Valkyrie's Sacrifice (Academy of Immortals 3)

She bends and winces, a flicker of pain crossing her face. “Morgan!” I lunge forward but remember we’re not in the same place or time.

She holds up her hand. “I’m fine. Just…whatever you do, make it fast. This baby is getting impatient, and I don’t want to bring her into the crossfire of the realms under siege.”

“Be careful,” I tell her. “And one way or the other, this ends soon.”

Her image fades away and when I blink, I find myself in the bed again, flat on my back, staring up at the low ceiling. I’m trying to process if what I’d just experienced was real or just a dream when I hear a knock on the door. Easing out of bed, I cross the small space and open it. I’m both surprised and not at who waits on the other side, and hold the door open so he can come in.

29

Rupert

The three of us sit across from one another, quiet. Defeated. No one has spoken since we went under deck, as though we were waiting for an idea to strike. None comes.

“I’ve got nothing,” I tell them. “Agis is…”

“Consumed by rage and paranoia,” Armin finishes.

“It’s like he lost Hildi once and is hellbent not to do it again.”

“Without Miya, things were dire. Without Agis, things are infinitely worse. We don’t win two men short.”

“That was an absolute, complete clusterfuck,” Marshal says. “We’re off balance and I don’t see how we get that back.”

Armin slowly nods. “We’ve fought together for so long. It was like missing an arm or something.”

I stare down at the table, mentally going over a million strategies from the past. None seem to fit here. My stomach tightens and a cool sweat pops up on my neck. When I shift uncomfortably, Marshal notices.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just…” I wipe my forehead, “feel strange.”

He and Armin share a glance before he asks, “What kind of strange?”

I close my eyes and a wave of emotion rolls over me. Concern, frustration, worry. An image of Morgan flits across my eyes, hugely pregnant, forehead creased with worry. My heart flips…well, no, not my heart, her heart? I try to listen, but I can only feel. I blink and focus back on the room.

“It’s Hildi,” I say and both men immediately rise. I shake my head. “She’s fine. Asleep I think, possibly dreaming about Morgan.”

“Sometimes those aren’t dreams. That’s how she got the book and rings.”

“I know. This is different though, Hildi is struggling with something and Morgan is guiding her through it.” I feel a painful ache in my chest that can only be described as heartbreak. “Losing Miya.”

“If Hildi is right about needing five of us to challenge Lucifer, losing Miya is a massive blow,” Armin says. “As it is, we can’t even get to Agis.”

“Anything else?” Marshal asks, leaning forward on his elbows. “Can you sense what she’s doing? Thinking?”

I’ve never tapped into Hildi intentionally, usually it just comes over me in nauseating waves. I’ve felt her desire before. I know when she’s with the other Immortals. When she’s scared or angry. “She’s worried,” I say, closing my eyes once more. “Well, conflicted may be a better term. She has to make a decision, and she’s unsure what to do.”

I drill deeper, trying to catch a thread of what she’s struggling with. Miya is certainly on her mind, as well as Agis, but neither of them seem to be the real issue. With my eyes closed I touch the ring on my finger and a spark shoots through me, like a cord hooking between my mind and hers, and I zip down the line. Suddenly I’m no longer in this room but in her brain. It’s then that I see what—no who—she’s focused on. It’s a shock, one that bolts through me, and I snap back to my body.

When I open my eyes Armin stares at me, while Marshal’s eyes are wide. “What happened? Where did you go?”

“Balance,” I say, which is not an answer to his question. “Christensen said from the beginning it was important. Hildi is the key to winning this war and we’re here to balance her. Without Miya she’s lacking roots to hold her upright. She’s missing some of the structure she needs to give her the strength she—no, we—need to recover Agis and to fight Lucifer.”

“So what? We need to get Miya?” Armin asks.

Marshal nods. “Do we even know where he is?”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “This isn’t about Miya.”