Valkyrie (Kate O'Hearn) - By Kate O'Hearn Page 0,64

arrived within minutes. Freya was shooed away from Archie as the paramedics started to work on him. She stood back with Tamika, watching them try to save his life.

Archie was loaded on to a stretcher and lifted into the back of the ambulance. When Freya tried to climb in after him, but the paramedic stopped her.

‘I must stay with him,’ she cried. ‘I can keep the angels away!’

‘We’ll keep the angels away,’ the paramedic promised. Then he looked at her. ‘Were you hit too? You look a little rough. Is that your blood on your coat?’

Freya looked down at the wide, wet stain on her torn velvet coat. ‘It’s Archie’s blood, not mine. Please, I must stay with him!’

The paramedic shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, but we need to work on your friend. There will be no room in the ambulance for you. We’re taking him to the hospital. You can follow behind us.’

A police officer came up to Freya. ‘Let them go. I need you to tell me what happened here.’

‘Not now. I must stay with Archie.’ She focused on Tamika, who was standing back with a haunted expression on her face. ‘Will you tell them what happened? I’m going to get my helmet!’

Freya darted from the scene before the police could stop her and ran the short distance to Archie’s house. Tearing inside, she found her winged helmet and put it on. As the world turned to black and white, Orus called to her, ‘Hurry, they’re taking him away.’

Freya threw aside her coat and dashed outside. She opened her wings, but when she tried to fly, the swelling and pain would not let her.

‘Try again!’ Orus ordered. ‘Hurry!’

On the second attempt Freya only climbed a few metres off the ground before her wings failed and she fell from the sky.

‘I can’t fly!’ she cried.

‘Then run!’ Orus cawed. ‘You can do that fast enough!’

While the raven soared above her, Freya ran as fast as she could to catch up with the ambulance. She darted around cars and wove through traffic as she followed Archie to the hospital. Her eyes never left the sky as she watched and waited for an Angel of Death.

‘Archie will live,’ Orus called. ‘He wouldn’t dare die on us.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Freya kept her helmet on when they reached the hospital. As she watched the doctors work on Archie, her heart was on edge. She followed, keeping out of the doctors’ way as he was rushed into surgery. Orus remained at her shoulder, offering what little comfort he could.

The surgeons had only just started to work on Archie’s head when an unwelcome visitor entered.

The most stunningly beautiful angel Freya had ever seen drifted into the operating theatre. He was tall and lean with immaculately groomed feathers on his neatly folded wings. He wore a soft, warm expression on his painfully handsome face.

Freya approached and held up her hand. ‘Go back,’ she warned the Angel of Death. ‘You are not taking him.’

The angel smiled. ‘I had heard that there was a Valkyrie in this place. You don’t belong here, child, and you know it.’

Freya nodded. ‘I do know it. And I know I’ve caused some trouble with the other angels and that Azrael is going to be furious with me. But please, I am begging you. Go back. Archie means everything to me. I can’t let you take him.’

The angel chuckled softly and the sound was like soft bells. ‘You think Azrael will be furious?’

Freya nodded. ‘That’s what all the others say.’

‘Well, I’ve heard he can be very understanding,’ said the angel.

‘Not about me being here. But Archie is my best friend I can’t lose him.’

‘I am sorry to disappoint you, young one,’ the angel said. ‘But it is his time. He was meant to come weeks ago, but you intervened and stopped JP from killing him. You gave him extra time. But that has run out. He must come with me now.’

Freya gasped. ‘Archie was going to die that day?’

The angel nodded. ‘You saved his life then. But there is nothing you can do for him now. It is as it must be. There is no future for Archie, only the past. Take your precious memories of him and return to Asgard.’

Freya opened her arms and her pain-filled wings to block the angel. ‘No, I won’t let you take him. He deserves better.’

‘And he will have it. This you already know.’

Freya shook her head. ‘No, I mean here and now, in this life. For the first time,