Page 172 of The Last Valkyrie

“Gods, who cares if we did?” Sven grumbled. “I’m just thankful to not be freezing my balls off on that mountain ridge any longer.”

The others laughed, and I agreed. My balls had been getting quite frigid.

“If we missed any, we’ll just find them and shut them down also, right?” Grim said.

We were all in agreement. Arne suggested maybe we could even use it as another excuse to get away from the academy on a vacation, when and if the time came.

Our hearts were light now that the battle was over and we had come out relatively unscathed. Granted, we’d lost over a hundred Vikingruners—cadets, initiates, acolytes, and Huscarls alike.

Their losses wouldn’t be in vain, and their deaths would remind us of the sacrifices we had made to get to this point—tosurvivethe turmoil against the jotnar, draug, and dark elves.

There was still one situation that felt less “light” in my heart, and when I glanced at Corym, he simply smiled at me.

I returned a weak smile, worried about our future.

When we returned to the academy, Dagny and Randi were waiting for me with open arms and open textbooks. “Y’all missed a lot, you know,” Randi said, scowling at us. “Think you can just steal Vini away like that whenever you want, and let her get so behind on her studies that she’llnevergraduate?!”

“You mean keeping her here forever?” Magnus asked my diminutive bestie. “Sounds likeexactlywhat we want, Randi.”

Dagny scoffed and smiled as my guys chuckled.

The next day after our return, a campus-wide assembly was held, and all the remaining Hersirs joined in the speech.

Axel Osfen was the one who said the important bit.

“We have decided not to elect a new Gothi.”

Stunned gasps from the lot of us.

“Instead,” Gudleif Selken said, raising a finger and smiling, “we have decided Vikingrune Academy should be led by a council, with each Hersir getting a vote. We have seen things swayed by tyrants and greedy men and women, and we no longer believe the Old Way is sufficient to lead our academy going forward.”

Kelvar the Whisperer said, “Hersirs we cannot trust, brought here by Salos Torfen, have been relieved of their duties. Sitting on the First Council of Vikingrune Academy will be us three, as well as two others. With five, each vote will always count.”

He swept his hand out, stepped aside, and the giant, hulking frame of Thane Canute stepped onto the stage from the back.

Canute was greeted with a round of cheers and hollering from the students, who had all seen what he’d done during the battle to help us. The stern, monstrous Defender stared out at the sea of faces with a scowl.

I couldn’t help but smile at the one-eyed commander . . . until the fifth member walked out, which made my heart stutter.

In Canute’s shadow was a slight woman—some weight added on over the past few months, with more color in her cheeks than I’d seen in ages.

Kelvar said, “The fifth councilmember will be one of our alumnae, Lindi Foradeen.”

I beamed after seeing her face light up. Glancing around the loud hall, I spotted Eirik off to the side with his clique. He smiled at me with a small nod.

Great gods,I thought.Ma is finally getting the recognition she deserves.My brother and I both noticed it.

Ma made an announcement to the students. “Our first order of business on the council,” she said, “is to open the gates of Vikingrune Academy to the Lepers Who Leapt, who have been scorned fortoo longat this place. Forevermore.”

“Forevermore,” answered the other four Hersirs.

Some students didn’t know how to react to that news, but the ones who knew anything about the Lepers—me included—cheered loudly.

It was hard to keep the tears from spilling at how well Lindi wore this new mantle of leadership. Gone were the vindictive vibes and vengeful expression on her face.

Now, she could help run the academy and bring us into new prosperity.

The next week was the end of my second term, which meant I would still have two more years to witness all the great things I knew my mother would do now that she had some control in her hands.

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