Truth's Heart (The Valkyrie's Passion Book 3): A Valkyrie/Shifter Romance (7 page)

“Oh, you'll get tattooed,” I promised her. “Once this all blows over. I'll design it for you.”

Her arms tightened with me. “You make it sound like a small squall sweeping in that might knock our power out instead of the mighty hurricane threatening to deluge everything.”

I covered her hands with mine. “We will make it through the hurricane and worse.”

Thunder rumble outside.

“I guess another storm is coming.” Raven pulled away from me. “Maybe if we hurry, we can get to the land of fire before we get soaked.”

Another rumble of thunder rattled the cabin's door and windows.

I grabbed the saddlebags and slung them over my shoulders. Raven led the way. It was dark outside, storm clouds sweeping in from the east and blocking out the rising sun. Wind whipped by and rattled the pine trees that surrounded the retreat.

“I hope my bike works over in Muspellheim like it did in Utgard,” I sighed as I threw my saddlebags over it.

“I'm sure it will.” Raven popped on the back seat. “It's your ship. A Viking needs his ship to take him into battle.”

“Wouldn't a horse make more sense?” I climbed on in front of her. Raven's arms wrapped about me.

“It would, but Vikings didn't ride horses. They sailed the seas looking all sexy in their helmets and furs, their dirty-blond hair streaming behind them as the ferocious seas tried to drown them. I bet they laughed at the crashing waves, unafraid and defiant.”

I laughed as I started up my bike.

I backed up my bike and drove around the lodge to where the hot springs lay. A trail led down to the spring. It was wide enough for my bike. I winced when we went down the stairs, my shocks squeaking and the stone scraping the bottom.

“I wished I walked,” groaned Raven behind me.

The spring had clear water, separated from a nearby creek by a wall made of river stones mortared together. There was a statue of a Dominican monk made of plaster sitting on a plinth in the spring. The fat monk watched over the pool. Beside the Dominican was the Yggdrasil's root thrusting into the spring.

How was I getting my bike to it?

Thunder rumbled. The low growl shook the ground and slammed over the pair of us. My bones rattled and my teeth ached. The source was loud and close. “I didn't see a lightning flash.”

“So?” Raven answered.

“If it wasn't a lightning strike that made the noise it was close. We would have seen it. So what was that sound?”

“Vengeance,” boomed a thunderous voice.

Metal flashed towards us. Raven's arms were tight about me. I seized her wrists, forcing her to keep her grip about my waist as I leaped off my bike and carried her with me, the wolf snarling inside of me. We crashed into the brush beside the trail as the world boomed with thunder.

Chapter Seven

Magnus

Thunder crashed over Raven and me.

The sound threw dust and grit at us as we lay in the brush. Metal hissed as it hurtled past my face. My bike lay in a crumpled heap, a massive smith's hammer buried in the center of the wreckage, lightning crackling across the runes and up the iron handle.

The wolf howled inside me. My bike had been mangled. My Valkyrie had almost been killed. The rage snarled out of me. Fur sprouted. My arms grew longer. Fingernails became claws. Teeth became fangs. I rose, the world dimmed red by my fury.

Thor stood on the other side of the hot spring, a massive man naked from the waist up. Powerful muscles rippled across his broad chest. His arms were as thick as my legs. Dirty-blond hair framed the angry face of the god of thunder.

Mjolnir, the hammer that had destroyed my bike, soared back to Thor's outstretched hand, throwing pieces of my bike into the hot spring. Thor grasped his hammer and glared at me. “Step aside, cur, and you may see another day dawn. Do not keep me from my vengeance.”

My answer was a howl and a charge across the pool.

“Magnus,” called Raven behind me. “No. We can't fight him. That's what Loki wants.”

I did not care about Loki. Thor destroyed my bike. He wanted to kill my Valkyrie.

He had to die.

“I understand,” Thor growled as I leaped over the hot spring. “You have a sacred duty to protect her even if she is an oath breaker, a traitor, and a murderer. I will make your death swift, Magnus.”

“I'll make yours suffer,” I snarled back.

Thunder cracked as Thor drew back his hammer Mjolnir. I landed before him, my clawed hand slashing out and scraping across his muscular side as he swung his hammer down at me. I moved swiftly, darting past Thor.

