VALKYRIE

Chapter 19: Juno's POV

I stared up at the sky, in disbelief, fresh tears streaming down my grieving face.

Faun. She was gone. My childhood caretaker. My godmother.

She was so close she felt like my mother. I knelt down. Eric wrapped his arms around me in a comforting embrace.

I welcomed his touch, and we both cried together. I had lost so many people. My mother. And now my godmother. I felt like running away, farther than I had ever run before.

At that moment, I wished there was a secret realm that no one knew about, so I could hide there, away from my problems. I just wanted for it to all be over. The war, the Dark Leader's wrath, and the deaths.

But I couldn't.

I realized that I couldn't escape the past or the present. I couldn't escape the future itself either.

I took a shaky breath and stood up, Eric right beside me the whole time.

Suddenly, I was jarred out of my grieving trance as a battle cry arose from the distance. There were more Dark Soldiers. I immediately snapped out of my feelings and hardened my face. I took a deep breath, then ran towards the Valkyries.

"Everyone! Help me make another barrier spell, but more powerful than ever! Everyone can help out! Let's do it in 3, 2, 1... Now!" I screamed, raising both of my hands in perfect unison with every other Valkyrie.

More indigo flames rose from the ground, but this time they were a more vivid and almost violent color. The flames swirled and connected, snaking around each other and encircling in a powerful force field that was stronger than the entire Dark Army.

The flames were tightly knit together in a death grip of the purple-blue color. You could see through the barrier, but nothing would ever get through it. This barrier would never be unbroken.

As I gazed at the force field, I realized it represented something.

It represented the Valkyries.

The Valkyries and their hopes and losses, their dreams and nightmares, their love and hatred.

Their strengths and weaknesses showed through, and we were all one.

We were powerful together, a group of beings and spirits who would never back down.

We were brave, though we were fearful, we were ready, though we were scared of the battles that lay ahead.

We would never show any weaknesses as a group, and we were each waiting for our time.

Our time to be heroes.

Our time to be who we were meant to be.

Who we were born to be.

This was our time to do everything we had to do, in sacrifices and in love.

We were one within each other.

And we all felt it.

As I turned around and looked into the fearless faces behind me, I knew it was my time to do what I had to do.

I turned back around and shouted the words I had always wanted to say.

"VALKYRIES, WE ARE READY! ATTACK!"

The battle cry that arose from the group was the loudest sound I had ever heard in my life. It was a terrifying sound, and the enemies almost hesitated as they ran, slowing down.

The front row of Valkyries shot flaming arrows at the approaching Dark Soldiers. They all dissipated, but the soldiers kept coming.

I stood still, not backing down, not now, not ever.