Valkyrie Blade (Valkyrie Bound #4)

Chapter Twelve

Marion

S creams erupt outside the Hall, sending a chill through me. My heart leaps into my throat, fear pounding through me.

"We need to do this quickly," Rissa says, urgency in her voice as she yanks the chest Damrion brought into the center of the room.

The portal into the house Malachi shares with his brothers winks closed. Holding it open is no longer a priority. The only thing that matters is opening the portal to Valhalla and saving as many lives as we can.

The sounds of fighting—of dying—intensify, growing closer. The doors to the Hall rattle.

"Hold them!" Adriel roars to the other Fae.

I drop to my knees beside Rissa, flinging open the clasps on the chest. Together, we haul the lid back.

I gape at the shattered pieces of…I'm not sure what. Magic? Glass? Something else? I don't know. I've never seen anything like them before. Even shattered into pieces small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, the chalky gray surface of the Bifr?st seems to flicker and dance, the surface shifting endlessly.

"It's beautiful," Abigail whispers.

"What is it?" Kara asks.

"The burning bridge," Rissa answers, reaching inside the chest to carefully pluck out a piece. As soon as her hand closes over it, it flares, the surface turning from sickly gray to a rainbow of color. It fades quickly, as if it's too broken to maintain that state. "The Gods created it to move between realms. If anyone knew how they did it, that knowledge was lost long ago."

"How are we supposed to fix it? Bleed on it?"

We all look at Abigail.

Her brows furrow. "I'm not entirely sure," she admits. "But in my visions, when we restored the portal, the pieces were laid out. I think we just pour our Light into them?" She shrugs helplessly. "I don't know!"

"We heal it," Tori says softly, drawing all eyes to her. She glances at each of us, an intensity in her gaze I've never seen. "Whatever the Forsaken did to it poisoned it. We have to heal it."

Rissa stirs, looking uncertain.

"I feel it, Rissa," Tori says, grasping her arm in a gentle vise. "It's like it's…whispering to me." She glances at each of us. "You don't hear it?"

I close my eyes, trying to hear what she does, but all I hear are the screams of the dying outside. I shiver, my eyes flying open.

"I don't hear it," I say quickly.

"Me either," Abigail says, pale around the lips.

Rissa and Kara shake their heads, agreeing that they don't hear it either. But Tori is convinced, and I believe her. We all have our strengths. If this is hers, who are we to say she's wrong?

"What do we do?" Rissa asks, deferring to her.

"Lay the pieces out," she says.

We quickly reach into the chest, pulling them out piece by piece and setting them on the floor at her feet. Some are so tiny, they're little more than dust. Others are larger. But none are bigger than the palm of my hand. And there are no more than two dozen. How can so few possibly make a portal to another realm?

I don't know, but the rules of this world, the rules of magic, are still new to me. They still don't make sense. I'm not sure they ever will. So much of what was known was lost so long ago not even the Fae remember. How are we ever supposed to figure it out?

Once the pieces are laid out in a mosaic, we rise to stand beside Tori.

"Now what?"

"I think maybe I need to—" She cuts off, her eyes widening as a portal yawns open a few feet away.

"Malachi!" I scream, already reaching for my Light. Beside me, my sisters do the same. Within seconds of my dagger flying toward the portal, four blasts of Light follow in its wake. The black hole explodes into nothing before it can even fully open.

"Whatever you're doing, do it quickly!" Damrion orders, the Fae surrounding us in a ring of protection.

Tori jerks her head in a hasty nod, reaching for our hands. I grab hers and then Kara's, clinging. Praying.

Gods, please let us finish this.

"Pour your Light into the pieces," Tori orders. "Search out the poison and smother it with Light. Quickly!"

We leap to obey, another portal yawning open where the first just exploded. I split my Light, sending a ball of it spinning wildly toward the portal as a Forsaken reaches through. I don't have time to tell if I hit it or not, though. Our combined Light pours over the pieces of the Bifr?st, and every single one of them turns from gray to a prism of color.

I gasp as it flickers and flares…something brushing against my subconscious. For the first time, I hear what Tori did. A faint sound whispers from the portal, like a feeble wind, welcoming me.

Kara gasps beside me, and I know she hears it too.

