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Warm and inviting.That was the best way I could describe the feeling it wrapped me in. It was the same feeling when Astrid and I embraced.
I noticed a black thread mixed in with the gold, and when it touched my skin, a powerful sensation rushed through me, sapping my lungs of all its air.This sensation…I couldn’t describe it. Whatever it was, it seeded deep in my bones.
A flash distracted me. I watched as dark, form-fitting armor with skull and feather accents manifested on Astrid’s body, and brilliant silver wings sprouted from her back. Golden feathers mixed with the silver-like gilded accents.It’s like my dream…
I rose to my feet as Kirby released Astrid’s hands and stepped away.She’s stunning.
“How do you feel?” Kirby asked.
Astrid gazed at her hands, watching as the golden magic dissipated, and then down at her armor, before looking back up at the rest of us gawkers. “More whole.”
She turned in place, trying to check out the wings on her back. “They’re not as heavy as I expected.”
“They’re an interesting color, too,” Tyr commented.
“Is there something wrong with them?” I asked.
Kirby shook her head. “No. Valkyrie wings come in many colors. It all depends on what their soul feels they specialize best in. However, it’s not often they’re two-toned.”
“I don’t care,” Astrid said. “I love them. Baldur will love them, too, when he finally gets to see them.”
She paused, her gaze going out the window and glazing as if she were remembering something, though not in the painful way earlier. “Baldur…”
She missed thezingof tension immediately filling the room. I watched the gods and Kirby exchange glances, all clearly worried. My knowledge of Norse history and myth wasn’t the best, but I did know that name, and if what I knew about that myth was right, I had a feeling I knew why they were concerned.All myths are steeped in truth.
Astrid turned, her eyes wide and painfully hopeful. “Where is he? Aya, why didn’t you grab him, too, when you fetched Kirby and Fen?”
No one spoke, the tension increasing.
Astrid’s hope faded, replaced with concern. “What?”
When she still didn’t receive a response, her expression darkened. “Where is Baldur? Why won’t anyone answer me?”
Aya chewed her lip. “Astrid… there’s no easy way to put this…”
Astrid’s eyes widened, as if she realized what was about to be said. “No…”
“Baldur… is dead.”
Chapter Seventeen
Astrid
Dead?Baldur was dead?
My mind flashed with memories of a man with blond hair and blue eyes with a kind smile who made me laugh and my heart flutter when I knew it shouldn’t.
My skin itched, and my lungs struggled to take in air. My stomach twisted until I was nauseous.
He couldn’t be dead.
I threaded my hands into my hair, gripping tight as pressure built up in my head.He can’t be dead.
I dropped to my knees, and a scream tore through me.
Energy exploded out of my body in every direction. Something smashed. In an instant, pressure wrapped around me, but the agony raking over me overpowered all my senses.
He can’t be dead. He’s not dead. He’s not.
