Dark Devotion: Dark Series 3 (23 page)

Their fallen sister had been dressed in an outfit similar to what she wore while in Odin’s service. It wasn’t meant to be a homage to Odin – rather it was meant to represent the sodality they shared for over a millennia. Kara finished singing, her voice cracking over the last word. Mist wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.

“Does anyone have anything they want to say?” Bryn asked quietly, leaning back against Korvain’s chest. She had already said everything to Maverick after Rhys had left her office. There simply wasn’t anything else she could say now to make the pain lessen.

“I do,” Mist said. She began to speak about Mav’s professionalism and how much she respected her. Bryn felt the first tear slide down her cheek, and there was nothing she could do to stop the rest that came. Her whole body began to shake, and she would have collapsed if it weren’t for Korvain’s strong arms around her waist.

When Mist had finished, Korvain chose to speak. His words vibrated through his chest and into Bryn as he did, and she closed her eyes as he talked about Mav and how she was the perfect soldier and the most loyal friend. When he was done, he squeezed Bryn briefly before stepping away. He came back with a torch for each of the Valkyries. As one, they held the flames directly underneath the pyre, waiting until the kindling caught. Despite the wind, the fire took quickly and gray smoke started to billow out from between the brushwood. The flames were small, but they grew quickly, licking at Mav’s body. Nobody said a word as the fire consumed her.

Bryn looked up at the night sky, watching the smoke rise to join the stars. They remained there until all that was left were Mav’s ashes. Bryn collected them in Mav’s ash wood box – the same box containing her feather cloak – and closed the lid.

Mist asked, “Where will you take her?”

Bryn wiped under her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m taking her home – back to the village where she grew up – but not before we attend to some other business.” Turning to Korvain, she said, “Can you please go and get him?”

“Who?” Mist asked as Korvain faded away from sight.

Bryn looked both Mist and Kara in the eyes. She sighed. “Odin.”

“Odin’s coming here?” Kara asked.

“Odin’s dead,” Bryn said. “I killed him.” She held her breath, waiting to see what the other two would do. Would they hate her for her actions? Would they blame her? She couldn’t lose them over this – especially not since she had lost so much in the last couple of months.

“What?” Mist said.

“When?” asked Kara. She wrapped her arms around her torso. “How?”

“Last night, after Mav was killed. He came to me, begging me to leave with him. He thought Rhys had failed to kill Loki. He was just saving his own ass again. And … I just … had enough.” Bryn’s gaze dropped to the box in her hands. “He’s responsible for getting Mav killed.” She looked up again. “And he’s responsible for killing the other girls over a month ago. If he’d just had the guts to step up and take responsibility for his actions, then none of this would have happened.”

For a few minutes, nobody said a word. Bryn’s stomach twisted, anxiety working it into tight knots. When Mist finally approached her, Bryn didn’t know what to expect. The other Valkyrie slid her arms around Bryn’s waist and started to cry into her shoulder. Relief washed over Bryn as she realized it was okay; they didn’t blame her.

Over Mist’s shoulder, Bryn could see Kara approaching them. She opened up her arms for Kara to step into the embrace, and then, together, they cried. Bryn didn’t know whether it was for the loss of Mav and the others that had come before her, or whether it was for Odin’s death, but the one thing she did know was that it was cathartic.

They all pulled away when Korvain returned. Over his shoulder was Odin’s body, draped in a sheet. He started toward them, placing the All-Father’s body down onto the stones littering the sandy shore. Odin would have no pyre. He wouldn’t have the honor of a proper funeral. Korvain handed Bryn the pillow case containing his head.

“What’s in there?” Mist asked, pushing some hair behind her ear.

“His head,” Bryn replied, stepping away from the others.

“Gods, what did you do to him?” Kara asked, taking a step closer.

“I made sure he couldn’t possibly survive.” Bryn’s response was clipped as she upended the case. Odin’s head fell out, hitting the stones with an audible squelch. It came to rest beside his waist.

