He stared at me for a moment, then nodded. “I’m a Heimdall. I think you know what that means now.”
I didn’t know what it meant, not entirely. All I knew was that his mother was the caretaker of the Bifrost. That was the only place where time and space didn’t have rules.
Will stroked my arms as if trying to banish the chill that refused to leave my bones. “The echoes of Ragnarök,” Will said. His words came out distant as if he were piecing a puzzle together. “What if that darkness settled into souls?”
Tyler stiffened. “Yes,” he said. “You’re getting warmer, lover boy.”
A new kind of chill ran down my spine. I covered the black rune on my hand, wishing I could banish it from my body. “Ragnarök is here because of us.”
Tyler nodded. “Right again.”
I thought that I’d been the harbinger of Ragnarök, but it wasn’t just me. It was those I loved, and my love was drawn to others like me.
I turned to Will and frowned. While he didn’t have dark runes, he’d only recently become Immortal. He had experienced more darkness than I cared to admit, a byproduct of his time trapped under the Norn’s curse.
Tyler stood and offered his hand. “Can I show you something?”
When I glanced at Will, he smiled his encouragement. Somehow, the two had formed a bond and were on the same side. I guess they had a point. With the universe about to end, there wasn’t much purpose in fighting over a girl.
I took Tyler’s hand and he led me down the hall. Will remained behind. He clasped his hands behind his back and gazed out of the viewing shield, surveying the damage that we’d done. As Tyler eased me around the corner, I thought I caught a wisp of shadow licking at Will’s fingertips.
I sensed Freya and Odin, but I had no doubt they were off arguing whose fault it was that I’d triggered Ragnarök. Leaving me with Will and Tyler meant they knew I was in good hands. Even though my parents had forbidden me to love, it gave me a small comfort that they trusted those I’d given my heart.
As Tyler guided me down the halls, I realized that we’d been holding hands this whole time. It felt so much easier to love now that the threat of Ragnarök had already come to fruition. Even though the end of the world should have terrified me—and it did—I indulged the forbidden pleasure to allow myself to do something I’d never done before. I was allowed to feel.
Tyler smirked at me. “You’re staring.”
A blush heated my cheeks. “I know.” I squeezed his hand and he stopped. I didn’t care if he knew how I felt now that I’d already broken all of the rules.
“What about Will?” he asked, his mischievous tone turning serious. “He loves you. It’d take a blind man not to see that.”
I nodded. “And I think I love him too.”
Tyler winced at that admission. “Okay, then, why are you looking at me like I’m your knight in shining armor?”
I swallowed hard before pulling him closer. My fingers ran up the strength of his arms and flattened against his chest. His heart thundered under my fingertips. “Is it possible that I could love you both?”
He blinked, his crystal eyes flitting between the magics of Odin and Heimdall, resulting in a rainbow of gold and black. The effect mesmerized me. “I think you know how I feel about you, Aerie.” As if against his will, he curled me closer and his fingers ran through my hair. He had no reason to fight his feelings anymore, but something sent his jaw flexing before he spoke again. “The difference between us is I know why you might love me, and it’s not because of who I am.” In spite of the sting of his rejection, his lips came closer, the prickle of ice and magic sprinkling over my entire body as his desire filtered through. “You love what I am.”
“What if you’re wrong?” I asked. I drifted closer to him, closing the minuscule distance between us. I hesitated when his breath caressed my face, but he didn’t pull away. I gave in to the need to taste him until our lips met.
His entire body went stiff, then he curled into the kiss as his tongue grazed against mine, suddenly passionate as if I’d managed to flip a switch off his resistance to me. His presence engulfed me, hot and hungry. He gave me that brief moment to know him and the passion he was capable of before the magic between us shut off with a snap. He pushed me away as darkness clouded over his eyes until only a terrifying void remained. I couldn’t see the crystal or the spark of his beauty. There was only a glassy black that came from within his soul and glazed over the love he held for me. “Ragnarök isn’t the worst that could happen,” he warned.
I swallowed hard. I’d always known that Tyler had a secret. “What could possibly be worse than Ragnarök?” I didn’t want to be afraid of him. There was a kindred connection between me and the darkness that brought his runes to life across his skin. His armor threatened to disintegrate as it became translucent, giving me a blush-worthy view of his perfect body.
“This is a darkness that threatens to consume me. I’ve survived it, but at a cost. I would not have you pay that cost.”
I ran my fingers across his cheek. No matter what he was, he was beautiful to me. “Does it hurt?” I knew he wouldn’t tell me what it cost him to keep the madness that overtook the Norn out of his eyes, but I could sense the deep weight of suffering in him.
He leaned into my touch and closed his eyes. “You’re drawn to me because my bloodline is a direct lineage of the power that fuels Ragnarök.” His eyes flashed open, somehow a deeper shade of black than they’d been before. “To love me is to reject peace. So many would die if you and I…” his words drifted off.
I forced myself to let my hand fall. “If I chose you,” I finished for him. There was a reason I found my heart belonging to both Will and Tyler. They represented two distinct futures and I had yet to make my choice.
