by J. J. Neeson
The rain was relentless, making the drive difficult, even with the windshield wipers on full blast. If she didn’t get to Reigh soon, the storm would turn into a hurricane. Already, it looked like it stretched beyond Broken Ridge.
“Damn you, Thorston,” she cursed, turning off the main road. His love only ended in tears. And hurricanes.
When she reached the shack, she pulled her jacket over her head and jumped out of the truck, making a run for the porch. The rain was thick as fog. Overhead, the first rumble of thunder shook the ground.
“Reigh!” Lu called out as she banged on the door. “I know you’re hurting, but you have to call off the storm.” When no one answered, she let herself in, knowing Reigh would forgive her. But the shack was empty.
The boat! she remembered. She said she was taking Nikki’s boat out today. She’s going to drown out there!
Lu rushed outside and hurried to the pier, no longer as concerned about the storm, imagining Reigh stuck out in the water with the rains pouring. “Reigh!” she shouted, struggling to see what was in front of her, hoping she didn’t walk into the river. “Where are you?!”
“Lu?” an injured voice called out.
Thorston.
The rain stopped, allowing her to see, but the clouds remained. They were dark, but they couldn’t hide the heartbreak on the pier. Thorston sat near the edge, Reigh in his arms, lifeless, soaking in a pool of blood that even the storm couldn’t dilute.
“No!” Lu cried out, running to Reigh. “This can’t be,” she said, frantic and unbelieving. When she reached her friend, she fell to her knees and immediately checked for a pulse.
There was none.
“Oh my god, please no!” She backed away, covering her mouth with her hands, in a state of shock.
“It was Calder,” Thorston explained, full of sorrow and a venom that went beyond hatred. “He stuck a dagger in her back. He killed her because she wouldn’t leave with him.”
Lu began to cry, grieving, unable to speak. It couldn’t be. She had been talking to Reigh that morning. Reigh couldn’t just suddenly be gone, not with such fear still stamped upon her face, even with her eyes closed, as if she too were having nightmares, asleep. But not dead. Please, not dead.
“I won’t allow this,” Thorston resolved, shaking his head. “If the Norse gods can take her away, they can bring her back.”
For Thorston’s sake, Lu tried to compose herself, to ignore how much she ached with grief, but it was near impossible to do so. “There are powers higher than the Norse beings your ancestors call gods,” she said, her tears flowing. “Now, she is with the God. And the angels. She is at peace.”
“But I can still feel her,” he claimed, pressing his cheek against Reigh’s hair. “She feels so close.”
Lu put her hand on Thorston’s shoulder. “We need to call an ambulance.”
“I already called them, right after… They’re on their way. They were too far out. If we weren’t so far away…”
“Don’t. You did everything you could,” she said, her voice cracking with their shared loss.
“Not everything. Lofn!” Thorston shouted across the bayou, startling the birds from their nests. “I summon you. Bring her back! You were meant to protect her. Lofn!”
It was too painful to watch. “Thorston, she won’t come—”
She stopped, watching as a light formed near them on the pier. A woman stepped out of the light, her long honey-colored hair flowing behind her. Her presence was comforting, but not enough to drown out Lu’s sorrow.
“Man of the Norse,” the woman she assumed was Lofn greeted. “Can you understand me?”
“I can,” Thorston replied.
“Then Reigh’s magic must have spread wherever the water touches. I know why you summon me, but there’s nothing I can do.”
“But you’re a goddess,” he insisted, holding Reigh tight.
“A goddess who is merely a handmaiden. I cannot help.”
“Then tell me who can.”
“No one can,” she told him. “Your love is not worthy. No god would interfere, even if they could. You left her. You let her go.”
She spoke with gentleness of a harsh truth, but it could not take the sting out of her words. Lu wanted to defend Thorston, but she knew it would do no good.
“But I came back,” he sobbed, looking down at Reigh. “I came back for her.”
“It is irrelevant. No god will help you, and she is beyond my reach now. She is beyond all our reaches. Even if you traveled to Helheim, you would not find her. She is in a place of peace and light.”
And with that, she disappeared, leaving them alone on the pier.
Lu shivered with fresh tears. It was hard to hear, even if she already knew it. Reigh wasn’t coming back.
“Goodbye, sweet friend,” she whispered, staring at Reigh’s bare feet, disturbed when she realized the blood had seeped all the way down her body. “This wasn’t the end you were meant for.” She glanced up at Thorston. “This wasn’t the end either of you were meant for.”
There was nothing more they could do. “Say your goodbyes, Thorston,” she instructed softly. “Quickly. The ambulance approaches. I can hear its sirens.”
He couldn’t. He stared at Reigh with the greatest tenderness, his love evident in the way he stroked her hair. He would not let go.
And then, his chance for goodbyes was gone. Reigh suddenly vanished from his arms, denying him his closure. His hands, covered in blood, fell to his sides, defeated.
“Lofn must have taken her,” Lu speculated. “Maybe it’s for the best. It’s more decent than where the ambulance would have brought her.”
Thorston couldn’t respond. She went to him, knowing that with Mrs. Florence in a coma, she was the closest thing to family he had left.
