Valkyrie Concealed

by Allyson Lindt

  Kirby pulled him into a tucked away alcove in the library building. Erek assumed she wanted Round Two, but Min knew better. “You need to know what I heard during training,” he said.

  “You can’t stay here.” Her voice was tight, each word clipped.

  What? “This is about the earthquake, isn’t it? The gunshot?”

  She nodded. Her gaze darted in every direction, never focusing on one point for too long, and rarely landing on him. “It’s not safe for any grunt here. And if you’re their next target, you’ll blow both our covers. You need to go back. Tell the others.” As she related the story of what had happened in the woods, with the other Nobles, Min’s concern grew.

  “That falls in line with what I heard.” He gave her a brief recap of the chatter during his mission.

  Her eyes widened in understanding. “Fuck.” She scrubbed her face, exhaling through her fingers. “Malsumis. The one they sell the merchandise for, in the souvenir shops. The locals believe she was imprisoned by other gods, and that blood spilled on this soil under the right circumstances will free her.”

  “They’re not going to bring Hel back.”

  “But they think they are. Instead, she’s set them up with someone far more vindictive.”

  More vindictive than Hel was a terrifying thought. Understanding spread through Min. “Her plan is foolproof, because it only requires death.”

  “Not only,” Kirby said. “It has to be blood spilled by a true believer. It’s why Blossom and Fumbles... Dahlia, other Nobles aren’t here. They didn’t believe. They were sent on useless errands, to keep them from interfering in what’s about to happen.”

  The people Min had sent Starkad after, when he first became Erek. “We’re leaving. Now.”

  “No.” Kirby’s tone was hard. “You’re leaving. I’m making a pact with the lesser of two-evils.”

  “What does that mean? No. We both go back. We regroup. We plan next steps as a team.” Min wouldn’t leave her, and Erek refused to let her execute a poorly thought out plan.

  Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. She stood on her toes and brushed her lips over his. Desperation and sorrow flooded through the soft connection. “If you don’t hear from me in two hours, then you can come after me.”

  “What? No. I—”

  “Tell Starkad to let Brit go. I’ll see you soon. Ástvinur.”

  Min stumbled at being back in his own body, and a void sat in his mind where Erek used to be. The campus vanished, and he was back in Aeval’s palace.

  “Damn it, Kirby,” he roared in the empty entryway. What had she done?

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Kirby ached at having to send Min away. Finally seeing his face again, even for a heartbeat, was beautiful agony. Then removing the one person from her side who had her back...

  She could stroll across campus again, but after the scene she’d made with Erek, that would draw more attention than she cared for. She preferred if people thought she and he were still here, hiding in the stacks.

  Kirby closed her eyes and summoned a prayer. “Loki, I know you’re keeping an eye on me,” she muttered. She might not worship this god, but she desperately needed him to hear her, and that should be enough. “I need you here.” She hated how much she meant those words.

  Nothing.

  And then a new heat at her back. “You’re not that important,” Loki whispered in her ear.

  “You came, didn’t you?” Kirby wasn’t the only one who couldn’t afford to turn down allies. She’d had her doubts about Loki’s motivations, but the fact that he showed up so quickly squelched some of her noisier concerns.

  She needed to stay on campus as Brit. But she also needed to communicate with Starkad. To share information and build a strategy. Going through Loki was the best way to ensure that, if someone had to know what she was up to, it was someone with as much to lose as her.

  “Let’s go somewhere more private and talk,” Loki said, and then they were in his office. “Now then, you were saying?”

  “You were right. About who I am, about why I’m here, and about my needing your help.” She mentally rolled her eyes.

  Loki strolled to the other side of his desk and sat. His posture was calm. Confident. “Fuck, it must hurt to admit that.”

  A bit, yeah. “It kills me dead. If you were hoping for more, this is the closest I get to groveling.”

  “What happens if I lied?”

