“We talked about it last night,” I said. “The arguments for it outweigh the arguments against.”
Thorin’s attention shifted to Skyla. “What about you, Ramirez?”
Skyla scraped her bowl and fished out a few stray walnuts. “I’m staying with Solina.”
Thorin tilted his head, and his brows drew together. “What about your job?”
Skyla didn’t hesitate. “My job is protecting her.”
The conviction in her words startled me. I started to say something in her defense, but Thorin beat me to it. “Good,” he said. “You’ll stay on my payroll. I can’t afford for you to quit on Solina because of financial constraints.” His gaze turned to me. “I’m leaving money with you as well.”
I studied Thorin’s face. He kept his emotions guarded, revealing nothing. “You keep acting like this, doing all these generous things, and I’m not going to believe you anymore when you tell me it’s for your own gain.”
“Keep yourself alive. It’s all I ask in return. An investment in you is an investment in my future.”
I grunted at that, but otherwise left his comment alone. I shifted my gaze between Thorin and Val, who kept his attention pinned to his placemat. “You two better get on the road soon,” I said. “You might make it to Vegas by tonight.”
“We’ll be there sooner than that,” Thorin said.
“Oh? Are you going to fly?” They had arrived in a huge, black, king-cab Tacoma, so I assumed they would drive the truck back.
Thorin raised one shoulder then dropped it. “Something like that.” And as if reading my mind, he said, “I’m leaving the truck for you, but I don’t expect you to use it unless utterly necessary.”
“‘Something like that’?” I asked. “What does that mean? Do you wiggle your nose like Samantha on Bewitched and just”—I snapped my fingers—“disappear?” There was more to the gods’ supernatural abilities than they let us see, and curiosity prickled under my skin like an itch that was hard to scratch.
Thorin only arched an eyebrow and shrugged.
“How do you know Helen can’t trace that truck here?” Skyla asked. “I bet you’re not the only ancient dude who knows how to hack a GPS or find you on a traffic cam somewhere. How many toll booths did you go through to get here?”
“The truck is a ghost, I assure you.” Thorin shoved his chair away from the table and stood. Val and the two Valkyries followed after him without glancing again in my direction.
Skyla and I gathered the breakfast dishes and started a sink of soapy water. Skyla pushed up her shirt sleeves and plunged her hands into the suds. “The Valkyries all made up some lame excuses about needing to make preparations and left us with clean-up duty.”
“Why didn’t you tell them to shove it?”
“I’m trying to make nice,” Skyla said, swiping a soapy rag around a bowl before handing it to me to rinse and dry.
I grabbed a dry towel and went to work. “Since when do you care about good impressions?”
Skyla flicked her wet fingers at me, and I retaliated by flinging soap bubbles at her. “I’m good at toeing the line for a cause I believe in,” she said.
“And you believe in the Valkyries?”
Skyla paused in her washing and gazed out the window above the sink. “Tori and I talked for a while. It sort of felt like an interview. She promised to research my family history when things calmed down some.”
I held my breath, not daring to say anything. Skyla tried to come across as blasé, but our common cause had drawn us close, and I knew her well enough to sense how much she wanted this.
“I think all of us were fated to come together,” she said. “You, Mani, Thorin, Val, the Valkyries—and me. Everyone has a part to play in this, and everyone is super-something. What am I doing in the middle of this, if I’m not something else, too?”
I didn’t dare say that Skyla had a part in this because she was the type who refused to be left out. She would push her way into the middle of all the excitement, but then, maybe that was the point. Maybe Skyla was the way she was because she needed to be here, at this moment, doing the things she was doing, doing the things I needed her to do.
“If there is anyone in this world who knows exactly who they are,” I said, “it’s you. If you believe your bloodline is Valkyrie, then I don’t dare argue. Hell, you know yourself so well, I bet you could single-handedly code your own DNA.”
Skyla studied me for a second before turning her attention to the dishes. “If you were anyone else, I’d kick your butt for being a smart-ass. From you, though, I know it’s sincere. Thanks.”
