“What brings you here?” she asked as she settled behind her desk and picked up the new scope she’d been working on. Brass melted under her fingers and smoothed over the rim, molding into place and Dalia examined her work, then glanced at my haggard appearance. “Hope my son didn’t do that.”
I cleared my throat. “No, it wasn’t Tyler.”
She rolled her eyes. “I do hate his human name. Tyler. It sounds so forced. Tyr just rolls off the tongue.”
I made a fist. My memories told me that Dalia liked to go off topic, not because she was stupid, but because her inner mind was seeing everything in her domain right now, every second of every day. She was as close to mad as an Immortal could get. It was her innate fear of the darkness that chased her that kept her in control. Ironically, it was the mark on my hand that made her respect me.
“What if I told you it was your Huldra that did this to me?” I asked.
Dalia put down her scope. “What? My Huldra wouldn’t attack you. Not unless you went into their nest.” My lips flattened into a thin line and Dalia’s eyes widened. She shot to her feet and the blue streaks of her irises went wild. “What were you doing?”
I slammed my hand onto the desk and she stared at the black mark that wound over my knuckles. “Did you know that they were working for Baldr? They’re the ones who’ve been kidnapping humans and sacrificing them, sucking them dry like some kind of damn parasites.”
She leaned back in her chair, not looking as upset as I expected, but she certainly was surprised. She steepled her fingers as she slowly rocked back and forth. “I should have known that Baldr would get to them. The poor dears.”
I growled and dug my nails into the wood, sending embers flying as my rage got the better of me. “You need to get them under control. Baldr’s sending someone in two days and they’re going to expect a full orb of Yggdrasil.” I leaned and the wood protested under my weight, sending a crack through the frame. I knew I was unleashing the stolen power that wound inside of me, but I didn’t care, not now when Dalia was looking at me like she had nothing to do with any of this. “Don’t you even care?”
She stood and faced me, not a single line of fear in her face. “I’ve gathered the Huldra for years to protect these woods. What kind of humans have they been taking, hmm?”
I balked. Jules had told me that the Huldra had only taken criminals, but... “It doesn’t matter,” I shot back. “They’re going mad. If you let them kill even one more person, deservedly or not, you’re going to break them.”
Dalia shook her head. “I knew what I was doing when I cultivated the strongest Huldra for my territory. They’re easily manipulated, but they will not stray from their core values. Even now, when Baldr tries to get them to work against me, they only take scum off the streets. No harm, no foul.”
“And the magic they’re giving to Baldr?” I shot back. “What about that? You don’t care that he’s getting stronger?”
She laughed. “It doesn’t matter how strong Baldr gets. He’s already won. I’m just trying to make sure that I survive whatever games he’s playing.”
I gaped at her. “What? This doesn’t sound like the Heimdall I remember.” The House of Heimdall was known for its infinite power and recklessness. No one messed with Dalia or her people. No one.
She grinned and a pink tongue flashed behind her teeth. “Oh, have we met before? I’m not the only one keeping secrets around here, are we?”
I growled. Tyler had warned me not to let Dalia know who I was, and now I knew why. He’d become a Valiant because that had been the only way to save me. It took Odin’s light to calm the shadows that threatened to eat me alive. My mother’s flames weren’t enough to subdue it and I hadn’t been raised with my father. It took a Valiant who understood what I faced to bring me back from the edge. I swallowed, because if Dalia knew that I had been the one to take her son from her, she’d have my head.
“Just the stories I remember.” I motioned to her array of scopes and weapons. “From what I heard, you never gave up like that.”
Her shoulders relaxed, seeming satisfied with my explanation. “Well, after I faced the darkness, I lost my son, and this small reprieve where he’s returned to me hasn’t been the reunion I’d hoped for.” She let out a long sigh and rounded the desk. “No, child, I’m not giving up. I just know when I’m beat.” She grinned again. “I’m old and tired. I’m certainly not the Heimdall you ‘remember.’”
