Mom studied us with a frown as we settled around the table. I didn’t know what her gift was before she switched to runic magic, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was mind reading. She always knew things before I said them. She and Dad talked about Immortal families in the valley during dinner.
“The Tolberts arrived here after we did.”
“The Tolberts are Immortal? Does that mean Jaeden and Nate were orphans?”
Dad chuckled at my reaction. “Yes.”
The two were juniors in college now, but in high school, one had played football while the other had swum. Their family owned one of the largest vineyards in Kayville, their land bordering ours. “Do they know who they are?”
“They both chose to use runes. It is a choice most Immortals give the orphans. Some parents tell them early, while others wait until they’re eighteen. Some kids decide to start using some runes early.”
“Didn’t runes give the Tolberts unfair advantage in sports.”
Dad nodded. “It would have. That’s why they stopped participating in sports as soon as they chose to use runes. We have a strict code when it comes to runes.”
“Any other Immortals I know of?” I asked.
My jaw dropped as they listed more people around town. Storeowners Mom did business with, local businessmen, more farmers with vineyards. Some were kids who’d gone to my school and left for college, while others were still students at Kayville High or the other local high schools.
“What percent of the town is Immortal?”
“About twenty percent?” Dad looked at Mom for affirmation.
“Close to thirty, dear,” Mom said. “Whenever we reinvent ourselves, we tend to stay in touch, so if one person finds the perfect location, the others join them. Those who love the anonymity of urban areas move from city to city, while we rural folks move from small town to small town. We usually prefer struggling or dying towns, so we pour our resources into rebuilding them. We buy the farms and businesses, encourage growth, and boost local economy. We even donate money to fix the schools and offer scholarships to local students. Within a year of taking over a town, we are usually the majority. As the towns do better, more Mortals move back or come looking for jobs, marry, and have babies. Before you know it, we become the minority.”
“Do they realize you never age?”
Mom chuckled. “We move on before they do and reinvent ourselves elsewhere. How long do you think we have here, dear?” She glanced at Dad.
My stomach dropped as my imagination went into overdrive. I imagined coming home from school to finding the farm empty.
“For those who don’t age, another ten years,” Dad said. “But for those like us, we can hang in here for a little bit longer. Maybe another twenty.”
Good. I didn’t want them to move. This was my home. “Don’t you get tired of moving?”
Mom shook her head. “As long as we have a purpose, we don’t. We’ve helped rebuild communities, countries, and civilizations from ravages of wars for centuries. Heck, some of us even fight for our chosen countries, but what we help with is reconstruction after the devastation. We try not to interfere or change the course of history, which is why you don’t see any of our kind in the limelight. We keep to the background. Do you ever see your father go on a book tour?” He had the same picture in the dust jackets of all his books. It must have been taken thirty years ago.
I helped Mom clean up the kitchen and continued our conversation.
“So since you are ancient, does that mean we are rich?” I asked.
Mom chuckled. “We have enough to get by,” she said. “When you live as long as we do, you tend to use several banks in several countries and move your money around according to the shift in political stability.”
“So how come I get a puny allowance and do chores like wash dishes when we can afford a maid?” I asked, dead serious. I hated washing dishes. I was okay with picking apples or collecting eggs from the coop, but dishes were the bane of my existence.
Dad laughed. “I’ll let your mother answer that.”
“Washing dishes creates character.”
My jaw dropped while Echo tried hard not to laugh. “You’re so not funny.”
Mom chuckled. “Appearance, sweetheart. We can anonymously give out scholarships to struggling students, but when it comes to how we live, we have to maintain appearances. How would it look if we send you off to expensive holidays and buy you designer clothes when your father and I are simple organic farmers and bakers of apple pies?”
“But Dad is a successful author,” I whined. “No one will know I’m wearing a couture. I could say they’re knockoffs.” My parents laughed. Somehow, I didn’t think they’d sympathize with my obsession with fashion. “Can I at least have an increase in my allowance?”
“You walk around with a priceless ring on your finger and you own a cottage before your eighteenth birthday. What more could you possibly want?” Mom asked.
I didn’t know they knew Echo had put my name on the title deed of the cottage. I stopped pushing. Echo left to reap and pass on closure notes to Rhys and Nara while I went to bed. Dev still hadn’t come back.
Echo crawled into my bed just before I fell asleep, and I didn’t have the heart to kick him out. He was cold and needed me to warm him. Love had turned me into a total pushover. I wasn’t feeling so charitable in the morning.
“Are we no longer pretending?”
He sighed and gave me the lost puppy look. I resisted.
“Maybe you shouldn’t sleep over here anymore. I’m planning on going to Helheim next weekend, so we might as well get mentally ready for the separation.”
“Okay.”
I gawked at him. He wasn’t even willing to fight for us? What was wrong with him? I picked up a pillow and hit him with it. He caught and gently placed it on my bed without showing any emotions. If he’d shown he was tortured about his decision, I would have forgiven him.
It wasn’t until he left that I noticed my baby blanket had been returned.
