Title: Valhalla
Author: L.A. Ashton
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: December 31, 2018
Heat Level: 1 - No Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 17900
Genre: Fantasy, Valkyrie, war, WWII, Norse Mythology, gay, historical fantasy
Synopsis
Sakuma has served as a Valkyrie for
centuries, smoothly escorting thousands of souls to the grand halls of
Valhalla. While the world tears itself apart during WWII, he is summoned to
retrieve the soul of a fallen Japanese soldier, Ishii Hiroshi. To Sakuma’s
surprise, Ishii refuses his invitation to eternity.
The two meet again and again as the war
repeatedly sends Ishii to death’s door, and what should have been a fleeting
encounter becomes something much greater for the both of them.
Sakuma is determined to give Ishii the
reward he so deserves, but Ishii’s stubbornness may condemn him to an eternity
outside Valhalla.
Excerpt
Valhalla
L.A. Ashton © 2018
All Rights Reserved
Sakuma stared down through the floor,
past his feet, through the crack in his dimension. Beyond the collisions and
splits of galaxies, Earth’s thrumming pulse called to him. There lay his
charges—the human souls he would collect so they might rest easy in Valhalla.
He felt the tug in his chest, the pull
of someone destined for his collection, and spread his wings wide before
plunging through the rift that linked their worlds. With wings tucked at his
sides, stars became burning streaks of light. The universe blurred and twisted,
an orb of hazy blue its only clear constant.
Earth had erupted into a time of war,
and Sakuma and his fellow Valkyrie labored for the sake of human souls. They
saw the hidden crevices and shadows of war no one wanted to see. The world
wilted before their eyes, and the bloodstained present turned the future bleak,
and dark. But they also saw triumph, and sunrise after sunrise starting the day
anew. They saw the look on every soldier’s face as they realized death wasn’t
the end.
It was worth it.
Sakuma punctured Earth’s atmosphere, and
the smells of the lands and seas gusted against his face. His eyes softened at
the reflective sparkle of the ocean; it was a beautiful sight, an unchanging
thing that rose and fell under the press of the moon rather than the press of
humanity.
The ground approached fast. Sakuma felt
the tremble of the soul before his eyes could discern who it belonged to, but
then—yes. Sakuma’s wings flared outward, body halting so immediately it
dissolved the idea of impossibility.
Tanks, empty bullet shells, and
discarded guns were strewn across the ground. Machines and bodies littered the
battlefield as if they carried the same value. The acrid stench of gunpowder
resisted the wind and hung in the air, a trail left in the wake of Axis and
Allies. Sakuma looked down at his charge. The man stared up at him, eyes wide
and unblinking. He was bleeding, his uniform more crimson than not, and he
shook with such ferocity that Sakuma could hear it in his breaths.
Sakuma knelt down and offered his hand.
The man blinked, his lashes coercing loose the tears still clinging to his
eyes.
“You’ve done well,” Sakuma told him. He
held his outstretched hand steady as his wings flapped at his back. “Let’s take
you away from this.”
The soldier gawked at Sakuma’s wings
before bringing his eyes down to the offered palm. He immediately grabbed hold,
the sensation firm and warm against Sakuma’s skin. Good. He’s ready.
Sakuma curled his fingers around the
man’s hand and lifted. As the soldier rose, the flesh of his hand fell away and
lowered to the ground. What was left gripping Sakuma’s hand were tendrils of
light in the purest, lightest blue.
Strings of energy knit together to form
fingers, and arms and shoulders wound away from the confines of a body to
become iridescent limbs. Sparkling light ghosted from the soldier, lifting past
his body as his human form sighed its last breath. The human didn’t notice the
transition. He only smiled, and that smile was lit with the radiant energy of
life. Sakuma grabbed his other hand to steady him, and there was a discernible
purr of peace.
Sakuma spread his wings, took a breath,
and shot them into the air.
He kept his eyes up as they sailed
through the Earth’s sky and broke through the seal of the atmosphere. But once
they were careening through space, breaking apart time and dimensions, he liked
to watch their faces.
Every man thought he knew true beauty.
And then every man saw the infinite expanse of space, and they realized they’d
been wrong.
Gas, dust, and rock were turned perfect
and ethereal in the silence of space, backlit by millions of stars. Galaxies
wound into spirals, blues warmed into reds around a sun, purple and green
congealed in overheated leftovers of a supernova.
Sakuma watched the faces of the humans
he brought, their newly transcendent form experiencing their first taste of
eternity.
Eventually, he left them at the gates of
Valhalla. There they could take the seat reserved for them—a place promised to
true warriors for the rest of time.
Hands now freed, Sakuma turned to gaze
into the black. Somewhere beyond that void, there was a pulse. Another life had
found a heroic end. Sakuma smiled, spread his wings, and plunged back toward
Earth.
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Meet the Author
L.A. Ashton is an LGBT+ author writing LGBT+ fiction. They enjoy rock music, traveling, and anything else that adds color to their daydreams. They believe in the healing properties of art and of having a cat firmly stationed on one’s lap. Their official site can be found at www.LAAshton.com.
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