– 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.

"Get out." He murmured.

Revna moved now. "Don't think I have any issue ending this arrogant–"

"No." I told her simply. Devoid of all emotion I flicked my head to the door. "We are not welcome here." I said with emphasis.

Tayah stepped into my line of sight then with a sharp look. I did not want any of it. Not like this and not with them all in such close proximity. She ripped my dagger from the table and flipped it hilt first offering it to me.

"Not great with dinner parties are you?" She said bitterly.

I ignored her eyes and the blade and moved for the door with the other immortals. But of course I heard her scoff behind me. "Treating my best friend this badly is one thing! But I have not deserved–"

"If your best friend crosses me again I will kill him." I promised at the edge of the door. The cool night air beyond was the only thing keeping me from plunging into darker emotions. Dangerous ones.

"You know I can't let that happen. And you should know–" She took a long breath before sheathing my dagger, "–just get out." She finished, as if deciding not to end that sentence the way she really wanted.

It made me so angry. I couldn't describe it. Couldn't control it. I shut my eyes before the night so they could not see my face. I knew how my eyes would glow so brightly... my power was barely under my control and I knew I needed to go somewhere to release it.

"Kára?" Tayah hesitated. She felt the energy of course she did.

"Don't follow." I grit out. "I need to be alone."

But I felt the hot power crack around my fists without my consent. Not blue or white... the deadly purple that I had unleashed upon Anselle on that boat. The one that took so much if you did not have the focus to control it...

I tightened both my fists before turning for the top of the stairs and launching myself off the edge. I landed heavily on the cobblestones below with a crack. Purple vines coated my hands around me.

I ran.

I pushed my legs faster than any horse could travel. My tunic black against the night, my eyes burning like stars through the shadows. I moved, avoided the steps of mortals, dodged lantern light and made for the city edges. I was so caught up in the sounds coming fast toward me that it took me all the way to the high white walls before I noticed the steps that pursued me just as quickly.

I swung off my step and into a narrow alley before climbing. My hands scorched whatever my fingers landed on and I had to grit my teeth. I scaled the stone house and darted across the rooftops. I was in no mood for the immortal lecture I was sure that would come from Revna. No other would be able to keep up with me this way.

A distant clock tower struck out the tenth hour of the night in echoing chimes. The moonlight had never felt so heavy. I finally turned on the tiled roof to behold my pursuer. My shock was brief and replaced by more pain.

Tayah Ashrive stood across from me on that rooftop. Her hair looked black in the night and tangled in waves across her furred shoulders. The power in me was a live thing now and it took everything I had not to let it free.

"I can feel you." She told me, not needing to raise her voice over the wind that had picked up. "You think I don't notice the look that has been in your eyes since you opened that door. But I have. I need you to know–"

"Yes." I grit out, holding one of my fists desperately to my chest as it burned brightly. "You do not need to explain to me."

"Yes I do!" She called, as the winds continued to grow and clouds swept above us. She began closing the distance a few steps. But I took more backwards making her stop. "What is going on with you? I've never seen you this way."

"Stay back, Tayah." I told her through my teeth. But it only encouraged her to close the distance again with a determined look. I ripped my hand away and a thick bolt hit the ground before her feet, shattering tiles and scorching a hole. "I don't–I'm not in control–please." I shouted, dropping to a knee and clenching the stone tiles.

The storm above only raged on but it didn't stop her. Of course it wouldn't. Any sane person would take the warning. Tayah never did meet those standards.

"You would not leave me like this. Don't think for a second I will." She told me as she dropped low before me and set a hand upon my shoulder. She shut her eyes as the winds ripped around us.

"What are you–"

"Give it to me."

"You don't understand–"

"Give me whatever energy is raging inside you. You are not handling this alone." She snapped as she took hold of my other shoulder and forced me to look into her eyes directly. I grit my jaw tightly and tried to call it all back, tried to reign in the bottomless energy I felt rushing to the surface in every uncontrolled emotion–

"Fine. Then I'll meet whatever end finds you because of it!"

"No!" My eyes flashed open and met her bright ones. "No." I said again with fire in myself. I watched her as I took her arms that held onto me. I watched the starlike eyes that I fell in love with burn into mine without hesitating. Then I let that power, the endless rage, flow straight into her. I felt like I could think past the burn now. Like I could see the end and beginning of it. I stopped when I could finally grip the flow of it again. That tangible life force that moved like water.

I watched her eyes take on a new light as she absorbed this and the storm churned around us. Then without a second she took my arm with hers and cast it above us. I had no control over the bright bolt of purple lightening that exploded upward and watched in disbelief as her hand matched it with a hot jet of fire wrapped around it.

Both powers scorched a line to the dark clouds above lighting the surroundings in a blink before disappearing into night. I stared after it. Until the darkness slowly showed the stars once more. Then distant calls of mortals in the city beyond us... such a sight–that was not good.

Tayah lowered our hands.

"How did you know to do that?" I asked in awe.

She glared at me. "You are not asking the questions tonight."

