Valkyrie Crowned

by Allyson Lindt

  Starkad shook his head. “No. Vidar with Brit.”

  Kirby stared at him, waiting for an explanation beyond Because I don’t give a shit what happens to her.

  “Give me some credit.” Starkad might as well have read her mind. “She’s more immortal than you, and you’ve got the shield. Frey isn’t a fighter.”

  Kirby couldn’t argue that.

  “Vidar’s going to see this pair-off for exactly what it is—a way to keep an eye on him and his people.” Brit drummed her fingers on the table.

  Kirby didn’t care. “He insists he needs us, and these are our rules. They’re not unreasonable.”

  “So sexy when you take charge.” Brit grinned.

  Starkad raised an eyebrow. “Can’t argue that. Unless you’re naked and begging.”

  Kirby rolled her eyes, but she loved the affection and that the two weren’t completely clashing. Could she really do this Queen Valkyrie thing? She had no idea how she’d find people who were worthy, but there had to be a way. If there wasn’t, they’d make one.

  While they planned, Min left with Frey and came back with clothes for everyone, since they’d lost most of what they were traveling with in the quakes.

  As the clock ticked toward mission time, Kirby’s tension cranked higher. A new feeling crept in. A haunting sensation that everything was about to change. She was walking into the situation with the people she trusted more than even herself—Gwydion. Starkad. Brit.

  Her gaze landed on Min. It felt odd doing this without him. He’d been crucial in each of the big fights they’d been in, but he wasn’t a fighter. If she left him here, would something happen only he could have helped with?

  She hated second-guessing her decisions, and this was the worst time to have more than the normal level of doubt.

  Kirby settled next to Min on the couch in the sitting room. Everyone else was doing other prep-work. Mentally steeling themselves in their own way. “I don’t want to leave you behind,” she said softly. “It feels like the right decision, but the past says maybe it’s not.”

  “I’ll be crucial here.” Min’s tone was kind. Reassuring. “I’ll be monitoring everything with Dahlia. When you return, I’ll be here.” He rested his hand on her leg and the heat of comfort flowed between them. “You know what you’re doing. I have absolute faith in your plan.”

  That made one of them. But the assurance warmed her, and realization surged inside. This was what she’d wanted from him, when they first met in this life. She’d wanted—needed—him to understand and accept who she was. The things she knew and the way she thought. And at the same time, she understood now why he wasn’t and couldn’t be the same.

  “I’m sorry I took so long to see it,” Kirby said. “Who you are and what you stand for. It’s one thing to say the words, but I finally get it.” As she spoke, the spark inside grew to a flame, hot and all-consuming. “I love you. And even though I have in every life, this is the first time I feel like I truly understand who you are, and what you stand for. I’m so very grateful you’re here, balancing me. Believing in me. Strong in your convictions and what you represent.”

  An ache pinged behind her ribs. A happy longing in her heart that threatened to burst with joy.

  Min faced her, placed a finger under her chin, and drew her gaze to hers. “I feel the same.”

  Kirby raised an eyebrow at the simply underwhelming version of me too. He was typically so much more poetic. “About which part?”

  Chapter Forty-One

  Min

  The woman watching Min, question, playfulness, and adoration all reflected in her crystal-blue eyes, was so much more a huntress than he’d thought possible. As he searched Kirby’s face he saw a warrior and a queen.

  Yes, she was a fighter, and sometimes she had to kill, but she wasn’t a killer. Aya was right—Kirby wasn’t the cause of the wars she found herself, she was the balance. He’d loved her for long, but he’d never loved her this deeply before.

  “All of it,” Min answered her question. She opened her mouth, and he pressed his finger to her lips, so he could finish the thought. “In the past, in your other lives, it’s been so easy to love you.”

  Kirby pulled from his touch, her mouth twisted in a not-quite smile. “You’re saying it’s not anymore?” She didn’t sound annoyed, simply curious.

