Dead Embers Read Free

they expect me to learn?
    Fen's eyebrows rose an inch, his eyes gleaming in amusement.
My wings fluttered in nervous response as he fixed his stare upon them. I
opened my mouth, but Fen's next words startled me into silence, forcing me to
swallow whatever smartass quip hovered on my tongue.
    "Those things are useless until you actually learn how
to use them, you know?"
    For the first time since I'd scrubbed Aidan's blood from my
hands, a thrill of excitement coursed through me—sweet and hot and filled with
delight.
    I was going to learn how to fly!

Chapter 3
     
    Fenrir shoved the carved palace doors open, and a blast of
cold air struck my face. He headed around the stone building, walking briskly.
I followed in silence. The sword hilt at my side clinked against my chainmail
vest, the noise echoing off the palace's tall walls.
    When we reached the end of the wall, I paused for a moment
to gaze at the impressive structure emerging from the side of the snow-kissed
mountain. The full majesty of Odin’s white stone palace bore down on me, and
yet the weight of it was hardly oppressive. It seemed to impart a bit of that
majesty to me. I smiled, grateful to borrow from its strength.
    I needed strength, now more than ever. Sure, I wanted to
learn how to fly, but I wasn't a real Valkyrie. Not like all the other
Valkyries. They were chosen after a lifetime of earning their position in
Odin's army. I, on the other hand, was a fraud. I hadn't earned my place. I was
just a clone, created in a test tube by a father who'd lied to me my entire
life. What if something went wrong? What if I couldn't fly at all? A sudden
violent urge to run turned my legs into a bundle of tense nerves and muscles.
    But fleeing was not an option.
    I gritted my teeth, suddenly not looking forward to this
training session with the Ulfr general. My wings fluttered at my back, fine-tuned
to the butterflies that thrashed around in my stomach. A Valkyrie warrior
maiden should be brave and strong. Unfortunately, this Valkyrie happened to be
a great big chicken.
    Up ahead, Fen barked my name. "Bryn!"
    I dragged my eyes from the beauty of the palace, and my
thoughts from the mire of my nervous doubts, and trudged after him, kicking at
clumps of snow-drowned stones, just in time to see him disappear behind a tall
standing stone.
    At first I assumed Fen meant to lead me to a special
training area behind the palace, but nothing of the sort existed here. Just
snow and great, big, human-sized rocks littering the ground. I scowled and used
his tracks in the snow to find his path. He'd branched to the right, away from
the palace boundary, toward the craggy boulders and the snow-covered mountain
peaks high above.
    Icy fingers of cold clawed at my tongue and throat as I
huffed and hurried after him. Winter had already taken Asgard in her grasp when
I'd lost Aidan to Loki’s venom. Lost him to Freya’s Hel-bound ministrations.
But within the last week, winter’s fist had tightened mercilessly, deepening
the season's dark and frigid ache.
    A gust of wind whipped my hair around my face, and I tugged
at it impatiently, trying to pay attention to my footing as I followed Fen.
Soon I caught sight of him again, a dark shape amongst the gigantic boulders.
Pulling my woolen cloak closer, I bent against the driving gusts that grew in
strength as we plodded up the face of the mountain— and stopped only when I
almost ploughed straight into Fen’s back as he came to a sudden halt.
    I scowled at him, disgusted that despite my Valkyrie
strength I was still huffing and puffing like the awful storybook wolf that had
scared the living daylights out of three poor little piglets. And before me,
the real wolf barely acknowledged the stress of the hike.
    "Why are we stopping?" I tried to swallow my gasps
for air, tried to put on a strong front. Fen’s lip curved in a dry smirk—he so
wasn't buying it.
    "I do not want to carry you up the mountain,
Valkyrie," he replied, voice as cool as the