He winced as if I’d stung him and I pulled away, realizing that I’d summoned an ember and burned him. “I’m sorry,” I murmured. Even though I was still a Valkyrie, he was a Valiant. I shouldn’t have the ability to burn him.
The warmth radiating across my chest wasn’t just my feelings for him. It was the power of the stolen fruit I’d taken from Yggdrasil. I pulled it out and its golden glow cascaded across the table as if its light was a tangible substance set free into the world. It drifted and rolled until it reached the floor, then finally dissipated in a fog of glitter.
“What do you plan on doing with that?” he asked. He ran his fingers around mine, but didn’t venture near the fruit’s flesh.
“I believe there are two possibilities this fruit can offer.” I turned it in my hand and marveled at the golden glitter. “I could stop Ragnarök…”
Will leaned his cheek against my head. “Or?”
I folded the fruit into my jacket, dousing us in the gentle darkness of the sleepy mess hall.
“Or, I could save you.”
Will tried to assure me that there was nothing to save him from, but I’d seen the glimmer of hope in his eyes. He didn’t want this life as an Immortal. He wanted to go back home and live a life he’d been denied multiple times over.
I wanted that for Will. I wanted him to live a full life and then return to Yggdrasil with all the wondrous things he’d experienced. With the power of the stolen fruit, perhaps that vision was within my reach… if only Ragnarök wasn’t devouring the universe.
No matter how I looked at it, Ragnarök had to be stopped first, and I certainly wasn’t strong enough to stop it on my own.
Somehow I’d fallen asleep after Will had guided me back to my room. I barely remembered him laying me down on the plush bed. Blankets stuffed with Valkyrie feathers coddled me in comforting warmth until sleep overwhelmed me. I dreamed of Yggdrasil and the souls that slipped free through her leaves. It could have been the best dream I’d ever had in my life—except for the fact that Ragnarök itself woke me up.
A crash buckled the ship, sending it pitching and toppling me off the bed. The gravity wells lurched trying to compensate and slammed me back the other way.
Bruises blossomed across my arms as I blocked a wave of crumpled furniture tumbling right onto my head.
Will’s voice shouted, muffled by the chaos that surrounded us, but I couldn’t even release a scream. I put all my energy into grating my bones against the heavy iron that threatened to flatten me into the ship’s hull.
Yggdrasil’s promising warmth radiated against my chest, tempting to use the power to save myself. I ground my teeth against the fleeting thought. Even if something happened to me, the fruit could still be used to stop Ragnarök. I couldn’t be so selfish to save myself, only to doom the universe to certain death.
The next thought that slipped into my mind was of the swollen darkness that festered in my soul. If I wouldn’t use the light… perhaps I should use the dark.
My bones crunched as I failed to hold up against the weight of the bedroom furniture bearing down on me. Of course Freya had to garnish the room with weighted weapon cases, likely filled to the brim. Devices meant to protect us were about to crush the life out of me.
Another rumble shook the ship and the sound of metal on metal rang against my ears. Will slashed away at the bulky object and continued to shout, but he wasn’t going to get to me in time.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I tried to escape the deep ache that ran through my arms. Slicing pain jabbed as the weight crushed me just a little bit more and my mortal body strained to hold up against a losing battle.
The darkness offered reprieve against the pain. I also knew that accepted the darkness was a step towards Tyler, towards Ragnarök and a future that couldn’t possibly have a good ending. But dying right now would mean Ragnarök won all the same. I felt its icy claws wrapping around Muspelheim and reaching for the ship. Its disturbance against space and time rattled the ship’s sensors and threatened to pull us under an invisible well from which there was no return.
A sound escaped me, and I realized it was a cry of frustration. I was so tired of losing. I was sick of Ragnarök and the constant threat looming over my head.
I was sick of love tearing me apart.