After we finished the dishes, Skyla and I went upstairs to pack our things, but I stopped short of following Skyla into our room. Val’s door stood partway open and inviting. Time to bite the proverbial bullet and go see if it was possible to mend things between us. I didn’t have so many friends willing to defend me against mythological beasts that I could afford to lose any of them, no matter their motivations for helping me. Val and I had three years of history, and the last four months would have been unbearable without him. Before I gave up on him entirely, I had to know whether there was anything salvageable between us.
Val must have heard me, because he came to the doorway of his room before I knocked, and he wore an impatient pout. “What do you want, Solina? I can hear your teeth grinding all the way down the hall.”
“I’ve come to extend an olive branch,” I said. “I care about you too much to let you leave with these bitter feelings between us.”
Val crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorjamb. “I don’t want your apology.”
I reeled back as if Val had returned the blow I’d given him the last time we spoke. He grabbed my arm and pulled me into his room. I was too stunned to protest.
“I don’t want your care, either,” he said. “I want more than that.” Still holding my arm, Val put his other hand on my chest over my heart. “I want what’s in here, too.”
Val sounded so sincere that his unexpected admission unnerved me. “I-I,” I stuttered, but he broke in. “Don’t say anything trite, Solina. I can’t stomach it. I’ve had time to think about what you said—about my being a distraction. Maybe you’re right.” Val’s restatement of my objections made me sound coldhearted, but I wouldn’t take it back. It was something I should have said sooner. Then maybe all this turmoil between us could have been avoided.
“It goes against my better judgment to leave you here,” Val said. “I hate to do it. The Valkyries have their own agenda, and I don’t trust them to put your safety first, but it’s not about what I want all the time. I get that.” I opened my mouth to say something consoling, but Val put his fingers over my lips to stop me. “I have a favor to ask of you, though.”
“What is it?” I asked, pulling away from his finger.
“Take some time to think about what you really want for yourself, for your life. See if there’s room in it for me. Be honest with yourself. I’ve waited hundreds of years for you. I can wait a little longer.”
“You haven’t been waiting for me.” He might have had me convinced, but Val’s claim to hundreds of years was overselling, and I didn’t buy it. His words no longer felt like sincerity but like manipulation. “You’re no monk, Val Wotan.”
Val’s cheeks flushed. If asked ten seconds ago, I would have sworn such a thing was impossible for him. “Maybe I’ve made love to a few, but I assure you I’ve never been in love with any of them.”
“A few?”
Val shrugged. “Who’s counting?”
“And if you think for a minute that I believe you’ve fallen in love with me, then I have an oceanfront home I’d like to sell you in Arizona.”
Val smiled sadly. “You’ll never know what it could be if you don’t give it a chance. That’s all I’m asking, Solina, that you’ll think about giving us a chance.”
“Val… I…” Find a backbone, Solina. You’re only waffling because you don’t want to hurt
him, especially if he is being sincere. But you already know the answer to his proposal. There’s no point in stringing him along, and doing so would only cause more pain in the long run.
As if he sensed my reticence, Val made the move that he must have thought would convince me to agree. But it was the wrong move. He swooped me into his arms and kissed me, hard and possessive. For a heartbeat I saw an image of the earth sinking into a sea of fire, but reality returned in the next moment. Val’s kiss was brutish, like he was trying to claim me. I didn’t care for it at all, and I shoved at him. “Val, stop it,” I said, turning away to gasp for breath. I reached for my fire, but I never got the chance to use it.
This time when Thorin appeared, it wasn’t in his usual silent and sudden way. His arrival was loud, like a steam train roaring into the station, crashing against Val and slamming him into the wall. I gasped and jumped out of the way.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Val?” Thorin raged like an angry giant. Fee-fi-fo-fum, indeed. “She made it clear that she wants you to leave her alone.”
Val shoved against Thorin, his biceps bulging from the effort, but Thorin held him in place.
