Page 3 of The Last Valkyrie

After quick hugs, Dag tucked her black hair under her left ear and her white hair under her right ear.

Randi said, “Did you hear, Ravin?”

I blinked at her. “Hear what?”

“The jotnar are at the Telvos Mountains.”

The Telvos Mountains were at the northwestern peak of the Isle, in an area lush with nature and unmolested land. It was the highest point, even higher than Academy Hill.Muchhigher, actually. Every morning, on a crisp, cloudless dawn, I could see the dragonteeth peaks of those mountains on the horizon. They’d been topped with snow for months now.

My brow threaded with worry. “Who told you that?”

Randi looked sheepish, the whites of her eyes growing larger in her dark face. “Don’t get mad.”

I quirked a single brow.

“Ulf Torfen.”

Behind me, Sven scoffed and walked away. Ulf, his brother, was Public Enemy Number One, far as Sven was concerned. Or at least Top Three Public Enemy since his elder siblings Edda and Olaf were also on his shit-list.

Frowning at Randi, I gave her a disconcerted look.

“I said don’t get mad!” she squeaked.

“I didn’t say anything, Rand.”

She pointed. “You have afaceon your face!”

I shook my head, trying to hide a smile. I didn’t want to invalidate Sven’s anger at his deceitful brethren, yet this didn’t seem like a good time for family squabbles. I had a feeling the entire academy would need to come together to fend off this newest threat. Rivals, friends, foes.

It was at that moment my eyes landed over Randi’s shoulder and I noticedmyfamily and their respective buddies on the other side of the hall, a few levels down. My half-brothers Damon and Eirik, plus Talmont, Gertrude, Ayla, Gryphon, and Tyrus. They had a whole fucking crew now.

Scrunching my nose in disgust, I looked away from them.Yeah, never mind. Fuck all the come-together hippie mumbo jumbo. Sven has it right. Screw them.

I tried to lighten the tension on Randi’s face. “I thought you and Ulf weren’t a thing anymore?”

“We’re on-again off-again. Currently we’re on. I guess.”

She didn’t seem too sure about that. A dark, cunning thought came to me.Maybe Randi can get us intel about the Torfen pack we can’t get elsewhere. And the Lanfens, in that case, the rival pack that has bafflingly allied with the Tors in recent weeks.

Underneath the veneer of camaraderie and brotherhood that glittered at Vikingrune Academy, there was something darker afoot here. I was sure of it, and didn’t think my natural cynicism was off this time around.

As Sven had explained it, rival wolf packs didn’t simplyshrug asidetheir grievances and becomes friends unless they had a huge incentive . . . or outside influence. He believed his father, Salos Torfen, a bigwig outside the academy, had something to do with the Torfens and Lanfens becoming buddy-buddy.

I wagered Sven was correct in his assumption.

My older brother Eirik allying and coming to Damon’s aid—after my younger brother had shown up here—was another worrying trend.This place is becoming mighty cliquey, mighty quickly. I don’t like it. People are hiding things from us.

Dagny shouldered me, snapping me out of my glare. “Move your eyes, Rav. You stare daggers any harder at your brothers, those daggers might become real.”

I snorted, blinking past a burn in my eyes. “I wouldn’t mind if they did.”

She gave me a sad smile. “You’re not an assassin anymore, remember?”

Hel, I never was to begin with. That part of me was an illusion.Dagny was, at heart, a peaceful scholar. She was a healer-in-training at Eir Wing, and clearly didn’t want to hurt anyone. So it pained her when she saw me at odds with my family.

I gave her a small smirk. “It’s never too late to reassess my career possibilities, Dag.”Alas, every family’s fucked up in some ways. The way mine works is that I can no longer trust either of my brothers. I wish it weren’t that way.

Grim put a hand on my elbow, nodding over my head to the stage down below. “Sigmund’s taking the stage. Come on, let’s get our seats. Anyone got some popcorn?”

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