Torin snatched me from their arms. “Find Cora. Whatever she’s doing is causing this. I’ll get Eirik out of here.”
“It’s not Cora. It’s Maliina. The real Cora has been under psychiatric care since the meet. I’ll explain later.” Then I saw Maliina. She was all over Drew, her legs around his waist, hands in his hair, lips locked. Eirik watched them from the bleachers, eyes glazed. Andris and Ingrid were trying to talk to him with little effect. “There he is.”
“I see him. I’ll get him out of here.”
“I’ll find Maliina!”
“Engage your runes,” Torin ordered as he took off, using the crowd to hide as he became invisible.
Imitating him, I dived into the crowd and engaged my runes at the same time. They flashed in my head in quick succession. Strength. Speed. Protection. Defense. The crowd made it hard to reach Maliina, but when I finally did, I yanked her from Drew’s arms. He wore a bewildered expression as she fell backward. I landed on top of her and brought both fists down on her chest. The ground shook around us.
She screamed obscenities and aimed a punch at my chin, almost knocking my teeth out. The force sent me flying backwards into Drew, knocking him and several students down. By the time I stood, Maliina was speeding away.
Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the crowd. I stared into Lavania’s eyes, runes all over her face. “Disengage your runes and re-engage them in this order: transformation and regeneration, protection, strength, defense, speed.”
In seconds, I was covered with runes. Holy crap! Talk about being zapped by a sudden surge of energy.
“Follow me,” she ordered.
I did, scared that everything would be blurry and I’d run into people, but the way my eyes processed images had changed. It was as though time had slowed down and everyone was moving at a slower pace while I moved at normal speed. I could see clearly and dodge people and obstacles. No wonder Torin rode his bike like Hel was chasing him and never hit anything.
***
We stopped in a restroom inside the sports complex. It was the same restroom Ingrid had used the first time I’d seen her use a portal. The mirror dissolved and opened into Eirik’s living room. Sounds came from somewhere in the house.
“They are here,” Lavania said.
I followed her inside the room. A thud hit the wall and rattled the pictures. Eirik’s parents peered at us from behind a door. Lavania indicated for them to stay put as more thuds shook the house.
We followed the source to the foyer, which was like a war zone. The walls and marble floor had cracks and dents like they had been created by a demolition ball. Broken glass and picture frames littered the floor. One wall had several holes, and I could see right through them to the pool deck.
I ducked as a bust of Alexander the Great flew past my head. Eirik and Torin were still fighting, but they weren’t the only ones in the room. Marj, Jeannette, and Catie stood on the grand staircase. Watching, doing nothing like always. They never dirtied their hands, the cowards. Maliina stood at the other end of the foyer by the hall mirror. In her hand was the dagger the Norns had given me. From her filthy clothes, she must have been fighting Torin, too.
“Let’s go, Eirik,” Maliina begged. “He’s not worth it.”
“He’s not going anywhere,” I yelled.
Eirik stopped from ripping a slab of plaster off the wall, which I presumed he meant to use as a weapon, and angled his head toward me. His eyes were still glazed, but he responded to my voice. “Raine?”
“I’m here,” I said, stepping forward, careful not to trip on the debris.
“She’s here with Lavania, Eirik,” Maliina said in her best imitation of Cora’s voice. “They are working together. Lavania doesn’t want us to be together.” Eirik turned toward her.
“Keep her talking, I’ll get your mother,” Lavania whispered from behind me and disappeared.
Why would she want to get my mother involved now?
“That’s not true, Eirik,” I said. “I want you to be with Cora. The real Cora. She was sick, but she’s home now. That is not Cora. She’s Maliina.” I frantically waved Torin over.
“Don’t listen to her,” Maliina said. “Remember when we kissed after we left Cliff House. You said you were crazy about me, but we couldn’t be together. We can be together now. We’ll live with your mother. You want to meet your mother, don’t you? She wants to meet you too, Eirik.”
“My mother?” Eirik asked.