I drove my Elantra since Echo had taken his SUV to the cottage the night before. I noticed the increased number of souls the second I stepped out of the house. There were even more in the school’s parking lot. Obviously, reassuring them I wasn’t in danger hadn’t worked. Maybe Echo should talk to them.
Kicker met me by the entrance and yapped on about some TV program while I looked around and tried to find Immortal kids. Kenzie Sinclair and Caesar Alvarez were seniors and orphans according to Mom. Did they know about me? Maybe we should have a huge get-to-know-you party and invite every Immortal in town and their children.
I was happy when we reached our lockers and Kicker went to hers. I checked my phone, but Dev wasn’t in it. The whole day I kept hoping he’d appear. The one time I needed to talk to him and he pulled a disappearing act.
Just before lunch, I got a text from Raine, so I joined her at the mansion for lunch and told her about the blanket. “I’m happy she returned it, but I don’t like the idea that she can waltz in and out of my home whenever she likes.”
“And despite the protection runes around the farm,” Raine added. “She could be an evil Immortal.”
“Maybe she’s not, Cora,” Lavania called out from the table, where she, Femi, and Ingrid were busy shoving letters in envelopes. They were sending out invitations to more potential teachers.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“She could be your mother, the goddess. The Idun-Grimnirs probably told her about finding you, and she came to see if you actually are real,” Lavania said.
“If I heard my daughter was alive and another had lied about being her, I’d want proof, too,” Femi added. “The blanket was it.”
“And she gave Celestia an invisibility cloak,” Raine added. “Chances are she owns a special one, too.”
I didn’t comment on their conclusion even though I agreed with them. I wasn’t ready to confess about my clairvoyance or accuse a mother I’d never met of stalking m
e. After all, she’d returned the blanket. Had she seen Echo asleep beside me? I hoped so.
“I hope you guys get to meet Celestia,” I called out to the other women. “She is perfect for Eirik.”
“I hope she comes to Mystic Academy,” Raine said. “We could have some fun. Astral projecting to places. Driving the guys crazy.”
“We should invite her and Hayden for a girls’ night out,” I suggested.
“And Trudy, too. They could retrieve your memories.”
“Maybe after Celestia helps Dev, who is still MIA.”
“Help Dev? How?”
I explained what Celestia planned to do while Raine stared at me with wide eyes. “We need to find him and give him the good news, but he’s on a cleansing binge.”
“I’ll help look for him. Torin is working on his next recruit, so I’m free. I might drag Ingrid from academy stuff.” She glanced over her shoulder at Ingrid, Femi, and Lavania. “She knows where reapers and Immortals hang out.”
“Talking of Immortals, did you know the Tolberts are Immortals?” By the time I finished naming all the Immortals around town, we both agreed we should have a meet-and-greet. “The reapers can come, too. I’d have to drag Echo, though.”
“Not Torin. He’s all about recruits now. Mystic Academy is going to be a mining field for him. They’ll have students from ages ten to twenty plus.”
“How many classes?”
“Three for juniors: ages ten and eleven combined, twelve and thirteen, and fourteen and fifteen. Sixteen and up will be senior classes, and those will depend on levels, not age.” She looked at her watch. “You better go unless you want to be late.”
“I’m skipping first period after lunch. Ockleberry is still subbing for Mr. Holland.”
Raine made a face. “He’s still staring at girls’ boobs?”
“Yep. I’m thinking of ways to make him squirm. I wish there were runes for that.”
“The perv. I have an idea. I should come with you, stay invisible, and poke him every time he peeks at someone’s cleavage.”
“Poke him where?”
“His ass or nuts. Somewhere he’d be embarrassed to scratch.”
Imagining Ockleberry twitching, I laughed. “You are evil. I was going to let Dev mess with him, but whatever. Let’s have some fun.”
We slipped into the room undetected and laughed while torturing Mr. Ockleberry. When he decided to stay behind his desk, Raine saluted me and left. I couldn’t wait until we were at Mystic Academy together.
Echo was by my car after school and acted like everything was normal between us. I wanted to punch him in the nose. The problem was I loved his nose. Who was I kidding? I loved every inch of him.
“Rhys already brought the body to Miami. Have you heard from Dev?”
“No. I’m starting to worry. Raine promised to try to find him.”
“I’ll look for him after this.” The drive home was awkward, a first for us. Even when he’d hounded me after our first meeting, he often made our drive to and from school fun. “About what I suggested yesterday,” he said when we pulled up outside my house. “Do you want to discuss it?”
“Yes.”
“What would you have us do?”
“Tell them we are together from the get-go.”
“How? When?” he asked, and I almost forgot I loved him. He was bringing up unnecessary obstacles. “The first time they meet you, they won’t care about who your best friend is or the identity of the person you are dating. They’ll want to know about you, Cora, their long-lost daughter. Your likes and dislikes. They’ll want to show you off to their friends, introduce you to their people. There’s no room to steer the conversation to me.”
He didn’t know me very well if he thought I couldn’t do that. “Sounds like you know exactly what they are going to do and how I’m going to behave.”
“Damn it, Cora.”
