by Kristie Cook
Eirik, typical guy, ogled her. I jabbed him with my elbow. He smirked. At least he hadn’t brought his camera to immortalize her. After checking in, we disappeared in the women’s locker room while he headed to the men’s. Cora was still spraying leave-in condition to protect her hair against chlorine when I finished getting ready. Ingrid watched her impatiently through the mirror. An insane idea popped in my head, and I moved closer to her.
“How come you’re here alone?” I asked.
She ignored me for a few seconds then shrugged. “I can do things without Maliina, and Andris is gone.”
“Gone where? Hel’s Mist?”
She shuddered. “How do you know about Hel?”
“I’m learning a lot about your world. Maybe you can help me decode some runes.”
She studied me with narrowed eyes. “You’re trying to trick me.” She glanced at Cora and whispered, “We are not supposed to teach runes to Mortals.”
“I’m not like other Mortals,” I pushed, noting that her accent was all but gone.
“Then ask whoever taught you about Hel.”
I was getting nowhere with her. Cora was putting her things away and would soon join us. “You probably don’t know anyway. Well, I hope you and Maliina are happy with what you did to my car.”
Ingrid scowled. “Your car?”
“Yeah, the stupid runes you drew all over it. Now I can’t drive it without worrying. Thanks a lot.” I turned and headed toward the door leading to the pool deck.
Ingrid followed. “We didn’t draw runes on your car.”
“Maybe you didn’t, but I wouldn’t put it past your sister.” I reached the swimming pool and waved to Eirik. He was already in the water. “I bet she’s also the one who caused the blackout.”
“She did not,” Ingrid protested. “It was meant to happen.”
“And Kate just happened to wear a dress like mine, had brown hair like me, and was about my heights. Just because she killed someone else instead of me, she had to put a whammy on my car. If anything happens to me—”
“Show me the runes,” she hissed.
I had her. I knelt, dipped a finger in the pool water, and used it to draw the runes on the dry concrete floor.
Ingrid laughed. “Your sketches are terrible, and no, Maliina didn’t do it. Those are protection runes, and she’d never protect any woman Andris wants.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t want him. Doesn’t that mean anything to her?”
“Then why is he protecting you? We saw the runes at your school. She knows Andris drew them,” Ingrid whispered harshly.
“Him? Why?”
She studied the sketches. “The middle rune is for Goddess Freya. She’s Andris’ protector.”
“Is she Torin’s?”
She made a face as if I was nuts and dived into the pool. I stared after her, mulling over what she’d told me.
“Coming?” Cora asked as she walked past.
I followed her and joined Eirik. I tried to have fun, raced him and goofed around while Cora worked with Ingrid, but at the back of my mind I replayed the conversation I’d had with the Immortal. They were protected by deities, and I shared a protector with Andris. Was that why he’d asked me to join his team?
Screams filled the air, and I turned to find the source. We weren’t the only ones frolicking in the pool. A family with younger and noisier kids was in the smaller, warmer pool the club used for senior therapy. We left the pool for the hot tub.
“I’ll be back,” Eirik said and disappeared toward the restrooms.
As though she’d timed it, Maliina entered the pool deck. Dressed in black skinny jeans, knee-length heeled boots, and a soft-pink sweater, she paused and glanced around. Her eyes narrowed when our eyes met. Then she continued searching until she found Ingrid and Cora. A smug smile lifted the corner of her mouth. She went to the side of the pool to talk to Ingrid, interrupting their lessons, but her focus changed when Eirik entered the pool room.
Still talking to Ingrid, she watched him as though he was her favorite dish and she hadn’t eaten in decades. I clenched my fist. That viper had better not go after him.
“Eirik?” she called out, and he turned around.
My stomach clenched. What did she want with him? I stood and hurried out of the hot tub. I couldn’t hear their conversation because of the noisy kids, but I wasn’t taking chances. Grabbing a towel, I wrapped it around my shoulders and went to join them.
“Maliina,” I said, coming to stand beside Eirik. He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer.
