Balancing the weight of my wings was the last thing on my mind, especially when that mind overflowed with memories of rich red blood and the emptiness of death. What the hell was wrong with me? I was a Valkyrie. In some ways, I myself was a harbinger of death. So why should the death of a soon-to-be einherjar affect me so much that given half a chance I'd be bawling my eyes out? She had to die to fulfill her purpose in Odin's service. Besides, I'd known she would soon die. Maybe I hadn't expected it to happen while I sat a few feet away from her, but I'd been forewarned. And yet the horror remained. The horror of bright red blood as it bloomed on her neck in her final moments. As far as I could see, Mika remained unaffected by the whole horrible episode. Unfazed, she recapped the events for the rest of the team, a recap that was really a bullet-by-bullet replay. I had to remind myself that she was a centuries-old shape shifter with decades of killing under her belt. Mika was used to blood and death.