“I love her,” he maintained, bringing back the rain. “She can’t be gone.”
“Come with me, Thorston,” Lu said, snapping her fingers so that the ambulance turned around, forgetting about the call. “You’re going to stay with Samuel and me. We’ll get through this together.”
“I can’t,” he said, faltering. “I won’t leave her again.”
Chapter Fourteen
She woke in a meadow, but it did not seem real, not like the meadows she had left behind. Beings that were human-like in appearance, except for their godlike stature and light, walked through the tall grass, paying her no heed as she lay amongst the flowers. The land was bright, covered with an overlay of gold, and it was warm. The beauty of the place was a grace she had never experienced before. It didn’t require a quiet moment to appreciate it. It spoke loudly, luminous.
It was not her world, despite the wholesomeness of the meadow, the sun, and the green, all fragments of nature that she recognized. She didn’t know where she was. She wasn’t even sure how she’d gotten here, her memory blurred to the point that she doubted the images that flashed through her mind. There was blood. And tears. And then she was here.
Knowing she had to find a way home, Reigh careful stood, assuming she would have no strength, but the opposite was true. It felt as if she had all the strength there was. She wasn’t herself. Song-like vibrations hummed through her head, but she didn’t know their origin, only that they seemed to bring harmony to all that surrounded her.
Looking down, she saw that she was not in her normal clothes. Draped across her body was a long white gown that flowed freely, as light as the peace she was enveloped in. When she raised her hand to her head, she felt a crown of flowers that blossomed fuller with her touch, forcing her to accept that she was not a foreigner to the beauty of this world. She was part of it. It lived within her.
“What’s happening?” she wondered out loud, mystified.
Suddenly, a cold invaded the warmth. Calder appeared before her. Unlike her, he was still in his human attire—a suit missing its jacket. His presence did not invite its usual comfort. She could not fully remember why, but she knew not to trust him. He had sent her here.
“What have you done?” she demanded, her voice as powerful as she felt. “Where am I?”
“You are in Alfheim,” he revealed, stepping closer to her, his intentions unreadable. She could not tell if he was pleased or troubled by his actions. He bore a smile, clearly happy to see her, but there was a pain in his eyes, its origin unknown.
Alfheim. She knew of it. It was the land of the light elves, immortal beings more radiant than the sun, responsible for maintaining nature in all the nine worlds of the Yggdrasil tree. Divine and pure, they inspired music and poetry with their splendidness and their love. It was because of them that the leaves grew after the winter, and the light shined after the darkness.
The darkness. She remembered now. Calder had cast her into the darkness. He had stuck a dagger in her back, leaving her to die.
I died, she realized, closing her eyes. He took everything away from me.
She wanted to be angry, but she found it difficult surrounded by the good that floated through Alfheim, of the harmonious vibrations that still playing at the back of her mind.
“And what of my earthly body?” she questioned.
“You are still your body. You are just different. I didn’t take your life from you—I gave you a new one. You are immortal now, Reigh. You will even outlive me.”
“But I am trapped,” she argued. “You hold me prisoner here.”
“You’re not a prisoner,” he insisted. “You have your free will. But I made it possible for us to be together. I do not fade from this world. Here, we are inseparable.”
Do you hear yourself! she wanted to scream, but this new world continued to resist her anger. “It is not what I wanted,” she declared. “You betrayed me, Calder.” Her anger was hindered, but her hurt broke through, unreserved.
“I thought you would understand when you realized what I’d done,” he said, his smile fading. “I brought you home. This is where you belong. This is where you have always belonged. You are of Norse blood. This is your land.”
But I am far from Thorston and everyone I love.
It was hard to hate Calder, as much as she wanted to, and not just because she was now of the goodness of Alfheim. He suffered. His actions were unforgivable, but he suffered. The loneliness he felt within his barren existence was evident, but she had not realized just how much it had twisted him over the years, changing him from the boy in his flannels to a man she did not recognize. She prayed for the return of the boy, for his innocence, which he had lost in his desperation. She wanted her friend back.
“The dagger,” she inferred. “The dagger allowed this to be so. It transformed me into this?”
“Yes, it allowed you to become of Alfheim while maintaining your human form. You are still you, but now you are immortal.”
“And who gave it to you? Who helped you?”
“Freyr,” he exposed. “He is lord of this land. It would not have been possible without his consent. He understands me. That is why he has allowed you here.”
Of course. Freyr. A god willing to coerce a giantess into marrying him—and to steal a human from the life she longed for. It seemed a contradiction that an individual capable of so much deception could rule a land as pure as Alfheim.
Her anger finally found its voice. Until Calder returned to the man she knew, she did not want him near her. “If this is the land I have inherited from you, then I banish you from my new world. You are not welcomed here.”
He stiffened, caught between his own pain and outrage. “You can’t. You don’t have that power. Only Freyr does.”
“Then I banish you from me.”
“You will come around. Even the light can be lonely. One day, when you are in need, you will call for me.”
“I will never call for you,” she vowed.
“Reigh, we are destined for each other.”
