Trial of the Valkyrie

On My Way

Chapter Nineteen - On My Way

Song: Where's My Love - SYML

"You cannot kill death. What fire can scald the sun? Who can drown the ocean?"

― Samantha Shannon in The Bone Season

G     W     Y     N

When they'd arrived, the townsfolk had been trying to splash buckets of water upon the shop – however, with Rhysand's ward still up, no one could enter the building to douse the source of the flames.

  Once he'd dissolved the ward, Feyre had been able to quell the fire with her water-magic.

  And now, Emerie's shop was a smoldering husk of charred wood, smoke wafting towards the moon overhead.

  Rhysand and Feyre had assured Emerie that they would be able to restore the shop's structure with a mending spell – however, the broken windows, the destroyed wares, and all of the interior would need to be replaced. They'd promised her the necessary funds, then had taken their leave to purchase lodging for the five of them at the local inn.

  The three Valkyries sat side by side before the remains of Emerie's shop, staring up at it blankly.

  Gwyn swallowed the knot in her throat. "I'm so sorry, Em."

  "No, don't be sorry," Emerie sniffed. "It's just a shop."

  "It was your home," Gwyn insisted. "And those were your things that they destroyed."

  Whoever 'they' may be.

  "Things can be replaced," Emerie said, fixing her friend with a stern look. "Don't apologize to me."

  "Emerie's right," Nesta said, her eyes fixed on the smoking remains. "No apologies, Gwyn."

  Gwyn nodded, leaning her head on Emerie's shoulder and thinking about how this was it. This was her last night with her fellow Valkyries. Pressure built behind her eyes and she cleared her throat. "Will you both just— just look after each other? And Azriel?"

  "Gwyn," Emerie gasped, pulling away to gawk at the priestess. "Don't talk like that."

  Nesta was next to protest. "You aren't giving up now." She shook her head. "We're going to find a way around this."

  "Not unless I'm a witch we aren't," said Gwyn with a wry smile. "And I was telling the truth today – I'm not."

  Nesta laughed – a wet sound that made Gwyn's chest pinch.

  She was tired. She was so, so tired and if she had just used the last reserves of her strength to make Nesta smile then so be it. That was fine.

  Emerie sighed. "Nesta, even when the shop is restored I... I think I may need to make use of the House. I don't think I can stay here. At least not for a while." She drew her knees to her chest, boots scraping over the dirt. "It doesn't feel safe here anymore."

  "The Magistrates would agree," a husky voice said from behind them.

  The Valkyries' heads whipped around to see the two burly Illyrians from the trial.

~*^*~

Blood had been spilled when the two Illyrian brutes had come to take Gwyn to the Windhaven holding cells. Not by Gwyn though. The priestess had found herself too emotionally exhausted to object when they'd informed the Valkyries that the attack on Emerie's shop indicated her property was no longer a 'secure Windhaven facility' to house the Accused. The moment they'd asked Gwyn to come with them, she'd shut her eyes and practiced a few mind-stilling breaths, fully prepared to cooperate.