  “If?” Kirby barked a laugh. “However, you do want this. For this place to stay standing. To use an entire private army to shield you from a single girl. To talk to Davyn.” She didn’t hesitate to dangle the last offer, since Davyn wanted the same thing. They were big boys; they could choose to write their own mutually assured destruction. “You don’t get any of that if you fuck me over too soon.”

  “I don’t get any of that right now, even if I work with you. Easy enough for you to make offers when you get paid up front and I have to wait.”

  This time she didn’t hide the eyeroll. “Did you feel the earthquake less than an hour ago? Time is critical.”

  “I know.” Loki sighed. “Hel was never talking about Brit when she said one of her followers would return. She meant you. Kirby.”

  Bullshit. “She never made me feel like a part of anything here. Why would I come back?” Then again, she’s isolated Brit pretty completely, too. How many Nobles felt that way, but never let it show?

  “It didn’t matter if you returned to serve her. It was pretty much guaranteed that you’d return. But she knew who you were when you arrived—we all did. And I don’t mean the Valkyrie bit. You weren’t a killer. She pushed with everything, to make you hate the outside world. To bend you to her will. To break you in her favor.”

  Bile rose in Kirby’s throat. She’d suspected as much, especially with Brit’s memories backing up the theory, but hearing someone say it outright... He could be lying, but this was something that felt real. “That’s fucked up.” She kept the emotion from her voice. Thank Brit for that.

  “She’s arranged to have hundreds of people who worship her killed, so she can live again. You expected reasonable?”

  The gods rarely were. “Great. We’ve both groveled. I’ll tell you everything I know, if you give me an outside line to Starkad and let me bring him in for backup.”

  “This goes back to what I said about paying up front. I don’t like having you here. I don’t like having him anywhere.”

  “I can leave right now and let you deal with the death. With Hel.” Kirby was bluffing, and it wasn’t a good bluff. She’d do everything in her power, to keep a goddess of destruction—one the other gods were scared of enough to lock away—from being released.

  Loki smirked. “If you were willing to do that, you wouldn’t be here in the first place. Tell me what you know, and I’ll decide if the threat is worth the risk of bringing in backup.”

  Negotiating was an option, but there were some things Kirby wasn’t willing to bend on. “You’re not a tactician. You’re a salesman and an administrator, and if you had the skills these soldiers do, you wouldn’t need them. I say who my backup is.”

  “Don’t insult me while you want favors from me. I don’t want to do this without your help, but I will. But I can evict you from the campus right now, and you won’t be back.” Was he bluffing? There was only so far she was willing to push. “I’m doing this to save my own neck, which won’t happen if you stick my head on the chopping block for someone else.”

  She clenched her jaw. “Fine. The Nobles have figured out there is no ritual to follow, beyond a believer spilling blood.” She wasn’t giving up everything, though. There was no way to know how he’d react to the news about a different goddess being released. “And as you waste my fucking time, proving your dick is bigger, they’re figuring out the best way to kill as many people as possible, simultaneously, with a lot of bloodshed. We need to isolate them, and if they figure out we’re coming for them, it won’t be easy. I’m not doing that without bac
kup I trust.”

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ve spent the last few years hunting Nobles.”

  Holy fuck. Did he understand the concept of time is of the essence? How long was he going to drag this out?

  “I wasn’t alone. I only went after two at a time,” Kirby said. “And they didn’t know I was going to be there. There are a dozen Noble teams on campus, and once they get wind someone is picking them off on their home turf...”

  Loki’s drawn-out sigh made it seem like he was about to make the biggest sacrifice of his life. “All right. Bring in—”

  The sound of the doorframe splintering filled the room. Loki’s office door was kicked open. Kirby reached for her gun as she spun, but the person pressing a barrel to the back of her head was faster.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “Damn it, Kirby.”

  When Gwydion heard Min’s roar echo through the palace, his blood turned to ice and he broke into a sprint, racing toward the shout. He found Min in the foyer, looking like the embodiment of fury and anguish.

  “What happened?” Gwydion demanded.

  “She sent me back alone. Where are the others? We’re going back now.”

