Of Frost and Feather (Flame Cursed Fae, #2)

by Eliza Raine

I didn't. A giant, beautiful, vicious bear did. And then she vanished. How could I expect anyone to believe that?

My skin flashes cold suddenly, and I gasp as a brand-new feeling floods my system. My mind fills with an image of the colossal white bear, and somehow she's smashing her way through the desolation as fiercely as she crashed into the Frost Giant. Strength. Strength is pouring through me, resolve and courage forcing out doubt and sadness. My val-tivar is an animal of strength. She is the power behind a berserker—the most fearsome warriors in all of Yggdrasil. Wasn't strength exactly what I've lacked my whole life? Exactly what I have strived for since coming to Featherblade?

"Be careful, Madivia. You are the most interesting rook the gods have sent here, and I am quite sure you will serve an important purpose. If that purpose involves Kain the Ruinous, then so be it. But if it does not, you must guard yourself."

Kain steps closer, so that he towers over me. I can feel the heat of him, the power emanating from his skin. "You're hiding something. I can smell the fear on you. The guilt. I have since the day I met you."

"Stop pretending that you're not as obsessed with me as I am with you."

"Leave me alone," I croak. "Never. Featherblade is revealing secrets to you it has kept hidden from me for two centuries. Where you go, I go."

"I'll be watching, princess. You saved my life. You've shown your hand. We are bound, somehow, and you will get me into that vault."

I scream as the skin is seared from my flesh and agony engulfs me. And then something incredible happens. Frost forms over my skin, instantly dousing the pain and the heat. I stare in astonishment at my cradled forearm as the frost glistens and shines, solidifying into ice and reversing the angry red burn.

princess, you keep standing there, wide-eyed and excited, sighing in pleasure like that, and I'll turn that 'fuck you' into a 'fuck me' the whole of Featherblade can hear."

you? As soon as I picture the huge white creature in my mind, I feel the exact thing I've been trying to feel for the last half an hour—a frisson of cold whipping through my body.

My feet hit freezing, solid ice. I am standing in the center of the completely frozen spring, next to an eight-foot white bear. And from their faces, there is absolutely no question that every other fae here can see her too.

Emotions I've not felt before are whirling through my body. I feel alive with exhilaration, laced with rage and frustration, and it's making my head light and my skin tingle. I guess it is adrenaline, and it feels… good. I feel strong.

"You know, doing magic without a staff is only possible if you're a High Fae or a Valkyrie," Kain says.

"I've always known you're special," he says. "Now they all do, too. You're destined for so much more."

"Get dressed. We'll sort your hair out, and then you're going out there and you're going show your family, and Sigrun, that you can become a fierce-as-fuck Valkyrie."

"Was it your sister who cheered for you?" Heat fires at the back of my eyes. "No. My human friend." "Then fuck your family. If they didn't want you to make it, then who cares what they think?"

We escorted the souls of those we saw were worthy of Valhalla from the battlefields when they died. The ability to judge an individual's soul comes from the battlemaidens, and it is the same magic Featherblade uses here." I nod, a tiny bit breathless. "I deal with the dead. I have flown over a thousand battlefields, watching and waiting for those about to die. I know when somebody has the mark of death hanging over them." She leans forward, and I stop breathing altogether. "Madivia, let me tell you with absolute certainty that there is no mark of death over you."

"Featherblade holds great power. Find it. Use it. Become who you are meant to be and we will find out."

Kain barks a long, low laugh. "I hope that one day she puts you in your place," he says. "The gods chose her. By abandoning her, you abandon your gods. You are a fucking veslingr."

Valor, honor, courage. The core of every good citizen of Yggdrasil, a necessity for a Valkyrie. And utterly missing from my father. Sigrun is right. My past is becoming unimportant. Where I'm from and what I've been led to believe is no longer who I am. But I can affect who I'm going to be.

She takes a step toward me, the branch moving with her massive weight. "Which is why you need to learn to keep me here." "I'm trying."

"They speak to us, yes, but it's not like the way you and I are communicating. We communicate via image, via feeling, via impression, emotion, and command. They don't speak." Is anything about Thyrvi normal? "So, you had a full verbal conversation with this bear?" "Well, I mean, her voice was in my head, but yes, she had a voice, a tone, words. In fact, she likes to swear."

"What did I let her do to me when we were back at the Ice Court Palace?" The creature's huge eyes blink at me. "You let her see a future with you in it." "A future?" I snap my eyes to her. "What did you see?" "I saw you changing Featherblade forever."

Brynhild considers me a long moment and then shrugs. "Whatever is in motion is beyond me stopping, so I may as well tell you. The futures I see are varied and unpredictable. I can see one of many outcomes, but usually, a theme is present if I can take more than one reading. I know that you will change Featherblade, but I don't know how you will change it, and I don't know if it will be for better or worse. I don't know if this brand-new type of val-tivar you seem to have is responsible for the future I saw, or if it's because you keep company with the most dangerous fire-fae in Yggdrasil. All I know is that you will have an impact on this place, and possibly the rest of the Valkyrie that follow here."

nods. "It is true that I do not sense malice or cruelty in you. But you are impressionable. You are young and naïve."

His eyes darken, and his wolf disappears. "She names herself and decides which of the people around you she likes. She sounds more like the familiars of the ancient gods than a val-tivar."

She just touched me. Touched my skin. I haven't been touched in two hundred fucking years, and now I'm supposed to exercise self-control?

She's a spoiled princess. I watch her because she fascinates me. I follow her because Featherblade favors her. I need her to get into the vault. Lies. All lies.

She's a fighter. I watch her because she's fucking beautiful. I follow her because if anyone harms her I will burn them alive, for ...

"Because I think it's why you can get into the vault and nobody else can. I think Featherblade knows that only you and your very special magic can get in. That's why it's showing you. That's why it's leading you there."

Beyond these walls lies the sacred Vault of the Valkyrie, Filled with treasures, it will reward your entrance lavishly, But to pass this first door you must prove that your knowledge is sound, List every Guardian and the beast to which they were bound. Make one mistake and it will be your last, The door will ensure you exist only in the past.

"I think some are High Fae. The Vanir. The first race the gods ever created, and still the most powerful. They were given animal familiars to channel their magic and fight alongside them."

Five courts, five ships, hidden from sight, Earth, Ice, Fire, Gold, and Shadow's might. Vessels of royalty, names unknown, Each a key to secrets grown. The Talekeeper's Vault, a trove untold, Its treasures locked, both new and old. But heed this warning, clear and true: No prize is yours till all doors undo. Seek the names of longships grand, To unlock the vault and understand. Only when all five you've found, Can the riches within be unbound.

there. Kain is alight. His whole body is on fire, flames licking up and over his shoulders, jumping a foot in the air above him. His eyes are red, they're so filled with fire. He's moving in slow motion before me, plunging a dagger down into the heart of another fae. Her face is warped in terror, and my world shudders to a standstill. It's Freydis.