He examined his nails. “Oh, I don’t know. Perhaps I’m bored with the thought of such an easy victory.” He lowered his hand and grinned. “Of course, it’s exactly what I expected. I’m good at understanding my opponent’s weakness.”
I gripped my spear, resisting the urge to form a portal and jump right through the screen and impale his face. “You wanted me here for this, why?”
He laughed. “Ah, yes. That was a fun trick. Your love is your weakness, dear sister.” His laughter faded. “As it is mine.”
That got my attention. “You’re capable of love?”
He clutched at his chest. “Oh, how you wound me.” He waved over someone who was off the screen. The same graceful Valkyrie I’d seen before that seemed to like to fawn all over him draped against his chest. “What is it, Baldr?” Her musical voice came through the speakers just as musical and pure as the rare selection of Valkyries who inherited our Mother’s grace and beauty at its finest.
He ran a finger across her neck before gripping and putting her in a chokehold. “Would you care to show my sister what happens to those I love?”
Her eyes went wide, but she didn’t struggle. She gurgled something, but Baldr didn’t let go. Then her eyes flared with flame, a warning sign that a Valkyrie was about to draw on the strength of the powers of Muspelheim that ran through her blood. For the same reason we didn’t need food or water, we didn’t even need to breathe if we accepted the raw magic that gave us our bodies.
Baldr growled. “I gave you an order.”
“Stop this!” I shrieked. I didn’t even know if it was possible for a Valkyrie to deny herself the life-giving force that came naturally to us from birth. “What point are you trying to prove?”
He responded by wrapping his other hand around the Valkyrie’s throat. She twisted at an odd angle until he squeezed hard enough for her neck to snap. The light immediately died in her eyes, fading as fast as the light of her body.
I watched in horror as Baldr drew shadows from her flesh. He inhaled what was left of her soul that should have returned to the pits of Muspelheim.
I rocked back on my heels. Baldr had just shown me what we were capable of. We were Freya’s children, but we also belonged to Odin. That made us gods of another kind. Instead of giving life… we could take it for ourselves.
Images of Tyler flashed, those tell-tale shadows creeping across his skin. Each black rune that marred his perfect body was a soul he’d devoured.
I stared down at the rune that stretched an ugly scar across my hand and realization swept through me.
“Yes. You get it now.” Baldr dropped the Valkyrie’s body to the ground and it fell with a soft thud. “You understand what we are.”
Baldr didn’t care if Ragnarök devoured the world… because those with this ugly power would be all that remained once it was done.
My mouth went dry and I licked my lips. “What are we?” I asked, my voice raw.
“Our parents have staved off Ragnarök so many times that they finally started to become like it. They’ve been devouring souls longer than we’ve even been alive. It makes sense that we’d inherit their darkest secret and turn it against them.”
I didn’t want to listen to Baldr’s logic. “So you want Ragnarök to destroy the universe? Are you insane?”
He shook his head. “You think so small, my sister. We let Ragnarök do its work, but we won’t let it finish.” He twirled the wisp of shadow around his finger, commanding it to dance for him across his knuckles. “Haven’t you tried feeding from Ragnarök itself?”
My eyes went wide. “Feeding?”
He laughed. “I know you’ve fed before. I see the rune.”
He hid my hand behind me. There had to be some mistake. “I haven’t fed on anyone.”
He gave me a raised brow. “No? Not even that human you supposedly loved so much? Where is he now? Have you asked him if he feels like something is missing?”
I glanced at Will and he was shaking his head. I knew what he was thinking. Don’t let him tell you this is your fault. I’m fine. I’m here.
But Will wasn’t fine. He wasn’t all here. Every time I looked at him, I saw how fractured he was. I’d thought what was missing was his mortality. I’d been wrong. It was a piece of his soul.
I licked my lips again, desperately wishing I had something to drink. That’s when I ran my fingers across the hidden fruit still in my pouch and hope blossomed in my chest. Whatever I’d taken from Will, this could give it back to him.
