Thorin waved aside my compliment. “Are you going to fight me on this? Are you going to give me a list of reasons why you should throw yourself in harm’s way, jeopardizing your whole world and mine so you can avenge your brother’s death?”
I threw up my hand, indicating he should stop. “See, there you go making assumptions, and it’s going to get us in a fighting mood again. You have a valid argument, and I’m going to give it all due consideration. I do want to come with you, want to find Hati and make him pay for killing Mani. But I’m no hero. Not really.”
“What would you do if I were to present Hati to you on a platter?” Thorin asked. “Would you kill him? Give him to the police? Have us banish him to a distant realm, never to return?”
I hesitated. “Could you do that?”
Thorin shrugged. “Maybe. It was possible long ago, but many of those ways were lost.”
“Because of Ragnarok?”
“Yes.”
Could I kill Hati? Did I actually want to see him tortured? I had been crying for justice all this time without really knowing what that meant. I ducked my head, unable to meet Thorin’s eyes. “I’m ashamed to say that I don’t know what I want.”
Thorin tucked his knuckles under my chin and turned my face toward his. “Maybe,” he said, “you should use this time to figure that out.”
The expression on his face revealed an uncharacteristic gentleness. I pulled back before I sank into his touch and gave myself away. “About staying or going. I’d like to have the night to think about it. Can I give you an answer in the morning?”
Thorin held himself still for a moment, but then he bobbed his head. “One more night won’t make a big difference in the grand scheme of things.”
I smiled at him. “Wow, look at us. We had a whole conversation where no one lost their temper and stormed off.”
“I assure you, I have never stormed off from anything.”
I turned and started for the Aerie. “No,” I said over my shoulder. “You’d beat your head against a brick wall and wouldn’t stop until it crumbled or your head caved in.”
Thorin didn’t answer, but I could swear I heard him laugh.
Chapter Thirty-three
I came awake that night, an unspent scream on my lips and my heart beating like an angry bumblebee thrashing against a window. Despite the chill in the night air, sweat soaked my sheets and pillow. I sat up, gasping for breath.
Skyla rolled over and looked at me with one bleary eye. “What’s the matter?”
I coiled the extra blanket from the foot of our bed around my shoulders and slipped out from under the damp covers. “Nothing. Go back to sleep.”
“M-kay,” she said, and her next breath was the soft snuffle of deep sleep.
But it wasn’t nothing. Not if I believed all the amazing revelations that had come to me over the last month. Until I’d dreamed of Mani’s murder, I had dismissed most visions as uncanny coincidence or the heightened sensitivity of my subconscious picking up on clues overlooked when my awareness was overwhelmed by too many distractions.
More often than not, surrealism affected the tone of my premonitions, making them hard to decipher. The one that woke me this time was similarly bizarre, but it also elicited sensations similar to those that had assaulted me the night of Mani’s death. Truth and urgency had imbued both dreams. This was one vision I knew better than to ignore or dismiss.
I went to Tori’s apartment and knocked. When she took too long in responding, I knocked again. The floorboards on her side of the door creaked as she crossed to the door from her bed. I waited and clutched my hands together over my frantic heart. When Tori opened her door, irritation flashed across her face before she took in my frantic state. She quickly traded her annoyance for concern. “What is it, Solina? What happened?”
“Nothing yet, I hope. And if we’re careful, maybe nothing will.”
“What are you talking about?” Tori opened her door wider and motioned for me to come into her room.
“I’ve had a bad dream,” I said, wondering if she would laugh me off.
She didn’t. Instead, her eyes widened. “I’ve heard about your dreams.”
That stopped me in my place. “You have?”
“Alek told me.”
“He did?” Blabbermouth. But, then, I had to admit I was grateful Thorin had mentioned my peculiar ability to Tori because it had laid a foundation, making her more willing to listen… and to trust.
