Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

C assie felt Sten’s climax, and it triggered her own.

Wave after wave of pleasure rippled through her body as she peaked and then came again for a second time.

Suddenly, her soul shot out of her body into a vast black void. A circle of twirling white lights rushed toward her. She passed through it and once again inhabited a body as she stood by a black, glittering pond in the middle of a vast darkness.

What the fuck? Did she have a stroke from too many orgasms?

She’d never had angry sex before, although this had been more like rage sex. Maybe her brain had frizzled before they’d fucked. Sten’s ramblings about betrayals and selling him out had ignited something inside her, and she didn’t know what came over her. But being the dominant partner had awakened something feral inside her. Her ex never allowed her to lead in bed. But the important thing now was to get back to her bed from wherever the fuck this place was. She glanced around the darkness.

On the other side of the pond, a woman dressed in a simple white shift waved to her. The woman’s silver hair was so long it brushed her hips.

“Who are you?” Cassie whispered as the woman walked toward her. Although no one else was there, the pure vastness of the place pressed down on her and, speaking too loudly, felt dangerous.

“I’m Freya,” the woman answered.

“As in from the Norse fairytales my grandmother used to read to me?”

The woman nodded. “Took you long enough to get here,” she answered. “I was getting worried you’d never unite with your sj?lsfr?nde . Or that something was wrong with him. Like maybe he couldn’t maintain an erection.” She winked.

Cassie didn’t know what to say, so she just stood there silently. The whole situation was just too surreal. A major brain bleed seemed more and more likely.

The goddess’s face turned solemn, and she laid her palm against Cassie’s cheek. “My daughter, we have little time. I speak about you often with your grandmother, so I know you much better than you know me.”

“My grandmother is here?” Cassie looked around the place.

“Your grandmother is in Valhalla as befitted the Valkyrie she’s always been.”

“I’m sorry, what, now?” She shook her head, trying to make sense of the words.

“I don’t know how long I can keep you here,” Freya said. “Although you are the daughter of the daughter of your grandmother. My powers are much diminished thanks to the trickster god, and I can no longer help my Valkyrie warriors the way I want.” She sighed. “We live in dark times at the moment.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Cassie said. “I think something is wrong with me, and maybe I’m in a coma now or something. This feels like a fever dream.”

“I wish I could explain this better to you, but there is no time.” Freya reached into the pond, her hand disappearing completely into the dense, inky darkness. When she pulled it out, it was as dry as before, but now held a small dagger. “Show this to your sj?lsfr?nde and explain to him that no daughter of mine would ever betray him.” She winked again. “He’s a little dense at times, but he has a good, honorable heart.”

“Take it to my what?” Cassie asked, but the goddess…woman or whatever had disappeared.

Ripples appeared on the pond, and they soon turned into vast waves.

Cassie turned to run from the water…darkness…whatever that pond contained, but one wave rose and engulfed her. She blacked out and woke up in her old bed next to Sten’s.

He stared at her with worry in his eyes. “You passed out,” he said. “I couldn’t wake you.”

“I don’t know what happened. There was this pond and this woman with long silver hair who knew my grandmother. She said her name was Freya.” Cassie raised her arm, the dagger the woman gave her gripped in her arm. How had that happened? “I’m supposed to give this to someone, but I can’t pronounce their name.”

Sten took the small weapon and turned the blade so that the light set off the carvings on the blade. “They’re Runes,” he said. “It says Daughter of Freya.”

Cassie giggled, the sound laced with hysteria. “I don’t even know where that came from.”

He looked at her with solemn gray eyes. “One of the Valkyries in my tribe talks about meeting Freya at a dark pond when they complete the sj?lsfr?nde bond.”

“That’s it,” Cassie exclaimed. “That’s who I’m supposed to take the dagger to.”

“Your sj?lsfr?nde ?”

“Yeah.”

Sten shot her a peculiar look and bit his bottom lip. He held out his left arm. A beautiful snake tattoo graced his skin. The tip of the tail started just below his wrist and serpentine up his arm, with the head and tongue gracing his shoulder. A series of Runes made up the body. “I think I’m your sj?lsfr?nde, ” he said .

“When did you get a tattoo?” she asked. “The top part was there yesterday, but the rest is new. How long was I passed out?”

“It formed by itself when we fucked,” he said. “It means you are my sj?lsfr?nde , my fated mate.”

Cassie opened her mouth to ask for more details but stopped when a screeching sound from the window made her turn her head. She gasped at the face peering in from the other side of the glass.