Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 47068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Ah, Rissa.
The Norns chose well when they chose her for this task. She is everything the realms every got right.
"So she's at her father's then," Adriel mutters. "Lovely. Three humans and dozens of Forsaken."
"Quit bitching and get ready for war," Damrion snaps. "We have a Valkyrie to save."
Chapter Twelve
Rissa
Ihaven't been home since the night my father tried to kill me, but it hasn't changed much. It's still the same small house that gave me nightmares for so long. Only, it's older and more worn down now. I don't understand how he lives here, but I've never tried to understand, either. There's nothing about him I want to understand.
Part of me may cling to love for him, but the rest of me fell to apathy for him long, long ago. I no longer fear him. I no longer hate him. Most of me simply feels…nothing for him.
I see none of the Forsaken Damrion warned Dax about as I slowly approach the house, but I know they're here. I feel them watching me like predators stalking prey from the underbrush. I grip my ímun-laukr tight, the biggest part of my consciousness hovering in the well that houses my Light. I don't grab it yet, but I'm ready.
My feet crunch on the gravel as I climb the steps to the front door. It seems fitting that we should do this here, in the same place where my nightmares began so long ago. In the place where my mom read those bedtime stories to me. I never thought they'd turn out to be more reality than myth, or that they'd still be playing out all around me, but it feels fitting that this ends where it began.
I'm not stupid enough to waltz inside, though. If they're going to move against me, they can do it in broad daylight, while the neighbors peek through their curtains.
"You wanted me," I call quietly, speaking to the door…or through the door. I'm not sure. But I'm speaking to whoever is on the other side who makes decisions. "I'm here."
No one answers. Nothing moves.
"I came alone," I say. "But you know that already. You've been watching me since I made it to this neighborhood."
Still, no answer.
"I came to make a deal with you. But if you'd rather fight instead…" I reach for my power now, letting it fill me. I know the neighbors can't see it, but the Forsaken can. "I can do the same thing to you that I did to your varulv."
The door cracks open. "We don't make deals, Valkyrie," a man says, his face obscured in shadow.
"Well, you're going to want to make this one."
"Come inside."
"No, thanks. You can send Genevieve and Jessa out, though."
"No, thanks," he says, mocking me.
"Then I guess you don't want to hear my deal." I take a step away from the door.
"We'll hear the terms of your deal, and then decide if the mortal girls live."
It's not great, but it's something, at least.
"Is my father still alive?"
"He is still breathing. At least for the moment. Your deal, Valkyrie."
"His soul for my mother's," I blurt.
The Forsaken says nothing.
"You agree to allow me to ferry the souls of the innocent across the Veil, you can keep the souls of the damned, the souls of monsters like him."
The Forsaken laughs, a rasping sound that freezes my blood. "Why would we give you half of what already belongs to us?"
"Because we both know I'm the only thing you fear," I say, far more confidently than I feel. I've never been more afraid in my life. But I know they're afraid too. They have just as much to lose as the Light. More, perhaps. The Light has been losing for millennia. And for the first time, the Forsaken have to face the realization that for all their manipulations and all the battles they've won, it still might not be enough.
But Dax was right. I don't have to fight yet. All I have to do right now is survive. I have to keep myself and the people I love alive. And the best way I know how to do that is to find a way to give the Light time to grow.
"If you weren't afraid, I never would have made it up these steps. But my power scares the crap out of you. There are hundreds of you, thousands maybe. But I could wipe you all out, just like I did your varulv."
"You could try," the Forsaken says, his face looming into view.
I skip back a step, startled. Either I drank way too much in the bar, or the Forsaken I spoke with was playing with magic, because this man has no face. He's just shadow and malevolence beneath a black hood. Two glowing yellow eyes whirl in the center of it, but everything else is just shadow.