Page 247 of Kingdoms of Night

While the women were busy arguing, the first man slipped out. Geraint stepped forward and threw a punch, but it went through him. The Valkyrie lunged in, her sword igniting with firelight. She sliced into the dead warrior’s torso. The dead man’s legs raced one way before sinking to his knees. His chest fell the other way. His head crashed down at her feet.

“They’re not corporeal,” said the Valkyrie. “They’re pure energy in the shape of men.”

Sensing their freedom, the doors of Valhalla quaked as men pushed and shoved toward their escape. A few more filtered out. Geraint saw the familiar mustaches of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler. With all their might, the knights and the Valkyrie managed to shut and bolt the doors back. The Valkyrie shoved swords and shields into the hole as a makeshift patch. But there were at least two dozen men that had escaped.

“You are the worst of humankind,” the Valkyrie spat at Loren. “I think I’ll make an exception and put a woman in the hall of those men.”

She drew her sword and aimed it at Loren. In an instant, more Valkyrie surrounded them. Geraint’s sword shook as he faced off against the warrior women. It was straight out of his worst nightmare. He’d have to do violence to women in order to survive.

The five of them—Geraint, Gawain, Loren, Thor, and Tres—were trapped. There was no way out of this. It was an impossible situation.

The Valkyrie charged and… went right past them. They turned, looking left and right and then right through them. It was as though they were invisible.

“Why can’t they see us?” asked Gawain. “Why can’t they hear us?”

Aside from being a knight, Loren was also a witch. But she didn’t have that kind of control over her powers. Geraint knew of a talisman that could render the wearer invisible. It had been the prize in the tournament they’d fought back in Rome. The tournament where he’d met a certain fairy who’d captured his attention. Now Geraint knew that while his attention had been captivated by Lady Enid, Loren had somehow managed to steal Enid’s father’s ring.

He said nothing as they moved along the wall and out of the path of the Valkyrie. He looked down, and sure enough, the Ring of Gyges sat on Loren’s finger. They entered an empty room down the corridor.

Loren tugged off the ring and turned to him. Her grin of triumph at outsmarting the Valkyrie slipped when she saw his scowl. “Gerry, let me explain.”

“There’s nothing you can say.”

“I wanted to tell you,” Lady Loren said.

Lady? Geraint scoffed. Loren was no lady. She was a thief. Had been since the moment she’d come onto the grounds of Camelot. And she always would be.

The object in Loren’s hand, the object the two of them had nearly died trying to retrieve, the object she’d sworn she didn’t have when they’d made it out of the fairy’s games, was resting in her palm.

“When?” Geraint asked, hating that the hurt was evident in his voice. “Rome was weeks ago.”

“Gyges slipped it to me,” she said.

“Here?” Geraint asked.

Not here. He could read that in her eyes because he now knew the woman so well. She wanted to lie to him. The fact that she couldn’t should’ve made him feel better. It didn’t.

“I didn’t realize I had it until we were back home,” said Loren. “Then I didn’t know how to tell anyone. I was going to—”

Geraint cut her off with a laugh. “You fooled me. I let you fool me. Once a thief, always a thief.”

“That was way harsh, G.”

“Only hurts ‘cause it’s true.”

And it did hurt him. Probably as much as his words hurt her. He’d taken a step back and let Loren mislead them. He’d stepped to the side and let her take the lead, and yet she’d broken the rules in a biblical proportion. He’d trusted her still, and now she had betrayed his trust directly.

He was done. He couldn’t save this woman. She needed to save herself. They stood staring at each other as the bridge of their friendship crumbled.

He had literally followed this woman across a rainbow bridge because she’d asked him for his help. All the while, she had been telling him a bald-faced lie. There was no pot of gold at the end of this journey. So why was he seeing a rainbow glowing from inside the room?

He wasn’t the only one. Everyone’s gazes were turned to the fireplace. From the dormant flames came a multicolored light.

Geraint turned on his heel so that he was facing the incoming threat. He withdrew his sword, ready to go into battle. He might not want to be Loren’s friend anymore, but he still had a duty as a knight to protect the witch.

Yes, witch. That was all she’d be to him now. Not a brother knight any longer.

He had no idea what kind of threat might emerge from a rainbow. The Greek god Desi could walk through fireplaces. But he doubted the ruler of the underworld would cast such pastels. Pink and lime and teals were not the Hollywood mogul’s colors.

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