He fell into pensive silence as we continued to walk. Then he looked up and surveyed the lazy dunes. “Why is it so quiet?”
I didn’t turn back to look at the scar across the sky. “Baldr has sent his forces against the Einherjar. He believes he’s already claimed Muspelheim.” I shuddered when I thought of the undead Valkyrie that still roamed this planet. I had no desire to come across Sam again and the empty shell she’d become. “I don’t know where the risen Valkyries will be. We should keep our eyes open.”
He nodded and light flickered at his fingertips. If any trouble came our way, his sword would be ready to take care of the problem. “So where are we going?” He glanced over his shoulder. “I saw a city that way.”
“Some of my sisters might still be there hiding out and waiting for Freya’s orders.” We’d been given countless training sessions on what to do if Muspelheim was ever under attack. The city had a maze of underground tunnels and they all led to our allies who had their own residence a few miles out. “If they’re smart, they’ll follow protocol.”
We continued the long trek. I couldn’t have directed the way out loud, but my muscle memory kicked in and knew exactly where to go. Freya had dropped us all over the planet and told us to find the caves. It sometimes took weeks, but as an Immortal I didn’t need food. Rest and nourishment were only luxuries.
Luckily this trek wasn’t a long one. After two hours, and two stops to hide from drifting black clouds that represented the patrolling Skuld still left on the planet, I spotted the divots in the red clay and ash that meant doorways to the caves.
I flared my wings and vaulted to one, looking back at Will when he made a sound of surprise. He laughed. “Sorry. I just forget that those wings aren’t just for show. You really know how to use them.”
I tucked to my back again, wishing it wasn’t so easy to slip back into my natural form. I recognized the way Will looked at me. It was the same way I’d viewed him when he’d changed from his human form to the perfect hard edges of one of the Valiant. He’d seemed too perfect, something I couldn’t touch and kept lifted on a pedestal. “Once this is all over, I’m going to figure out how to get my mortal body back. You don’t have to look at me like I’m something majestic.”
He swept fingers over my feathers, the caress making me tremble. The nerve endings along the supernatural appendages were incredibly sensitive, designed to help me sense shifts in the air. “But you are majestic,” he insisted. “Why would you want to be human again?”
I frowned and pulled away. “The same reason you want to be human again, I imagine.”
Guilt swept over his features, his brows drawing together and his fingers folding into fists. “That’s different. I see how you look at me like I’m something to be pitied. This body only makes you think of Tyler and he does such a better job at being an Immortal than I do.”
I hadn’t even thought that Will might compare himself to Tyler in that way. I knelt and swept away the ash, revealing a hatch with rusted hinges. I lifted, and what would have been impossibly heavy for me in my human form was a featherlight motion for a Valkyrie. There was some benefit to losing my mortal body, at least.
A draft of cool air burst through the tunnel and swept my hair from my face. I fluttered my eyes closed at the refreshing breeze. The caves weren’t dark and damp. Cleaner drones filtered the air and fluttered through the darkness like fireflies. Keeping my wings close to my back, I slipped inside.
Will dropped down beside me, then looked up at the square hole we’d come through. “How are we going to close the hatch?”
Waving him away, I found a panel and popped it open. Grateful for my memories finally returning, I plugged in the code to electronically close the hatch. A fan sounded as it worked to reorient the ash over the hatch and keep it hidden from view.
Will nodded, his eyes a dim glow as his Valiant form fought against the darkness. “Impressive.”
I allowed my vision to adjust to the long hall that led through the maze of caves. Once inside, the network could be a trap if one didn’t know where to go. The Surtr were adept at mimicking the way volcanoes worked, sprouting roots as the lava fought to escape its chamber. Except this time I didn’t want to escape; I wanted to find the molten core.
Will took a few steps and paused at the first intersection. Both tunnels looked exactly the same. Lights flickered as the cleaner drones continued their business of purifying the air, gathering near the hatch to expel the contaminants we’d brought inside. A few flickered around my wings and I vibrated my feathers, flinging them off.
