I sensed her presence only a second before a fine mist rolled across the small clearing where we’d bedded down for the night.
Niall had instantly passed out as soon as he’d leaned against a tree. Surprisingly, Gunnar had fallen asleep at his side, with his head resting on the fae’s thigh. Viggo was snuggled up on the wolf’s other side.
My body desperately wanted sleep, but I had forced myself to stay awake.
I would only grow weaker as the magic from the nidling bite spread. Sleep wouldn’t help me, but it would help the others, so I let them have it while I stood watch.
If it had been a normal mist, I was sure they would have awoken instantly when the seraph landed mere feet from where we rested. But the magic within the mist nipped at my skin as it rolled over me.
I was on my feet with the hammer in my hands before the seraph even finished pulling their wings back.
Her current body belonged to a strong male seraph, probably in his prime based on his well-muscled physique and the scars across his body that declared he’d seen battle many times over yet always emerged victorious.
But the eyes… those were not his eyes. The pale milky white eyes were clouded, as if a film was over them. Somehow seeing nothing and everything at once.
“Gullveig,” I said flatly as I moved to stand between her and my sleeping companions. “Expending an awful lot of magic to come and check up on little old me.”
“I couldn’t resist,” a feminine voice said from the lips of the seraph. “You’ve been hard to track down lately, and when my hounds got a taste of your flesh…” The seraph smacked his lips in a way that was purely Gullveig, and it made my stomach turn. “How’s the bite, by the way? Do you feel it crawling through your body?”
The seraph’s head cocked to the side and inhaled deeply.
“Ooooh. It got you real good. The seraphim realm isn’t a good place for a valkyrie to be weakened. Perhaps you should come and pay me a visit. I could fix you right up.”
I fixed my face into a mask of indifference and fought against the trembling in my spine from holding myself upright. She was right, the magic from the bite was spreading quickly. In my current state, I was in no match for Gullveig; she’d overpower me easily and then claim what she always wanted.
The hammer… and my power. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Funny, I’ve been trying to stop by for a visit for months now,” I said primly. “But you haven’t responded to any of my requests.”
The seraph’s head snapped back and then to the side again, their eyes flashing a dark green for a second before fading back to white.
“Control problems?” I drawled, spinning the hammer around in my hand. “I have a fix for that.”
The seraph shrugged, the movement jerky and unnatural. “These creatures aren’t the brightest, but they have strong wills. And their power…” The seraph raised their hands to the side, and bright orange flames sprung into existence. “Their power is downright delicious. Even after expending some energy to fling my soul to this godsforsaken realm and take up residence in this brute, I’m going to be sated and sleep well tonight.”
“Let’s hear it.” My lip curled in distaste.
This entire clearing was now tainted with Gullveig’s particular brand of dark magic, and the wrongness of it all was making my skin crawl.
The seraph gave me a close-lipped smile as Gullveig twisted the body around to get a better look at Niall. I instantly snapped my wings open, blocking her view, and a husky laugh filled the forest despite the seraph’s mouth remaining closed.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, but I kept my expression neutral.
“You’re here to offer me a deal. Let’s hear it,” I said again.
It was the only reason I hadn’t smashed the seraph’s head in the moment it landed in the clearing. Gullveig had gone to a lot of trouble to chat with me tonight, and I wanted to know why.
“Surrender yourself to me”—the seraph’s white eyes latched onto the hammer—“with the hammer, and I will swear to leave your shiny new valkyrie apprentice alone. And all your newfound friends. I’ll even be generous and throw in that runt of a feline and the self-righteous wolf.”
Gullveig was a lot of things, but a liar wasn’t one of them. Still… I knew she wanted Bryn.
I was currently the most powerful valkyrie in existence, but Bryn had the potential to surpass me one day. Gullveig was well aware of how I’d come into my power and what the hammer truly contained.
She would try to recreate it using Bryn and Finn. It didn’t make any sense for her to give that opportunity up. Unless…
“You’ve seen something,” I guessed, and the seraph went completely still. “Something that has you worried enough to make this offer. What did you see?”
After the events of Ragnarok, most of those with the seer gift had been exterminated throughout the Yggdrasil realms. But Gullveig had already gone into hiding at that point. I didn’t know how strong her gift of prophecy was, but I suspected it rivaled that of the fae.