The hammer hit the ground. The earth rumbled. Trees groaned around us as they swayed. The shaking ground tripped me. I sprawled on my face. The air crackled behind me. I rolled to the right as Mjolnir slammed down where I lay, rending the ground and throwing me into the air. I spun into a shivering tree, the trunk crashing into my stomach.

I grasped the trunk, twisted and leaped from it as Mjolnir hurtled through the air. The mighty hammer struck the pine and shattered the wood with a snap. I soared at Thor, who was now weaponless, and summoned Heimdall's ax.

“Stop this,” Raven shouted. “Loki tricked me, Thor.”

“Your lies will not work,” roared Thor as he faced me without fear.

The ax appeared from my soul in a flash of rainbow light. I swung the sharp weapon. Dancing, colorful lights sheeted from the ax as it hurtled down at Thor. He didn't dodge. He faced me without fear.

His hands clapped together and seized the ax blade, his muscles bulging as he stopped my swing. He wrenched the ax from my hand and tossed it to the side as I landed before him. He drew back his fist and slammed it into my face.

His punch hurt.

I crashed back onto the ground, trying to fight the pain fuzzing through my thoughts. Lights danced before my eyes.

“Thor, please, talk to Freyr and Gerd. They'll tell you the truth. Loki tricked me. He's the one who killed Baldur and Heimdall. He wants all the gods dead.”

“Loki is too much a coward to kill anyone,” snarled Thor. Mjolnir soared back into his hand and he raised it above his head.

“You have to believe me, Thor. This is what Loki wants. He wants us to fight. He wants us to kill you.”

Thor laughed at Raven's words, turning his attention from me to stare at her. “Do you take me for a fool, murderer? Today, vengeance for Odin will be delivered. I shall bring your head back to Asgard and mount it on a pike for all to see the price of treachery.”

I lunged at Thor, crashing into his side. My teeth bit into the wrist of his right arm. He snarled in pain and tried to swing Mjolnir, but I held his wrist in a death grip. His left hand slammed into my side. Ribs cracked.

I drank in the pain, feeding my rage. Raven's head would not grace a pike.

~   ~   ~

Raven

Magnus savaged Thor's wrist while the mighty god slammed his fist over and over into my wolf's side. Magnus growled with every blow. He was in pain, only his berserker fury keeping him from relenting and releasing Thor's grip.

I didn't want to do this. I didn't want to fight Thor. I wanted to flee. The Yggdrasil root was right there. Magnus and I could head through it and escape to Muspellheim. Maybe Thor couldn't follow. Fleeing had to be better than fighting.

Eyes watched us. Loki was near. I bet he was gloating and smiling.

“Damn you,” I snarled at Loki, my eyes casting about for a sign of him. I didn't want to fight, but Magnus needed help. Thor was a god. My wolf couldn't win on his own.

I hated myself for summoning my silver armor and my terrible sword. I used to savor summoning my sword, delighting in the flames dancing on the blade and the strength it gave me. The sword empowered me to defend myself.

I shouldn't hate it.

The dark flames burned and sputtered on my blade, the fires of a funeral pyre. The screams of dying men echoed as I raced around the pool. Thor's blow finally threw Magnus away from the god, my wolf crashing into the hot spring.

Thor turned to face me, blood dripping from his savaged wrist and running down the iron handle of his hammer to the thick, rectangular head. It was an ugly weapon, a rectangular slab of iron attached to the rod, not the graceful weapon from the superhero movies. The weapon was pitted from use.

“I see there is some honor in you, traitor,” Thor snarled. His golden beard bristled. “Come and die with a blade in hand. I'll spare the life of your protector.”

I let out a frustrated roar as I fell into the training Magnus had shown me, my feet moving properly and my blade sweeping down in a slash that didn't leave me open to attack. Screaming sword met thundering hammer.

Energy burst before us.

Thor's eyes widened. “Are you a thief, as well, Valkyrie?”

I roared again, the shouts channeling my bitter anger. I didn't want to fight him, but I had no choice. I swept the terrible blade at Thor, the screams of the dead echoing around us. Every time our weapons met, thunder boomed and dark flames burst.

“You stole Odin's great spear,” roared Thor. “You stole my father's weapon.”

Anger crackled in Thor's amber eyes. He swung his hammer harder. Concussive blasts battered my silver armor every time the thunder boomed. I groaned, fighting against the growling roars that shook my body.

“Your father gave me Gungnir,” I snarled.

“Why would he give his murderer his weapon?” demanded Thor.

