I’m also very concerned about the dragon.
It’s showing signs of landing—or at least approaching the ground—and Galeia may not react well if it comes near her.
It coasts toward the rocky outcrop that now sits behind me, the same outcrop it shot up in front of when it knocked us into a spin.
There’s no sign of Blackbird, and I hope he’s staying low and isn’t hurt.
“It’s up to you,” Erik murmurs to me.
Cailey gives me a reassuring nod. “The Einherjar won’t make a move while I’m here,” she says as if she reads my fears. “Neither will the dragon.”
Turning to the Valkyrie Queen, I say, “I’ll speak with you.”
As I step to the side, I take out my hammer, making it clear I won’t hesitate to use it.
As my power spills around me, her eyes narrow at me.
I arch my eyebrows right back at her. “You carry your wings. I will carry my hammer.”
“Very well. Over here.” She gestures to a clear patch of grass not too far from Erik, who doesn’t take his eyes off me. Neither, for that matter, does Galeia, her little lips pursed into a snarl that’s clearly directed at the Queen.
Only now, I take in the pathway leading up to the wooden wall around the village. It’s lined with spikes, each one more gruesome than the next. I was lucky I didn’t fall on one.
“Speak,” I say to the Queen, keeping my distance from her.
She folds her hands in front of herself but doesn’t retract her wings. “My generals told me what your hammer did to their feathers and their armor. They also told me you tried to revive the Vandawolf and failed. Clearly, they were wrong about that.”
She stops speaking and peers at me as if I have some answer for her.
I don’t.
All I have are accusations. “You forced General Glass to give up her daughter.”
“We do not tolerate weakness,” she replies without a hint of regret.
“You mean you don’t tolerate empathy,” I say. “Or perhaps you fear divergence.”
“I fear extinction,” she says, her voice strained. “It begins with the kind of dark magic that has kept that creature alive.”
“You meanmymagic,” I say, giving her a pointed stare. “Only when combined with Blacksmith magic can dark magic achieve such a thing.”
Her hands unfold, a potentially threatening move, but she proceeds to firmly cross her arms across her chest as if she were determined to chain her reactions.
I’m certain she rarely engages in an argument that she can’t win with a show of force.
The muscles in her jaw clench before she blows out a slow, firm exhale. “Every Valkyrie Queen passes on a warning to the next,” she says. “I don’t know when the warning started or if it holds any truth, but I can’t ignore it.”
I consider her warily, uncertain of her change of topic. “What is the warning?”
“When a star falls, it will be the end of the beginning.”
Cailey said something similar about beginnings and endings, but it didn’t make any more sense then than it does now.
My forehead creases. “What does that mean?”
“I didn’t understand it, either. Not until just now.” The Queen takes a deep breath. “I believe it’s a warning that the days when supernaturals can walk openly on this Earth will come to an end. One day, we will have to hide who and what we are.”
The gravity of her tone gives me pause. Just as she did moments ago, I look to the dragon perched majestically on the rocks, then to Cailey’s bright form, then to Galeia and Erik, taking in their wolfishness.
