I wasn’t surprised when Neela’s guard showed up that first night to give me some of the same treatment they had offered Ben. They’d returned several times since then.
"Stand up, coward.” One of Neela’s pretend Warders tried to drag me to my feet.
I cradled my wing, hoping the guards wouldn’t notice it was no longer broken. Ben had given me his belt to make a sling and I’d used the filth and grime from the floor to paint bruises where my previous injuries were. I shifted back to my Valkyrie form as soon as I regained the strength to manage the change.
“No please, not my wing.” I winced and cowered in the corner of my cell like a defeated weakling protecting my most vulnerable parts. It wasn’t purely an act. I was terrified they would reinjure my wing and Grandmother would be too weak to use her healing magic again.
But I was no weakling. I began siphoning from my brother early this morning after the guards left us. Ben had been giving me his ration of water and bread and Mother split hers with me. Gram was still sleeping.
After the first attempt, we decided it was best to do it slowly throughout the day in short bursts of siphoning to avoid getting caught by the frequent visits from the guard. Ben had taken on such a large portion of the power, it would take time to give the vast majority of it to me. Already I was stronger and eager for a fight. If given another opportunity to end this, I would not hesitate.
“It’s not like you’ll ever fly again.” A foot slammed into my side and a fist struck my jaw.
I screamed, wishing I could fight back, but I needed Neela to continue believing she’d already won. That I was nothing more than the pampered, spoiled princess she thought me to be.
“Please don’t hurt her,” Mother begged.
“She’s been through enough,” Ben shouted.
“What happened to the old lady?” the head guard asked while his men enjoyed roughing me up even more. “She’s been sleeping for two days.”
“My mother is older than she seems. She is weary from the stress of recent events and needs her rest.” Brenna’s tears glistened in the lamplight. “Please, just leave us be.”
It was over quickly. The guards left me in a puddle of my own blood, wearing satisfied smirks as they left to carry their latest report to their mistress.
“Please tell us what’s happening?” Brenna begged, playing the part of a distraught mother to perfection. “What has that woman planned for my daughter?”
“Your new queen has scheduled your execution for tonight. But first, we feast.” The men grunted their approval with flushed faces and wicked grins. I suspected they had started the celebration early. “Her Majesty wants the false queen and the foresworn boy paraded through the streets with the old queens leading the way with their weeping.”
“She can’t do this!” Brenna screamed as they left in a flurry of laughter. “We are royalty. We deserve better than this!”
Her mask fell the moment the door clanged shut behind them. “Okay, darlings, we have a few hours left to prepare.” Mother turned to me with her serene queenly mask firmly in place. “Are you okay, Thea?”
I sat up, wiping the blood from my chin. “I’m fine. Do you think they bought my act?”
“I bought it,” Ben said. “I thought they were going to kill you. Are you sure you’re all right?” He scooted as close to the bars of his cell as his chains would allow.
“I’m much stronger than I look, thanks to you and Gram.”
“Pretty darn good actress too.”
“I could have taken Netflix by storm.” I grinned in the darkness. Dragging my fingers through the blood on the floor, I dabbed streaks along my hairline and across my silvery white wingtips.
“What are you doing?” Mother asked.
“War paint,” I murmured. “I have to make my injuries convincing.”
When next I stepped from my cell and into the streets of Vahland Reach, I would look like a broken shell of my former self. All the while, I would wait for the perfect moment to make my move.
“The fat lip and swollen eye look does wonders for your complexion. And the dried blood effect is just fabulous. You almost look as pretty as I do.”
“I’m afraid I got the good looks in this family,” I snarked back, grateful for my brother’s sense of humor.
“How did you two not know you were siblings the moment you met?” Brenna chuckled. “You’re exactly alike and you remind me so much of your father … from before.”
“I’d like to know more about him when we get out of this mess,” Ben said.
“Me too,” I added, and for the first time, I really meant it. If my mother once loved Hagen, then I wanted to know all about the man as she’d known him.
