I’m still in a crouched position.
Instead of deflecting Griffin, I swing my hammer to the right, away from Griffin’s grasping hands and toward Glaive’s leg.
It’s an awkward move, forcing me to twist at my waist and expose my left side, but it keeps my hammer out of Griffin’s reach.
Power splashes across the air as my hammer moves, my thoughts radiating out from me as I swing.
Be calm.
Glaive leaps out of the way just in time—the force of the hit alone could have broken her leg—and the hammer arcs downward, hitting the ground instead.
Thump!
The impact of the hammer on the snow is far more intense than I was expecting.
Light streams out from the hammer’s head, an explosion of gold and sapphire.
The airthuds.
Snowflakes rise from the ground.
Energy ripples outward.
Both Valkyries are thrown backward, Griffin with her fist still raised where she was about to punch my exposed face, and Glaive where she was already airborne, having leaped upward to evade the hammer’s strike across her legs.
All I can do is grip my hammer’s onyx handle and marvel at the streaks of light radiating out from it through the snowy ground.
Well, what do you know?
Erik truly gave me a hammer like no other.
The hammer should be heavy, but it’s as light as air when I heft it upward and swing it again.
This time, I deliberately aim for the ground between me and the two Valkyries, ramming my hammer down onto the snow just as they’re regaining their footing.
Be calm.
Energy explodes through the ground where the hammer hits, spearing in all directions across the snow like beams of light from a little sun.
The beams reach the side of the cabin, shaking its walls. They hit the oncoming Valkyries, who throw themselves forward, their wings extending and wrapping around themselves as ifthey think they can cocoon themselves against the vibrations and cut through the wash.
They make it within reaching distance of me before I ram my hammer down into the ground again, its uppermost rune catching my eye.
Be hopeful.
The hammer’s head crashes into the ground.Thump.
Icy powder rises from the surface of the snow, dancing on top of the ground as the vibration continues. Around the clearing, the trees shake, spilling snowflakes from their leaves, only for the ice to dance in the air, riding the vibrations of energy.
In the distance, Graviter Rex leaps upward, beating his wings and rising from the ground. He may as well be a moth in the tumult of energy building around me.
“Asha!” he roars, his voice no more powerful than a whisper. “Stop!”
No.
Somewhere between letting go of Erik and feeling my life stream away from me, I bonded with this hammer.
Maybe it was in knowing that grief doesn’t only belong to me.
