"I need a wingman," Ben said with all the seriousness of a nineteen-year-old guy on the prowl.
"Is that a really bad pun or are you trying to actually ask me something?" I set a pitcher of peach margaritas on the counter for one of my waitresses. I was back to work at Harkers Tavern, but it was a slow afternoon.
"See that blond over there?" He turned, leaning against the bar, and waved at the perfectly tanned, bikini-clad girl sitting on the front deck with her friends. The girl giggled and waved back. "Help me get her away from the herd?"
"The herd? You are a disgusting little man-child, aren’t you?" I shoved him as I picked up my book and settled back on the stool behind the counter.
"You know what I mean, Thea." He moaned. "You're my wingman. Go build me up to her and her friends, make me look good, and I'll swoop in for the kill."
"The kill? You really are a misogynist pig. I am not helping you get laid. You don't need any help in that department, anyway." I tried to return to my book. Ever since I agreed to let Ben stay with me, he went for a different girl each night and was usually successful. Which meant I got peaceful nights at home alone, and someone to hang out with on my days off. It was kind of a win-win for me.
"Seriously. She's a pre-med student at Duke University and she’s only here for the weekend. She's so smart. Totally out of my league and totally my type. Go find out if she likes bad boys." He tried to push me off my stool and toward the deck.
"Bad boys?" I let out a ringing, hysterical laugh, which just made him scowl at me. "Oh, Ben.” I wiped my eyes. “You’re like one of those Peter Pan boys who refuse to grow up. Having more tattoos than sense and wearing a leather jacket at the beach does not make you a bad boy. Seriously, if you put the kind of effort into getting a job that you do in getting laid, I could quit my job and let you support me for a while."
"Then let’s go to New Orleans and I can get my old job back."
"What’s in New Orleans?" I hopped up to clean off a vacant table and retrieve my lousy tip.
"It’s my favorite place in the world." Ben’s face lit up with his disarming smile as he followed me, gathering up the empty beer bottles while I wiped the table.
"And you had an actual job there?" I arched a brow at him. Ben wasn’t the type to keep a steady job.
"Yes." He rolled his eyes. “I worked in a voodoo shop in the quarter. My friend Daria runs it. She’s mostly deaf, but that’s never slowed her down. She’s amazing, and the closest thing to family I’ve ever had, like a big sister.”
“It sounds … interesting.” I sighed. It could be a good place to hide out for a while. It might even throw Mother’s bounty hunters off my trail if I randomly broke my pattern and moved halfway across the country. I ducked back behind the bar and restocked the cooler for the coming afternoon rush.
“You’d make a lot more working in the Quarter than you do in these little beach towns.” Ben slid back onto the stool at the counter.
“If you love it so much, why did you leave?”
“There was a bit of a misunderstanding with the local authorities.” Ben waved it off like it was a nonissue. “I headed down to Florida for a while before I came to find you. But that was months ago. You’ll love it there, Thea. The jazz music and the culture. And the food is incredible.”
"All right.” I surprised myself by saying yes, but the more he spoke, the more it seemed like a good idea. And I really needed to put as much distance between Ben and those who pursued me as possible. “You pay for the trip and my motel room till I get a job there and we’ll go."
"Ugh." He flopped back down on his stool at the bar. "Maybe I can get Daria to wire me some cash."
"You're like a tick, you know." I rapped him on the back of the head as I walked past him to deliver a second round of beer to my sole customers inside the bar. "You latch on and don’t let go no matter how hard I try to shake you off.” I smirked at his indignant look.
"Hey, that's mean."
"Get. A. J.O.B."
"I'll do some odd work to get the cash for NOLA and then we're going." He stood up and leaned over the counter. "Spot me a few beers, will ya?"
"Go!" I laughed. "Hook up with your girl. You can be her problem tonight."
"I'll be home later. We'll get Thai takeout and watch Jessica Jones on Netflix. My treat." He shoved off the bar and sauntered out to the deck.
"No doubt dinner will be on the blond." I shook my head.
As the sun began to set, customers headed inside in droves, seeking respite from the heat and a refreshing drink before the dinner rush sent them all to the nearby restaurants.
"Your boy Ben sure has a type," Kelly commented as she lined up a row of tequila shots.
"He's more trouble than he's worth. Want him?" I joked. “I warn you, though, he’s like a barnacle.”
"I'm considering dying my hair blond, if that answers your question." Kelly laughed, heading out to deliver her shots while I took care of the customers at the bar.
Ben was keeping the guests on the deck entertained, ordering copious amounts of margaritas for the patrons there. He wasn't paying, but he was definitely earning his keep tonight. The tips and orders were rolling in. Maybe we should hire him as some sort of entertainment. I tucked a roll of bills into my apron and took the next order.
My shift would be over after the happy hour rush and I was looking forward to a quiet night alone to think about my next moves. I couldn’t believe I was actually contemplating going to New Orleans with Ben. But I’d gotten used to having him around these past weeks, and it made me sad to think of him leaving. It was nice having a real friend. One who knew what I was. Well ... mostly what I was.
