63. Malrik
Something's wrong.
I notice it the moment we return to my bedroom. Kaia sits too straight in my chair, her shoulders stiff and her hands gripping the armrests like they’re the only things holding her together. Her shadows coil unnaturally tight around her, pulsing faintly with a tension that seems to echo her heartbeat. Her breathing is shallow like she’s trying not to crack under some invisible weight. Even Bob, usually so militant in his posture, seems to vibrate with barely contained emotion. Mouse perches on my desk like a sentinel, his violet eyes holding centuries more weight than they did an hour ago.
But it's the tear tracks on Kaia's cheeks that truly catch my attention. She's tried to wipe them away, but I know her beautiful face too well by now. Know the way she holds herself when she's carrying something too heavy to share.
"Well," Finn announces, dropping dramatically into the nearest chair, "Thorne's definitely evil. Like, cartoonishly evil. Who knew?" He pauses, finally noticing the tension in the room. "What'd we miss?"
Kaia's shadows flicker—not their usual playful movement, but something deeper, almost reverent. Their edges shimmer faintly, like the remnants of an aura trying to break through. They move with a quiet purpose, coiling and shifting as though performing a silent ritual. The air around them feels charged, a hum of something sacred and untouchable, making the room seem smaller, more fragile. She meets my gaze for a fraction of a second before looking away, but it's enough. Something fundamental has shifted in those violet eyes.
"Kaia." I keep my voice carefully neutral, though my own shadows stir restlessly. "What happened?"
"I—" She stops, glancing at Mouse. Some silent communication passes between them, heavy with meaning I can't quite grasp. The shadows press closer to her, and for the first time, I notice they're moving with purpose rather than chaos. Almost like they're trying to shield her from us.
"You don't have to tell us," Aspen says quietly from his position by the door. Always the steady one.
Torric, predictably, disagrees. "Like hell she doesn't. What's going on?"
"It's complicated," Kaia says, and her voice carries new weight. "And if I tell you... if you know..." She swallows hard. "It puts you all in more danger."
"We're already in danger," I point out, moving closer despite the way her shadows bristle. "Thorne made sure of that."
"This is different." She looks down at her hands, where shadow magic dances across her skin in patterns I've never seen before. "This is..." Her voice cracks.
Finn stands, his usual humor gone. "Whatever it is, we're not going anywhere. Right?" He glances at me, and for once we're in perfect agreement.
I watch Kaia wage some internal battle, her shadows reflecting her turmoil. Mouse sits unnaturally still, waiting. Finally, she takes a deep breath.
"What do you know," she asks quietly, "about the fall of the Valkyries?"
Her question hits like a lightning strike. My breath catches as the pieces start aligning, a puzzle I hadn't known I was solving until now. The weight in her voice is palpable, each word steeped in an ancient grief there’s no way I can comprehend. My own shadows stir restlessly, mirroring the sudden tension in my chest. I don't have answers, but something tells me this moment will change everything.
The words seem to draw all the air from the room. Even Torric goes still.
"The Valkyries?" Torric scoffs, but I catch the way his hand tightens on his sword hilt. "What do ancient myths have to do with—"
"They weren't myths." My voice comes out sharper than intended. The pieces are falling into place—her unique shadow magic, the Heart of Eternity, the way her shadows sometimes move like they have centuries of purpose behind them.
Kaia's eyes meet mine again, and this time I see it: the weight of ages, of a truth too vast to fully comprehend. "No," she says softly. "They weren't."
"But they vanished centuries ago," Aspen says, his analytical mind working through the implications. "The records say they were betrayed by someone named... Oh shit."
"Alekir," Kaia finishes, her shadows writhing at the name. Bob moves into what I now recognize as a defensive formation, while Patricia's note-taking becomes almost frantic. "He didn't just betray them. He destroyed them. Turned their own souls into Nightwraiths. And he did it because..." She falters.
"Because of you," I finish quietly. The room goes deadly quiet.
Finn drops back into his chair with uncharacteristic grace. "Okay, I'm going to need someone to explain why that's not as impossible as it sounds. Because unless you're secretly several centuries old—" He stops, looking at her. "Holy shit."
"The Heart of Eternity." I take a step closer, my movements slow, deliberate, as if approaching something fragile and sacred. My voice lowers, almost reverent, ignoring the way her shadows bristle like an instinctive barrier. "It's not just a necklace, is it? It's a key. A way to move through—"
"Time itself," Kaia whispers. "My mother used it to save me. To send me forward, beyond Alekir's reach. But the magic... it required a price."
The shadows around her feet press closer, their movements heavy with a weight I can’t fully grasp. I watch them ripple, deliberate and protective, and realize something is on the edge of revelation—but it’s not mine to claim. Kaia’s voice trembles as she finally speaks.
"The Valkyries who fell that night," she says, looking down at the small shadow army surrounding her. "They’re not just shadows. They’re my mother’s sisters-in-arms. Their souls bound themselves to me through the Heart of Eternity."
Mouse’s voice cuts through the silence, deliberate and steady. "And in doing so, they bound themselves to the only weapon Alekir could never corrupt. You." He meets each of us with that unyielding violet gaze. "Alekir sees her not just as a threat but as a key. The key to what he couldn’t finish centuries ago.”
Kaia glances at him, her expression unreadable but heavy with gratitude—or perhaps burden.
"I don’t know if I’ll ever feel worthy of their sacrifice," she continues, her voice breaking. "But knowing they’re here—that they chose to stay—it's my reminder that I have to be. For them."
