by Smith, Maren
I felt the blade press hard against my throat. It was uncomfortable, but I was not in pain. I felt a cool stickiness flow down my neck from near the point of blade, and I knew I was bleeding.
“No! I forbid it!” Forseti’s roar filled the woods and the ground beneath my feet shook. The battlefield went silent. Edda turned; her wide eyes told me all I needed to know. I was bleeding, he had slit my throat.
Why did I again feel no pain? Is this the feeling of peace before death overcomes me?
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” another voice added to the mix. I knew who it was before Forseti’s cry confirmed it.
“Loki!” Forseti shouted. “Tell him to let her go.”
“Hello, nephew,” Loki replied, coolly. “What is one less valkyrie to you? Don’t you have plenty to choose from on Asgard?”
“She is to be my wife!”
I heard the words, but they didn’t quite resonate with me. Everything around me was turning foggy. The warmth flowing from my throat was quickening.
“Damnit, Loki. If she dies, I will stop at nothing to have your head.”
“Calm down, Forseti.” Loki’s laugh was chilling. “Do you love her?”
“Yes.” There was no hesitation in his answer. I wanted to look at Loki, but his voice came from behind me. I couldn’t turn with the blade against me. No one said a word for a minute. Forseti stared at Loki; it was as if they were speaking with their eyes. Finally, Loki spoke again.
“There will be too much trouble,” he said, seemingly thinking out the situation. “Trouble that I do not need. Do you have Odin’s permission to marry her?”
“I do.”
“And mother? Do you have Frigg’s permission too?”
“Yes.”
“Damnit, Forseti, why did you have to fall in love with this one, of all the options you had? Now, if I kill her, it becomes so much more than…” He paused again, assessing his options.
My eyes were burning, they were getting heavy. I closed them, swaying. It was hard to stand.
“Fine. If I allow her to live, you will take her to Asgard and never allow her to come to Midgard again.”
“You have my word.”
What? No. I couldn’t go to Asgard. I couldn’t be forbidden from returning to my home. I couldn’t speak, I didn’t have the strength.
“Then, nephew, I will allow it. But, if she sets a foot back on Midgard, I will end her. Do you understand? One foot, one hair of hers crosses into Midgard and her life will belong to me. I will know, Forseti. I always know.”
With those words, he was gone. One by one, the dark elves disappeared as well until only Sethec stood, his blade still pressed into my neck.
“Release her.” The command was given and this time, he obeyed.
I felt myself fall to the ground.
* * *
Forseti
My aim was true. I watched Morrigan slip to the ground and I rushed forward, my sword slicing Sethec’s head clear off of his shoulders. Justice, finally, for my father. I fell to the ground next to Morrigan, gathering her to me. She was weak, I could barely sense her heartbeat.
“No, Morrigan, you can’t die, my little goddess. You can’t leave me. I order it.” I placed my hand on her back, willing her heart to beat stronger, harder, faster. If I could calm her down, maybe I could strengthen her, too. Her hand went up to her throat, tracing the cut along the line. I watched, stunned, as the cut faded under her touch. It healed and disappeared right before my eyes.
“He’s glowing.” There was an awe in Morrigan’s voice, a hushed reverence as she stared at Sethec.
“That is the death glow,” Edda explained. “As valkyries, we can tell when someone is near death or dead based on the strength of the glow.”
“I don’t think I like this power,” Morrigan mumbled, shivering. She turned then toward Kara and shrieked. “She’s glowing, too! No, no!”
“Morrigan!” Edda gasped as Morrigan crawled forward, over to where Kara laid. As if in a trance, she yanked the spear out of her neck and laid her hand flat against the wound. As with the cut on her own neck, the wound closed immediately. The only trace left was dried blood. I sat back on my heels. I had only ever known of one, the Goddess Eir, to have these powers outside of Odin himself.
My little goddess. My amazing little goddess had the power to restore and save lives with a touch of her hand.
She fell forward then, collapsing. Her strength drained from her. I picked her up, signaled to Edda and together, we transported them both up to Asgard.
Chapter 16
Morrigan
I woke in a strange bed, clean and freshly rested. The events of the night before flooded back to me. Dressing, I went to find Forseti. I had only stumbled a few feet when I found him in a small dining room. Forseti was fuming, emotion radiating off of him. I could feel it before he even turned toward me. I stumbled a couple steps back, not wanting to be within his reach. Maybe I should return to the room for a while longer.
“Morrigan!”
His roar hit my ears with the force of a windstorm, whipping my head back. Holy hell, his yelling physically manifested itself. How did he do that? I scurried over to him, not wanting to anger him any more than he already was. His eyes were storming. I took a half step backwards.
“Just seeing you has renewed my anger. Get yourself in that corner while I calm down.”
Corner? He wanted me to stand in the corner? I had known that I was going to be in trouble, but I’m not a child to stand in a corner.
Spanking me was one thing, but standing in the corner, nah. Not for me.