  “Right at this moment? No. I’ve never loved you more or been more certain of that love. You’re the most amazing creature in existence. You’re beauty. Grace. Vulnerability. Strength. Power. Kindness. You love so much because you are so much. And I sold you short before this life. I saw a beautiful, kind girl, lost and in need of guidance.”

  “That does sound like me. All of it.” She laughed lightly.

  “But you’re so much more. Before now, I didn’t recognize the woman who’s strong enough to stand on a battlefield, but kind enough to do so to keep others from having to. I see now the power and determination it took to surrender yourself for a berserker. And I see a queen who wants to save the world, and is one of the few who can.”

  Min cupped her cheeks. “As you leave for this mission, I won’t send you with the wish that I hope you come back. You will. I have the kind of faith in you that people reserve for gods. You’re my huntress. I worship you. I adore you. For as long as the world turns, and even after it stops, I’ll continue to love you.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Kirby

  When it was time, everyone gathered at NEON. It was less crowded than the house. Kirby explained the plan and pointed everyone to their assigned routes. “Memorize the layout,” she said.

  Everyone nodded.

  “Now. There will be a quiz.” She needed this to go as perfectly as possible from their side. This wouldn’t be like the rescue mission for Aeval’s people. “We expect to be ambushed, and the odds are as high it will come from Vidar and TOM as from anywhere. At the very least, he and Magnus have the ability to make entire sections of the world vanish from magical detection, and they can keep Frey from teleporting us out of there.”

  “It’s fae magic,” Gwydion said. “I didn’t recognize it at first, but after the recharge... I don’t know how she’s wielding it, but she’s literally making entire sections of the world fade into the fae realm. It’s how she’s teleporting as well.”

  “Can you stop her?” Kirby wanted to know how that worked, but those answers needed to wait. When this was— Fuck it, she’d get to it all when she got to it.

  Gwydion nodded.

  “And Kirby can shatter the shell,” Brit said. “She did it in Salt Lake and against the dragon.”

  Kirby hadn’t... Not consciously. But a lot of things she did with her Valkyrie power were instinct at first. “Dahlia and Min will be here, monitoring everyone’s signals. We’ll keep two channels, one to let us talk to TOM and one specifically for us. If anyone needs backup, when you find hostages or gods, or dragons, or anything, holler. We all clear?”

  Everyone nodded. Kirby ran them through the details again, asking random people random questions to make sure everyone had the plan cemented. “We’ll bring TOM up to date and meet everyone at the rendezvous point. I’ll call Starkad as we leave. Be prepared to go in the instant we arrive.”

  “Only one thing left to do before we go in,” Starkad said.

  Kirby nodded, dragged in a deep breath that did nothing to soothe her, and called Magnus.

  “Hey.” Magnus was as cheerful as last time. “We’re starting to make this a habit.”

  Except this may be the last time the connected this way. Kirby didn’t want that to be the case. Though some of Magnus’s choices made her difficult to trust, Kirby wanted things to be otherwise. “I have information. We’re ready to fight if you are.”

  “Down to business. That’s so you.” Magnus’s cheer faded. “Pick you up in the same spot?”

  “Yeah. We’ll be out there in five.” Kirby disconnected and looked at the room. “We’re in. Wait for my call.”

  Brit che
cked the magazine in her Glock, chambered a round, and holstered the weapon again. Extra magazines were stashed in a pocket.

  Dahlia pushed back from the table. “I’m going with you.” She held up a hand when Kirby opened her mouth. “Not to fight. That would be a disaster. I want to see Magnus. Please?”

  Kirby nodded. She didn’t want to drag out goodbyes because she’d be back with everyone soon. She gave Min, Gwydion, and Starkad each quick kisses, and walked out the door with Brit and Dahlia.

  The short walk didn’t take long, but Magnus was already waiting. She gave Dahlia a tentative smile as they approached. “Are you going with us?” Magnus asked.

  Dahlia hung back about five meters. She shook her head. “No. I wanted to see you. Say hello. Hopefully not goodbye.”

