Valkyrie's Harem (Academy of Immortals 1)

“Agis. You can fuck him if you want, I don’t care. Armin, too. Even Rupert if you can get him to relax for a fucking minute.” He gives me a wistful smile. “I know I can’t tame you, Valkyrie, but I can mark you up and down.”

“Look,” I say, propping up on my elbows, “I’m not going to argue with you. Not after that, but the other guys…there’s nothing going on.”

Even I can barely say that without stumbling over the lie.

In an unlikely move, he helps me pull back up my pants, snapping them over my hips.

“Do you know how I chose my conquests back in the day?”

I shake my head. “No. I thought you stole and fucked whatever crossed your path.”

He laughs. “The opposite, actually. From my ship or miles out of town, I’d send scouts in to assess the city we were coming to conquer. My scouts knew to find the one house overlooked, the one with the most charm and real riches. The woman with the most overlooked beauty. I didn’t want something flashy or ostentatious. I wanted the jewel of the village. Unlike my cohorts, I didn’t go in and burn down the house or forcefully take the females inside. The residents knew I was coming. They’d been alerted. They put out their best mead and killed their fattest calf. They fed me. We drank together and by night’s end I’d be invited to share the bed of the women in the house.”

Marshal says all of this with a wistful glint in his eye.

“I didn’t know it before we got here, but I realize now that you’re that jewel. You’re not like the other females in this realm, and not just because of your age and experience. You have something—something I crave—and my brothers? If they haven’t already, it won’t be long before they’re going to realize it, too.”

“I don’t know what that means,” I say, overwhelmed. I’ve had brief moments with each of the Immortals but none like what Marshal and I have experienced.

“It means you’re going to have to make a choice and it means I’m going to have to learn how to share.” He gives me a long look. “Something I doubt will come easily to either of us.”

He leans forward, kissing me gently on the lips, leaving me with the taste of what we’d just done. I watch, still confused, as he walks with that sexy swagger out the door.

Whatever did just happen between us, it definitely marks a change for the future.

34

Rupert

If there’s one constant across all the realms, in every variation of life, prince, warrior, or slave, it’s a library. The stone, quiet buildings are revered in all times. It’s a place of solitude, and one I find particularly calming. The only person that doesn’t seem to regard the privacy and quiet of the library is one person.

Hildi.

“Can I sit here?” Hildi asks, already pulling out the chair. It’s the second time she’s found me in here. The first since our horrifying incident in her room.

“Sure,” I say over the lump in my throat. I keep my focus on the book I’d left open on the table.

“Can you believe Armin gave us homework?”

I blink. Wait, she wants to talk, too?

“Actually, I can. He’s a professional torturer, this is just another method.”

She frowns and unpacks her bag, including a small black book I haven’t seen before. Academic curiosity gets the best of me.

“What kind of book is that?” I ask.

“Professor Christensen gave it to me.” She holds it up. It’s not very thick and there’s no title on the spine or cover.

“Did he?” I’m not sure what to make of the historian. They tend to be passive members of society—here to take notes and document history. “Anything interesting?”

Her mouth forms a thin line. “He has some theories on the six of us coming through the portal, and why we’re at an Academy instead of on a war landscape.”

I wait for her to offer more. Her eyes drop down to her book, and she lifts her pen. Obviously, she’s not planning to share. Why should she? The one time she needed me, I was barely was able to perform.

“What about you?” I sigh and run my hand through my hair. The book in front of me is a history of the Academy and the foundations of how it was built. I thought maybe if I understood the Academy better, it would help us find the stone. So far it’s nothing but a tedious breakdown on pedigree and tradition. “Apparently the Academy of Immortals been an institution for supernatural royal bloodlines since the beginning of time. All students must have royal blood to attend. The academy is a place for grooming, finding a mate, and honing the skills of a ruler. It’s not much different from my education as a child, except then I wasn’t Immortal, and I was dealing with snotty princes and their ugly sisters.”

“Christensen is also focused on the royalty angle,” she admits. I watch as she flips a page of her book. My eyes flick to the Valkyrie across the table. This is a woman out of place. I wonder if that is what the premonitions are trying to tell me. “Agis and Armin think we should focus on symbols, which to be fair, they are located all over the school.” She eyes me. “You’re not one of the four horsemen, are you?”