So that was Maliina’s plan. Take Eirik to his mother. Hel must be the protector she’d bragged about earlier. I glanced at the Norns. The shock on their faces was comical. They’d been played, too. Bested by one sick trainee they thought was a pawn. Serves them right.
“This is not working,” Torin said, having reached my side while I’d been distracted. “Take her out while I take care of him.”
“Don’t.” I focused on Eirik. “Don’t listen to her, Eirik. Your mother deserted you. She never visited you for seventeen years. You belong with me and Cora, people who love you.” Torin was right. This was getting us nowhere. “We need Cora.”
“Good idea. Focus on his feelings for you; it’s his Achilles heel,” Torin said. Then he disappeared into the living room, presumably to use the mirror portal. Eirik stood in the middle of the foyer looking thoroughly confused.
“Eirik. I’m hurt. Please. Help me.” He turned toward me, his eyes glowing. “OUCH. It hurts.”
“No, don’t listen to her,” Maliina screeched, moving away from her position near the mirror. I didn’t like the way she gripped the dagger. Would she hurt Eirik despite the fact that she was working for his mother? As Eirik moved toward me, she followed him and raised the dagger.
I dashed across the hall, runes coiling on my skin. I hit her at full speed, but she recovered fast and sent me flying with a kick. My back connected with the wall, pain shooting through my body. I landed on the floor on all fours and barreled into her. She used my weight and momentum against me and whipped me around. I grabbed her arm and didn’t let go.
We rolled on the floor until she pinned me. She raised the dagger and brought it down. I gripped her wrist, barely stopping the blade from sinking into my chest. If the dagger could kill gods and Norns, it sure as Hel could cut my life short. Sweat poured down her face, and her eyes narrowed like a demented person. I shook my head to stop the sweat dripping into my eyes.
“You can’t defeat me. I have Norn runes,” Maliina bragged, panting.
She was stronger, but I was pissed. I planted my legs on the ground and tried to buck her off me. “You were going to kill him, you bitch.”
“Just following instructions. Take Eirik home to his mother or finish him—”
Someone plucked her off me and sent her flying. She hit the wall and crumbled on the floor. My eyes connected with Torin’s. Once again, he’d saved me from Maliina. He offered me his hand and pulled me into his arms.
“Raine, are you okay?” Eirik asked, drawing my attention. His eyes were clear, and he was carrying Cora, whose her head lolled to the side. Torin must have brought her back while I was fighting with Maliina.
“She’s asleep, but I runed her just in case she wakes up,” Torin explained.
“Can someone explain to me what’s going on?” my father bellowed. He stood by the hall mirror with Mom and Lavania. For a dying man, he had some serious lungs.
“Yes, why are there two of Cora,” Eirik added.
Torin went to where Maliina lay like a rag doll, her arms and legs at weird angles. He picked up the dagger and shoved it under his waistband, then leaned over Maliina and sketched runes on her arm with his artavus. Her features changed until she was herself again. Shock crossed Eirik’s face.
“Raine, do you want to explain?” Lavania asked.
“Actually, I think they,” I waved toward the stairs, where Marj, Catie, and Jeannette stood, “should explain.” The bewildered expression on the Valkyries and my father’s faces confirmed my suspicions.
The Norns were invisible. “Everyone needs to see you.”
The three Norns didn’t look happy, but they became visible.
“We don’t explain ourselves to anyone,” Marj said.
“Then I’ll explain to you while you failed.” I summarized what Maliina had told me and finished with, “Maliina decided she’d rather deliver Eirik to Hel than to you.”
The Norns didn’t respond, their expressions unreadable. Eirik looked confused while Torin and Eirik’s parents, who’d walked into the foyer, stared at me as though seeing me for the first time. The way Mom grinned told me Lavania must have explained about me being a seeress. Why she’d chosen to do so while we were battling Maliina was beyond me.
The silence that followed was spooky. Mom was the first to break it.
