Page 35 of A Shield Maiden's Earl
Staring up at moonlight cutting through swaying branches, I heard the clashing of metal in the distance and the roars of battle before everything quieted, leaving me with the sound of the wind. I felt its cool caress against my cheek and the warm blood trickling from the corner of my mouth.
“Freya,” I tried to call out so that she might hear me from the distant shores of my homeland, but I could not speak.
All I could do was stare up into the trees and wait to join my kin and friends in the great halls of Valhalla, yet instead I saw the face of a wolf staring down at me, then that of a polar bear, then Freya.
Here.
With me somehow.
Lifting my hands, I tried to caress her cheeks one last time. Feel her soft, silky skin. Tell her how much I loved her. Yet before I could, she faded, and I knew it was too late.
I drew in one last breath, and all went very, very dark.
Chapter Fifteen
Freya
“Do not leaveus,” I wailed, jolting awake.
In a cold sweat of panic, I sat up and tried to get my bearings. Though I had felt like I’d been in a chilly, dark forest moments before, I was still in bed in mine and Soren’s lodge. Wind howled, and waves crashed in the distance just as they had moments ago in my dream.
Yet it had felt so real.
Powerful.
Heart-wrenching.
Putting a hand to my womb, I knew our babe was safe. It had been something else.
Soren.
I was sure of it.
Compelled, I slipped into my night rail, wrapped my bear fur around me, drifted out to our tree, and stared up at the moonlight pouring down through its branches.
Since I had embraced my gift two months ago, my powers of divination had only grown stronger. Clearer. Especially when I dreamt, giving me insight into things to come, or sometimes as they were happening in another location.
“Soren,” I whispered, murmuring prayers to the gods. “Where are you, my love?” I dropped to my knees in supplication to my deities but never stopped looking up. “Talk to me.Bewith me.”
Over the past few nights, my pendant and talisman had remained warm against my skin, telling me we were connecting, despite the distance. However, there was a chill between us born of the unease Soren felt wherever he was. A mental wall that made it hard to bond with him, yet last night I had awoken in a panic, much like how I woke tonight.
Last night, I had dreamt of my gray wolf and a raging storm at sea. Of ships rolling and men crying out. OfSorencrying out. Fearing for him, for all of them, I had beckoned him,them, to come to me. Come to the wolf, and find the safety of the shore.
Now tonight, the feeling was so much more intense. Vivid. Fast, furious, and relentless, as though the storm of nature became a storm of warriors. Staring down at my hands, I saw an axe in one hand and a dagger in the other. Felt warm blood speckled on my face and neck as I poured myself into Soren’s heart in a way that felt truly otherworldly.
Looking to my left, I saw the spirit of a polar bear. To my right, the spirit of a wolf. Then, I felt only my ancestral berserker and a vicious need to protect my countrymen and king. To give them a chance to flee.
“Fight,” I roared as the wind whipped up and the tree branches above bent and swirled. “Fight, husband!”
Although terror filled me as Soren fought valiantly and neared Valhalla’s great halls, soon to dine with the All Father himself, I stood with him, empowered him,lovedhim, every step of the way.
“No,” I wailed when piercing pain sliced through my gut, and I fell back.
I tried to keep wailing, but all went silent, except for the sound of men fighting in the distance, then even that faded, leaving only the wind in the trees and moonlight dancing down through its branches.
“Soren,” I whispered, my voice hoarse with emotion as I saw him reaching down to me. Or was he reaching up? It was impossible to tell.
“Do not go,” I cried, roared, wailed. “Do not leave me!”
