Valkyrie Blade (Valkyrie Bound #4)

Prologue

Marion

T he flickering TV casts an eerie glow across my living room as I hover on the edge of sleep, fighting the urge to close my eyes and drift. Sleep brings dreams, and those are rarely a comfort. They never have been for me. My whole life, I've seen awful things. Evil things.

But I'm so tired that my eyes flutter and close anyway. I slowly begin to drift, swept away by darkness.

Bang, bang, bang.

I jolt upward on the couch, my eyes flying wide open. My heart races, adrenaline surging through my veins as I whip my head toward the front door.

Someone pounds on it again.

I glance back at the clock on the television. It's after midnight. What the hell?

I clutch my phone with shaking hands and creep cautiously toward the door, slightly afraid to look but fairly certain a robber wouldn't knock to announce himself first. At least, I don't think he would.

I'm not entirely sure. I've never been robbed before.

"Get a grip, Marion," I mutter to myself as I lift up on my toes to peek through the peephole. A familiar shock of flame-red hair has me dropping back down to flat feet again.

"W-who are you?" I ask the woman on the other side of the door, my heart in my throat.

My entire life, I've seen this woman in glimpses. Out of the corner of my eye. Standing on the street corner across from me. In my rearview mirror. She's there and then gone, nothing more than a fleeting shadow. She's a ghost with my hair and face, so hauntingly familiar. Yet, I've never met her.

When I was a kid, I used to tell myself that she was my mother, trying to summon the courage to approach me. But those naive childhood dreams died as the years dragged on, and the woman never emerged from the shadows. I became convinced she was simply a figment of my imagination, just a dream I sold myself to make being completely alone in this world a little less intolerable.

That dream seems a little too real with the sound of her knocks still echoing in my ears.

"Marion, please, open the door," the woman pleads, her lilting voice tinged with desperation. "You're in danger, dear one."

Danger…

An icy chill skitters down my spine at her words, confirming the sense of impending doom that's clung to me for days now. It's a creeping darkness, an invading wrongness, hovering just out of sight. Something is coming for me. I don't understand the feeling at all, but I know it in my bones. I feel it in my soul.

That instinctive dread alone propels me to twist the lock and allow her inside.

As she steps over the threshold, her fiery red hair cascading down her back, her emerald eyes lock with mine. Shock ripples through me. Looking at her is like gazing into a mirror. We could be twins.

Except, she's beautiful in an ethereal, otherworldly sort of way. There's something unreal about her, as if she doesn't belong in this world. Maybe it's just my imagination, but a soft, golden glow surrounds her, almost like she's radiating sunlight.

Is it the same as…? I shy away from that train of thought, afraid to chase it. Afraid of where it might lead, of what it might mean for me.

"W-who are you?" I demand instead, my voice trembling.

Her expression softens as she stares at me. "You know who I am, sweet girl," she murmurs gently. "You've always known."

"M-my m-mother," I choke out.

Pain flickers across her face as she nods, confirming what I've always suspected. What I'm no longer sure I want to be true. "Yes."

"You gave me up." The accusation burns on my tongue as a thousand scalding-hot questions bubble forth, demanding answers. How could she just leave me like she did? I was just a little girl, just a toddler, dropped off in a hospital parking lot with a note stuffed in my pocket.

Who does that? Why?

"I didn't have a choice. To keep you would have put you at greater risk. There's no time to explain." She grabs for my hands, but I take a quick step out of her reach. Regret fills her expression. For a moment, I think she might cry. "Simek and I always wanted you, Marion. We always loved you. Everything we did, we did to protect you. You're more important than you know. I wish I had time to explain, to help you remember, but they're coming."

"Remember what? Who is coming?" I demand, confusion swirling through me.

"The Forsaken."

The name tolls through me like a gong, reverberating with a dread that shakes me all the way to my foundation. I've never heard it before, I'm certain of that. And yet…and yet it feels familiar in a way that's utterly terrifying.