“She came to me,” Val said. “Apologizing, hoping to make up. Why don’t you ask her what she wants?” Val’s eyes darted to mine. “C’mon, Solina, tell us. You want me to keep my hands off?”
Thorin shoved him again. “It was a lot more than your hands.”
“Who do you think you are, Thorin? Her father? Her jealous lover? I know for a fact she’s never laid a hand on you.”
“You don’t know anything,” Thorin said.
Val’s certainty wavered for a second, his eyes flickering between me and Thorin. “Bullshit,” Val said, finally working up the force to push Thorin away. Val stormed over to his bed, grabbed the messenger bag containing his things, and slid the strap across his chest. “This is all bullshit.”
Fire simmered just under the surface of my skin, pushing like shaken champagne strains against a loose cork. The little devil on my shoulder urged me to let it out, convert all my feelings into a messy conflagration and burn down both Val and Thorin. Fortunately my voice of reason spoke louder. By the time I recovered my composure, Val was already out the door and making his way down the hall, so I turned my indignation on Thorin.
“What the hell?” I said. Thorin glared back at me, his eyes black and bottomless. “Who asked you to interfere?”
“Last night you announced to the whole house you were finished with Val. Then I come around the corner to find him plastered all over you, and you didn’t look like you were enjoying it.”
“Irrelevant!” I screeched. Thorin was intent on making me the damsel in distress, and I was sick of being underrated.
Thorin folded his arms over his chest and glared at me. “Who knew you were such a fickle creature, Miss Mundy?”
“It’s irrelevant because I was perfectly capable of handling Val on my own, but you always underestimate me. I’m not helpless. And stop calling me Miss Mundy. We both know you only do it to get under my skin.” I raged at him over the inconsequential because I didn’t want Thorin to know the depth of my confusion and hurt. Val’s insistence on treating me as some trophy to claim felt like a metaphorical fist squeezing my heart.
Thorin stepped closer and leaned down so that we were nose to nose. “And you continued to humor Val just to get under my skin.”
“Why won’t you understand that what happens between Val and me has nothing to do with you?”
Thorin leaned in even closer and dropped his voice. His warm breath brushed my cheek when he said, “Why won’t you understand just how wrong you are about that?”
“What are you saying?” My voice went dry and raspy as Thorin’s closeness filled my senses. My heartbeat changed from a frantic gallop to an anticipatory lope. My body was so quick to betray my convictions.
Thorin brought his lips mere millimeters from mine and then stopped. His scent was thunderstorms and burnt sky. He cupped my face in his hands and rubbed a thumb over my lower lip. His touch was lightning, and it brought forth images of boiling clouds the color of bruises and winds like artillery, tearing into an army of shadows bearing claws and teeth. Thorin growled, cursing in a language I did not recognize. If I’d had to guess, it probably translated to something along the lines of “damn it to hell.” Then he shook his head, and in a rough and broken voice he said, “I’m not like him. I won’t make his mistakes.”
Thorin dropped his hands and pulled away. He exhaled a heavy breath, and then he was gone, leaving me cold and bereft. Damn his black heart to hell—or whatever place of eternal suffering existed in his theology. I sank to the floor and covered my face.
That was how Skyla found me. She lowered herself to the floor and put her arm around my shoulders. “I couldn’t help overhearing the loud parts, but toward the end it got real quiet. You want to tell me what happened?”
I repeated the story, including the look in Thorin’s eyes and the sensation of his touch.
“Ah, so that’s why you’re glowing.”
“What?” I pulled my hands away, and, yes, Skyla was right. A soft, candlelit glow radiated from my skin. “Well, that’s just great.”
Skyla sighed. “I am so glad not to be in your shoes right now.” She patted my head when I sobbed again. “Was it really so bad as all that?”
“No,” I said. “It was incredible.”
Skyla blew a breath out between her teeth so that it whistled quietly. “That makes it a lot more complicated.”
I sniffed and tried to get ahold of myself.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
I wiped my face as best I could and pushed up from the floor. Skyla stood beside me. “I’m going to say my goodbyes. It’s a long way to New York, and we better get going.”
