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Before I could object further, she grabbed my hand. “I will fight for my Valkyrie. I might not be a Einherjar, but I’m as much of a warrior as they are.”
My throat threatened to close. No one had said I was their warrior. She thought of me as her Valkyrie. She had faith in what I was, even though I could be a complete catastrophe.
I had never asked Lana what had happened when the Keres attacked her family. Her past seemed to be something that needed to be volunteered, not requested, but she must have survived some sort of hell to be one of the only people left from her world. If she wanted to kill the things who took her home from her, then I wouldn’t stop her.
I shrugged off the bow over my shoulder. “You’re going to need this, then.” I handed her the golden bow and quill of beautifully-crafted arrows, each marked with the black symbols of death. The bow’s song matched Lana—deceptively delicate, but building to a fierce, fiery crescendo that echoed through its chorus over and over.
Lana gripped the bow in her tiny fingers.
“What do you think?” I prayed I wasn’t making a huge mistake.
Lana winced slightly, then threw the quills over her shoulder. “It’s good.”
“Stay with Talon and Danny at the mountain pass. Kill everything I don’t,” I murmured as I leaned forward and squeezed her into a tight embrace.
Lana sent me a beautiful smile and a wink before she sprinted to join her brother and Danny.
The sickening feeling of dread and fury was impossible to block out of my mind entirely. It seemed as if I was connecting to the Raiders against my will as they seeped behind my mental barriers.
My feet navigated their way to the beach. I tried to focus on what was ahead of me. The Raiders would come first. They always preceded the Keres, weakening any opposition that would try to fight back.
If Ales was right, they would save some of the slaughtering for the Keres. He had briefly shown me images about the Raiders’ strategies and what they had used against them on previous attacks while connected last night. It seemed the Raiders’ strength was sheer overwhelming numbers.
I knew they could be clever, but their weakness was fury. The rage would overtake expertise, and then they became no better than wild animals. Still deadly, but easier to kill. The best method was severing the head from the body—turning them to ash. Unless you were a Valkyrie, then the aether could destroy them as well. If I filled them with it until they burned alive.
Deep in my gut, the Keres were the things I feared more than their pets.
When I questioned Ales in the connection about them, he said the same method worked if I could get close enough to the Keres without being destroyed. Ales had no history of seeing it done, and seemed less confident about the entire subject. If we were going to survive today, we would need to stop the Raiders first. I would deal with what came next after that.
With each stride closer to the coast, excitement poured into me; my aether surged, brimming under the surface. I used the sheer mortal anxiety to feed the light. My one reason for existing was defending them. Logan, Ales, Cri, Leo, Lana, Eir… I needed to be ready for this, to protect them.
We weren’t much of an army against a legion of Raiders. There were eight total Einherjar on this island who would be fighting. The two gray-eyed men from Ales’ world would be our last resort at the sea entrance of the tunnels, if the Raiders got that far.
Danny, Talon, and Lana would hopefully have a chance to kill them in waves if we could do the majority of the work at the coast. If the Raiders made it past the tree line along the coast, then we wouldn’t last long.
Don’t go there…
The suns were a few hours from setting over the ocean of Eir. Only a few clouds remained in the sky. It would probably be a beautiful sunset tonight, if we lived to see it.
Before my feet hit the sand, I saw it.
On the furthest eastern point of the coast, a cliff met the ocean water. Where the rock intersected the sand, a dark rift cut through the air. A shadow as dark as night inked onto the island, from sky to sand.
I can’t let them fight alone.
I ran faster, toward the darkness. I yearned for this moment. The darkness might have sought me, but I lusted for it in the same—to destroy it entirely.
My breath burned in my lungs as I approached the edge of the beach, where Ales and Logan had drawn their swords. Both stood where the rising tide met the rosy sand. Ales didn’t turn to look at me as I neared them. Their presence made my light burn brighter, stronger, than I thought was possible.
Searching the shore to my left, I saw Cri nock an arrow on the northern side of the beach. Looking right, Leo flipped his spear. And we all turned east.
As if the hounds of hell had descended upon the islands, bloodcurdling shrieks filled the air. They came from the darkness so rapidly, they appeared as mirages at first. Half-men, half-beasts. They charged from the fissure onto the rocky shore of the beach. Their distorted faces held brands as if their skin had been melted by the flames of hell. Each creature was disfigured with red markings down their faces and necks. Even their hands were wrapped in the blood-red tattoos of the Keres. They might walk like men, but inside, they were haunted creatures.
Most held swords and scythes, some had bows, and all had teeth narrowed to points that would rip flesh apart piece by piece. As they screamed, their steely teeth dripped black tar, baring their own warning. Their eyes, black as coal, were what I feared the most. They were bottomless pits confirming what they were… immortal darkness.
How could this thing have ever been a man?
The horde of fifty flooded the coast. They raced for us.
