Wings of the Valkyrie

by Charley Case

As soon as the door closed, Mila snorted with a laugh. “Remmy! Why do you tease him so much? He’s going to have an aneurysm one of these days if you keep it up.”

  “It’s good for him.” Danica laughed. She walked over to the couch and let Penny hop off her shoulder onto one of the back cushions before heading into the kitchen and pulling a bottle of water from the fridge. “It keeps him honest. Or something. Actually, it’s simply amusing. Don’t ever stop, Remmy.”

  The little goblin grinned and saluted Danica. “No problem, doctor lady.”

  Danica shot water out of her nose, and the rest of them cracked up with laughter.

  “Did you only come over to take a shower and torment my boyfriend?” Mila grabbed a bottled water for herself.

  “No, I came to deliver a message.” She held up a blue stone that had been worn down to a concave button-like shape. “On my way home from Christine’s, I ran into a lady in a big old cloak. She had the hood pulled way down and must have been using a spell to keep her face in shadows because I couldn’t see a thing. She sounded like she had eaten a bag of gravel and forgot to swallow. Anyway, she seemed to know who I was and handed me this stone. She said to tell you that she wanted to meet with you, that you could pick the place and she would come to you.”

  “Why did she want to meet with me?” Mila came over and took the stone, inspecting it.

  “Careful, she said to activate the stone, all you had to do was squeeze it between your fingers.”

  Mila quickly lifted her thumb from the divot in the center of the stone disk. “You should probably lead with that next time.”

  “Yeah, my bad. Anyway, she said that she wanted to help you kill Azoth. She also said that if you didn’t come, then thousands of people would die.”

  Mila’s eyes went wide. “She’ll kill thousands of people if I don’t meet with her?”

  Remmy cocked her head and reconsidered what she’d said. “No, she said that if you didn’t come then thousands of people would die, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean she was going to kill them, more like she could help prevent it if you came. I don’t know, the whole thing was shady and weird, but I thought I better tell you.”

  “Thanks.” Mila flipped the stone over in her fingers a few times before looking up and seeing the news channel switch to a recording off someone’s phone in Times Square. It showed a Jumbotron, and the woman on the screen sent a chill down Mila’s spine.

  “Turn that up!”

  Remmy snatched the remote from the back of the couch and hit the mute button, returning the sound.

  “Strange events in Times Square this evening. What was at first thought to be a terrorist message is now being dismissed as a practical joke of an odd persuasion,” the voice-over said before cutting back to the beginning of the phone’s recording, but this time it played the sound.

  The video swung around to show that all the screens had the same image, before zooming in on one screen and holding relatively still.

  The unmistakable image was of Missy standing in front of a blank white wall. Her long blue pigtails were gone, leaving a hack job of a haircut of blue tufts. It looked like she had cut it herself with a knife and no mirror. Her mouth worked back and forth for a few seconds, and Mila thought the volume had been muted again, but a low growling sound built until it was obvious that Missy wasn’t talking, only making threatening animal noises at the camera.

  The growling cut off and she started talking, her girlie voice lower than Mila remembered. “Listen up, bitch. I know you’ll see this, so I’ll only say it once. Azoth wants the Reaper. You bring it to him, and he doesn’t start World War Three. Don’t fuck around and try to get clever. Bring the Reaper, and he goes home. Otherwise, he’ll take a million people and set them loose on the world. They will tear this ship apart to find your tiny ass. You want that blood on your hands? Three days. In three days, you bring the Reaper to the site of the first battle and this all goes away. Otherwise, he’ll conjure a spell that will convert the innocent into a slathering mass of ghouls spreading their sickness across the world, and eating this ship from the inside out. The great Earth will crumble to dust, and his people will fall from the stars to scour the world clean.”

  By the end of the video, Missy was shouting, frothed spittle shooting from her mouth and hitting the camera’s lens. She looked like a lunatic.

  “What do you think, Kelly? An army of ghouls and spacemen? Sounds pretty credible to me,” the handsome news man said as they cut back to him and a blonde woman.