I let out a long breath and nodded. "This–I haven't been fair to you."

"No." She said curtly. "But you can make it up to me."

I raised a brow at the beautiful immortal that gave me more understanding than I deserved tonight.

"Anything."

"You're going to answer all of my questions over an ale that taste like horse piss." She deadpanned at me as I fought a smile that would win. "And then I'm going to decide if I forgive you."

I slowly got to my feet and offered her my hand. She took it.

I hoped she would always take it.

* * * * *

I stared at her over two mugs and a candle.

My armour still gleamed beneath her dark cloak and the candlelight kissed her skin in golden hues. Her body was at ease, chin under hand and eyes–

"You stare too much."

I nodded slowly, leaning forward on my forearms. Her smirk angled higher and she took a long drink from her mug. Then she placed it down and leant back in her chair watching me. Mortals and noise surrounded us in a blanket but it mattered so little.

"You look–"

"Ah, ah. I am asking the questions tonight." She interrupted with a hand flick.

"I was actually going to compliment you but as you wish." I returned with a shrug.

She rolled her eyes at me. "My forgiveness does not come at such a low price."

"What is your price?" I murmured darkly.

She didn't flinch. "Information."

"Is that all?" I leant closer.

"For now." She returned with a knowing look.

I mirrored her and leant back in my seat, even going as far as to stretch out my legs under the table, letting my boots graze her own. She ignored the move and circled a gloved hand around the edge of her mug distracting me.

"I recognised that power tonight only because I had felt it myself in Valhalla." She said suddenly at normal volume despite the laughing and drunks around us. Of course we heard just fine. I waited for more. "I didn't fully explain it to you but I felt Odin's power in the weapon he created for me in your home." Her eyes glowed lightly before the candle light. "Then I felt it again when you started to lose control. I imagine it had the same energy signature on that boat when you faced Anselle. What I'm trying to ask is... how exactly do you have the same energy signature as a god?" She finished slowly, not letting go of my eyes.

I considered this. Then I deliberately picked up my own hideous ale and consumed the entire thing watching Tayah's face grow both shocked and amused. I set it down with a wince before leaning forward and placing my hands on the table.

I couldn't hide this from her. Now was the time.

"My power is old." I stated.

"How old?" She retorted without missing a breath.

I let out a sigh. "I was one of the first."

She paused before sitting upright and folding her arms. My furs kissed her cheeks in the move but her eyes were hard. "The first what?" She whispered.

"The first of the Valkyries."

Her body went rigid. "You need to start making sense. You said you were not even a full century old–"

"I was ordered to tell you that."

"Do not bullshit Kára. You said you wouldn't lie to me." She got out through her teeth.

"You misunderstand. I did not have the luxury of choice to disobey–"

She scoffed and took her own long swig from the mug. I reached out and set my hand on her forearm which she glanced at before finishing her drink.

"You know what I was." I told her slowly, making her meet my gaze again. "Loyal to a tee. The perfect soldier. I held that for as long as I could before..." I sighed and turned my eyes to the mortals beyond her.

"Before I compromised you?" She muttered with a brow raised.

"More than you seem to know." I smirked. Even now she didn't know the depth of change she had brought on me. I was immune to it all until her.

She shook her head as if trying to right it. I released her arm. "You are telling me you are one of the first Valkyries. Meaning–you helped destroy..."

"Ares." I finished in deadly calm. "Yes."

She let out a breath and dragged a hand through her hair roughly. I watched the strands tangle in wild waves with the silvers of fur on her shoulders lost for a moment in better thoughts. How it felt through my fingers. Dragging my nails through it and hearing her–

She kicked me under the table and I flinched before glaring.

"You're not off the hook yet you don't get to think of me like that." She murmured, reading me too easily and attempting seriousness.

"It's practically adorable. You trying to restore a serious conversation." I told her crossing my arms. She growled low in response. I nudged her boot under the table with a smile.

"Gods you're old." She stated.

A laugh left me loudly and I tipped my head back only to catch her staring at me with that curious look she always had when I laughed.

"I would take offence but I don't really care how many times the sun spins around this realm. It eventually brought me to you." I shrugged, watching her cheeks burn.

"Your power... does that make you..." She tried. I understood.

"Stronger." I filled in. "I likened our power to water once. Every Valkyrie created after the first has been... shall we say watered down in a sense."

"You're suggesting we don't retain as potent power as the originals?" She scoffed.

"That's exactly what I am suggesting, immortal." I returned darkly. "But do not think it makes you weak."

"No wonder you can rip it away from us with a hand flick." She grumbled.

"If it makes you feel better that trick did take me centuries to master." I told her, leaning back again and watching a few drunk patrons get angry at the bar before a sultry woman stepped in.

"Well, all powerful demi-god of origin." She murmured, making my eyes flash back to her. "My drink is empty. Would you do me the honour?" She asked and began tangling her leg around my own. I felt my body heat briefly before I took a slow breath.

"You did ask nicely." I said giving her a flat look that promised trouble.

She smiled innocently as I rose from our small corner table to get the immortal her drink.