Everyone spoke at once.
“On fire?” Val said.
“You did it again?” Skyla asked.
“She wasn’t going to tell us anything anyway,” I said.
Thorin waved his hand, signaling for quiet. “They know who she is and, more importantly, what she is. If whoever was trying to kill her only suspected her identity before, then now they have confirmation.”
“But you’re not sure it was Helen?” Val asked.
“You know her, too?” I asked.
Both men shot me petulant looks. I pursed my lips and returned their glare.
“I’m sure that if it wasn’t Helen, then she knows who it was,” Thorin said.
“I want to hear about this fire,” Val said.
“Do you know more about how you do it?” Skyla asked.
I shook my head. “I thought I felt something different this time, but I don’t know what it was. It still seems to have a lot to do with my emotions. I have to be pretty freaked out for it to work.”
“So what now?” Skyla asked.
“We laid our traps,” Thorin said. “Now we wait to see who takes the bait.”
“I don’t want anyone to take the bait,” I said. “I want to live to see another day or two… or several thousand of them, actually.”
Skyla patted my shoulder. “They’ll have to get through some tough barriers first. I got your back, girlfriend.”
A crash of thunder boomed overhead. We all looked up at the sky. Dark clouds gathered along the horizon. Night was on its way, but the storm would likely arrive before the darkness. “Let’s get inside,” Thorin said.
Val put his hand on my shoulder. “I’ll help you carry your things. Where are your bags?”
I waved him off. “I got them. It wasn’t much more than an overnight bag anyway.”
“What about your shoulder?”
I gave him a crooked smile. “That’s an interesting story as well.”
Inside the apartment over Thorin’s store, I filled a teapot with water and got out mugs. Skyla and Thorin went into the living room, but Val stayed at my side, attentive, intent, and all but breathing down my neck.
I reached around him and opened the cabinet where Thorin stored the tea boxes. “What is it? Why are you hovering?”
“You’re really all right?” Val asked. I tugged down my shirt collar and raised an eyebrow. Val shook his head. “It’s miraculous.”
“Something like that.”
“I always thought there was something special about you.”
I turned to the fridge and opened it to search for some kind of dairy product appropriate for the tea. “You did?” I came away, carrying a jug of skim milk and a carton of half-and-half.
“Your spirit exudes light, Solina. I’d have to be dead not to sense it.”
“Did you know who I was the first time you met me? I mean, in relation to what has been happening.”
Val grimaced and gnawed his lower lip. “There aren’t that many twin brothers and sisters running around out there named after the sun and the moon.”
“Maybe our parents had an affinity for Norse mythology and a strange sense of humor.”
Val shrugged. “Maybe, but it turns out my suspicions were correct.”
I turned away from him and inhaled a deep breath. I gathered my calm and swallowed my anger. Was there anything genuine about our relationship, or was it purely the result of Val’s plotting? What did it gain him to get close to me and my brother? What purpose did it serve? I had resisted opening up to him, letting him in, for this very reason—not wanting to risk getting hurt. But Val was insidious, and he crept into my affections anyway. His duplicity stung. No, it was worse than that, but I refused to give the feeling a name or let it take root. Push it down. Tuck it away. These kinds of emotions won’t help right now, and I need his cooperation. I can use his own game against him. “How?” I said, my voice dry and raspy. “How do you know about this? Who are you, really?”
“Vali Odinson Wotan.”
“Odinson? Like, literally?”
Val shrugged again.
“And Thorin?”
“Thorin what?” said the man himself, standing in the kitchen doorway.
“You’ve got to quit doing that,” I huffed. “Appearing out of thin air.”
“I assure you I simply walked across the room.”
“You move like a ghost.” The tea kettle whistled. I pulled it off the stove and split the water between four mugs. “I saw you in that vision, Thorin. You had the hammer. You were going to battle. Tell me what that was.”
“Battle?” Skyla said, stepping to Thorin’s side.
