Chapter 10
"Hi there." A voice to my left had me pulling my knife and crouching for the pounce.
Axel, in all his leathered, dreamy glory—as if my written words had summoned him out of thin air—was standing a few feet from me. I sheathed the knife and sat back down, motioning for him to join me as I closed the book.
"What are you doing here? I'm surprised you made it through the front door in one piece." I snickered; some of the younger ones I'd met were so revved up with the onset of early awakening that they were eager to attack anything that seemed out of place here.
"My Uncle Zane is visiting the others with his mate, Geira. I came along to see how you and the little dude were doing."
I nodded. Geirahold, otherwise known as Geira, was a real legend around here. She didn't reside at Valhalla since she’d mated with a shifter, but she along with Rune, Bryn and Rota, ran the place. I hadn't met her as of yet and was eager to see her in action some day. She and her spear skills were a living legend.
"Rune tell you I was out here?"
"Yeah. I'm trying to avoid Bryn; she's still got it in for me about her stupid karaoke night, even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it. Crazy Valkyrie." He sat down next to me. "How you holding up?"
Shrugging as I thought about it for a minute, I realized I hadn't even considered how I was doing until he just asked. "Fine, I guess. There's a heck of a lot I need to learn, but I'm working on it."
"You look good. Like you’re settling into yourself, I mean." He attempted to use his charm on me. According to Svava’s book, shifters were known for their ability to charm the pants off all supernatural females. Well, I for one was keeping my pants on.
"Thanks. I had an experience with Svava's bow that included a trip to the Goddess, Freyja, and it sped things up a bit." I pulled my knees up, casually wrapping my arms around them as I looked off into the distance.
"I heard."
Turning to face him, my shoulder brushed against his, reminding me of all the energy he held inside himself. Being I adored energy, it was a real turn on, however I ignored it, focusing on how he'd heard my news. "How?"
"Like I said before, my uncle is mated to Geira. Nothing gets passed her."
"Oh." With that, we settled into silence.
"Hey, we're having this, um, thing. It's nothing really, just a bunch of us hanging out and stuff. We have one on every full moon, so it’s no big deal if you can’t make it, but if you want—"
"Oh, for Freyja's sake, you're embarrassing yourself, you little dweeb! Spit it out!" We were both on our feet, facing the legendary Geira, who was easily the tallest Valkyrie of us all. Most of us didn’t even reach five-foot-five; she was a good three inches taller.
Her jade colored eyes met mine with curiosity. "Don't worry, Kylie, I won't let the secret out about your rooftop reprieve. Come here." I slowly walked over to where she was standing by the doorway that led into the attic space. "My, Rota didn't exaggerate, you really are the spitting image of Svava, down to the archer’s birth mark." My hand instinctively went to my face. "I hear you're making great strides with your training."
"I'm trying."
"Good. We're leaving, Axel. If you don't want Bryn to catch you, you might want to just take a running leap off the roof and meet us at the car." She turned to leave. "If this lug can ever get his tongue untied and ask you to the full moon harvest, I'd love to spend some time with you while you're there. The shifters get a little crazy at the end and forget about any of us that aren't really one of them, so we could use that time and work on your spear skills if you'd like."
"Yes!" I blurted out and she smiled. "I mean, thank you."
"Sure." She turned to go inside. Before closing the door, she called, "Leaving in five, Axel, so make it quick before she realizes that she's way out of your league."
By that point, he had gotten a little nerve back and shouted back, "Like that ever stopped Zane from going out with you!" He smiled nervously at me, causing butterflies to form in my stomach. "The full moon harvest really is a lot of fun, if you'd like to go with me?"
"Sure, it sounds great." His nervous smile broadened into a full-blown, face-creasing grin that made my heart melt.
"Axel!" We heard Bryn bellow from somewhere inside Valhalla.
"Gotta run." Surprising me, he leaned in and kissed me lightly on the cheek before taking a running leap off the roof.
Walking to retrieve my journal, I was on cloud nine. It was a nice change to the past few months of pure hell.
As I turned to go back inside, Rune was leaning against the doorframe, holding her cheek and batting her eyes at me. "I'll never wash this cheek again," she purred in mock falsetto. I took a flying leap, landing on top of her as we rolled back inside, laughing as we hit the floor of the attic.
"Oh crap!" I began. "He forgot to tell me when this full moon harvest thing was taking place."
Rune stood up, dusting her shirt off. "On the full moon, duh." As she offered me her hand, I accepted it and she pulled me to my feet.
"Yeah, right, of course," I commented, shaking my head. It had been a while since I'd been out on a date and I was a little nervous about it. I had no idea what in the world you wore to a shifter party. Hopefully I had a little time before the next full moon.
"You'll really like Geira, she rocks!" We began the descent down the stairs. "I know we've been pushing you really hard lately, but you need margin in your life. You're sixteen for Freyja's sake, be sixteen, have fun!"
She really understood me more than I gave her credit for, or maybe I was more transparent than I realized. I'd been having an inner struggle. Part of me didn't believe I deserved to enjoy myself when my mom and dad had been killed by supernaturals of this world—my world—because, admittedly, I felt partly responsible.
Mason was waiting for me when we came downstairs. "Kylie, I creamed Demetri in Tomb Raider!"
"Creamed is a bit of an exaggeration, Mase," Demetri grumbled.
"They're having an Xbox tournament tonight! Wanna come play for a bit? You and I can team up and kick some Valkyrie butt!?"
Wrapping my arm around his shoulders, I decided to take Rune's advice. "Sure, Mase, I'd love to play."