Page 168 of The Last Valkyrie

Chapter 53

Ravinica

MORE TIME HAD PASSEDthan usual when I returned to Midgard. I could tell because more people had gathered at the base of Academy Hill.

Thankfully, the battle was still at a standstill.

Dahlia was dead. Korvan was dead. Their bodies lay where they’d fallen.

Magnus was looking after his father Kelvar, who had taken a severe hit from Korvan that jostled his head, but the Whisperer looked like he was getting back to his normal cunning self. My other mates surrounded me and Lindi, with the exception of Corym, who now stood next toMaltorVaalnath on the outskirts of the ring we’d created during the battle. Hersirs Axel and Gudleif were near Kelvar, everyone staring into the center of the circle at me as I rose from Dahlia.

Across from Vaalnath was a dark elf commander I didn’t recognize, his face stern and grim. He also stared at me.

The jotnar made up the other section around the ring, all five of them now down here, looking incredibly intimidating and making my skin crawl with their size and authority. Everyone seemed to be avoiding them.

Why is everyone looking at me? Is it my wings?

My wings were fucked up. There was no other way to put it. Every step I took brought agony searing through me, and I winced and grimaced, trying to hide the pain.

When I glanced around at the gathered forces here, I realized they weren’t staring atme.

They were looking at the thing in the groundnextto me.

The Runesphere. Sitting there like a stupid fucking rock. The source of everyone’s troubles.

Vaalnath and the remaining dark elf leader had intense expressions across their faces. Jhaeros, the Skogalfar hunter-chieftain, scowled at both of them.

Shit, things could get out of hand in a hurry here.

Instinctively, I knew what to do. My eyes landed last on my mates, one by one, and I saw the apprehension—the fear, even—in their beautiful eyes.

I had to do something. My dragonkin blood was telling me to make the right decision, because it could affect everything here in Midgard, for all time, and impact the other realms just as much.

So I started speaking.

“The elves and the humans have been at war for too long.”

My words drew everyone’s attention. Vaalnath looked at me curiously, head slightly slanted in that ethereal expression that made them look like a ghost. The dark elf crossed his arms, seething behind a mask of hatred.

I raised a finger and suppressed another groan as my ragged left wing forced my muscles to move a certain way my body didn’t appreciate. “I believe there is a way to answer this ageless dispute.” My eyes swiveled from Vaalnath, to the dark elf leader, to the Hersirs gathered on the fringes. “And none of you are probably going to like it.”

Their faces twisted with confusion, with the elves looking angry.

I bent down and picked up the Runesphere amidst a tumble of gasps and murmuring voices—as if the thing would sting orburn or change me, even from just touching it when its magic lay dormant.

Even now, the Sphere held superstition among every group gathered here.

Unity, I thought.That was always my gameplan. My goal.

And now it was within my grasp.

I just had to make sure I didn’t start an extraplanar war at the same time.

I walked with the Runesphere, slowly, agonizingly in pain.

---