Valkyrie's Harem (Academy of Immortals 1)

37

Hildi

Running back toward the Academy, I see people standing near the sculpture. I shift in their direction, not caring who finds out that Armin and I were out here alone. His safety is more important than anything else.

Or so I think, until I realize that the three people standing around the sculpture are in hooded robes. I can’t see their faces and I don’t want to. I need help, not more trouble. I turn around before they see me and slam right into something hard.

Hands grip my upper shoulders and I look up into a shadowy face covered by a hood. I breathe a sigh of relief. “Ag—”

“Hildi, just who I was looking for.”

Luke, tugs off the hood. His lips into a smirk.

“Oh Luke, listen, I’m in a hurry.” I ease out of his grip.

He looks over my shoulder, and I do too. The other people come toward us, each removing their hoods. It’s Marielle and the twins.

“We figured you had something to do with starting the Crusade,” Marielle says, “but none of us could figure out what. Not until I drank from you.”

I touch the healed-over wound on my neck. Magic still flickers under the surface, even though the venom should be long gone. “I thought you were looking to see if I was in love with Marshal.”

“Oh, I was,” she says, lips pouting, “but I saw a lot more than that. Why you’re here. Who you’re working with. Your goals and motivations. But there was something else, too.”

They all shift to surround me, Cora and Claudia looking like they’d like to pounce. I’ll fight them if I have to. Armin needs help, but I want to know what this is about. What Marielle saw.

“The symbols of the horsemen. It makes sense. Even Instructor Armin, your lover, brought them up. They’re all over the school and combined with what we already knew, it clicked.”

“What do you know?” I’m shocked they’ve been working on this between parties and sex.

“Well, it’s more like what we’ve been told. Someone has been slipping Luke notes.” Marielle shoots him a glare. “He didn’t tell me about it until tonight, if I had known, we could have done this days ago.”

“Done what?”

“Found the key.”

“I don’t know where it is.” That’s the truth.

“Yeah, well, we do,” Luke says. “It’s in the statue, literally. And the symbols you’ve been leading us to all over school are what will release it. We just needed to get everything—and everyone in place.”

That’s when Marielle lifts her hand, revealing her pale arm covered in painted symbols. That’s not all. She’s holding a blade. My blade—Morgan’s blade. The jewels glint in the handle.

“Give that back,” I hiss, reaching for it. Luke’s strong hand hold me back.

“We needed a sword,” she says, eyes sparkling, “this one is so shiny.”

“And scales,” the twins say, holding out their hands, also painted, in a balanced position.

“A crown,” Luke says, as one materializes out of thin hair on top of his head. He nods at me. “And death.”

Death?

I’m death?

It’s true. I feel it in my bones. I’ve brought death to thousands on the battlefields. I’ve seen it in my own home, with Andie. And I came here to keep it from Morgan and her baby.

I swallow. I’d had the same theory but a different configuration. Maybe there are more than one. Or maybe he’s wrong, but the confident set of his shoulders tells me he’s not.

“I won’t help you” I say, balling my fists. “I’m not opening that lock.”