Valkyrie's Sacrifice (Academy of Immortals 3)

I head back to the small cabin and climb into bed without changing clothes. My body aches and my brain hurts. The gentle rocking of the boat makes it easy to drift off and I only wake when I hear my name, faint and distant. I sit abruptly, looking around the dark cabin.

“Elizabeth?” I ask, certain it was a female’s voice. There’s no one else in the room. I start to lie back down when I hear my name again.

“Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Hildi.”

I climb out of the bed, knocking the blankets to the floor. Movement catches my eye and I spin, seeing the curved glass of an old mirror. Morgan stands on the other side. She looks very far away, but not enough so that I can’t see her growing belly.

“Oh my Gods, you’re huge.”

“Big enough that getting around is hard.”

“How much longer do you have?”

“Not long.” Her hand caresses her stomach. “Days at the most.”

I exhale. “I’ve failed you and the Guardians. I don’t know if we can stop this.”

“Your challenges are difficult, but not insurmountable.”

“No? You must not be aware of Agis guarding a fake-me in the tower or Miya being lost to us. Even if I get to the God of Death, we’re Immortal man short.”

“Your Fairy—the one from Talamh. You trust her?”

“With my life.”

“But you don’t trust her ideas?”

I tilt my head. Does she know about our conversation? I discreetly pinch my leg to confirm I’m sleeping and that this isn’t some elaborate dream.

“Ow,” Son-of-a—

“My Guardians have gotten better at peeking into your world.” She grimaces. “Dylan thinks that the closer the apocalypse gets to crossing other realms, the thinner the barriers are. My own dream woke me, and I knew I needed to find you.”

“I’m not doing it,” I tell her. “I won’t betray Miya or the gods that sent us here. We came together. We win or lose together.”

“Tell me,” she says, watching me closely. “Do you not have feelings for the Nephilim?”

My chest pings. “I like him. He’s loyal. Sometimes his humor amuses me.”

“Is there anything else?”

I don’t want to confess that I’ve noticed him watching me, that yes, there are moments that I feel close to him, when he was there for me despite the insanity of what we’re going through. “I also know he’s trying to prove something to his father, the bastard putting us through all of this torture.”

A small smile twists at her lips. “How many immortals do you know that willingly fight against their father over cross-realm domination. Do you really think he’s doing this to prove himself to Lucifer?”

“His father sold him out. He sacrificed him for his own greed.”

“And you gave him a purpose. A home.” Again, she cups her belly. “That kind of act creates something between people. A closeness. An understanding…”

A bond.

“What about Miya?” I almost hurt to say his name.

“This is war, Hildi, and these men, they’re your arsenal of weapons. Do you know that the guardians thought that only one of them was my true mate when I first arrived at the Nead? I had to decide between these men who was my going to be my partner for eternity. None of us realized it would be all of them. The gods do not always reveal their plans at the beginning of a journey…sometimes there are bigger things at play. The Nephilim may be one of those surprises.”

“What do I do? Just go in and tell him? Say...guess what? I think you’re one of my mates.”