Valkyrie Divided (Pyralis Book 2)

by Brandy L. Cunningham

  My teeth ground together and my jaw flexed. I didn’t need to wonder if this was Byron or Ian talking. Byron had always had a superior attitude. It’s what allowed him to be so easily seduced by evil. “You are not my father.”

  He laughed, the sound was hollow and void of emotion. “Oh, yes, I know. You are not my blood. Took me a while to figure that one out…but once you began speaking about the Spirits of the dead, I knew something was off. How clever your mother was to hide that deceit from me.”

  I didn’t want to talk about any of this anymore. I was done with the chit-chat. Byron was trying to distract me, but it wasn’t working. My grid was locked down, and I already knew about the twenty creatures lurking in the water below us. I didn’t know what they were, but it didn’t matter. Flames tickled my fingertips, and the ends of my hair ignited. I saw the apprehension that crossed Byron’s features and a moment later, he lunged at me, pulling a celestial blade from beneath his coat.

  I ducked to the side as he lunged, and at the same time, I watched the creatures crawling from the water. It was just as I’d feared. They were not creatures known to this world, but creatures made from experimentations and dark incantations. As I engaged Byron, the Werebeast who had been lurking behind me erupted from the cliffs, hurtling into one of the monsters at the water’s edge. Byron used the moment to lunge for me again, and I ducked to the side, spinning around, and ran my nails across his arm, letting the fires of myself lick across his skin.

  Byron screamed, but came at me again. Lifting from the air, I landed a kick in his chest, sending him head over heels onto the sharp rocks beneath us. He wasted no time righting himself, and managed to slice into my thigh with the blade. The celestial blade burned me, but my fire overtook my body, sealing up the wound. Panic crossed his face, but he refused to back down. He lunged and jabbed, trying to sink his blade into me, but I was quicker, and I had the asset of wings and flames.

  Snarls filled the air along with screams as Desmond-the-Werebeast tore into another creature, gorily decapitating it. The smell and sound of Gargoyles reached me, and I knew my friends were here. That knowledge gave me comfort, but at the same time, they were a commodity and now I would have to worry about their safety.

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  I could smell Byron on the air, and I looked over the cliff edge to see him advancing on Valkyrie. Taking a step forward, I growled when a hand on my arm stopped me. I could feel the Fenix taking over, wanting to protect our mate. Rafael’s eyes searched my own, and he shook his head. “She must do this on her own. She cannot afford the distraction of trying to protect those she cares about.”

  I wanted to rip the old man apart. Who was he to command me? As if he sensed my thoughts, he chuckled. “Calm down, Aeron. I need your help inside.”

  With a growl that was half anger and half frustration, I pulled my gaze from the woman I had claimed, and followed the old Witch into the pits of the island. It went against all of my better judgment, against my protective nature, but I knew there must be a reason he needed my help. Clamping down on my beastial side, I left Valkyrie to her own battle.

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  26

  Redemption and Death

  Several of the monsters which had risen from the sea lay dead at my feet, yet still Byron and I parried. The shadow of me lurked off to the side, well out of his sight, waiting. Desmond’s animal form darted in and out of my peripheral vision as he chased and attacked the other creatures which had been created at the hands of the man I fought. I wondered briefly where Vangrough was, and what his plan was in sending Byron to face off with me. Was this fight merely a distraction? Was this a trick? The thought crossed my mind more than once, but the opportunity to avenge my death and take Byron out of the equation was too tempting to walk away from.

  Byron let out a bark of demented laughter as his blade sliced through the skin on my upper arm, but I never faltered. He could slice me all he wanted, my flames would heal me. I could feel the temperature of them rising, growing hotter as my anger and need for death also climbed. I kicked, punched, and scratched as Byron attacked, but I also learned a valuable lesson, one that cost me something great. Byron was gaining the upper hand, and I couldn’t call forth my Reaper wings, the one weapon I usually relied upon. I leapt onto his back, scorching him with my fire, and ripped at his neck with my fangs, but he was stronger than he looked. He tossed me off him like a sack, and I hit the rough rock with a skin ripping impact.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Byron advance on me, his blade held above his head as he prepared to decapitate me. My flames flared as though a new fuel had been fed to them, but too late, I noticed the animal-like beast that leapt from the side and straight onto Byron. Crying out, I lunged to my feet, running toward them. The Werebeast ripped at Byron’s throat, but Byron brought his blade down in one clean swoop, and I watched in horror as Desmond’s body was cut in two.

  He fell to the rocks, his body convulsing before finally shifting to human, and I cried out, gagging on my sobs as the lifeless eyes of my oldest friend, my first love, looked up at me with only emptiness. He may have betrayed me, made mistakes, but in the end, he had proven he was still the man I had loved. Anger ignited in me with a new power, and my shadowy form stepped back inside me, consoling me. My wings shifted in an instant, and I stabbed the tips of both into the chest of the man I had once called my father. Byron gurgled, blood pooling at the corner of his mouth, and his eyes found mine, disbelief reflecting in them. I held him to me as I released the full inferno of my fire, my anger, and my grief. Like a gas main leak, the spark caught, and the blast obliterated everything within miles. Including me.