Will turned and gave me a raised brow. “You got us this far. Do you remember the way?”
I searched through the array of boxes in my mind, both open and closed, and ground my teeth together. Unfortunately, none of this was ringing a bell.
While straightening and trying to look confident, I picked a tunnel at random. “This way.”
After about an hour Will started to ask questions. “Are you sure we’re going the right way.”
I fluttered my wings, noting the shift in air currents that could have been a sign of an open cavern that would take us to the Surtr city, or it could have just been a swarm of cleaner drones doubling back and picking off the lasting particles of the outside world from our path.
I took another turn, following the hint, then jerked to a halt when I spotted one of the Surtr traps. If I hadn’t been looking for it, I would have walked right across the spot across the floor that lit up against my thermal senses. Paper-thin tiles would give way to a vault of lava burning from underneath. A Valkyrie perhaps could survive the heat, but I wasn’t going to test that theory.
When Will sighed with frustration and moved to step around me, I grabbed him by the arm just in time. His feet grazed the trap and molten heat swept up and engulfed the room. I flared my wings as much as the constricting tunnel would allow and vaulted us out of harm’s way.
When he gave me an incredulous look, I released him and sighed. “Okay, fine. I have no idea where we are.”
Instead of yelling at me, he smirked. “I figured as much in the first five minutes when you took us in a complete circle.”
I bit my lip. I’d hoped that he hadn’t noticed that. “Right.” Dropping to the ground, my wings brushed around my shoulders like a cloak and I put my head between my knees. “Everyone thinks I’m some kind of champion. The fate of the universe resting in my hands is kind of a stress trigger.”
He laughed and unfolded my fingers, stroking across my palms with his thumbs. The skin glittered against his touch, my Immortal form hardened and metallic, but against him Valiant marble, we made a good pair. “You’re not responsible for any of this,” he said.
I gazed into his eyes and saw what I always did, my reflection that countered his statement. I could have saved him had I been stronger, wiser, more capable. Instead he was trapped just as much as I was. “Do you believe in fate?”
He cocked his head. “That we’re all destined for a purpose?”
I nodded. “My mother wasn’t supposed to have me, but she did. Then she wasn’t supposed to love me, but she did.” I stroked his face. “Then I found you, and I wasn’t supposed to love you, but I did. What if my fate is just an echo of my mother’s failures?” She’s created Ragnarök and doomed the universe to the cycle of life and death. I didn’t want to speak aloud that I felt like it was my fate to undo her mistakes. That was far too much pressure, but it was starting to weigh on me until I thought I might be crushed by the responsibility.
He smiled, encouraging and calm as always. “There’s this memory I have of us together. You were always so worried about what was expected of you and the future.” He swept a strand of hair behind my ear. “Even as a powerful Frigg, you can’t control the future, and trying to will only eat you up from the inside.”
My heart swelled at the drifting memories. My gaze went distant as I remembered how his touch on my face felt just like it did right now. Reassuring and solid. “Y
ou told me I should live in the present.” My gaze went back to his and I tried to look past the rainbow glitter of his Immortal irises. Beneath the magic was a boy with chestnut eyes with a gaze that could hold me captive and quite literally stop time. I huffed a laugh when I realized the irony. “Did I ever tell you that when I was human and I’d forgotten our history, you triggered my Frigg powers? I would stop time when you looked at me like you are now.”
He leaned closer. “Even if I couldn’t remember, something in me remembered you.” His lips brushed mine and warmth in me stirred. “You’ve always been my light against the darkness.”
My heart broke to hear the adoration in his voice. The raw honesty told me everything I needed to know about my relationship with Will. An unexplainable force drew us together. There wasn’t anything forbidden or dangerous about it, no matter what kind of rules my mother had put in place for the Valkyries. Without him, I was lost in darkness. With him, he reminded me why life was worth living, not to focus on timelines I couldn’t control. As a Frigg, I focused far too much on the timeline. I searched and prodded space and time in my desperate search to make the world a better place. I kissed him again, taking his advice and living in the here and now. No matter what the next five seconds, five minutes, or even five years brought me, it couldn’t take this away.