“He did, and he seemed quite convinced of their validity.” Tori motioned to a chair in the corner of her bedroom. I sat and clutched my blanket tighter around my shoulders while she went to perch on the top of the thick oak footboard at the end of her bed.
“What did you see?” Tori asked. “From the pallor of your face, I can’t imagine it was good news.”
“It’s never good news. For once I’d like to see when something good will happen. At this rate, I’ll be afraid to go to sleep anymore for fear of what I might see.”
Tori nodded. “Good surprises are always welcome, but when tragedy strikes, don’t people often say they wished they had had more time to prepare?”
“I see your point, but we digress.”
“Yes, we do.” She rocked forward, grasping her knees hard so that the whites of her knuckles showed. “So tell me already.”
“He’s going to die.”
“Who?”
I swallowed, trying to force down the thick lump forming in my throat. “Thorin.”
Tori cackled “Ha!” and then clapped her hand over her mouth, startled by her own outburst. She took her hand away and whispered, “He’s immortal.”
“In my understanding,” I said, “that only means he lives forever, not that he can’t be killed.”
Tori paused to let this sink in. “How? How does it happen?”
“It happens here, I’m sure of it. On the beach out past the house. There was lots of fog making everything blurry and hard to decipher, but I saw him lying there in the surf. There was lots of blood and a spear in his chest.” I patted my own chest at the place where my heart beat under the skin and bones. “Here. In his heart.”
“Gungnir,” she breathed.
“Who?”
“Was it Gungnir? Odin’s spear. It would be more likely to kill one of the immortals than any other weapon.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve never heard of it before.”
Tori stood, incredulity stiffening her spine. “Your ignorance of your own heritage is appalling. I’ll have Embla assign you some essential reading.”
“Embla?”
“Our librarian.”
I stepped closer and took one of Tori’s hands between my own. “I promise, whatever you want to teach me, I want to learn it, but now is not the time. My dreams usually give very short notice. What I saw could happen in just a few hours. So, please give me the CliffsNotes version for now.”
Tori nodded and pulled away from me. “You at least know about Mjölnir, right?”
“Of course.”
“Long story short, Gungnir was a spear made by the dwarves. They made Mjölnir for Thorin’s father. The spear has similar qualities in that its accuracy is infallible. It was supposed to pass from Odin to his sons after his death, but it was lost long ago.”
Back in Las Vegas Thorin had mentioned that he and Val had possessed objects of great power. I wondered if Gungnir had once belonged to Val, passing to him from his father, Odin, after Baldur’s mistletoe death. And after Ragnarok basically killed off all the other candidates. Val, sexy playboy and ancient deity. The two ideas refused to coexist peacefully in my mind. “If my dream is correct,” I said, “then it appears someone has found it.”
“Helen?” Tori asked.
“We’re pretty sure she has Mjölnir. Why couldn’t she have the spear too?”
“How do you know she has the hammer?”
“She wears it as a charm around her neck. I think she wants to antagonize Thorin.”
> “Why didn’t he rip it away from her when he had the chance? He’s the only one who can properly wield it.”
“That’s what he told me—and it’s complicated.” I was so not going to recount the whole who was looking at whose cleavage story.
Tori waved my excuse away, apparently deciding my answer wasn’t important. “Alek must leave. Immediately.”
“I agree,” I said, relieved that Tori believed and supported me. “He was going to leave in the morning anyway. He was waiting for me to make up my mind about whether I was going to stay here or go with him.”
Tori shrank back. “He wanted you to go with him?”
“No,” I said, trying to interpret her reaction. Jealousy? “He wants me to stay. He thinks it’s safer for me here.”
She put her hand on her hip and grunted. “He’s right.”
“I know he is. But never tell him I said so.”
The corner of Tori’s mouth curled into a smile. “No. I know better than that.”
“Someday, when we have more time, you’ll have to tell me how you know Thorin so well.”
