Truth's Heart (The Valkyrie's Passion Book 3): A Valkyrie/Shifter Romance (8 page)

I pulled her to me. “Remember that. Loki made you kill Thor. Loki set us on this path. We are only doing what we have to do to survive.”

“Is it worth this?” she asked into my chest. I ignored the pain of my ribs as she clung to me.

“Yes.”

She looked up at me. “You didn't even hesitate.”

“When it comes to our life, I won't let anything take it from us. We have a right to live. We have a right to defend ourselves. That's why we're going to Muspellheim and getting what we need from the dwarves. We'll kill Loki and prove his villainy. Loki deserves to suffer. He deserves to die. And you, Raven, you deserve to live.”

“Our lives are more important than Thor's?” Her voice was a whimper.

“All lives are equally important, but when someone makes a decision to violate your right to live, then you have the right to take theirs to prevent it. Killing Thor wasn't a good thing. It was a necessary thing. And it is one more death Loki has to pay for.”

“I hate him,” Raven whispered. “I despise him. He is such a loathsome piece of filth. He's dung, the kind you step in and have to scrape off your shoe.”

I nodded my head. “Focus that anger on him. We are going to kill him and get our lives back.”

~   ~   ~

Raven

The blood diffused into the hot spring's water, drifting away from my hands. I watched the crimson clouds fade away as the water absorbed the pollution and cleansed me. My ruined shirt lay beside me. I stared at my face in the water's reflection.

I looked so normal. Young and pretty. Without my makeup on I had the girl-next-door sort of look. Wholesome. You would never know I had so much blood on my hands. Blood no hot spring could wash away.

“Here,” Magnus said, handing me a fresh shirt. It was one of the t-shirts we had bought at a gas station in Oregon. It was a tied-dyed mess, a swirl of clashing colors. I pulled it on.

Magnus turned away, a wince crossing his face.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Just a few broken ribs.” His voice was tight.

I flushed. “Did I...hurt you when I hugged you?”

“Don't worry about it. I'm already healing.” He pulled the Eldhrimnir out of the ruins of his bike. The gold cookpot was undamaged by Thor's hammer.

“I'm sorry for your bike.”

Magnus nodded his head as he looked down at the shattered wreckage. “We had a lot of good rides. She took me places. Gave me freedom.”

Freedom I took away. I looked away and pulled on the hideous shirt before more tears spilled.

“Well, Muspellheim awaits.” Magnus sounded so matter-a-fact, hiding the pain at loosing his bike. I knew he loved the motorcycle. He put such care and attention into maintaining the bike and customizing it. The bike was an extension of him.

But he wouldn't cry. He had to be a man, he had to be strong. One of us had to be.

I had never felt weaker. I was helpless. Loki was winning, and I was doing all the work for him. He didn't have to do anything. He just had to watch me struggle and suffer. Magnus was right. We didn't have a choice. It was us or Thor, and I didn't want my wolf to die.

I didn't want to die. I wanted to live.

The blood had faded into the water. It looked clean again. I sighed and stood. Weariness gripped my body. I had a restful night sleep and yet I felt worn down. “Let's go.”

Magnus frowned at me. He lifted my chin. “Don't let the world crush your soul and snuff out your beauty.”

“I won't,” I lied. I didn't know how to keep the world from crushing my soul. So far, it had done a great job at it. “Those horny dwarves await.”

A smile crossed his lips. “If you're not careful, you might have to satisfy those horny dwarves.”

Indignation flared up in me. I smacked his arm. “That is disgusting, Magnus. Eww, how can you even joke about that?” Four dwarves, one after the other. I shuddered again. “You better have been joking.”

“I just wanted to make sure your fires still burned. So long as you care about your dignity, the world hasn't broken you.”

“Still,” I said, smacking his solid arm again. My hand hurt, but I refused to show it. “That is a terrible thing to joke about. I'm your girlfriend, Magnus. Your Valkyrie. I feel so dirty. I've seen those Lord of the Ring movies. Dwarves are short, with thick beards, and they're filthy.”

“So if they were six-foot-tall, chiseled gods who were muscled like a maiden's fantasy with flowing hair and a few tattoos to get you excited, you'd go for it.”

I opened my mouth. “Are you suggesting I sleep with four guys that look like you?”

