“Hence why it feeds on us,” Thayen concluded.
“Exactly. Your bodies replenish your energy through sleep, only now you’re forced to do it more often than before. Six to eight hours nightly for proper functions. It’s the standard effect for everybody,” Brandon said.
It applied to each of us here in the same way, then.
“Like regular humans would,” I said.
The Berserker shrugged. “Point is, the clones go through this as well, so there’s a day and night cycle happening here, even if this place is covered by darkness all the time.”
“Therefore, the clones all sleep at once, during the so-called night.”
“Yes. And that’s when we want to make our move,” Brandon said, his stern gaze fixed on the distant lighthouse. It flickered faintly in a thick grayish mist, its light rotating slowly across the nothingness of the ocean before returning across this false Shade. “Hopefully, our Valkyrie lady will return with useful information.”
I turned to face him, and it made him grow suddenly tense. Why? I had a feeling the Berserker was revealing more than he’d intended through his body language. “What’s your deal with the Valkyrie? As a Berserker, I mean… you haven’t told us much.”
“And I don’t really plan on telling you more,” he replied with a cool grin. “Like I said, you’re not even supposed to—”
“Know about you and your realm, yeah, yeah, you’ve said that before,” I shot back, rolling my eyes. His demeanor toward me was uneven. Sometimes, he was warm and called me Pinkie. At other times, he gave me icy smiles and kept me at arm’s length. It confused me. Then again, I was just as inconsistent toward him. “But we’re here. We’re supposed to be helping each other. We’re supposed to trust each other. How can we do that when we know little to nothing about you? You keep saying you don’t know much about HQ, but I have a hard time believing that. I have a hard time fully trusting you.”
Thayen watched us closely, his gaze often settling on Brandon. I could see he didn’t fully trust him, either. Most of what the Berserker had done for us had been to our advantage, but I couldn’t quite get over the incident in the dungeons. He’d ratted us out once. What were the odds it would happen again when we’d least expect it? Still, I couldn’t stop myself from hanging onto this idea of him as a safe haven. In this wretched darkness, Brandon had brought light. A strange light, given his obscure nature, but a light, nonetheless. There was something about him I found difficult to ignore. Something that made my heart beat a little faster whenever he glanced my way. I struggled to reconcile these two sides of my clearly disrupted emotional spectrum.
“Any suspicion I might have about HQ is worthless without concrete evidence. To me, only one thing matters, whether you care to believe me or not,” Brandon said, slowly raising his chin. “They have Hammer. The best I can do is help however I can without drawing attention to myself from the leadership.”
“Okay. Then how can you help?” I asked.
“I know more than Myst, for starters,” he replied, giving Thayen a wry smile. “I suggest you try and keep it professional. She’s way above your pay grade.”
“Whoa.” Thayen’s eyes widened as he sat up straight. “Whoa, there. What are you talking about?”
Brandon laughed throatily, throwing his head back at the same time. “Oh, come on. She obviously rattled you. It doesn’t come as a surprise. The Valkyries have the same effect on everybody else, me and my brothers included. They’re beings of beauty and light, of grace and wisdom. You can’t look away.”
“I’ve never seen a creature like her before. Or you, for that matter. I think I’m allowed to be rattled,” Thayen replied, crossing his arms.
Below, it was quiet. The only sound was the emerald canopy rustling in the late evening wind, shadows dancing everywhere under the faint glow coming from above. The Black Heights had never looked so beautiful, even though they weren’t our Black Heights. This strange familiarity would keep getting to me, I realized. This idea that I was home, but not really home. I’d never tried to imagine hell before, but I could easily envision it now. It was this place, a beautiful lie filled with people who were desperate to see me dead. Yet it was also where I had pushed myself beyond known limits... and it was where I’d met Brandon—a secret I was eager to untangle and understand.
“Fair enough,” the Berserker sighed. “Just know that you’re in over your heads, even with Myst and me by your side. It’s not enough. It will never be enough. They’ve got at least a dozen of my brothers working for them, and Haldor isn’t even the worst of them. You wouldn’t survive an onslaught from all twelve.”
“Maybe you could teach us,” I suggested. “Or help us more.”
Brandon gave me a long, intense look. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but it made my stomach flutter. “I cannot promise anything. Not until I get Hammer back.”
“Okay. Let us help you with that,” I replied. “Do you know where they’re keeping him?”
“No.”
“Do you have a way of finding out?”
“No.”
Thayen scoffed, shaking his head slowly. “Don’t bother, Astra. I wouldn’t count on him if I were you. He has burned us once already. He could do it again.”
“I probably will,” Brandon replied. “But for now, I will assist however I can. Just understand that there are