Tyler emanated dearness and chaos, a boon of thee Heimdall line. He was the true descendant of the power that kept souls permanently bound to this world. Darkness, suffering, and pain was what prevented a soul from returning to Yggdrasil. That power shone through him and sang each trait with glaring realization. I found its significance when I looked into his eyes. Without it, there would be no life at all. There would be nothing to ground new souls to this plane and life would never have started in the first place. I drifted closer as I admired him.
Immortality. Strength. Beauty. Terror.
“You cannot choose me,” he growled. He grabbed my hand and tugged me along with him. “Perhaps if you see it, you’ll come to your senses.” He glowered at me over his shoulder. “I cannot fight what I feel for you if you are not fighting it too.”
Panic surged in me as Tyler all but sprouted wings and flew down the constricting halls of the Einherjar. We took twisted turns, going through airlock walls that flew open at our passing and sent fresh blasts of cold air over my face.
When we reached a chamber with winding pipes and a low melody that I recognized from a distant memory, I forced Tyler to stop. “I know that song.”
Tyler released me and I wandered closer to a door that vaulted all the way to a two-story ceiling. This was the center of the Einherjar and I’d only been here once before. I couldn’t remember what was on the other side of this door, but it both enthralled and terrified me.
“You should,” Tyler said. “It’s the song of Yggdrasil.”
Heartbreak was the only description for the way this song made me feel. “Why is it so sad?” I asked as I ran my fingers over the crystals embedded into the door. Pipes surrounded the frame as they twisted over one another and delved into the floor. Mechanical groans and hissing sounded when I stepped on the thin panels that separated the ship from the contents of the chamber beyond.
“It’s a lamentation,” he explained and pressed on the crystals. Unlike me, they came to life under his touch. The walls rumbled, and then the door began a slow ascent.
I fumbled with my tattered clothes as I waited. “Does Freya know we’re here?” I asked. This was her ship, and if my memory was right, this was the Einherj
ar’s core. We were definitely not allowed to be here.
Tyler shrugged. “I’m shielding us. If she’s monitoring us, then she thinks we’re still on the viewing deck with Will.”
I blinked at him. “Really?” My gaze swept over him again, taking in the sizzle of magic that hummed under the golden sheen of Odin’s light. He was working the dark magic of Heimdall, and that both enthralled and terrified me. “Is that safe?”
He glanced at me. “No, but you must see this, and Freya wouldn’t allow it.”
The door fully raised, he stepped inside. I drew in a deep breath and followed.
Einherjar's Core
Unlike the honeycomb of tattered souls I’d found in the Huldra’s nest, Einherjar’s core was full of life and wonder. Orbs swirled around twining roots of a giant tree that spanned up into an impossibly long core that speared through the center of the Einherjar.
“This must go through the entire ship,” I said, my neck arched back as I stared upward in awe. I’d always imagined the core of the Einherjar to be like any other spaceship which was a singular ball of light and plasma. The Mojinir and the other smaller ships that ferried the Valkyrie to the various outlier planets had such cores. But this? I ran my fingers through the fine mist of the air that tingled with life and mystery. I’d never felt anything like it.
Tyler frowned and reached out to grab my fingers and lowered my hand to my side. “Don’t be deceived. These souls suffer. They’ll never move on to the real Yggdrasil.”
I blinked at him. He still watched me with that eerie black gaze. I didn’t like it when the darkness overcame him. It felt like he was cut off from me. “These are the souls that my sisters have reaped.”
Tyler nodded and took my hand, guiding me down the silver path to the center of the tree. Great, winding roots walled in around us and pierced the metallic hull. That’s what the pipes were for. The roots spanned the entirety of the ship.
Tyler tugged me close as souls whispered by us. Slight stings radiated across my arm where the faint blue power ran over us. Tyler shrouded me with his darkness and soothed the faint hurt. “Souls trapped by the Norn’s curse can’t make their way back to Yggdrasil,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I can’t approve what the Norn do to them. Eventually souls are destroyed under the weight of their dark magic. But Freya’s version of the afterlife for such lost souls isn’t much better.” He forced my hand onto the rough bark of the tree’s lower trunk. I flinched as raw power tingled through my mortal skin and grazed the Valkyrie embers in my soul… as well as my own darkness.
I closed my eyes as the voices filtered in. Young men through the ages who’d suffered under the hands of the Norn, and now were trapped in this place until they too would be torn apart, not to feed the Norn’s lust for eternal life, but to feed Freya’s need for vengeance against them and her desire to create her daughters. My sisters, I realized as a chill swept through me, were recycled bits of these souls and sorrows.
My eyes flung open and Tyler released me. I couldn’t look at him. Instead, I gazed up at the span of streaking light that glimmered through the tree. My mother used these souls, and no matter her reasoning, the end did not justify the means. “What can I do to fix this?”
Will’s booming voice was my answer through the forbidden chamber. “You break me free of Odin’s bond so that I can tear this abomination down myself.”
I whirled to find Will marching towards us. Shadows whispered at his fingertips and left a trail of smoke along his footsteps. Tyler was not the only one who boasted dark magic. Will had suffered under the Norn and survived. Perhaps all Valiant had the darkness at their core. It’s why Odin’s power of light was so useful to them.
