Page 85 of Valhalla is Full of Hunks
After the shock of Iola and Surt’s disappearance had faded, Hel noticed Laevateinn moving of its own accord—like the magnetic needle of a compass. She’d urged us to follow the trail, offering to send a messenger if they showed up again in her realm. We agreed, choosing to rely on intuition and blind hope the sword was searching for the one destined to wield it.
Surt.
Beneath my worry, I was still furious with him for how he’d treated Iola. Even after she’d welcomed him into bed with us, he’d pretended it meant nothing—thatshemeant nothing. But I knew the truth. I saw how he looked at her. It was the same way he looked atmewhen he thought I didn’t notice.
No.
Not the same.
More.
“What if…” I choked out, my chest heaving as the dark walls of panic closed in again.
I can’t lose them.
I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.
Fen removed a hand from the wheel to rest on my forearm, but before he could speak, I heard a noise behind us. Turning so quickly, I almost fell over, I saw Laevateinn spinning wildly on the table before abruptly stopping, pointing to the right.
“Starboard!” I yelled, attempting to muscle Fen out of the way and take over at the wheel.
“Settle down,” he snapped—the first he’d raised his voice to me since this nightmare began.“Youwatch the blade whileIsteer. Can you do that for me?”
Blowing out another breath, I begrudgingly obeyed, if only because working together seemed the quickest path to finding our lost companions. Over the next several minutes, we focused on following the erratic movements of Laevateinn until the blade leveled out, pointing north.
“There’s nothing this way but open ocean,” Fen muttered, but still headed in the direction I told him.
Thank you, Daddy.
The sword didn’t move again. I’d just started fretting over whether it had been a glitch when a small strip of land appeared on the foggy horizon, illuminated by shafts of early morning light.
And from it rose an enormous tree—so massive it disappeared into the clouds.
“Yggdrasil…” Fen murmured, gaping in awe.
There was no way to fully appreciate its size, since the World Tree stretched from Niflheim, through Midgard, and up to Asgard in the heavens. While I always knew it existed—and that the legends stated it was on an island far out to sea—it was an overwhelming experience to be this close to the bridge between realms.
Oh, no…
I started panicking again, for an entirely different reason. While I’d made it clear how I wished to chooselifeover Valhalla, Surt remained stubbornly dedicated to his path. Reuniting the fire giant with his legendary sword, in a location where he could easily reach the gods, would only enable him, and possibly ensure a repeat of Ragnarok.
I must stop that from happening!
Fen anchored us offshore, but physically restrained me from diving into the icy depths. “I don’t want you catching cold,” he explained as he lowered the dinghy, and even though I grumbled, I appreciated Daddy fussing over me.
As soon as we reached the rocky beach, however, all bets were off. I leaped from the dinghy and hoisted Laevateinn into the air like a medieval knight—willingit to guide me to my mate.
Both my mates.
I’d realized the ache I felt at the thought of dying—of possibly notseeing Fenrir and Surtr on the other side—was becausetheywere my mates as well. It took Iola’s arrival to open my eyes to this. It may have been naive, but I suspected she’d done the same for Fen, and I wondered if he would still follow through with our outdated plan, now that Iola could beours.
She already feels like ours.
The real challenge would be convincing Surt. The only strategy I’d come up with was todemandhe stay—power dynamics be damned.Iwanted to stay, and therefore, I wanted my three mates to stay with me.
It makes sense to me.
I gasped as Laevateinn gave a sudden jerk forward, nearly sending me to my knees. It was pointed at the pine forest on the edge of the beach, and I squinted as movement within caught my eye.