I want to ignore the feeling, tell myself that this woman is no one more than a sad, lonely woman seeing monsters where there are none. But I can't.

Because I feel the truth quaking in my soul. There are monsters. Vicious, evil creatures. And they want me.

"You must get to Eitr and find the Fae." She grasps my hands tightly, her eyes locked with mine. "Tell them that it's time for them to gather our daughters. The Valkyrie must not fall. The Forsaken must not get the Bifr?st."

I stare at her blankly, trying to make sense of what she's saying to me. Fae. Valkyrie. Eitr. Bifr?st. Each oddly familiar term feels like a key turning a tumbler in a lock I never realized existed inside me. I don't know what they mean, but I know them the same way I know my name and my face, as if they're part of me, dredged up from the deepest depths of my soul.

"What are you talking about?"

"The end of everything," she says, her eyes blazing with fierce light.

"I don't understand," I whisper, my voice cracking. I don't think I want to understand. Things like this aren't supposed to happen. When I was younger and I wished for my real parents to come and whisk me away to a magical land, this isn't what I meant.

"I know you don't, sweet girl. But there's no time to explain!" She cups my cheek, her expression a whirlpool of regret and resolve. "Simek and I have done everything we can to keep the five of you hidden, but our time has run out. The Forsaken know about you, Rissa, Abigail, Tori, and Kara. And they're coming for all of you."

Five names, spoken like a prayer. Five women at the heart of something I don't even understand.

"You must get to the—"

I cry out in terror as a cold chill rips through me, and a black hole suddenly appears behind her head, expanding rapidly from nothing. One minute, there's nothing there but my living room. The next, a rippling hole appears.

With it comes a shift in the air, a sense of gathering darkness that presses against the edges of awareness like a storm coalescing on the horizon.

They're here.

The realization crashes over me like a tidal wave, drowning out the chaotic roar in my mind. My mother's gaze locks with mine, a silent plea and a command all at once.

"Go," she whispers, her voice barely audible over the pounding of my heart. "Find the Fae. Find your sisters."

Sisters. The word reverberates through me, an echo of a bond I've never known but have always imagined for myself. One I've dreamed about a thousand times. I feel it now like a missing piece sliding into place.

I have sisters.

"Simek!" my mother cries, spinning on her heel. Light blazes to life in her hands, a bright, burning ball of it. "They're here!"

A man roars wordlessly from the back of the house. Heavy steps thunder across the kitchen floor.

The world around me fractures as the rippling black hole slams into place, shaking the entire house. Something shoots out of it, a tendril of black smoke, twisting and contorting like it's alive.

Men pour from the hole in a terrifying parade. At least, they're shaped like men, but there's something wrong with them. They're pale and sickly, misshapen and half-formed…and so familiar it's terrifying.

They've haunted every nightmare I've had for years, tormenting my sleeping mind. Somehow, somewhere, I've seen them before. I'm sure of it.

Forsaken.

My mother sends a blast of light toward the hole.

Half a dozen of the Forsaken burst into flames, screaming.

I rear back as a massive man charges into the room from the kitchen, murder etches across his handsome face, a sword of pure light spinning in his hands.

I've seen him before, too. Only, unlike with my mother, I have actual memories of this man. He held me in his arms when I was a little girl. I remember the way they closed around me as he swung me up from the ground and the smell of cigar smoke in his beard when he did it. Even now, I can almost hear his booming laughter echoing in the recesses of my mind as he called out to me, asking if I was a good girl.

"Papa," I whisper, stumbling back a step.

His gaze meets mine for a split second, and I know I'm right. This man is my father. Except…he isn't human. And neither is she. I don't know what they are, but they aren't human.

Am I?

It's a terrifying, familiar question, but I don't even have time to consider the lifetime of evidence screaming for attention before half a dozen Forsaken surround him, sending tendrils of smoke hurtling in his direction.

My mother screams.

