He nodded and closed his eyes as though exhausted. Silence followed, his chest rising and falling underneath the blanket. Images of my grandmother flashed in my head. She’d looked just like him before she died. Had Grimnirs taken her or Valkyries? Funny I hadn’t thought of that until now.
“I understand,” Mr. C said, speaking slowly, eyes still closed. “It is very confusing out there once this world is closed to you. Maybe you should try to be more, uh, friendly, listen with compassion. You could also try luring them away from people so no one can see you talk to them.”
Mr. C had lost it. There was no way I’d be buddies with souls. Seeing them already made me a freak. Talking to them? Wasn’t going to happen.
“I’ll try,” I fibbed.
“That’s the spirit.” He took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and smiled. “Now I need to rest. We’ll talk again soon. Hopefully, in this world, not the next.”
He was trying to be funny. I reached down and kissed his forehead. “Definitely this one, Mr. C.”
***
“CORA!”
Kicker’s voice penetrated Jesse James’ voice from my smart phone. I didn’t need the attention, but I knew this was coming. The looks and the whispers I was getting from people who’d been at Drew’s party had warned me. I turned and removed my earbuds.
The soul tailing me was still there, eyes begging, cheap suit rumpled. He must have died in it. Kicker ran right through him, without slowing down, and screeched to a stop beside me, her breathing uneven, light-blue eyes sparkling.
“You missed an amazing game on Saturday,” she said.
Okay, I was being totally self-absorbed now. This wasn’t about Drew’s party. We’d won and that was huge. Raine had texted me after I left her place on Saturday with the news. She and Andris had used a portal to get to the stadium before the game started.
“We are heading back to Jeld-Wen in two weeks.” Her voice rose with excitement. “We might make state this year.” She did a little dance.
I loved football. Raine and Andris had asked me to go with them, but my sucky mood had killed my enthusiasm for the sport. I’d fibbed and told her I had a lot of homework, but Raine wasn’t stupid. She’d seen through the lie.
Fact was I’d hoped Echo would stop by to get his duster. Instead, I’d spent the rest of the weekend reliving our moments together with occasional thoughts about my conversation with Raine’s dad. With the runes on my house, no soul had bothered me. For once, I’d wished they would so I could disperse them and piss off Echo. The best part was they were everywhere, like the gray-haired man tailing me right now. Too bad I couldn’t carry my fire poker inside the school. It was in the car though.
“So… about the guy at Drew’s,” Kicker said, her voice low, enthusiasm shooting up a notch. “The one you left with. Who was he?” Then she saw my hand. “What happened to your hand?”
I wished people would stop mentioning it. Mom had fussed over it. Everyone I saw always asked what happened. It was like being constantly reminded of Echo’s sudden exit from my life.
“Cora?”
I glanced at my hand. I had to see my doctor today. “An accident.”
“Does that mean you can’t swim?”
I shrugged. “The doctor said no.”
“That sucks. We have a meet on Saturday.”
“I’ll talk to my doctor and see what he says. I texted Doc too, so he knows about my hand.”
Kicker sighed. “Dang it! We were depending… Never mind. About Mr. Trench Coat? Who’s he?”
“Someone I met in Portland while I was away.”
“So you two are, like, dating?”
“We are, like, over.” I didn’t want to discuss Echo. I glanced back. The soul was still there.
“How could you let him go? He’s hot. And that kiss…” She fanned herself. “You should have seen the look on Drew’s face. I bet no girl has ever done that to him. Of course, Leigh was there to comfort him. You two were all everyone talked about after you left. I mean, you and, uh, what’s his name?”
“It doesn’t matter, Kicker. He’s gone.”
“But Portland is just an hour away. You can see each other on weekends and...”
“Let it go, Kicker.” I pushed the earbuds back into my ears.
The moment I entered the first room, a shiver shot up my spine. The familiar scent was Echo’s. I turned and searched the students already seated, my heart pounding. My eyes connected with familiar ones.
Andris in my English class? Since when? And why was he covered in glowing runes? He didn’t look happy either.