The seraph didn’t move an inch while Gullveig pondered me through his eyes before finally answering my question. “It doesn’t matter what path the boy chooses. Light or dark. He will bring chaos to all our worlds.”
“Prophecies have been wrong before,” I said tightly.
After all the prophecy bullshit around Ragnarok, it turned out to be nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy that fractured our realms. So much life had been lost for nothing. I didn’t agree with the slaughter that took place against those with seer lines, but I understood why the Valkyrie Queen had taken that action.
“I am not wrong.” The seraphim’s expression took on a hungry edge. “Personally, I’m looking forward to the chaos that he will unleash. But I want to be prepared for that day. Hence my offer.”
“No,” I said evenly. “I will never again let prophecy dictate my future.”
“Sigrun,” she crooned, tilting the seraph’s head, “do you really want to go through another war? Because that’s what’s coming. After everything you went through in the last one… aren’t you tired?”
I couldn’t deny the truth of her words. In the years after Ragnarok, my soul had been so fucking tired. There were days when I couldn’t get out of bed.
When the valkyries and others had come for me, I’d barely put up a fight. But no matter how many times my body was torn apart, I always came back. And slowly I started to piece myself back together, too.
Gunnar and Viggo helped. Then Nemain. And now I had Bryn.
“My answer remains the same.” I raised my chin and let her see the resolve in my eyes. “I’m coming for you, Gullveig. And once I’m done with you, I will help my friends in whatever comes for us. If it’s a war, then so be it.”
“We’ll see.” The seraph’s cloudy eyes latched onto the wound on my warm. “I’ll ask you again soon, when you’ve had more time to consider my offer.”
The mist rolling through the clearing started to retreat as the true color of the seraph’s eyes bled through the cloudy white once more. The seraph staggered forward before collapsing to his knees as Gullveig left his body and stole his vitality.
He clutched his chest as dark veins appeared across his skin and fell against the forest floor.
“Valkyrie,” he gasped. “End… this…”
I lowered my hammer until it rested on his chest right above his heart. A bolt of magic shot out, and the seraph lay still, one final breath leaking from his lips.
I hated the seraphim with every fiber of my being.
But that didn’t stop me from leaning down and gently brushing his eyes closed.
It took us a little over two days to reach the large sprawling city Niall had seen upon first arriving in the seraphim realm.
Gullveig hadn’t paid me anymore visits, not that I really expected her to. She’d said her piece, and I’d given her my answer. All that was left was for us now was to have our final face-off. Niall had fully recovered, but I was only getting worse thanks to the damn nidling bite.
“How’s the arm?” Niall scrutinized the bandages I’d wrapped around my forearm and reached out to inspect it.
“Fine,” I said tightly, pulling away from his reach.
In addition to the bandages, I’d also cast an illusion spell over it to hide the dark magic. But using magic to hide other magic was tricky, and I wasn’t sure it would hold up to close examination.
Niall had been pissy the last two days because I’d refused to let him look at it and try to heal the wound again. It wouldn’t work, and it’d only end up hurting him.
I was glad we had reached the city when we did because I was pretty sure Niall was thinking about tackling me and holding me down while he inspected my arm. The way Gunnar and Viggo were hovering around me at all times made me think that they would help him.
The dense forest that covered this region had been cut back quite a ways from the city. There were two perimeter walls, one around the main part of the city, and then an outer ring where crops and livestock were held.
And likely humans, although I hadn’t spotted any from my quick preliminary fly-over. If they had humans penned up here like the other cities, they must be holding them in the back half.
Aside from its enormous size, the city looked the same as all the others. The buildings and perimeter wall were all made of the same limestone-like material and shone a bright white in the morning sun. The glare unsettled me and made it hard to stare at the city for long, as the buildings tended to blur together, and any architectural differences were lost in the sea of white bricks and walls.
It’s like bleach straight to your eyeballs. Viggo scrunched his nose up in distaste.
“It really is,” I agreed. “Their eyesight must function differently than ours because it’s downright painful to stare at for more than a few seconds.”
“I think we should reevaluate the plan,” Niall said in the same tight tone he’d been using all day.
