Page 135 of Realm Walker's Awakening

Goosebumps rose over my body, and a shiver crept up my spine. My breath caught in my throat as I stared at the woman charging to the other side, and I swear I could see her scowling and screaming her attack. I had a feeling I knew who she was.

Ice swirled and cracked as it branched out, making my eyes follow it until it went up to my face’s reflection. It framed me until I could only see my face with the battle below. My eyes glowed brighter, then flashed an ice blue with the forest witch’s face before it went back to green and my face.

“Still like ice, but deadly to lull you into your death. Focus...” the crone and I said at the same time. I didn’t know how I was talking without realizing it.

My hand raised, dragging a finger back on my forehead in a straight line. Black paint appeared as my fingertip moved down. It was one line, but I knew it wasn’t just a line.

It was a rune.

“It’s time,” the crone whispered. The two words echoed over the drums.

My went spun and felt like static for a few seconds. In time with the beats of the drum, my aura pulsed and branched out with each one. After three more beats, my head splintered, and pain shot through my head to the rest of my body.

Throwing my head back, I screamed at the top of my lungs as it felt like my head was being split in two and pushed back together.

Voices, images of people I’d met before, and knowledge pounded into my head, and it was all too much.

Tears stung the corners of my closed eyes, streaking down my cheeks, hurting me too. My throat became raw from my screams, but I couldn’t stop. Not when it felt like someone was taking an ice pick to my temple and banging it in while someone else was forcing the split of my skull back together.

“Isa!” Rune roared but was muffled over my screams and the drums. “Wake up!”

“Make it stop! Make it stop!” I shrieked.

A door flashed in my mind’s eyes. Glowing runes lined around it stood out first. The door were closed, and every time they popped into my vision, the runes glowed brighter. Fog curled around them, and I heard men shouting behind like they were battling. A few roared in laughter, and I heard the clanking of mugs meeting in cheers. Over and over, the large door that was taller than a skyscraper and wider than a mall strip came into my mind’s eye.

It went from darkness to the door, darkness to the door.

My voice stopped working. Only whimpers escaped me as I reached a hand out to the stone. It was miles away from me but crept closer with each flash. The fog curled thicker around it, and the battling and celebration sounds grew louder over the voices and the knowledge that was still being pounded into my head.

My hand trembled, and my fingers shook as I reached for the door. The air from my lungs was sucked right out of me. Tears swam in my eyes as I gasped for a breath that wouldn’t come. The golden glow of the runes around the door grew brighter.

“Isa,” Rune whispered from right behind me. His enormous chest came to my back, and his hand slid from my shoulder down my arm to my outstretched hand. Entwining his fingers with mine, he curled them down into my palm while my fingertips stretched out to touch the door that was now a few steps away from me. His lips brushed the shell of my ear, his breaths warm and tickling the small hairs by my ear. “I’m here now. Use me to open the door to Valhalla.”

To be continued . . .

I am sorry this time.