou, meeting his battle cry with howls. With her newly enhanced hearing, Mila heard the distinct sound of Finn ripping the arm off a Rougarou and start using it as a weapon.
Saline pointed her wand at Mila and shot a smoking infernal orb directly at her face.
Using her newly magic-infused body, Mila didn't even attempt to use her shield to block the orb instead side-stepping it completely and charging in close, Fragar held low and behind her.
Seline’s eyes went wide, and she smiled in delight. “So fast!” She giggled, pulling her dagger from the folds of her coat.
Mila swung Fragar in an uppercut when she was within striking distance, the axe whistling as it sought its target. Seline’s dagger was up in time to deflect the heavy axe, forcing Mila to spin away with Fragar’s momentum. Mila added power to the spin and brought Fragar around in a chop aimed at Seline’s stomach.
The witch had hopped out of reach and was aiming a wand in Mila's direction, black smoke roiling off the tip.
Mila crouched and powered her shield just in time as deep violet lighting shot from the wand and struck the golden shield with several thick continuous bolts. Mila watched as the two-inch-thick lightning bolt crawled across the shield, sending up trails of golden sparks and casting the road in an eerie flickering purple light.
Spreading out her senses, Mila found a large red harvester ant colony a few yards off the road, spreading throughout the cliff face. Before today she had to speak with an insect to have any kind of effect on it, but with her magic now open to her, she found that she could communicate with a thought.
She sent the colony a mental image of Seline, along with a strong impression that she was a danger to the colony. The response was instant.
Thousands of red harvester ants boiled up from the numerous entrances to the colony and converged on Seline.
Mila was holding the lighting at bay, but she could feel the drain on her power reserves. It needed to stop soon, or she wouldn't have anything left in the tank. She urged the ants to move faster, but the tiny insects were already coming as fast as they could.
Ten seconds later, the first ants were climbing up Seline’s boots and into the cuffs of her dark jeans. Another ten seconds, and there were thousands of the tiny creatures spreading throughout her clothes.
Mila couldn't wait any longer and sent the mental command to bite. The ants chomped down with powerful bites, while at the same time slamming their stingers into Seline’s soft flesh.
To Mila's relief, the lightning stopped almost instantly as Seline threw her head back and gave a throat-rending screech of pain that made Mila cringe. Several of the Rougarou yelped in pain as their sensitive ears were hit doubly hard from the sonic attack.
Not wasting the opportunity, Mila dropped her shield and charged, Fragar raised above her head prepared for a two-handed strike.
When Seline burst into black and red flames, Mila considered that maybe thousands of ants were overkill. The heat from the infernal flames made Mila jump back or be burned. Backpedaling ten feet, Mila still felt the intense heat tightening the skin on her face. The scream died, along with the flames, revealing a naked Seline, her clothes incinerated by the intense heat. All that remained was her wand.
The redheaded woman was pale and gaunt, her ribs visible through her paper-thin skin, along with spidery blue veins. There were thousands of red bumps across her body, each marking where an ant had delivered its painful dose of venom. Her face was a mask of rage and hate.
“That wasn't very nice,” she said in a singsong voice as she crouched and retrieved a second wand that must have been in her coat pocket.
Mila narrowed her eyes and charged in, Fragar held to the side and leaving one hand free.
Seline did exactly what Mila thought she would. The first wand shot out an infernal orb, which Mila batted away with her shield and followed with Fragar swinging in. The second wand shot an orb as well at Mila’s seemingly exposed stomach.
Expecting the second shot, Mila pulled the axe close, formed a second shield over that arm, and kept charging at full speed.
The second orb exploded on to the shield half a second before Mila slammed it into Seline’s chest and face, smearing the flaming black liquid back onto its creator—not that it would do much damage, but it would stick to her and hopefully blind her for a few seconds.
The impact made Seline stumble back several steps, but unfortunately, none of the burning liquid stuck to her face, though there were several patches on her chest and arm.
She retaliated with more infernal lightning, forcing Mila to take cover behind her already overtaxed shield. Then the second wand laid into the shield as well, and Mila felt her powers beginning to wane. As she watched, several patches of shield thinned. Mila had to dump more power into it, eating even more of her still-fledgling powers.
“Just give up!” Seline shouted in frustration, doubling her efforts and enlarging the diameter of each bolt by half an inch.
Mila gasped in pain as her magic was sucked into mitigating the enhanced abuse. She gritted her teeth. “Never.”
Seline let out a teeth-clenched scream. “Fine. If you won’t go down, then maybe your big stupid boy toy will.”
The lightning striking the shield halved as Seline aimed her second wand at Finn’s exposed back while he fought three Rougarou at once.
Mila needed to think. She couldn't defeat this woman with raw power; Seline was just too powerful. She needed to outthink her. Needed to get in close enough to use Fragar without her being able to block the attack, but she was always on guard.
Mila’s eyes widened as she figured out what to do.
The second wand grew a black and purple infernal orb on the end, smoke rising from it like a lit rocket. As soon as Mila saw the orb begin to move, she detached her shield, left the cover of the quickly crumbling construct behind, and dove into the path of the orb.
The infernal missile struck her in the lower ribs, exploding with the force of a sledgehammer and knocking her to the ground, where she rolled several times. A loud crunch of bone snapping accompanied by a cry of pain was the last thing Mila heard before rolling to a stop.
Mila ended up face-down, her right arm caught under her torso and the left broken, bent and twisted at an odd angle below the elbow.
Seline approached cautiously, but when she saw the broken arm, she squatted and poked it hard. There was no reaction from Mila, so she did it again, harder this time. There was still no reaction.
A long-drawn-out roar, followed by the yelping of a Rougarou, then what sounded like a melon being smashed on the pavement drew Seline’s attention. She saw the large man standing over three dead wolfmen; the last one had had its head smashed in when the big man stomped on it.
Seline began to excitedly clap at the gory scene, looking down to see if Mila had seen it too, but remembered th
at she had knocked the Valkyrie out.
Mila's eyes popped open and she rolled over faster than Selina knew was possible, her good arm flashing out in an arc. Seline jumped back.
When she went to land, Seline had an odd sensation of falling too far before she hit the ground on her back. She tried to spring to her feet, but it didn't work. She attempted the slower method of simply standing up, but that didn't work either. She just couldn't get her legs under her to get the proper leverage.
Not understanding, she lifted her legs and blinked a few times, trying to comprehend the bloody stumps that looked like her thighs, but from which the knees, shins, and feet were missing. She looked past her bloody stumps and saw the rest of her legs lying on the ground in front of a very conscious Mila, who was holding a blood-covered axe.
Seline began to scream.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Mila looked down as her severely broken arm with a clinical eye, assessing just how bad it was. There was no pain, but she knew that wasn't going to last much longer as her magical reserves slowly drained.
She had somehow magically disconnected her mind from the pain, knowing it was the only way to pretend to be unconscious to draw Seline in close enough to take out.
It looked like both the radius and ulna had snapped. She carefully slipped the broken appendage into the pass-through pocket of her hoodie, using it as a makeshift sling. It was better than having it flop around.
Seline started screaming, shaking Mila back to the present. She shook her head and felt a throbbing at the side of her skull that was not there a moment ago. She guessed that her body was prioritizing the worst pain.
Great. The beginning of the end was starting.