Tori shrugged and held her hands open and wide apart, trying her best to look innocent. “The Valkyries have always known the Aesir. But that’s not what you mean. Don’t let it trouble you. I am focused on the present, and I’m only interested in those who share my visions for the Valkyries. Alek and I never agreed. It’s good that I have others on whom I can rely.”
“Others?”
“Alek is not the only survivor of Ragnarok.”
“No, there’s Val and Baldur, too.”
“And several more besides. I told you your ignorance is alarming.”
The conversation had taken an irrelevant path. I stood, ready to move into action, though I wasn’t sure what action to take. “Thorin may be your past, but unless we get him out of here, it’s likely he’ll have no future. Regardless of your history with him, he is Aesir, and he needs the Valkyries’ support.”
“If we send Alek away, it might save him, but what about us?” Tori asked.
“I’m thinking you should send me away, too.”
“Helen knows nothing of this place. We’ve been careful to keep our locations secret, and we move often to avoid detection. How do you suppose she found us?”
“Maybe you have a traitor in your midst.”
Tori’s face went dark, but she smothered her emotions quickly. “Not possible.”
“That’s what I thought you would say.”
“Do you think the outcome of your vision would change if you left the Aerie?”
I turned for the door so Tori wouldn’t see my face. I was afraid it would show her too much, make her ask more questions I didn’t want to answer. “I can hope.” I didn’t tell her that I had seen another death in my dream. Mine. Lying on the same beach as Thorin, my throat ripped open in a bloody, gaping wound. Skoll stood over me, baying triumphantly, his howls echoing in an early morning fog.
“You can’t tell Thorin what’s going to happen,” I said, still without looking at her. “He won’t go if he thinks there will be a fight here. He won’t trust the Valkyries to be enough to protect me when he believes without a doubt that there will be a direct confrontation. He’s willing to leave me here now because he thinks it’s safer than my being with him.”
“Keeping you alive is what’s most important,” Tori said. “Tell me what you want to do.”
I put my hand on her doorknob and turned it. “Send Thorin away, put Kalani and Inyoni at my disposal, and tell the others to be on alert.”
I waited for the sun to rise with every nerve in my body on fire and a ten-pound rock of worry in my gut. I paced before the window in my room, listening to Skyla sleep, hoping Helen would give us another day to get safely away before her attack. I thought of waking Skyla a million times, but she needed to rest up, to conserve her energy for what was to come.
If I woke her early, there would be nothing for her to do other than share my fear and trepidation. If not for the fact that waking him would have stirred his immediate suspicion, I would have already gone to Thorin’s room, told him of my intentions to stay, and encouraged him to get on the road.
Before I left her room, Tori had said she would quietly notify her sisters of the situation, tell Inyoni and Kalani to start packing, and pass word to the others to establish a perimeter patrol around the property. I spent the last, dark morning hours trying to spot the Valkyries roaming the cliffs and scrub brush. The moment the first glow of the approaching sunrise brightened the sky and signaled a clear, cloudless day, I managed to make myself lie down and doze in a short, fitful nap.
Skyla leaving the bed woke me again. “Where are you going?” I asked.
“Uh, to pee. Is that okay?” Her curls stood out around her face like a mad scientist’s, and she scowled at me through sleep-swollen eyes.
“Hurry up. We gotta talk.”
“Good talk or bad talk?”
“It’s not good.”
Skyla rushed to the bathroom and returned, launching from the floor to the bed in a single leap. She landed, feet tucked underneath, with a plop. “What’s up?”
I told Skyla what had happened in the night, my dream and my conversation with Tori. As she listened, Skyla’s expression hardened. Her brow furrowed. “Those bastards. Never a moment’s peace with them, is there? What’s the plan? Where are we going? How soon do we leave?”
“We?” I said, trying to keep any hint of hope out of my voice.
“Yeah, we—me and you, you and me. You weren’t thinking of ditching me, were you?”
I lunged across the bed and flung my arms around her, hugging her with the strength of all my fear and worry.
