Page 164 of The Last Valkyrie

Korvan’s sword sliced into my wing andrippeddown the leathery sinews and glinting scales. The pain was so insane I nearly passed out from shock, my brain short-circuiting into sheer numbness.

I could see how close the sword’s tip came to my mother. The blade was an inch from her skin. She had huddled inside mywing for protection, the appendage creating a cocoon that had crumpled under Korvan’s sword like a hot knife through butter.

Korvan grunted. “Hm. Come on out and play, Ravinica. This will all be over soon, and then we can get on with our beautiful lives.”

Lindi hugged me behind the alcove of my torn wing. Korvan had left a gaping hole, a tear through the flesh of my new limb. Ma’s arms felt so frail as they wrapped around me.

She tugged on something at my hip and whispered, “I love you, Ravinica. You’vealwaysbeen enough.”

She kissed my cheek.

Korvan moved to lift my ruined wing and open the cocoon folded over me, to expose what was inside—

Just as Ma launched herself through the ragged, bleeding hole simultaneously, making herself impossibly small like a darting spearhead.

Her emergence and quick maneuver startled Korvan, and with a hiss he backed up a step—

But not before Ma sank the sword she’d stolen from my hip into the dragonkin’s torso.

Korvan gasped at the surprising attack, the show of finesse, thepainI hoped he shared with me. Through the circular open flap of my damaged wing, I saw how his face twisted with rage and despair.

He raised his hand to wrap around Lindi’s neck—to instantly crush the life out of her.

My wings shot out, flaring wide, knocking everything off-balance with the outburst of wind. I sank deep inside my soul, my power, while lacing a vicious glare at Korvan.

The tether took hold in my mind—

And Korvan’s hand stopped in midair, inches from Ma, held back by the sheer force of my inner source.

Lindi pulled the sword out of him, bringing with it a spurt of blood, and stabbed again. “You killed my husband.” Her voice was low, brooding, seething with a life of hatred and the need for vengeance. Another stab, more blood, with Korvan backpedaling and slowing. “You killed my son.”Stab.The cracking of bone and ripping of muscle as she plunged once more. Vicious, agonizing thrusts that poked holes in Korvan’s soft skin, through his tunic. “You blackened my other son’s soul and stole him from me.”

Korvan’s mouth fell open, eyes bulging and dimming, a waterfall of dark blood spilling down his chin.

Her voice rose to a shriek of incredible wrath.

“But don’t. Ever. Touch. My. DAUGHTER!”

Lindi pulled back and slashed the blade across the dragonkin’s throat. A spray of gore splashed over her and Korvan gurgled, reaching for his neck.

I released the hold over him that I’d been holding with sheer concentration, allowing him the ability to feel his lifeblood fleeing. Knowing it would do no good.

The rapist bastard had been ended by his victim. Blackened blood seeped between his fingers.

Lindi stood over Korvan as he collapsed onto his back, seizing and trembling. His red eyes turned grayer by the second. It was unfathomable. The sheer stun on his face was enough to satisfy my need for revenge a hundred times over.

I crawled forward, broken and bleeding.

To my left and right, my mates rushed over. The golem sentinels had crumbled into inanimate stone with Korvan’s lack of magical control over them.

My dragonkin father reached up, clawing at air or at some invisible force, choking on his own blood as it bubbled on his lips and spilled down his cheeks and chin. Then his hand froze, his eyes quivered, and his bloody chest stopped rising.

The dripping sword dropped from Lindi’s hand.

I wrapped my arms around her from behind, making her jolt with shock. “It’s okay, Ma. I-It’s over. You saved me.” My voice was quiet in her ear. I wasn’t well enough to stand on my feet.

Lindi melted into my grasp, quiet tears trembling her body. “No, daughter,” she said, clasping a hand on my forearm across her collar. “We saved each other. That’s what family does.”

Beyond the ring of our battle, the jotnar frowned and crossed their arms over their chests. Above us, along Academy Hill, it was strangely quiet.

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