Page 96 of The Last Valkyrie

I pushed to the front of the group. “I miss my brothers too, Ay—”

“Bullshit!” she snapped. “You think you’re a tier above everyone now, Ravinica, just because you’ve been to Alfheim and been given preferential treatment?”

My head reeled. “Preferential treatment? You do realize I’m the woman who has been scorned my entire time here, yes? Chastised for not having magic. Ridiculed for my ears and hair. Bullied for—”

“Things are different now, and you know it. Don’t change the subject, Linmyrr! Where is Eirik and Damon?!”

I flared my nostrils and ground my teeth together. She was hysterical. Nothing I could say would appease her anger.

“You don’t tell us,” Gryphon said next to her, “we’ll carve the info out of ya.”

“Like to see you try, dandy,” Sven chirped next to me. His sword and shield lifted higher.

“Think the six of you can take the eight of us?” Telmont asked in a croaky voice.

“I’ll take my odds, snake-eyes,” Sven answered.

The reptilian-looking initiate bared his teeth at my wolf shifter.

Glaring at Sven, I turned back to Ayla. “This is not the place for bloodshed, Ayla. Have your people stand down and let us pass.”

“Not until you tell us what we want to know, Linmyrr.”

I noticed Magnus and Arne sneakily creeping along my flanks in opposite directions, ready to attack if things popped off.

I tried to keep my heart calm, but it was difficult. I should have anticipated something like this would happen once we left with those two and came back without them.

“They were my brothers too, you know . . .” My voice was low, sad. I was hoping the genuine tone of my words would make them stand down.

It had the opposite effect.

“Share your sob story for someone who cares, pointy-ear!” yelled one of the cadets behind the main trio.

That got my mates riled up. They stood straighter, drawing their weapons and yelling incoherently, speaking over each other.

I raised a hand to shut them up.Bastard thinks Ienjoylosing my brothers?“Damon is dead, killed by a dark elf,” I said, lying about the fact Magnus had done him in. “Eirik leftwiththe dark elves, so I don’t know what to tell you about him.”

“Bullshit!” Ayla screeched. Her eyes trembled with fury. “You expect us to believe that nonsense? That aDrengrwould go against the people he loves to fight for the Dokkalfar? How stupid do you think we are?”

Please don’t make me answer that.My mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. She was right: How was I supposed to explain it? The story sounded farfetched, even for me, when I said it out loud.

Ayla wasn’t going to give me the chance to feel sorry for myself. She stepped forward, waving her sword at me. “Ravinica Linmyrr, I challenge you toholm—”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves now, cadets.”

The voice that cut her off came from the top of the hill to my right. Everyone’s eyes veered over and up to where Hersir Axel Osfen stood in the morning gloom.

He paced down slowly, to the dismay of the raging, aggressive Ayla. For a moment, I nearly thought she was going to try to strike the battlemaster himself, her anger burned so bright. Then she hesitated and sheathed her sword.

“Chatter is over, kids, pack it up.” Axel waved a lazy hand at our two groups. “Let Ravinica’s people pass, Ayla. This is not how we conduct ourselves at Vikingrune Academy. Hersir Thorvi would be appalled.”

Hearing Thorvi’s name spoken aloud made us all cringe. Our defiant, angry stances shrank as we shared guilty looks.

Ayla gave a small salute to the shiny-headed Hersir. “Sir, I apologize, but my squadmate is missing and this woman has answers. I’ll not back down until—”

Axel grabbed her by the collar, the squat man nearly lifting her off her feet and drawing out gasps from her crowd. “You’ll do nothing, Ayla, as you’ve always done at this academy. You think Ravinica Linmyrr isn’t hurting from her brothers? We are resuming patrolling and tutoring duties starting today, nine o’clock sharp, given the everchanging landscape of this island. We must be ready to protect ourselves from our enemies.Notbicker with our own people. Do you understand me, cadet?”

Ayla gawked, thrown off her game, and slowly nodded in acceptance once her posse didn’t come up to bat for her.

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