A Valkyrie's Apprentice: Book Two

Fire & Thunder

– K Á R A –

I stared at the three of them in that room. I stared from the line of the doorway with two immortals at either side and could never have felt so far away.

What I saw showed three mortals bent over a table, stained with wine like they had all the time in the world. Not an immortal stuck between two men with such limited amounts. I couldn't describe the dagger that went through my heart seeing it. To feel such pain, such fear and hurt... I heard Revna's words again telling me how Tayah had hesitated in that Assassin's den. How she looked disgusted and fearful seeing such immortal power. The way we had ended them all so easily. I had told her this was nothing. Tayah did not see it that way she wanted immortality... Didn't she?

Their laughing and content faces painted such a different story. One I had been aware of long before she made the choice.

I clenched my fist and threw away the thoughts to a deeper part of myself.

"Take that armour off. Now." I said through measured breaths, looking at the deep burgundy that would take a span to remove from the furs on her shoulders.

"Better do as she says Tay." John responded for her with a slow smirk. But not until that heathen had the nerve to dip his fingers in his cup and flick more onto it.

I was across the room in a blink and had a dagger at his throat in less time. The noise around me became secondary as I focused on the rapid pulse of the mortal's blood beneath his neck. He kept a defiant look in his eyes and honestly looked ready for what came next. As if he had any idea what this meant to me. What all of this was doing to me.

I heard Kaden push off his chair loudly and draw a blade at my back. But Revna was steps from him in less time and sat him heavily back in his chair with half a thought. "There's a good boy." She murmured as he growled loudly behind. Astrid was off behind all of it standing unsure and barely breathing.

"You have had this fate coming for a long time, Keavesmith." I growled, pressing into his skin drawing a different red to the surface now.

"I dare you to make another move." Tayah said quietly behind me.

I didn't turn to her. I was still lost in a strange mixture of fear and pain. That she was already choosing them. That she belonged on this realm not with me–

Her hand landed on my forearm and tried to yank it from his throat. I did not move an inch even when it heated. Frozen in my timeless moment of hate for this mortal beneath me. The mortal that would try to take her from me. I watched the line of blood leak down his neck.

He chuckled beneath it. "Go on, demi-god. See exactly how far it gets you."

"Whatever in hells has got into you can get the fuck out." Tayah snapped at me. I felt her energy pulse viciously around her. I didn't bother cutting it out.

"You think I will not?" I breathed at John, staring past his weak brown eyes, deep into his being. "I would send you to the Underworld and watch as your soul met the rivers below it. I would smile." I said emotionlessly.

I felt Tayah's breath pull in and her eyes on me deeply but I could not meet them. I couldn't look at her. The other immortals didn't move. What I had just told the room was a new limit of cold. But his eyes told me he knew I couldn't. What it would cost if I did slit his throat and watched his life drain away. I shouldn't even consider it, yet here we were.

"What is wrong with you?" I heard her say near me. She had her own measure of fear in her voice now. Good.

I let the blade kiss his skin a moment longer before lifting it slowly and slamming it through the wooden table near his hand. My eyes never left his. I wanted him dead despite everything and he knew it. He knew why.