His furious, gray eyes now flood with worry. He retracts his claws before his free hand closes around my shoulder. “Asha?—”
Maybe he was going to ask me who Galeia is, or maybe he was going to tell me that now is our chance to leave, but at that moment, his fingers brush Galeia’s arm.
A dark light sparks between them.
The shot of energy bites so hard that I gasp for breath.
Galeia jolts in my arms. Her arms and legs stiffen, her head shoots up, and her eyes fly open.
She’s suddenly wide awake and snarling, her quickly darting gaze rushing from me to the dragon in the sky to the Valkyrie Queen, whose wings catch the moonlight as she begins turning back to us, and finally to Erik.
I try to hold on to Galeia, but she launches herself out of my arms with a shriek.
“Galeia, no!” My cry of warning strangles in my throat as she jumps, not toward the Valkyrie or even at the dragon, but right at Erik.
She collides with his chest, her little arms wrap around his neck, and then she clings to him, growling and whimpering and snarling, her wide, green eyes turned up to his.
He’s frozen where he stands, his arms half-raised, his sword arm slightly bent, which I’m not surprised to see since she flew at him so fast he was no doubt ready to defend himself.
Still, she keeps on growling, more softly now but also more fearfully as she presses her face to his neck. Her legs dangle until he seems to remember himself, catching them with his free arm so he can support her.
Erik looks stunned, his eyes wide and lips parted. His forehead crinkles. Then clears. Then crinkles again.
Finally, he interrupts her with a short, sharp, commanding snarl, his head tilted so he can glare at her.
She stops whimpering, blinks at him, and then she smiles.
A giant, beaming smile.
Her lips purse, and new sounds comes out, clearly formed with difficulty but identifiable all the same. “Wo…l…f.”
Wolf.
Erik looks at me and I can’t possibly identify what he’s feeling. Anger. Sadness. Disbelief. Desolation. “Asha.”
“We have to protect her,” I say, the most important thing I need him to know.
The Valkyrie Queen is already making moves toward us again. Cailey hasn’t lowered her arms, but the threat will only increase. Erik must have so many questions, just as I have questions for him, but neither of us has time to answer them right now.
His reply is instant, and my heart warms to hear it.
“Yes,” he says emphatically. “We will protect her.”
With that, he turns back to the Valkyrie Queen with narrowed eyes.
“We’re leaving,” he says to her. “All of us. We can do it with or without bloodshed. It’s your choice.” His voice becomes low and dangerous as he asks, “Which will it be?”
Chapter 38
I’m surprised when the Valkyrie Queen’s wings droop and her hand rises urgently. “Wait,” she cries. “Please.”
She was moving toward us, and I thought it was because she intended to attack us, but now I’m not so certain.
“I misjudged this moment,” she says, her gaze passing from Erik, to me, to Galeia, then to Cailey. And finally to the dragon, who has risen even higher into the sky but continues to hover above us.
She swallows visibly. “I need to speak with Asha Silverspun.”
I’m conflicted. The longer we stay here, the greater the risk that a twitchy bowman will shoot an arrow at us. Or that the Valkyrie Queen is about to orchestrate some ploy to take Galeia from us.
