Claimed by Gods

by Eva Chase

  “We summoned you,” I said, but I didn’t think that covered the feelings she was talking about. The truth was, more and more, I’d been sensing something similar. “In a strange way, I think maybe we all needed you. Or someone like you.”

  “Strange, huh?”

  “Well, I mean…” I wasn’t sure I could talk my way out of that one. I settled on the truth. “You’re not what we thought we needed in a valkyrie. Clearly we were wrong. It’s been a long time, just the five of us and Odin when he’s between wanderings. I’m not sure that’s been good for anyone.”

  “So, you’re glad I blew in here and shook things up?”

  “I’d say so.”

  “Good.” She let out a shaky laugh. “You know, I’ve slept with a fair number of guys in the last five years. But you’re the first person I’ve let myself cry in front of since I was twelve. So… you can decide whether one counts any less than the other.”

  I turned my head toward her. I couldn’t see her, no, but the shape of her couldn’t have been any sharper in my mind. The ache spread to the edges of my ribs, but it wasn’t exactly painful in that moment.

  Perhaps I’d been something she needed, too. Something she still needed.

  I raised my hand to touch her cheek. She set her hand over my fingers, squeezing them. Then she tilted her head and pressed a soft kiss to my palm.

  My pulse jittered at the bolt of sensation that shot down my arm, and I moved without any more thinking. My fingers slid into the waves of her hair as I pulled her into a real kiss.

  It’d been a long time since I’d kissed anyone. Passionate dalliances weren’t really my domain. But my mouth seemed to know exactly how to move against Ari’s to send a tremor of pleasure through my body and draw a pleased murmur from her throat.

  She kissed me back, her hand coming to rest on my neck. The shadows in me stirred in harmony with the dark power contained in her spirit, but she wasn’t all dark. Not by a longshot. A brilliance like the sun twined through that darkness, all the warmth and vigor she could bring to bear too. Our dark valkyrie was full of light.

  When her mouth slipped away from mine, it was only so she could rest her head on my shoulder. She grasped my hand again, tightly.

  “I guess we’d better get going. That battle isn’t going to fight itself.”

  “No, as convenient as that would be.”

  “The rest… We can figure that all out afterward, right?”

  She said it easily, but she tensed a little against me at the same time, as if she was uncertain of my answer. As if the wrong answer would hurt.

  I had power here too.

  I squeezed her hand back, my voice dropping low. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  It seemed that was the right answer. Her body relaxed. She pushed herself to her feet and turned toward her brother’s new home again.

  “Be happy, Petey,” she said, and blew a kiss toward the house. Then she spun around.

  “Let’s fly.”

  25

  Ari

  We came to a stop, hovering a few miles from the town that held the dark elves’ gate—if it could even be called a town. I could make out only a few dozen wooden buildings, all of them in pretty bad repair. A couple of roofs were caved in, others sagging. Weeds were sprouting up all through the gravel road.

  The short, stout figures of the dark elves moved between the buildings here and there, but I didn’t see any people. Couldn’t taste anything but that sluggish oily energy the elves gave off.

  “I don’t think anyone human has lived there for a long time,” I said.

  “A ghost town,” Thor said, smacking his hammer against his palm in anticipation. “As good a place for the gate as any.”

  “I don’t see any gate,” Muninn said, cocking her head in that bird-like way she had.

  “It’s there.” Freya pointed to a patch of trees on the hillside. Her mouth twisted. “I can feel the chill of the caves even from here.”

  Loki spun his curved dagger in the air with a sharp grin. “Then into the chill we’ll go.”

  I had my switchblade at the ready, but it was mostly my valkyrie life-taking ability I’d be relying on. Hod had already gathered more shadows to curl around his lean arms and solid chest. Baldur stood ready on the glowing patch of magic that had carried him here, an opposite match for his twin like always.

