Page 38 of The Last Valkyrie

“It’s too tidy,” Grim said, catching everyone’s attention. “Sigmund is cunning, no doubt, but even this seems beyond his purview. There’s too much that could go wrong, too many variables. Unless you’re also suggesting he somehow has control over the jotnar or the dark elves?”

I grimaced. “No, probably not.” I scratched the back of my head. Maybe they were right and I was looking for specters thatdidn’t exist, trying to find a boogeyman for all the problems at the academy.

“Square peg in a round hole,” Arne added.

“You would know all about round holes, dandy,” Sven shot off.

To my surprise, Arne chuckled, which quickly got the rest of us smiling. For all my mates had been through, they were managing to keep it together for my sake, for each other.

It made my heart hurt and my stomach tighten.Oh shit, I’m being so inconsiderate. Sven just lost a damn brother!Even with that being the case, the wolf shifter was acting the most talkative of us.Drowning his sorrows by staying busy, no doubt. Trying to forget about it.

“Let’s circle back to the Gothi’s grand schemes and focus more on the immediate future,” Magnus said, inclining his chin. “To answer your earlier question, I’m not sure if Sigmund would try to kill you in Selby Village, silvermoon. Like Corym said, I wouldn’t put it past him. Which is why we’re going to be there to make sure he doesn’t try anything sketchy.”

The others nodded in unison, sharing eager looks and clamped jaws.

I had my back against a wall, foot propped up on the bench behind me. My guys looked delectable and furious. Just the merethoughtof an attack against me was enough to make them go taut, their primal instincts of protection and aggression dashing across their faces.

I wanted to eat them up. It was morning, we were refreshed, and the day had just begun. Classes would start again in an hour or so. I’d slept like a rock last night—we all had, snoring and tangling in limbs like a heap of undead.

Undead? Too soon.

“We have six days starting from today before you sail to your home,” Magnus pointed out. “Which gives us little time to make things happen.”

“Make things happen?” I asked.

The bloodrender nodded. “We’ve all talked about it. We have jobs. You’re not going to like them because they split us up. But it’s all we could think to do.”

“Wait, hold on.” I pumped my hands, furrowing my brow. “You guys had a secret cult meetingwithout me?”

They chuckled awkwardly, looking a bit shamefaced.

“Judases.” I flapped a hand. “Go on.”

“Well, as you know, I’m joining Corym in Alfheim.”

“Yeah, um, about that. Why are you doing that again? Do you forget there are Dokkalfar out there in the wild, and now freaking giants, too?”

“We’ll be safe,lunis’ai,” Corym chimed in. “We don’t plan on kicking any hornet nests on the way in. A quick two-day excursion to the portal, two days in Alfheim, and two days back.”

“Tight schedule,” I croaked, feeling a wave of worry.

“You let us handle it, love,” Magnus said. “You have your own shit going on here.”

“I do?” I stood straighter. It wasn’t like Magnus to be so pushy, but I kind of liked this commanding side of him. Reminded me of when I had him beneath the sheets to myself.

Grim stepped forward. “You and I are going to keep our ears to the proverbial door around the Hersirs, Vini. See if we can’t figure out what Sigmund is scheming when he takes you to Selby.”

My face twisted with a devious expression. “Sounds dangerous. I love it.” My expression switched to a suspicious one. “Sounds strangely like you’re trying to watch over me like a guard dog, though.”

“He is,” Sven said bluntly. “Because we’ll fucking flay his fur and skin from his body if we come back and anything has happened to you while we’re gone.”

“We?” I chirped. “The Hel are the rest of you guys doing over the next week?”

I didn’t like the way this was going.

Sven said, “My father is arriving on the Isle shortly. He has a meeting with Gothi Sigmund, apparently, which I learned from a note my sister showed me.”

That was a lot to mull over. “Wait, you’re back on good terms with your siblings?”

---