I turned to tell him just that until I saw the look on his face. His eyebrows were touching from his intense scowl. There was a prominent tic in his jaw and his fists were balled at his sides.
“I hope to Odin that the next words out of your mouth are, ‘yes, Daddy’ or I swear I might not be able to help what I do to your ass.”
He’d cursed.
Oh my God, Forseti had cursed. My eyes widened with the threat and all I could do was nod before scurrying off to put myself in the corner.
“Boss, don’t you think you are being awfully hard on her? She almost died,” Edda spoke up, coming to my defense. I turned to see her sitting in a chair at the side of the table, eating her breakfast.
“Hard? Do you think this is being hard on her? This is nothing, Edda. Once I have calmed down, something I have never had to do before and, therefore, don’t know how long it will take, I will show you what being hard on someone looks like. She will be lucky if she can sit down comfortably in the next month. She will pay the consequences for her actions. When have I ever let willful, dangerous behavior go? She put not only her life, but both of yours in jeopardy as well, almost getting Kara killed.”
Edda simply shook her head. I turned to the corner, conflicted. Sure, I had only known Forseti for a few days, but in that time, he had been the picture of calmness. He was not calm now, he was raging. I felt tremendous guilt for putting him into this state.
“He was incredibly worried about you, that fear has him in this near uncontrollable frenzy. Forseti produces waves of calmness. He stills storms, brings chaos to a halt. He couldn’t stop this storm because he couldn’t calm himself down enough to produce the stillness he needed. He has to be still to produce tranquility waves…” explained Edda, having once again read my thoughts. It made sense. I loved him, too.
“Edda,” I asked, without turning from the corner, “how is Kara?”
“She is fine, good as new. Enjoying basking in the attention afforded to her as she tells the story over and over again.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. I remembered feeling her injury, I remember the heat radiating from my hand as I pressed against it, willing it to leave, to heal, with my mind. That was the last thing I recalled, before everything had gone black.
“Edda, leave us. Lock the door behind you.”
Forseti’s voice was cold and hard. I didn’t like
it one bit. I wanted to run into his arms and be held by his warmth. Instead, I could feel the chill radiating down my spine at his words.
Edda did his bidding, the door clicking as she locked it on her way out.
I felt Forseti’s presence as he came up behind me. “Daddy, I—”
“Silence, Morrigan.”
I longed to hear him call me his little goddess. He took my hands and placed them shoulder length apart on the wall, nudging my feet straight back. One arm went around my belly, pushing my butt backwards, all while steadying me.
“What you did was dangerous!” Crack! The wooden sword of justice came crashing into my behind. I screamed as I rose up on my toes. “Reckless!” Crack! It fell again, over the last swat. The pain blinded me. “And selfish!” Crack! He took me by my upper arm and pulled me away from the corner, half dragging me to the dining room table. The cold wood dug into my stomach as he pushed me over it. He tucked the flowing, silky white robes I wore up, exposing my lower region.
Forseti swung the paddle high and brought it down with force over my now bare, burning, quivering globes. I rose up on my tiptoes, grasping the edge of the table with all my might, turning my knuckles white, trying not to stand up. I’d take this. I deserved each and every swat of justice being delivered to my backside. I was not sure how many fell before he dropped the paddle to the ground, but I knew my butt was on fire. There was a puddle of tears beneath my face on the table.
He scooped me up, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face into the small of his neck.
“I was terrified,” he whispered. “I was terrified of losing you.” His voice caught with emotion. “I had just found you and wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you, and then there you were, bleeding out in front of me.” His body trembled. “I have never been so scared in my entire life. I love you, little goddess. I can’t ever lose you.” His grip tightened around me.
“I love you too, Daddy.”
He held me then, tightly in his arms. He kissed me gently and rocked. We stayed like that, cuddled into each other, for a long moment until Forseti broke the silence.
“Little goddess, we need to talk now.” Forseti pulled out a chair from the table and bid me to sit. I didn’t want to; I knew the chair would be hard against my freshly paddled behind. I sat anyway. I cringed as the tender skin hit the coolness of the wood. I marveled again at the fact that while I felt no pain from the blade on my neck, I felt tremendous, nearly unbearable pain from Forseti’s punishing hand. He pulled another chair out and sat directly across from me. Reaching out, he took my hands in his.
“How much do you remember from last night?”
I remembered it all. As the conversation between he and Loki came back to me, I leaned toward him. “Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me I can go back to Earth, to see my family.”
“It is true, little goddess. You can’t ever go back to Midgard.”
“Earth! My home is on Earth.”
“No, little goddess. Your home isn’t on Earth anymore. Your home is here.”
“But my family…”
“Morrigan, I need to tell you something now. You aren’t going to like it, but I need you to listen until I am done and not interrupt me.”