“I was just leaving, Raine. Catch you later, Eirik Seville.” She turned and sashayed away. I counted slowly from ten to one, but I was still pissed. The girl rubbed me the wrong way.
“What was that about?” Eirik asked.
“I can’t stand her. She came to my birthday party at the club and was a total bitch. What did she want?”
“I’m not exactly sure.” Eirik frowned as we walked back to the hot tub. “She asked me some very weird questions. Do I live with my parents? Was I adopted? Do you remember those weird birthmarks I had on my back?”
I nodded. Pink bumpy marks used to crisscross his back, but they were gone now. They’d disappeared by the time we were in third grade.
“She asked about them. How did she know? And who asks such personal questions?”
An Immortal who was up to no good. I glanced back and caught her watching us with a calculating gleam in her pale-blue eyes. Would she hurt Eirik to get back at me? How had she known about Eirik’s birthmarks? Torin knew personal facts about me, too. Maybe they had background info on every member of the swim team.
“She’s weird. Promise to stay away from her.”
He grinned and pulled me closer. “Jealous?”
If playing the jealous girlfriend would keep him safe, then I’d play. “A little. She’s kind of hot.”
“She’s not my kind. Why would I want her when I have you?” He kissed me, taking his time. I poured all my fears into the kiss. When we eased off, I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, savoring the moment, until I realized he had gone quiet. Eirik was a talker.
I leaned back and caught his frown, so I turned and followed his gaze. Cora was laughing at something Ingrid had said. The two were out of the pool.
“How did Cora connect with Maliina’s sister?” Eirik asked.
I explained the meeting at The Hub as Cora started toward us. Ingrid and Maliina headed toward the changing rooms.
“How did it go?” I asked when Cora joined us.
“Great. She’s really nice. Oh, this feels good,” Cora said, slipping in the churning water.
“Did you tell her it was a one-time thing?”
Cora shrugged. “No. She asked if we could do it again tomorrow. I said I’d call her.”
I sighed. “Cora.”
“I know that her sister is not nice, but Ingrid is different. She misses home. Her sister hangs out with her boyfriend all the time and leaves her alone. Blaine doesn’t have any sisters for her to hang out with.” Her eyes flashed. I knew that look. It meant she was going to be stubborn.
I raised my hands in the universal sign of surrender. “Okay. Work with her, but I’ll be here to keep an eye on Maliina.”
Cora rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to. I mean, she’s kind of mean, but she’s hardly a serial killer. I don’t need you babysitting me.”
“Fine. Have it your way.”
“I always do,” she retorted.
I wanted to shake some sense into her. She could be so annoyingly stubborn sometimes, but this time, she was dealing with forces beyond her understanding. I glanced at Eirik. He wore a puzzled expression like he’d landed in the Twilight Zone.
“What’s going on?” he mouthed.
I just shook my head. “We should go. I still have history homework.”
Tension was heavy in the air as we changed and during the drive home. I hated it. Cora and I were tight and rarely
fought. This was the Immortals’ fault. Their presence was disrupting every fabric of my life. I clung to my seat and hoped Cora didn’t kill us.
She careened into Orchard Street without slowing down, totally forgetting the yield sign and almost hitting another car. She jerked the wheel, swerved, and kept going. I held on to the dashboard and opened my mouth to tell her to slow down, but Eirik beat me to it.
“Damn it, Cora!” he yelled. “Slow down.”
“Why? That wasn’t my fault,” she snapped, veering to the left to overtake another car. “Idiot! Slow pokes!” She overtook another, almost colliding with an oncoming truck.
I was queasy by the time she screeched to a halt outside my house, barely missing our mailbox. I stared at her with wide eyes, but she didn’t bother to look at me. “I’ve gotta go, so out of the car.”
“You can’t drive if you’re pissed off about something, Cora,” I said, my stomach still roiling.
“Last time I checked, this was my car, so get the hell out,” she said rudely.
