Dax and Rissa share a look before Dax nods reluctantly.
“Us too,” Rissa says, speaking for them. “You need my Light.”
I sigh, making the decision that may damn us all. But there is no choice. We won’t leave a Valkyrie to die. Not now, not ever. “We’re all going,” I say, my voice soft. “And we’re bringing them home.”
“Nei, not all,” Adriel growls, turning that one wild eye on me. “Abigail is not going.”
“Nei,” I agree. “She is not.”
A piercing bolt of grief stabs me in the chest, coming from Abigail. Adriel feels it, too. We both turn to look at her at the same time. But before we even finish the turn, the sensation is gone, the bond between us masked yet again.
Faen. She’s still hiding something.
“Stay safe,” she whispers, backing toward the doorway. “I’ll go let the others know.”
Adriel and I bolt out the door after her, only to find her practically racing down the hall away from us.
“Halt right there, ást-meer,” I growl.
She stumbles to a stop, her head hanging low.
Adriel and I stride toward her.
“What aren’t you telling us, Abigail?” he demands, crowding her against the wall with one hand on her hip to hold her in place.
I step up beside him, refusing to give her a single inch of space. “Talk to us, ást-meer,” I murmur, touching her cheek. “Tell us what you’ve seen.”
“Nothing!” she cries, trying to shrug away from us. “I haven’t seen anything.”
“Liar.” Adriel tips her head back, leaning down to nip her bottom lip in punishment for her untruth. “You’re afraid of something. Tell us.”
But commanding Abigail to speak is like trying to catch smoke. Neither cooperates. Neither listens. They both stubbornly do as they will, unaffected by our demands, our wills, and our wishes.
She guards her visions and the sanctity of the future as fiercely as any Valkyrie ever guarded the Veil. When the Norns chose her for this Gift, they chose well.
Instead of responding, she bites Adriel back.
Adriel growls, wrapping his hand around her throat as he kisses her fiercely. My cock grows hard as I watch his tongue duel with hers, taming hers into submission. She grips his shoulders, whimpering into his mouth.
He breaks from her lips with a curse, pressing her into my arms, one hand in her hair, craning her head back as if offering her lips up to me.
It’s an offer I can’t refuse.
I capture her lips with mine, my tongue delving deep. I taste Adriel’s spice mingled with her sweetness, and my cock throbs.
She whimpers into my mouth, her body melting against mine.
“Listen to how sweet she sounds,” Adriel groans, pressing closer to her. “Faen. Every time she whimpers, my cock aches.”
“Mine too.”
The sound of footsteps echoing down the hall pulls Abigail from our arms with a gasp. She slips from between us like smoke, staring up at us with those wide, expressive eyes, her lips swollen from our kisses.
"We're going to talk when we get back, ást-meer," I growl, need and frustration churning through me. "No more secrets."
She blinks rapidly, but she isn’t able to hide the fear reflecting in her blue eyes. Nor can she hide the single tear that escapes down her cheek.
“Be safe,” she whispers. “Both of you.” And then she turns and flees, her red hair streaming behind her like a banner of flame.
Adriel curses under his breath, his hands clenched at his sides. "She's still hiding something, Damrion. And whatever it is, she doesn’t want us to know."
"I know." I sigh heavily, dragging a hand down my face. The heat of her lingers on my skin like a brand. "But we'll deal with it once Tori and the other Valkyrie are safe.”
He scowls at me, clearly not pleased with my answer. But I don’t know what else he’d have me do. We can only deal with one crisis at a time. And right now, freeing Tori has to take precedence.
“Who taught you to drive?” Rissa asks Stephan Anderson, one of the Blooded warriors who live and fight alongside us, as we careen around a sharp curve on the way back to Seattle hours later.
“I taught myself, Valkyrie.”
“Well, I hate to tell you,” she says with a sniff, sliding across the bucket seat into Dax, who grins and wraps an arm around her waist, “but you aren’t very good at it.”
Laughter erupts from the warriors in the vehicle as Stephan gasps in mock offense.
“Quiet before you wake my Valkyrie,” Malachi growls, not even glancing up from the petite woman nestled in his arms—the Valkyrie we rescued from Eitr. She hasn’t woken since we carried her out of there. Nor has Malachi let anyone else get close.
Tori and Reaper murmur quietly behind him, lost in their own world. Reaper hasn’t let her out of his sight, either. He might not ever again. I can’t say that I blame him.