“Sister. You are indeed hopeless. It was probably an accident. That’s why he’s still alive. You could have taken everything, but you only took what you needed.”
What I needed. The truth in that statement shook me to the core. Ever since Will’s death I’d begun to regain my memories. I’d found the strength to overcome Grimhildr’s programming and I’d even been able to step through space and time with ease. Such a leap in ability wasn’t because of some inherent strength. I’d fed on Will’s soul.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “I called you because I wanted to work together. I want to stop Ragnarök and find a truce.” I opened my eyes and met his. The man who looked back at me was wild and uncontrollable. He stood tall and proud, pensively watching me as if he were Odin himself, but I sensed the frustration and pent-up aggression in the lines of his jaw. “What is it that you really want, Baldr?”
“I told you before,” he chided. “I want Sam.”
I shook my head. “And you know that she’s gone.”
He huffed a laugh. “Haven’t you been paying attention?” He turned to the body that had already started to harden. He swept his fingers over it, releasing the shadows that he’d drawn in.
My entire body went still as I watched. The glittering black was reminiscent of Ragnarök as it twisted and moved like tiny claws as it gripped the Valkyrie and lifted her up. It burrowed into her and made her convulse.
Then her eyes opened.
At first her irises were the purest of black, and then the shadows faded, leaving the ember purity of a Valkyrie renewed. “Baldr,” she breathed, her face softening into relief. “You brought me back.”
I balked. Once again I searched for Will through the screen, but he was gone. My blood ran cold. Was he afraid of me now? I couldn’t deny that I was exactly like my brother. The only difference was that one of us had embraced what we were.
Gods.
Will's Choice
“You know how to reach me when you’re ready to accept our fate.”
Baldr’s last words still shook me to the core. I’d been staring at the blank hologram screen for what seemed like an eternity before Ymir gently took my hand. “Aerie?”
Calling me by Tyler’s nickname for me jolted me back into awareness. He was still up in the Einherjar fighting for me while I was supposed to be figuring this all out. The truth, however, wasn’t so easy to unravel. According to Baldr, stopping Ragnarök was a simple matter of accepting what I was. If I fed on it, if I drew its darkness into myself, I could save everyone… but I feared what would happen to me.
“I can’t do it,” I whispered.
My hands shook and Ymir drew me off the platform. “No one is asking you to.”
“What’s going on here?” Mr. Jefferson snapped. His veins illuminated in the dim light with harsh ruby tones. “Will told me to tell Valerie not to feed on Ragnarök. Did I hear him right?”
I blinked at him. “Where’s Will?”
Mr. Jefferson frowned. “How should I know? He rushed past me and shouted orders at me as if I hadn’t been his teacher for the past two years. No respect these days.”
I looked to Ymir whose features had gone unreadable. Even if I had no memories of her, that seemed suspicious. Ymir was the kind of Surtr who always had an opinion and always knew what was going on. “What aren’t you saying? Where’s Will gone?”
She released me. “I suspect he’s gone to the Gulltop.”
“What?” I asked. “Why?”
She released a long breath. “If he thinks the Bifrost will save you from having to sacrifice yourself to save the rest of us, then he’s going to break the seal on the Gulltop for you to do just that.”
I ran as fast as I could, but I didn’t get very far. I cursed when I reached the first split in the tunnels. “Which way?” I demanded.
I’d dragged Ymir with me. Even though she protested, I wasn’t going to let her go. “I can’t tell you that,” she bit out.
I gripped her wrist until her bones grated together. She winced, but clacked her hoof. “Yes you can,” I insisted. “Will is hanging on by a thread. If I’m going to restore his mortality, then I need him alive. There’s no telling what breaking the Gulltop seal will do to what’s left of his soul.”
She ground her teeth but didn’t seem inclined to budge. “He loves you. Allow him to protect you in the only way he knows how.”
