Tyler's Secret
After regrouping with Tyler and Jules, I sat through brunch, having lost my appetite. Jules gathered her assortment of nuts and berries into colorful arrangements before plucking one up and eating it thoughtfully.
“She likes to appreciate nature of all sorts,” Tyler said as he leaned onto his elbow and watched Jules with an expression that mixed boredom with fascination.
“Not many Huldra where you come from?” Will asked before he took another bite of his sandwich.
I opted to sit next to Jules in the booth, only because Tyler was sitting across from her and I didn’t want to give Will the wrong idea. However now seeing Will and Tyler scrunched together not trying to touch elbows made me regret that decision.
Tyler shrugged. “I didn’t spend much time in New York, even though Dalia set up shop here in the early eighteen hundreds.” He glanced at me before averting his gaze. “I joined Odin’s service not long after that.”
The blood drained from my face and I could feel Will’s eyes on me in accusation. Tyler and I had more history than I could even begin to imagine. I clenched my fists under the table.
“Not much nature in spaceships,” I mused.
Tyler nodded as his lips slid into a smirk. “Not on the Mojinir, no.”
When Will gave me an inquisitive look, I answered, “Odin’s spaceship.”
Tyler brightened. “How did you know that was Odin’s spaceship?”
A blush crept over my face. Tyler thought it was because I’d reclaimed some of my memories of our time together. The truth was I’d already visited my father once on his ship. “Just a hunch,” I said.
He sighed. “Right.” As he stood, Jules gathered the remains of her lunch in her hand and pulled out a handkerchief. She smiled when I caught her eye. “It’s for my sisters. They have to try this.”
I wanted to say that I suspected the Huldra of New York were intimately familiar with nuts and berries, but decided to keep my mouth shut.
The sun smiled from overhead as we walked on busy streets towards Central Park. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry with a device plugged into their ears. No one paid even the slightest attention to us, a group of teenagers that would have been suspicious in any other venue. Will faintly glowed, his Valiant powers threatening to overtake him if I kept pushing his emotions. Tyler whispered with shadows and I knew it was an equal and opposite effect of whatever I was doing to them—and what they were doing to me.
Jules walked beside me while Tyler lagged behind, watching our backs, and Will sped to the front, making me feel like a treasure trapped inside a phalanx.
“What were you talking to Dalia about?” Jules asked. She clutched her treasures to her chest as if she protected gold and silver rather than a couple of dried bits of fruit.
Will hadn’t pressured me about my meeting with Dalia, but he knew that was because I didn’t want to talk about it. Jules, on the other hand, blinked at me with the innocence of her question. When I didn’t respond right away, I recognized a glimmer of fear.
I laughed and rested my hand on her arm. “It wasn’t about you,” I promised and she relaxed.
Once we reached the park, we all fell into silence, equally mesmerized by the people passing by. Children especially caught my interest as they laughed and clutched onto their mother’s skirts. They weren’t being raised to defend the universe or save the world. Their only job was to be happy.
Jules laughed as we passed a child that grinned up at us. “They’re just darling, aren’t they? The tiny humans.”
It didn’t surprise me that a Huldra loved children. I could see the kindred spirit of playfulness and mischief that came with youth. “Don’t get many children in Mattsfield’s forests?” I asked.
She nodded. “There are a couple of families that like to go camping in the summer, but it’s rare I get to see such young ones.” Her lips stretched into a smile. “I reveal myself to them, sometimes. The little ones find it fun.” Her smile dimmed. “The adults just freak out.”
My programmed memories hummed at that information. There were many fairytales about children being able to see things that adults couldn’t. I imagined that there could be other Huldra out there like Jules who revealed themselves only to children because they knew they’d be accepted. The playful race thrived on emotions, especially joy and adventure.
Even Tyler didn’t seem immune to the children’s effect. We’d all stopped to watch children play ball for quite some time and the toy rolled to Tyler’s feet. He picked it up and gently tossed it back to the youngest boy who came running. The boy laughed and thanked him before running off to join his friends, flashing Tyler a wide smile.