Chapter Thirty-five
When Thorin left me, he left for good, apparently heading straight out the door and getting into a car with Val and one of the Valkyries, who drove them to Mendocino, the closest town, and dropped them off.
“If they were going to do some crazy magical transportation,” Skyla said, “why did they need to go to Mendocino first?”
I shrugged at Skyla and considered what I needed to do next. I had nothing to pack, as my Valkyrie kidnappers had given me no opportunity to gather the few items I had bought in Vegas before chucking me in their car. But, because of Thorin’s talent for predicting a person’s needs, I now possessed an envelope stuffed with cash. He’d left it on my pillow sometime after breakfast but before our encounter in Val’s room. The money sounded more exciting than it was; I was losing my independence to Thorin, dollar by dollar, and now, touch by touch.
“Maybe Mendocino has magical train stations like in Harry Potter or a wardrobe like the Narnia books,” I said. “I don’t want to think too much about why those two do the things they do.”
“Good point.” Skyla closed the hard cover over the truck bed and locked it in place. There was no time for stealth or surreptitiousness, only time for running, and I had to take Thorin’s word that the truck was untraceable. Skyla and I returned to the house to collect Inyoni and Kalani and make our goodbyes to Tori. She never asked where we were going, and I had to trust Inyoni and Kalani not to tell her once we got there.
Tori hugged each of us in turn, ending with me. “Good luck, Solina. Take care, and don’t forget what you’ve learned in your short time here. When things are safer, I’ve asked Inyoni and Kalani to bring you back to us so you can continue your training. We are committed to ensuring your well-being.”
“I hope we come back sooner rather than later,” I said. “I truly hope my bad dream winds up being nothing more than that.”
I hugged several other women I’d known as sparring partners and teachers. They all wore grim expressions and stood alert and aware, as if expecting an attack at any moment. Skyla and Inyoni climbed into the truck cab’s front seats, and Kalani and I climbed up into the back seat.
We didn’t anticipate an attack on the road. My dream had shown the battle occurring on the grounds of the Aerie only, but still Inyoni and Kalani kept a watchful eye. They rotated sleep shifts so that one of them was always awake during our journey, and all four of us took turns behind the wheel, driving through the nights without stopping for anything except food, gas, and the occasional restroom break.
Skyla, the two Valkyries, and I rolled into the gravel drive of a rustic fishing cabin in the late afternoon on a Friday near the end of September. The trees surrounding the lake showed the beginnings of fall colors. Nature had thrown out the welcome mat for us.
The term rustic brought to mind something charming and simple: a log cabin floored in pine planks and light fixtures constructed of deer antlers. This place had none of that. The walls were cinderblock. If I counted the bathroom, then the cottage provided two rooms and a loft for extra sleeping space. The building offered little insulation from cold weather, though a small wood-burning stove sat in one corner. The roof showed no obvious signs of wear. It kept out the bugs and maybe the rain, too, but that had yet to be tested.
Skyla climbed a ladder into the loft and unrolled her sleeping bag and a foam mattress. We had stopped at a Wal-Mart outside of Rochester to pick up fuel, gear, and groceries. I followed her to the loft and rolled out my sleeping bag beside hers. Inyoni and Kalani eyed the dusty futon in the living room/dining room/everything else room. Their disdain was obvious, but there was nothing else for them unless they wanted to sleep in the truck.
“It has running water,” Skyla said, “so we’ve got a toilet, but there’s no electricity except to run the water pump, so we don’t have a water heater. And we have to cook on gas and light it with kerosene.”
Someone suggested we walk to the lake, but it never happened because the Valkyries preferred to take naps instead. The Tacoma had plenty of cab space, but sleeping in a car never equaled the quality of bed sleep. Through a jaw-popping yawn, Kalani said something about establishing a watch schedule. I volunteered to take the first shift because I’d driven the least and napped the most. No one argued.
Midnight Burning Page 26
