Reading Online Novel

Dead Chaos (A Valkyrie Novel - Book 3)(4)



Aidan swept past us and strode out of the lab, heading briskly back to his computer in the other room. We followed, keeping our fury on simmer.

In the moment of pain inflicted on me by Aidan's harsh words and lack of sympathy, my vision cleared slightly.

No more guilt.

And it begged the question—how well did I know this grandchild of Loki, the Trickster? The god who had stabbed his own grandson almost to death.

Lost within the ripping pain of my introspection, I’d almost forgotten Joshua and Aimee were still in the room.

A movement beside me, and Aimee slipped her hand into mine. "Bryn, are you alright?"

"Sorry?" I frowned, confused at her question.

"You went real quiet there for way too long. Are you okay? Are the drugs still affecting you?" Aimee’s eyes were wide with worry, sparkling with unshed tears.

"No, no. I’m fine." Joshua hovered at Aimee's shoulder, his face a storm cloud. "Could you guys give us a minute please?"

Aimee scowled, then looked over at Joshua, whose returning expression was palpable fury. He threw Aidan an if you hurt her, I will kill you look, then left with Aimee. I knew they wouldn’t go very far.









Chapter 3




"What the hell is their problem?" Aidan asked, pumping his jaw. I didn’t sympathize.

"You mean you can’t tell why they're upset with you?"

"Why would they be upset with me? What have I done?" He scowled.

"Are you really that stupid?" I asked. "Never mind, if you haven't realized what the problem is by now, then it's pointless. Dead horse beaten. Done with." I swallowed, unsure if I should turn and leave Aidan to his curiosity or lack of it. I’d noticed the number of times his gaze had flicked to the computer at his side. An odd ache churned in my gut, like a snake, heaving and twisting and poisonous.

"How long are you going to be here?" I swept a glance around the sterile room.

"I’ll stay as long as I have access to the computers." He nodded, his mind already back to DNA and the inner workings of Bryn the Valkyrie freak. "They’ll be taking the evidence to the NY HQ, so I think I’ll stay with it."

"Fine. Then wait for me. I’ll meet you there. I’m going to Asgard to speak to Odin, find out what they have to tell us."

"Wait for you?" Aidan frowned.

"Yes. You’re going to get your mother and sister, aren’t you?" I narrowed my eyes, staring at his face.

"You know I have to get them to a safe place." He answered almost automatically, his eyes shuttered. What was it about them that was so hard for him to share?

"Where are they?"

"We—my father has an estate in Florida. My sister … she likes the warm weather." Aidan spoke, his mind already with his mother and sister.

"Is she ill?"

"Well… she’s always been weak." Aidan frowned, then blinked as if seeing something in his mind’s eye that gave him a terrible shock. "I never realized there was anything terribly wrong with her until now. Now everything makes perfect sense."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, taking a step toward Aidan. He was hurting, and despite my doubts about him, I still wanted to help.

"It’s just something I figured out about my sister." He shook his head, face stony, making it clear he wouldn't elaborate any further. "Something that makes me all the more certain I don't have time to wait around. They need to be removed from that house immediately."

"Do you want me to send a team?"

"No. I need to go myself. The team would never get past the gate."

"Aidan, our teams are made up of Ulfr, Valkyrie and einherjar. We're made for this type of mission."

"Not if he developed the black poison into a weapon." Aidan’s eyes were black emotional chips. "It's what I would do. You won't get past the front gate. That I can assure you."

"Listen, Aidan. No matter what you say, we are a team. We’ll work together on this. You need to give us as much information as possible. Layout, security, weapons etc. What are we up against? When we have everything in hand, we can plan our next move."

"Yeah, but you don’t have to come. It’s my business." Aidan's expression was inscrutable.

"What? After everything we've been through together, you have no bloody right telling me it's not my business. Wait for me. I won’t be long." I glared at him, my tone hard and unresisting.

"Fine. But I won’t wait forever." He looked at the door as if he sensed Aimee and Joshua. "I don’t appreciate their attitude. What is it with them? They seem to think that because my father did all this it's okay to blame me."