Odin had erased me from their memories. I could all but feel my heart shatter inside my chest. My family and my friends no longer knew I existed. With a wave of a hand, Odin erased me, no us, all of us, from the memories of those who live on Earth. The cases of the dead women, the valkyries I had worked months on would disappear. All of my achievements, gone. My struggles and my victories, my friendships, my relationship with my parents, the adoration of my nephews, gone. It was so much more than being deprived of a family, more than if I had I lost them in a tragic accident or them me. Had they been told I had died, they would have grieved, sure. But they would have been left with the memories of the times we had shared before. They would have had the love between us to remember me by. Instead, I was wiped clean, like I was no more than a mark on a chalkboard.
“There is nothing I can do, then? Nothing? I can’t say goodbye?”
“They wouldn’t know who you were, even if you tried to say goodbye.” He was gentle in the telling, but the truth fell hard on me.
“I will never see them again?”
“You can watch them from here, as your mother watched you growing up. I know it isn’t much, but it is something.”
It was not much of anything at all. Tears streamed down my face, manifesting the pain that I felt inside. My world was changing, and there was nothing I could do about it. Forseti stood, shoved the chair back and knelt in front of me.
“You will forge a new life here, a life with me. I will love you and give you everything you need, Morrigan. I promise, I will spend the rest of eternity doing everything in my power to make you happy. Please, won’t you try?” There was a desperation in his plea.
“What choice do I have? Odin has taken all of them away.”
“No, little goddess. He hasn’t taken all your choices away. You still get a say in whether or not you choose me.”
“Oh, Daddy, don’t you see? That was never really a choice, either. My soul chose you the second I set my eyes on you.” I knew then that I would be spending forever with him.
Epilogue
All of Asgard showed up for our big day, even Loki. Forseti hadn’t wanted him there, but Odin had said to allow it, ordering us to appease him to prevent trouble.
I felt like a fairy princess in my dress, or maybe like Zelda. I had a beautiful wedding gown and a sword at my waist. I decided to ride Winter down the road to where Forseti stood, waiting for me.
Lifting me from Winter’s back, Forseti laughed, shaking his head. “Only you would ride a horse down the aisle on your wedding day.”
“It isn’t exactly an aisle,” I said, looking around. Forseti had explained that weddings weren’t done the same way on Asgard as they were done on Earth. I didn’t care. I had dreamt of a wedding since I was a little girl. He appeased me.
The past year had been nothing but an emotional rollercoaster. I loved Forseti, and I had found my place among Odin’s elite valkyrie team. I had even made friends and had started to get to know my biological family, but my heart still broke for what I had left behind. I watched them from time to time, looked over them, made sure they were okay, but the emptiness was still there.
Forseti told me the emptiness I felt was grief and that it would dull some over time. It hadn’t, not really. Although I had gotten better at dealing with it, the pain still lingered.
As for Forseti, he took care of me. He was the best Daddy Dom a girl could have. He spoiled me rotten, even when I didn’t deserve it, and he didn’t hesitate to correct me if I did something wrong. The first few months, I spent a lot of time over his knee. Then, I settled into a routine. I knew what he expected from me and the spankings became fewer and further apart. We built a home.
Forseti gifted me with a magical Kindle. He wouldn’t tell me where he had gotten it or how it worked, but it continuously updated and all of my favorite authors’ books were on it. It was a small piece of the life I left behind, a joy that I didn’t have to give up. The first thing I did was finish reading the story I had started that fateful day in the park.
As each day passed, Asgard took root in my heart. In this place, I could be everything I was meant to be. I was not sure who exactly that is, but I was uncovering her, layer by layer. Asgard had become my home. I found that if I looked forward toward the future, it made the pain of the past dull from a roar to a small whisper.
I walked up to my Daddy, standing in the front of all of our family and friends, ready to take my hand in marriage. He was beaming with pride, and once again, my panties instantly dampened.
“I knew this would all work out,” Forseti said confidently, brushing the hair off my forehead and kissing it tenderly.
“Had that much faith in us being fated, did you?”
“No, i
t wasn’t fate that I had faith in.”
“Tell me then, Daddy, what was your faith in?”
“My faith was in love. Love, little goddess. Love always wins.”
“I love you, Daddy Justice.”
“And I love you, little goddess.”
THE END
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Ultragirl Powers Up
by
Emily Tilton
About Emily Tilton
Emily Tilton is a professor who lives in New England and has two amazing children. To join her mailing list and get sneak peeks and free reads, go to:
https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/k8d6a9
Copyright © 2019 by Emily Tilton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including, but not limited to, photocopying or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, locales, and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, and events are purely coincidental.
Chapter 1
From the very beginning—from the first time she saved an innocent bystander—Ultragirl knew she would be a handful. With her own planet of origin blown to smithereens in the Second Zaxian War, no one but another superhero would do, to keep Ultragirl in check and on the path of good deeds done in the service of humanity (and of course also, as necessary, in the service of any other race possessed of an innate capacity for and will towards fighting the eternal battle against the forces of entropy).