  “Getting to the gate should be the easier part,” Freya reminded us. The goddess of love and war looked as stunningly beautiful as ever, but a fierce light gleamed in her eyes that I wouldn’t have wanted to go up against. She was carrying a short sword, though I knew it was her magic she planned to do most of her fighting with. “Inside the caves, we’ll be more vulnerable. We plow through them as quickly as we can, find our way to Odin, and get out. No stopping for any fancy business.”

  She didn’t look at anyone in particular, but Loki pressed his hand to his breastbone in mock dismay. “No need to doubt me. I shall make my kills clean and swift.”

  “Are we all ready?” Thor asked in his low voice.

  I dragged in a breath and nodded with the others. I still didn’t know what the dark elves had meant by the markings they’d left across the country, but I didn’t need to. They’d kidnapped the father of the gods, they’d threatened my little brother, and they’d nearly killed me the first chance they had. No, I wasn’t going to feel the slightest twinge of conscience over battering our way through them today.

  “Baldur?” Freya said.

  The bright god raised his hands. His muscular shoulders flexed. “On your command.”

  We dove down toward the ghost town so fast the wind shrieked in my ears. A shriek rang out below us too as the illusion that had hidden us fell away and a dark elf spotted us.

  “Now!” Freya cried.

  Baldur heaved his arms forward with all his might, and a searing wave of light swept out ahead of our charge. It hissed through every building, every body, knocking the dark elves flat on their backs with their eyes scorched black. A more fitting color for their personalities, really.

  We plummeted past them and raced through the trees where Freya had sensed the gate. The opening was nothing but a wide crack in the rocky mountainside, but an eerie energy emanated from it over my skin. What lay on the other side wasn’t earthly at all.

  We ran into it without hesitation, Freya and Thor at the lead. I plunged into crashing black darkness that spat me out into a dim, damp cave like the one Valhalla’s doorway had led me to.

  Thor was already barreling ahead, roaring with anger and swinging his hammer. Sharp slices of Freya’s magic hummed through the air. The few dark elves who’d been near the gate when they’d emerged lay crumpled by the walls.

  I raced after them alongside the others. Our force burst from the passage into a wider cavern.

  A horde of dark elves rushed to meet us, teeth bared and knives hissing. Baldur whipped more streaks of light at them, but his power seemed dampened here, their resistance stronger. Thor’s hammer sang through the air. With every crash of it, more elves poured in. Loki lashed out with his dagger, quick and sharp as he’d promised, flames licking over his other hand.

  Where the hell was Odin in this place? Several openings branched off from the larger cave, all of them equally shadowed. I swooped over the elvish army, snatching up shudders of life energy through my fingertips with each flap of my wings, but an uneasy stirring rose up from my gut. We were lost. Something was missing.

  I couldn’t have explained the sensation, but I couldn’t shake it either.

  Then Muninn cried out where she’d soared in a circle around the outskirts of the room. She pointed with her knife. “This way! The Allfather is this way!”

  The gods pushed together in one mass, bashing and blazing a path to the passage she’d pointed to. A dark elf sliced through one of Hod’s shadows, but I caught his hair and his life with one hand. Hod aimed another wallop of darkness at an elf that threw herself at my wings. I dove past him with a grateful
brush of his shoulder, just in time to see a swarm of our attackers all launch themselves at Thor.

  He heaved his hammer toward them, but blood gleamed where blades sank into his thigh, his back. I threw myself forward, snatching at the elves his swing couldn’t reach. My arm collided with his brawny body, but one attacker crumpled before he could jab his knife even deeper. The other I kicked away into the next arc of Thor’s weapon.

  The thunder god caught my gaze for one warm instant. Electricity crackled in his eyes, his face flushed with the heat of the battle, but he offered a quick nod of appreciation despite that.

  I didn’t have time to enjoy that brief moment of thanks. As we pressed on into the narrower passage, the elves came at us at a furious pace. I could barely get a strong enough hold to tear a life away. For several pulse-thumping minutes, I resorted mostly to stabs of my switchblade and the impact of my elbows and knees. It didn’t matter whether they lived or died as long as I kept them off of us.

