Chapter 27

**Harper**

I didn't want to. I wasn't ready to spill everything I had learned. Even though I had only learned a name. Well, I learned I shared my mind and my body with an ancient soul named Hildr. She was a Valkyrie...she was strong, powerful. So powerful that her surfacing just for a short period of time exhausted me to the point of nearly passing out. And now I sat across from Greta, who also houses a Valkryie spirit named Skuld. Who happens to be a Norn...I had something I needed to study when I got back to school. So many names and titles that I don't think I would ever be able to keep them straight.

"Harper.." I look back to my dad and he held a look of slight fear in his eyes. Was he afraid of me? Why? I would never hurt my father.

"Call him please..." I nodded and I settled back into my chair and took a very deep breath feeling worn and tired down to my bones. I reached deep into my mind feeling for Gabe. He was waiting with open arms. He waited in the rafters for me to reach for him and he latched onto my mind. His energy flowed into me and it made it easier to open my eyes. I reached for him emotionally and he was worried, scared, and tense. At that moment I wanted to comfort him more than anything.

'Gabe...' I spoke softly within my mind, and he knew instantly what I needed. He was coming, he kept tabs on me which I was grateful for. I opened my eyes and looked back to Greta.

"He is on his way." I pushed out of the chair and walked around the table to the front door. Greta followed behind me, it raised the hair on the back of my neck.

"Greta, give them some space." My father spoke up and Greta didn't follow me any farther than the doorway. I walked outside and the garden was just as welcoming as it had been before. But as I looked around I noticed that the houses next to it weren't in the same condition. And it quickly gave me a headache. Hildr came to my rescue, sending me soothing emotions and helping me to stop my mind from struggling. Maybe it was better I couldn't see through the illusion. I heard the sound of wings and my eyes shot to the sky. Gabe? He dropped from the sky in a little bit of a hurry. I walked to meet him as he landed in a light jog. I stepped into his arms and he turned me away from the house, the source of the stress.

"Are you okay?" I didn't say anything just soaked up the comfort he offered. His arms tightened around me and his back snapped straight at the sounds of footsteps. Hildr came to life in more than half a second, she was going to kill me I swear it. The power rushed to the surface of my being. I stepped aside for her to come to the full front. She expertly tucked an arm under Gabriel's arm and threw her weight to the opposite side. Sending him straight to the side, with my other hand thrown back behind me with my palm outwards, I felt the pull of energy come from somewhere centered on my chest, and in my hand appeared a beautiful golden-hilted, silver-bladed sword. Gabriel felt the shift in my brain as well the jump in my power. Hildr flipped the blade of the sword up around our hip and Greta stood there in a full suit of armor. And she was dazzling, but we didn't bend. Our eyes met and she looked down at us and then her eyes flicked to Gabriel who had neatly been tucked against my opposite side and my wing came up to block him.

"You never were one to share Hildr." The crackle of the voice held a hint of age. She felt my warning energy stores and I began to worry about how much this would take from me. Not a second after the worry came to my mind my energy levels pushed back up to normal. I felt Gabriel's energy filter into my body and I felt ready for battle.

"Skuld...attack my daughter and you will answer to the Allfather." My father stepped out of the house and the image was shattered. No longer was it the perfect place, but an old foreclosed home, that was half destroyed the grass was dead, and decaying garbage replaced the scent of the flowers. I kept my eyes trained on Skuld and she too changed, going from the young woman to something between the kind of witch you read about in a children's book, and something truly a part of nightmares. She hissed at my father and he took a step from the house, and she grumbled and turned back to me.

"We will get to play soon I swear it Hildr." And then she spread her old leathery bat-like wings, and she launched off the porch. As Hildr melted away and the sword faded away from my fingertips, it was Gabriel's energy alone that kept me on my feet. My father walked down the dilapidated stairs.

"The Norn are a strange bunch...usually they are harmless..." He looked up to the sky shaking his head.

"Come I will take you back to your house Gabriel." I felt my entire body sag into Gabriel's arm and he continued to feed me steady amounts of energy.

"She needs specialized training..." Gabriel's voice spoke over my head, and I rested my head back against his shoulder. He lifted me off my feet and Hildr allowed me to settle quickly, happier to be known by name and by race than being thought of as a beast. Slowly as my energy levels raised from dangerously low, Gabriel cut off the flow slowly. Less waterfall more calm stream.

"She could end up killing herself if she isn't taught properly." My father put a hand on his shoulder.

"They don't teach..." My father led us towards the car.

"She is a Valkyrie Gabriel, and she is going to be one of the strongest there is. When we enrolled her at the Academy she hadn't shown any signs of having a Valkyrie soul within her, I thought her gift of flight was the only result of her heritage...I was wrong. I am sorry, but we will have to place her in a different school...she needs to be taught to control her power..." Gabriel's hand tightened on my shoulders as we slid into the car. And there was no more talk. I rested comfortably across Gabriel's lap as he ran a comforting hand over my hair repetitively.