“What’s this for?” Skyla asked, patting my back.
“I couldn’t ask you to go with me. It’s so dangerous.”
“Don’t be stupid. Of course I’m going with you. I’m in this to the end.”
“I’m so glad. Having you around gives me a lot more confidence.”
“We need to talk about this crush you have on me, girlfriend. It’s getting embarrassing for you.”
I released her from the hug and fell against the pillows. “Where do you think we should go? Tori said she would lend us Inyoni and Kalani, her two best fighters, but the rest would stay here to defend home turf.”
“If there’s a mole in the Valkyries like you think there is, then isn’t there a chance they’ll tell Helen we’ve left and set her on our trail?”
“It’s a possibility. That’s why we can’t tell anyone where we’re going. Whatever plan we think of, we have to keep it between the two of us. Once Val and Thorin hit the road, then we’ve got to get out of here, too, as soon as possible. We have to go where no one will think to look for us.”
“And where is that?”
“I have no idea. Until I came to Alaska, I’d never been anywhere outside of North Carolina.”
Skyla’s face lit. “I know just the place.”
“Already? Where?”
“My dad had a fishing cabin on Oneida Lake in New York. It’s really rural, nobody around for miles. We can hide out. There are no ties to us to lead them there. My dad gave the cabin to my brother, but he never uses it. He hates fishing.”
“You have a brother?” I said, surprised she had never mentioned him before.
Skyla grimaced as if she had swallowed something cold and slimy. “We aren’t close. He’s a lot older than me.”
“It sounds like the plot in a bad horror movie,” I said. “Go out to some rural spot where no one can hear you scream when the monsters come to get you. Maybe if we go into a well-populated area, Helen will avoid making a scene. We can hide in plain sight, so to speak.”
Skyla tapped a finger on her bottom lip as she thought my comments over. “You have a point, but I’ll tell you the reason I don’t like it. I don’t know how many eyes Helen has, but I’m sure she has an APB out on you. You go to a place with more people, then there’s a greater chan
ce of you being seen.”
“I’ll stay to the shadows.”
“I’ll give you another reason I don’t like it,” she said. “Helen wants to tear down the world and start again. Why does she care if she makes a scene in the middle of a crowded city? As soon as you’re dead, the war against mankind begins. She might even see your publicized death as a sort of coming-out party. Do you think mortal authorities pose a risk for her?”
“No, I guess not.”
“But listen. Only you and I need to know our final destination. The fewer people who know our plans, the better. Then Helen can’t use them to get to us.”
“Inyoni and Kalani will want to know where we’re going,” I said.
“They’ll have to figure it out when we get there.”
“So. A lake in the middle of nowhere. You’re sure about this?”
“I’m sure,” Skyla said, and then she shuddered. “Anything but a city. I feel the layers of grime and gunk building up on my skin. Why do you think I moved to Siqiniq?”
“Because you like snow, and darkness, and cold, and—”
Skyla punched my shoulder and hopped to the floor. “Get dressed. We have to go put on our game faces for Thorin. He’s a pretty cool Boss Man. I’d hate to see him dead.”
Chapter Thirty-four
Skyla and I met Inyoni, Kalani, Tori, Thorin, and Val in the dining room over bowls of oatmeal and hardboiled eggs. They sat at the rustic wooden table but left seats open for the late arrivals. Val swirled his spoon around his bowl, not eating and refusing to look at me. My heart cramped. I never wanted this strangeness between us, but I did want him to ease his bullheaded attempt to claim me. But considering the dangers facing us all, that once he left there was a good chance I might never see him again, I would try once more to make peace with Val, if it was at all possible.
“Tori tells me you’ve agreed to stay,” Thorin said.
Val’s head jerked up, but he kept his gaze focused on his breakfast. Thorin had a bowl as well, but it rested at his elbow, and the spoon lying next to it was clean. Did he never eat?
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