Jotunheim
A flicker of light caught our attention and we broke from the kiss that made me feel whole again. I turned to find a Surtr glowering down at us. The lengthy creature was what some might call Minotaurs, complete with bullhorns and red skin. But this Surtr wasn’t going to chase us through the tunnels and eat us for dinner. I broke out into a smile and jumped into his arms. “Billy!”
Billy was around my age—a little over a hundred, and had been one of the first Surtr I’d ever met. He hugged me in return. “Our little Aerie returns to us.”
He grinned, giving me a full view of serrated lines of teeth layered like a shark’s. Will gripped my arm and protectively pulled me away.
I laughed. “It’s fine. Billy, this is Will.”
Billy eyed the human turned Valiant and sniffed. I never knew what the Surtr smelled us for, but he only seemed to tense after getting a good whiff. “Reeks of guilt.”
I rolled my eyes. “He does not.” I smiled and went to nudge Will, but his features had darkened.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Will said, not sounding the least bit amused. He extended a hand and cleared his throat. “If you’re a friend of Val’s, then you’re a friend of mine.”
Billy gave him a slow nod of appreciation. “Come. You two have triggered enough of our traps.”
Will gave me a raised brow. “What else did we trigger besides the lava pit of doom?”
I grimaced. There’d been a few spring-loaded walls that could have been triggered had I not spotted the stains on the ground. Muspelheim was under constant attack by Baldr’s forces, and even though it’d never been anything strong enough to unseat my sisters from the city itself, we’d always had to deal with the Skuld and those they possessed. I shivered.
Billy narrowed his eyes. “Enough to alert us that we were either in trouble, or there was a hapless Valkyrie wandering around with half her memories on freeze.” He motioned for us to follow. “Looks like it was both. C’mon.”
Will stuck close to my side as we trailed behind the Surtr who clomped his way through the halls. He seamlessly chose corridors and hit invisible buttons as we made our way through the maze. Tunnels shifted behind us, ensuring that even if we were being followed, a pursuer would have a heck of a time keeping up. They’d have to stay right on our heels.
“How do you know this creature?” Will asked, his voice growling.
He didn’t trust the Surtr, and I didn’t blame him. The race did kind of look like something out of nightmares in their natural form, but I’d grown up with them. Those parts of my memories were fluttering to life, making me dizzy as boxes unlatched in my mind and filled me with a life before Earth, before Will and before my duties as a Valkyrie had taken away an otherwise pleasant childhood. Where my sisters had been kept at a distance, it was Billy who’d been a companion. I hadn’t been around him as much as Tyler, but Billy was the one who’d taught me the tunnels and the way of flame. It was a near cult-like fascination the Surtr had with Muspelheim’s core.
My nose crinkled at the tinge of burning cinders as we reached the epicenter of the tunnels, and the home to the Surtr. We rounded the last tunnel and the walls opened up to the expanse of the underground city that teemed with life. Lava drifted in lazy pools around the perimeter, dipping back into the rock and leaving the life-giving energy of its heat to spin the massive turn wheels that powered the way of Surtr life.
“Wow,” Will breathed as he stepped out on the long ledge that built a single bridge that was used to enter and leave the city.
Instinctually, I spread my wings, wanting to ride the massive updrafts of heat as I’d done as a child.
Billy straightened and grinned, showing his serrated row of teeth again and beaming with the pride of his people. The Surtr were one of the Jotun and could adapt to any element. I’d never truly understood what that meant until I’d learned that Muspelheim hadn’t always been a volcanic planet. What would have melted the flesh from my mortal bones was now a life-giving resource to the adaptive nature of the natives.
Billy spread his arms. “Welcome to Jotunheim.”