I wanted to enjoy the moment. Yet, now that I knew it was there, the icy stillness crept over my hand. The sensation was a constant reminder of what was coming for me. The scope Dalia had given me hung like a heavy weight in my jacket. I glanced up and peered through the filter of leaves at the puffy clouds that swept across the horizon. I hoped that when night came, I could see what else Dalia had been trying to warn me about.
Will brushed my arm and his touch sent a zing of assurance and warmth through my body. “What is it?” he asked. He followed my gaze. “Something I need to be worried about? I don’t sense anything.”
Just because Will was an Immortal now didn’t mean he’d mastered his powers. I was glad that he could keep a mortal visage in front of the humans, even though a glimmer that streaked across his temple betrayed it cost him. I curled my fingers, resisting the urge to reach out and comfort him. He had every right to be worried about me. “Nothing’s there,” I lied. “I just don’t like that there are children here. People are being taken. It’s not safe.”
Will threaded his fingers through mine and gave me a comforting squeeze. My touch cost him, sending another streak of light across his features. “Don’t worry,” he said, once again comforting me when he was the one about to break into a thousand pieces. “The attacks have only been attempted at night, according to Jules. The children will be sent to their beds long before any evil makes its way out into the open.” He grinned. “Which means, while the sun is up, we can have some fun and look around. I’ve never been to Central Park.”
We spent the better part of the day wandering and learning the park’s turns and secrets. Countless vendors seemed to exist on every corner and Tyler looked about ready to smash every single one to pieces. “You know why they built the park, right?” Tyler asked no one in particular.
Jules hummed while she walked close to the leaves, seeming content to be so near nature. Will certainly wasn’t going to engage in conversation with Tyler, so I decided to respond just to break the awkward silence. “No,” I admitted. “Not even my programmed memories know that.”
“That’s because it’s not important,” Will offered.
Tyler dismissed Will with a wave of his hand. “It was because the Europeans thought Americans had dirty, pathetic cities.” He waved his arms to the expanse of trees. “This was supposed to be America’s proof that they could have a humane civilization, but they ruin it by making it a place of elites and trade. It should be about nature, plain and simple.”
Jules interrupted her stroll to agree. “Without nature, humanity becomes dark.”
I allowed Tyler and Jules to continue the conversation as I came across a part of the park that was less than glamorous. We’d dodged the worst of the vendors, but now I sensed another sort of intrusion lingered on unseen corners. I spotted the glimmer of Huldra watching us as we moved through their woods. Slim, feminine bodies of spirits that hadn’t experienced a dose of magic powerful enough to give them a mortal frame. Jules had experienced suffering, the one emotion that resulted in real, tangible power. If people were being taken, I wondered if the Huldra were tempted to use that pain for themselves.
Then I remembered, this was Dalia’s territory. Even if the Huldra would stoop so low as to use the power of those who suffered here for their own gains, Dalia would
know about it and I pitied any Huldra that dared to tick her off.
When evening fell, we found ourselves deeper into the lesser used areas of the park. I could see why no one wanted to come here. Trees twisted, looking pained. What had once been a fresh cement path was now a cracked and dusty spackle against dirt. I honed in on a splotch of deep rust that could have once been blood.
Even though I knew the sun was setting, it was darker here than it should have been. That’s when I tasted the damp kiss of fog on my lips. I eased closer to Will and looked over my shoulder to find Tyler on full alert. Even Jules seemed to pay attention. Her shoulders curled as she shivered. Something bad had happened here.
“I don’t like how this part of the park feels,” Will said.
I pitched my voice low. “Can you sense it too?” My Valkyrie powers seemed sensitive to beings and acts of a magical nature. I wasn’t sure what it was that I sensed, but if Will could feel it too, it meant that this was magic that he’d felt before. “Do you think it’s your mother?”
