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Chapter Nineteen
Erik
I look down at Astrid, who seems just as shocked as the rest of the coven. The glowing lights are still circling slowly around us, lighting up her eyes, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone look more beautiful than she looks right now.
“You can’t be serious!” Astrid’s mother snarls, breaking me out of the moment. “She obviously did something to cheat—she can’t be the new High Priestess!”
The irony is almost too much to bear, and my inner dragon surges to the surface. But the coven beats me to the punch.
“We all witnessed it,” Althea says, her eyes downcast. “It is done now, Mona. Accept the wisdom of the goddess with grace.”
Mona shoots Astrid a look of burning hatred and stalks from the cavern. Several of the witches approach us from behind and pat Astrid on the back.
“We will begin preparations for your crowning ceremony,” Althea says. She doesn’t look at all happy about the outcome, but at least she’s finally playing fair.
“Preparations are fine,” Astrid says, “But the ceremony will have to wait until after I’ve dealt with the Night Guild.”
“The coven will help you,” says a woman next to her, the same one who had spoken up in her defense earlier.
Astrid shakes her head. “I don’t want to put anyone else’s life in danger. For now, I just need the location of the second dagger. Erik and I will continue with our plan.” She pauses a moment. “I will certainly accept any prayers you want to send our way.”
The women around us nod and murmur in agreement.
“I’ll get you the map,” Althea says.
The older woman leads the way back down the tunnel to the underground room. When we reach it, she strides to one of the shelves on the far side and pulls down a box, within which are several scrolls and old maps. She hands Astrid a roll of pale, aged leather. Astrid unrolls it and hold it up for us to look at.
The map is easily several hundred years old, so many of the town names are different now. Astrid furrows her brow, chewing on her lip. It takes me several moments to analyze the layout, and the ink is somewhat faded, but then I recognize a mountain range and everything falls into place. My finger traces over the X which marks the old Valkyrie fort.
“I know where this is. A friend of mine has a house nearby.”
“But I’ve never heard of a Valkyrie fort there,” Astrid says. “Surely it would have been the subject of excavation. Archeologists and anthropologists would have been all over it.”
“Not if it’s cloaked in magic,” Althea says with a knowing look. “Invisible to the non-magical world.”
Astrid nods, then she casts her gaze over the witches closest to her. “I’ll be back soon.”
A few minutes later we’re outside and hiking back along the shore of the lake.
“I’m not that familiar with the Trollveggen area,” Astrid says. “So, I can’t do a transportation spell.”
“Well, then,” I respond. “It’s a good thing one of us has wings.”
She shoots me a dubious look. “Won’t someone see us?”
“Not if you cast an invisibility spell.” I shrug and grin.
Her cheeks pinken. “So, you’re going to… carry me or something?”
“You’ve ridden a horse, right? It’s the same. Just bigger.”
If I thought she was blushing before, now she’s positively beet red. “Um. I suppose it’s probably not great that I’m afraid of heights.”
I take a step closer and hook her in my gaze. “I promise I won’t let you fall, Astrid.”
She hesitates a moment and then nods. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
I summon my dragon and transform in a swirl of magic, skin turning to scale, wings fanning out. Astrid steps toward me gingerly, and I crouch down as much as I can so she can climb on top of me. When she’s settled between my wings, I feel her call her magic, and a moment later we both vanish from view. It’s a strange feeling, not being able to see my own body.
