Page 159 of The Last Valkyrie

Portals. Runesphere. Dragonkin.

I racked my brain, trying to piece together the threads to a tapestry I knew was connected, yet couldn’t yet see the full image across its canvas.

Dahlia raised her chin then shrugged off the sack on her shoulder, which made my heart palpitate. She dropped it on the ground in front of her, nudging it with her foot. “You don’t need the girl, dark lord.”

“What is this, woman?” Korvan asked. “A ruse, no doubt.” His eyes had moved to the colorless bag.

“The thing you’rereallyafter, no? The thing your kind has been craving for centuries?”

Dahlia said the words Korvan wanted to hear—the coaxing in her tone clear—yet there was something about her that threw me off.What the fuck is she doing?

From my side profile of Korvan, I saw how his face flashed with interest and curiosity. He couldn’t hide it no matter how hard he tried.

“Take the Runesphere and leave this place,” Dahlia said.

The jotnar eyed each other, the skull-masked woman taking a heavy step forward.

Oh fuck. Something about this got their attention.

Anger siphoned through me and I stepped forward also. “I don’t need your help, if that’s what you think you’re doing, Dahlia. There will be no compromise with the likes of—”

“Silence, girl!” Dahlia’s voice was fierce, her hand slicing through the air and wobbling her arm.

I could only clench my teeth as Korvan walked toward the bag. He stopped ten feet away. “Take it out, crone.”

Dahlia nodded, kneeled, and reached into the bag. She brought out the oblong-shaped Runesphere, which looked like nothing but a plain stone about the size of both her palms.

Yet even from this distance and with the Sphere’s power lying dormant, I couldfeelthe tether it held over me. The magic that coursed through it called to me like a whisper in a snowstorm, and I knew this was no fake relic.

Deitryce’s ill-advised thievery had brought the Runesphere here, Dahlia had promptly stolen it. Now she was going to simplyhand it overto the greatest enemy we’d ever seen in Midgard.

Portals. Runesphere. Dragonkin.

Why was she looking at those specific books? Talking to me for so long while she had me caged? She could have simply walked off and stayed secretive about her ploys.

Of course, the Tomekeeper hadn’t told me everything. She had said enough to get me interested.Enough for me to think on those tomes splayed out on her desk once Randi told me about them.

The vibe began to shift, my mind spinning.

I recognized something that I had missed—we hadallmissed—in our rush to villainize and disparage the woman who had hated my guts ever since I’d gotten here.

Korvan, however, didn’t know Dahlia from the Dalai Lama. He stalked forward to her and the relic she cradled in her arms, his wings curved over his body, laxly showing no fear or caution.

As he reached out, she pulled her hands back toward her body. “We’re in agreement, then?”

Korvan nodded, hand pausing. “Yes. Give it here.”

Dahlia’s lips curled deviously. “Careful, dark lord. It’s heavy. Know how to work this—”

Korvan snatched the artifact from Dahlia’s grip and growled, “Of course I know how to work the Runesphere, stupid human. All elves do.”

Dahlia stepped back, raising her hands. “Then it’s time for you to go.”

Korvan’s midnight features shifted wry and unnerving. “Not quite, witch.”

Dahlia blubbered, her face also changing. “B-But, you said—”

Korvan began Shaping runes in the way humans did, even though elves had their own way to summon magic. He swirled the green and blue shapes around the edges of the Runesphere as he held it like a babe against his chest. The figures turned purple in the air before dissipating.

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