“The Hagen I knew would be so proud of you both,” Brenna whispered. “Just as proud as I am.”
“Enough chatter.” Grandmother roused from her filthy pallet on the floor of her cell. “Have you two finished the transfer?” She yawned, her jaw creaking with the effort, but she looked better than she had last night. I could see the weariness lingering in her eyes, but my grandmother was pure grit and fire. She would recover from the transfer just as she had when Mother ascended.
“Not yet,” Ben said. “But we should probably get a move on.”
I nodded, moving to sit in the corner of my cell closest to him. “Make sure you keep enough for yourself,” I reminded him. “I don’t want you so weak you can’t fight if it comes to it.”
“Let’s do this.” He sat down just across from me in his cell and I closed my eyes to focus. It was a bit harder to siphon without direct contact, but I could do it.
“Stop me when you’ve had enough.”
“Just do it already, Thea.”
“Fine, I’m working up to it,” I snapped back at him, secretly pleased to have a bratty little brother to bicker with.
Ben was open and ready for me as I reached for his stores of the power. It wouldn’t take long to complete the transfer. Taking a deep breath, I pulled on the power, guiding it toward me. He was tired, and hungry, making me the prime vessel in the room. The power came easily this time, flowing into me like warm silk, filling the ancient well deep inside me.
During the time of the gods, the histories spoke of the three wells of Yggdrasil, the tree that once united the Nine Realms. The well of fate was where the Norns lived and watered the tree to sustain its life. The well of Hvergelmir was where the monster that gnawed the tree’s roots resided. And Mimir’s well was the source of wisdom. We believed when Yggdrasil was largely destroyed during the final battle, the first Valkyrie Queen—Mother Sigrún—became the well of Mimir and passed that responsibility on to all of her descendants.
But the wisdom of the well didn’t come without a price. To this day, that was why a queen sacrificed any magic she might have been born with to become the absolute vessel, or the well from which all creatures of the Nine Realms drank. She took on the burden of sacrifice for them. And I would gladly step forward to do the same when my time to ascend came.
“That’s enough, Thea.” Ben tugged back from me, gently at first and more forcefully when I didn’t immediately release him. I wanted more. The well within me wasn’t yet full and I was close enough to my ascension that I was more aware of its emptiness than ever before. But I wouldn’t drink my fill from Ben. Neela was my next and last target. The only vessel remaining other than my sister, Sylvi and Astrid who would keep the surplus of the power for me—the portion I couldn’t contain on my own.
“Time to go,” Neela’s guard announced as the dungeon doors creaked open and I released my hold on Esben. The power surged within me and I wasn’t certain I could hide it. As Queen Heir I had taken on a large portion of the power, as was natural for any vessel, but I’d never held this much. Glancing at Mother, I couldn’t fathom how she had always made it look so easy when already I felt on the verge of exploding with the force of it.
Neela’s false Warders stood ready with several sets of irons for each of us.
I winced when the shackles clicked around my wrists and ankles. A tether dragged behind me.
“Don’t think about flying off and saving yourself.” The guard yanked cruelly on my leash, causing me to stagger.
“I couldn’t if I wanted to,” I whispered, my lower lip trembling for effect.
Another soldier bound Mother’s wrists. “No need for the tether. I no longer possess the strength or the will to shift.”
I wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but after this was over, I would make sure Mother regained her strength. Grandmother too. With Ben’s help, I would ascend without harming any of my family. There was enough power of the gods to sustain us all.
“March.” The guards led Brenna out first, followed by a weary Agertha and then me, with Ben bringing up the rear. I faltered, leaving the soldiers no choice but to push and shove me along. I had to make this look good. For the sake of all my people I had to put on the show of a lifetime.