“My little girl, a seeress,” she said with pride, moving to my side and gripping my hand, her eyes watery as though she was fighting tears. “Not just an ordinary seeress.” Then she turned and faced the Norns. “You knew. You three…” She shook her head. “I don’t know where to begin. You saw the future and decided to change it. No wonder you marked her when she was born, tried to manipulate her into joining you, and rescued Eirik from Hel. I will personally inform Goddess Freya of what you’d planned and what you put my child through.”
“You’re not allowed in Valhalla,” Jeannette said with a sneer.
“One foot there and you’ll be sent straight to Hel’s Hall,” Marj added.
“She won’t, not after the gods learn that her daughter is not just any seeress,” Lavania cut in. “She is a Völva, one that sees all and hears all.”
Mom grinned. “One whose destiny you bitter old hags cannot control and whose actions you cannot punish.”
“It’s been a while since we had one like her, not since the beginning.” Lavania glanced at my mother, and they traded smiles. When Lavania faced the Norns again, she was no longer smiling. “Raine is now under the protection of the gods. You touch her and you will feel their wrath.”
The fury in the Norns’ eyes was memorable. I couldn’t help grinning even though I was still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I was one of the Völur, seers so powerful even the gods consulted them about their future. Lavania had covered them during our study of Asgardians. It was a Völva who had told Odin about how the worlds were created, how they would be destroyed during Ragnarok, which gods would die and which ones would survive, and how the new worlds would be repopulated. Norns might control destinies of everyone, including gods, but they didn’t control the destiny of Völur, which explains why they wanted me.
“Okay, let’s finish here,” Lavania said, taking charge. “Eirik, take Cora home.”
Eirik’s arms tightened around Cora. “No.”
“Yes,” Lavania said firmly. “Cora will be here when you come back. She’s not going anywhere.” She signaled Torin. “Take Raine home then head to the stadium. Ingrid and Andris need your help.”
My stomach dropped. That meant some of the students had died. How many this time?
“Torin can’t leave,” Marj’s voice cut through the two-story foyer. “He has to face the consequences of his actions. He altered his,” she pointed at my father, “future when he made a deal with a Grimnir meant to take his soul. No Valkyrie can alter the destiny of a soul without punishment.”
My parents’ reaction told me something new. They hadn’t known what Torin had done. Mom stared at him with gratitude, and Dad… whatever reservations he might have had about Torin, I doubted they still existed.
“I can,” I said, and everyone’s attention shifted to me. The Norns were clearly shocked. “I’m the one who told Torin to find my father and bring him home. I, not him, altered my father’s destiny. So if you want to blame someone, blame me. Not him. If you touch him, mess with his memories again, or even think of sending him away, you will have to deal with me.”
Their expressions changed from shock to fury. Their bodies, clothes, and hair changed as they took their true form. Ancient faces wreathed with wrinkles, eyes starting to glow, flimsy gowns floating to the floor—I had unleashed something primal in them. Funny thing was they didn’t scare me anymore.
They floated down the stairs and moved toward me. Not sure what they planned to do, I watched them move closer and closer. Torin appeared on my left and Mom on my right. Lavania joined her. Dad, completely out of his depth, watched us from across the room. Even Eirik stopped staring at Cora’s face and wached. His parents kept their distance.
“You might be able to see everyone’s future, but you cannot see your own, Lorraine,” Marj said, her voice echoing eerily in my head. “That will be your demise.”
“Most völur are Norns. They might not be as powerful as you, but they would have guided you if you’d joined us,” Jeannette added.
“Be careful, Raine,” Catie added. “You might be under the protection of the gods, but not all the gods are good, as you’ve learned tonight. So if you ever need our help, or the help of the other völur, summon us.” The others glared at her, but she didn’t back off. “We will make sure you get it.”
I nodded and watched them continue toward Maliina’s unconscious body, frigid air following them like the tail of a comet. They picked her up and disappeared.
I burrowed against Torin’s chest. He smelled of sweat, blood, and dirt, but I didn’t care. I was never letting him go. He was my safety net. This world of theirs had just thrown me a curveball, and I wasn’t sure what to think anymore. Was I even meant to be a Valkyrie?
“What did they say?” Mom asked.