Will growled as an invisible wall hit him and he crashed to his knees. Sweat broke out on his brow and a snap sounded through the air. Tyler cursed, and I knew that his shield over us had banished with Will’s attempt to intrude on the sacred chamber.
“Fools!” Freya’s voice boomed and Valkyries appeared at her side. They filtered into the mist and souls screeched their rage at the wings abominations that had destroyed kindred souls. The blue lights dove and left searing scars along my sister’s faces. They growled and swatted at them as if they were but a nuisance.
“I’m the one who brought her here,” Tyler said, his voice carrying the expanse between us and my mother.
Her eyes blazed with the fires of Muspelheim. “I know, and you will pay for this. The young Valkyries are forbidden to come here.”
To my surprise, Tyler smirked. “Of course. You want to make sure they’re nice and brainwashed before they see what we really are.”
Freya bared her teeth and pressed a sequence of buttons on her spear.
The air hummed, and then everything went black.
Grounded
When I awoke, it was to Freya stroking hair from my face. I sat straight up in the plush bed that threatened to engulf me with its silken sheets and goose feather stuffing. I searched the room, my memories telling me that this was my chamber on the Einherjar. My favorite obsidian statues gleamed on a shelf. Each one was a different depiction of the birds Tyler had told me about on earth. I’d been so fascinated with other creatures that had wings. It forced a smile to light my face. At the time, I’d treasured his gifts, but now I could appreciate them for what they were. Obsidian was not easily carved.
“Daughter,” Freya said. The word came out smooth and apologetic.
I faced her and drew in a breath at her beauty. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this up close to the goddess of love, for that’s what she was in this moment. All the fiery rage had left her eyes, leaving them an emerald sheen that glimmered with adoration. White wings brushed at her back and her touch lingered along my arm.
Then I remembered what Tyler had shown me and I closed my heart to her. I saw her for what she really was and I leaned away.
She frowned. “Tyler should not have shown you that place.”
I stiffened. Tyler hadn’t placed all the blame of the horror I’d learned at Freya’s feet. He’d said “we.”
“Did you force Tyler to help you recruit those souls?” I don’t know why he’d included himself in the admission. A Valiant couldn’t recruit souls, could they?
She tried to stroke my face, but I flinched away. “He’s a Heimdall. He cannot survive without feeding the darkness that torments his bloodline.” She sighed. “His mother used to have an alliance with us, but it seems Baldr has offered her a better deal. I can only hope her son will not betray us as well.”
My fingers dug into the sheets. “What are you talking about? What do you mean ‘feeding’ the darkness?”
She tilted her head and gave me a sympathetic smile as if I were so sweet and naive. “He must periodically feed on the souls we have reaped. Did he not tell you?”
The blood drained from my face. That’s why Tyler had brought me there. He was going to show me why he hated himself… why I could never embrace the darkness he’d been forced to endure.
“Lies.” I snapped and flung the sheets off my body. I growled to see I’d been changed into Valkyrie leathers in my sleep. They fit too snugly against my mortal curves. “Never lie to me.”
She shook her head and stretched for me again, but I leaned out of her reach. “Daughter. The Norn are the villains here, not me. I only make use of their carnage for good. I take death and give it life again. Tyler has been useful to us. He’s helped you manage the darkness that plagues you.”
I marched to the full-length mirror and took in my appearance. Scraggly hair. A sprinkle of freckles across my face. Embers sparked at my fingertips, the Valkyrie side of me wanting to summon my spear. I indulged my rage and let the weapon come and I enjoyed the sound of surprise from Freya as she stood and fanned her wings.
“Daughter, why are you so angry?”
I didn’t have time for this. Ragnarök was destroying our world and my mother was wasting time trying to justify an unpardonable sin. Perhaps Tyler
had no choice, but she certainly did. I gripped my spear before turning and pointing it at her. “Where are Tyler and Will? I need to talk to them.”
Her wings folded in at her back as if I’d deflated her with that statement. “You love them,” she acknowledged. “I can see that. But there is a reason it is the first law among us, my daughter. Love opens up emotions that are dangerous to our kind. Love is blind. With love comes light, and with light, there is always darkness.”
I frowned, but didn’t lower my spear. “Ragnarök is the result of that darkness.” I tilted my head. “But you already knew that.”
She stared at her hands. “Yes.”
“How many times have you seen Ragnarök destroy the universe?” I asked. It seemed like a ridiculous question, but instinct made me speak it aloud.
Her gaze snapped up to mine and a whisper of embers glowed in the backs of her eyes. “You are asking the wrong question.”
I shook my head. “No, I think it’s the right question.”
The tips of her wings disintegrated, the primaries wilting and drifting ash to the floor. “You should ask me how many times have I prevented this world from being destroyed by Ragnarök.” Only the goddess of war knew Ragnarök’s weakness. Even speaking of it threatened to dissolve the visage of peace that stood before me now.
There was only one way that my mother knew how to stop a force as powerful as Ragnarök. “It’s your fault that it exists at all,” I accused. My voice shook and tears sprang to my eyes.
Valkyrie Uprising Page 2