“Then don’t let me go,” I begged, not fully understanding what was going on.
“But I must. It is the only decent thing to do.” His mouth ground mine, and a shudder rocked his body. My body echoed it. His teeth sunk into my lower lip and bore down as though he meant to leave me branded. I cried out and wrapped my arms around his neck, holding his head in place as his tongue soothed the pain then slipped inside my mouth to find mine. I got lost in the heat of the moment. Got lost in his arms. How could he deny that I was his and he mine?
He wrenched his lips from mine. “I can’t do this. I have to go.”
My body ached and screamed in protest, but my heart… my heart felt like he’d reached inside and yanked it out of my chest. Nothing made sense.
“Please, don’t leave without explaining what’s going on. Don’t do this to me.”
Echo shook his head, his eyes fierce. He and the body of the car behind me were the only things propping me up. If he let me go, I was sure I’d crumble where I stood. As if he knew it, he slowly backed away, his hands gripping my arms to steady me against the car.
“Echo, please.”
“I’m so sorry, Cora. I should not have let my feelings get in the way of my thinking. St. James,” he called out and Torin moved closer. “I will explain everything to her personally. You open your mouth and I’ll make it my personal mission to make your life miserable. For now, take her to the hospital.”
“No,” I protested.
“Yes.” Echo let go of me and shuffled backward, his eyes not leaving mine. He was still shirtless and I had his duster, but that didn’t seem to bother him. He pulled his scythe from behind him, runes crisscrossing his bloody arms, chest, stomach, and face as the scythe elongated to its real size. He looked so beautiful, like an ancient warrior, a fantasy, and he was breaking my heart.
“Tell me what’s going on,” I begged.
“I’ll explain when I come back, after I confirm a few things. For now, just know that you and I can’t be together. For both our sakes, accept it.” He sliced the air to his right, and the portal started to form. I found my legs and started toward him.
“I will not let you leave, Echo. If I have to follow you the coldest halls of Hel—”
“Don’t, Cora. I’m not worth it.” The defeat in his voice sent anger through me.
“Don’t tell me what to do. And you are worth every—”
He went through the portal at a run before I realized what he had planned. I ran forward, but the gateway closed behind him.
Too shocked, I stared in dazed confusion, trying to wrap my head around what had just happened. I reached up and pressed my hand against my chest.
Something was squeezing it. Crushing it. It hurt to breathe. To think. So this what a broken heart felt like? Like the very air I breathed couldn’t reach my lungs.
I started to shake. My vision grew blurry.
First Eirik. Now Echo. What was wrong with me that guys had no problem walking out on me? Tears burned my eyes.
I will not cry. I will not… will not…
That would be admitting it was over, that I’d given up. I titled my head and blinked hard. I was Cora Jemison. I could see souls. I had been admitted to a freaking psych ward and had my memories erased by some badass Norse deities. There was nothing on earth that could make me cry because the man I was crazy about just walked out on me. He was probably going to Hel.
Shirtless. And he’d probably catch a cold.
Why was I focusing on such a mundane thing? He wouldn’t die from cold. Echo had been going to Hel’s Hall and back for centuries. He was Immortal and probably hadn’t caught cold a day in a millennium. Fact was he had left me. Just like Eirik had. I blinked harder.
“Cora?”
Torin’s voice reached me as though from afar. I refused to look at him until I had my emotions under control. Until I stopped shaking. As though he understood, he left me alone.
Echo wasn’t gone. He’d be back. He must come back.
Tremors shook the earth under me, and I turned. My headlights were still on, so I could see the parking lot and the overlook. Torin was erasing Echo, I thought irrationally. The fence was whole as though it had never been broken. The ground no longer had fissures. It was as though he and Echo never fought. Even the dent on my car was gone. If it weren’t for his coat, which I still wore, I would have thought I’d imagined Echo.
Tears rushed to my eyes, and I blinked hard.
Torin stood to the right side of my car, frowning. He didn’t look like he wasn’t going anywhere without me. I didn’t want to go anywhere with him. Because of him, Echo had left.
