Free Struck: (Phoebe Meadows Book 1) by Amanda Carlson Page A

which is what I am forced to do here daily.”
    “How can you understand me so easily?” I asked. “English can’t possibly be your first language.” Why that was the most important thing to lead with was beyond me, but I had to start somewhere. “You’re from an entirely different realm of reality than me. We shouldn’t be able to communicate at all.”
    “Gods—even demigods—are born knowing all Midgard languages. Without that knowledge, we would be severely weakened.”
    “Midgard?”
    “The human realm, Valkyrie.” He glanced at me like I was an idiot. “It was apparent where you hailed from when I heard you speak the first time. If you had spoken another language, I would have responded in kind.”
    “Why do you keep calling me ‘Valkyrie’?” I asked as we emerged into a smaller cave. He came to a stop in front of a dark pool of water. The light in this cave was equally as dim as the other, fueled, as far as I could see, by a small fire pit situated on a higher plateau than where we stood. The ceiling here was taller than the bigger cavern we’d been in, but this room was skinnier, with rock closing in steeply on both sides. “I’m not a Valkyrie.” I glanced down at the water, waiting for Fenrir to answer me.
    It looked deathly black in the low light, steam rising in wispy tendrils. For steam to be rising in this heat zone, it had to be burning hot in there.
    He set me down on a small boulder beside the pool. My leg banged the rock, and I cried out, gritting my teeth. I shifted my weight, and I could feel the blood begin to flow in earnest from the cut Fen had made on my thigh. My skirt was pulled down, so I couldn’t see the damage. I pressed my hand through the cloth to try to staunch the bleeding.
    There wasn’t much else I could do.
    Fen backed up a few paces and peered down at me strangely. “I call you Valkyrie because that’s what you are.”
    “I’m human ,” I responded firmly. “I was born in Midgard, as you refer to it. I’m not a Valkyrie. I don’t even know what that is. I promise you, there’s nothing special about me. If I was something else, I would know it.”
    Fen took a seat opposite me. “That may be very true, since you are innocent on many levels, but I’ve never seen a human being glow before. My contact with your kind is lacking, as it’s been many centuries since I’ve ventured to Midgard, but to my knowledge, mankind’s ability to kindle magic is all but gone. It died out thousands of years ago, when our kind stepped back. We were ordered to never interfere with humans again. For the most part, we’ve upheld our end of the bargain, but only someone fueled by Asgard blood could have burned as brightly as you did when I first saw you.”
    “I was glowing because of the tree,” I grumbled defensively, rubbing my arms. “When I stood next to it, it infused its stuff into me. I’m not glowing now, see?” I held up a hand.
    He nodded. “Indeed, you are not. But trust me, I’ve come across many shieldmaidens in my lifetime, most of them hunting me, but none has ever shone as brilliantly as you did when you emerged from that portal. Your essence was blinding. Yet you seem to know nothing of your kind.” He shook his head. “It’s a mystery.”
    “It’s no mystery. It was just the tree.” I winced as I tried to reposition myself on the unforgiving hard surface. “It’s obviously magical, or I wouldn’t have been able to ride around in it like a magical dryer. It gave me its juice, and now it’s gone, so no more glow.”
    Fen tipped his head back and laughed. The sound was a nice break from his hard edge. “Its juice, as you refer to it, is your sustenance now. You light up because your body drinks its energy for fuel. Valkyries cannot live far from Yggdrasil. They can find energy in other places, of course, but long bouts without drinking from the tree will lessen them, threatening their very existence. Your glow, as well as your smell, marks