I hurried past the other desks, leaving Kicker behind, and slid into the desk next to Andris’. “Was Echo here?”
“Good morning to you too, Mortal. Thrilled to be on babysitting duties. Again. Please, try not to look at me when you talk.” He slid lower in his seat.
I frowned. “Why not?”
“You’ll look like an idiot.”
He was such a douche sometimes. “What are you doing in my class?”
“I’m the freaking go-to babysitter whenever your men want to outsource. First Raine. Now you.”
“Sounds like insourcing to me, and I’m insulted by the word babysitter. So he was here?”
“Which part of don’t look at me while talking didn’t you get? People will notice.”
He was in one of his weird moods. “So what if they do?”
“I’m invisible right now, Mortal.”
Oops. I glanced at the class. A few frowns were directed my way. I lifted my smart phone and adjusted the ear buds. Pia, the airhead from Drew’s party, and two cheerleaders chose that moment to enter the class. They saw me, stopped, and exchanged whispers. Giggles and the glances directed my way said they were talking about me.
Yeah, like I cared.
I rested my elbow on my desk, supported my head on the heel of my arm and faced Andris, or the empty seat next to mine. “Okay, I’ll pretend to be texting a friend or… we could just text each other. Do you have a cell phone?”
He pulled one from the pocket of his jacket and showed it off. “The best money can buy, but the only Mortals who get my number are ones I’m hooking up with on a daily basis or interested in. And that excludes you. You are taken. Hmm, I wonder who you will end up choosing. Eirik, the perfect son of Baldur or the big, bad Grimnir? My bet is on Eirik. He is royalty among the gods. Mortals tend to marry up, not down.”
I didn’t want to discuss Eirik or play Andris’ mind games. “What did he want?”
“What did who want?”
I glared at him. “Don’t mess with me, Andris. I can become a bitch real fast.”
“Oh, spare me the teenage drama,” he snapped. “He was here to order us around. He didn’t even ask. On a good day, I would have told him to screw himself, but big brother was around and wanted me to play nice.”
I ignored his rant. “What did he say?”
“He didn’t explain. He just said you need to be protected then left. I guess some badass Grimnirs are in town and they’re not here for souls.”
My heart dropped. He didn’t have to spell it out. They were here for Maliina, which meant me. I glanced at the entrance. The soul was visible. “Is the old guy pacing in the hallway one of them?”
Andris studied the man. “Nah, that’s a soul.”
“Why can’t you escort him to Valhalla?”
Andris laughed, studying the soul. “Cheap suit, gaunt face, pudgy stomach, a bit green around the gills—I’d say he died from some serious illness, which makes him Hel bound.”
“Cora Jemison!” Mr. Pepperidge called out, and I whipped around. “Turn off your phone or I’ll confiscate it.”
Students snickered. Usually, teachers didn’t tell students to turn off their phones. They just confiscated them until the end of the day. I wondered how long before Mr. Pepperidge started treating me like other students. Probably after he read my next paper, which I hadn’t even started writing.
“It’
s off.” I waved the phone then put it and the ear buds away. Andris smirked then closed his eyes. He dosed off during the class. I kicked his feet a few times and was answered with a snarl.
“You were snoring,” I wrote on a piece of paper and showed him. He wasn’t, but I needed a distraction. Mr. Pepperidge was beyond boring.
The soul was still in the hallway when class was over, but he kept his distance. Torin was waiting for me. At least he was visible.
“She’s all yours,” Andris said and took off.
I rolled my eyes. “How long are you guys going to do this?”
“For a couple of days or so.”
I frowned. “What’s happening in a few days?”
“I don’t know. Echo sucks at explaining things, and arguing with him is usually pointless. Come on.”
“Great game, St. James,” followed us. Torin bumped fists with a few jocks as we walked down the hallway. Other students gave him thumbs-up with broad smiles. I couldn’t remember a jock being this popular.
“How long has that soul been following you?” he asked when there was a break in the streaming adoring fans.
