My parents had met in college, Mom, a quiet only child of an elderly Irish-American couple, and Dad, an international student from Kenya. They’d been in love, and my first eight years had been happy. But the last year, they’d tiptoed around each other. I had no idea why, until Christmas Eve. That was the night I’d learned they blamed each other for the way I’d turned out. Maybe if I hadn’t touched them after the dinner party, or if I’d waited until we got home, they would not have been arguing and Dad would have seen the trailer before it hit our car.
I pushed aside the ugly thoughts and picked up a bag of cheese doodles for me, a box of crackers and some canned cheese for Wes, and fruit snacks for Miss Sweet Tooth Talia. I mentally added the total, sighed, and placed most of them back on the shelf. All I needed were the essentials.
I got milk, ground meat, and eggs. The total should come to one-seventy tops. We were running dangerously low on cash. The jobs I’d applied to never called me back, and there was no way I’d allow Wes to join some stupid fight club. The way his runes were off, he might end up getting injured, too.
I turned into the aisle with detergents and hit a cart coming toward me.
“I’m so…” My gaze met the other person’s, and my heart tripped. Syn. “What are you doing here?”
He flashed a boyish grin. “Shopping. Even reapers have to eat.”
A girl walking ahead of us glanced over her shoulder at him. He winked at her, and she smiled until she saw me. She scurried away.
“You really shouldn’t say things like that in front of people,” I whispered.
“Things like what?” he whispered.
He was making fun of me. Still, I looked around to make sure we were alone before saying, “Reapers.”
“She didn’t run away screaming,” he said, reverting to a normal voice.
He rotated his cart so we were facing the same direction, but neither of us moved. With the way he was blocking me, I couldn’t move even if I wanted to. I didn’t want to.
His gaze roamed my face as though he didn’t want to miss a single expression. Usually, being under that kind of close scrutiny bothered me, but not with him. I wanted to reach out and touch him. Ask him to remove his jacket while I removed my gloves just so I could run my fingertips up and down his arm. I was becoming obsessed with him.
“Mortals always rationalize everything they see,” he explained, completely oblivious to his effect on me. “I could appear in front of one of them and tell them I used a portal, and they’d look at me like I was crazy. It’s quite hilarious.”
“You like to break the rules, don’t you?”
“No, I like to get the most out of life.” He reached out and played with a curly lock of my hair. “Why don’t you?”
“I do,” I protested.
“Not according to Talia. You are the perfect older sister. Responsible. Dependable. You take care of everyone, but you completely ignore yourself. The only time you let lose is when you run. I’d love to be with you when you let loose.” The way red crept into his yellow aura said he wasn’t just thinking about running.
“Talia talks too much,” I mumbled.
“I like her and your brother. They are very protective of you.” He let go of my hair and removed two envelopes from the pocket of his jacket. “These are theirs.”
Unlike the envelope he’d left in my mailbox, theirs had their full names and addresses and the logo of the Academy.
“I forgot to give them to you earlier. I was on my way to your place to drop it off when I saw you leave. Whether your parents say it’s okay to visit or not, you all have the invitations and places at the academy.”
I stared at the envelope with longing, wishing I could say yes to visiting and attending. There was so much we could learn there. Maybe if I understood how much trouble my parents were in for turning us, I could decide on my next course of action.
“And tonight’s dinner invitation still stands,” Syn added, grinning. “I grill a mean steak, but I make even meaner mixers. You can sip on a cocktail while watching me prepare dinner.”
My mouth watered, imagining sizzling steak and a shirtless Syn at the grill. I’d be watching him and drooling. No, I’d probably drape myself on his back for maximum skin contact.
I slipped the two letters in my purse and found myself studying the contents of his cart. There was enough steak to feed an army.
“So why don’t you date?”
Wasn’t it obvious? I waved my gloved hands.
“Does that mean I’m your first?”
I made a face. “First what?”
“First to do this.” He reached up and stroked my cheek, and tingles shot to every corner of my body. He ran his thumb across my lips. “First to kiss you.”
My lips parted, and I inhaled sharply. Red flowed out and drowned Syn’s regular aura. His eyes darkened as they dared me to deny I was as affected as he was. I couldn’t. He was new and exciting, and there was no harm in flirting, even though I sucked at it. I should be concentrating on asking him about shared artavus and what the Norns might do to punish our parents, but instead, he was quickly becoming the focus of my world.
“We haven’t kissed yet,” I said.
“We will.” He leaned closer, and for a moment, I was sure he was going to press his lips to mine. My breath stalled in my chest. He whispered, “We will be scorching hot together, Lanókà.”
Oh man. I tried to stay levelheaded and latched onto something Wes had reminded me of earlier. A girl had to have some pride.
“FYI, I’ve had boyfriends before,” I said and tried to push his cart out of my way with little success. “Two if you must know.”
Syn scowled. “Who dared to touch you?”
He made it sound like no one had the right to do that. “Jimmy Giles and Tony Muffoletto.”
“Immortals?”
“Mortals.”
“And you didn’t throw up?”
