The Girl Who Cried Banshee: A Valkyrie Bestiary Tale by Kim McDougall

Author:Kim McDougall [McDougall, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: WrongTree Press
Published: 2021-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter

10

Kyra, it’s time…

The voice slipped past me and around me like a derelict wind. I stood in the garden behind my grandfather’s castle. In the dark, I couldn’t find the face to match the voice. But I knew it.

Aaric called to me.

Kyra, it’s time.

I wanted to go to him, but want was precariously balanced on a blade of panic. If he found me, I might find solace in his embrace. And I was so cold. Alone. But if he found me, if he got hold of my sword, if he turned those blue eyes on me…

He’d ask for the one thing I couldn’t give.

Wind ruffled the trees. I hugged my arms to my chest.

…it’s time.

“Kyra, wake up!”

I opened my eyes to the face looming over me and a scream died in my throat.

Liam. Not Aaric.

“Hey! Are you okay?” His warm hand cupped my shoulder. I struggled to sit up and untangle myself from the sheet. Alarm settled back to the low-ebb anxiety that I’d lived with since leaving Asgard.

Since Aaric forced my hand to be the one that took his life.

I made myself articulate that thought. Put it into words. Put blame where it belonged.

“I’m okay.” I smiled. I wasn’t okay, but I would be.

Liam stood back as if he just realized he’d invaded my bed.

“There’s tea on the stove, if you want something hot, but we should go soon or the others will sail without us.”

“I’ll be ready in a minute.”

“I’m heading to the boat now. Can you bring the cooler on the kitchen table?”

“Sure.” My voice sounded far away to my ears.

He watched me for one long moment, his eyes inscrutable in the shadows. Then he nodded and left.

I sank back into my bed, wishing that I didn’t want him to join me.

*

The rockskippers had come again during the night, but they were already slinking back into the water before the sun rose, leaving the dock a slippery hazard. I skidded across it toward Liam’s boat and tried to remember if I’d heard the banshee’s wail the night before. After the day of hiking, I’d slept undisturbed until the nightmares took me. I rolled my shoulders and stretched my neck from side to side as I walked, trying to work out the tension that had followed me from my dreams.

The men were making boats ready for send-off by loading nets, filling gas tanks, and shouting good-humored banter from one deck to the next.

An old man stood by the dock watching the morning bustle. The corners of his eyes were etched with crow’s feet, the mark of a long-time fisherman, but he didn’t seem in a hurry to set out like the others.

“Going out on the water with the boy?”

“I am.” I smiled but didn’t stop, not wanting to encourage conversation. He fell into step beside me, kicking the rockskippers out of the way, while I tried to creep past them, only nudging with my toe when they blocked my path.

“Bad luck to have a woman aboard,” the old man said.

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