I prepare to defend myself, but all she does is speak.
Beneath the rush of wind from her sisters’ wings, she whispers, “Find the one they call Thaden Kane. Protect him.Please.”
She draws back as quickly as she lurched toward me, her gaze fixed on me, desperation flickering in her eyes before she wipes her expression clean.
Once more, she is cold and untouchable and completely in control.
She glides to her feet, steps back, spreads her wings, and lifts into the sky, joining her sisters too quickly for me to have any hope of questioning her.
I can only stare up at her disappearing figure in shock.
Protect Thaden Kane?
Protect the Blacksmith who lied to me from the very first moment and now holds my family at his mercy?
What the actual fuck?
All three Valkyries soar across the clearing in a rush of wind.
To my left, Erik’s father’s sword creaks in the breeze but remains suspended at the top of the column of stone—a column that should have crumbled by now. Somehow, the weapon is defying gravity, its blue blade gleaming in the power that radiates out from me.
I tear my focus from it, once more looking at Erik, but not for long before I lower my eyes to the snow.
It’s too painful.
I can’t look again.
I sink all the way to the ground, leaning forward over my knees, curling my arms forward, and lowering my hammer’s handle so that it, too, lies beside me.
I tell myself I will stand up soon and build a pyre. Graviter can help me. But for now, I’m frozen.
As I press my forehead to the snow, I wish I could numb my sadness and now my growing fear.
Iwillfind Thaden Kane Ironmeld. I have to. But whether or not I protect him or kill him remains to be seen.
I thought Erik would be by my side when I had to make that choice. I thought he would come with me on my journey and face that battle with me.
For a very short time, I was certain I was no longer alone.
I close my eyes and tell myself I only need a few moments here, and then I will get up.
I will put away my grief, and I will start again.
“Bright Heart?” Graviter Rex’s quiet growl sounds behind me as his footfalls thump softly across the snow. “You must get up.”
“Leave me be, dragon,” I whisper against the icy ground. “Just a little longer. I promise I’ll stand up soon. Just… leave me be for now.”
“Asha?” the quiet growl sounds again.
My exhalation carries my defeat, but still I repeat, “Please. Leave me be.”
“I would rather not do that,” comes the reply. And then, “Precious Asha.”
My eyes fly open.
The breath stops in my chest.
Erik kneels in front of me. His dark hair is damp with melting snow, his gray eyes are filled with worry, and his left hand is extended toward me, his fingertips only an inch away from the side of my face.