The tunnels shook and a male cry echoed through the corridors. I released Ymir as desperation made black stars sprinkle across my vision. “What was that?”
The lights wavered, turning red, then blue and going into a low hum as energy swept through Jotunheim.
I was too late.
Will was dead.
I was already in my Valkyrie form. I’d lost my mortal flesh. I’d lost Sam.
Now I’d lost Will.
I let go of the last hold I’d kept on my Immortality. Fire unlocked in my soul and ignited, releasing my internal rage and darkness I’d kept at bay for so long.
Tyler wasn’t here to save me this time. He understood my darkness better than anyone, and now I knew why. The dark run along my arm blistered and solidified, becoming a permanent scar as the remnants of Will’s soul found me and absorbed into my body. Feeling the surge of power that gave me only enraged me more. I was Will’s death and no matter how much everyone tried to tell me none of this was my fault… I was the one to blame.
Tears sizzled into steam in my eyes and my wings caught fire. Ymir screamed in the distance, but I couldn’t decipher her words. Even a Surtr couldn’t withstand the full force of my rage and grief. I was the child of two gods, and not everything that was good about them. I was the birth of their secrets and their sin. I was an abomination.
I should have joined Ragnarök in that moment and merged with its glittering black fingers that devoured this world, but one small piece of sanity found its way into my mind.
Why did Will just sacrifice himself?
I ran through the corridors and followed the scent of his sacrifice, coming upon the chamber to the Gulltop completely emptied. There was nothing left of him, but the evidence of what he’d done was in the massive split in the wall that diverted the lava through the venting corridors that were intended to reroute the lava, but he’d opened them all. He’d gone inside those tunnels and put a crack in each one, being devoured by flame to release the final seal on the Gulltop.
My fingernails bit into my palms and every muscle in me shook with the wrecking grief that he’d do this to me. He couldn’t be reborn, not if I had devoured his soul. I was his curse, and now he was a part of me. That wasn’t enough.
But the Gulltop, it rested on the bottom of the chamber lopsided with a single panel glowing with warning. I approached it and stared at the buttons.
Ymir drifted behind me, followed by Billy and Mr. Jefferson, as well as a small herd of Surtr I didn’t recognize. Some of them had weapons, and I didn’t underestimate the primal spears the pointed my way. This race was the ones who’d fashioned Freya’s spear and given the weapon such powerful cruelty. I had no doubt their own weapons had a few secrets in their software.
“Help me open it,” I growled. My voice grated through my throat with the pain I couldn’t express. Shadows licked over the flames sprouting across my arms. My Valkyrie armor was having a hard time holding up against the onslaught and hardened into black leathers.
Ymir stepped forward. “The Gulltop was caged for good reason,” she insisted. “One wrong move, and you could change everything.”
My vision flared as flames licked in the backs of my eyes. “That’s precisely what I want to do.” When she blankly stared at me, I motioned to the cracked and burned surroundings. “Is this the timeline you want? Ragnarök on our doorstep, Freya and Odin trapped on the Einherjar with what Valkyries who have survived? Your people hiding in caves awaiting Ragnarök and the Skuld to finally find you?”
Her lower lip began to tremble. “No, of course not, but—”
“Then open this door,” I snapped.
She glanced over her shoulder at Mr. Jefferson who hesitated, then gave her a slow deliberate nod. Billy motioned to protest, but Mr. Jefferson lowered his hand. “She’s right,” he said, his words so low that they were barely audible. “This is not the timeline we should be living.” His eyes met mine, matching my rage with their fiery red. “Daughter of Freya, daughter of Odin, you inherit the Gulltop, the Bifrost, even Asgard with every right. Baldr is not our ruler.” He knelt to one knee. “You are our Queen and I recognize you with the authority of all the Surtr have to offer.”
Ymir stiffened, but finally relented and knelt as well. The rest of the Surtr followed suit, dropping to a knee one-by-one.