  Gwydion agreed with the sentiment, but not with the logistics. As much as it devoured him to argue, he had to. “If Kirby made the decision, she had a reason for it. Did she tell you anything?”

  “Where are the others? This is the last time I’ll repeat myself, so they’d better be here when I explain.” Magic splashed white in stark contrast over Min’s dark skin.

  Gwydion rarely saw this side of him, and it was terrifying. Min believed Kirby was in extreme danger. “I just dropped them off to meet up with a friend—associate?—of Starkad’s.” Which should be good news. Davyn couldn’t be fond of Loki, and more muscle wouldn’t hurt. “Let’s go.”

  He opened a doorway and stepped through. Min would follow, and there was no time to waste.

  They arrived in a small town, in an alley behind a row of buildings that were barely a century old. The ambient magic crawled through Gwydion like a million tiny pinpricks. Something was wrong with the earth here. The trees and other plants were tainted with something foul.

  “How far are we from campus?” Min stepped past him.

  Gwydion matched his stride. “About two hours.”

  “Not close enough. Where are they?”

  It wasn’t a big enough town that finding Brit and Starkad would be difficult, but every wasted second without Kirby or answers was agony to Gwydion. If the air felt like this and she was closer to the source, he wanted to take her as far away as possible.

  They rounded one corner, and then another, to get to the main street. Less than a block away, Starkad stood in front of Brit, staring down Davyn.

  Wonderful.

  “I take it that’s Starkad’s friend.” Min kept walking.

  “What gave it away?” Gwydion had been on Davyn’s side of that staring match more than a few times. He and Min approached quickly. “Stand down, boys. More important things are happening.”

  Davyn growled. That was supposed to be impressive? “She lied to me. Tried to kill my ward. Has killed dozens of others.”

  Starkad was protecting Brit? That was new.

  “One—I’ve never met you before. Not face to face.” Brit’s voice shook, but there was no hesitation in her retort. “Two—I never intended to kill her. The plan was always to execute my partner and walk away. Your girl was never in danger from me. And three, it hasn’t been dozens, but it has been more than I care to admit.”

  “Where’s Kirby?” Starkad’s gaze never left Davyn, but he was talking to Min.

  “Still inside. Hence the more important things.”

  Davyn broke the staring match first, to glance at Min. “Inside where?”

  “TOM. You didn’t talk to her”—Starkad jerked his thumb toward Brit—“you spoke with Kirby, dressed as her. And if she’s in danger, you’ve become my lowest priority.”

  “Let me rip the sniper’s throat out, and I’ll help you find the Valkyrie,” Davyn said.

  Charming. “This isn’t a negotiation. I can put you in a cell in the fae realm in a blink. Brit didn’t kill your girl or even injure her.” And Gwydion was still a little irritated that Azzie had pulled a knife on him. “Stand down and either walk away or help us.”

  Davyn’s nose grew longer, becoming more of a snout, and his teeth grew as well.

  Gwydion summoned a doorway next to himself and rattled the earth under Davyn’s feet to nudge the bear toward the gate. The magic didn’t come as easily as it should have been, thanks to whatever lingered here, but Gwydion hid his strain.

  Davyn’s bear-like features receded. “I reserve the right to kill the sniper later.”

  “No, you don’t.” Min’s voice was stone.

  Brit stepped forward. “Kirby?”

  Gwydion didn’t suspect anyone was in the mood to go sit someplace and talk.

  Min still wore the furious mask. “She sent me back. Told me she was going to make a deal with the lesser of two evils, and that if we didn’t hear from her in two hours, things didn’t go as planned.”

  Fuck the two-hour waiting period. “Let’s go.”

  “Did she send you with other information?” Starkad asked.

  “We can’t go in there without a plan,” Brit added. “Kirby knows what she’s doing, and stepping on her toes without coordination is likely to be more dangerous than the alternative.”

  Their logic sucked. They were right, but that didn’t mean Gwydion liked it.