“Why did you do it?” I asked.
“I had to tell him the truth. I didn’t think he’d take it so hard.”
My anger rose.
“What truth?” I yelled.
Torin stayed silent.
“I want to know what happened here tonight, Torin, and I want to know now,” I yelled. “You had no right to come out here and interfere with us. When you finish talking, you go find Echo and bring him back.”
Torin sighed. “Let me take you to the hospital; then we’ll go to Raine’s. She’ll explain everything to you.”
“No, you start talking. Right now.”
“Echo’s threat was real, Cora.”
“Then deal with it,” I snapped.
He smiled, and I wanted to smack him.
“I can stand up to Echo any day, but I have people who depend on me who will be caught in the crossfire. Andris. Ingrid. Raine. Souls destined for Valhalla who will end up on Corpse Strand instead. I cannot risk Echo’s ire, not even for you.” His British accent had grown more distinct. “Raine will explain. He can’t touch her without evoking the wrath of the gods. She’s worried about you. She’s the one who sent me to find you after we went to Drew’s party and found out you had left with someone. The description they gave us matched Echo’s.”
I had gone into selective listening as soon as he’d mention the wrath of the gods. “Raine is a Valkyrie, too?”
“No, she’s something else. Something more powerful and rare. I’ll drive you to the hospital,” Torin said, indicating my car. “Raine will tell you everything you need to know.”
Only things I need to know? We’ll see about that.
I sat in the front passenger seat and buckled up. Echo’s gloves, including the one I’d worn, were on the tray between our seats. I picked them up with my good hand and pressed them against my chest. Once again, the urge to cry washed over me. I closed my eyes and fought the tears.
Torin backed up and took off toward downtown Kayville. I started in on him again.
“Why is it okay for you to be with Raine, but I can’t be with Echo?”
***
“How did this happen, honey?” a woman asked.
I blinked and looked around. I must have blacked out during the ride and the registration at the ER because I was already assigned a room. Torin sat on a chair on the other side of the bed, his concerned eyes not leaving me.
“Cora?” the woman asked again, consulting her notes. Her tag said Dr. P. Satchel. Something about her reminded me of Naya. Maybe it was the honey-brown skin or the shrewd brown eyes.
“I cut it on a knife by accident,” I murmured.
She probed the cut, her glance sliding to Torin. “Is this the first time this has happened?”
What? Did she think I’d cut myself on purpose? Sure, the cut was close to my wrist, but still… “I did not hurt myself on purpose, if that’s what you’re asking, doctor,” I said rudely.
She studied me, then Echo’s coat and frowned. “Can you show me your other hand, please?”
Torin reacted, one second he was in his seat; the next he’d drawn runes on the doctor’s arm and returned to his seat.
“Why did you do that?” I asked in a whisper.
“She asks too many stupid questions. The nurses at the front desk did, too.”
The doctor sutured my wound
without asking any more questions and added steri-strips. Her glance kept going to Torin as though she couldn’t help herself. Maybe she felt he wasn’t human or she had lust on her mind. At the moment, I didn’t think he was that hot. He was just the jerk who’d caused Echo to leave.
Dr. Satchel finished with my hand. “The nurse will give you a list of instructions on how to take care of your wound, Cora. If you see red streaks, swelling, pus, or have a fever, contact your primary physician.” The doctor consulted her notes again to see who my primary physician was. I was still seeing my pediatrician, Dr. Olsen. “I also want you to follow up with Dr. Olsen on Monday. In the meantime, don’t get the sutures wet in the next twenty-four hours. After that, you can shower and wash the area with soap and warm water.”
“When can I go back to swimming?”
“After it heals. Dr. Olsen will remove the sutures and tell you when you can go back to swimming. The wound wasn’t deep, so it should heal quickly. If you don’t aggravate it, that is. If you are in pain, take ibuprofen. Any questions?”
