Page 153 of The Last Valkyrie

Chapter 49

Ravinica

AS WE LEFT TYR MEADOW, Corym limping along with a slow, measured gait, my hackles were rising. Danger was all around us, and so were bodies.

At any moment, I felt those bodies would reanimate. We were on borrowed time here and had to hurry to the front lines.

Eirik walked behind us, apparently still too ashamed to call himself our equal. I flapped a hand at him. “Come on, soldier. We’ve got a war to fight and we’re going to need you.”

With a sad smile, my brother nodded and hurried up alongside us.

“Tell me everything that’s happened since I left,” I said to Dagny, Randi, and Corym.

Corym narrowed his eyes on me. His beautiful face was tattered with purple bruises and it looked like he’d gotten in a fight with a brick wall and lost. “We need to have a conversation about you leaving, too,lunis’ai. Me and the others aren’t happy about—”

“I know,” I said with a sinking feeling. My brow arched. “Later, I promise. When we’re all together.”

He grunted and nodded, continuing on.

Randi twirled her hair nervously. “The draug came out of nowhere. Burst right through the ground in Mimir Tomes, killed a bunch of acolytes before we even realized what was going on. It was horrible, Vini.”

I wrapped an arm around her thin middle. “I’m so sorry. That sounds awful.”

“We managed to run to Eir Wing. It didn’t look as bad over there.”

Dagny nodded, sighing. “The nurses and I locked away our supplies, knowing we’d be needing them soon based on the mayhem breaking out on campus. We put our backs against the wall and waited with weapons out. Randi and the acolytes showed up shortly after.”

“And you?” I asked Eirik over my shoulder. “How did you end up here with the Dokkalfar?”

My brother bowed his head in embarrassment. “I . . . don’t know, sis. I wasn’t in control of my mind. I think the elves used shadow portals to bring us closer to you—I couldfeelyour energy even from the other side of the wall.”

I grunted.Probably some type of ephemeral connection my father shares with me—maybe all dragonkin share it. But if that was the case, why can’t I feelhim?

In any event, maybe it was possible for Korvan to send that signal through Eirik, since he had been in control of E until I severed the connection. Plus, we were related through my mother.

When I glanced at Randi to continue the flow, she picked up where Dagny had left off. “Before leaving Mimir, we were looking around desperately for Dahlia for some direction. But she was gone. I even barged into her office, wondering if she was holed up there. She wasn’t, so I ransacked the place. Found a bunch of books open on her desk but nothing else.”

Alarm bells went off in my head. I slowed my walk to a crawl, and the others paused to wait for me.

“Rav, what’s wrong?” Dagny asked.

I tilted my head. “Did you happen to see what the books were about, Rand?”

Randi tapped her chin and twirled the ends of her hair some more. With her tongue slipping past her lip, she thought back and then shrugged. “Yeah, actually. They stuck out to me because they were ancient tomes with brittle bindings. Two of them. One was about closing gateways, I think. Or maybe opening them? I dunno, but the pages where the book was open were clearly talking about portals, with illustrations and all.”

I put that away for later. “And the other book?”

“The Runesphere, bestie. It was a history on the elves since they’d had the artifact, written hundreds of years ago. Probably hearsay, since the human who wrote the book couldn’t have known too much about it. Seemed like third-hand accounts and assumptions. But there were some rune writings and spells on the page. Didn’t get a chance to see what they were for.”

“Hmm.” I hummed and let out a sigh.Portals and the Runesphere. And Dahliahasthe Sphere. This isn’t looking good.

We continued walking toward the cloud of smoke and ash ahead, my nerves starting to fray at the battle I knew was to come.

“Hmmwhat, Vini?” Dagny asked. “Think those are clues of some kind? I know we all hate Dahlia and she’s a total bitch, but she always struck me as someone who wouldn’t be a coward and flee at the first sign of trouble.”

“Tomekeeper Dahlia is not our ally, friends.” I scoffed. “Big surprise, I know.” My eyes glanced over to Corym. “I left to confront Korvan. To try and rescue my mom. He spoke to me in a dream, a vision—Iknowwhat it sounds like, don’t look at me like that, guys. Anyway, he wasn’t there. Dahlia was.”

The two girls gasped in unison, high and tight from Randi, low and raspy from Dagny.

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