Page 39 of The Last Valkyrie

Sven shrugged. “The ones left anyway. Until they piss me off again. I’m going to head him off at the pass, as it were, and find out what the fuck Da is doing here. Why he’s meeting with Sigmund.”

That must be why the Gothi won’t let us leave for a week. He has his own clandestine meetings to attend.

That was four of my mates accounted for.

I pointed at Arne. “And you, blondie?”

He dusted off the sleeve of his blue tunic, looking away and seeming a bit squeamish. “I’m going to track down Dieter and figure out the Lepers Who Leapt’s part in all this.”

My brow threaded. “Theirpart? What aren’t you telling me, Arne?”

“I . . . saw something during the fight. A Leper fighting an academy cadet.” Before I could lose my shit and shout, he put his hands out to calm me. “I know, I know, it freaked me out too. The fact we saw that manbun-having, sister-killing fuckface of a dark elf out there also . . .” He took a deep breath to calm himself, clenching his jaw and then glaring up at me. “If the Lepers are working with the dark elves for some reason, or gods forbid the jotnar, I need to try and sway them from their plans. I’m the only one who can do it, little fox, because of my relation with Frida. Ifshe could convince my old family to join the Dokkalfar, maybe I can convince them tonotdo that.”

I swallowed hard. “Gods . . .” I trailed off, not bothering to voice my concern. We all knew the dangers of what we were planning individually. I didn’t need to say it.

It just shocked me to find them all so . . . brave. So nonchalant about everything. As if they realized this was what had to happen for our endgame to play out the way we wanted.

Until right now, I’d never realized how many steps were involved in running a rebellion. We were at the intelligence-gathering and ally-finding portion of our plan. Perhaps the most dangerous part, as my guys were going to their respective people to try and drum up support.

“I love you guys,” I said abruptly, feeling the pull tugging at my chest.

That snapped them out of their individual situations rather quickly. Their heads veered over, and they replied with the same words to me, only for me.

I felt tears burn in my eyes, but I wouldn’t let them fall. “Sorry, I just, I need you all to know that if we’re splitting up. In case anything—”

Sven swooped on me first, lunging forward and slamming his lips over mine, shutting me up by squishing my cheeks together with his palms.

I melted into the wolf’s kiss, tasting his pine and fire and lust deep in my throat, tongues swirling together. He pushed my spine up against the wall, tighter, nearly pinning me there.

As I gasped into his mouth, he pulled back with a sly smirk on his face. “We’re not splitting upjust yet, little menace.”

“We’re not?”

He looked down at an imaginary watch on his wrist. “No. We’ve still got an hour before classes start. We all need to be very cool and nonchalant about our plans . . . can’t be too tense.”

I picked up what he was putting down, my own glistening lips twisting into a smile. “I know of one way to relieve the pressure, I suppose.”

“Oh, you knowmanyways, Rav. And we love each and every one of them.”

I rolled my eyes, breathing heavily, feeling his strong chest press against mine.More distractions for him. He should be consoling with his sister and brother over Olaf, yet he’s here with me.

I would give Sven that, because I wanted it just as badly as he did.

“Well,” I said, “the six of usdidsurvive an invasion of giant aliens from another world. And if I’m not going to see most of you for a few days . . .” My smirk deepened and I pressed my lips against his, pushing off the wall to wrap my arms around his neck. “. . . I suppose that warrants some kind of reward for you guys,” I finished with a delicious whisper in the shell of his ear.

He pulled back with a groan, grinning evilly. “Only for us? Come now, menace, we know it’s just as much of a reward for you, too.”

Yeah, he’s not wrong about that.

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