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  I sucked in a gasp, the cold air burning my lungs. Crystals formed on my hair, and my face, as I floated in the abyss of space. It was dark here, but unlike the skies of earth, here, there were still the tiny twinkling lights of the stars and the planets. I floated out there in space, among the meteorites, and debris, just out of reach of the stars, but close enough, I felt I could reach out and touch them. It was an illusion, of course, just like everything seemed to be. Life, love, trust, it was all a thin, breakable illusion, there one moment and gone the next.

  A tear left the corner of my eye, and as it trailed along my cheek, it solidified into a cold brittle crystal. My heart ached. I might have wanted to kill Desmond at times, but I hadn’t actually done it. Something had always stopped me, and whether that was my own feelings, or the goodness and light in me, I don’t know. But now, it didn’t matter. He had been murdered, and yes, I had killed the one who took him from me, but it wasn’t enough. It wouldn’t be enough until they were all obliterated, each betrayer, each hand of evil.

  A warmth trailed along my cheek, like fingers lightly caressing my frozen skin, and I heard his voice. “Goodbye, my sweet. Remember the good in me, not the bad.”

  His honey voice drifted away into silence, and slowly, the face in my mind, with its cognac eyes also faded. In a broken whisper, I called back to him. “Goodbye, Desmond…”

  Closing my eyes against the pain, I realized there were other things I needed to finish, other people I needed to protect. Channeling my thoughts, I focused my energy on going back to earth.

  My feet touched the rough needles that lay on the forest floor, and I opened my eyes, scanning the trees around me. Their once deep green needles had dropped to the earth, littering the moist soil, and now the sentinel conifers stood barren. Sadness enveloped my soul. Earth was feeling the effects of so much time with no light. What would happen to it, to all of us? I didn’t know the answers, I couldn’t see the future.

  About to step beneath their empty branches, a voice behind me gave me pause. “They are all safe, in case you’re wondering, in case you give a damn.”

  His deep, strong voice touched me in ways no hands could. It penetrated down deep, stirring my lust, but also reminding me of my sadness. I shifted to face him slowly. Our eyes met, and his face softened.

&n
bsp; “I do care. I came to see if they were safe.”

  “You lost control of yourself, not giving a fuck whether they were safe.”

  I thought back to that moment right before the explosion, and I remembered the sensation I’d felt, like I knew they would be okay. “I didn’t lose control, I chose what happened, and I knew you and Rafael had it covered.”

  Aeron’s eyes roved up and down my body, caressing my hips and breasts, when they settled on my face again, they paused. “You are sad. What’s wrong?”

  A small sob tore from my chest, barely audible, and in a flash, Aeron was at my side, his arms surrounding me, ready to kill for me. “Desmond’s gone.”

  Aeron’s face exhibited surprise, but none of the satisfaction I would have expected. “What happened?”

  Leaning my head into his chest, I allowed him to hold me, and I told him the details, from the experiments that had turned Desmond into a beast, to the moment he chose to attack Byron in my defense. Aeron was a good listener. He didn’t ask questions, he didn’t interrupt, he let me tell the full story. When he did finally speak, his voice was quiet, contemplative.

  “It seems he was the Desmond we both remember, in the end. I’m glad, for your sake, that you were given that chance, to see the true Desmond Wolfe one last time.”

  Lifting my face, I looked into Aeron’s seductive multihued eyes, and then I leaned in, kissing him. There was no moment of hesitation in this man. He took what I had offered and demanded more. The kiss which had begun as a soft caress turned into a hot, crushing need in seconds. His hands trailed over my body, and for once, I was grateful that I often found myself devoid of clothing. Right then, the only material that separated us was that of Aeron’s finely pressed suit. In moments, it lay in a tattered mess on the ground, and Aeron held me to him. My legs were around his waist, my breathing coming hard, as I cried out and he thrust into me.

  This wasn’t sex between two people who didn’t care. This was me needing the comfort of feeling him within me, of feeling the heat of our fires mingle, of being held even for a brief moment, in the arms of the man I loved, because there might not be another chance.

  His voice drifted through the cloud of ecstasy in my mind. “You love me?”

  I half laughed, half growled as I rocked against him. “Stop listening to my thoughts you jerk!”

  His answering laugh was low and gravelly, glazed with passion, and it sent me close to the edge. “So you love me?”

  Sinking my fangs into the muscle of his shoulder, I hissed, “Shut up and fuck me, Aeron.” It was all the persuasion he needed.

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  When I stepped into camp a long while later, fully sated, and somewhat less sad, the first face I saw was Viren’s. I felt the fire flare up inside me, but then, Aeron’s warm hand on my shoulder stopped me as his mouth whispered against my ear.

  “He never betrayed you. He was there trying to get you out. He has been a spy among the Ancients for decades.”

  My eyes widened, and I looked back at Aeron. “Are you certain?”

  He inclined his head. “He is the one who notified Villart, who sent Valkyrian word of what was being whispered among those old fools.”

  I swallowed the lump that rose in my throat. “So him and Villart, they never betrayed me?”