“Since I got to school. I don’t know how to get rid of him. At home I usually use an iron rod to disperse them.”
Torin winced.
“It doesn’t hurt them, does it?”
“I don’t think so, but it can’t be pleasant. It takes them a while for their energy to coalesce.”
“Oh, maybe I shouldn’t do that anymore.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t. Here we are.” He waited until I was seated before he left. He was back seconds later, runes engaged. I guess staying invisible eliminated explaining their presence in classes they didn’t usually attend.
By lunchtime, I was used to them in my classes. Torin was cool because he didn’t talk much. Andris bitched nonstop. Lucky for him, no one could hear him. Unlucky for me, I could. I had to catch myself from laughing out loud because he could be funny. He said hilarious things about the students in each class.
During lunch, he sent one of his friends, Pretty Boy Roger, to ask me to join them just as I sat next to Kicker and the other swimmers. Raine insisted Andris was just toying with the boy, but I’d seen the way he looked at Roger. There was something there.
“Sorry, Roger. Tell him if I spend one more second in his presence, I’ll probably strangle him.” I wiggled my fingers at Andris and stayed put. He shot me a mean look.
I grinned. Yeah, right back at you.
Hanging with him wasn’t so bad. He kept me company when I went to Dr. Olsen’s for my follow up. Mom arrived after we did, but I doubted she realized Andris was with me. Afterwards, I told her I was meeting a friend at The Hub, for a homework session.
Turned out Andris was really smart and actually helped me with my work load after he zipped through his. But the surprise was watching him cradle an out-of-print copy of some sci-fi book. It was as though he’d found the Holy Grail.
“I gave up on ever finding an original copy after I lost mine.” His eyes narrowed when he caught me watching him. “If you ever tell anyone I love sci-fi books, I will take you out.”
I grinned. “You should try my dad’s.”
Andris frowned. “Try your dad’s what?”
“Books. He’s a sci-fi author,” I told him proudly.
He threw me a skeptical look. “Yeah, right.”
“Come on. I’ll show you.” We went to the section of the store that featured regional authors. I grabbed two copies of Dad’s books and dangled them under Andris’ nose. “Ta-da!”
He grabbed the books from my hand. “No way. I’ve read all J.C. Cooper’s books. I mean, they’re middle grade books, but who cares.” He turned them and studied the photograph of my dad on the book jacket. “Are you sure he’s your father?”
I chuckled. “What? Can’t you see the family resemblance?”
“Yeah, now that you mentioned it,” Andris teased. “The beard and gray hair are a dead giveaway. Can he sign my copies? No, even better, introduce us, so I can give them to him and watch him sign them.” His excitement was contagious.
“Sure. Once all this mess is over, I will. He might even let you read his next book before it hits the stores.”
The look on Andris’ face was priceless. “I think you and I are going to be friends now, Cora Jemison.”
“You mean we aren’t already?”
“No, but don’t be offended. I barely tolerate most Mortals. Unless they have something I want.”
“Aren’t you a walking mass of contradiction?” When he cocked his eyebrows, I added, “You’re selfish and proud of it.”
He smirked and nodded. His phone beeped. It was a text from Ingrid. She used a portal and joined us, but Andris didn’t hear her when she tried to talk to him. She shook her head and came to sit by my side.
“So now you know his secret,” she said softly. Her Scandinavian accent was beautiful.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Andris guards his nerdy side from everyone except those closest to him. I even doubt Roger has ever seen him touch a book.” She said Roger’s name with distaste. “He disappears in libraries and bookstores whenever he’s not reaping, or he buys books online. You should see the den. It’s overflowing with his collection of books and comics, some of them so old they belong in a museum. And when he’s not reading, he’s wiring something.” She glanced at Andris, her cheeks turning red. “He’s sort of a genius. There’s no computer he can’t fix or system he can’t hack.”
Men could be so blind. Despite all his smartness, Andris couldn’t see that Ingrid adored him. When we finally dragged him out of the store, he was the proud owner of several books.