“You’ve been saying that for two days.” I cut him an annoyed look. “Viggo and I have the best chance of scouting around the city. We won’t take any more risks than we need to. If we don’t find anything, we’ll just leave.”
Niall clenched his jaw but jerked his head in agreement. There was no way for him to move around in the city undetected, and we’d already established my magic didn’t work on him.
I’d debated sending Viggo in on his own, since his smaller form made it easier for him to navigate, but I didn’t want to risk him being discovered by Lir. Especially with the memory of almost losing Gunnar still so sharp and vivid. I’d just have to hope the city wasn’t too crowded inside and that no one bumped into me.
As if sensing the turmoil of my thoughts, Gunnar leaned against my leg, and I gave him a good scratch behind his ears.
I murmured, “If you need to retreat, head west and I’ll find you.”
The wolf let out a soft woof before trotting off and settling down between two trees at the edge of the tree line. Wordlessly, Niall followed after him.
“Ready?” I asked Viggo.
Of course. A shimmer fell over his fluffy brown coat and he leapt into the air, bounding towards the city.
I donned my own invisibility spell and took off into the air as well. My wing and back still felt tight, and there was a slight ache, as if I’d just had a strenuous workout.
But without Niall’s healing, it would have taken a lot longer to heal.
Let’s stick together as much as possible, I pushed the thought past my mental defenses.
Valkyries weren’t particularly strong telepaths; we could only communicate with beings who had strong telepathic abilities like Viggo. But our ability to block any type of telepathic attack was strong. Even the strongest telepaths would have trouble breaching our inner walls.
Gullveig could do it, but only in conjunction with seidr magic. If you were able to disrupt the magic, then she didn’t stand a chance.
I’d encountered a few telepaths who were capable of breaking into my mind over the course of my long life, and I’d killed all of them except one.
Isabeau.
Nemain’s young vampire ward was packing some intense mental-based magic. During her first encounter with Viggo, she’s scared the hell out of the skoggkat. It had taken me a while to get the truth out of him, but he eventually told me.
The little girl had trapped him in his own mind, on a loop of the day his mother and siblings had been killed.
She’d launched the attack in seconds and had not only torn through his mental shields but had dove deep into his mind and found the most traumatic memory, using it against him.
He refused to be in the same room with her now and called her a monster.
I didn’t disagree.
But Nemain was fiercely protective of Isabeau, as was the fae boy, Finn. I hadn’t told anyone yet what she’d done to Viggo, but I needed to soon.
If she was already this powerful, who knew what she would be capable of in a decade? But I had to tread carefully. Isabeau was surrounded by people who wielded all sorts of dark and fucked-up magic.
They were all monsters, but they protected their own.
Given the hammer I carried on my back and what the valkyries thought of me, I supposed I was a monster too.
We’ll cover more ground if we split up, Viggo argued.
He leapt through the air nimbly, keeping pace with my flight.
I’d carried him on our flight here, which he hadn’t been rather happy about, but I could fly a lot faster than he could maneuver through the air. Despite my constant reassurance, Viggo always felt like he had something to prove. It often made him brash, which was why he was an endless concern for me and Gunnar.
I’m not sure what these fae devourers are capable of. I alternated our direction towards a tall building in the center of the city. Niall can’t see us while we’re cloaked, but I know Lir is sidhe, and I’m pretty sure most of the fae he travels around with our as well. Before we get too hasty, we should confirm that they can’t see us.
Regular sidhe can’t see us, Viggo scoffed. No reason these devourer freaks would be able to.
I let out a frustrated sigh. For once, Viggo, don’t argue with me.
Fine, he said sulkily.
We landed without incident on a rooftop balcony and perched on the wall to survey the city.
This one was similar to all the other ones we’d infiltrated, it was just much—much bigger. Most of cities had populations between ten and twenty thousand seraphim. Based on how far this city sprawled and how dense the buildings were, this one housed at least a hundred thousand.
If the possibility of learning some of Lir’s secrets wasn’t on the line, I absolutely would not have chanced going in. Viggo and I would have to be extra careful to remain undetected.
I watched the seraph guards soar around the city. Despite my hatred of the seraphim, I had to give them credit for how well they organized their armies and guarded their cities.