I frowned and looked at the array of trinkets again. She holed herself up here like it was some kind of prison. “Why don’t you shut down the Bifrost?” I asked. “If it didn’t exist, then Baldr would be trapped in Asgard and you wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore.”
Her eyes went wide with warning. “One does not just ‘shut down’ the Bifrost, child. The only time I will ever leave my sacred duty is when Ragnarök threatens at our door. Even then, it will try to rip the Bifrost open.” She straightened. “I’ve prepared centuries for that day. It will try to break me, but I’ll be ready.”
While I appreciated her resolve to fight against the end of the world, it didn’t change the fact that Baldr was coming after the Huldra and there was still plenty of Yggdrasil sap left over. “We can’t let Baldr get his hands on any more power,” I insisted. “If you shut down the Bifrost now, then your sacred duty will have already been completed, yes?”
She shook her head. “No, the Bifrost can never be closed, not permanently. Even if I drain it of power, its connection between all points of space and time can never be undone. It is a fundamental link that cannot be broken, only utilized.”
I tilted my head. It sounded like how Immortals made new life. They didn’t create new souls, but remeshed what was already there. The Bifrost was a link that already existed, but Dalia had figured out how to make it a doorway and keep its control for herself. If what she was saying was true, then without a guardian, a force as powerful as Ragnarök would use it in horrifying ways.
“Okay,” I sighed. “Fine. You don’t close the Bifrost. What then? We just let Baldr get away with this? We let your Huldra claim another life and lose what’s left of their sanity?”
She bit her lip, then waved her hand. The walls shook and a faint, golden light streamed in through the creases in the walls I hadn’t even known were there.
My eyes went wide and I whirled on the door. The ground shook and light spilled around its perimeter. “What’d you do?” I shouted over the growing hum of power. “Where’d you take us?”
“I’m sorry,” Dalia said, her words a whisper that I almost missed in the roar of noise. She curled her fingers into a fist and power swept through the room, sending the door crashing open.
A city of gold streamed its brilliance into the room and Dalia pushed me out. My knees slammed to marbled streets and I cried, turning with Valkyrie speed only to find the door closed.
When I turned back to face a crowded audience of overdressed Immortals, I knew where Dalia had sent me and my blood drained from my face as a cold chill settled into my stomach.
Asgard.
City of the Gods
The crowd parted and a man towered over me. The way the people shrank from him wasn’t out of fear, but respect. He offered me a hand and his face lit with a charming smile. Across his knuckles scrawled the same black mark that afflicted me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and took his hand. He pulled me to my feet and I tried not to look as petrified as I felt.
This was Baldr.
He wasn’t what I expected. Everything in my memories told me that name held with it horror and merciless rage. Yet, the man at my side who waved the crowds away with a smile didn’t look frightening at all. In fact, he was quite beautiful. He took my hand with such familiarity that I found myself rummaging through those boxes in my brain, searching for any memory that I could possibly have of him. Surely we’d met before.
“So, you finally took a mortal form,” Baldr observed with an approving nod. “It’s a good
choice, if I have to say so myself, Sister.”
... Sister?
I barely had a chance to digest that as a city of golden spires and brilliant lights glittered around us. Baldr took me across a glass path that spiraled with rainbow lights. It led straight to the largest set of spires that collected together to form what could only be called a castle. I staggered when the ground beneath us molded and moved, bringing us closer to the entrance with increasing speed.
He laughed as I bent my knees in a battle stance. “Mother warned me you wouldn’t be yourself. It’s all right. It’s just a moving highway.”
I looked over the edge of the “highway” and found a cascade of waterfalls and sea creatures with glimmering horns cresting the surface. My stomach pitched and I scrambled back, finding myself in his arms. “I don’t understand,” I blurted. None of this made any sense.
He shushed me. “Don’t worry. I know it’s overwhelming, but I’ll explain everything.”
Once past a line of fierce warriors that reflected the city’s grace in their impenetrable armor, I felt crushed by the unnatural silence of the castle. There was no carpet to absorb the sounds and I realized why it all felt so eerie. No foliage or plant in the place. Just metal and gold and light.
