Truth: A Valkyrie Saga Book 3

Chapter 9 - The Fourth Gatekeeper

I had made assumptions and now everything was a complete mess. When Pala had pointed out the man she had seen the day before, I just assumed that he was the Traveler. Then when I saw other human-bound Valkyries in the Look-Through I had assumed that he was the one that brought them there. Only a Gatekeeper had the power to move other people to different realms. I had been so angry by the idea that the fourth Gatekeeper hadn't really died as a child like I had been told my entire life because I assumed that this was yet another elaborate betrayal by Louka and the Northerners.

It turned out that all of these assumptions were false.

When I had brought the man back to Awenasa and demanded that Linden bind his Traveling abilities so that he couldn't run from me, Linden had laughed in my face. She had laughed because the man was not a Traveler and most definitely not a Gatekeeper. He also refused to tell me who was responsible for bringing him to the Look-Through. I returned to the place where we had found them, but I could not find the people that had accompanied this Elijah. With nowhere else to turn I Teleported to the Northern City and sought advice from an old friend. Apparently, only four children had died all those years ago - not five. And the only baby not accounted for had been a girl.

The missing Gatekeeper was a woman and right now she was moments to doing what generations of human-bound Valkyries had failed to do. She was about to enter Awenasa and I was ready for her.

-Nahuel Firebird.

I decided to make sure that I could really do this before telling the guys about it. I couldn't bear to get their hopes up again if this wasn't what I thought it was. I figured that if I really could move to another plane of existence then I could pull them through behind me as I did with the void. So after taking a fortifying breath I pushed forward into the unknown.

The first thing I noticed was that I was no longer outside in the cold night air of the dry desert. Instead, I was standing inside of a medium-sized room with a roaring fire providing flickering light in the corner. The second thing I noticed is that I was basically on top of Elijah because I was standing so close to him. My Tracking Gift had done its job and led me directly to him. I felt a huge smile spread across my face as I saw that he looked unharmed and relatively unstressed too. I was just about to throw my arms around him when movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention.

I had been distracted by Elijah's beautiful face for a moment too long and I missed the other people within the room, one of which was a middle-aged woman who threw something at my feet before I could react to stop her. Even though I knew it was going to be too late, I reacted on reflex and threw a throwing star in her direction. The star hit its target and speared the woman's hand to the wall behind her at the same moment that I heard glass breaking near my feet. I looked down to see a black mist rise from the broken glass and felt a slight tingling under my skin.

I wasn't exactly sure what had just happened, but I was positive that they had acted first. The plan was that we would only fight in retaliation, and I had wanted to keep things civil. But the black mist felt horrifyingly familiar and thoughts of the silver cuff with black crystals that Derik had been Compelled to lock onto my wrist to take away my Gifts filled my thoughts. The rising panic only swelled when I tried to push both me and Elijah back through the barrier I had just discovered to take us back to the void. 

Nothing happened. Just like before, my Gifts had been stolen from me.

This time was not going to be like last time. This time I was not going to wait for them to strike while I was vulnerable.

I stepped in front of Elijah and tried calling a blade out of habit. To my surprise, my katana instantly materialized in my right hand. I pushed my surprise away and moved to lunge at the man that I recognized from Hernan's office. He had been the one to take Elijah from us and I had a feeling he was the leader of the Hidden. Before I could do more than plant my feet in a sturdy fighting stance, strong arms banded around me, forcing my arms down and pinning them against my sides.