Trendan walked through the bodies. Some he was too late for. Those souls would be lost forever. Stopping, he knelt beside the bloodied body of the warrior. He was still alive, just barely. Picking up his axe, he lay it on his chest and placed his hands over it. The man responded by grasping it loosely with weak hands. He said something, which Trendan equated to thank you. He waited and leaned over him when his last breath left his body.
Taking the soul into himself was hard, but at least today, they were warriors. He could handle carrying soldiers’ spirits. When he finished, he looked around. Women were wailing over bodies; others were scavenging the belongings of those that had no kin to mourn them. He stood up. He wasn’t even invisible. There was no need when walking among these Norsemen. They believed in things others didn’t, and rarely was he given a second thought.
Flipping his long braid back over his shoulder, Trendan scanned the remaining bodies. There was never a shortage of souls to harvest in this time. Too many battles. Too many unnecessary deaths.
“Soul eater.”
He turned to see the clan shaman or seer—he wasn’t sure what they were called.
“Your soul will suffer through long years into new days many times over.”
He wasn’t speaking English, but Trendan heard it that way. He continued to stand there and give him his attention.
“There is no Valhalla for you, strange one.”
Trendan reached into his pocket and pulled out a rough gemstone he’d found by the shore a few hours earlier. He bowed politely to him and held out the stone.
The man took it and examined it briefly, and then walked away.
Trendan blinked and then shook his head. He hated the days the flashbacks hit him. Lately, it had been more frequent, and he didn’t have time for this. He looked around, especially while he was standing on a roof. Not the wisest idea. Turning, he looked down at the building that he’d stared at so much in the last few weeks that he could probably identify each brick. The reason he stood here, again, walked out of the garage and spoke to the little scary Gemini woman, Ava.
Jerika was beautiful in an unmade-up way. Her long dark hair wasn’t processed and preened. He couldn’t say what color it was; some days it looked brown, others red. Her face was absent of makeup, yet her mouth was the shade of roses, and her eyes were naturally shaded. It wasn’t just her looks that intrigued him to the point of distraction; it was her soul. The soul inside her feminine body was meant for him; honestly, he didn’t know what to do about it. Her DNA was such a mix that it shouldn’t have been possible. He saw human hues in her, as well as Veiltide, FaTerra, and, of course, Solrelm. How that had happened, he had no idea.
His phone rang for the fourth time in the last thirty minutes. There was only one body that would annoy him this much. His brother Bastian. Answering it, he didn’t even speak. It was necessary with Bas; he did all the talking.
“Where are you?”
“Aren’t you home? You could just look.”
Bastian snorted. “I don’t use the control room to spy on everyone.”
“Liar.”
“Fine. I’m not in the control room. I’m waiting on the Princess to tell me what’s happening with Glen.”
“Am I needed?” The woman, Jerika, turned and looked up. He knew she could see him and did nothing to hide.
“I need you to go to Nova’s. Alterealm’s Princess Kara is meeting her there, and they need an escort, even though they won’t admit it.”
Trendan looked at her once more and then turned on his heel. “I’ll go there now.”
“Perfect. I will catch up when I can.”
“Where am I escorting them?”
“To one of the safe houses.” Bastian sounded anxious, which was often his state lately.
“I’ll get them there safely.”
“Good, good. Talk in a couple.”
He went down the ladder on the end of the building and across the next roof. Bastian’s Nova had a whole series of fast routes on top of buildings, and he had to admit it was less complicated than being down on the street or trying to be invisible.
Nova opened the door and smiled. “I knew he’d send someone.”
He shrugged. “I wanted to see the safe house.” He lied.
“Oh.” She nodded. “Good. We can use all the help we can get.” She motioned for him to come in. “Kara will be here in a few minutes. She was feeding her cat or something.”
Trendan walked in and stood by the sitting room. Queen Alona from Alterealm had been helping update the décor and furniture, and he had to admit it was looking less like a garage sale now. The young teen came out of the kitchen. “Sedric.” He inclined his head to him.
“T, how’s it going?”
Trendan grinned at the name. Why was it the modern generation felt the need to shorten names to one letter? He’d never know. “It’s going fine.”
Without warning, Princess Kara appeared in the middle of the room. She was on her back on the floor. On top of her was a mountain lion. Trendan reached for his gun.
“Holy fraggle. Look what you’ve done.” Kara reached up and squeezed the animal’s face. “Off, Tawny.”
“When you said she was feeding her cat, I didn’t know it was a cougar cat.”
Kara got up and tisked at the animal. “Sorry. She pounced just as I was porting.”
“That is so cool.” Sedric stepped toward the animal and then stopped. “Can I pet it?”
Kara flipped the hair out of her face. “Yes. She’s harmless.”
“Cool.”
Kara looked at Nova and then sighed. “I might have to get Raf to come to port her back. I won’t be able to focus.” She watched the animal follow Sedric into the kitchen. With an awkward smile, she turned to Trendan. “You’re on escort duty?”
He shrugged a shoulder.
“Bart is fixing the fence again, so thanks, and I’m sorry to bother you.”
There was a crash in the kitchen. Trendan ran in behind Princess Kara.
Sedric sat on the floor against the counter with the cat standing over his legs.
“Tawny. No people food.” She went over and grabbed the box and looked at it. “Especially not chocolate cereal.”
“Sorry.” Sedric slid across the floor so the animal wasn’t over him. “I was getting a bowl for myself.”
Kara leaned down and took hold of the animal’s face. “She has no manners. At all. You wait until I tell Raf what you did.” She released her face. “Lie down and try to be good for a minute.”
Trendan was shocked when the animal lay at Kara’s feet and rested its chin on its paws. “Is your mate coming to the safe house?
Kara pulled out her phone and shook her head. “Right now, he’s working with your guards before we start hitting those places your brother gave us.” She typed on the screen and then glanced at him. “We’ve tracked down several of the locations their cameras were watching, so tomorrow, we’ll be checking those out.”
Trendan crossed his arms over his chest. “I’d like to help, for both.”
“You’ve had training, fighting?”
He grinned. “A few thousand years.”
“Oh, pish, I keep forgetting how old you guys are.” She shrugged. “I’ll tell Raf to bring you in when they’re planning them.”
He nodded and looked down to see the cat staring at him. It was no wonder at all that Bas loved hanging out with the Alterealm Royals—their crazy almost outshone his chaos.