Bryn returned to Mist’s and Kara’s sides. She looked out at the horizon, seeing the spot where the sun would rise. It was barely a dull glow, just something far away and intangible, but soon it would explode and rain light over them all. They had no time to waste; they couldn’t risk being seen by the human authorities. “Do it.”

With a nod, Korvain pulled a bottle of lighter fluid from his pocket and emptied it all over Odin’s body and head. From the other pocket he produced a lighter. The small flame looked impotent next to the pyre that had burned before, but it didn’t really matter. It would have the same effect, eventually. Bryn watched Korvain crouch down, touching the lighter to the trail of fluid he had made leading toward the body. The flame hungrily ate the accelerant, bringing it closer and closer to Odin. Bryn found herself holding her breath, bracing herself to feel the heat of the blaze …

Unexpectedly, there was a crash of thunder across the ocean just as a brilliant flash of lightning struck Odin’s body. As the peel of thunder faded, a new sound replaced it: the cries of hundreds of ravens. The sound filled the air and Bryn reached out to clutch Korvain’s hand as he came to stand beside her, her fingers cinching shut around his. What was she seeing? Was it even real? Quickly, she glanced around at the faces of the Mist and Kara, seeing they were just as dumbstruck as she was.

In the pre-dawn light, hundreds of ravens were taking to the sky. Their feathers scraped together as they all fought each other to escape the shroud that had been covering Odin’s body. The gray sky was soon overwhelmed by the birds, each of them crying out, each of them disappearing into the mist over the North Atlantic. Just as the last bird disappeared from view, the sun broke free on the horizon. Its light grew stronger with every second that passed, revealing the untouched sheet still holding the form of Odin’s body. The fire had not touched it. The lightning strike had not caused damage. Walking over to the All-Father, Bryn knelt down and touched his foot. The sheet crumpled onto the stones.

Odin was gone.

Taer couldn’t sleep.

Knowing that Aubrey was injured on the spare bed on the other side of the living room wall was killing her. Eir had done her best to start healing what injuries she could, but she could not help him grow back his hand. He would forever be an amputee, and Taer didn’t give a damn. She realized that as she’d stood there on the bottom step of his basement stairs. She didn’t care what Aubrey looked like. Relief that he was still alive had flooded her. That reaction alone had told her all she needed to know. She loved him, because if it had been anyone else, she wouldn’t have felt a damn thing.

And now all she wanted to do was be with him while he slept and recovered and healed. Approaching her bedroom door, she paused when she heard a quiet conversation between Aubrey and Eir.

“—love her?” the goddess asked.

“Does that even matter?” Aubrey replied. His voice was hard. “She saved me physically, but I’m still broken.” He heaved a heavy sigh. “She should have left me there.”

“She took a great risk to get you,” Eir replied gently.

He was quiet for a long time. “That was her choice.” His words were almost indistinguishable, but Taer heard them clearly enough. As if she had a choice in the matter. She would have moved every single last one of the Nine Worlds to get to him. Anger slammed against her common sense, and she stormed into the bedroom.

Both Eir’s and Aubrey’s heads whipped around. Eir stood up quickly, wringing her hands together as she glanced between them.

“I just came in to give his body a little healing boost,” the goddess explained. “I’ll leave you two alone.”

As Eir passed, she gave Taer’s arm a supportive squeeze. Taer waited until the door shut before sucking in a deep breath and letting it go.  

Aubrey grunted as he struggled to sit up against the pillows, wincing when he placed his bandaged arm down to give himself some leverage. Seeing him in pain now cut Taer deeper than it had when she’d seen him in the basement.

“Let me help you,” she offered, forgetting her anger completely.

“I’ve got this,” he snapped. He was clearly in pain, but his damn pride was stopping him from accepting her help. She stepped back. He was panting by the time he was upright, sagging into the pillows while sweat beaded on his brow. He looked down at the bandage wrapped around his arm. There was blood seeping through the gauze. “We need to talk, Taer.”

His words left her cold. “Okay,” she said with a nod. “Let’s talk.”