They knew that it was only a matter of time until the fae or daemons caught wind of what they were doing and invaded this realm, so they prepared, and they did it well. They treated every single day like it would be the one when the invasion happened.
Part of me wanted to go to the Valkyrie Queen and tell her what was going on. The seraphim were our enemy, and we never allowed our enemies to grow this powerful in the past.
But my words of caution would likely fall on deaf ears.
The last time I’d tried to enter the valkyrie stronghold, they’d attempted to cut my wings off and spent the next decade hunting me across the realms.
There, Viggo said, leaping from the roof before I could stop him.
I killed the growl that rose up my throat and silently flew after him. He nimbly traveled through the air, keeping low enough to avoid the seraphs that flew above the city. Luckily, most of them seemed content to walk, so the skies weren’t too congested.
Viggo landed on one of the few one-story buildings in this part of the city. It made up for its short height by having a sprawling roof deck full of chairs and tables. Seraphs lounged around in varying stages of inebriation despite it not even being lunch time yet. Likely off-duty soldiers. Most seraphim had two modes: disciplined and bloodthirsty soldier or inebriated, drunk asshole.
One of them leaned over the railing and hurled before falling over with a yelp and landing with a hard thud.
His drinking buddies peered over the railing and then threw their heads back, bellowing in laughter. I grimaced and pulled my wings tighter to myself, edging closer to the corner that was currently empty where Viggo was staring down.
Directly across from us was a six-story building. Guards were posted at the entrance, and I spotted more lining the roof. Large archways on each floor gave us a direct view into the building, and on the second floor was a group of sidhe warriors. Even from here I could feel the wrongness of their magic, the taint of devourer.
I’d gotten used to it around Niall, but his devourer magic was like a candle compared to the bonfire of these sidhe.
All of them were gathered around a large table with a map spread out across it. A towering sidhe male with pale skin and steel grey hair was pointing at something in the corner, and they were all focusing on that.
Lir. It had to be. I couldn’t see if he had light blue eyes from here, but he matched the description that Nemain had provided.
Do a quick pass in front of the windows, I told Viggo. I’ll watch for any reaction from them.
The skogkatt took off immediately and zigzagged in front of the windows several times before joining me again. None of the sidhe raised their heads or gave any indication that they had seen anything.
Alright, let’s get closer so we can hear them. But be ready to hightail it out of here if I say so.
I turned on my heels, angling my body towards the center window, when a pain shot through my shoulder and spread down my chest.
A deep hiss slipped from my lips before I could crush it. My heartrate shot up, and I looked around to see if anyone had heard me, but thankfully all the seraphim on the rooftop were too drunk, and the ones guarding the building across from us were too far away.
Sigrun? Viggo inquired. What’s wrong?
Arm. Even in my mind, the word felt heavy, my thoughts growing sluggish. Spreading.
Uncertainly flashed in his eyes. Viggo had no doubt known something was wrong with my arm, but he’d never fought nidlings before.
In his eyes, I was damn near invincible. And to some degree, I was. I couldn’t die. No matter what was done to my body, it would eventually regenerate, and my soul would hover over it until it could slip back inside.
But there were far worse things than death, and I unfortunately was familiar with quite a few of them.
Do we need to head back? he asked, shifting nervously from paw to paw.
No. Not yet. I squeezed my eyes shut and concentrated on my breathing. The dark magic was creeping closer to my heart and lungs. Once it reached those, I was in serious trouble.
Moving would be out of the question, as the pain from breathing alone would knock me on my ass. It wouldn’t kill me, but the pain would only increase until I found someone who could undo the magic. I concentrated on feeling where the magic was and then quickly calculated how long it had taken to spread.
An hour. I should have an hour, maybe a little less. The pain would continue to amp up, but I refused to waste this opportunity.
Thirty minutes, I said. We’ll gather whatever information we can for thirty minutes, and then we’ll head back.
Viggo looked at me doubtfully but for once didn’t argue. I clenched my jaw and made the short flight to one of the arched openings, uneasily perching inside it. Sweat poured out of me as the pain increased, but I remained in the window like a statue, listening to the general of Balor’s army discuss plans with several seraph generals.
No doubt we could have learned more if we stayed for more than thirty minutes. But even then, we picked up all kinds of useful information, including one glaring fact.
The human realm was totally fucked.