A rip sounded across my back as my Valkyrie wings burst through and I groaned against the wave of pain. There was a reason Valkyries shed their mortal bodies slowly in the form of a slow degradation until the flesh peeled away like old skin. The transition from mortality and a biological form designed for a beginning and an end couldn’t be something less than subtle. To adopt something so foreign as Immortality and the fiery, Immortal body that came with it meant shredding yourself apart from the inside out. The pain could be enough to make someone go mad.
I’d shed my Immortal skin before on my trip from Muspelheim, and while that’d been rough, it was nothing like this. I embraced the powers inside of me, the Immortality, the flames, and most of all, the darkness that fueled my deepest skills over space and time. It should have been a gradual reaccept ace of the things I’d forgotten, but my Immortality came crashing into me with the force of a thousand blades and a burn so raw, it was as if I’d been set aflame.
My wings stretched and flames engulfed my back, sending my beloved jacket disintegrating into ash that tricked down my arms. I caught Yggdrasil’s fruit before it fell and wasn’t surprised my flames couldn’t even mar its glory.
My transformation didn’t slow even with the power of Yggdrasil in my grasp. My shadows swirled and writhed across my arms and bound my wrists like chains. The once heavy furniture toppled to the side as I shrugged it away, only to reveal a shocked Valiant staring me down with a blade dulled against the onslaught he’d given my bedroom.
The ship continued to pitch, but my legs moved with it and my wings fanned out to give me balance. My world tinted in red as the flames of Muspelheim awakened in my heart. The pain ebbed and delight rushed in to take its place. How could I have fought this? Why would I have denied myself my true form? Power surged down my arms and my world lit up with a thousand lights as I drew on my external senses that caught the ebb and flow of the stars, of space and of time.
“Once again, you show me I’m not worthy. Will dropped to one knee and bowed his head. “You truly are a goddess.”
If I hadn’t quite literally been on fire, I would have felt the blush that crept over my face. Here I was, completely topless, being called a goddess. “Don’t be so dramatic,” I muttered as I rummaged through the remains of the room. One closet built into the wall held a small bounty of Valkyrie vests and I wrapped one around, tucking it tightly against my protesting wings until they squeezed through.
I turned to find Will watching me. His gaze averted. “Sorry. It’s just, you’re…”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, a Valkyrie.” I gripped his arm and yanked him to his feet. “There’s no time for that,” I assured him, even though my voice came out musical and strange to my ears. I rushed to the window and searched the darkness for any sign of our attackers. “Do you see them?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
Flames lit the backs of my eyes and seared my irises, warping my senses until I spotted the heat signatures… or lack thereof.
A cold, terrifying void wrapped around the volcanic planet. The Einherjar could have been raining flames down onto it, but that wouldn’t have done much good. This wasn’t an enemy we could fight with weapons… but the onslaught that disrupted our gravity wells didn’t have such strength.
A sprinkle of ships descended on us and disappeared beneath my window, going under and around the ship. Tiny arms extended and gripped against the hull. Lights flashed, followed by zaps as the enemy worked to drill its way in. Air hissed and alarms blared. They’d breached the hull all over the ship.
Tucking Yggdrasil’s fruit into a secure pouch at my hip, I grabbed Will by the arm. “Come on. We’re going to the bridg
e.”
Under Siege
If I’d still been human, there was no way we could have gotten to the bridge. Freya and Odin effortlessly bypassed the light-speed airlocks, going to and from secure areas as they pleased. As a Valkyrie, it was tough, but I could do it. I pinned my wings close to my back and concentrated on the blips of space-time before each door before ripping it open and dragging Will through with me.
By the time we got to the open room that glittered with crystals and hologram stars, two gods glowered down at me, followed by Tyler who was decked out with what I could only describe as a crystal suit.
“What on Earth are you wearing?” I asked and curled my lip. Rainbow was so not his color.
He gave me a raised brow. “I could ask you the same.” Even though his mood was somber, I sensed the excitement in his tone. I’d embraced my Valkyrie… I’d embraced the darkness that brought me one step closer to him.