“I’ve been thinking about us.”

“I have too.”

“And I think we should put a stop to it before anything else happens.”

Taer blinked, and a ringing started in her ears. Her foot slipped back a step. “What do you mean?”

He looked up at her, his gray eyes cold. “Once Eir has healed me as much as she can, I’m leaving here.”

“No.”

“You don’t get a say in this. I told you to leave me there. I’m a cripple now because of you.”

Taer frowned, anger bubbling up. She fisted her hands, but hid them under her arms. She didn’t want him to see her getting angry. “Loki crippled you. I saved you.”

“Saved me?” he spat. “You condemned me to a life where I’ll have to look over my shoulder every second for fear of attack. You painted a target on my back.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If my business associates find out that I was abducted and tortured and that I couldn’t save myself, I’ll be an easy target for them. They could take apart my business and there wouldn’t be a damn thing I could do to stop it.”

“Let me get this straight: you don’t want to have a relationship with me because you’re concerned your business will be taken over?” The words sounded just as ridiculous when she said them as they did coming out of his mouth the first time.

Brandishing his bloody stump in her direction, he said, “Look at me! How am I supposed to be feared now?”

Her green eyes lingered on his arm. “You want my pity?”

Angrily, he studied her face for a moment before dropping his arm. “I didn’t expect you to understand.”

“Understand what, exactly?” she shot back, holding her anger in check, but only just. “How it feels to be tortured?” Yanking down the neck of her shirt, she exposed both of her scars to him. “Tell me how I don’t understand.” When he said nothing, she thought she was getting through to him. “Stop playing the fucking victim. That’s not the man I know.”

“No. The man you knew died in that basement.” His voice was soft – angry. “You don’t know me anymore.” He looked over at the black screen of the small TV on the dresser.

She wiped away the tears threatening to spill over. “Maybe I don’t. And if that’s true, it makes me wonder why I even bothered to save you in the first place.” She turned to leave, but stopped and said, “Losing your hand doesn’t change anything for me, Aubrey.”

She wasn’t into the whole guilt trip thing. If he said he was done, she wasn’t going to try and change his mind. That was up to him.

*

Taer slid the sunglasses onto her face and sat on the checked picnic blanket Eir had just laid down. It was spring, and Boston Common was full of families enjoying the sunshine. It had been eighteen months since the deaths of Darrion, Loki and Odin, and an unfamiliar but much needed peace had settled over all of their lives. Everyone had found some kind of happiness. Bryn and Korvain had become parents to a little girl they had called Tove. Taer wasn’t sure what the significance of the name was, but she thought it had something to do with Maverick.

Eir and Mason also became parents. Firstly to a new German Shepherd puppy called Sophie and then again twelve months later to a baby boy who they named after Mason’s brother. Mist still ran the bar, but she had also started dating a human guy who had no idea who or what she really was. But it was Kara who had made the most dramatic change to her life. She quit stripping the same day Odin was killed, threw out her entire wardrobe and started fresh. She began working down in Raven the following night, and from what Taer had seen, Kara and Dex had started dating.

Taer had had a tough year and a half, though. Although Aubrey had been rescued, and Eir had done her best to heal him, he still wasn’t himself. She hadn’t returned to her apartment for nearly two weeks after their last conversation – that’s how long it took Eir to finish healing him, and when she did go back, she was haunted by the memory of him being there. The following six months were the most difficult – adjusting to life again. After that though, she found a rhythm that worked for her. She still bartended down at the Eye and in Raven Thursday through Sunday, and in her down time she took up painting. She found it helped her purge the nightmares of her brother’s death that still plagued her night after night.

When Bryn and Korvain had announced they were expecting a baby, Taer was beyond happy for them. Korvain had finally found the happiness he deserved and Bryn was finally adding to the family she loved. Baby Tove seemed to heal the hole in both of their hearts. When Taer held her for the first time, she felt a pang of regret. Perhaps she should have fought a little harder for Aubrey. But what was done was done.