Will shook his head. “No. This feels different. My mother’s power…” He tilted his head and the muscles at his jaw bulged. I knew he didn’t like to think of what his mother was now, but he continued, “She feels like my mother… except wrong, twisted, and empty. This sensation, though… I don’t know. It feels like something else. It’s just… dark.”
We had all worked under the assumption that it had been Will’s mother who’d taken the helpless from Central Park. I thought back to what Dalia had told me.
I rummaged through my jacket and pulled out the scope. Tyler sucked in a breath. “Oh gods. Did you steal that? If my mother finds out—”
“Relax,” I snapped before holding the eyepiece up to my face. “She gave it to me.”
Tyler groaned. “That’s even worse.”
Ignoring him, I peered through the lens until my surroundings came into focus. I looked up through the filter of leaves, but there was still too much light to see past the obtrusion of clouds.
Shifting the scope down, I focused on the dense foliage of the park. The internal lens fluctuated, making me startle. I knew this thing didn’t have batteries.
When my vision came into focus, I swallowed a scream.
Winding trails of glittering black slithered across our path like snakes. The tingling I’d felt at my ankles was tiny bites of a creature licking at the blue aura of our souls. My skin crawled.
The wisps of black choked the trees and forced them to twist, bending them and squeezing strained cries from the branches that I’d missed before.
When I lowered the telescope, Will must have seen me blanch; He pried the device from my fingers and looked through it. He frowned. “I don’t see anything,” he complained.
“Let me try.” Tyler snatched up the scope before Will had a chance to protest. He held it up to his eye and searched the woods, but mirrored Will’s disappointment when he lowered it and glared at me. “Nothing, but, you’re pale. Maybe only a Valkyrie can see it. Describe it.”
The grim slate of his voice said he already had an idea what it was that only a Valkyrie could see.
The void. The shadow.
The echoes of Ragnarök.
Even though I hadn’t been able to articulate what it was I’d seen, the unanimous decision to get back to the suite and mull things over sounded good to me. Only Jules didn’t seem inclined to scale the steps to our suite. The moment we were inside the entry gates, she disappeared to deliver her treats to the Huldra who’d been too shy to reveal themselves during our visit to the park.
Once we were inside, I realized how exhausted I felt. I went to the living room and collapsed on the floor in front of an empty fireplace.
Will joined me and Tyler soon followed, both sitting on the floor on either side. I wanted to tell them that they weren’t helping, but soon quiet conversation ensued that helped me take my mind off my feelings. Both Tyler and Will glowed as they talked, slowly shedding their mortal guises.
“I still think they’re connected,” Will insisted. He curled his arms over his knees and clasped his wrist. I kept my gaze on the shadows in the hearth that were an appropriate metaphor for the day’s discoveries.
It wasn’t cold enough for a fire, but I wanted one anyway to banish both the metaphor and the deep chill that crept into my chest and wouldn’t let go.
Tyler drew his brows together. “I know your mother got herself into some dark magic, but what Aerie is describing is something else entirely.” He tossed a toothpick into the fireplace. “The echoes of Ragnarök are scars on our world. They’re everywhere, and they’re actually a good thing.” He glanced at me. “Without them, without the Valkyries who keep them in check, the entire universe would collapse in on itself.”
I knew just as much as the humans what dark matter did for the universe. It kept it expanding. With an expanding universe, it would never die. But if that force was not there… it’d all go back to nothing and crush into an impossibly tiny, dense ball that had once been billions upon billions of galaxies.
“I never said it was an echo of Ragnarök,” I protested as I crept closer to the fireplace. My fingers twitched, heat building in my center that wanted to light it.