Our footsteps echoed as Baldr handed me off to a girl with fire in her eyes and a brilliant red cape that hid the supernatural appendages at her back.
A Valkyrie.
He walked ahead of us and waved his hands, sending the walls morphing and revealing a room that hadn’t been there a moment before.
I clutched at the Valkyrie that guided me. “What’s he done to you?” I hissed. “Are you his prisoner?”
The Valkyrie gave me an obnoxious laugh that echoed through the new chamber. “What? No. I’ve served your brother for years.” She pulled me onto a puffy cushion that sat at the edge of a table filled with delicacies fit for a Roman feast.
Baldr sat across from me and plucked a grape from the closest platter, grinning at me before popping it into his mouth. “You look hungry. Why don’t you eat?”
My gaze swept over the collection and my stomach growled. There was no sense in fighting my enemy on an empty stomach. I took one of the finger sandwiches and placed it on my tongue. I tried not to show my enjoyment as the delight nearly melted.
“She thinks I’m your prisoner,” the Valkyrie said, leaning over the table as if it were all some big joke. “Isn’t that adorable?”
Baldr smiled, the motion making him unabashedly attractive. “My sister has always been known for her antics.” He winked at me. “Why don’t you tell me what you did to piss off Dalia enough for her to send you here, without your memories, no less.” He tilted his head and grinned. “I hope it didn’t have anything to do with me.”
I swallowed the stolen morsel and knew as the cold chill ran up my spine that Baldr was every bit the horror I knew him to be. This was what he was good at. He knew how to appear to be charming and alluring, but in his heart, he was as dark as they come.
I leaned onto the table, ignoring the fact that my legs had gone numb. “Dalia’s been working for you all this time.”
He threw his head back and laughed. The Valkyrie at my side glittered with her clear adoration of him, but I didn’t miss the streaks of shadow that ran like sickened veins across her neck. The glimpse disappeared as if I’d imagined it, replaced with the marble skin of an Immortal, but I knew what I’d seen. This Valkyrie was certainly Baldr’s prisoner, both in body and in mind.
“Dalia’s a smart girl. She knew what you were going to try and do.” He took another grape and examined it. “So after you’d activated your rune, she sent you to me, just like we agreed.”
Fury wound through me. I’d been set up twice now. It seemed like everyone had an agenda to get me on the knife’s edge that risked Ragnarök. Tyler wanted me to regain my memories so that we could rekindle some estranged love story. Baldr... I wasn’t sure what he wanted from me, but it wasn’t anything good. The only person who was innocent in all of this was Will and I regretted disappointing him. If I made it out of this... When I made it out of this, I would tell him he was right all along. I’d messed up, big time.
I shot to my feet, sending the low table rattling. “You’re going to send me back,” I demanded. “I’m not like your Valkyrie pet. You can’t control me.”
The woman at his side gasped in horror, but Baldr seemed amused. “You’re right,” he said, righting a plate that had overturned. “I can’t control you. Do you know why that is?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Because I know who you really are?” My memories hadn’t kicked in, but a deep knowing filled every fibre of my body. Baldr was my brother... but he wasn’t Odin’s son. There wasn’t any light in him at all to fight Ragnarök’s power. He accepted it willingly. Behind the confidence and handsome poise hinted a deep-seated madness that consumed him from the inside.
Baldr waved me away like an unruly child. “Perhaps you know who I am, for we are siblings, after all, memories or no.” He leaned one elbow on the table and entertained an expression that was supposed to look sincere, but came off horribly sarcastic. “No, sweet sister, the reason I cannot control you is because you already have a master.” He reached across the table with such lightning speed that I didn’t see him coming. He held my hand up and pressed a light kiss to the mark that stretched shadows across my skin. “And now that you’ve accepted him, there’s only one step left to trigger Ragnarök.”
My skin crawled. His words felt like an omen. I’d already broken the first two laws of the Valkyrie. There was only one more and I couldn’t believe that I’d ever entertained it.