Eirik leaned forward. “Cora—”
“Out!” she screamed.
We scrambled out of her car, and she threw the car into gear. We stared after her as the taillights disappeared around the corner. Cora was usually a careful driver. What had gotten into her?
“What the hell was that about?” Eirik asked. “Did you two have a fight that I missed? Because nothing makes sense. Why was she driving like a lunatic? We almost got into an accident,” Eirik snarled, still freaking out.
I had no answer for him. Instead, I pulled out my cell phone and texted Cora, then glanced at Torin’s. The lights were on in the upstairs bedroom, which meant he was home. He might know what Maliina and her sister had done to cause Cora to act so reckless. She’d almost gotten us killed. “I have to go.”
“Do you want me to stay?” Eirik asked as he walked me to the door, making me wonder if he’d caught the way I’d glanced at Torin’s.
“That would be nice, but I won’t finish my homework,” I whispered back.
He gave in without an argument and gave me a brief kiss. “I’ll see you at school tomorrow. I have to go in early for a meeting with Drexel.”
Drexel was his art teacher and Visual Arts Club advisor. I checked my cell phone as soon as Eirik left, but there was no message from Cora. Not that I expected any. Sighing, I locked the door and headed upstairs. Mom was still awake when I walked past her door.
“How was it?” she called out.
I popped my head inside her room. She had a large book on her lap and receipts all over her bed. She was doing her finances.
“You do know there’s software for such things,” I teased, no longer feeling queasy.
“I’m too old fashioned for computers.” She continued to scribble.
“I can help if you’d like. I took computer applications last year, which covered Microsoft Excel.”
“No, sweetie. I’ll stick with what I know while you …” She studied me with a knowing smile. “You focus on your school work, being a teenager, and finding a guy that puts stars in your eyes.”
“Eirik puts stars in my eyes.” I fluttered my eyelashes.
“Then I’d like to hear more than ‘okay’ after an evening out with him.”
My face grew warm.
“Don’t worry, sweetie. You’ll meet the right guy someday and you’ll understand.”
I shook my head. “Goodnight, Mom.”
“Night, sweetheart.”
In my room, I changed into my pajamas and was getting ready to start my homework when I got a text from Eirik. He’d stopped by Cora’s to make sure she was okay. She got home safely but was still acting crazy. I hope whatever had gotten into her would wear off by tomorrow or Maliina was going to get an earful from me.
I barely finished my homework when the lights in Torin’s bedroom flashed on and off. My heart skipped, but I ignored the signal and turned on the computer. I’d wait until tomorrow and see how Cora was doing before talking to him. Right now, I was dying to meet Goddess Freya, my protector.
BEING IGNORED SUCKED
The beautiful Freya was the goddess of love, beauty, fertility, war, and wealth. She was also the guardian of feminine magic and a patroness of women who attain wisdom and power. She was part of the older Norse pantheon known as the Vanir, while Odin, Thor, and Loki were part of the younger gods, the Aesir. Reading how the Aesir fought Vanir gods and took over reminded me of how Zeus and the Olympians fought the Titans in Greek mythology. The only difference was Odin and the Asgardians embraced the Vanir gods and goddesses afterwards.
Odin might have received magical runes, but Freya taught the gods sorcery, spells, and charms when she moved to Asgard. The interesting part was, when soldiers died in battle, she received half of the dead heroes while the other half went to Odin in Valhalla. These soldiers then trained for the final battle between the gods and their evil enemies, when our world would be flooded and destroyed.
The more I read about the goddess, the more I wanted to learn. I had to remind myself she wasn’t just a mythological goddess. Torin and his immortal friends believed in her and other Norse pantheon, and the runes associated with them gave them real powers.
Remembering Ingrid’s scathing words about my sketches, I traced the two runes associated with Goddess Freya several times in a notebook.
Once again, the lights in Torin’s bedroom flashed. I ignored the signal and crawled into bed. Half the night, my mind went in circles with the things I’d learned.
