Valkyrie's Claim (Academy of Immortals 2)

“And Victorine?” I ask, hearing the guards traveling our direction.

“Keep your distance, she’s dangerous.”

I don’t know what that means, and I don’t get the chance to ask. He pushes me along a corridor, away from the guards, and neither of us speak as we travel down a narrow, tight tunnel. At the end, it’s so dark that I slam into a wooden door.

“You okay?” he asks when I yelp in pain. He’s inches behind me.

I rub my nose. “Yes.”

“It’s late,” he says. “You should head to your room.”

“Where are you going?”

“To check on the students in the cell.”

Does he actually have feelings under all that gruff, muscular exterior?

I touch his chest. “Be careful, okay?”

“I will.”

We stand in the silence together. The weight of the night is heavy between us. He’s right. I need to go to bed.

“Good night, Hildi,” he says, opening the door. It casts us in a swath of light. I glance back, getting a good look at his face before he vanishes again. I shut the door behind me, acclimating to my location. I’m near the dining hall.

On the way to my room, the look on Agis’ face lingers in my mind. For someone who says everything is going to be okay, he sure looks very worried.

5

Hildi

Wind whips my hair and I tuck a piece behind my ear. The view is amazing, as always. Lights twinkle for miles, other than the dark stretch of the park straight ahead. Again, I’m struck by the realness of the moment, and my stomach flips, hoping for another encounter with my winged lover.

Even if it was just a dream.

“I never get tired of being up here,” a voice says from next to me. I look over, surprised to see my friend. Her hand rests on her swollen belly. “Especially at night.”

“Morgan?”

I look over her shoulder for him.

“Did you expect someone else?” Her eyes search my face, then drop to my hand. “Wake up, Hildi. We need to talk.”

Wake up? But we’re talking now—

My eyes pop open and I sit up, startled by the reality of the dream. I’m damp with sweat. I’m hot. Burning. I look down at my hand, where heat radiates from the purple stone in the ring.

Morgan seemed so real in my dream. What had she said? Wake up. We need to talk.

I blink, acclimating myself to the dark room. I can see the shape of Elizabeth’s body in her bed, curled on her side, asleep. A flicker of light draws my attention to my hand. The ring pulses. No. It pulls. A tug, like it’s attached with a tether.

I toss off the blankets and walk barefoot across the room, glancing back at Elizabeth to make sure I haven’t woken her. She continues sleeping and quietly, I exit the room. The hall is quiet. The opposite of the expansive city in my dream. I’d never realized how much quieter it is here, but I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve been in the abyss that surrounds the Academy. It’s endless. A void. Silent other than the screeching cry of the monsters.

Gods, the monsters. I’d seen what they really could do tonight. How they’d slaughtered each student one by one, save Darius. I have my doubts he could fight more than one at a time.

The tether yanks, guiding me away from my dorm room and down the hall. I stumble a few times, the link unrelenting. I’m led to a split in the hallway, a corridor I’ve never been down.

It’s filled with mirrors.