I passed out tea, and while everyone doctored it to their preference, I rehashed the vision I’d seen when Thorin touched me in the Westmark Hotel’s driveway. “You still haven’t told me what á braut héthan means.”
“With our swords wielded,” Val said. “We head to battle, going so quickly that our horses are still unsaddled, but we go with our swords wielded. Or something like that. You get the point.”
“That sounds familiar,” Skyla said. “I’ve read it somewhere before.”
“It’s Darra Tharlioth, the Song of the Valkyrie,” Val said.
“So why did I have a vision about it if it’s only some story?”
“It’s not some story,” Skyla said. “Where do you think the author got his stuff? My guess is he got it from the source. If this is real, and I’ve seen more evidence for than against at this point, then according to my research, we are standing in the presence of the survivors of Ragnarok. Vali, a somewhat minor son of Odin, and Magni, eldest son of Thor and Odin’s first grandson. Am I right?”
Neither Val nor Thorin would return our gazes.
“Come on, boys, show your cards,” Skyla said.
“It’s not that simple,” Val said, sneering. “You think you have it all figured out, but you know nothing.”
“Then tell us,” I said. I stepped closer to Val and put my hand over his. It was warm from holding his mug.
“He’s right,” said a new voice from the doorway leading to the stairs. “There’s nothing simple about what’s been going on.”
“Baldur,” Thorin said, his voice full of reverence. He shifted to stand straighter. “I’ve been trying to reach you for ages.”
“Well, it looks like you finally did,” said the newest addition to our gathering. He came into the room and put his attention fully on me. His regality overcame me. His otherworldliness shone through, despite the dark circles smudging his eyes and several days’ growth of unkempt beard. He was lovely, in the way an ancient masterpiece is lovely—faded around the edges and a bit worn, but unquestionably brilliant. A voice in the back of my head urged me to kneel before him, but it was a small voice, so I ignored it. “Have you got any more tea?” he asked. “It’s been a long trip.”
The group moved aside to allow Baldur to take a seat at the table. Even though I was confounded by his sudden arrival, my upbringing insisted I play the gracious hostess. I poured a mug of hot water, dunked in a bag of Earl Grey, and set it near his hand along with cream and sugar. Baldur stared blankly at it for a moment, but Val patted him on the shoulder and woke him from his stupor. Baldur poured in sugar and stirred while everyone waited for him to say something.
I glanced over at Skyla and gave her a look that said, Who the hell is this?
Skyla opened her mouth, paused, cleared her throat, and started again. “Baldur,” she said. The stranger looked up, his blue eyes bleary. He scraped a hand through short, cinnamon-colored hair. He could have been Val’s older brother. Maybe he was. “You are Baldur, son of Odin, right?”
Baldur smiled wryly and nodded.
Skyla continued. “You were killed with mistletoe by your blind brother and sent into the underworld to live with Hela until the end of the era, when you were supposedly released to lead the survivors of Ragnarok in the rebuilding of the new world. You are the new Allfather.”
Baldur leaned forward and inhaled the steam from his tea. “Sounds so easy, when you say it like that. Sounds like it was merely a blip on the timeline of humanity.”
Val eased into a seat at the table and laid his hand on Baldur’s forearm. “I mean no disrespect,” he said, “but why are you here?”
“Magni sent me a message. I felt it needed my attention.”
Val looked at Thorin and narrowed his eyes. “You’ve been talking to Baldur?”
Thorin shrugged. “Someone needed to.”
The disjointed conversation was difficult to follow. I raised my hand and said, “Someone tell the ignorant mortal what’s going on here.”
“You’re not a mortal,” Baldur said. “At least, not in the traditional sense.”
My mouth fell open, and I stood in a dumb stupor, unable to form a response. Not mortal? I hadn’t crawled out from some primordial ooze or fallen from the stars. My parents had pictures of Mani and me in the hospital the day we were born. My mother told me the story of the difficult birth. My parents weren’t Titans or fallen angels or any other kind of immaculate beings. Those circumstances, in my mind, pretty much disqualified me from being an immortal.
