Jane Godman - One Night With The Valkyrie

Hearing Edith’s voice, Adam paused, viewing the scene at the front of the mission through a gap in the stones. What he saw made his blood turn to ice. The kindhearted English doctor and her three assistants were kneeling on the ground with their hands behind their backs, while men with guns stood behind them.

Adam slumped slightly, feeling the rough-hewn rocks pressing into his back. What the hell was he supposed to do? Save the boy or try to help Edith? He almost laughed aloud. And what exactly are you—a one-armed man—going to do against five gunmen?

In the end, it came down to one simple fact. He couldn’t cower behind a wall while people who had helped him took a bullet to the head. Even if the only thing he could do was walk out there and provide a momentary distraction for the gunmen—and let’s face it, that’s likely to be all I can do—then he would do it.

“Keep going along this wall,” he told Tarek, ignoring the boy’s look of horror. “Get as far from this place as fast as you can. Don’t look back.”

Giving Tarek a push to spur him on, Adam moved back in the direction they had just come, finding a broken-down place in the wall. Taking a breath, he clambered over the gap before his resolve faltered. Clenching his jaw to hide his fear, he stepped into the courtyard.

He fully expected the force of five weapons to be turned on him as he walked toward the group of people in front of the mission doors. Instead, no one even glanced his way. That was because their attention was focused entirely on the strange behavior of the leader of the group of militants. Without warning, he stopped screaming at Edith. His head spun so sharply to the right that Adam, still several feet away, heard a crack. It was as if his neck had just broken from an invisible kick to the head. Then the man dropped to the ground.

His followers were still regarding him in surprise, when the reason for this phenomenon was explained...to Adam, at least. Maja appeared from nowhere, holding her Valkyrie sword in both hands. As she swung the weapon above her head, her eyes met Adam’s. The expression in those blue depths reassured and warmed him. She was flesh and blood and she knew what she was doing. He took a moment to feel glad she was on his side.

“Get his gun.” She gestured for Adam to go toward the unconscious form of the leader as she approached the other militants. They were briefly stunned into immobility by what had happened, but Adam wasn’t hopeful that was going to last.

Sure enough, as Maja drew closer, the man who held his gun at Edith’s head raised it and pointed it at the Valkyrie instead. His hand shook wildly as he barked an order at her. Adam could understand the reason for the awestruck expression on his face. With her proud stance and golden hair streaming out behind her, Maja resembled an avenging angel as she bore down on him.

Adam’s injury made him feel close to useless, but he was going to do everything he could to help Maja fight these thugs. It looked like he wouldn’t get the chance, for the man fired at the precise moment that Adam managed to stoop and snag the leader’s discarded gun. As the bullet hit Maja in the abdomen and she doubled over, Adam couldn’t believe the force of the emotion that swept through him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Maja go down, and he wanted to roar like a wounded animal in response. He would never have imagined himself capable of anything so primal and raw. Thought took second place to feeling. Acting on nothing but instinct, he raised his arm and fired an answering shot.

Adam’s bullet hit the rebel in the throat; the man’s body hitting the red dust shook the mission workers into action. Two of the militants had been taken out, which meant their chances were improving. Seizing the initiative, they turned on their attackers. Although gunshots rang out, Adam didn’t see anyone get hit. But that might have been because his attention was on Maja.

After being struck by the bullet, she had dropped to one knee. Now, she was up again and powering forward at a run that would put an Olympic sprinter to shame. Adam shook his head to clear it. He had seen that bullet hit her square in the center of her body. She should be dead or dying, sprawled in the Syrian dust.

She’s real, but she’s not human.

Right now, he couldn’t see a problem with that. As Maja thundered into the fight, sword discarded, Adam was very thankful to have an invincible warrior princess on his side. He watched in admiration as, in one stylish movement, she brought a foot up under the chin of one of the rebels while swinging her elbow full force into the windpipe of another. They would be debilitating blows in any circumstances. He had a feeling, from the way those men crumpled like discarded toys, that from Maja, they were more. She must have a strength over and beyond anything mortal. Those men were never getting up again. The fifth rebel clearly shared his conviction and attempted to run.

“We can’t let him get away.” Edith sounded almost regretful. “If he goes back to his masters and tells them what happened here, the mission is finished.”

Adam helped her to her feet. Edith turned her face away as one of the mission workers fired the final shot at the fifth attacker.

“We need to dispose of these bodies. Fast.” Adam’s face was grim. Had he ever envisaged a situation in which he would utter those words?

As he surveyed the scene, Maja moved toward the drystone wall. As she neared the gap, Tarek burst through the opening and hurled himself into her arms, twining his small body around her like a monkey climbing a tree. An unusually subdued Leo came to sit at her feet.

“Don’t leave me, Maja.” The boy’s desperate plea reached Adam’s ears.

Maja’s voice was soft and reassuring as she cradled Tarek to her. “You are safe now. We won’t let them hurt you.”

Her eyes met Adam’s over Tarek’s head and there was a silent appeal in those blue depths. When she said “we,” she meant the two of them. With an emotion close to shock, he realized he would be the boy’s rescuer. He would do whatever it took to keep him safe, and do it happily. For the first time since Danny’s disappearance, Adam had someone to care for. He might not like the circumstances, but he didn’t dislike the feeling.

Edith was organizing the removal of the bodies. Her men would load them onto the mission truck and drive them out into the desert. Sadly, a pile of anonymous corpses lying in the red sand was not uncommon. Their clothing, with its telltale Reaper insignia, would be burned. No one wanted the Reapers seeking revenge for the deaths of their comrades.

While that activity was taking place outside, Maja carried a terrified Tarek into the building.

“I know you told me to run.” He turned his head to look at Adam, who had followed them inside. “But my legs would not work.”

* * *

“It’s okay.” Maja could see the lines of pain etched into Adam’s face and wondered how he was still standing. “My legs were feeling the same way.”

They went into the kitchen and sat at the table that occupied the center of the room. There was a jug of water and Maja poured glasses for Tarek and Adam. They both gulped the lukewarm liquid gratefully.

“Why were those men looking for you, Tarek?” There was a gentle note in Adam’s voice that surprised Maja.

Tarek’s hand tightened convulsively in Maja’s and he turned wide eyes to hers as if seeking reassurance. “You are not in any trouble,” she explained. “We can only help you if we know the truth.”

Her words seemed to help him reach a decision and he nodded. “It is because I know who he is.” He drew a deep breath as though the words were being dragged up from somewhere deep inside him. “The one they call ‘the Reaper.’”