My jaw dropped. “What a mean thing to say.”
“Mortals have zero resistance against us. Every time I kissed one, I had to listen to her talk nonstop about her dreams. A few even had us married with kids and a house in the suburbs by the end of our first date.”
I laughed at his horrified expression.
“As you can imagine, it made my love life a nightmare, so I quit.”
“You quit dating?”
He nodded. “Until I learned to control the serum.” He ran his knuckles along my jawbone. “With you, I won’t have to control anything. In a way, you’ll be my first.”
Okay, he won. I wanted him to kiss me. Be my first. Right there. I didn’t care that we were in the middle of the damn aisle.
“Excuse me?” a belligerent voice said from behind us. “You are blocking the aisle.” An elderly woman in a motorized cart glared at us. “Young people these days. Take it outside.”
“We apologize for blocking the aisle, ma’am.” Syn pushed his cart ahead of mine and turned to charm the gray-haired woman.
She wanted items from the bottom shelf, and he got them for her. She wanted something in her cart put back on the shelf, so he did that, too.
“Is there anything else I can help you with? I’m Syn, and this lovely lady is Lana, the woman who could put me out of my misery if she would only agree to go out with me.”
“What are you waiting for, Lana? He is a strapping young man.” She indicated I lean closer and whispered, “And with a name like that, you know he will be something else between the sheets.” She chuckled and patted my cheek, which was burning.
I tried not to look at Syn.
“In my day, I would not have let you slip away, Syn. That’s how I got my Freddie, the cantankerous old fool. Snatched him right from under my cousin’s nose.”
The woman told us her life story while Syn continued to help her with her groceries. Her Freddie caught up with her, and she explained to him how she was trying to convince me to go out with Syn. Luckily, Freddie didn’t touch me, or we would have had a re
cap of their courtship. It was almost six thirty by the time we left them.
“Did she touch you?” Syn asked as they walked away.
I nodded, and we exchanged grins, sharing a moment.
“I’d forgotten how much people talked when doused,” he said.
“I wish I could say that. Even with the gloves, I always end up brushing against someone, and the second I apologize, they start talking. It’s hard to interrupt them, especially older ones, crying mothers, and children.”
“You’re sweet. I used to walk away in the middle of a confession.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I most certainly did. People carry way too much baggage, and my time is too valuable to be their therapist.”
We were close to the cashiers, and I still wanted to continue talking to him. He understood me in ways I never knew any man could.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked, easing into the topic that had bugged me since running with Wes and Talia.
Syn nodded. “Anything for you.”
“What exactly happens if people share an artavus? How does it affect them?”
He frowned and indicated we move to an aisle in the middle of apparels and away from heavy traffic. “The runes stop being effective. People engage their healing runes, but the wounds don’t heal, so they add more. Things only get worse from there.”
Wes and Talia were going through the same thing. I was sure I’d be next.
“Worse how?”
“When healing runes stop being effective, the cells stop regenerating and the people start to age. The rate depends on how long they’ve lived. The older they are, the faster they age. Even when you add more healing runes, they no longer work.”
“What stops artavus from working? Can it be reversed?”
“The energy in each set of artavo bonds with an individual’s energy. That is why each Immortal must have his or her set of blades. When shared, the energies of the artavo do not bond with one person and the runes created lose their effect. The rule of thumb is two when you heal a Mortal. You do it two times. The third time empowers the cells to regenerate on their own. That’s the best time to stop sharing a blade. Why do you ask?”
I shook my head. We were in such deep trouble I wouldn’t know where to begin. “Someone I know shared a blade, and now they can’t heal.”
Syn frowned, and I wondered if he believed me. “They need a new set of blades to correct it.”
My eyes flew to his. “So it can be fixed?”
“Yes, by starting the process all over, but with a new set of artavo. Could you give me their names? I could check to see if they’d be attending the academy. They might even need to meet with Lavania to discuss their situation. She’s getting a supply of artavo for her students.”
Hope returned. The academy might be our only solution. “I can’t give you their names until I talk to them. Do they have to deal with the Norns?”
Syn shook his head. “No. It’s not their fault they got turned. The Immortals who turned them are the ones who broke the law and must deal with the consequences of their actions. But someone is fighting for Mortals and Immortals now, and from what I’ve heard, she’s determined to stop the Norns from interfering in their lives.”
The hope just became a possibility. “Who?”
“Raine Cooper, a Norn-in-training.”
I made a face.
“You’ve heard of her?”
I nodded. “The powerful reaper responsible for the deaths of so many of my people in Kayville. She’d never help us.”
Oh crap! I’d just said “us.” I hoped he didn’t catch it.
Syn shook his head. “Sweetheart, that’s far from the truth. First of all, Raine is not a reaper. She is a Seeress. And she was not responsible for the deaths of Immortals. She was fighting for her life and her freedom that night.”
“How do you know?”
“I was there. Echo asked us to help her and the Witches.”
I frowned, not understanding. “Witches?”
“The ones who came from all over the world to help protect her against the rebel Immortals.”
