Page 10 of Valkyrie Song

For months, they've tormented her with false visions to hide their motives and their movements, ensuring she couldn't trust the gift she was given. They attack her at every opportunity, haunting her mind, toying with her visions. If they've ramped up their abuse of her Power now that the Bifröst is functioning, it isn't good news.

"Abigail," Marion whispers softly, her face falling.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Rissa wants to know.

Abigail shrugs helplessly. "I wanted to be wrong."

"How can you be sure you aren't?" Dax asks gently.

Guilt burns in Abigail's eyes. "I saw the Forsaken in my dreams last night," she mutters. "I saw him in Valhalla. But I didn't…" she trails off, glancing down at the ground.

"You did nothing wrong," Adriel growls, his voice fierce. "You didn't know."

"I knew," she argues softly.

"Hindsight is not the same as knowing," Damrion murmurs, no less fierce in his unfailing defense of their mate than Adriel. "You saw him in your dreams, and now that it's come to pass, you think you knew and said nothing. But you haven't been able to trust your visions for weeks,ást-meer. They ensured you couldn't. Doubting what you see is not the same as silently letting it come to pass."

No one argues with him. He's right. Abigail would never keep that to herself if she thought it was going to happen. But the Forsaken filled her with doubt, so now, she's afraid to trust herself or her visions.

And that's precisely what they wanted. They don't want her to be able to trust what she sees. Because if she can't trust what she sees, neither can we. They want to break her, want her to crack. They need her to stumble because they don't know how any of this ends any more than we do. And they desperately want her and her visions under their control, giving them a road map to success. But Abigail may be the strongest of all of us. She's lived with her visions for most of her life. Even before she realized she was Valkyrie, she had the visions.

Even if she doubts, she won't break easily. They tried once when they kidnapped her. They tortured her, trying to get her to turn. She refused to bend or relent. She may be the youngest of us, but there's a hidden vein of strength in her that runs soul deep.

"The important question is what do we do now?" Malachi rumbles. "We can't stand around waiting for them to attack in force."

"We figure out how to free the souls," Rissa says as if it's simple. It isn't. We've been trying since we got here, and we're still standing on square one, looking at an impossible problem. How do you cross a bridge you can't find? We don't know.

But Rissa thrusts her shoulders back, her gaze flickering to me and then to Abigail before she glances at the Fae. "I need some time alone with my sisters."

The Fae and Stephan all look like they want to argue, but for once, they don't. The Fae grumble quietly as they hug my sisters. Stephan steps up beside me, his gray eyes settling on my face.

"See you later, princess," he says, a smirk playing around his lips. He turns to stride away.

I reach out for him, halting him. "Stephan, I…"

But when his gaze locks with mine again, I lose the nerve to finish that sentence. Instead, I let my hand drop from his arm and step back.

"Thanks for getting me back here," I mumble.

"Ég fer þangað sem þú ferð," he says, touching my cheek before he quickly strides away.

I go where you go.

I shiver, wrapping my arms around myself as my heart clenches. When the Fae say that, they mean they'll follow even into death. It's a vow, spoken with one's whole soul. Does he mean it the same way the Fae do when they say it, or are they just words to him?

I don't want him to die for me. I think…I just want him.

I glance up to find Tori watching me, a furrow between her brows. I quickly glance away, not ready to answer the question brewing in her expressive eyes. Not sure I have an answer yet.

I turn toward the house we're all living in together. It still needs work—a lot of work—but it's in better condition than a lot of the other barracks. More importantly, it's surrounded by barbed wire, pikes, and every death trap the Fae have been able to carry through the Portal from our world or create from the remnants of this realm.

"What's going on, Rissa?" Tori asks once we're all seated at the long table we use to discuss war more often than we use it to eat.

"We need to talk without them in the way," Rissa mutters. "Some things should be just between us." Her gaze flickers to me again and then quickly away. "I think I know why we can't figure out how to work together again like we did back in Eitr."

My heart pounds against my ribcage.

"Why?" Marion asks, her brows furrowed.

---