“This is no Earth,” Freya snapped. She pointed the spear at me, but her fingers stayed clear of its buttons. “Tyler has agreed to take care of our Skuld problem.” She rested the butt of her spear on the ground. “Why didn’t you tell me you wanted to shed your mortal form? I could have eased your transition.”
Will growled and stepped in front of me. “She nearly died. She was forced to transform. This ship of yours is a deathtrap.”
To anyone else, Freya would have seemed unmoved by the statement. Her finger on her spear twitched, a sure sign that she was reigning in emotion she wasn’t supposed to be feeling. “My daughters can take care of themselves, most of all Valerie.”
I wasn’t interested in a debate of my capability, or everyone’s thoughts that I’d sprouted wings and flames mixed with shadow at my feet. I was supposed to be a creature of fire, but I was something else, too. My parents had rejected the darkness until it created Ragnarök. I wouldn’t make that same mistake. I’d deal with my pain instead of trying to bury it in another dimension.
“How is Tyler going to help you?” I asked, even as Tyler proceeded to ignore me as he climbed into a glass tube.
I’d seen other supernatural creatures use it before—or rather, be used by it. A space-time actuator compressed and expanded the power placed within it, and when it hummed to life, I knew I wasn’t going to like whatever Tyler had planned. By the look of approval on Frey and Odin’s faces, it wasn’t anything good.
Odin stopped me when I moved to unlatch the actuator. “He’s already begun. You are Yggdrasil’s chosen and Tyler is doing this so that you may have a chance.”
I frowned, but my hand absently moved to my pouch where I’d secured Yggdrasil’s fruit. Freya’s ember eyes followed my movements and she frowned. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve taken from Yggdrasil. Don’t bring out that blasphemy here.”
I balked at her. My mother, of all creatures, couldn’t lecture me on morality. “I won’t,” I snapped. “I’m saving this for Ragnarök to clean up your mess.”
She opened her mouth to retort, her knuckles white as she gripped her spear, but Tyler slammed his fists against the crystal barrier of his cage. “Enough,” he snapped. His armor cracked all over and a piercing hum made me grip my ears. Light billowed from him, bled over his eyes, and Tyler embraced the one thing he hated the most: the suppression of Odin’s gift to his Valiant. Only Will was strong enough not to flinch away when the Einherjar drew on Tyler’s offering.
Space and time buckled around us like a web. The drilling and groans of the ship ceased against the invasion of the Skuld trying to get inside. It wasn’t because Tyler had done anything to protect the ship… he’s stopped time.
As a Frigg, I could walk through manufactured bubbles of space-time. Tyler’s light continued to engulf the room, and for the first time, he was able to join me in the stolen moment.
“Take Will to Muspelheim,” he ordered. “My mother has betrayed us. If you can reach the Bifrost, you can stop Baldr and you can reach Ragnarök’s core.”
I strained to look at him through the filter of my fingers. My wings wafted behind me and my Immortal form did little to protect me from the power of Tyler’s onslaught as he expanded the breach in space-time to engulf the entirety of the ship and out into space. I watched as the rainbow hue like the edge of an Earthly soap bubble swept through the void and wrapped around Muspelheim itself, stopping Ragnarök in its tracks. The power to hold this shouldn’t have been possible. What strength was Tyler drawing from?
“What’ll happen to you?” I asked, shouting over the frozen hum. Sound shouldn’t have been able to travel, but this wasn’t a frozen pocket of time. This was a new layer in the universe that Tyler had dragged us to, one where we moved freely and the space in our immediate vicinity reacted, but out in the distance the world had stopped spinning and the universe had been put on pause.
“I’ll hold this as long as I need to,” he said as he pressed his fists against the barrier. His armor gleamed and shadows licked through the cracks of his armor. “You’re our only hope, Aerie. Do what must be done.”