  A dank smell closed in around us, with just a thread of that rot I’d smelled in the caves before. We took another turn, and another, Muninn calling out the way, but the uneasy feeling sank deeper inside me. We were missing something. I was sure of it. But damned if I knew what.

  Maybe that impression was just some sly magic of the elves. None of the gods seemed to have noticed anything wrong.

  We spilled out into another larger cavern, and the raven woman let out a victory cry. There he sat: the Allfather, the tall bearded figure I’d glimpsed in a memory that couldn’t be mine as I’d gazed at his throne in Valhalla. But it wasn’t a throne the dark elves had given him. Chains twisted all around his body, binding him to the spear of stone he was braced against. His head hung low, bruised and bloodied. I didn’t think he was even conscious.

  Freya’s voice pealed out, ragged and furious. She swept forward, her sword gleaming alongside the slashes of her magic. Thor charged after her. He slammed his hammer against the side of the rock where one of the chains crossed it, and both stone and metal shattered.

  Loki darted in to catch Odin as the Allfather sagged forward with the slipping of his bonds. The trickster waved off Thor, making a motion as if to indicate the brawnier god should keep swinging his hammer instead. Baldur slipped through the chaos to support his father’s weight on the other side. A healing glow seeped from him into the slumped figure as we reversed the direction of our assault.

  My heart thumped frantic but almost giddy. All we needed was to get out. Back out into the sun and fresh air. I could almost taste it ahead of us.

  Finding Odin had renewed all the gods’ spirits. Loki’s flames sizzled through the dark elves and Hod’s shadows whipped after them, toppling our attackers in every direction. They pushed forward with a fresh burst of speed, and I found myself bringing up the rear of our battalion. I jabbed my blade and snatched out at flickers of life as the remaining dark elves charged after us.

  We’d just broken back out into the first massive cavern, only it and one more tunnel between us and the brighter realm ahead, when a peal of laughter pierced through the grunts and clangs of the battle. My body went rigid, my wings stuttering in mid-flap.

  It was Petey’s laughter.

  The sound that should have been joyful was chilling here. It echoed off the cavern walls, rising and expanding as another elf must have taken up the sound, and another, and another. Suddenly it seemed as if Petey’s laughter was ringing out at me from all sides, from hundreds of mouths.

  They were reminding me of their threat. Reminding me of what they’d do to him if they found him. Hod had promised he’d wiped the memories of all the dark elves who’d been watching nearby, but obviously there were plenty of others who knew.

  Panic clutched my chest. I kicked out at a dark elf that grabbed at my ankle, but the motion felt sluggish, as if I were moving through water.

  They were going to come for him. They were going to come for Petey and wrench him with those groping hands and gnashing teeth. How could I think, how could I fight—?

  My frantic gaze darted across the room and connected with Loki’s. His arm was still braced around Odin, his dagger slashing at the attackers around him, but he met my eyes and mouthed two words.

  They lie.

  He couldn’t know that. He couldn’t know anything about what was happening to Petey right now or would happen later. But resolve rose up inside me, breaking through the panic.

  I knew. I knew the gods had done everything they could for Petey, that they’d continue watching out for him after we escaped here. I trusted that if anything could keep him safe, it was the plan we’d already put in place.

  And to make sure of that, we had to escape.

  I let out a cry of my own, rough with fury. My valkyrie power surged through my veins. There was nothing scary about it now. It was pure strength, resonating through me.

  At a lash of my knife hand, lightning streaked through several elvish bodies, toppling them. I dove from side to side, severing a throat with a jerk of my blade, letting the coiled darkness inside me swallow life from another attacker. My wings beat the air with a rush of energy. My body moved faster than it ever had before, the enchanted hammer sparked through the air, Loki’s flames danced—and the dark elves fell back around us. They stumbled to a stop amid the littered bodies and let us go.