I glanced at her. “You didn’t hear them?”
“No,” she said.
Torin shook his head, too. “You nodded, so they must have said something.”
Lavania, Eirik, and his parents stared at me expectantly, all waiting to hear my answer. Not wanting to rehash what the three Norns had said, I focused on Catie’s offer. “They said if I ever need their help to summon them.”
Mom laughed. “They never give up, do they? You will never go to them for help.”
“Not while we are around,” Lavania added. Even Torin nodded.
I couldn’t foresee my future, so they were all I had protecting me against the Norns. And the gods, of course.
“Take Cora home, Eirik,” Lavania said. “When you come back, I’ll explain to you and your parents a few things. Torin, you know what to do.”
I glanced at Mom, who had left my side and was talking softly to Dad, their arms around each other. They didn’t need me. I was happy they knew what Torin had done for us. He looked like he’d been hit by a ton of bricks. No, a giant skyscraper of reinforced steel, since I was sure a ton of bricks would lose if it landed on him.
“Come on,” I whispered and pulled his arm.
For the first time, I used my artavus to create a portal to my bedroom. Once the portal closed, Torin cupped my face and stared at me with awe, a smile tugging the corners of his lips. The look didn’t suit him. I liked him cocky and bold.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I warned.
“The way you stood up to the Norns…” He grinned.
“Yeah, well, I think everyone is allowed to piss them off at least once in their lifetime.”
“You’ve done it twice.”
I shuddered. “And hopefully for the last time.”
“They wouldn’t mess with you now. You are a Völva.”
“And you are a Valkyrie, so we’re perfectly matched.”
“Not even close. You advise gods. I advise souls. You are scary powerful while I—”
“Need to shut up and kiss me.”
Laughing, he kissed me, taking his time, showing me that our powers didn’t really define us. Our love transcended such things. The intensity of his kiss, the reverence in his touch, and the beating rhythm of his heartbeat proved it.
When he eased off, his eyes were gentle. “I love you, Freckles.”
Finally! “With all my heart,” I repeated the w
ords he’d spoken to me a few days ago.
We kissed, and then he stepped back. “I’ve got to go. Wait for me.”
“Always.” He was going to reap souls then escort them to Valhalla. It might take hours or several days, but I knew he would be back. For me. For us. “I’m not going anywhere.”
EPILOGUE
Eirik arrived just as I walked into my bedroom from downstairs several hours later. He was leaving. My throat thickened with sadness, and I had to clear it before speaking. “For someone who’s going home to see his family, you look glum.”
He flashed a sad smile. “I hate leaving when nothing is settled.”
“You mean you and Cora?”
He nodded. “I wish we’d known she was in that hospital. She probably thinks we don’t care about her.”
“I know, but she’ll understand once you explain.”
Determination flashed in his eyes. “I plan to tell her everything when I come back. Try to reconnect with her while I’m gone.”
“You don’t need to ask.” My eyes smarted. “Do me a favor, too, and keep an eye on Dad when he comes to Valhalla.”
“You don’t need to ask either.” He smiled, a naughty gleam flashing in his eyes. “Look at us, talking about going to Valhalla like it’s a trip to Portland. You are a powerful seeress, and I am the son of an evil goddess.” His voice changed, becoming haunted. “Hel’s spawn just took on a new meaning.”
I crossed the gap between us, and we hugged. “You are Eirik, and I’m Raine. Best friends forever. That’s all I care about.”
“Me too,” he whispered then stepped back. He wiped his hands on his pants, showing his nervousness. “We are leaving in a few minutes.”
“They’re going to love you up there and never want to let…” My voice shook to a stop.
“Don’t. I swear if you cry I’ll… I’ll only come back to see Cora.” His eyes grew bright.
“Try it and you’ll feel my wrath. Don’t forget I’m a völva.”
“Yeah, you see the future. Big whoop. I can turn this town into a kill zone.” Laughing, we hugged. “Don’t lose my pullout bed. I’ll need it when I come back.”
Immortals (Runes book 2) Page 38