I engaged my speed runes and was out of the Elantra before he realized it. He caught up with me by the door but couldn’t do anything because Mom came around the house with empty containers of pyrethrum, the organic pesticide she used on the farm, and he went to help her.
“Are you two fighting again?” Mom asked.
Surprised, I didn’t respond. Echo also clammed up. Inside the house, I remembered a question I’d been meaning to ask since Echo came up with his stupid proposal.
“Mom, how did you and Dad meet? And did your parents approve of your relationship?”
Mom studied me then glanced at Echo. “Well, I don’t know if I can say they approved.” Dad snorted, and Mom threw him a quick glance. “Things were different then.”
“Different how?”
“Who you married mattered. Class mattered.”
Echo threw me a triumphant look.
“I met your father at a Winter Solstice festival in Kilkenny and recognized a kindred spirit. He had magic in him, and I felt it right away. He wrote beautiful poetry and was reading one of his poems sprinkled with Irish charm when he looked up and our eyes met. I’d never met a man like him before. His words touched my heart and made me dream of the impossible. Love. Adventures in far away lands.”
My jaw dropped. I’d never heard Mom talk like that before. Dad chuckled and left his desk to join us.
“I thought my emaciated body was the reason you took pity on me and invited me home. They owned a farm, and she claimed they were short of hands. So I helped her father on the farm, and they gave me room and board.”
“And at night, he played his fiddle and sang catchy tunes. He always added funny lines to popular tunes and made us laugh.”
Ignoring Echo, I sat on the nearest stool. “Then you fell in love?”
“I did.” Dad slid next to Mom and placed his arm around her shoulder. “I didn’t know how your mother felt. She was very good at hiding her feelings then until she found out what her father had planned for her.”
My eyes volleyed between their faces. “What?”
“Sit down, Son,” Dad ordered Echo, who stood a few feet away, before looking at me. “I’ll let your mother tell the story.”
“No, honey, you are the one with the gift of gab,” Mom said.
“Her father wanted her to marry Eoin, the only son of a neighboring farmer. A strapping lad with beefy arms and a mean right hook. I’d seen him leer at her at the marketplace. Whenever he came to the farm, I made sure I was close by. I wasn’t letting your mother near the cad.”
I laughed. “You took on a strapping lad with beefy arms and a mean hook?”
“Yes, he did. One day, Eoin cornered me at the marketplace and tried to force himself on me. Your father pulled him off me and socked him in the face.”
I grinned. “How chivalrous. I hope you knocked him out.”
“By the time the local butcher and his men came to help, I couldn’t see your father’s bloodied face and he couldn’t breathe.”
My jaw dropped. “What happened?”
“Eion was out cold on top of me,” Dad said.
She patted his cheek and smiled. “But I couldn’t pretend I didn’t love him anymore. I went home and told my parents how I felt.”
“So Dad won?”
“Yes, he did. With a rock.”
Dad chuckled. “I remember it differently. I landed one punch because I caught Eoin by surprise. Then he turned on me. He would have broken every bone in my body if your mother hadn’t intervened. She found the biggest stone her tiny hands could carry and hit Eoin on the head. It took me weeks to heal, but that boy was never the same.”
“And what did your parents say when you told them how you felt?” I asked.
“They knew and had been wondering when we would stop hiding it. By the end of the year, we were married.”
I looked at Echo and smiled. “Yep, you should have told them right off the bat that you loved each other.”
“That’s true,” Mom said. “I think your father taking on a bully on my behalf helped his case. My father wasn’t an easy man to
please, and he didn’t think your father was the right suitor for me. In those days, a man had to be able to protect his family and he thought your father was too much of a romantic, a dreamer, and not a fighter. Your father proved him wrong.”
“Let me guess. They didn’t know Mom hit the village bully with the rock. They thought you did, Dad.”
“Yes, they did. I wanted to tell them the truth, but your mother flat out forbade it. We packed up and moved to America, and your mother remained the unsung hero of that incident.”
“Hardly a hero,” Mom insisted, but something in her voice told me differently.
It wasn’t until later, after dinner when I got Mom alone, that I asked, “They knew you did it?”
She smiled and nodded. “My father told me I defended the man I loved when he needed me and that was how it was supposed to be. A family that stands up for each other survives. Then he warned me to never tell your father he knew the truth because his ego would have been hurt.”
I sighed. “He was a very wise person.”
“He was. Now why are you fighting with Echo?”
“It’s stupid.”
“I understand stupid,” she said.
“No, you don’t. Everything you do turns out right. How old were you when you married Dad?”
“Seventeen.”
“Ha, you told me you got married when you were in your thirties. Uh, thirty-two.”
Her grin became sheepish. “I couldn’t very well tell you I was your age when we married and had barely turned fifteen when Eoin asked my father for my hand.”
“Eew. I would have had him for a father.” I shuddered while she chuckled. “When did you become Immortal?”
“At twenty-four. And I was twenty-four for a very long time.” She gripped my chin and peered at me. “About your fight with Echo, remember what your grandfather said. A family that stands up for each other…”
“Survives,” I finished.
“However, fighting each other only leads to heartache. Remember that.”
Goddess: A Runes Book Page 13