  Min managed the most punctuated sigh in history. “They think they’re trying to bring Hel back, but their actions won’t. There’s another goddess imprisoned here. Malsumis. Blood spilled by believers will free her.”

  “Shit. Was that the quake earlier?” Davyn’s hostility vanished.

  “Testing a theory about bloodshed.” Min nodded.

  Davyn paced. “We may be too late.”

  “How much time do we have left?” Starkad looked at Min.

  “Hour forty-five.”

  Min didn’t talk like that. Were the side effects of being someone else lingering?

  “Not a lot of time, but enough for a plan and a debrief.” Brit looked at Gwydion. “Take us to the castle, in case she’s already there.”

  Best suggestion Gwydion had heard so far. He summoned a portal.

  “You don’t understand,” Davyn said. “Malsumis is Azzie’s father—well, other mother, but it’s a god thing.” He must mean both the impregnation by a goddess, and the ability to do so while imprisoned. “Carrying a goddess’s baby had side effects for Azzie’s mother. Over and over, she saw visions of the world burning, if Malsumis was freed.”

  This was so very bad. Even before Malsumis vanished, she’d been a vicious god, bordering on insanity, and hungry for vengeance. She’d sworn to inflict the same fate on the modern occupants of this land that they had on her people.

  Which was a sentiment Gwydion understood. He’d gone to war for less. But he wouldn’t do it again, and the loss of hundreds or millions of lives wouldn’t bring anyone back.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Kirby reappeared in the woods outside of campus, Loki by her side. At least he hadn’t left her to deal with the intruders alone.

  “Were they Nobles?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Drop the mask. I want to look you in the eye for this. You’re not nearly as good a liar as Brit is.”

  Charming. Kirby didn’t have a reason to hide anymore. That game was up. She focused on sending Brit’s ka on its way in a far less jarring manner than Min’s safeword would. Her joints felt as if they were expanding and relaxing at the same time, like undoing a too-tight pair of jeans. Speaking of, her pants were too loose now. The nice thing about the BDU’s, though, was that they were baggy enough that the fit didn’t matter anywhere but the waist.

  “Don’t suppose you’ll let me borrow your belt.” Kirby’s voice sounded odd t
o her own ears. It was the familiar timbre she’d heard across the centuries, but it wasn’t right. She hitched up the waist of her pants as they slipped down her hips.

  Loki did a great job of sighing and groaning, exaggerating the inconvenience, as he stripped off his belt and handed it to her. Loose slacks were a tiny thing, but they’d ruin a good game of cat and mouse if they fell off at the wrong time.

  Kirby wanted to believe she and Loki were the cats, but they weren’t. Not today.

  “Where’s Starkad? I’ll take you to him,” Loki said.

  Aeval had given them a lot of freedom to come and go from her home and realm, but bringing in an uninvited god—one most gods didn’t get along with—was rude and possibly dangerous. If Loki was even capable of entering without her permission.

  “We have to call him”—it was powerful magic to let phones still work there—"Or you have to let me go back to the faery realm alone, to get him.”

  “That explains why I couldn’t find you. You’re staying by my side, and we’re not doing a long, drug out negotiation again.”

  A suppressed gunshot sounded and a bullet bit into Kirby’s arm. Pain screamed through her. The forest vanished, and a different part of campus appeared around them. She clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palms, to ignore the agony spreading from her fresh wound. It took her several seconds of focus, to move past the pain.

  Bullets weren’t supposed to hurt her. Especially not this much. “See why we need to work together? Take me to the other side of the world so we can make a plan and I can call Starkad.” Fucking fuck, this hurt. Stars danced in front of her eyes. “Or at least take us into town.”

  “I’ve been trying. Something is keeping me here.”

  How wonderfully not wonderful. “I’m going back for Starkad. Don’t move. We’ll return for you.”

  “Don’t you dare.” Loki grabbed her bad arm.

  She bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper, to keep from screaming, and activated her one-time key home. Nothing happened. Had she wasted her chance by sending Min back? No. Aeval had assured her this wouldn’t be an issue.