Had my parents gotten that wrong, too? I’d never heard anything about Witches fighting our people. According to the survivors, it was the Grimnirs and Valkyries who’d fought the rebels. Everything out of Syn’s mouth contradicted what I’d learned from my parents.
“What’s going on, Lana?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what’s true anymore. All I know is my people can’t go to the other realms, and they resent your people because you can. My parents and their friends say it’s unfair, and their stories conflict with yours. I’d never heard Witches helped Raine that night. We were told reapers protected her and they killed my people.”
Syn peered at me. “Your people are my people, gàlò. We are all Immortals. And yes, it might have been unfair before when only reapers could cross realms, but things are changing now.”
“They are?”
“Yes.” He reached out and touched my cheek with the tips of his fingers. When he stopped, his hand dropped to mine. This time, he didn’t remove my glove. He slid a hand under my jacket and rubbed my arm as though he needed the contact, too.
“Goddess Hel has a son who was raised here on Earth as a Mortal before he went home to visit her in Helheim and his grandparents in Asgard. His name is Eirik. He fell in love with a Witch, and because of her, he’s changed how things are done. She, Celestia, visited him in Helheim as a Mortal. Celestia’s best friend, who is an Immortal, visits her every weekend, and they go to other realms together. Her cousin comes and goes as he pleases, and he is a Mortal Witch. I hear he plans to attend the Academy. Remember the wedding Echo mentioned last week?”
I nodded, fascinated by everything he was telling me.
“That was Eirik and Celestia’s wedding. Her father gave her away, and he’s not even a Witch, yet he visits Helheim. He plays chess with Baldur.”
Odin’s son? I could only stare at Syn. I’d never heard any of these things. My parents had disappeared three weeks ago, and since then we’d lost our only link to the Immortal world. They’d always kept us isolated, just like other Immortals who’d changed their spouses and children.
“Things are changing quickly, and they’re affecting the rules controlling how Mortals and Immortals behave,” Syn continued. “This is why it’s important to attend the academy. According to Lavania, she plans to organize trips to other realms as part of their intercultural studies.”
He was making me question everything I’d ever been taught or heard my parents and their friends complain about whenever they got together. It had started the moment we met, and every time we talked, I got new revelations that made me doubt my parents. The worst part was I was starting to believe him. He had no reason to make up stories, and I could always verify anything he said by going to Mystic Academy and talking to Lavania.
“From your expression, you’re still unsure whether to believe me,” Syn said, sounding resigned.
“No, that’s not it.” I studied the shoppers walking by, the past zipping through my head. “All my life I’ve heard things about reapers, and now you’re telling me I was misinformed.”
“That’s because our world is changing. Love is making Immortals and Mortals break the rules and do the impossible.”
Would he willingly break them for us once he learned our parents had turned us illegally? “I need to talk to Wes and Talia. Do you think you could take a rain check on dinner tonight?”
“Sure. There’s always tomorrow. And next week. I’m not going anywhere, sheshen.”
“Thank you. I have to go.”
I could feel his eyes on me and swore not to glance back, but I couldn’t help it. He was still in the same spot, his aura so radiant it was blinding. The red for desire was there, pulsing in the inner layer, clearly stating he wanted me. But the core light defining him overpowered the red. I didn’t want to believe what I saw because it couldn’t be po
ssible. We’d barely met, so he couldn’t feel that strongly about me.
Flushing, I finished scanning the items in my cart and swiped my card. Card declined? There had to be a mistake. I swiped again. Same message. Last time I checked the account, there had been enough money to feed us for one more week.
Where had the money gone?
I pulled out my phone and logged into the account. What the hell? The account had ten dollars. My blood started to boil. Who could have done this? Not Wes or Talia. They’d ask me first before using the debit card, so that left our parents. Why would they take out most of the money?
One of the self-checkout staff members walked over. “Is everything okay, miss?”
I gave her a tight smile. “Looks like I brought the wrong card.”
Her expression didn’t change. She’d probably heard it all.
“Do you want me to keep an eye on your groceries while you get it or just take it all back?”
I was so humiliated and pissed I could barely speak. I shook my head.
“Take it all back. Thanks.”
I speed dialed Mom’s number before I cleared the store entrance. Of course, she didn’t pick up. She and Dad hadn’t since they left. I left her a voice mail, then called Dad and left another. Last, I texted them both.
I ran to the SUV, hopped inside, and pounded the steering wheel. What the hell was going on? Where were they? Why couldn’t they come home or call? I rested my forehead on the steering wheel and fought for control.
Mom and Dad knew we used that account for groceries. To drain the account like that was unlike them. On the other hand, disappearing on us for weeks was unlike them too. Until now, they’d been amazing parents. Eccentric but loving. They never shied from taking us places. We’d visited more exotic locations around the world than most people I knew. I couldn’t count the number of times they’d come home after another bounty hunting success and told us to grab our beach things because Hawaii was a portal away or some tropical paradise was waiting for us. Something was wrong. They could be in trouble and needed money.
[Mystic Academy 01.0] Fated Page 7
