Page 15 of The Last Valkyrie

Both hands went to my sword handle, still in its side. Gritting my teeth, Irippedthrough its cartilage and bone—

Until I snapped through the creature’s spine and it crumpled to the ground, its body made useless.

It kept trying to attack me. Before long the fire was spreading, turning it into a smoldering pile of embers.

Taking a step back, I surveyed my handiwork with wide eyes. The thing’s wheezing cries turned into croaks.Take out the spine, stop its movement. Light it up like a Yule log and watch it burn to ash.Thatis how we kill these things.

Why hadn’t it worked when they were beheaded? The spine was attached there, too.

Fucking Hel. There has to be something controlling these things! The spot where its spine goes down its back to power its legs must be a point of significance.

I needed to tell Ravinica and the others. Even if it wasn’t an exact science, Ihadfigured a way to stop them dead in their tracks, no pun intended.

As I scooped up my shield and kicked my singed blade out from beneath the creature’s ashen skeleton, my eyes moved like turrets to take in my surroundings. It was eerily quiet of rustling, with only the crackling of flames around me. The shouts and clangs of battle were far off, muffled deeper in the woods.

I picked up my sword and continued the way I thought Ravinica had gone. I second-guessed myself as I stared into the smoky air. Flaring my nostrils in frustration, I stopped, looked another direction—

And caught sight of cadets in trouble. A gaggle of draug was overwhelming them about thirty paces away in a small glade. My eyes moved from them to the direction of Ravinica, and back to them. I was torn.

The moon hit a face just right, dappling through the thin forest canopy. I recognized the gait, the fluid movements of the broad woman fighting for her life.

Edda.My sister.

Myotherfamily. The one that had betrayed me.

The wrench in my heart grew larger, ripping me in two different directions. I clenched my sword hard, heart hammering in my chest.

Edda, Olaf, and Ulf were fighting alongside Randi Ranttir, and they were being swarmed.

I could have left them to their fate. They probably deserved it.

. . .But they’re still family . . . right? A lone wolf is no wolf at all.

“Fuck!” I yelled, and then ran.

I barreled into the clearing moments later with a battle-cry, drawing the attention of the draug force. At least half a dozen, all different sizes, shapes, and states of existence. One of them was missing an arm, another had no head.

As I careened through a small gap of trees, Randi was closest to me. The girl fought quickly—too quickly, and had no view on her right side, perpendicular to me. A draug was closing in fast on her flank—too fast for me to warn her—with a nasty spear leveled at the girl.

I did the only thing I could think andshovedRandi in the back, sending her sprawling forward on her hands and knees.

The spearhead dug into my shoulder and I grunted, dropping my sword and catching it by the handle with my free hand.

I spun my blade up then down, hacking the spearhead off at the haft, leaving it lodged in my shoulder. My next swing took the draug across the throat, spraying grungy blood.

I moved in a flurry then, experience gauging my every maneuver, flying about like that pretty elf Corym or one of his Ljosalfar ilk.

The draug paused as I took its throat out. Randi gained her feet. I rolled forward, grabbed a discarded shield off the ground, and spun it like a Frisbee through the air toward my sister.

The shield connected with a draug and knocked it off its path—and then I torched it with a quick fire rune, making it hiss and scream.

Edda’s eyes spun to me, wide and suspicious.

It was the first time I’d ever seen my older sister scared. Not because of seeing me, but because of the vision of madness and nightmares before us, which we’d be traumatized by if we lived through this.

Finishing my roll and toss, I slashed a creature’s legs out from under it, forcing it to the ground. More undead stumbled over each other to get at us from the darkness.

I kicked as hard as I could,puntingthe fallen draug’s head from its weak, paper-flesh neck, and sent it flying into the side of another creature. It was only enough to catch its attention away from Olaf.

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