I bit my lip and wanted to tell him that this wasn’t right. Whatever he was doing required nothing short of sacrifice… multiple sacrifices. Those souls I’d seen vanish from the Einherjar’s core… I’d thought that they’d found peace in Yggdrasil.
I was wrong.
I looked past my bias and my love to see Tyler for what he really was. He glowed with the tell-tale sign of souls, the sickly gold that dripped from his fingers and bled through his eyes.
He was a devourer of souls.
Follow Me
Pain mixed with grief and incomprehension. How could Tyler be even worse than my mother? She’d used souls to create her daughters and as much as I hated her for that, her actions came out of a desperate need. Ragnarök always came back. Without her daughters, without her army, it would wipe through the universe in a split second. It’d been attracted to Muspelheim and it’d stayed long enough for us to plan a course of action.
I ripped open space and time and grabbed Will’s hand. Tyler gave me a final nod before I stepped through and dragged my Valiant soul with me.
Perhaps he had no choice either. He was a Heimdall, part of a line consumed by the weight of pain and suffering. If he didn’t feed on souls, what would happen to him?
There were so many questions that needed answers. Answers that I couldn’t hear from Tyler right now. That left only one other person… Dalia, the goddess of the Bifrost.
Stepping through a void that made my stomach drop and disoriented me, but I kept a tight hold on Will as I concentrated on holding the portal open. The Einherjar couldn’t move, not while under Tyler’s spacial distortion control. When I looked back and moved my freckled feathers out of the way, I saw his light gleaming like a beacon at the end of the tunnel. I whispered prayers that he’d be okay.
The lurching portal ended and I stepped onto the hot, ashy ground of Muspelheim. This time I’d brought us to the outskirts of the city. Golden spires broke the sky and distant volcanos made the perfect backdrop to what had once been my home.
Will stepped out behind me, his body blurring as time and space fought the foreign entity. A flash brought my attention to the sky and then a sonic boom swept the clouds sprawling until I could see the glimmering blip that was the Einherjar. A thousand glittering black dots closed in around it and my heart thudded against my chest. He’d helped me break free of the Skuld and their hold on the ship, but now I had to hope that the Valkyries and my mother, as well as my father, could keep him safe.
“He can take care of himself,” Will said, surprising me with his honesty. He squeezed my hand that was still holding onto his like my life depended on it. “Tyler is the strongest person I know, aside from you, of course.” He smiled, the motion putting me at ease.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’ll take more than a couple of Skuld and the echoes of Ragnarök to slow him down.
Will’s eyes roamed my body, clearly getting distracted. “You’re beautiful.”
I rolled my eyes. “Glad to know that becoming Immortal didn’t dampen your teenage hormones.” I tugged him to the outskirts of the city. We called it the Jewel, the one place on Muspelheim where we could find luxury and comfort. To the outskirts resided the barracks that blended with the red hue of the landscape… and then there were the natives.
Tyler had told me to find Mr. Jefferson. I’d nearly forgotten the Jotun and collective of natives that were a natural part of the volcanic world. Like the Huldra communed with the forest, the Jotun communed with flame.
My wings twitched as we walked and I stretched them, allowing myself to adjust to their slight weight and how they changed my balance. I finally released Will’s hand to give myself some space. He matched my pace as we kicked up dust and marched to the caves where I’d find the Surtr, the fire-born race of the Jotun.
“You seem content to have your Valkyrie form back,” Will observed.
I curled my fingers into my palms and instinctually squeezed my wings to my shoulders. There was magic in this form and it wasn’t entirely biological. The appendages would have been massively heavy if a human had somehow found a way to sprout wings. An invisible force brushed through my feathers and lit up my nerve endings with the power of the Valkyrie. I frowned, because I knew where that power came from now. How many souls had been destroyed to give me this body? “Just because I like it doesn’t mean I have a right to it.”
Valkyrie Uprising Page 5