Tyler shook his head, calling my bluff. “My mother gave you one of her telescopes. That’s unheard of. She hoards those things like they’re more important than her own children.” He sighed. “It’s part of her gift. She sees everything. Her natural power is limited to a hundred miles of her domain, but she develops the telescopes to see more.” His eyes dropped to the slight budge in my jacket where I kept the scope. I couldn’t deny that I felt a bit of possessiveness for it as well, as if I’d inherited some great treasure that belonged to me and me alone. Perhaps some of Dalia’s influence warped the object. I resisted the urge to tug it out and toss it across the room. I still needed it until I knew what this all meant.
“She wouldn’t just lightly give it to you,” Tyler continued. “I recognize that scope. That one shows her greatest fear.”
I frowned. “Cheater.” He didn’t know I’d seen the echoes of Ragnarök because I’d been scared. He wasn’t like Will. He couldn’t read me that well. Instead he used his own knowledge against me.
He frowned. “It doesn’t matter how I know what it is that you saw. The fact is, I know. Dalia is an Immortal that doesn’t scare easily. There are only a few things in the known universe that get her on edge, and one of those are the echoes of Ragnarök.” He leaned back against the edge of the couch.
I squirmed because I had a feeling I knew why they were called “echoes.” It wasn’t just because the dark whispers were remnants of the last Ragnarök, but because they were remnants of an echo that came from within the Valkyries. I felt it calling to me until my internal flames couldn’t warm the cold core that settled into my chest. My Valkyrie spirit wasn’t enough to keep it at bay, not if I let it keep spreading through me. The urge to set the room on fire just to feel warm again flashed through my mind, sending fresh terror once I pushed that terrible thought aside.
Even though I’d contained the stray compulsion, embers sparked at my fingertips and I shook them into the fireplace to keep the rug from lighting up. I’d hoped the flames would be small, but my power was more of a volatile nature. A flash exploded, sending heat billowing throughout the room and an instant fire roaring in the hearth.
Will shot to his feet as the flames reflected in his ethereal eyes, his mortal guise completely dropped. He looked at me and for the first time, I saw something other than concern there. I saw fear.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. I didn’t want to frighten him. I wrapped my fingers around my elbows. I was so cold. My teeth chattered and I drew myself as close to the fireplace as I could without the flames catching my clothes.
“Let her be,” Tyler said, not having moved from his reclined position against the sofa. He watched us through slitted eyes as if he were trying to fall asleep. “Don’t be afraid of what you are, Aerie.
You were born in the flames of Muspelheim and that power is all you have to fight against the threat of Ragnarök.”
Will didn’t seem convinced. “People don’t just go around making ashes spontaneously combust.” He kneeled so that we were eye-to-eye. “Are you okay? Did Dalia do something to you?”
“Oh please,” Tyler said with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t blame my mother.” When Will glowered, Tyler snarled, his clothes morphing into battle leathers. He had such exquisite control over his gifts. It was easy to forget that Tyler was a powerful Valiant with centuries of experience.
“She didn’t do anything,” I said, forcing Tyler to lower his hackles. I reached into my jacket pocket and retrieved the scope. When I handed it to Tyler, he frowned. “Try again,” I pressed. “This time, look at me.” Maybe Tyler couldn’t see the echoes of Ragnarök that infested a park, but if he had any connection to me whatsoever, he should be able to see the mark on my hand.
Will stayed silent as Tyler lifted the scope and took my offered palm. He turned it over as I splayed my fingers. He sucked in a breath and I knew that he’d spotted the mark. I bit my lower lip, but excited by the confirmation, and horrified about what the mark could mean. Was I really the harbinger of doom Freya was so afraid of?
He handed the scope to Will who took in a deep breath before taking a look for himself. The fact that he could see my mark didn’t surprise me. My feelings for Will went both ways. “What is that?” he asked, although I had a feeling that he already knew.
“It’s something that she’s had for a long time,” Tyler said. He made a fist and cursed. “Freya is an idiot. Suppressing your memories must have made it worse. It never was visible like that, not even with one of my mother’s scopes.”
Valkyrie Rebellion: Valkyrie Allegiance Book 2 Page 10