The vibrations tried to lull her back into their harmonious embrace, but she held firm. “Love is not destiny. It happens in spite of destiny.”
“I am offering you a place where you are loved. Where you’ll never be alone. Is that not why you left Vegas? I know you are angry, and I understand why, but eventually you will realize what I’ve done for you. I know you love me. Not as much as I love you, but you do love me. I’ve heard you say it yourself while I watched over you. Now, I’ll never have to leave you. You’ll never feel abandoned again.”
Despite herself, his explanation affected her. He did not believe he was hurting her. In his warped perception, he was making her life better. She could understand his intentions, but she could not accept or forgive them, even as she allowed him some sympathy.
“I know your life in Jotunheim is unfriendly, but this is not where I belong. Please, help me find a way back.”
“There is no way back,” he told her, the pain of regret invading his resolve. “You are of Alfheim now. Your mortal body is no more. It has transformed.”
The situation was hopeless. She was trapped. She may have free will, but it was nothing if she could not return to the people she loved.
And then she saw it. The folly of Calder’s plan.
Her day at Rusalijska Nedelya returned to her, of how she was branded a samodiva—a being who was divine and wild, capable of transforming into a bird that could breathe fire, unleashing her wrath.
She was no light elf. And she was no samodiva. She existed somewhere in between, a human without wings but with the power of an immortal. Standing tall, she moved closer to Calder, within reach of him.
“There is a far greater power than Freyr, one that rules the universe and everything within it. That power has made me an individual, capable of my own choices. I weave my own fate. I am mistress of myself. Humans may not be able to freely cross between the worlds, but the elves can. I am still human, but I am now of the essence of Alfheim. I am a being of nature, responsible for everything that grows under the suns of all the worlds.”
She closed her eyes, listening to the vibrations she had pushed away, allowing their harmony to feed into her. “Magic is not some outside force that influences you. You are the force that influences the outside,” she recited.
“Reigh, what are you doing?” Calder asked as she took his hand then raised her arms high above them, causing the ground to shake.
“We’re going home,” she replied.
***
The sea greeted them, as did the storm that made its waters swell with rage. Reigh did not mind the rain or the thunder, but she did mind the pain in the storm. It was not of the will of Alfheim. In her new form, she could sense its source. Thorston. She could feel him all around her.
“I’m home,” she breathed as she looked up to the gulls who braved the winds, strokes of white against a grey canvas. They were not the most beautiful of creatures, but they flew free, like she did now.
The beach was empty except for the companion she had brought back with her. Surprisingly calm, lacking his earlier agitation, Calder stood beside her, gazing upon the waters of the Gulf as the sea thrashed beneath the thunder.
“Freyr did not tell me you would be able to move between the worlds like the elves do,” he said, contemplative.
“Freyr is an arrogant god. Arrogant gods make mistakes.”
“Do you hate me?”
“I do not trust you. You have broken my heart. But we have known each other a long time. For many years, we have only had each other. I can see your world. I know how barren and cold it is. I brought you here because I am giving you what you want. I am giving you a place where there is the potential for warmth. You will not fade away, not again.”
“How?” he asked. “How are you doing this?”
“Because I am of Alfheim. I thread the fabric of nature. I have made you a part of this world, but if you want to stay, you have to accept that I am not yours. I am free to do as I choose.”
“Is there any hope that you will choose me?”
“No,” she said truthfully.
“I know I have made an unforgivable mistake
,” he acknowledged. “And I am sorry for it. But what you ask of me is impossible. I’ll never lose hope that one day, you’ll call for me.”
“You will, in time,” she promised him. “Here, in the light of the human world, the loneliness of your past will thaw. Choose yourself, and you’ll find the happiness you seek.”
“He mourns you,” he replied. “The other. He mourns you, and so do I.”
“You shouldn’t,” she told him. “But you should fear me. I still care for you, Calder, you are my oldest friend, but if you hurt anyone in this world the way you hurt me, I will personally destroy you.”
***
Thorston sat in the near-dark on the porch, unmoving as the rain continued to pour, the last glare of the sunset that colored the clouds irrelevant to his pain. Reigh watched him from the woods behind the shack—the man she was in love with. Truly in love with. Thorston had returned to her, and she had returned to him. This time, neither of them would leave, not from each other. She had no doubt about it. He stayed now, even in her death.
Waving her hand, the fairy lights on the porch turned on, their glow dim in the growing twilight, competing with the last of the sun. Thorston didn’t seem to notice, lost in his grief. So she went bigger. Around the shack and bayou, floating embers of light filled the air, fueled by the love in her heart. The display was too brilliant for even his pain to ignore. Fascinated, he reached out, touching one of the embers with his hand.
“Reigh?” he asked, the rain stopping as he looked up to the sky, fresh tears in his eyes.
She couldn’t let them fall. “I’m here,” she said, stepping from the woods, the loose folds of her white gown billowing around her as she approached him.
He stood, startled by her arrival, but full of wonder. “I don’t know how it’s possible, but you are even more beautiful than you were before. Have you come to haunt me because I left you behind?”