  The woman chuckled. “Sure does, Phil. In other bizarre news, a small town in northern Siberia has gone missing.”

  “The whole town?” Phil asked.

  “The whol—

  Remmy hit the mute button.

  Mila swallowed hard and made eye contact with Victoria. “Well…” Mila sighed. “Shit.”

  Chapter Six

  “I guess we don’t have to wonder what Azoth is up to anymore.” Mila snuggled into Finn’s body, his arm around her as they laid in bed. She held the small blue stone Remmy had passed to her, turning it over in her fingers. “Now we need to figure out who this belongs to.”

  Finn reached for the stone, and she handed it over. He held it up, scrutinizing the smooth button-like object a few inches from his face. “If I had to guess, I would say it’s Yaminah.”

  Mila raised an eyebrow while watching him turn the stone over. “Why do you say that? Wouldn’t her Geas keep her from helping?”

  “Maybe. I’ve never heard of a Geas that couldn’t eventually be overcome. They’re a nasty bit of magic, but someone with the will and talent could circumvent the effects if given enough time.” He reached over and set the stone on the side table before pulling Mila close and gently stroking his fingers over her forearm. “Back when I was in the military, curse-breaking was one of the required abilities to pass before graduating from boot camp. I get the feeling that Yaminah has the raw willpower to break out even if she doesn’t have any formal training.”

  “I could see that. The first dream I had where Azoth took her, she seemed to be a pretty powerful mage. She’s resourceful, too. That doesn’t mean it’s her, though. Missy is unbelievably powerful and she doesn’t seem able to break free, and it sounded like she wanted to during our last battle.”

  “She might be powerful, but she doesn’t sound all that mentally stable.” Finn shrugged. “Mental fortitude is the backbone of curse-breaking. Missy is grieving the loss of her wife. Or at least, something similar to that.”

  “What if it’s a play to get me alone? Let’s say it is Yaminah. She could be setting me up so Azoth can capture me to get the Reaper.”

  “That’s true, but she’s not giving herself a great opportunity to grab you. You set up the place and time, and she didn’t stipulate that you had to come alone or anything.”

  Mila snorted. “She wouldn’t have to come alone, either. It could still be a trap.”

  “True,” Finn shrugged into the pillow, “but why? If she grabs you and you don’t have the Reaper on you, then what? I suppose they could try and make you talk, but they’d know that we would come after you, and with them holding you, we could find them in a few seconds with a good tracking spell. They could block it eventually, but all it would take is the second before they could get it up.”

  Mila slowly nodded as she thought it through. It didn’t make a lot of sense for them to try and grab her. They would know that she wouldn’t have the Reaper on her, and the risks to them would be fairly high for a low possibility of success.

  “What if it’s not Yaminah? Who would be the most likely candidate?” Mila tried to look at the situation from all angles.

  She reached up and twirled her fingers through his chest hair while he pursed his lips in thought. “I don’t know. It could be some random person who saw him and wants to help. I don’t know why they wouldn’t give Remmy the info, though.” He shook his head. “No, I don’t see how it could be anyone else. She was hiding her face, she kne
w Remmy on sight, and she handed over a fairly powerful enchanted stone. I think it’s Yaminah.”

  “What are the odds that she wants to help?” Mila turned into him and kissed his chest.

  “Fifty-fifty.”

  Mila giggled at a thought that crossed her mind. “We could wait until there’s a thunderstorm and I could hit her with a lightning bolt again if she tries to betray us. I bet she’s still pretty gun-shy.”

  Finn chuckled. “Speaking of… According to Victoria, you shouldn’t be able to do that.”

  “What? Call down lightning? Why not? I’m a new Valkyrie. I thought the whole point was that we gained abilities to fit the situation.”

  “Yeah, I get that,” Finn nodded, “but according to Victoria, that’s a whole other power set from a Valkyrie. You guys can channel your power and create things with it, but manipulating the storms like that isn’t something you should be able to do.”