  Thor pummeled his way through another surge of attackers on our way down the last cave. Freya took a blow to her face that split her perfect lips. But we made it. We heaved ourselves forward with a final burst of might and spilled into the gate, through the blackness beyond, and out onto soft grass beneath warm sunlight.

  26

  Ari

  Odin staggered as his feet hit the softer ground. All of the gods pulled close in an instant. Muninn grasped the Allfather’s arm, looking up at him with hopeful eyes. Loki gave him a fond but careful slap on the back.

  “Take us home, brother. Before those cave-dwellers decide to tear after us out here.”

  The Allfather nodded without a word. He straightened up and raised his arms toward the sky. Light seared up toward the clouds from his hands like a wide blazing rainbow. It burned sharper and clearer until I had no doubt it would hold my feet.

  Thor made a triumphant sound and marched forward. Loki and Baldur followed, still offering Odin their support, with Freya and Muninn staying close on either side of him. The Allfather’s steps grew steadier as he started to ascend the glowing bridge.

  I glanced back toward the gate, but I didn’t see any sign that the dark elves had followed us. My body shivered, shedding the tension of the battle.

  We’d won. We’d rescued Odin, and maybe soon he’d be able to tell us what else his enemies had been planning and why they’d imprisoned him, and then we could win against them all over again. But even though most of me suddenly felt ten times lighter, my heart beat in my chest with a heavy thud.

  That was all true, but I was also leaving my real home behind. Maybe there wasn’t that much I’d miss about it, maybe there wasn’t much room for me there now, but it had at least been mine.

  Petey was here, with the new family we’d secreted him away to. My last glimpse of him, his little blond hair disappearing through the doorway of that house, rose up behind my eyes, and a lump filled my throat. I could go to him instead. I could be there, somehow or other…

  No. My hands clenched at my sides. We’d gotten Odin back from the dark elves, but they were still here. They still remembered me and Petey. I couldn’t put him back in danger.

  Hod had started after the others, but he paused and turned back toward me. “Valkyrie?” he said.

  His attention no longer felt like a demand. I knew I had to go, at least for now. Exhaling, I set one foot and then the other on the glittering arch. But that didn’t feel quite right either.

  If I was going as a valkyrie, I might as well fly like one.

  I pushed a little into the air and flapped after the others. Hod walked on with a small but soft smile. Seeing
it, even the pressure in my chest eased a little.

  I was finding a place among gods and giants, a place that maybe I’d be able to call mine eventually. There was plenty to look forward to ahead of me.

  The landscape beneath us turned hazy and then faded away into pure blue sky. A golden arc came into view up ahead. Everyone picked up their pace at the sight of it. Asgard, I thought, with a tingle of anticipation.

  We emerged from beneath the arc into a vast square laid with marble tiles. A gleaming stone building that must have stretched as long as a football field loomed at our right—Valhalla, I guessed. Somehow it didn’t command quite the same awe in me from the outside as it had when I’d walked through its dining hall, but it was impressive all the same.

  Smaller—but not exactly tiny—stone structures stood farther in the distance, beyond an epic fountain with a dozen cascades of shimmering water gurgling down it. A warm breeze ruffled the feathers on my wings, smelling warm and sweet as honey.

  “Oh!” Thor said, stretching his arms. “It’s good to be back.”

  “Everything looks in order,” Baldur said with a smile.

  “Not much likely to happen to it when no one can get in,” Loki pointed out. “But it is good to see Ari didn’t throw any wild parties while she had the place to herself.” He aimed a wink at me.

  “We’ll have to choose a house for you,” Freya said, looking at me as she brushed her hand across her husband’s temple. “No need for you to hang out in that empty war hall. There are quite a few places available—we’ll take a little tour and you can pick your favorite.”

  “That sounds… that sounds really good,” I said, and found myself beaming back at her.

  Odin’s head had twitched to the side at my voice. Thor took his arm with a warm grin at me.

  “You haven’t gotten to properly meet your newest valkyrie yet, Odin. She’s already done you proud.”