I parried his hammer, his strength driving me back. “Because he knew I would have to defend myself. He knew that I had been tricked. Your father forgave me for killing him.”

Tears burned in my eyes for Owen. The world grew blurry. I blinked them away as I blocked his blows. They trickled hot down my cheeks.

“You lie!” The words exploded from Thor's mouth. A concussive blast slammed into me, throwing me back. Trees behind me groaned and cracked, their trunks snapped by the force of Thor's anger. They crashed to the ground as I raised my sword to block Thor's next attack.

“My father would never forgiven you. He loved you and you repaid him with death.”

Magnus crawled out of the hot spring, his fur matted and dripping. He moved slowly, clutching his side as he headed for his discarded ax. His eyes were fierce. He glanced at me as he grasped the ax and turned to face Thor's back.

“Please, Thor,” I begged. “I don't want to kill you.”

“Kill me?” Thor's belligerent laugh sent more thunderous blows at me, driving me back.

“Yes,” I nodded, my insides twisting. “Don't make me do Loki's work. I don't want any more blood on my hands.” I stared into his eyes. I poured all my pain and fear into my gaze. “Please, Thor. We don't have to be enemies. We need to unite and defeat Loki. He's our true enemy. Don't make me kill you.”

Tears trickled down my cheeks.

Magnus advanced, the ax gripped in his left hand. He clenched his jaw against the pain.

“You think I will fall for your womanly tears. I am no weakling to be swayed to pity in the face of vengeance. I swore an oath to my step-mother. You will pay for my father's death.”

Thor raised up his hammer.

Magnus leaped and swung his ax.

Thor attacked. Thunder crackled. I moved my blade, slashing up to parry the hammer. Thor's face boiled with the fury of a storm cloud. His hammer slammed into my sword. My feet slid back as I fought against the force of his blow.

Magnus's slammed Heimdall's ax into Thor's shoulder. Rainbow light swept over us as Thor was thrown at me. The screaming of my blade intensified as it sank into his chest, piercing the god of thunder's heart.

“No,” I groaned as his blood welled around my sword.

The massive body of the god crashed into me. The force of Magnus's attack caused Thor to slide down the length of my sword. His bulk carried me to the ground. The wind burst from my lungs as I lay pinned beneath the dying god.

“You...” Thor growled, blood bubbling on his lips, “will be...killed...”

“No, don't die,” I begged, his blood warm as it poured across my armor and seeped into its joints to soak my shirt. “Please, no.”

His amber eyes grew glassy. His breathing stopped. The wind seemed to laugh like Loki, mocking me.

Chapter Eight

Magnus

“Raven,” I groaned as the wolf left me. I gripped my sides as I stumbled towards her, ignoring the pain of my broken ribs. Every movement sent agony through my body. Breathing made my head spin from the stabbing pain.

I reached her and grabbed the dead god's shoulders. I rolled his bulk off Raven, a nasty joy surging through me. Thor had wanted my Valkyrie dead. Now he could never hurt her again.

Raven stared up at me. Her armor vanished, leaving her in a t-shirt stained by the dead god's blood. She stared up at me in hurt horror, tears brimming in her blue eyes. I held out my hand to her.

She knocked it away.

“Why did you do that, Magnus?” she demanded, forcing herself to stand. “Why did you fight him? We could have run. We could have tried to talk to him. Reason with him.”

“He attacked us,” I growled, fighting against the pain. “He tried to kill us. If I didn't notice the attack, he would have killed us before we even knew what was happening.”

“You made me kill him.” Her face twisted in bitter hurt. “Why, Magnus? Why did you make me do that?” Her knees buckled. She grabbed her shirt, smearing the blood onto her hands. She held them before her. “Look! This didn't have to happen. You didn't have to make me do this.”

I seized her wrists. “Raven, what should I have done? Should I have let you die?”

Raven looked away.

“Should I have stood by and let him beat you to death with his hammer, cut off your head, and take it back to Asgard to stick it on a pike?”

“I...”

“He wouldn't have listen to reason. He was consumed by anger. You tried. You pleaded with him. You told him his father gave you Gungnir and that he had forgiven you. What more could you have done?”

Raven looked at me, swimming with guilt. She shuddered. “I...I could have done something better. Or we could have fled to Muspellheim. We didn't have to kill him. We didn't have to do Loki's dirty work again.”