Mom took one look at me in the morning and frowned. “What happened?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Is this still about Kate?”
“No, homework … tests …” I escaped behind a bowl of cereal before she could question me anymore.
I drove to school without worrying about accidents or something bad happening to me. That didn’t mean I ignored the runes on my car. I planned to find out who wrote them and why they felt I needed protection. After Cora’s crazed driving last night, maybe I could ask whoever it was to protect her, too. Or I could do it myself now that I knew how to sketch the runes. The problem was my runes would freak her out. I didn’t have the invisible ink Torin and his people used, and I had no plan of talking to them or asking them for help.
Lady Luck wasn’t on my side, though. The first people I saw when I arrived at school were Ingrid and Maliina as they stepped out of Blaine’s SUV. Like a magnet, Maliina found me. She said something to Blaine then crossed the parking lot and cut me off.
“Lorraine.”
“Maliina.” I kept walking.
“Do you really think those runes will protect you from me?”
“I try not to think about you, Maliina.”
“You know what they say about keeping your enemies closer? I perfected it. Last time Andris showed interest in another girl, I took care of her.” A cruel smile twisted her lips as she glanced at her sister.
“You turned your own sister?”
“No, but I made sure Andris did, so stay away from him.”
“Only if you stay away from my friends,” I retorted.
She laughed. “Your friend is an idiot, gullible. I hope she had a nice drive home last night.”
“Yeah, thanks to Goddess Freya,” I bragged, lying through my teeth. “She not only protects me. She protects anyone close to me.” The smile disappeared from Maliina’s lips. I wasn’t sure whether it was because I’d mentioned the goddess or something else.
“You can’t be with your friends all the time, Mortal. She might just be a pawn in this game we’re playing, but Eirik Seville is much more. He intrigues me.”
“Stay away from him.”
“Or what? What can you possibly do to me?” She chuckled gleefully and took off. I stared after her then released a shaky breath. What a sicko. She’d done something to Cora, or her car. For what? An obsession with a guy?
Torin pulled up as I crossed the street. I thought I heard him call my n
ame, but I kept going. My sanity demanded I stay away from him and his kind. Cora was waiting for me by the lockers, her expression contrite.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said, hugging me. “I was horrible to you, and I can’t even explain why.”
I could. I checked her face and the back of her hands for runes. There were none. “I’ve seen you at your worst.”
“I know. Dad took my car keys when I had a fender bender and threatened he’d take my car until I leave for college if I got into another accident. I’m going with the original plan. One lesson and I’m done. I’ll text Ingrid and explain.”
“Good. Did she or her sister do or say anything to you before they left the pool last night?”
Cora frowned. “Not really.”
“Are you sure?”
“I know I acted like I was crazy or something, but it had nothing to do with them. All Maliina did was show me this really cool pen that’s shaped like a dagger. She accidently scratched my arm, but it was nothing. There was no blood. Where’s Eirik? I owe him an apology, too. He stopped by my house to check on me and I went loco on his poor head.”
“You had a bad moment. I’m sure he’ll understand. He came early to see his art teacher about something.”
We turned a corner and almost bumped into Torin and Jess with her sidekicks—Danielle, Savanna, and Vera. The four girls, all seniors, had been the relay Dream Team before I joined varsity. I replaced Vera in my freshman year, and they never forgave me.
Jess was plastered to Torin’s side like a wet rag, one hand rubbing his chest absentmindedly as she talked. I wanted to yank her arm from its socket and drag him away from her. Our eyes met, and my breath froze in my chest. Blue fire flashed in the depth of his sapphire eyes. He was pissed, yet when Jess reached up and touched his cheek to draw his attention, his expression softened as he stared down at her. I couldn’t explain why it hurt to see them together. I had no claim on Torin. He could date whoever he liked. Looking away, I tried to control my emotions. Luckily, we were close to the restrooms.
“I’ll be right out,” I said and slipped inside.
“Did you see that?” Cora hissed, following me. “Torin totally ignored us like we were invisible or something.”