As if sensing my distress, Thorin stepped forward and took over the conversation. “It’s a long way from New Breidablik. You’re exhausted. We don’t have to do this now.”
Baldur shook his head, and grief pooled in his expression. I recognized that look, having seen the same on my own face so many times. “I’ve already wasted enough time,” he said. “I should have come sooner.”
Thorin tilted his head, and his eyebrows drew together. “What’s happened?”
Baldur sighed and covered his eyes. “Nina’s missing.”
Chapter Twenty-two
I backed into a kitchen corner and tried my best to play the part of a fly on the wall. Gathering information from this bunch was like prying a dinosaur fossil from the ground with a toothpick. Reminding them of my presence might make them go mum again.
“Of course Nina’s missing,” Val said in the tone one uses on an unstable mental patient. “That’s part of the deal. She’s reincarnated every generation. How long has it been since the last time she was here?”
Reincarnating? So, I’m not the only one?
Baldur shook his head. “That’s just it. I’ve never been longer than thirty years without her. But it’s been nearly fifty years, and I’ve had no word of her.”
“Fifty?” Thorin asked. “You think she’s gone all this time without finding you?”
“I don’t know,” Baldur said. “I hoped it was maybe an unlucky, chance occurrence. My fault for making it so hard for her to find me.”
Thorin shook his head. “She’s never had trouble finding you before.”
“I am aware. I didn’t want her prolonged absence to mean anything. I wanted to go on concealed in solace like always. But then I received your communications, and I couldn’t deny the coincidences any longer.”
“What coincidences?” Val asked. “You think living high on that obscure mountain as a relative hermit hasn’t finally come to bite you in your ass? These days women don’t get divine notions and go on arduous quests searching for their long-lost loves. They post an ad with an online dating site.”
Skyla snorted. “You got that right. There’s no man worth that much trouble.”
I coughed to hide my laugh but still received two irritated glares from Val and Thorin. “I’ve never once tried online dating,” I said in my defense. “A quest sounds romantic to me.”
Skyla shoved her finger down her throat and stuck out her tongue in mock revulsion. Although, with her, the disgust was probably real.
Baldur pushed aside his empty mug and leaned back in his chair. “I’d rather be overly cautious and assume the things Magni reported to me are connected. Nina goes missing, Mani’s offspring is killed, and Sol’s many times great-granddaughter is threatened. The last time I was weakened like this, Chaos got its way. What happened in the past was necessary to bring cleansing and balance to the world. This time I cannot speak as to what is happening, but it’s all too uncanny for my taste.”
“So, Nina is your wife?” Skyla asked.
“Yes, my wife.” Baldur paused and took a deep, steadying breath. “She was Nanna in the early days, but she’s better about evolving with the times than I am.”
“And she is reincarnated?”
“I have the power to make her eternal, slow her aging, extend her life span. But I can’t make her immortal. She still succumbs to illness, accidents, violence. When that happens, we must… start over again. ” His voice broke, and I had to turn away from the pain in his eyes before my own tears betrayed me.
I doubted Mani would come back to me in any form, ever. There was no starting over for us. Was there? “Will that happen to me? Will I start over?” And, more importantly, will my brother?
Baldur shook his head. “I haven’t seen a fully realized incarnation of Sol in thousands of years. She’s more inclined to stasis, I’m afraid.”
“Stasis?” I said, and it came out as a squeak.
“What do you think has happened to Nina?” Thorin asked, taking charge of the conversation again. He seemed to sense when I needed a moment to process.
Baldur looked to Thorin and then to Val. They all three nodded, and Baldur said, “Helen.”
“Helen Locke?” I asked, glad to finally know at least one player in this drama.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Skyla said to me before anyone else had a chance to speak. “I tried to call you before you went to dinner, but you didn’t answer your phone.”
My gaze turned to Val. I had been afraid the caller was him instead of Skyla. As if reading my mind, Val glowered at me until I looked away.
