AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Your Demon is so funny.”
If Shaw had an Elven made weapon for every time she’d heard thosewords over the past three weeks, she could have opened her own workshop.
At first, she was mystified. Why was Kaleb still haunting theValkyrie bars? Then for some reason she started to get angry. As her brethrenblithely informed her over and over again how she’d just missed him by mereminutes. How he’d bought drinks for everyone. Danced. Told a really filthystory before abruptly departing, claiming he had things to do.
“He’s so cute.”
“That dimple is to die for.”
“The story he tells about how you won us those Olympus Goddesscontracts was awesome. Did you really foxtrot with Hephaestus?”
There wasn’t enough ale in this Realm to deal with all her fellowValkyries constant gushing over Kaleb Chipp. It was making Shaw nauseous. Worse,she’d been hitting the bars nightly in order to stop thinking about the Demon.She wanted to drink, dance and swap increasingly unbelievable tall tales ofgore and blood. Except all her brethren wanted to do was talk about Kaleb.
Okay, so no more bar hopping for Shaw. But the other optionsavailable weren’t proving any more helpful as a distraction from her growingrestlessness.
At the axe throwing venue she discovered he’d dropped by a fewnights before. Inventing a new throw that involved a blindfold, being spun in acircle ten times and scoffing three flaming vodka shots before attempting tothrow. No one appeared upset by the resulting injuries. And her cohorts keptchanting his name as they spun those that wanted to attempt the move in orderto disorientate them.
Grrr, the Demon was everywhere and nowhere.
Even during her medically supervised test battles, Shaw’ssquadron, whilst still fighting of course, kept bringing him up in casualconversation. It was beyond irritating. All Shaw wanted to do was behead acouple of nine foot lizard men in peace, but her sister Valkyries kept sharingstories of how they’d just bumped into Kaleb at the fighting pits, the pokerden or the drycleaners. Relating how he’d been so friendly, and sweet, and theselfie they had taken together was adorbs - whatever the hell that meant - anddid she want to check it out?
Freyja, the never ending selfies blowing up Valkyrie social media.Every time her phone dinged, Shaw’s neck and shoulder muscles clenchedpainfully in anticipation. Without fail it would be a picture of Kaleb and oneor ten of her brethren. Laughing. Smiling. Him dimpling. Drinking. Dancing.Kissing axes like idiots.
The Valkyrie grapevine was even sharing his personal selfies. Theone of him grinning like a happy loon, holding up a ping pong bat, standingbetween two beyond stoic ex-Berserkers, surprisingly tugged at Shaw’s titaniumstrength heart strings.
The world had officially gone mad… or perhaps it was just Shawwho’d gone insane. Seeing Kaleb everywhere.
But that was kind of the problem, she never did actuallyphysically see him. It was uncanny really how she appeared to keep missing himby mere minutes. Sometimes seconds.
Then there were the gifts. Two weeks ago she’d stomped into heroffice to find her halberds lying on her desk. Intertwined with a familiarlooking green ribbon. Oh, the joy of having her babies back. Checking them overcarefully for scratches or any damage the venom shooting clone might have done.None. They were in perfect condition. No note. No nothing.
But there was no other explanation. Kaleb must have gone into theeerie-ass maze and hunted them down.
She spent two hours agonising over whether to contact him and whatshe was going to say. Eventually settling on a text with one single word;thanks.
Shaw had expected that contacting Kaleb would result in a verbosechatty news bomb response, but all she got for her trouble - six whole hourslater - was a winking emoji.
What the hell did that even mean?
Next, a keg of ale was delivered to her office. She recognised thebrand name as belonging to the delighted Conflict She-Demon who’d been awardedthe contract to supply the Palace. A large number one printed on the side,meaning Shaw had been honoured with the very first barrel off the productionline. Again, no note. No acknowledgement of who sent it except for a tiny greenbow stuck to the top of the keg.
Then, this morning, before she set off for her fourth and finalmedically mandated battle trial, Salwa had tromped into her office, dumping asmall box onto the desk. The green ribbon on top a dead giveaway as to thesender. The barest of smiles tugging at the edge of Salwa’s lip suggestingshe’d just spent some time with a dimpling Demon. Good Goddess. “He’s here?”
“Gone.” Salwa advised with a grunt before departing.
Oh, Shaw was surprised to find she was already half way out of herchair. Collapsing back into it she sighed… in relief, not in frustration.Eyeing the small box warily. It was about the size of a phone, but six inchesdeep, and really light. Picking it up, Shaw removed the green ribbon, revealingKaleb’s handwriting scrawled across the box lid, one word;kaboom.
Huh? Opening the small box Shaw laughed. She didn’t mean to. Butthe contents caught her by surprise. Dried rose wedding confetti. What had hecalled it? Valkyrie kryptonite.
But why had the Demon bothered? Did it mean Kaleb wanted them tobe friends? If so, why hadn’t he stayed to chat?
Shaw discovered as she made her way down to the Staging Level tohit the battlefields that Kaleb had been there this morning for a meeting withZuri. Placing a large order with Z for new swords intended for the Conflict Palaceguards. The selfie series of him and Zuri, mock battling with an array ofdifferent weapons, burning up Shaw’s phone storage space told the story prettyclearly.
Which was nothing but great news for the Valkyrie Empire’s bottomline, she couldn’t be happier… really.
Shaw aced her final battle test. But as she strode back to heroffice, she found herself too distracted to enjoy the moment. It was official,she was done. Medical had cleared her. She could ditch HQ, and return full timeto the Fjornfall Planes.
Except, as she slammed into her office, collapsing down on to herchair, leaning back so she could rest her boots up on her desk, Shaw foundherself glaring down at her knee and pondering the world at large. Her? Ponder?The world really had gone crazy. The invisible support bandage had solved allher problems… except it didn’t feel that way.