“Great,” Will murmured as we navigated the terrifying walkway that led to the core of the city, “more Norse nonsense for me to remember. Surtr: Minotaurs with shark teeth, check. Muspelheim, planet that doesn’t know when to stop producing lava, check. Jotunheim: a mysterious city inside said planet with even more lava.”
I snorted and covered my mouth with my hand. It seemed that even though I didn’t have my mortal body anymore, I still had some embarrassing traits. Will smirked at me and I nudged him to keep walking. “I’m glad you’re keeping track because there’s going to be a quiz later.”
Billy peered at us from over his shoulder. His spine made him hunch, his body built for long leaps across lava pools. “What’s a quiz?”
I gasped. “Oh, a terrifying earth atrocity. They come when you least expect them and leave you rattled for days.”
Will nodded, an expression of complete seriousness making his jaw rigid. “Absolutely. You don’t want to come across a quiz.”
Billy’s eyes went wide. “Wow. Good thing I don’t have to go to Earth. Life there sounds tough.”
We giggled behind our hands while Billy led us into the heart of the city. A part of me was grateful to have my natural form so that I could walk beside Will and make progress towards ending Baldr’s hold on my homeworld. As much as I wanted to pretend my brother wasn’t my problem, Ragnarök had other plans. I frowned when I noticed the specks of glittering black running through the layers of Jotunheim like gems. “How much longer do we have until we have to evacuate?”
Billy followed my gaze and sighed. “Ragnarök burrows deep and Baldr’s forces keep coming. They drill through the caves and try to bypass our traps. Something has their attention and the majority have left, but I have no doubt they’ll be back.”
My stomach dropped, remembering Tyler and that flash of light in the sky. Will’s hand slipped into mine and squeezed.
We continued to wind through the city, the Surtr natives only dropping us curious glances before going about their business. The Surtr were the ones who built Valkyrie spears and armor. Where they were talented at weaponry, they were even more skilled at software. We entered into a room alive with lights and buttons that lined the walls. One Surtr strapped into a revolving chair spun around the room, pressing sequences all at once as if he were Freya smashing buttons until something happened. I didn’t realize it was a female until she lifted her goggles and her gleaming ruby eyes caught mine. “Ah, Valerie Frigg. Billy informed us you were wandering the tunnels.” She glanced at Will. “And who is this handsome Valiant?”
Will straightened. “Just someone who wants to stop Ragnarök as much as you do.”
The female nodded. “Indeed. I’ll take all the help we can get.” She continued her work and spun through the room, making me dodge out of the way when she rounded towards a panel next to my head.
Billy pulled a lever and made the chair stop. “Now that Val is here, don’t you think we should show her?”
The female frowned. “Oh, right. Yes. I suppose.” She unbuckled herself and dropped to the ground, her hooves clomping hard against the stone. “This way.”
As she pressed another sequence of buttons and a door opened on the other end of the chamber, she gave me a smile. “I see that you don’t remember me, child. That’s all right. I heard about your run-in with Grimhildr.”
I swallowed hard. The sassy Surtr did seem to ring a bell, but my memories refused to surface. Just like when I’d met Will, I simply had gut feelings to base my decisions off of. The feelings swarming in my chest told me I could trust her. “Sorry,” I murmured.
She waved my apology away. “Don’t be. My name’s Ymir. Your mother and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on things, but we both love this planet. We loved it enough to keep the most important thing in the universe safe, should it ever fall into the wrong hands.”
That made me raise a brow and I glanced at Will. He shrugged. “What could be more important than the Einherjar? Or the Valkyries?”
Ymir grinned. “How about the key to the Bifrost?”
Ymir took us through, yet again, more tunnels. My wings twitched as the sensation of being closed in by rock and stone started to get to me.
“Here we are,” Ymir said as she stopped at a panel and plugged in a code so fast that I couldn’t have even hoped to remember it. She glanced at me and grinned. “Just because I have hooves you think my fingers aren’t nimble?”
Valkyrie Uprising Page 6