AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I dipped my fingers in the blood soaking her chest. I moved them against her forehead to create the Einherjar mark. Her thick, sweet blood was slowing in her veins.
Ales was right. The Einherjar marking felt wrong this time. It didn’t represent Lana.
The Valkyrie didn’t know another symbol, but Charlie knew Lana. And so I drew her own symbol.
Lana was fireitself. She burned fiercely to protect her friends and family and warmed the souls of everyone she touched. She was not like the male warriors I knew. She was dainty and beautiful, but powerful.
The markings I drew on her head were as familiar to me as my own name. They were similar to the symbols on the bow, only slightly different. They matched the song in my heart. The melody was rich and potent as it leapt from her skin like the flame that she was.
The wind circled us. This time, the voices whispered with fever. The wind that shielded us from death whipped and howled as it became raging flames, glowing in the dark forest. These were not my flames, but Lana’s.
She was my equal, my friend. The fire to my water. She was what I loved. And she would be reborn. It was terrifying to think of what I was doing. I had no right to do this. I was just a half-Valkyrie, taking what I wanted.
It took a great loss for a Valkyrie to be born, but hadn’t Lana faced enough loss? She’d watched her whole world be destroyed, and yet she still had a fight in her.
The blaze shielded us from the rest of the forest. I couldn’t see Talon and Danny through her fire. The flames were the darkest red, tasting like rosemary and cloves on my lips. They didn’t threaten to burn me or the men outside them. Her fire was not like those of the other Valkyries; she would remain Lana.
Her flames were a caressing glow, a bow, to their new sister.
I looked down at Lana. She was the fire made flesh. The wind and the flames crescendoed in their chorus. “Welcome, sister.”
Lana’s eyes flared open, icy blue, with scarlet sparks crackling in them. Her lips became dark crimson as her skin warmed under my hands.
She breathed in the fire surrounding us. She was perfect, a magnificent being awoken not by the Fates, but by me.
As the flames died to small embers, I hugged Lana to my chest and laid a light kiss on her forehead like the first time we met.
Talon whispered to Ales, “You said it’s not possible. She can’t make a female Einherjar.”
Ales grinned. “She didn’t.”
Everyone’s gaze went to Lana. Her eyes burned with life, the sparks of fire now simmering beneath the surface. The wound on her chest was only a white scar under her torn armor. Her luminous skin shone like silk under the moonlight.
Please still be Lana.The symbol had felt right, but what if it took her away? What if only the Valkyrie remained?
“Lana?” I asked.
“Kinda,” Lana said.
Only Lana would know to say that.
She was a warrior, my sister—and now a Valkyrie forged in the aether of flames.
