sadly at me. Then she flew off, making a wide turn to head back in the direction of the village.
I wasted no time in flying straight out to Valhalla. And as I flew my mind went through my life with Joshua. I'd met him when I'd moved to Craven, a small town off Route 66 just outside of Illinois. I'd seen him glow, the way so many people I'd seen before had done. And this time was different.
This time I knew the glow meant that he was going to die soon. Little did I know that the golden glow told a Valkyrie which one of the living was soon to meet death, and which one of them was destined for a life as Odin's warrior.
So Joshua had died. And so too did Aimee, cancer taking her not too long before him.
I'd grown to love Joshua and his death had broken my heart. And when I'd found out he was a warrior, brought to Valhalla like me, everything changed.
Death and life, inextricably intertwined together.
And there I stood in the thick of it, surrounded by dying friends. I blinked, reminded of another task on my list. Aidan's funeral.
But the crisis in Asgard would put Aidan's funeral on the back burner. Who knew how many more funerals would need to be prepared after this horror.
I reached the ruins and redirected my flight path, lowering myself down beside the Glasir tree. The golden Ash seemed to be holding strong even in this horrible turmoil, with none of its leaves being broken loose. Perhaps it is true that Glasir does not relinquish her leaves unless it is to a person who is worthy.
Amazingly, I'd received golden leaves more than once in the past, one I'd sacrificed to a special elixir in the hope of saving Aidan's life, another I'd given to Sigrun when we'd farewelled her at her funeral. The last lay against my throat, hanging from a black cord, guarding my heart.
I touched it now as I rushed past the golden tree to what used to be the entrance of Valhalla. The building was now a giant pile of stones, black flagstone tiles lifted into the air, broken and smashed. And in the middle, running diagonally across the length of the hall, was a gigantic crack in the earth. The ground had shifted and attempted to swallow up Valhalla, only succeeding in destroying it instead.
The same ground now remained silent, unmoving. Although, a part of me kept expecting it to happen again. What could have done this? Was Asgard built on a fault line? Was that even possible within the cosmic realm or plane?
I rubbed my forehead, trying to press an encroaching headache away as I launched myself into the air, thrusting higher to examine the ruins from above, to search for signs of life. I scoured the length of the hall, then made another turn, in the end finding nothing.
My stomach tightened and I felt bile taint my throat. What if he was dead?
No. I just can't think that way.
I didn't want to contemplate that possibility. That way led to sorrow and I'd had more than enough pain for a lifetime.
A faint sound drifted to my ear.
The sound of stones falling, of pebbles clicking against each other. I turned, trying to trace the origin of the sound somewhere in the hundreds of yards of rubble.
Ahead of me, perhaps twenty yards away, something shifted, the surface of broken stones heaving slightly as if the remains of Valhalla had begun to breathe.
I swept the stupid thought out of my head and flew directly to the movement, hoping desperately that it would be Joshua. While I lowered myself towards the moving stones, I remained hovering over it, not wanting to settle my weight onto the rubble in case I caused it to collapse.
"Joshua?" I shouted, then listened as his name echoed around me.
At first I heard nothing.
Then the softest of moans floated to me, muffled and almost indistinguishable from the sound of an animal's cries. My heart tightened, the sound so terribly plaintive. And at that moment, I didn't care what it was that I found. I just wanted that pitiful sound to stop.
I bent to lift away the stones, throwing them far to my left so they would land away from the remains of Valhalla. Good thing I had Valkyrie power to allow me to fling stones thirty yards.
As the pile shrank, more movement became visible. Someone was stuck underneath the pile, and was now