Page 128 of The Last Valkyrie

A groaning sound from beneath the earth itself.

All three of us glanced down—

A skeletal hand held his foot in place, just like it had Olaf shortly before he was ambushed.

Draug!

Father inhaled sharply. His face went white. For the first time I saw the note of death on his features—his impending demise from all his tricks and conceits going belly-up.

“Thisis what you’ve allied yourself with, Da,” I growled, taking a step toward him and gesturing toward the broken tile and gnarled hand with my sword.

Another step made him shrink back, desperately trying to shake his foot free of the hand gripping his boot, keeping him from running.

“However,” I said grimly, “there are some things that even you can’t control, Salos.”

Canute lifted his shield from the floor and stepped forward menacingly—

Just as Da screamed at me, his face twisted into a grimace—an unhinged husk of the strong alpha I had admired as a child. A man whose pride in me was alwaysjustout of reach.

The draug’s death-sick face ripped up from the disturbed ground with a wheeze. A second hand grasped Salos’ other boot and ventured up his leg.

I recalled Olaf’s scared face just before his death; and the looks of hate my siblings gave me as they punched and kicked me, ambushing me, betraying me on our father’s whims.

“No more,” I whispered to myself.

With a scream that matched my father’s, I plunged my sword into his chest.

Chapter 40

Ravinica

MANY MILES SOUTHEASTof the academy, I landed amidst the jungle landscape, leveling off in a clearing before dropping and furling my wings.

The Three Norns waterfalls rose above me from multi-tiered sections of cliff, the frothy water from the falls spilling into a lake and feeding the Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld Rivers.

What would usually take half a day to get here by foot had taken me a couple of hours by wing. The late-afternoon sun heated the clearing, making me sweat within minutes.

I kept my head on a swivel, eyes narrowing as I took in the lush terrain surrounding me. Thick green leaves curled in from damp branches, the waterfalls creating a lush ecosystem around them. This was an area seemingly untouched by man—with the exception of the Lepers Who Leapt who used it as a solid hideaway in the past—and it clearly showed.

I felt wrong for being here. For abandoning my mates after such a torrid night, when we’d been on the same page about what the future held. Our unity had always been first and foremost, yet I had fled here because of a damned dream.

Stupid dream,I thought, frowning.

Part of me felt foolish for listening to it, trying to decipher Korvan’s twisted words. I wondered if this was all a big ruse to distract me from something more glaring. What that might be, I had no idea.

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