  “Vidar has a place saved for you. I do. We’re sisters. You can’t pick them over me.”

  Dahlia dropped her gaze to the ground. “I’m picking me. You can come back with us, when this is over. My terms aren’t nearly so restrictive as TOM’s.”

  Sadness and hope flowed between them. Kirby understood both perspectives—that overwhelming need to belong to a bigger whole, and the just as potent desire to not be beholden to any god. Dahlia and Magnus weren’t lovers. They didn’t have the same kind of relationship Kirby had with Brit, but they really were sisters.

  “So you’re staying.” Magnus’s tone went flat.

  “And you’re leaving. In that case, goodbye.” Dahlia turned back toward NEON.

  Magnus growled as she roughly grabbed Kirby’s and Brit’s hands. The city street vanished, replaced with an outdoor firing range.

  The three of them were on the shooter side of the dividers, looking downrange. This wasn’t the same setup they’d had at TOM.

  “Ladies.” Vidar greeted them. “Welcome back. Magnus tells me we’re a go?”

  There were twenty soldiers behind him, standing in rank and file formation. They wore heavy body armor and were equipped with assault rifles. Appropriate. And a mildly terrifying considering they had bullets that could kill immortals.

  Kirby faced Vidar, stance unyielding and expression blank. “We’re ready. We have a plan, layouts, and team divisions.” She handed him a tablet with the information on it that they’d agreed to give him. Magnus moved to stand next to him.

  He glanced between the screen and her. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Saying would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?” Kirby asked. “You trusted me to carry out my half of the agreement, and I will. Keeping important information from you hurts us as well. I need you backing us up.”

  Vidar focused on the tablet. “These are half of my best. I can’t afford more. I don’t care what you’re hiding as long as they come out of it alive.”

  “That’s fair.” Kirby was grateful to have Brit by her side. A reassuring hand squeeze would be nice, but Kirby would settle for knowing someone here was on her side.

  Magnus pulled on her own body armor, and loaded and checked her gun.

  Vidar frowned. “I don’t care for the way your teams are broken up.”

  “That’s the best you get. We need each other.”

  He nodded and handed the tablet back. Kirby set it on a nearby firing counter. It was a throw-away device, and she didn’t have anywhere to keep it.

  “Do you need time to prepare?” Kirby asked.

  He shook his head. “I’ve come up short in my searches. You’re right, I need your help. But I’m not afraid to take my people and make a tactical retreat, if it comes down to it.”

  Which meant leaving Kirby and her people behind. It was better than her Worst Case Scenario. Not that she’d tell him that, on the off chance that it hadn’t already occurred to him that turning on her team was an option.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Gwydion

  The earth in this tunnel was fresh. Damp. Untouched by human hands for decades, possibly centuries.

  Gwydion would love the chance to linger. To breath deep and appreciate the beauty of it. Under other circumstances he wouldn’t even care that it was cramped in here, but walking with a team of five heavily armed and armored soldiers, and Magnus, there was no peace or beauty.

  The high, almost imperceptible hum in his hear helped shatter the serenity. The earpieces were set to a shared channel, so Gwydion’s group and Magnus’s could all communicate.

  They made their way through their section of tunnels at an astronomically slow pace, checking each blind corner and pausing to listen. Gwydion didn’t like having a squad of neutral at best—and more likely enemy—soldiers at his back, but he was the shield in this group, and he wouldn’t let them be fodder, either.

  There was supposed to be no chatter on the earpieces, so the single tone in his ear startled him. He hid the reaction as they continued the cave sweep.

  “This channel is only our group.” Dahlia’s voice greeted him. “Receive only. Anything you say, everyone still hears, including TOM. They have a similar channel, but I’ve patched us in. Even if they think their conversations are private, they won’t be.”

  Neat trick, but what was to stop TOM from doing the same thing?

  “Magnus could do the same, if she weren’t with you. But no one else is as good as she or I,” Dahlia said.

  The confidence in her specific skill set was the most obvious indicator Gwydion had seen that she was TOM trained. True, plenty of people were confident, but she didn’t radiate that until it came to her ability to hack.