“What are you doing now?” I paused the documentary I was watching on Netflix. It was my night off after a long week at the bar and Ben was driving me insane.
“I’m bored.” He climbed onto the bed beside me, dropping his head in my lap with a sigh.
“There’s this other documentary we could watch on conspiracies.”
“You and your documentaries need to get a life.” He stared up at me like he thought I might be kind of pathetic.
“What? It’s a great way to learn about humans. Don’t you find them fascinating?”
“No. Not even a little bit. We are fascinating, but you never want to talk about Valkyries. You never even shift. Not since that first night.”
“I haven’t needed to.”
“Need? Thea, you get to shift whenever you want. You can freaking fly, but you’d rather spend your nights eating popcorn and drinking cheap wine, watching documentaries about humans rather than going out there and hunting them.”
“Hunting?” A chill swept down my spine as it always did when Ben said something that might indicate he wasn’t as harmless as he seemed. A lifetime of hearing murderous, bloodthirsty stories about his kind left me constantly wary, even as I grew fonder of him.
“Wow, Thea. Not literally.” He rolled his eyes. “I mean hunting those who will need our help.”
I stared at him, my jaw dropping. “Are you saying you go out of your way to find humans who are about to die?”
“It’s a rush, helping them to the other side. I don’t know.” He shrugged. “It gives me purpose.”
“You don’t … dread it?” I couldn’t imagine finding enjoyment in our sacred duty.
“For a long time I did. It really sucks when they realize they’re dead, but I like seeing their faces when they see the other side for the first time. They go from being heartbroken that their lives are over to euphoric when they see heaven and know it’s only the beginning of something new.”
“Andlang,” I corrected, absently running my fingers through his short hair.
“What?” Ben frowned up at me.
“The other side is called Andlang.”
“Andlang? Not Valhalla?”
“Andlang is the only part of the other side that survived the final battle. Just like our home realm, it’s a fragment of what once was. All souls go to Andlang now.”
“Oh. Well. It’s beautiful. I never get tired of visiting when I take someone there. Not that the souls there ever bother to acknowledge me in their midst.”
My hand stilled in his hair. He can enter Andlang? The original Valkyries used to travel to the other side at will, but since the final battle, Andlang had been closed to us. We could guide the fallen to the gates, but could no longer enter. It was heartbreaking. To be so close to such untold beauty and promise, left with only a glimpse of the afterlife through the gates.
“What’s wrong? Did I do it again?”
“Do what?” I shoved my thoughts aside. Ben would never return to our realm, so it didn’t matter what he could do that others of our kind couldn’t. As long as he kept his Valkyrie under control.
“Say something that totally freaked you out, but you’re going to pretend like it’s all okay and change the subject.”
I smiled. He knew me far too well for someone I’d only met a few months ago. “The first Valkyries used to be able to visit the afterlife whenever they wanted.”
“Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to leave, but they get mad if I stay too long.” Ben sighed, the skin around his eyes darkening. He wanted to shift, and he wanted me to shift with him.
“It’s not safe, Ben. We could be seen.” I frowned down at him, wondering if he was too daring for his own good.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“But you were thinking it.”
“Fine.” Ben sat up to face me. “So I want to shift and spend the night flying out over the ocean. What’s so bad about that? No one will see us.”
“Trust me, Ben. It’s just not safe.”
“Is this the part where you avoid telling me what you’re running from? Because that’s getting a little old, Thea.”
“I’m not running.” I fiddled with the remote control, refusing to meet his gaze.
“Then let’s go back to our world where we don’t have to hide.”
“I told you, we can never go back. The bridge to Valsgard was destroyed.”
“So, what was all that the night we met when you were convinced your mother sent me to find you? Where did you think she’d sent me from?”
I winced. I hadn’t done a very good job covering up my lies.
“She lives here too.” I blurted the first thing that came to mind.
“You’re such a bad liar. I have a sense for these things. I know when someone is lying, and you spend a lot of time with your pants on fire.” Ben stood up, shoving his feet into his boots by the bed.
I glanced down at my lap, confused. But that was my general state of existence around Ben. “My pants are not on fire.”
“Not literally. It’s just a rhyme humans say when someone’s lying. Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
“I’m sorry, Ben. I—”
“It’s okay, Thea. You’re allowed to have your secrets. I just wish you’d tell me about the ones that involve me.”
“You’re right.” I scrambled off the bed. “Let’s … let’s get out of here. Go someplace quiet and I’ll tell you what I know.”
“What you know about what?”
“You.” I didn’t bother grabbing my shoes or purse. I wouldn’t need them where we were going. “Coming?” I grabbed my car keys and opened the motel room door.
“Yeah.” Ben scrambled to follow me, locking the room behind him.
“Hop in.” I slid into the front seat of my car.
“We don’t need to drive, Thea. We can just duck around the corner in an alley.”
“If we’re doing this, we’re doing it my way. Get in.”
I drove out of town along the back roads until I was sure no one would see us creeping down a dirt road toward the sound.