Once outside in the palace courtyard, I cringed in the sunlight. Crowds of people stood by to watch our procession through the city streets. Villagers were brought in from the surrounding countryside, pulled away from their daily lives to witness Neela’s victory. Most stood silent. Some wept for their fallen queen and what it would mean for their families. These were my people, and despite Neela’s magical chains, they somehow still found the loyalty in their hearts to shed tears for me and my family.
“Majesties.” Some whispered, bowing their heads as we passed.
“Blessed Mother Sigrún, give them strength,” others prayed.
“You pray for a fallen queen and her heir? The one who abandoned you?” Neela’s mocking voice sounded behind me.
I turned to find my enemy perched atop a gilded throne borne up by four of her pretend Warders. She sat in her battle leathers, one leg draped over the armrest of her throne, a golden goblet in one hand and a whip in the other.
“Your prayers fall on deaf ears.” Neela cracked her whip, landing a blow on my shoulder.
“March.” She sipped from her goblet. “Make your way to the executioner’s block.”
My shoulder throbbed as I turned forward, taking a few steps along the main road through the city. I was the defeated, bloodied, useless Queen Heir and Neela was poised to exploit that throughout her evening of revelry that would end in the executions of me and my family.
“This isn’t what we agreed on, Neela,” I rasped.
“We agreed the victor got to choose her opponent’s punishment. I’ve decided your crimes against our people were heinous acts of treason, punishable by the death of your entire dynasty.” Neela cracked her whip again, causing me to jump into action.
“You should include yourself as part of the Ahlstrom Dynasty, cousin.” I wouldn’t call her attention to Sylvi or Astrid. Surely by now she was aware that the Citadel was empty and Astrid and Sylvi wouldn’t let her get away with this. If I didn’t survive the next hours, I hoped Sylvi would have the strength to hold our world together until a new Queen Heir came to ascend in my place. Either way, Neela couldn’t be allowed to remain in power.
I walked, taking strength from my people as they whispered encouraging words, while others shouted jeers and taunts of hate. The overwhelming response from the crowd nearly brought me to my knees, not because some said awful things about me and my family, but because the vast majority had opened themselves up to me to take their small shares of the power back, hoping it might give me the edge I needed over Neela.
I took what they offered gratefully, though the balance of power had already shifted in my favor. The power of the gods now recognized me as the rightful queen, but Neela was so focused on celebrating that she didn’t see it, confirming my suspicions that she didn’t know how to siphon on her own. I wondered if Svana had done it for her all along.
I slowly made my way along the streets to the city center, following Mother and Grandmother, walking side-by-side clasping hands. I lost sight of Ben behind Neela, but I could hear the gasps from the crowd when they realized he was the evil man Neela had saved them from.
As we neared the gardens at the city center, my shoulders fell at the condition of the once beautiful park. Fountains lay empty and shrubs and vines had overgrown the pathways, but the center of the park was a field of wildflowers, beautiful in its own way.
“Move!” Neela’s whip lashed against my back. Stripes streaked my arms and legs, but I hardly felt them over the rage welling inside me. Pasha was near. I could feel my kindred pacing restlessly, eager to strike.
As the procession entered the clearing, Mother and Grandmother followed my lead, looking exhausted and defeated from their time in the dungeons. Theirs wasn’t entirely an act though. I felt stronger than ever, itching for a fight. I clenched my fists at my sides, searching the procession for signs of Ben. He staggered forward, his back striped from the Warder’s whip, but he wore a look of grim determination.
A raised dais waited for me, Brenna, and Agertha. Three crude thrones stood at the center where Neela’s false Warders bound our shackles, forcing us to sit for the crowd and await our mockery of a trial. They shoved Ben to his knees beside me, clasping an iron collar around his throat and securing him to the dais like some kind of animal. The executioner’s block rested at the center of the dais, a blatant reminder of what awaited us.
I let them confine me with the simple chains. Chains I would burn when it pleased me. Hanging my head, I waited for Neela’s next move, vowing it would be her last.
