Page 111 of The Last Valkyrie

Chapter 35

Ravinica

THE VIBES WERE MUCHdifferent leaving Dorymir Hall than they’d been coming here. An hour ago, spirits had been lifted, smiles were making their rounds, and things seemed hopeful.

Now we were in a worse place than when we’d started. For everything I hated about Gothi Sigmund, and how he had wanted me dead and had spied on me essentially my entire life, I knew he’d had the survival of Vikingrune Academy in his heart. Vikingrune had consumed his thoughts and dictated his every move before his untimely, abrupt death.

The school had been founded by his ancestor, King Dannon, after all.The King Who Saw. Wish you could see this, eh Danny? You’re probably rolling over in your grave right now, watching an outsider take the reins.

Students headed in every direction outside, running off to tell their friends and the rest of the academy what had just transpired. My men stalked behind me, quiet, brooding, all of us ready to pop off like a bottle rocket at the wordgo.

Staring at the ground as I walked and chewed my lip, trying to think, I noticed a sheen of gold out my peripheral, heading southwest toward Gharvold Hall.

I double-took when I saw Corym’s sister among the Ljosalfar who had attended the assembly.

Glancing back at my mates, I picked up my pace and hurried over to the group of six elves. “Deitryce!” I yelled, and the elves froze, glancing warily over their shoulders.

Corym said, “Lunis’ai, what—”

“We need to talk.” I put my hands on my hips, waiting for her to leisurely walk over to us with her soldiers behind her.

“Half-blood,” she said with a scowl, the tilt of her lips messing up her beautiful, otherworldly face. She gave me a mock bow. “To what do I owe the pleasure of finding myself before such an illustrious being? Quite the show you put on earlier.”

The spite in her tone could sink a battleship.

“What do you plan to do with the Runesphere?” I snarled. I was in no mood for games, my face set in a grim countenance. Behind me, I felt the wind shift as my mates went rigid where they stood.

Deitryce’s face twisted from wry insult to intense anger as she glared over my shoulder. “Youtoldher, brother?”

“Of course I did.” Corym’s voice was strong. “She is my mate, Deitryce. You would tell the same to yours if I’d made such a drastic error.”

“You did make a drastic error, Corym. You attached yourself tothisone.” Deitryce’s glare returned to me, eyes narrowing.

You want a fight, bitch? You’ve caught me at the perfect time.Instinctively, my knees slightly bent. My hand flicked toward my hip, so I could swing out my spear from my back with the snap of a finger.

Her lip curled. “You think you’ve learned so much, human, that you can take me? I watched you fight in our encampment, months ago. You can’t.”

“Come and find out. I’ve learned a lot since then.”

Her chin twitched. Next to her, the Ljosalfar shared glances with each other, not sure how to react—to take the side of one Company-Prince or the other.

Corym strode up alongside me. “Ravinica isSer’karioth, sister. The Lightbearer. There was a reason the Runesphere was stowed away where it was, so outsiders could never find it. And youtookit and brought it here, into the heart of war. Does Vaalnath even know what you’ve done?” He paused at the guilty look on her face, the flash of doubt as she glanced away shamefully. “Lady Elayina showed us the truth of Ravinica Lindeen, Deitryce. She wasAnvari, the best of us. Would you be so foolish as to attack the savior of our people, because of your misguided actions?”

His words caught Deitryce off-guard. Judging by the way I’d seen them interact, I could tell these two were usually on the same page—brothers and sisters connected at the hip.

Deitryce had lost her damned mind when Corym pushed her into the portal to return to Alfheim without him, so he could stay to help save me from the Huscarls. I remembered the fear in her eyes, as if she thought that would be the last time she ever saw her brother again.

And now this. The two of them facing off, Deitryce looking at Corym like he was a stranger.

All for me.

---