“I think she’s related to, or is, Hela, the ruler of the underworld,” Skyla said. She waited, but when no one tried to correct her, she continued. “Hela had a thing for Baldur, kept him trapped in the underworld with her until Ragnarok forced her to let him go.”
“She’s wanted him back ever since,” Val said, his nose wrinkling in disgust.
“So, go to Helen and get Nina,” I said and immediately regretted it. Everyone stared at me as if I had sprouted a second head. “It’s not that simple, though, is it?” I slid down the wall and buried my face in my arms folded across my knees. “It’s never that simple.”
“So, what do we do?” Skyla asked.
“That’s the imperative question,” Baldur said. “We need to contact Helen.”
“I don’t think that will be too hard,” Thorin said. “I’ll bet she’s itching to get her hands on Solina after our last meeting.”
“No, no, I’m good,” I said, waving my hands as if shooing away an annoying fly. “I’m good with sitting here and pretending like everything is normal for as long as I can get away with it. I don’t want to play the role of bait anymore. Maybe Skyla can be my understudy. Did you guys know she was a marine? She might even be a Valkyrie. She’s way tougher than me. Let her go chasing after the ruler of the underworld.”
“Girlfriend,” Skyla said. Her face wore a pained look. “You’re babbling.”
“It’s late,” Val said, pushing back his chair. He rose to his feet. “Why don’t we all get some sleep and look at this from a fresh perspective in the morning.”
“Sleep,” I said. “Best idea I’ve heard today.” I rolled onto my feet and moved closer to my bedroom door, a gesture meant to inspire the others to leave.
While Thorin and Baldur arranged for his lodging, Skyla came over to me and squeezed my shoulders. “Don’t give up now, Solina. Things are starting to get interesting.”
“Interesting? I’m not sure you and I have the same perspective.”
“We’re finally starting to get some answers.”
I hacked a sharp laugh. “Answers that just keep raising more questions.”
Skyla pulled me in for a hug, and I slung my arms around her, thankful to have her hold
ing me up, keeping me strong. “Be careful with Val,” she said. “I think he’s still looking to take revenge for your disappearance with Thorin.”
“You could spend the night. We’ll paint each other’s nails and watch John Hughes movies. Or we can sharpen knives and clean your gun while you tell war stories. Just don’t leave me to deal with his ego alone.”
“I’ll help you with your wolf problems, but I cut my assistance off at bullheaded boyfriends.” Skyla inhaled a huge, noisy yawn and stretched. “It’s getting past my bedtime. I’ll see you sometime tomorrow.” Baldur and Thorin followed Skyla out the door without a word, and I didn’t stop them to ask where they were going. But everyone’s abrupt departure left me alone in the company of the Patron Saint of the Perpetual Erection.
I looked at Val and gulped. He smiled like a hungry vulture. Val didn’t worry me, but neither was he a witless, unassuming stranger who didn’t know better than to underestimate me. Confrontation was inevitable between us. Even if it was merely a clash of wit and personality, I dreaded the emotional hurt it would cause.
“You’re going to stay here, aren’t you?” Val said.
“Sure. It’s as safe as anywhere else I could go. Safer, maybe. My stuff is here. It doesn’t impose on anyone.”
“Are you going to make me leave?” Val asked, stepping closer.
“You have a place to stay.”
“But you aren’t there.”
“You got that right.”
Val’s smile drooped. “C’mon, Solina, why are you being this way?”
“Do you really have to ask me that? Like you don’t know that you’ve given me reason to doubt you?”
“Would you have believed me? If I had tried to explain it all to you from the beginning, can you honestly say you would you have believed me?” Val reached forward and cupped a hand to my jaw. A long time had passed since anyone had touched me without pity or grief. I never knew what a heady thing that could be. “Put yourself in my shoes. Knowing what I knew, the danger you were in, having no way to really tell you, but knowing you needed protection anyway… what would you have done in my place?”
Midnight Burning Page 17
