The lock clicked and the door soughed open. Another guard in similar dark garb, this time with a generous amount of bleach-blond spikes, looked out expectantly. Pia and I waited, still glamored. When nothing happened, the guard popped his head out of the doorway and glanced left and right with a confused frown on his face. He stiffened as he spotted his colleague, unconscious along the wall.
"Hey, Mick!" he yelled. He stepped across the threshold, one hand remaining on the heavy metal door behind him. When he didn't get a response he grasped his walkie-talkie, his fingers stiff, about to call for help.
He got no further.
Pia snuck behind him and repeated her previous technique, knocking him unconscious with the hilt of her short blade, a satisfied smirk on her face. When I stared at her, she shrugged, her cheeks tinged a light pink. My new Valkyrie friend was clearly enjoying this level of violence way too much.
I hadn't had many opportunities to mix and mingle with the other Valkyries since I’d received my wings; I'd forgotten that not all Valkyries were Midgard-innocent like Sigrun, or murderous she-devils like Astrid.
Pia grabbed the falling guard and began to drag him away from the door.
The door that was slowly swinging shut.
My heart shuddered as I sprinted to the doorway, thrust my hand forward and stopped it from closing. Just in time.
Pia stared at me, a comical blend of shock and relief on her face. She left the pair of trussed-up guards piled against the wall. I stood on the threshold and held the door open for her. We were just about to enter the room beyond when the distinct sounds of a scuffle filtered down the passage. It was brutal, from the sounds of it.
"What—?" Pia started to ask. But she was cut off by what sounded suspiciously like someone hitting the ground really hard. The thud was followed closely by a low groan and clinking of metal against concrete. A sword hitting the floor?
"Joshua?" I whispered as loud as I dared. "Karl?"
My heart thundered as we waited for a response. I scanned the tablet, hoping to see the blob that would tell me Joshua was okay, but all I saw was a blank screen with a blinking phrase: "Offline." Perfect timing for the tablet to act up. Pia and I stared at each other, worried now more than ever as each second passed without a sound from either Joshua or Karl.
Pia took a step down the passage, then sent me a questioning look. I nodded, and she tiptoed silently down the corridor. Common sense dictated that I stay by the door. I was seriously tempted to stop her or follow her, but I knew that was a foolish move. The only access to Brody was through this door. Even if I let it shut and went to help Pia, what were the chances of the remaining guard opening the door for us? The tablet did show him somewhere on the other side of the door, but from the looks of it, he was guarding Brody. And even if he did come to the door, he'd see his pals out for the count and sound the alarm. And we'd lose our chance to rescue Brody.
Just before she got to the end of the corridor, Pia turned and gave me a confident thumbs-up. Before I could respond with a nod or a thumbs-up of my own, she disappeared around the corner.
I waited for her.
And waited some more.
My heart knocked loudly against my ribs, fear gripping my body and my mind. What happened to Joshua? Those sounds were really ominous. My brain could only process those noises in one way; Joshua had been knocked out. And the thought of him injured, or dead, terrified me more than I could even imagine.
Time dragged by.
And Pia was gone way too long.
Beads of perspiration trickled down my back, and a tremor ran along my arm. The metal door thumped against my back, and I gasped. I'd slackened my hold on the handle and the door had almost closed onto me.
Pay attention, Bryn.
The silence in the corridor continued to deafen me.
I had no idea what had happened to Joshua. And now to Pia. But what could I do? Caught between the desperate need to find out if my friends were okay and an equally desperate desire to save Brody, I hesitated.
The continuing silence made the decision for me. Whatever happened to Joshua, Karl and Pia, it didn't seem likely that any of them were on their way to help me. If I let the door close and lock, I might never get another chance.
I gave the empty, silent corridor one last look and reluctantly slipped into the room.
Chapter 41
The door clicked shut, and the metallic cold seeped into my back as I sagged against it and faced the inside of the room. My heart thumped in my throat. I had no backup. No idea where my team was. No idea what I was walking into. I took a deep breath, hoping the fear that churned so painfully in my gut would go away.
A large glass viewing window across from me revealed another small room, which was actually a prison from the looks of the sparse furniture, the bars on the window and, of course, the armed guard.