  Mila bit her lip and furrowed her brow. “Well, what else could it be? We know I’m a Valkyrie, so it has to be a Valkyrie ability. What else is there?”

  Finn cleared his throat uncomfortably. “It could be a byproduct of the tattoo I gave you.”

  Mila pushed up so she was looking down into his face. “You want to run that by me again, big guy?”

  “Calling down lightning is an ability that all Shield Maidens have,” he said with a wooden smile. “Quite a few Dwarves have it as well. It has to do with our earth magic and how it interacts with the air. We change the polarity of the ground, and it makes the bolt discharge.”

  “I know how a lightning bolt works,” she held up a hand, “but why didn’t you mention this earlier? You know that Rebecca already thinks I’m a dwarf or something. Can you call down lightning, too?”

  Finn chuckled and shook his head. “No, I never mastered it. Hell, I couldn’t even get the hair on my arm to stand up. It’s a pretty rare ability in my people.”

  “But all the Shield Maidens can do it?”

  “Yes, but that’s because the Emperor grants them the ability. Which I always found odd, since as far as I know the old man couldn’t do it, either. But that doesn’t mean anything here, because I’m not my father. I can’t grant those kinds of powers. Even the title is only that, a title. Maybe your status as a new Valkyrie is feeding off the idea of the Shield Maidens?”

  Mila raised an eyebrow and gave him a half-smile. “I’m not so sure anymore. Rebecca and Victoria have been quietly obsessed with the tattoo you gave me. What if there’s more to it than simply a tattoo? I mean, I know it’s magical by the fact that you used magic to make it, but what if there’s more to it?”

  He frowned slightly and pulled the sheets down, uncovering her lower back. “Lay down. I’ll take a look.”

  Mila did so, curling her arms under her chest and turning her head away from him. She felt him sit up and pull the sheet down further to get a better look. She laid there in silence, hearing his deep and steady breaths as he inspected her. She let out a little sound of contentment when his fingers caressed the side of her hip before lightly slipping toward her spine. He traced the simple tattoo with the tip of a finger, making goosebumps appear on her arms and legs. A chill ran through her when his finger slipped lower down her ass cheek.

  “Hmm. Looks pretty good to me,” he said in a low baritone, his finger making a swirling motion on her butt cheek.

  Her shoulders shook slightly as she fought the tickling feeling. “Are you talking about the tattoo or my butt?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m serious, here.” She giggled. “Does it look different?”

  “Nope. Toned as ever,” he practically growled.

  “The tattoo, Finn. Does the tattoo look the same?” She wanted to slap his hand away, but at the same time, she enjoyed the attention.

  “Oh, right.” His grin was evident in his voice. “It looks the same to me. Maybe a little brighter, but that could be because you’re growing in power. Now, about this butt…”

  Mila squealed as his hand cracked down on her exposed butt cheek. She launched herself up onto her knees and tackled him onto his back. He laughed as they bounced a few times on the bed, her ending up straddling him.

  “Speaking of growing…” She waggled her eyebrows like Groucho Marx, even going as far as imitating chewing on a cigar.

  Finn laughed and rested his hands on her hips. “Man, you’ve been extra frisky lately. What’s going on with you? Not that I mind, it just seems a little sudden.”

  Mila shrugged and kicked the sheets off his legs. The comforter’s folded weight at their feet and the momentum from the kick dragged everything over the edge to pile on the floor. She snorted a giggle, but quickly forgot about the covers as she turned back to him and leaned forward, her hands on his chest and arms locked.

  “When I found out Valkyries can’t have children, I stopped taking my birth control. Now that I’m off it, my hormones are returning to their college-day levels.” She reached over his head and grabbed a hair tie off the side table. In one quick motion, she had her hair pulled back and secured in a messy bun.

  “Damn, girl. You’re putting your game face on really quick.” His eyes grew wide.

  “College levels, babe. Now, you might want to find something to hold onto.”

  “Um, am I going to have to install handles on the headboard?”

  Mila gave him a slow shrug. “Wouldn’t hurt.”