The wave of heat that washed through me was...startling. Four Magnuses standing naked around me, their bodies strong, their hands reaching out to caress and please my body. They would all know how to touch me and make me come.

“You're blushing,” grinned Magnus. “I think you like the idea.”

“Of course I don't. It's so filthy. I'm not a pervert. I know having a bunch of sexy women all eager to please you is a guy's fantasy, but women don't have thoughts like that.”

“Sure.”

The way he said it, the way his eyes stared at me, exposed my lie. I blushed hotter and looked away. I tried to keep my head high and not let my hips squirm to fight the molten itch forming in my panties.

“Let's get going to Muspellheim,” I said, keeping my voice light. “This conversation has grown very sordid.”

“Only because you have a sordid mind.” Magnus strode out into the hot spring, the water soaking into his blue jeans up to his waist, almost touching the bottom of his leather vest. I followed, plunging into the warm water.

It was nice. A shame Loki had to spoil our time last night.

Magnus reached the Yggdrasil root thrusting out of the center of the hot spring. Steam rose about the pale-white root streaked with pits of brownish murk. Magnus seized a hold of the root and planted his booted foot on it. He climbed out of the water, a deluge splashing off his jeans and rolling down his boots.

He held out his hand to me, his other gripping the root. I took it and planted my boot on the root. He hauled me up after him. The root had a pulse thudding beneath the woody bark. I gripped the pits and climbed after Magnus. The root bent at the top, becoming almost horizontal before it fuzzed away out of existence.

“If anyone comes along, are they going to see us floating in the air hugging an invisible tree root?” I asked as Magnus reached the bend and climbed to his feet.

“Who knows,” Magnus shrugged. “Maybe we went invisible the moment we touched the root.”

I reached out and snagged his hand. He hefted me up onto the bend. The root was wide enough that standing on it didn't require much balance. Still holding my hand, Magnus stepped forward and fuzzed out of existence.

I followed.

The Bifrost appeared in the sky before me, a path made of rainbow light in a dark void. I took the last step and Northern California vanished as we stepped in the space between the worlds. The road felt solid even though it looked ephemeral. I kept fearing my next step would send me falling through it into nothingness.

I swallowed when I glanced over the side. “If we fell from here, I don't think we'd ever hit a ground.”

“Better not fall,” Magnus suggested.

I rolled my eyes. “What great advise. I wouldn't have thought of it on my own.”

Magnus looked back at me, his face stern. “Don't get catty.”

I wanted to object, I could be as catty as I wanted, but his look was the alpha wolf staring at one of his pack. I swallowed and nodded. He was right. We were in a dangerous place. This wasn't the time to let my annoyance out.

“Let's just go faster, I want out of here.”

Magnus picked up the pace to a jog. In the distance, a shimmer appeared. The last time we had traveled the Bifrost, traveling from Utgard back to Midgard, we had been on Magnus's motorcycle and driving at full speed. The journey didn't take long.

The shimmering barrier grew closer and closer. The jog devoured the distance at a steady pace. My heart beat faster, but I didn't exert myself. I had a feeling Magnus deliberately didn't have us run. He wanted us to conserve our energy.

We were about to step into the world of fire. I pictured it the opposite of Utgard. That had been a frozen version of Midgard, our world, covered in a blanket of snow. It had been a strange place, reflecting Midgard perfectly, but it would only update when we looked away.

Magnus suspected it had to do with quantum physics and I didn't even begin to pretend that I understood his explanation.

So Muspellheim would look exactly like the Steward Mineral Springs. Only the trees would probably be on fire, the ground red hot, and all the water melted away. Mount Shasta would have lava gushing from its summit instead of glaciers freezing its top.

The shimmering barrier grew closer.

“Weapons out,” Magnus snarled, his ax appearing in a flash of rainbow light.

I summoned my sword and armor. The horrible sound of men screaming reverberated through the void. I hated the dark flames dancing on the blade. My fires had been polluted by death. Even more than before.

With a growl, Magnus through himself through the barrier. My armor clinked as I broke into a run, my sword ready, and followed him into the light.

Chapter Nine

Raven

Right as I hit the barrier, Muspellheim appeared. Heat washed over me. The air rippled before me as I landed on the root of the Yggdrasil. It bent down and plunged into a pool of magma that boiled and bubbled.