“Valkyries only shift when it’s necessary,” I said, keeping one eye on the road and one on the rearview mirror. “We believe our Valkyrie form is sacred and we only call upon it when bound to do our duty to those lost souls we meet along our journey. We also shift when a battle is at hand, or when training, but in our daily lives, we don't call upon our Valkyrie on a whim. At least not often,” I conceded with a half smile.
“Sounds like a missed opportunity to me.” Ben shrugged out of his jacket as the car rolled to a stop. The planes of his face were already changing.
“Once you shift, fly straight up as fast as you can into the cloud cover.” I scanned the area uneasily.
“I’ve done this before, you know?” Ben rolled his eyes.
“You want to stay somewhere around fifteen-thousand feet. High enough that anyone watching will think we’re hawks or raptors out for a hunt, but low enough that any air traffic might look down and think the same.”
“Yes, Mother.” Ben toed his boots off and left them in the car along with his jacket and shirt.
My Valkyrie wanted out just as badly as Ben’s. I hadn’t transformed in weeks and my wings were itching for a long overdue stretch. Ben’s raven black wings exploded out of his back as he ran along the dirt road, taking to the sky like he was born in flight. I followed him, a lightness in my chest I hadn’t felt in ages. I shot straight up into the sky, soaring past Ben until I reached the concealing clouds.
He streaked after me as I led us out past the sound and over the open waters of the ocean—the only place I felt safe enough to fly. Out here I could see for miles and nothing could sneak up on me.
Ben flew just below me, and I was reminded of all the hours of flying lessons with Aunt Astrid, learning battle tactics and flight maneuvers while Pasha ran through the woods, bounding up rocky slopes to keep up with me.
Without another thought, I dropped onto Ben’s back and sank my claws in, not enough to hurt him but to get his attention.
“Cheater.” His laughter reached my ears as he rolled, shaking me off his back before he dove and disappeared among the clouds. I raced after him, but he caught me around the middle, his body slamming into me and sending me plummeting toward the ocean. I caught myself and shot after him again. We were like two young falcons, playing along the air currents and attempting to knock each other out of the sky.
We flew up and down the Carolina coast all night, until my wings ached. Reluctantly I landed on a remote cliffside. Ben was right; I had to get out more. But I also had to warn him of the dangers lurking in the shadows. He needed to know what he was up against.
“That was just what I needed.” Ben collapsed in the grass beside me.
“We have to talk.” I sat up, letting my wings drape around me and shield me from the cool breeze.
“Oh no, she has her serious face back on.” Ben lay on his side, propping himself up on his elbow.
“This is serious. I should have told you weeks ago, but I didn’t want to scare you.”
“All right. I’m listening.” Ben gave me his undivided attention.
“One of these days I will have to go home.” I glanced down at my hands folded in my lap.
He was silent for a moment. “So, that whole ‘the bridge is out’ thing was a lie?”
“Sort of. The bridge was destroyed back in the final battle, but there are still ways to navigate it. It’s a dangerous journey. One I don’t relish making again.”
“Let’s do it, Thea.” Ben scrambled onto his knees, facing me. “I want to know where I came from. I want to find my family. I need to know what happened and how I ended up on my own here.”
“You can never go back, Ben. It’s not safe for you.” I swallowed my doubts and fears and told him everything. He deserved to know that an executioner’s block waited for him should he attempt to enter the Nine Realms.
“So, I’m it?” He frowned down at the grass and wound his fingers through it, pulling up a clump. “I’m the only … flighted male?”
My heart twisted at the forlorn sound of his voice. “You’re a foresworn Valkyrie. To most of us living now, you’re a legend come to life. You have to be the first foresworn in generations.”
“And every single one born like me went bad?” Ben lifted his gaze to mine, his eyes filled with a sadness I couldn’t comprehend. “No chance the regular Joes just didn’t end up in the history books?”
“According to our histories, every single male like you,” my voice dropped to a whisper, “ultimately turned into a blood-thirsty, power-hungry … beast, hell-bent on taking over our world. There was a dark period of our history a few generations after the final battle. We know very little of what happened then, but we do know that was a time when Valkyrie sons ruled the skies over Valsgard. It’s called the Reign of Terror.”
“And if I go back, they’ll shoot first and ask questions later.” Ben swallowed, his eyes fixed on the clump of grass still clutched in his hand.
“Yes. You can’t risk it, Ben. It’s not safe.” I tried to reach for his hand but he pulled away.
So, I’m stuck here.” He lay back in the grass, interlacing his fingers behind his head. “Forever. While you actually chose to leave, and can go back anytime you want, my world is closed off to me.”
“It’s why your mother brought you here, Ben. I mean, it must have been. She loved you enough to save you. And if it helps, I’m so glad she did. We haven’t known each other long, but you’re like my own family, and even when I have to return one day, I’ll never forget you. That will have to be enough. You can’t ever go back. They will kill you.”
Ben nodded. “I get it.” He stood. “I’ll see you at home. I need some time to think.”
He dropped off the edge of the cliff, and I watched him soar into the clouds, wishing I could give him the pretty words he wanted to hear.