I glance in her direction, watching in horror as tendrils of black whip at her from every direction faster than she can react.

She screams in fury, blindly throwing a blast of light into the mass of Forsaken still pouring out of the hole. More of them go up in flames. But the one at the front doesn't even flinch as the light hits him. He simply strides forward, his expression twisted with hatred.

"Valkyrie witch," he hisses. "You should have died with your sisters when Valhalla fell."

"And you never should have crawled from the Dark," she gasps as he stalks her across the living room.

"Stay away from her!" my father shouts, but he can't get to her. The Forsaken have him surrounded. He fights like hell, his blade swirling like death as he cleaves through them, felling them one by one.

But it's not enough.

The Forsaken who didn't burn walks right up to my mother as her back bumps up against the wall, plunging a blade of pure black into her stomach. He smiles as he lifts his hand upward, sending it slicing through her.

She gasps, stumbling to her knees.

" Randgríer !" my father shouts as she lands in a heap on the floor at the Forsaken's feet.

"Get her out of her, Simek," she chokes, her voice weak…fading. And still, she struggles to get back to her feet. Still, she tries to reform her ball of light.

I scream, lunging forward to help her, but someone grabs me from behind, pulling me away. I wheel around, snarling. Something inside me…blooms. I don't know what happens, exactly. But I do the same thing I always do when I'm angry or afraid or in danger. I grasp the hot rush of light, wielding the scalding inferno like a weapon. One blazes to life in my hands, a tiny dagger of blue flame.

My father meets my gaze, pride and pain mingling in his green eyes. He isn't even hurt, but he's fading before my eyes. I see it. "Run, daughter. Find my brothers in Eitr. They'll protect you. Tell them Simek and Randgríer sent you. Tell them to find the others."

"Papa," I sob.

"Run," he growls. "You can't save us."

He's right. My mother is already dying…and so is he. I feel it. And still, Forsaken pour through the portal. There are too many of them. I can't save them. I'm not even sure if I can save myself. But I have to try.

They came here tonight, sacrificing their lives for mine for reasons I can't even begin to comprehend. That has to matter.

I hesitate for a heartbeat, committing every line of his face to memory. I glance at my mother—at the way she holds her head high even as the life drains out of her, refusing to bend, refusing to break. This is where I came from. My whole life, I wanted to know. And now, I do.

I came from warriors.

"Run, Marion."

A sob breaks from my lips as I obey, leaving my parents to face the Forsaken and die alone.

My father roars behind me—his voice tinged with madness, with fury.

I glance back and see him falling to his knees beside my mother. The light of his sword winks out as he gathers her into his arms. He doesn't try to fight. He just…surrenders.

"Run," he screams. "Run, Marion."

The Forsaken swarm them.

Sobs wrack my body as I race down the steps and out into the dark, nearly falling on my face.

Oh God. They just let them take them. Why? Why is it so important for me to get away? What do the Forsaken want with me?

I trip over something in the dark, crying out as the ground rushes up to meet me. I can't move, can't think, can't breathe as I land hard on my side. Pain radiates from my hip, throbbing through me.

Get up and run!

I try to obey the survival instinct screaming at me, choking on the pain.

A vicious snarl rips through the air, inches from my face. I cry out and rear back, trying to avoid the massive beast lunging at me from the shadows. Its eyes glow an eerie yellow in the darkness, and saliva drips from razor-sharp fangs.

I haul myself to my feet, sobbing wordlessly in terror. But it's too late to run. More of the beasts—wolves—surround me, pushing me back toward the house.

No.

No, no, no.

Icy hands clamp down on my arms from behind, yanking me off balance.

"No!" I scream, thrashing wildly. "Let me go!" I kick and flail, fighting like hell to get free, unwilling to go quietly.

Something covers my mouth, cutting off my air supply. Pure terror fires through me as I realize that my parents' sacrifice was for nothing. They died to keep me out of the hands of the Forsaken. And I fell into them anyway.

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.