"You think they're blaming you for your father's actions?" I laughed, the sound echoing metallic and hard around the room. "Aidan, that's not why they’re angry."

"Really? I’m not sure there’s anything else to say. If you and your friends want to lay blame, then I guess I can’t run from it, can I? Dr. Lee’s son. Loki’s grandson. My parentage will speak for itself, no doubt." His face blanched and my heart clenched. A twinge of sympathy gripped my heart, but that's all it was. A twinge. His insensitivity still hurt, the wounds he’d inflicted far too painful for me to brush aside.

"That’s not what they meant," I bit out, furious he’d turned everything into a blame game. No way he'd recognize why they were so upset now.

"They’re angry with you because you’re behaving like a callous, unfeeling bastard. Someone just chopped off a part of me, a part I could feel and move. They took it and chopped it into pieces and experimented on it. And because of that, I’ll never, ever fly again. And you know what's worse than having my wings taken like that? What’s worse is you don't see anything wrong with it. You think it's all good. All part of science. It's okay to experiment with parts of Bryn because she didn’t have that part six months ago. Sure, why don't we chop off a few fingers, check out her bone structure? Or dissect her right down to her muscles, figure out how the freak works from the inside out? Or better yet, we should cut out her heart. Oh, no, wait. Aidan’s already done a pretty good job of that with his cold, unfeeling attitude."

He stared at me, face pale. I hadn’t realized I’d raised my voice to almost a shriek. Hadn’t realized I’d begun to sob as I spoke because the pain of his words came flooding into my bones, my heart, and my eyes with a force I could not contend with.

I turned to leave, marching to the door, a little off balance without my wings, a little off balance with my heart broken. I swallowed my tears.

At the door I looked back at him. "You will wait for me to return, einherjar Aidan. That is not a request."

Aidan blinked in surprise and I left the room.



This time, my trip on the Bifrost barely had any effect on me. No churning of my stomach, no weird dizziness, either. Aimee joined me on my trip back home, leaving Aidan and Joshua back at the clinic.

My heart gave a little jump when I thought of Aidan. Granted that little jump could be attributed to my anger toward his father.

I shivered at the thought of what they would've done to me had I not been rescued. There was one horrific possibility I barely wanted to contemplate. Could they have been so callous with me because they'd intended to kill me when they were done with their experiments? I was just a specimen to them. I was just something to be examined and studied under a microscope, something to take apart to discover what exactly made a Valkyrie tick? And the scariest thing of all is it seemed Aidan agreed with them. Or maybe they wouldn’t have killed me. Why kill off easy access to a continuous fresh supply on einherjar-killing ammo? Tears blurred my vision.

I shuddered, sensing no returning flutter at my back. Perhaps I would really have been better off dead. The dark fingers of dread seeped into my heart, gripping me relentlessly. Wings don't grow back like a lizard’s tail or was that an octopus’s limb. I would never get my wings back, never fly again.

The heat of the fire in the transport room kissed my skin, warming me all over.

We were home.

Tears blurred my vision and I blinked viciously, trying to rid myself of the show of weakness. How was I going to get through this? What I really wanted was to race to my room, lock the door and hide under my covers. But, I couldn't. And wouldn't.









Chapter 4




We entered the Hall of Odin, cutting across the expansive white marble-tiled floor. We made a beeline for the dais, and a tiny part of me cringed, knowing I would meet the All-Father having not bathed for who knew how many days. I hoped I didn't reek.

The thought tickled hysteria from my throat and my mind. But I resisted. Giving in would inevitably mean losing all control.

Something inside me needed movement and I forced myself to stand still. As we stumbled to a stop before Odin, my instincts needed curbing. The light played upon the god's golden helmet, dancing fleetingly across his gleaming breastplate. The All-Father watched me, his single eye moist, his deep silence so loud I wanted to bawl my eyes out. My chest tightened.

There was also something in his grey eye, something that roiled like a brewing storm cloud, so filled with anger and danger that my own heart stilled with a slight touch of fear.