I shook my head. Torin didn’t react. I could feel his impatience. The doctor smiled at us one last time and left the room. A nurse walked in and gave me a printed list of instructions, which were basically what the doctor had told me.
“That was fast,” I said as we left.
“I hate hospitals,” Torin ground out.
Weird attitude for a reaper. I spied a few souls loitering around. They stared, but kept their distance.
“Did you rune me on our way to the hospital?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I wanted you to rest and stop giving me a hard time.”
“If you can rune people like that, why didn’t you just heal me?” I asked when we reached my car.
“There’s a big difference between focus runes I used back there, or rest runes I etched on you, and healing runes. Healing runes are bind runes. They are powerful and long lasting. They give people the ability to regenerate new cells, so they self-heal and stop aging. It is against the law to use them on a Mortal. The ones I used on you only last a few minutes. Thirty tops.”
“Which ones did Maliina give me? How long are they going to last? And how could you let her do this to me?”
Torin frowned, opening the passenger door. “We don’t know what she used, Cora. We didn’t even know she’d runed you until the night of the home game two weeks ago.”
Everything always came back to that night. Tonight, I was getting the answers. “I wish she hadn’t runed me. I don’t like seeing souls. I hate that I can’t go anywhere without one approaching me. I can’t even go to sleep without waking up and finding one staring at me. Why are they attracted to me? Why not to you guys? You are the reapers.”
“I don’t have all the answers, Cora. If I were to guess, I’d say Maliina marked you with special runes.” Torin walked around the car and slid behind the wheel. “Have you ever thought of asking the souls what they want?”
“What do you think?” I stared into the night as he took off, noticing a soul here and there. I guess now that Echo was really gone, they’d come back even in greater numbers.
Sighing, I gave Torin a glance from the corner of my eyes. I should stop acting like a bitch toward him. It was counterproductive. He was my best friend’s boyfriend. Besides, it wasn’t his fault Maliina had runed me. He might have facilitated Echo’s sudden flight, but he didn’t throw him through that portal. Echo chose to leave.
“I’ve tried to ask them what they want, but it’s not easy when I can’t hear them,” I said, speaking slowly. “It’s like being inside a silent horror movie. A few of them touched me, and it was cold and icky.”
“If it’s okay with you, we can use special runes on your home and around your farm to stop them from coming inside.”
I’d rather have Echo as my shield. “That would be nice. Thank you.”
“We’ll take care of it tonight,” he said.
Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy. “I’m just going to lay this out there before we get to Raine’s. I wish you hadn’t come looking for us tonight and made Echo leave.”
Torin chuckled. “Cora, no one makes Echo do anything. He’s stubborn, opinionated, a total pain-in-the…” He shook his head. “I apologize.”
Echo was all of the above. “That doesn’t explain why he couldn’t heal me.”
Torin pulled up outside Raine’s house and switched off the engine. “He has a thing about never turning Mortals into Immortals, which is completely out of character because he thrives on breaking rules.”
Maybe I was the only one who knew about his past. Turning his people was the reason he’d ended up on Hel duty. Torin opened the door, and I stepped out of the car. We didn’t talk as we headed toward the front entrance of Raine’s house.
Raine opened the door, and her eyes went to my hand. “What happened?”
I glanced behind her to make sure we were alone. “My world collided with yours; that’s what. What are you? And were you ever going to tell me the truth, you,” I pinched her arm, “traitor.”
“Ouch!” She rubbed her arm and stepped back. “Why am I a traitor?”
“We made a pact we’d never keep secrets from each other.” I followed her. “How could you? The last week you knew that… that bitch everyone thought was me wasn’t really me, and you said nothing.”
She grimaced. “We didn’t really have time to talk. You know with Dad’s stroke and all.”
I pinched her again. “Don’t use him as an excuse. It takes seconds to say, ‘Hey, Cora, I know the truth, so don’t stress out.’ I thought I had astral projected while in the crazy house or something.”