The two of them followed me home, but didn’t enter the farm. They just made a U-turn and left. They must have believed I was safe with my parents. Obviously, Echo had forgotten to tell them about the attack on us and the dent he’d fixed on our truck.
Echo came to my room that night while I slept. I realized it on Tuesday morning when I woke up after a dream where he was leaning over me and saying, “I’m sorry.”
I would have written it off as a dream if he hadn’t taken his T-shirt, coat, and gloves. I had washed his T-shirt and left it with the coat and the gloves on my dresser. That he chose to take them without waking me up told me he hadn’t wanted to talk.
That hurt.
Andris and Ingrid were waiting outside my gate in their SUV and followed me all the way to school. Then Torin stayed with me most of the day. He and Raine decided to eat lunch at school, so we shared a table with a bunch of jocks and my swim friends. It was an interesting combo. Naya must have hooked up with one of the jocks during Drew’s party because they were all over each other.
Torin had football practice, Ingrid had cheerleading, and Raine had lessons with her Valkyrie instructor, so I hung out with Andris again. This time, we went to the Creperie. Once again, Andris helped me with my homework, and then he introduced me to his favorite authors. I loved seeing this side of him. It was opposite the blatantly misogynist, cocky, selfish douchebag he sometimes morphed into.
At night, I tried to stay awake and wait for Echo. Something woke me after midnight. Maybe he’d made a sound or there was a sudden chill in the air. I didn’t have to search hard to find him. He was seated on my chair, runes glowing, arms crossed as though he was trying to stay warm. I didn’t have to touch him to know he’d come from Hel.
“Echo?”
“Go to sleep, Cora.”
“You are cold,” I whispered.
“I’ll be okay.”
I wanted to ask him to come to bed, where it was warm, but I feared he’d reject me, so I got up, went into my closet, and came out with a throw rug. I gave it to him. The gold in his eyes intensified.
“Talk to me, please,” I whispered, staring down at him, wanting to crawl onto his lap.
“Go to bed, Cora. I’m here to protect you, nothing else.”
His voice was frosty
and uninviting. Thoroughly humiliated, I crawled back into bed. Sleep eluded me, and I kept tossing and turning. He must have runed me because I fell asleep suddenly and didn’t wake up until morning.
Wednesday night, Andris told me Ingrid had a date. He didn’t look too happy about it, but he perked up as the evening progressed. He took me and Roger to dinner, so I didn’t come home until late.
Before I went to bed, I left two throw rugs on the chair for Echo. Still, I knew the moment he came into my room, and I pretended to be asleep. He walked to my bed and stared down at me for a very long time. A few times, he reached down as though to touch my face, but each time he stopped. It took all my effort to lie still when all I wanted to do was pull him down beside me.
I was pissed off when I woke up. He must have runed me again because I couldn’t remember anything happening after he stood by my bed. The rugs were on the bed as though he’d covered himself with them, and there was an indentation where his head had been.
How dare he rune me and deprive me of the memory of sleeping in his arms?
Pissed-off me was a total a bitch to Andris and Torin. All of a sudden, their presence bugged me. I hated that I couldn’t go anywhere without one of them hovering and told them in large letters on a notebook, which I shoved at them.
Drew had kept his distance the last few days, although I’d caught him staring at me with a calculating gleam in his eyes. His pride had been hurt, but he’d be an idiot to try something. Leigh and Pia were beyond stupid and made the mistake of cornering me in the bathroom during lunch.
“Stay away from Drew if you know what’s good for you,” Leigh snarled.
“Or what?” I asked, eyeing her through the mirror.
“Or I’ll bury you,” Leigh snapped. “One word from me and the entire school will treat you like slime. Not even your friendship with Raine and St. James will save you.”
I laughed. “You think I care about my social status in this school? Not anymore. Besides, Drew likes me. If he decides to talk to me—”
“He won’t.”
“Not after he saw the type of men you date,” Pia pitched in. “Who was the guy anyway? We’ve never seen him around.”
Runes #03 - Grimnirs Page 16
