Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 37501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 188(@200wpm)___ 150(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 188(@200wpm)___ 150(@250wpm)___ 125(@300wpm)
I squeeze her fingers, silently offering comfort.
She fidgets beside me, shivering, and clings a little tighter to my hand. "Something is wrong, Stephan."
"Another rabbit?"
"No." She quickly shakes her head, causing pieces of hair to dance in the wind. "It's not just him. All of the animals are uneasy. Their thoughts are full of anxiety. None are close enough for me to get a good read, but they're afraid." She turns wide eyes up at me. "I've been feeling it growing among them since the Forsaken started trying to get to the Bifröst. But it's worse now."
A frown tugs at my lips, worry coursing through me.
"You don't think…?"
"I don't know," I murmur as we skirt along the edge of the forest, not venturing into the trees. In the dark, it's too dangerous. Even with her Light guiding us, it's safer to stick to the grass and enter only when necessary.
We fall into silence, a groove between Kara's brows as if her mind is on her worries. I think it's been there for weeks now. Does she ever get a break from them?
Ha. Does anyone anymore?
"You've been avoiding me," I murmur, trying to give her something else to think about, at least for a few minutes.
She turns wide eyes up at me. I expect her to deny it, but she doesn't.
"It seemed like the safe thing to do," she admits.
"Why?"
Her gaze drifts from mine. "Because I think you meant it when you said this bond was going to happen anyway," she says softly.
"You don't want it?" My heart clenches in a vise at the thought. Gods. I've wanted nothing but her since I set eyes on her. If she doesn't feel the same way, it's going to rip my heart out of my chest.
She shrugs helplessly. "I don't want someone else to lose, Stephan. And that's how it ends, right? If we survive this, I get to live forever. And eventually, you die." A sad puff of sound escapes her lips. "Why put us through something that's only going to end with you leaving me in the end?"
Fuck. I never quite considered it that way. Perhaps I should have, though. Because she isn't wrong. There's a reason Valkyrie souls are tied to warriors who have already died. Valkyrie don't die unless they're cut down in battle. Disease and old age will never touch her. She'll walk the realms for millennia. And sooner or later, I'll wither and waste away.
Dead warriors don't. They're form and substance, able to move freely between realms with the Valkyrie who holds their bond because a Valkyrie holds their bond. Without that, they'd move beyond the Veil just assuredly as any other soul, unable to remain.
Is that the fate awaiting me and Kara? We bond, and then she loses me anyway?
Nei, I refuse to believe that. Fate can be a bitch of a mistress, but I refuse to accept that the Norns would be so cruel to this little Valkyrie. The bond doesn't form between unequal halves. And it wouldn't form if there were no hope. I was plucked from the tapestry and crafted specifically for Kara for a reason. And that reason wasn't to leave her with half a soul for the rest of eternity.
It damn sure wasn't to drag her into death with me.
We're as inevitable as the stars, as certain as the rising sun. She is mine, and I was born to be hers. I'll scream defiance in the faces of anyone who dares say differently. No one is taking me from this Valkyrie.
No one.
"The Norns don't give hope just to snatch it away, princess," I murmur. "And they don't forge bonds where one can't flourish."
One way or another, I'm claiming her. She'll see that I'm right. And she'll learn that I meant exactly what I said: I go where she goes. Into life. Into death. Into the deepest pits of hell if that's what's required of me.
She sighs softly but doesn't answer.
I decide to let it go for now, but only because she has other worries, other fears. Shit, these days, fear and worry are all that's left. But I won't be one of those for her. I intend to be her harbor, her port. And it starts now.
I tried to stay away. She didn't like that. I tried to do what I thought was right. I was wrong. I don't belong in her shadow. I belong at her side, protecting her, loving her, holding her. She poured her Light into my soul beneath these trees, leaving behind a brand.
It's far too late to erase it or take it back now.
Ten minutes later, we creep toward the outline of the ruins where we met Ing the other day. They stand far more imposing in the dark of night than they did in the light of day. I don't want to let her go in there.