Raine laughed. “Astral… that’s ridiculous.” She jumped back when I reached out to pinch her again. “Enough with the pinching already. I was going to tell you everything. I needed the right moment and, you know, to confirm you could still see souls.” She glanced at Torin, who smirked. She glared. “It’s not funny. I told you she’d be pissed when she found out.”
He lifted his hands. “Don’t include me in this mess. I’m going to pick up Rod then head home. I’ll be there if you need me, but I can’t be here when you two talk.”
Raine grabbed his hand. “Why not? You explain some things better.”
He glanced at me. “I can’t. But I’ll be home when you are done.” He kissed her and walked away.
“Home as in Asgard?” I asked after he disappeared around the corner.
Raine laughed, closing the door. “No. Next door.”
“He lives next door? How convenient. Now start talking. I’ll ask again. Were you ever going to tell me the truth?”
“Eirik was.”
My jaw dropped. “He’s one of you, too? No, don’t answer that. I want to know everything from the beginning.” I pointed at her then upstairs. “Let’s go.”
“Do you want something to drink? Does your hand hurt?”
I glared. “Do I look like I want a drink or need pain meds? The stupid runes Maliina etched on me take away the pain. Don’t know how long the effect will last. Don’t really care right now. I. Just. Want. Answers.” Lifting the hem of the duster so I wouldn’t trip on it, I marched upstairs.
By the time Raine entered her bedroom with two bottles of water, I was settled on her bed with piles of pillows behind me. She put one water bottle within my reach and took a chair. When she opened the top and took a sip, I wanted to snap at her to hurry up.
She put the water on the table and moved her chair closer to the bed. “Well, it started the day Torin moved in next door.”
“Where was I?”
“Upstairs vlogging. I was down here doing my homework, so I answered the door. You don’t remember any of this because the Norns erased your memories.”
“So he was right about that.”
“Who?”
Echo. Even thinking his name hurt. “Never mind. Go on.”
Raine nodded and continued. The story was like something straight out of a fantasy. From Torin
healing her to her nightmare cat and mouse games with Norns to discovering her mother was also a former Valkyrie. If I couldn’t see souls, I wouldn’t believe anything she’d just said.
“Eirik is what?” I asked.
“A god. Grandson to Odin and Loki.”
No wonder Echo had called him a god among Mortals. I’d just assumed he was being sarcastic. My stomach started to growl, but I ignored it. I snapped the lid off the bottled water Raine had brought for me and sipped. My hand tightened on the bottle when she mentioned Maliina.
“She was back, but we didn’t recognize her. Norns can change their appearances on a whim. She used her new Norn powers to create a disguise, the perfect disguise to infiltrate us. She chose you.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“She knew you were at PMI, Cora. We didn’t. She changed her appearance to look exactly like you. Act like you. Speak like you. She knew things only you would know, which is possible because Norns know everything. I even came to your house to pick her up once and she met me at your door as your mother. Then she used a portal and was waiting for me in your bedroom as you. She had us all fooled. I mean, there were a few moments here and there when she acted odd, and my trainer, Lavania, didn’t like her from the first moment they met, but no one thought she was Maliina.”
My stomach churned as everything fell into place. While I was in the crazy house, that Immortal bitch had stolen my identity, taken over my life. My friends. My vlog. My house, since my parents often came to PMI to see me and would stay for days. Oh God…
She’d slept with Echo. No wonder he’d assumed I had. She’d had my Echo.
Nausea rose to my throat, and I jumped out of Raine’s bed. I barely made it to the toilet and dropped on my knees. The water I’d drunk a few minutes ago spewed out of my mouth. Dry heaves raked my body, my eyes watering.
Echo had thought I was Maliina. His lover. The one he’d played sex games with. I had just been a substitute. A freaking substitute. No wonder he’d taken off after learning the truth.
Torin must have told him and I’d confirmed it when I couldn’t heal and mentioned Maliina. That was the point he’d looked like someone had gutted him. How humiliating. I wanted to disappear in some dark corner of human existence and never resurface.
Runes #03 - Grimnirs Page 14
