He and the twins had agreed that no one could know about Lucia until she was bearing Garreth's bite mark upon her neck. The beast inside any Lykae would recognize the claim as Garreth's, would know she was forever under his protection.
Then the three of them had combed the streets of New Orleans, a city they hadn't visited often, and all the while, Garreth impatiently counted down the hours till this day.
Finding information had proved difficult. Big Easy Loreans were suspicious of the Lykae newcomers to their city and on guard with the Accession approaching. Garreth had come up empty in his search, but the twins had charmed a voodoo shopkeeper who'd told them much.
Now as Garreth waited in the swamp, he thought back over all they'd learned about Lucia....
"She's legendary for her archery skills," Munro had said. "Nothing else unique about her."
That was all she was known for? "There must be more. What does she like to do? What are her interests?"
"No one knows," Uilleam had answered. "She's just the Archer." As if nothing more needed to be said about her. It was how she was identified.
Munro had added, "But it's rumored that she feels agonizing pain whenever she misses a target."
Luckily, Garreth couldn't see that happening too often with her skill. But then his chest had grown heavy.
Was that how she'd gotten to be so good?
Above all, they'd learned the Valkyrie were peculiar creatures. Their origin alone fascinated him. Each Valkyrie had three parents. Whenever a maiden faced death with uncommon bravery, the Norse gods Freya and W
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