  “Daaaamn…”

  Chapter Seven

  Mila’s eyes snapped open, and she sucked in a shallow breath as she went from deep sleep to wide awake in a heartbeat. She felt her skin flush with a clammy sweat that immediately evaporated and made her shiver into her pillow.

  Blinking a few times to clear her eyes, Mila didn’t move from her pillow. After a second or two, she awoke enough to realize that she could see just fine, but it was still dark in their bedroom. Her dark vision was kicking in though, and blurry movement caught her eye, making her hold her breath and try to focus.

  Like a rubber band snapping back into shape after being stretched too far, Mila shifted to fully awake.

  She carefully sat up, doing her best not to wake the lightly snoring Finn beside her. She peered down at her pillow and saw what had seemed like a blurry object, but was simply too close for her to focus on properly.

  “Hello there,” Mila whispered while leaning toward the large black-and-gold striped orb weaver. The three-inch-long spider was standing on her pillow, its four front legs waving back and forth in the air to get her attention. “Are you okay?”

  The spider relaxed as if it had been trying to wake her for a while. A warning feeling entered Mila’s mind. She had used her nature ability for long enough that she immediately recognized it as coming from the matron spider.

  Mila furrowed her brow in concentration as she tucked her foot under her and leaned in further. She got the warning feeling again. Then she glimpsed an image from the spider’s mind. At first, her brain couldn’t make sense of the eight points of view from the multi-eyed creature, but she quickly adapted to the strange way of seeing.

  It was an upside-down view of Larimer Street. The street itself had a few cars parked along it, but it was obviously late in the night. There seemed to be quite a bit of foot traffic, however. It was hard to tell if the people were drunk or if it was an effect of the spider’s vision, but each person was stumbling up to windows and looking inside before moving to the next building.

  “Are there people out there searching for something?”

  The spider bounced up and down.

  Mila’s eyes widened a little. “How long ago was this?”

  The spider pointed a black-and-gold arm to the window. “Now.”

  Mila nodded. “Okay, thank you. I’ll check it out.” She looked over her shoulder at Finn’s sleeping form. “Uh, try not to wake him. He might not be so careful upon finding you in his face.”

  The orb weaver gave her a two-legged salute, then pulled herself up on a thread of webbi
ng Mila had missed in the dark. After a complicated series of swings, the large spider was at the window and crawling through a hole in the screen Mila had left for such an occasion.

  Carefully stepping out of the bed, Mila found Finn’s discarded black t-shirt on the floor and quickly pulled it over her head. The shirt came to her knees and past her elbows despite it being short-sleeved. She carefully opened the door out to the dojo and checked that Finn was still sleeping before pulling the door closed until there was only a crack remaining. She didn’t want to have to open it again and chance waking Finn up when she returned.

  Walking across the blue mats of the large open practice area, Mila headed toward the living room and the French doors that led out onto the wraparound balcony.

  When she reached the back of the couch, Mila froze when she saw Victoria sleeping there. Her sleeping on the couch would have been weird enough since she had a guest room, but the fact that Remmy was sprawled out on top of her made Mila do a double-take.

  The two of them were under a blanket, but it was fairly obvious that Remmy didn’t have a top on, and leaning to the side a little verified that Victoria didn’t, either.

  “What the fuck?” Mila whispered, trying to make sense of what she was seeing as anything other than what it looked like.

  Her brain was rebelling at the idea of the powerful CEO sleeping with the four-foot-tall goblin. Not that Remmy wasn’t attractive, quite the opposite, but she was still two feet shorter than Victoria… Actually, Mila guessed she and Finn were about as mismatched as Victoria and Remmy. At least size-wise.

  Mila shook her head and decided it was something she would have to ask Victoria about later. Maybe she should ask Remmy. That way, she would be sure to get the truth. There was no such thing as double-speak for Remmy. It was all truth, all the time. Usually to a graphic degree.

  Moving to the double doors to the balcony, Mila quietly opened them and stepped out into the cool night air. She leaned on the railing and peered down into the street, trying to make sense of what the spider had shown her.