Tears glisten in her eyes, but she blinks them away quickly, as if allowing herself to cry would shatter the fragile composure she’s clinging to. In that moment, my heart breaks for her and all she’s truly lost. Centuries of grief and guilt have been woven into the foundation of who she is, and yet, somehow, she’s still standing. Still fighting.
Her shadows tighten around her, and for the first time, I notice the subtle grace in their movements—the way they shift closer like an unspoken vow, bound by love and loyalty that transcends death. It isn’t just magic; it’s devotion. And Kaia, despite the weight of that devotion, carries it like a shield. Not for herself, but for us.
I can’t stop the surge of instinct that runs through me—a need to close the space between us, to say or do something to lift even a fraction of the weight she carries. I step forward, reaching out before I fully think it through.
"Don't." Kaia's voice cracks, sharp enough to halt me mid-step. She doesn’t look up, her hands clenched into fists against her lap. "Please. It's hard enough just..." Her breath shudders, and for a moment, it seems like she might break apart entirely. "I'm telling you this because Mouse thinks you deserve to know. Because you're already involved, and it's too late to protect you. But the fewer details you have, the safer you'll be."
"Like hell," Finn says, standing again. "You don't get to drop 'actually I'm a time-traveling Valkyrie' on us and then hold back the good stuff."
A ghost of a smile touches Kaia's lips, but her eyes remain haunted. "Finn..."
"No, he's right." Torric pushes off from the wall he's been leaning against. "We're already marked for death by your psychotic professor. Might as well know why."
"You don't understand." Kaia stands, her shadows swirling around her like a cloak. For a moment, I swear I see the ghost of wings in their movement. "Alekir spent centuries hunting Valkyries. He corrupted their souls, twisted them into monsters, all because he wanted..." She touches the Heart of Eternity. "He wanted what I can do. What I am. And if he finds out I'm here, that I survived..."
"Then we'll kill him," I say simply. The words come out steady, but beneath them I feel a surge of unshakable resolve. This isn’t bravado; it’s a promise. My shadows stir in agreement, mirroring the certainty hardening in my chest. Failure isn’t an option—not this time.
She stares at me, those violet eyes wide with surprise. Behind her, I notice Mouse's approving nod.
"Just like that?"
"Just like that," Finn agrees, moving to stand beside me. His shoulder brushes mine, a casual touch that carries surprising weight. "We're kind of invested now. In case you hadn't noticed."
"Also," Torric adds with a feral grin, "I've been looking for someone worth fighting. An immortal soul-stealing psychopath sounds perfect."
"Idiots." Kaia's voice shakes, but there's something like desperate hope beneath the fear. "All of you. Complete idiots."
"Yet here we are," Aspen says quietly. He hasn't moved from his post by the door, but his calm voice carries through the room. "Though I have to ask—if Alekir's truly immortal, how exactly are we planning to stop him?"
A fair question. One that makes Kaia's shadows coil tighter.
Mouse's voice cuts through the tension, low and deliberate. "Alekir is no god," he says, his tone sharper than I’ve ever heard it. "He is a parasite. Sustained by the souls he has corrupted and twisted into fuel for his own power. Every life he has stolen keeps him tethered to existence, clinging to strength that isn't his." Kaia glances at Mouse, her expression caught between gratitude and something closer to fear. "The Valkyries he destroyed," she adds quietly, her hand moving almost unconsciously to where her shadows gather. "Their strength is part of him now. But the Heart of Eternity—" She hesitates, swallowing hard. "It was the one thing he could never touch."
"You're holding back," I say, watching her carefully. The shadows shift, and I catch Bob making what looks suspiciously like a shushing motion at the others. "There's more."
"There's always more," she says with a bitter laugh. "But trust me, the less you know about exactly what Alekir can do, the better chance you have of—"
"If you say 'surviving' one more time, I'm going to scream," Finn interrupts. He steps closer to Kaia, ignoring the way her shadows ripple warningly. "We get it. You're trying to protect us. Very noble. Very tragic. But has it occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, we want to protect you too?"
Something flickers in Kaia's eyes—pain or memory, I'm not sure which. "The last people who tried to protect me ended up—" She gestures at her shadows, and the weight of centuries hangs in that simple movement.
"Bound to you forever?" I ask quietly. "Standing guard over the thing they died protecting? That doesn't sound like failure to me."
Kaia's breath catches. Even Mouse looks surprised, his violet eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
"They're right," Aspen says, finally moving away from the door. "Whatever's coming, we face it together. All of us." He glances at his brother. "Right?"
Torric rolls his eyes. "Obviously. Though I still want to know how exactly a baby Valkyrie ended up with an army of shadow warriors for babysitters."
Mouse lets out a low rumble, his tail flicking with deliberate precision. "They were warriors once. And if they choose, they will be again."
"They're not—" Kaia starts, then stops as one of her shadows—Patricia, I believe, makes an unmistakably rude gesture at Torric. Despite everything, a reluctant smile tugs at her lips. "Okay, maybe they are a little bit like that."
"See?" Finn grins. "Even Bob agrees with us. And Bob is never wrong."
The shadow in question straightens proudly while Mouse makes a sound suspiciously like a snort.
I watch it all—the way Kaia's tension slowly eases, how her shadows remain protective but less frantically so, the careful way Mouse observes our reactions. There's still more she isn't telling us. Much more, if the weight in her eyes is any indication.
But for now, maybe this is enough. This careful balance between truth and protection, between past and present. Whatever truths Kaia hasn’t yet shared, I’ll wait for them. Because right now, the only thing that matters is showing her she isn’t alone in carrying this weight."
Finn grins. "But seriously, if those shadows can fly, I’m calling dibs on the first aerial shadow ride.