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The officer walked back to his car, and after waiting for him to enter the vehicle, I started my truck and drove off. I took in every landmark possible along the eight-kilometer drive. If this wasn’t a dead-end lead, I’d need to familiarize myself with this area.
My thoughts also went to Astrid. What did she look like? How old was she? What was she like?
The officer made it seem she was a fairly prominent member of the community here. That was on track for how she was in the past. But what was this retreat? Some sort of resort? That couldn’t be. My Astrid was a healer.Remember what Freya warned you.
I took a controlled breath. I couldn’t go into this thinking she was the same woman I loved. Maybe there would be similarities, but she would be a new Astrid. I had to treat her as she was now.
A tingling sensation prickled my nerves where I was missing my hand. I also had to prepare for the real possibility that she’d want nothing to do with me.
I had tried to ignore those thoughts ever since I began my journey. I didn’t want to face that consequence after everything I’d done to have her again.
The road curved, and then on my left opened to an offshoot dirt road. I slowed the truck.This has to be the turnoff.I didn’t see the sign the officer mentioned, but it could be farther up.
Taking the left, I drove for several meters before finding the sign the officer mentioned. The truck lurched to a halt.It can’t be…
Numbness fell over my body. The ornate wood and metal sign read:
Valkyrie’s Reach
Where the lost are found
My hand gripped the steering wheel tighter. It creaked under my massive strength. There was no way. This was too coincidental.
I sat there for… I wasn’t sure how long… struggling to breathe and sort out my racing thoughts.Does she know? If she does, why is she here? Why didn’t she seek any of us out? Maybe she’s tapping into ancestral memories without knowing. Could this be a coincidence? Is there something else at play here?
My mind raced and looped, trying to make sense of this all, one thought after another.
Until they stopped.
Nothing. Nothing swam around in my head. I shifted the truck into drive and drove up the road, as if compelled.
This was the only way to know for certain. I had to see with my own eyes.
The drive was longer than I expected. I would have guessed a retreat of sorts would want to be closer to the main road for access, given we were so far from the main town as it was, but maybe the appeal was the seclusion.
Eventually, the sheltering trees thinned into a clearing where a sizable house of timber and stone stood. The road, now I saw, was one long driveway, widened, spanning in front of the house and leading up to a two-car garage. Two cars were parked at the far end of the driveway.
My pulse picked up. A woman with flaming-red hair played with a dog out front. Her back was turned to me, but I couldn’t stop myself from believing my search might have finally come to an end.
My truck’s engine roared when I hit a slight incline on the driveway. The woman and dog, a German shepherd from the looks of it, turned my way. Everything slowed.It’s her.
Hair vibrant as wildfire, and skin as pale as the moon, with freckles splattering her like stars in the sky.
I threw the truck into park in front of the house. She stood on the porch with the dog now, gazing back at me with those same piercing green eyes I remembered.
My movements to get out of the truck were slow. It was as if, just like my mind, my body couldn’t process this moment I’d longed for. I leaned on the open truck door, mostly using it for balance, as my world had been thrown off-kilter.
“Hey there,” she said, her voice a light alto, just like back then. “Name’s Astrid Erikson. Welcome to Valkyrie’s Reach.”
Her body was a little different. While the same height I remembered, her proportions weren’t the same. She had toned muscle in all the right places, however her slimmer figure of the past was replaced by eye-catching wide hips and large breasts.
She had minimal jewelry. A few earrings, a ring, and a septum piercing were the only things to adorn her.
The most notable feature about her, though, was the unmistakable long scar that cut diagonally on her face from her right eyebrow to left cheek. It was the spitting image of the one she had in the past.
She’s as stunning as the day I lost her.
Astrid cocked her head. “You okay?”
