Page 165 of The Last Valkyrie

It seemed everyone had stopped fighting when they witnessed two dragonkin battling in the sky. It was quite an attention-getter.

The darkness and pain that threatened to consume me crushed tighter, bringing me close to unconsciousness.

Before my mates could get to me, I glanced over at the fallen form of Dahlia Anfinn. The Tomekeeper of Vikingrune Academy . . . and trickiest bitch I’d ever seen.

I still had one more thing I needed to do.

Chapter 52

Ravinica

DAHLIA WAS DYING. NOamount of healing or recovery was going to fix the wound in her gut, which spilled dark blood down her front. Her face was white, bloodless—all of it spilling down her cheeks.

I crouched over her supine form, wincing as she convulsed. Her eyes rolled as she stared up at me with a grim, bloody smile.

“Why, Dahlia? Why didn’t youtellme what you had planned?”

With a cough, she croaked out words. “Would you h-have believed me, girl? Trusted . . . me?”

It was a fair point. The likely answer was no.

All this time, I had been misdirected to believe she was planning one thing, when in actuality she had schemed to help us. ToendKorvan rather than help him.

The puzzle pieces started to fall into place as I stared down at the dying woman. Her chest was rising and falling faster and faster with each passing second, and I still had so many questions.

“. . . You never intended to use my blood to become dragonkin, did you?” I asked.

Her smile lifted, looking pained. “No. I-I’m assuming . . . you saw . . . my studies.”

Well, not exactly. Randi had told me about the books open on her desk.Portals. Runesphere. Dragonkin.I nodded anyway.

“Then you would k-know . . .” She paused, coughing a bubble of red. “Dragonkin can close any . . . any portal.”

My brow lifted. I hadn’t known that, based on Randi’s research alone. Now it made sense why she had been feverishly looking through the ancient texts about closing and opening portals.

She wanted to keep the Dokkalfar and jotnar out.

“And the Runesphere?” I asked, taking her shaking hand in mine and squeezing, trying to keep her conscious.

“W-We will never . . . fully understand it, Linmyrr. The tomes showed me that in order for a power to emerge, the user of the Sphere must sacrifice their . . . own power. I knew Korvan would be too greedy to stop himself from using it.”

There was a lot to unpack there, but no time. She was right about one thing for sure: We would never understand the Runesphere, because it had been outside the grasp of humans for so long.

What is this about the user sacrificing their own power to empower someone else?My thoughts immediately flew back to Lady Elayina, and my heart tightened into a knot.Shortly after she used the runes to summon the Sphere’s blinding light, she was ready to die. Already aging . . . and yet ready to pack it in.

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