Page 16 of The Last Valkyrie

Randi joined Ulf and they fought side-by-side, strength and speed complementing each other. My broad-shouldered younger brother and his sprightly companion.

I’d had spats with my family. They had betrayed me on our father’s orders. This was different.Thiswas survival, and I wasn’t going to let my own kin die by anyone else’s hands but mine, if I felt the need in the future.

Today wasnotthe day the Torfen pack ceased to exist from Vikingrune Academy.

The thought of rage and vengeance carried me on, and I started weaving runes I never thought I’d be capable of—twisting two, three Shapes at once, throwing ice and fire into the enemy.

One draug got through it all and came at Edda headlong.

I Shaped wind at the nearest branch separating Edda and a draug and managed to tilt the tree limb enough to swing it into the path of the monster. It was enough to give my sister time to bury her axe into the thing’s chest—once, twice, thrice—pushing it back.

I spun in, twirling on my heels and severing the draug’s spine near its tailbone, exploding the creature in a gout of black blood and bone fragments.

For a matter of seconds, we had freedom.

My kin looked to me. Not as an enemy or a curse on their name, but as a brother and leader. The leader I had meant to be when we came to Vikingrune Academy as the first in our bloodline to place in each four of the term years.

Edda, Olaf, Sven, Ulf. From fourth-year to initiate.

“Let’s go!” I yelled at their shocked faces. “We need to get to a bigger mass of cadets to have any chance at survival.”

Nods all around. A few hard swallows as Edda and Olaf glanced at each other.

“A lone wolf is—”

“No wolf at all, brother.” Edda clenched her jaw.

We took off running out of the glade. Hope filled my veins, churned my legs, bringing me closer to the fires ahead.

“We make for the plains!” I yelled behind me, thinking of our options. It was a direction I could gauge: north. “Open fields so these bastards can’t come at us out of the shadows!”

“Lead the way,” Ulf said beside me.

Our legs carried us.

A grunt behind made me pause.

“S-Sven!”

My feet kicked up dirt as I stopped on a dime and spun—

To find Olaf on his knees, staring down at his chest—

Where a spearhead jutted out, dripping blood.

“NO!” I screamed. “Brother!”

My older brother’s eyes screwed up, confusion settling on his pained features, blood pouring down his chin. His gaze turned glassy within seconds.

He reached out vaguely toward us—a final cry for help.

An abrupt memory ran through me, when Olaf had come to our village on aWraithlongship, to recruit me as the newest initiate into Vikingrune Academy. How I had smiled when he showed me his academy sword, and how he’d said, “Soon you’ll have one of these too, little brother.”

I dashed back to grab his hand. I could see the thrown spear jutting out from his back, impaling him. Yet still I ran, just as he began to topple forward.

A group of draug stalked behind him, closing in fast.

“Sven, no!” Edda cried out, her voice choked.

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