In an attempt to get over him, she had started dating Cash, but it had only lasted a month. When he asked her what the problem was, her answer was simple: she was still in love with someone else. When she returned home from that final date with Cash, she texted Aubrey to let him know she was still thinking of him.

He didn’t reply.

That didn’t faze her though. Every time she did something she thought he might enjoy, she would text him and let him know the details.

Every time she was disappointed.

And it seemed today was no different. She sighed and crossed her legs beneath her, accepting a squirming baby Tove. Korvain sat down beside her, letting Tove wrap her little fingers around his thumb.

“How are you doing, Tay?” he asked softly.

She glanced at him briefly before looking out at the spread that Mist had prepared for their picnic. Once again, she longed for more even though she didn’t deserve it. “I’m doing all right.”

“That portrait you did of Bryn, Tove and me is amazing, Tay. Thank you so much for painting it.”

She shrugged. “Anything for you guys.”

He wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “You’re not happy. You haven’t been happy for a long time.”

Again, she shrugged. There was no point denying it.

“He’s a fool,” Korvain said softly before pressing a kiss to her forehead and standing up to join Bryn who was talking to Kara and Dex.

She let out a breath and looked down at the dark-haired, blue-eyed baby sitting in her lap. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying to ease the sting of unshed tears. She had cried more in the past couple of years than she ever had. It was embarrassing that a man was responsible for her new and unfortunate emotional state. But where did it stop? She couldn’t keep doing this. She couldn’t keep hoping he would miraculously change his mind and come back to her. She had to put an end to it. She decided that after today, she wouldn’t think about Aubrey. She wouldn’t text him again. She was done.

Someone sat down beside her then. “I have to tell you, Winter Fox, having a baby in your lap suits you.”

Taer’s head jerked up, her eyes widening when she saw who was sitting there. “You came.”

Aubrey’s mouth flexed into a small smile. “I came to every single one of your art exhibitions, too. Just like I came to every single thing you invited me to – even if it was just to see a movie.”

“But where were you? I never saw you.”

“I was there, lingering in the back, or sitting behind you in the cinema while you ate your popcorn mixed with milk duds.” He closed her mouth with his finger under her chin, his touch lingering on her jaw. “I made a mistake.”

She frowned. “Coming here?”

He shook his head. “Letting you walk out of my life. The reality was I was petrified to lose you. So I gave you up on my own terms.”

“I don’t understand.”

He let his hand drop and exhaled, looking out across the grass. “If you left me, I would have known it was because I couldn’t give you everything you needed. If I pulled the pin before that, I could have said anything – given you any excuse – and wouldn’t have had to explain myself any further.”

Taer let his words sink in. “You hurt me,” she whispered.

“I know. And it was the last thing I wanted. But if you’d stayed, you were at risk of being hurt by my business associates.”

“So what’s changed?”

“I got out,” he replied softly. “I’m going straight, as the humans say.”

That made her smile. “What will you do?”

He shrugged. “There aren’t many jobs out there for a one-handed man, but I’ll get by.”

“We could use some more security,” Korvain said, startling them both out of their conversation. He leaned down and picked up Tove, holding her close to his chest. To Aubrey, he said, “If you need a job, we have one for you.”

Both men stared at each other for a long while before Aubrey finally nodded. “Thanks. That would be … great.”

Korvain grunted. “Come and see me tonight. You can start right away.”

When he was gone, Taer turned to face Aubrey. She still couldn’t believe he was sitting there. He looked a little thinner than before, and he was dressed simply in jeans and a tee, but to Taer, he had never looked better.

“What are you smiling at?” he asked, gently touching her bottom lip with his thumb. He grimaced and dropped his hand.

She brought it back to her face, leaning into his touch. Closing her eyes, she quietly absorbed him – his scent, his feel, his warmth. They were the things she thought she’d lost forever. “You’re really here.”

“I’ll be here forever if you still want me.”

Leaning forward, she kissed him and whispered, “Always” against his mouth.