The pool wasn't as big as the hot spring we left behind in Midgard.

I gasped as I landed, my armor clinking. Magnus was at the bend of the root, half crouched over, one hand clutching the root to keep his balance. My foot slipped. I dropped my sword, and it vanished in a scream of flames while I fought to keep my balance.

It was a losing battle. I hadn't landed center of the root.

My stomach clenched as my arms pinwheeled. My back toppled out of the edge. My stomach clenched. I doubted I could survive a plunge into molten lava. A piercing scream burst from my lip.

My Einherjer lashed out. His strong hand caught my wrist, covered by my bracers, in a tight grip. My feet slipped off the root and I swung over the edge. Magnus's face twisted with exertion, his grip slipping on my armor.

“Fuck,” he growled as his foot slid forward on the root.

“Magnus, let me go,” I gasped. “Don't fall in with me.”

The momentum of my fall swung me forward like a pendulum at the end of his arm. Magnus actually did what I told him. He let me go. I didn't believe he would do it. I let out a scream of fright that was cut off when I hit the red, dusty ground beside the magma pool.

“What?” I gasped, rolling to a stop, the red dust dulling the gleam of my armor. He had used my swinging momentum to throw me clear.

Magnus jumped a moment later, leaping off the side of the root before he fell. He cleared over the edge of the pool and landed in a crouch on the other side. He let out a pitiful moan of pain and clutched his side.

“Goddamn,” he snarled, his face going absolutely red. “Mother fucking goddamn piece of shit ribs.”

I had never heard Magnus burst out in such a string of foul, angry language. I blinked in shock. Then I remembered his broken ribs. I scrambled to my feet and rushed to him in a clink of metal. I knelt beside him.

“Are you okay?”

“I'm fine,” he spat. Blood stained his lips. “Fucking rib broke worse. I think it punctured into my lung.”

“Then you are hardly okay,” I told him.

He let out a wheezy, bubbly breath. Blood frothed to spittle on his lips. He pressed a hand on his side and let out a howl of pain. My eyes widened at the agony in his cry. His entire face contorted, turning almost purple as he kept pressing on his rib.

Then he let out a gasp and staggered into me. My armor clattered as I caught him. “Magnus. What did you just do?”

“Pushed the rib...out of my...lung...” he panted. He sucked in heaving breaths. “It's fine. I'll heal. Can't...stay here...doesn't look safe.”

I looked around the hellish landscape. Muspellheim was not a fiery version of Northern California. For one thing, no looming counterpart to Mount Shasta or the southern Cascades rose behind us. There were no trees on fire or rolling hills. It looked flat as a tabletop. A red, dusty plain dotted with glowing pools of lava.

“Looks like...Mars...” groaned Magnus. “All that...iron oxide...everywhere.”

“The dust?” I asked. I wrinkled my nose. “It smells rusty.”

“Iron...oxide.”

“And is that sulfur?” A whiff of rotten eggs drifted on the wind.

“Here, I'd call it...brimstone...” laughed Magnus, then he winced again. “Goddamn that hurts.”

“Maybe we should take a break,” I said. “Give yourself a chance to heal. It's hot, but I don't think we'll die from it.”

“Do you see any water?”

I shook my head.

“We can't stay here long. The dwarves aren't supposed to be far. We just have to find them.”

“Well, Gerdie said we go east from the root until we find their cave.” I glanced at the root and frowned. “I think we go that way.”

Magnus nodded. A sheen of sweat covered his face. The blood had stopped bubbling out as he breathed, but pain still tightened the muscles of his face. He groaned again as he forced himself to stand up. I sighed. Men did not know how to care for themselves. They were always ignoring things. I had a foster father that didn't want to go to the hospital when he had abdominal pains.

He almost died from appendicitis.

“Okay, but don't push yourself,” I warned Magnus. “I won't have you dying on me.”

“Yes, ma'am,” grinned Magnus.

We trudged forward through the landscape. It was flat, the ground only broken by the pools of lava, some the size of small lakes, that we kept having to circle. Magnus led the way. He seemed to know how to keep us going east without veering off our track.

At least I hoped he did.

“This isn't what I expected,” I told after about a quarter of an hour of walking.

“What did you expect?”

“Well, like Utgard, but all fiery instead of snowy. This place isn't a reflection of our world.”