Page 11 of Valkyrie Song

Rissa's gaze flickers in my direction again.

Crap. She knows.

"It's my fault," Abigail mutters into the tense silence. "I'm afraid I'm going to turn you evil."

"That's part of it," Rissa agrees gently, nodding. "But it's not just you, Abigail. It's all of us. We're all holding onto things we haven't shared or don't want to share."

"What are you holding onto?" Abigail's brows furrow as she looks at Rissa.

"Guilt." Rissa's shoulders slump, a soft sigh escaping her full lips. "I don't regret using my father's soul to open the other portal the way we did but…"

"You feel guilty about it anyway," Tori guesses.

Rissa nods. "If I can do it once, will I do it again?"

"He tried to murder you," Marion reminds her, not pulling any punches. "He murdered your mom. And you spent your whole life alone because of him. He wasn't a good man. But what you did saved the Fae. It saved us."

"And it brought Kara to us before the Forsaken could find her," Abigail reminds her. "If you're guilty, then we all are, Rissa. We all agreed to do what we did. You aren't evil for making the best choice you could."

"I still worry…"

"Well, stop it," Abigail huffs. "You aren't like him."

Rissa flinches, and I realize that's what she's really afraid of—that she's like her father.

"Your soul is pure, Rissa," Tori says. "It'll always be pure because you love so fiercely. Out of all of us, you're the least likely to turn."

Rissa snorts.

"She's not wrong," Marion whispers, chewing on her bottom lip. "I know what power tastes like and I…like it. Maybe too much." She's the most powerful of us, perhaps because she isn't just Valkyrie. She's Fae, too. She can hold more Light than any of us combined. And with her directing us, we're not simply a weapon. We're the most deadly weapon to ever exist.

"Me too," Tori mutters, glancing down at her hands. "There's always this…thread when I reach for my Light. I felt it so strongly when I Healed the Bifröst. And when I Healed Reaper. It's destruction, maybe. Or the opposite of healing. I'm not sure. But when Reaper was in danger when they had me locked in that cabin, it was so easy to reach for it. I liked the way it felt."

"We're Valkyrie," I remind her. "We're not docile. That doesn't make you evil. It just makes you who you were destined to be." I glance at each of my sisters, each battling her own fears, her own worries. "It doesn't make any of us evil. We were born to do the impossible. The instincts that guide us are those meant to help us fulfill our destiny. But failing to trust ourselves is what's going to get us into trouble. That's what the Forsaken will use against us."

Abigail nods, chewing on her bottom lip. "She's right. They will use it. They're already using it against me."

"So we let it go and learn to trust," Tori says as if it's simple. It rarely is, though. "Any ideas how we do that?"

"Like this," Rissa says. "By sharing the burden. We can't carry it alone. We help each other carry it. And we allow our mates to help us carry it. We trust each other with our secrets and our fears, and we make a vow right now that no one fights alone."

"Vowed," Marion says instantly.

"Agreed," Abigail echoes.

They glance at me. My heart sinks into my stomach, anxiety coursing through me.

"I'm sorry," I blurt to Marion, wringing my hands together.

Her brows furrow, confusion written all over her face. "For what?"

"For having time with your parents that you didn't have," I whisper. "I got to know them in a way that was taken from you, and I feel horrible for it."

"Kara." Her face falls. "That isn't your fault."

"I still feel guilty," I admit, my bottom lip quivering. "You deserved to know them the way I did. And I feel bad that I'm the one they decided to hide. It should have been you."

"They hid you for a reason, Kara." Marion reaches across the table for my hand. "And because they hid you, the Forsaken didn't get their hands on you. You're here now instead of dead like Abigail saw in her visions. I'm not sorry about that, and you shouldn't be either. I'mgladthey kept you from that fate," she whispers fiercely. "Because now I get to know them through the sister they protected the same way they tried to protect me, and I get to know you, too."

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