  “No.”

  I released a long breath, some of the tension I was holding in slowly expelling with the heated air that left my lungs. I couldn’t even begin to express the relief I felt that these two hadn’t become my enemy after all. I watched Viren as he slowly approached me, clearly uncertain as to my feelings toward him.

  “Val, please forgive me. I couldn’t let you see that I was on your side, or we would have risked undoing all the work your sister has been doing most of her life.”

  I allowed my features to soften, and I placed a hand on his arm. “I’m just happy I don’t have to kill the father of my niece or nephew.”

  He laughed softly, and then stepped back. “If you will excuse me, now that we know that Ian Vangrough is indeed alive, I must see to the safety of your sister.”

  I nodded in understanding, and watched him go. When I scanned the crowd, I saw Rafael and Villart deep in discussion. Walking up to them, I asked, “Would anyone care to explain to me how Ian Vangrough is still alive?”

  Rafael turned toward me, and his eyes crinkled at the corners for a moment, but as he scanned my face, they fell. “So it’s true then, Desmond is gone.”

  My heart went out to him, and as Aeron draped a blanket over my shoulders, I nodded. “I’m sorry, Rafael. I know he was like a son to you.”

  “Aye, he was, but he made his choices, and he had to live with them. In the end, was he…himself?”

  There was such a look of hopefulness in his eyes, I was happy I was able to confirm his hopes. “He died defending me from Byron.”

  His body seemed to slacken, and he sighed. “Good for him.” His eyes snapped back to mine, and he asked, “And Byron?”

  “Dead.”

  He nodded. “I thought as much, with that explosion you released. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the worst we must face.”

  “So Vangrough?”

  Villart spoke from beside him. “The Fiddler believes he is alive only through dark magic. It is the only way he would have lasted so long, and been able to stay hidden.”

  I blinked. “Isn’t he immortal?”

  Rafael nodded. “He is, but he wasn’t born that way. He drank the sacred blood from his immortal lover, but because he stole this gift without permission, it has repercussions. Instead of living immortal as I have, he will have become more like the demons that plague us now. A part of his soul is owned by the Prince of Hell.”

  I frowned. “His lover? The Prince of Hell?”

  Rafael looked away as he spoke. “His lover was Airi, the goddess of light. The Prince of Hell, otherwise known as the descendant of Satan.

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  27

  Sacrifice

  Dark dreams plagued me that night. Even as I lay in the warm clutches of Aeron, the darkness seeped into my mind. Like the breath of eternal damnation, it whispers and caresses the darkness within, seeking entrance, searching for corruption, hoping to succeed in changing my soul. Its melody hummed through me, lacing with my veins and instilling desires in my heart. Already there was darkness in me, already I was tainted, darkened at the edges. Pieces of my heart were charred from loss and death, and others were blackened like ink, where desires and cravings lurked.

  Every day of my newly changed life, since that fateful Halloween, I fought a battle of good and evil, only the hardest fight I had to face was one that existed within me. It pulled me, like a game of tug of war, the light pulled me one way, while the dark pulled me the other. Sometimes, I was able to maintain the line of good, but other times, my heart faded to black, and the monster inside of me took control. Now, however, it wasn’t only my own darkness I had to fight. It was his as well.

  The air had become cool, still, and quiet. I lay next to my lover, looking down on his sleeping form, and I wished this life we had was different. Leaving him would never be easy, but I had seen enough glimpses into the future to know that if I stayed here at his side, there would be no future for the rest of those who called earth home. They would all die, and eventually, there would be no one left here to return to. There was a way for me to stop it, but in order to do it, I had to make the ultimate choice. Stay here with the man I loved, while the rest of them died, or leave with the hope of changing our fate.

  Rising up, I pressed a soft kiss to Aeron’s face, a tear splattering his unblemished skin as I pulled away. With one last look, I left the tent, making my way slowly into the empty woods. He was waiting there for me, leaning casually back against a boulder, his skeletal fingers tapping its hard surface in a soft beat.

  Narrowing my eyes at the face that lurked beneath the black top hat, I said, “What do you want, Corvo?”

  He tilted his head to one side
, his white, seemingly sightless eyes widening at me. “Surely you know, little Vampire of Fire. No one escapes his clutches so easily.”

  Frowning, I asked, “Who?”

  His answering laugh was soft, amused. “He has let you have your fun, now, it is time to return. The Prince of Hell demands your return, and I have come to collect you.”

  He was right to laugh. I had known all along who had sent the Corvo to collect me. I knew what it meant, to stay was to bring death to all those who still had a chance, but to go…

  To go was an opportunity to sacrifice myself for the greater good, to fix the wrongs I had done. I knew how to defeat Vangrough, and it wasn’t by staying.

  A voice bellowed in the silent gloom of the forest. “VALKYRIE! NOOO!”

  Looking up into the empty eyes of the Corvo, I placed my hand into his boney one, and I whispered over my shoulder. “Forgive me, my love.”

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Brandy L Cunningham lives in California with her husband and two amazing children. She is an animal lover and has spent her life working with horses. She has an Associate Degree in Animal Science currently and has seven published novels.

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