Awe courses through me. The portal is alive. It's some ancient magic that pulses with awareness, with vitality. But Tori was right. It has been poisoned. I feel the Dark siphoning away its strength, feeding from the pieces like a leech.

I reach for more Light, letting it flood through me…flood into the pieces of the portal. Doing everything I can to soothe it, to heal it.

It isn't enough.

We're working as individuals again when we should be working as one. That's what it needs. Five of us together. The Forsaken need our blood to restore what they broke because it's the only thing they know—destruction and sacrifice. But we know Light and unity. That's how we mend what they broke—together.

Fear races down my spine at the thought of holding so much Light again so soon, but I know there is no other choice. To heal the portal and restore Valhalla, I have to do it.

"Link with me," I tell my sisters urgently. "We need to do this together."

Tori grasps my hand, squeezing in reassurance. "You hold the Light, and I'll direct it," she says, her blue eyes shining with resolve. "We can do this, Marion."

Abigail, Rissa, and Kara surround me, forming a wall of support around me. I feel their Light, their strength, flowing into me like a river. It fills me up, chasing away the icy fear in my veins.

I reach for Malachi too, using our mate bond to anchor my soul as the torrent of power threatens to sweep me away. His presence is a steadying force, a tether keeping me grounded.

Light blazes from our joined hands, so bright it's almost blinding. It pours over the shattered pieces of the Bifr?st in shimmering waves, sinking into the flickering shards. Tori helps me direct it, the Light flowing from me through her as she ruthlessly seeks out the insidious tendrils of Dark the Forsaken used to shatter the portal.

Everywhere the Light touches, their dark magic recoils, shriveling away like shadows before the rising sun.

The portal shudders and pulses, the whispering growing louder, more insistent—a song of joy as Tori purges the poison infecting it.

The pieces of the Bifr?st slowly begin to move, trembling and shifting across the floor as if drawn together by magnets. Cracks and seams seal shut in flares of prismatic light until the shards fuse into a single, flawless disc.

It hovers before us, rippling like a vertical rainbow.

Exhaustion surges through me, the Light wavering.

I grit my teeth, fighting to control it, to keep it in check.

"Keep going," Rissa urges. "It's working!"

I reach for more Light, letting Tori guide it into the newly formed disc. It slowly expands, growing first by centimeters, and then by inches.

Tears sting my eyes.

We're doing it. We're actually repairing the Bifr?st and opening the way to Valhalla. Something that hasn't been done in three hundred years.

The portal ripples again and then stabilizes, the surface flickering with color as it yawns ahead of us, wide enough for all of us to fit through at once.

A sense of rightness, of completion, rips through me as it settles.

It's done. We actually did it.

I release the Light, sagging against my sisters as exhaustion crashes over me. But there's no time to rest, not in the middle of war.

Forsaken spill into the Hall from a portal only feet away, the sounds of fighting ringing out around us. Everywhere I look, the Fae are locked in battle, trying to keep them off us. More Fae pour through the doors of the Hall, coming to help.

But the Forsaken refuse to fall back.

"Through the portal!" Dax shouts. "Rissa, get them through the portal now!"

She grabs my arms, pushing me toward the portal, but I can't go. Not yet. Not when the Fae are fighting and dying around us. Not when Malachi is still in danger. Until he's safe, we aren't finished here. I can't be.

One more time, I reach for my Light, drawing as much as I can as quickly as I can, determined to help save him and as many of the Fae as possible.

Rissa realizes what I'm doing and cries out. "Help her!" she shouts to our sisters. "Gods, help her before she burns herself out!"

Kara, Tori, and Abigail surge forward, grabbing me. Their strength burns into me, anchoring me in the storm. But it isn't enough. Not the time. Because I reach instinctively for their Light too, drawing it into me in a flood.

I scream in agony as it writhes inside, ferocious and deadly, more and more surging into me too quickly for me to contain it. My defenses are all but shredded, still raw and bleeding from earlier. There is no anchor to hold me this time, nothing to stop the massive tide raging through me unchecked.

"Marion!" Malachi roars, pure terror surging down our bond. I glance up and see him rushing toward me, the same fear etched into every line of his beautiful face.

"I love you," I mouth.

A massive blast of Light explodes outward, ripping through the Hall like a bomb blast.

My Light winks out…and I fall.