The guard accounted for the third and final orange splodge, but the other man lying inert on a camp bed held my attention.
Brody.
My eyes remained fixed on his motionless form until I sensed movement from the guard. He was turning toward the window. Icy shock brought me to my senses, tugging me down below the glass, and safely out of view. Even a second longer and the guard would have spotted me.
Then I laughed at myself. I was still glamored, so the guard couldn't see me at all. Odd though. Whoever had abducted Brody would surely have expected some kind of rescue attempt. They would have anticipated Ulfr or Valkyries, or both. Breaching the security system, even disarming the guards, had been far too easy. And that worried me even more.
But I had no choice. I’d come this far. Had to see it through. Brody was my main concern, and I was on my own.
Right, Bryn. It's now or never.
The guard was my target. I had to get him to leave the cell. Squatting down on the concrete floor, I scanned my surroundings. I needed something large enough to attract his attention, to bring him out of the cell. A small fridge sat in the corner, flanked by a table with two chairs. Didn't leave me with much of a choice.
I shuffled forward, gripped a steel leg of the nearest chair and flung it sideways with all the energy I could muster. It flew at the viewing glass, so fast it almost missed, crashing against the glass with an ear-shattering thunk. The chair bounced off the window and then off the concrete floor, finally skittering to a stop behind me, two of its metal legs twisted and broken, its seat unscrewed, askew. The aluminum seat and back sent out tinny echoes.
Satisfied, I turned to the window. As I had suspected, the glass was way too thick to shatter. A fine crack now marred the once perfect surface, a flash of lighting captured within the sliver of glass. But the crash of the chair got the very reaction I needed. The guard rushed to the door and fumbled at the lock. Before the door opened, I rose and dashed toward him, relieved to see that the door opened toward me and not into the room.
I slammed the door so hard into his face he probably passed out instantly, and had his nose shattered to boot. My heart slowly skittered to a more comfortable pace. Brody lay in the sparse cot in the far corner of the room.
I took a hesitant step forward, then froze as he sat up slowly, his hands cuffed in front of him, his eyes searching my face.
"Brody?" I frowned, suddenly terrified as I stared at this boy who looked nothing like my little Brody.
His eyes inspected me from head to toe. His voice was deeper than I remembered. "I believe that is what I was known as. My friends Joshua and Aimee told me that." His frown matched my own. "Are you going to get me out of here?"
I nodded, a shudder of hurt running through me. He didn't remember Craven, or me. Sigrun had explained how an unretrieved Warrior would be reborn and retrieved very early in his next life, as soon as a Valkyrie was able to claim him. I understood the concept. But my memories were of the adorable little boy who'd captured my heart. Not this stranger who didn't even remember who I was.
My heart clenched and hot tears prickled at my lids. What a joke. Brody was well and I'd found him, and here I was feeling sorry for myself.
Get a grip, Halbrook.
I cleared my throat. "Yes. Let's get going before any more goons come looking."
When I bent to help him up, he gripped my arms and drew himself to his feet. Odd to have to look up at my little foster brother. Of course, he was no longer my little Brody. Not anymore. Not ever again.
Brody met my eyes, and a pained expression drew the blood from his face; his dark skin tautened at the corners of his hazel eyes. I blinked, shocked, sure I was mistaken.
A blaze of ice-blue fire had burned within his eyes, just for a second.
A chill bit into my hand and, frowning at the pain, I glanced down. At Brody's hands on my forearms. Why did he feel so cold? I tugged my arms away, needing to be free of the ice eating away at my skin, feeding on the warmth in my muscles, but he held on. A shiver sped across my skin, and I looked up at his eyes again, as if something told me that I should look, that the secret lay within them.
Brody smiled, his teeth seeming thinner and sharper than humanly possible. When he blinked, fear-filled claws ripped up and down my spine.
His eyes were chips of ice, razor sharp and deadly, as blue as icebergs and as terrifying as staring my own death in the face.
I knew what he was even before he shoved me backward against the wall, before his face lengthened and his eyes glowed a sharp blue, before his eyebrows turned to crystals of ice. I knew for sure when his warm, deep brown skin paled of all color to reveal dark lines of deep blue veins.