Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 41683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 167(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 208(@200wpm)___ 167(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
I reach for the Light again, refusing to give up. It hums inside me like a lullaby, but yet again, when I try to grasp it, it slips away.
I take a breath and do it again.
A loud roar reverberates through the cabin, a scream of deadly fury. My eyes fly open on a gasp, hot streaks of terror igniting in my veins.
I know that roar.
Reaper.
Oh God. Reaper's here.
"No!" I cry into the room. No, he can't be here.
There are too many of them for him to fight alone. There are too many of them to fight, period. Hundreds. Doesn't he know he'll die? Yes. He knows. Of course, he knows. But he came anyway. He's out there, fighting insurmountable odds because of me. For me.
A surge of desperate determination swells within me. I can't let him face this alone. If we die, we die together. That's the way it's supposed to be, isn't it? One half of the soul can't survive without the other. That's why the Fae don't survive without their mate. I can't either.
I reach towards the Light within me again. This time, instead of trying to seize it or control it, I surrender myself to it one more time. I let it come to me. It doesn't slip away like water through a sieve now. It rushes toward me in a wall.
My breath hitches as a wave of raw energy courses through me—intense, pure…so excruciatingly beautiful that all I can do is gasp in stunned silence.
This is what Rissa meant about being the weapon. The Light isn't separate from me, something I can call forward and control—it is me, the vast brightness of my soul, shining like a beacon into the world. I can't command it. All I can do is accept it.
I accept it now. I'm Valkyrie, and this is my fate.
Another roar rips through Eitr.
"Reaper!" I scream, reaching out with every shred of my being.
Waves of Light pulse through me, growing brighter and then brighter still. I burn like a sun, fiery and white hot. The ropes binding me to the chair burn away.
I leap to my feet, rushing toward the door. I don't have to open it. It explodes outward as soon as I lift my hand.
I step outside, taking in the chaos. Reaper didn't come alone. Damrion, Adriel, Malachi, Dax, and Rissa, and Stephan are all here too, fighting by his side.
Yet again, battle wages in Eitr. Only the Fae are wildly outnumbered this time. Everywhere I look, the Forsaken and the varulv outnumber them dozens to one.
They fall to Rissa's Light in impressive numbers, but it's not nearly enough. Already, the Fae and Stephan are being pushed back, dark flows of magic, creeping closer.
A group of Forsaken advance on Reaper, relentless in their assault. He's death with his lyststål, but there are too many of them. He stumbles, landing on his knees.
"No!" I scream in fury. A white-hot burst of Light erupts in a concussive wave, rolling through Eitr like a tsunami. It plows into the Forsaken and the varulv, turning them to ash as soon as it touches them.
They don't die with a scream; they die in silence. They don't even have time to run. They simply vanish, wiped away by the radiant burst of Light.
Within seconds, every shadow in Eitr is gone, leaving only silence where evil once stood. As soon as the last Forsaken falls, my Light fades.
There is no threat here now. I burned it from existence.
I stumble, sinking to my knees.
"Tori!" Reaper cries, racing toward me. He lands on his knees beside me, scooping me into his arms.
"I thought you were going to die," I whisper, placing my palm against his cheek.
He chokes on a cry, pressing his face to my throat. His massive body trembles with the weight of his emotions. "I told you, solsken. I'm never leaving you. Never."
"I thought I was going to die too."
"Never," he growls, his tone black. "You are not allowed."
I cling to Reaper for long moments, unwilling to let him go. He's here with me, safe. Somehow, we're both still alive. We're not supposed to be. I know that. I think he knows it, too.
We were supposed to die today. Had I not accepted my fate, we would have.
"Thank you for coming for me," I whisper, pulling back to look at Damrion.
"You doubted us?"
"You need her."
"Ja, but we need you too, Valkyrie," Adriel says, the sweetest thing he's ever said to me. He's so stoic with everyone except Abigail. It's…touching to know he cares. "The prophecy calls for five Valkyrie, not four. Not three. Five."
My head flies up on a gasp. "There's one here. In the cabin." I point. "She was never at the church. She's been here the whole time."
"Helvete," Malachi growls, running that way. Dax and Rissa race after him.