“You abandoned your duty, leaving behind an inept sister to take your place. For nearly three years, you evaded my bounty hunters, only to return, sneaking into the realm like a coward to hide behind the walls of the Citadel. And to make matters worse, you didn’t return alone. You brought your filthy male foresworn with you, concealing him behind a web of lies his idiot mother created when she allowed him to live. What do you have to say for yourself, Alithea?” Neela’s slaves hefted her throne onto the dais directly across from me. A servant came forward to refill her goblet.
“I do not answer to you.” I lifted my chin in defiance.
“You will stand trial, all of you.” Neela’s gaze drifted from one royal to the next. “My people will understand the depths to which you have fallen. To suffer a male Valkyrie such as Esben to live is the worst sort of treason. His kind are an abomination and you’ve allowed him to infiltrate our world.”
“Wow, she really doesn’t like me,” Ben muttered under his breath. “Maybe I was wrong about that crush.”
“We do not answer to a usurper,” Brenna said, sounding every bit the queen she was. She didn’t need the power of the gods to make her one, she was a queen down to the very fiber of her being.
“My mother is right; we owe you nothing. But I will answer your question for my people,” I said calmly, gazing around the city square at the crowds surrounding us. “They deserve to know the truth. Esben is not just any man born to the true Valkyrie nature. He is my twin.”
Murmurs spread through the crowd. The legends and myths of the male Valkyries ranged from nightmarish to fantastic, but most feared the very mention of a man with Esben’s abilities.
Neela threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, come on, Thea. You’re not even making this hard for me if you’re just going to tell the truth. The boy is clearly your twin, and neither of you are the progeny of Queen Brenna and her Consort Elias.”
The murmuring of the crowd grew louder.
“Wait, did she just say I look like you?” Ben snorted a laugh. “Clearly, I am the better-looking twin.”
I shot my brother a glare, begging him to be serious for once.
“Just look at them.” Neela turned to the crowd. “With their dark hair and eyes, the sharp noses and caustic wit, they look nothing like their golden-haired mother. Nor do they resemble the plain-featured Elias either. If we could drag Sylvi from her hiding place, you would see the striking resemblance between Princess Sylvanna and Brenna. While Thea looks nothing like either of her supposed parents.
“My sources tell me Brenna gave birth to this mongrel first, and then our little princess Thea came seven minutes later. But who was their father?” Neela drank deeply from her wine goblet, enjoying her victory.
“And even worse, Brenna failed to do as all Valkyrie mothers before her have done. She failed to have her foresworn son executed at birth. Instead, she secreted him off to the human realm to live peacefully. And now Alithea has brought him back with her.”
The crowd erupted in shouts of disapproval and that was when I understood what Neela was up to. She’d known all along that Ben was my twin. Of course Svana would have told her everything she knew of Ben. But now Neela wanted to force the queen to admit who our father was.
“It doesn’t matter.” I spoke before Mother could. “I’m not here to hide the fact that Esben is my twin brother. Look at us. Yes, he is taller than me and if you ask him, he’s prettier than me.”
“Darn right.” Ben followed my lead.
I shrugged, relieved to hear some scattered laughter throughout the crowd.
“If you knew us, you’d see that we’re pretty much the same person. I can’t give you more evidence than that. He is my twin, but what most of you don’t know is that a twin such as Esben poses no harm to anyone. I was born first. Esben came seven minutes later. That is an important detail Neela got wrong. It is the nature of our twin bond that allows us to balance each other. As the older twin, I temper his ambition and as the younger, he amplifies my power, making me a stronger queen and a more powerful vessel to serve all the people of the Nine Realms. More powerful than any vessel in recent history,” I added. The people craved the strongest possible vessel. It was necessary to ensure our survival.
“There is no need for Esben to stand trial here. He has done nothing wrong. And there is absolutely no danger that he could ever become the kind of nightmare we’ve all learned about the foresworn Valkyrie kings of the reign of terror. If given the opportunity, we can provide evidence and historical precedence where a foresworn Valkyrie male who is the younger twin of a female is not capable of overpowering her. Esben is no danger to anyone.” I lifted my chin and raised my voice. “The only thing my brother has ever desired is to know his family and I will not allow that to be taken from him.”
