Reaper (Valhalla Rising MC #3)

18. Odin

18

Odin

“ I don’t know what you want to hear.”

“I want to hear the truth,” I tell Skuld. “How is our boy holding up?”

The Valkyrie glances from me to my screens and back again. “Like you can’t find out on your own.”

“Believe it or not, I don’t always like to pry.”

“Sir?” she asks, confusion in her expression.

Smiling, I rest a hand on her shoulder and urge her to the opposite side of the room where the wall is lined with file cabinets. What no one can see is that the cabinets are thousands upon thousands deep with files on every single Warrior and Valkyrie to ever set foot in Valhalla. With a wave of my hand, one of the drawers opens, and Skuld gasps.

“Go ahead,” I instruct. “See what’s inside.”

She hesitantly steps forward and takes out the first file. “Craig Binder,” she reads, staring at the label. “What is this?”

“What does it look like?”

“With all due respect, it looks like exactly the opposite of not prying.”

I chuckle. Every Valkyrie thinks that when I first show them this, but like them, she’ll soon change her mind.

“Not everything is as it appears, Skuld. Go ahead, open it.”

She narrows her eyes but does as she’s told. As she skims page after page, her eyes widen. “These are complaints.”

“That’s right. But whose complaints are they?”

“Reaper’s, Sir.”

“Exactly. Despite how it appears, I do care about those who serve me. I hear everything they say and think. But I pay close attention to the complaints.”

“Why?”

“How else would I be able to really help them? Angry and bitter Warriors do not make the best followers.”

“If you have all this and your screens, why send us to get progress updates?”

“I do that for you and them, not for me. I know that it’s tough as a Valkyrie to be away from your charge, and it’s equally hard for the Warriors to be away from home.”

“I don’t know what to say, Sir. But this is still prying.”

“I didn’t say I don’t pry. I said I don’t always like to pry. There’s a difference.”

“Okay.”

“I want you to read me the complaint you see listed in his file the most,” I tell her. “Can you do that?”

Skuld looks back down at the papers and flattens her free hand on them to absorb the information at a much quicker pace. When she lifts her eyes to me again, there’s tears in them.

“He misses his kids and having someone to share his life with.”

“That’s right. Now, I can’t very well give him those things back, not exactly. But I can put him in the path of happiness that’s similar.”

“Kyra, Heidi, and Hunter.”

“Yes.”

“I just worry that it’s too much for him,” she admits. “He’s really struggling with the memories of what he had as a human, with the thought that what he wants is unattainable.”

“Those memories will never go away. We both know that. He can make new ones though. How about we give him a little more time? In doing so, Reaper will see for himself that what he wants, what he needs , is not only attainable but well within his grasp.”

“Is that a question or an order, Sir?”

“Would it make it easier for you if it’s an order?”

Skuld locks her gaze on mine. “Yes, it would.”

“Then it’s an order.”