My wings flared. “Thank you,” I said, then pressed my hand against the blazing metal of the Gulltop. “Now help me fix this.”
The Gulltop
I didn’t think about the consequences of going back in time. If I stopped to consider what I was doing, I wouldn’t have the strength.
I climbed into the confined space of the Gulltop alone. Buttons glowed to life and there was just enough space for one more person.
I gave Ymir a hard glare through the hatch. “You’re coming with me.”
She went pale, but climbed in.
Only a Surtr would know how to operate this thing. Like most of the technology that dictated the Immortal world, I suspected it was Ymir who had built it.
Confirming my suspicions, but plucked away at the buttons and the hatch closed in behind us. “When I made the Bifrost, I thought that I was helping our race. Travel through the universe and colonizing other planets was our dream.”
I listened patiently. This was the kind of information I needed in order to save the world. “The Bifrost was a prototype?”
She nodded. “It’s still my best work yet. Only one device can link into the slipstream of space and time.” She patted the hull of the Gulltop fondly. “But this device can enforce it, grows upon it and manipulates it. Instead of just transporting the individuals in the room through space, the Gulltop opens time as well.”
I nodded. “I know exactly where… when, I want to go.”
Ymir gave me a mournful look. Her hand rested on mine, her red-hot claws feeling cold against the raw heat the burned inside of me. “I warn you, time cannot often be changed. And when it can, the consequences aren’t typically what you’d expect.” She placed my hand on a sequence of buttons. “But you and I are not the same. Perhaps you may succeed where I failed.”
I wondered what attempts Ymir had made that had resulted in the permanent seal of the Gulltop behind deadly lava. “What makes you say you failed?”
She gave me a weak smile. “The Jotun are the result of my experiments. Instead of Terraforming planets to suit our needs, I experimented on freshly Immortal bodies, mine included. We were supposed to adapt to any planet we called home. Instead, we became enslaved to it and changed on a fundamental level that we cannot survive without it.” Her gaze went distant as she ran her fingers over the length of her horns. “The Surtr didn’t always look like this. We were once beautiful, but when I bound myself and my clan to Muspelheim, I learned that we could never leave.” Her eyes glimmered. “Until Freya came into the picture, that is. She gave us Yggdrasil’s sap and Muspelheim itself fueled Jotunheim with new power. Some of us are able to resume our more natural human forms. Without Freya, though, we all would have been trapped here forever, doomed to Muspelheim’s fate.” She drew out
a vial of glittering gold liquid and popped it open. She downed it in two seconds flat and her form twisted and shimmered. Her horns retreated into her head and her skin lost its metallic, red hue. When she fully transformed into a beautiful woman, I openly stared. She laughed. “Oh, right.” She popped open the hatch at the floor which revealed an assortment of packages. She opened one and shimmied into the tight suit. She offered me a bag. “Helps with the distortions. Think of it as anti-g-force. Acceleration is always a component of time, and when you’re going in reverse, it has a Hel of a punch.”
I grimaced at it, then flexed my wings. They couldn’t extend all the way before hitting sensitive machinery. “I’ll pass.”
She shrugged and returned the bag to the hatch before flipping the lid closed. “Suit yourself.”
She cracked her knuckles, then started dancing her fingers across the glowing lights. All she was missing was her revolving chair.
I watched, mesmerized, and then a hologram screen popped in front of our faces, revealing the watchful Surtr standing outside the hull.
She cleared her throat, then hit an orange button. “Our Queen would like to say something before we embark.” When I widened my eyes at her, she motioned for me to speak.
I sighed. I hated speeches. “I’m sorry for everything that’s happened. My mother is supposed to protect this planet and its people. You are our allies, and you don’t deserve for Ragnarök to be breathing down your necks. I’m going back to the beginning when this all started and make sure the timeline is corrected. Wish me luck.”
Valkyrie Uprising Page 8