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PROLOGUE
ISLA
Being turned into a monster was the worst thing that had ever happened to me…but my favorite pastime wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t become a Valkyrie. Soaring through the sky was freeing in a way I couldn’t explain to someone without the ability to fly. Being in the air was the only place I was at peace with myself.
Although I always took to the sky for work, I still flew for fun whenever I could. As the owner of a small business—a local food delivery service—I never truly had a full day off from my job. Something always needed to be done, but I’d spent the morning in the office so I could spread my wings for a nice, long flight.
Usually, I limited my personal journeys to the airspace above Screaming Woods, so I didn’t have to worry if anyone spotted me from the ground. The last thing I wanted when I was in the sky was to get buzzed by a fighter jet because someone mistook me for an unidentified flying object that needed to be investigated. But sometimes I felt the need to expand my flight pattern so my wings got a really good workout, which didn’t happen with shorter trips.
As I was circling to head back home, I spotted a private jet in the distance and climbed to a higher altitude so I wouldn’t be in the pilot’s line of sight. I maintained one thousand feet of vertical separation while I crossed its path. When I was about three miles past the plane, I turned to glance at it again. My head jerked back when I saw the aircraft starting to nosedive toward the lake below it.
I hovered in place, waiting for the pilot to start their descent for a crash landing. But only a moment later, the door between the cockpit and wing flung open. I started to swoop toward the jet when a man appeared in the opening.
Spotting the straps to the parachute that was on his back, I heaved a deep sigh. Except my relief proved to be short-lived because he fell out of the aircraft, tumbling headfirst into the air. His body was too limp for him to be conscious, and I angled myself to intercept him before he dropped too far for his parachute to do any good.
“Oomph,” I grunted, barely pulling us from a spiral when I caught him.
He wasn’t a small guy and was deadweight since he was unconscious. It took every bit of my strength to reposition the pilot so his head was even with mine. Then I scanned the forest beneath us, searching for the safest place for him to land. Tears of relief filled my eyes when I spotted a familiar landmark—a large campsite between Screaming Woods and the next town over. Since it tended to be busy this time of year, someone was sure to find him quickly.
I flew us closer to the clearing in the trees before pulling his parachute. The pilot was pulled from my hold, but I stayed level with him so I could make sure nothing went wrong as he began to fall at a steady speed. So many things could go wrong, so my gaze continually swiveled between the parachute and the piece of land I was aiming for.
I guided him to a clearing but didn’t realize that the pilot was semi-alert until I glanced down and found him blinking up at me. His bright-blue eyes were filled with pain and confusion, but I still felt the weight of his gaze in my soul. It was almost as though there was some deep connection between us, but that was probably because I saved his life.
His lids drifted shut again as he let out a low groan of pain that made me wince in sympathy. Worried that he was uncomfortable on the hard ground, I gathered the fabric from his chute. Then I folded it into a makeshift pillow and carefully slid it beneath his head. Staring down at him, I moved some of his light blond hair out of the way and traced my fingers over the bump on his forehead.
Although I didn’t know the pilot, I hesitated to leave him alone in the wilderness while he was unconscious. I knew better than most how one mishap could change the course of your entire life. But then I heard a male voice call, “I think he landed over here. Come on!”
Backing away from his prone body, I gave him a final, lingering look before I spread my wings and took flight. I was high in the air when four men came running from the woods to see what happened, and I circled until they carried him toward the campsite. It was only when I couldn’t see them through the trees anymore that I flew toward home, the pang of loneliness in my heart stronger than it had been in years.
1
COOPER
Like every day for the past two weeks, my eyes opened slowly and I stared at the wooden ceiling above me. It matched the walls, making the log cabin I’d rented feel even more rustic. Not that rustic was necessarily my thing—if I were at home, I’d be staring at plain, white walls.
This place was more about the location than lodging itself.
I sat up and tried to shove away the remnants of my dreams. Another part of my everyday routine, it seemed.
In my dreams, I was falling from an airplane when the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, with majestic, colorful wings, swooped down and caught me—saving my life.
But in the reality of the morning, I argued with myself over whether those images had been hallucinations brought on by the fear and adrenaline of knowing I was about to die.
When the electric system in my plane shorted out, the plane dropped into a nosedive when I reached for an auxiliary lever. I hit my head, nearly knocking myself out. Luckily, I was able to grab my parachute and get to the exit. However, I was so disoriented that I stumbled out the door. I was suddenly falling, and my scrambled brain couldn’t figure out that I wasn’t floating because I hadn’t opened my chute.
I remembered seeing the water beneath me and wishing I had wings but accepted that I was human and was about to die. Then I was suddenly flying…and I blacked out.
The next time I opened my eyes, I was lying on the ground surrounded by trees. It was quiet except for the natural hum of forest activity and…I heard the sound of someone’s racing heartbeat, one I knew wasn’t mine. Right before I passed out, I blinked up at the exquisite face of my rescuer. For a moment, I wondered if Norse mythology had gotten it right, and this was a Valkyrie, come to escort me to the next life.
When I blinked again, she was gone. I awoke sometime later with a raging headache. I gingerly prodded the bump on my forehead, and my hand came away bloody, so I figured it had all been my imagination, a side effect of my concussion. But as time went by, I still couldn’t get her out of my mind.
Then the doctors told me my vision was too damaged to ever fly again. I was lost, but I felt an undeniable pull to return to the place where I’d seen her.
My best friend, Heath, and I owned a small charter company in Southern California that catered to people in all walks of life but was frequently used by the rich and famous. Due in large part to our discretion. We were excellent at protecting our customers from paparazzi while they flew with us.
While I wasn’t obscenely wealthy, our business had left me comfortable. So I could take off for a while and figure out what to do with the rest of my life.
Not that Heath was very happy about it. When he got my email, he immediately came to my office to protest.