“Yet, if you should be convicted and executed, this twin magic you claim to have would be broken and Esben no longer ‘balanced,’ and therefore a dire threat.” A victorious grin spread across Neela’s face, causing the lines of scar tissue peeking around her mask to crease into a grotesque smile. “As long as you are on trial, so is your twin.”
Neela leaned forward. “All you have proven here today is that you are not the child of the former queen and her husband. The husband chosen by her mother’s council to father Brenna’s Queen Heir. As you are not Elias’ child, you have no legal claim to the throne. As the bastard child of some unknown lover of Brenna’s, neither you nor Esben fall into the line of succession.”
“If legitimacy and the law were the only things that mattered, then legal succession would fall to my sister, Sylvi in my absence. Not you.” I would not take Neela’s bait. “The council chooses who will father the Queen Heir in order to produce the strongest possible vessel. It is a tradition, not a law. Trust me, I’ve made this argument many times. At the end of the day, it’s the power of the gods that chooses the Queen Heir. The power chose me when I was twelve years old. And it has chosen me again.”
Neela knew King Consort Elias was not my natural father and she believed that revelation would be the final nail in my coffin. Still, it wouldn’t take much to turn the crowd against me and she knew it.
“And now we have come full circle. Everyone here knows I am the more powerful vessel.” I lifted my chin in defiance. “Whomever sired me is of little importance.”
Neela sat back against her absurd golden throne. “Maybe you have a point about the legality of it all.” She gave an exaggerated sigh. “But I am a contender for the throne of Valsgard. The crown falls to the one who proves to be the strongest vessel but I don’t believe that has been fully determined yet. Unless.” Neela grinned with a triumphant sneer. “You’re suggesting a half-breed, such as myself, isn’t fit to sit on the throne of the Valkyries.”
I smiled at my cousin. Clearly, she’d done her homework. “It doesn’t matter who our fathers are, Neela. Only our mothers. You know very well my mother is Queen Brenhilde of Valsgard. My heritage trumps yours. Princess Svana was a weakling. You took her life force and it still wasn’t enough.”
“I defeated you.” Neela’s eyes flashed in the fading sunlight.
“You broke my wing and knocked me out of the sky and then you siphoned from me while I was incapacitated. You did not honor the terms of our battle. We agreed the fight was to be for the power, yet here I sit, just as strong as I was before you decided to cheat your way to the crown.” It was time to make my final move. I searched the crowd for a pair of ice-blue eyes.
Pasha.
Kindred. Pasha sat quietly at the edge of the crowd between Druan and Vendela. Druan gave me a nod as I called on my Berserker magic, embracing the dark shadows of my kindred’s predator.
“I grow weary of this game.” Neela drank deeply of her wine. “You and I both know the people will not stand behind you when they know the full extent of your parentage. And I prefer to move on to the celebratory part of the evening. Alithea Ahlstrom, you and your brother, Esben Ahlstrom, are the children of the former queen Brenhilde Ahlstrom and Hagen, the King of Madmen.” She paused for the crowd’s response, and they didn’t disappoint with their gasps of outrage and betrayal. Some already called for my head. But Neela wasn’t done with her gloating yet.
“While Esben may be your magically faultless twin,” she continued with a note of sarcasm. “The fact remains that he is a foresworn Valkyrie sired by a Berserker, and we all know how dangerous that combination can be. He cannot and will not be allowed to live. Nor will our people abide a Berserker half-breed such as yourself on the throne. Particularly one who has harbored a filthy male. I sentence Alithea and Esben Ahlstrom, as well as their mother and grandmother to death by beheading to be carried out this very moment. From this day forward, I shall be known as Queen Neela of Valsgard—she who overcomes—High Queen of the Nine Realms.”