Third Law of the Valkyrie... Don’t Trigger Ragnarök.
Baldr dismissed his Valkyrie pet and took me into a room filled with glowing panels. On Earth, it would have looked like a futuristic 360-theatre. Here, it was Baldr’s personal spy chamber.
He showed me the Huldra’s nest with the Yggdrasil orb being drained by a shifting shadow. Broken bodies littered around her that had once been Huldra. She’d taken her fair share of lives to account for the missing slots in the honeycomb. Each sliver of blue liquid glass that seeped into the creature layered over flesh and bone until I recognized Will’s mother.
“Leanne,” I breathed and looked up at Baldr as my eyes widened. “You’ve been the one behind everything.”
He tilted his head to the side. “I suppose so.” He glanced at me, a smirk tugging at his lips. “But you chose the boy, dear sister. You wound the magic that sent his mother mad with hunger for eternal life, so much so that she was willing to sacrifice her son over and over again.” He crossed his arms and whistled. “I have to admit, even I’m not so cruel. And then you dared to play with your toy. Such audacity even I must admire.”
Ash ran down the back of my shirt as wings threatened to burst through. “Don’t feed me lies,” I warned. “I’ll go all Valkyrie on your ass and I won’t be sorry.”
He laughed, which only served to stoke the flames in my chest. “I would never dare lie to you.” He waved his hand and the screen flashed, revealing two Valiant warriors crouching in the brush.
Will and Tyler.
“You better not—” I began, rounding on Baldr with my fists.
“Shh,” he said. “Just watch. You’ll enjoy this.”
I held my breath as they crept up on Leanne. This was the only moment they’d have a chance against her while she was distracted with draining the Huldra’s bounty.
There were two things working against the two men who held my heart. This was Will’s mother and every second that passed she regained more of her mortal appearance. Would Will truly be able to strike her down when she had her human face?
Then there was Tyler... I would have thought him Will’s saving grace, if it hadn’t been the look of raw pain that streaked across his features. The screen turned and zoomed in on what had grabbed his attention and a cry escaped my throat. Jules’ body, broken and bleeding, lay still on the
forest floor.
“This is highly entertaining,” Baldr whispered behind his hand as if we could be heard. “I put my money on the Norn. What do you think?”
Rage blasted through me with such raw strength that something deeper than shadows and flame touched my soul. I’d felt it once before when I’d been willing to give up everything that I was.
Eternal love that could consume me with undying flames.
I screamed and reached through the screen, sending blue fire across time and space to ignite the brush at Leanne’s feet.
She stopped feeding on Yggdrasil’s sap and screeched as her raw, pink flesh melted under the heat of my rage.
Will whirled and faced me as his chestnut eyes cleared with realization. Although I knew he couldn’t see me, he looked straight at me. “Val?” he cried. “Are you all right? Val? If you can hear me, I’m coming for you, okay? Don’t give in to the shadow!”
“Stop yelling, you fool!” Tyler shouted and drew his sword. He approached the screeching Norn that was already melting back into a shadow. She retaliated with wisps that lashed out and left scars across the ground. Tyler dodged and growled. “We have a Norn to kill!”
I watched in horror as Will let go of the mortal part of himself and his eyes glazed over with duty. Sunlight streamed through the broken forest as he drew his sword and called on Odin’s power. Thunder cracked in the distance as they unceremoniously sliced at the creature. She fought back, whips streaking harsh lines across Will’s flawless armor.
I wanted to tell Will he didn’t have to do this, that it would crush him if he killed his own mother, but that thing wasn’t his mother anymore. Baldr said that I’d been the one to make her this way. Guilt rooted me to the spot as I watched the two Valiant warriors work to dispatch the Norn, for that’s all she was now. She spat and growled at them, what was left of her face flashing with rage.
“You’re my son!” she yelled and clawed out at him. “You will obey me!”
Valkyrie Rebellion: Valkyrie Allegiance Book 2 Page 14