  They continued their journey inward, roots and moss brushing Gwydion’s skin. The buzz from his recharge lingered, and the contact with the plantlife hummed under his skin. He could put up a physical barrier if needed. With a little luck, the action wouldn’t bring these ancient paths crashing down around them.

  Magnus came up short, arm in the air and fist clenched, indicating the group should halt.

  They’d reached the cavern.

  She tapped ear three times, and the beeps echoed in Gwydion’s ear. Her silent signal to the group that this team had reached their destination. She pointed to the soldiers with them, gesturing two should stand on one side of the entrance and three on the other, and stepped into the room with Gwydion to clear the cavern

  It didn’t take much. The space was the size of a medium room, maybe three meters each long, wide, and high. Shadows lingered along the walls, but nothing was hidden

  “Gwydion.” An eerie, androgynous tenor greeted them. Lance appeared from the shadows. “You could still leave.”

  “Fire at will,” Magnus barked.

  Gwydion summoned wooden embrasures in front of the squad, and bullets flew. Gunfire echoed over the earpieces.

  “We’re pinned down,” Kirby shouted.

  Starkad’s growl grew feral and distant, as if his mic had fallen away.

  “Who has Gluskab?” Kirby’s shout was difficult to make out over the chorus of weapon fire.

  Lance’s dragon filled the room. The flame that shot from his mouth incinerated the embrasures.

  Gwydion summoned another wave of defenses, and his entire body protested. The new walls were too thin. How the fuck was he already drained again?

  “Target found.” Vidar’s voice came over the ear piece.

  “Only Grytha. Where are the others?” Brit asked.

  Something to worry about when Gwydion and his squad were out of immediate danger. His defenses were useless against flame regardless of their density. He needed to go on the offensive. He formed and fired spikes at Lance, one after another. Each shot drained Gwydion further, and most bounced off the dragon’s chest and shoulders.

  The bullets weren’t doing any good either. The only thing keeping the squad alive is most were outside the room and Lance was too large to maneuver in here.

  “We’re done,” Vidar said.

  Familiar magic licked over Gwydion. Magnus was trying to leave. He pushed out everything he could to keep her here. The fight wasn’t over.

  She vanished anyway,
as did the dragon.

  “Fuck.” Kirby’s shout in his hear was drowned out by the roar of a dragon.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Kirby

  This was pinned down at its worst. Kirby wanted a shelf a story up to pick off the soldiers shooting at her and her squad. She had a shield around her soldiers, and Brit had located the target.

  If Kirby had Frey take her there, her squad would be open. Unprotected. True, they were trained for this kind of firefight, but she didn’t have a full read on any other immortals here, and leaving was abandoning her team.

  “We’re done.” Vidar said over the earpiece.

  The TOM squad with Kirby vanished.

  Fuck.

  She turned to Frey, to have him do something similar.

  Lance as a dragon appeared in the middle of the room, with Magnus in front of them.

  Magnus looked at Kirby with wide, terror-filled eyes, and sprinted in her direction.

  Kirby expanded her shield.

  Flame erupted from Lance’s mouth,

  “Fuck,” Kirby shouted.

  Magnus’s scream of agony was the stuff of nightmares. The fire deflected off Kirby’s shield, but Magnus’s forearm was scorched almost to the bone, with the severe burn extending most of her right side.

  “I can’t leave,” Frey said. “Something is stopping me from getting us out of here.”

  “Come out and play, Valkyrie.” Lance’s voice echoed in Kirby’s thoughts and off the cave walls.

  The gunfire in her ears had stopped. “Everyone’s gone but us. On our way to you,” Starkad said.

  Magnus alternated between screams and whimpers, as she rolled onto her back.

  Kirby wasn’t feeling the strain of having her shield up on top of everything else, but the weight of pressure was immense. She couldn’t focus on healing Magnus and fight at the same time. If everyone else was where they should be, they were at least a few minutes out.