Nordstrom Necromancer: A New Adult Dark Fantasy Inspired By Norse Mythology

by Amy B. Nixon

  “You should follow your own advice before giving it to others.”

  “Impossible. The Lofoten Archipelago is unparalleled, whether compared to this picturesque island or some other place.”

  His smile was now stretched from ear to ear. For the very first time, I noticed he had dimples carved in both cheeks. Strangely enough, he looked more like the twenty-six-year-old chatty guy Maksim had introduced him as, than the intimidating authority figure I was easily willing to provoke.

  “Nice sales pitch. Bonus points for the dreamy heart eyes.”

  His hands dug in the coat’s pockets, making his tall, slender frame appear slightly broader and lurched forward.

  “You find me dreamy?”

  “What? No, not like that…” I winced at the familiar repulsion in my system. Apparently a change of scenery couldn’t fix my post-ex-boyfriend issues with guys. “I meant dreamy, as in… Ugh… What’s the word?”

  “Ruminant? Abstracted? Rapt?”

  I sighed with relief. “Exactly.”

  “Lost in daydreams? Miles away?”

  “All of the above.”

  “Fallen into a reverie? Absorbed by fanciful musing?”

  I couldn’t bite back a chuckle, no longer worried about the fiasco of misinterpretation and what it could have led to.

  “Did you eat a fucking dictionary for lunch or something?”

  His grin widened. “Three hundred pages of it. Delicious.”

  “FML!” I exclaimed through a burst of laughter. “Seriously, please stop!”

  “If my jokes are so horrible, why are you laughing?”

  I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “No idea. Maybe because your sense of humor is like one of those things that are so bad, they’re good?”

  “And yours is sardonic enough for the both of us. Still, I got your mind off the awkwardness, didn’t I?”

  “Yeah, but there wouldn’t have been any awkwardness if you hadn’t made weird associations to begin with.”

  He nodded without dropping the grin. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, pondering over my hallucination from earlier. His amused smile was the exact opposite of the broken, lifeless expression I’d seen in my vision. It had felt so real – his pain, my guilt, all of it.

  “Dann, have we met before November?”

  His eyebrows shot up.

  “I would have remembered meeting your relentlessly opinionated and unforgivingly cynical attitude, while you would have remembered my horrible sense of humor. May I ask why you think we could have met before November?”

  I shrugged, avoiding the intrusiveness of his curious stare.

  “Don’t tell me you suddenly like talking to me so much, it feels as if you’ve known me your whole life. It would mean I’ve been drawing wrongful conclusions about your mordant side all this time.”

  “Ha-ha. I was actually going to ask about past lives. Is there something like reincarnation for necromancers?”

  “No, there isn’t.” He seemed serious. Sincere. Apparently, it had indeed been just another unexplainable hallucination. “Our goddess Freya of the Vanir has already gifted us with an enviably long lifespan. Most supernatural creatures have less than a century on Midgard, whereas humans perish prematurely. It would be quite unfair and egoistical of us if we could reincarnate, don’t you think?”

  “Well, I used to think magic didn’t exist either, only to discover I’m supposedly a Class Five necromancer.”

  “You are a Class Five necromancer.”

  The damn Eitrhals tripled in weight. My eyes traveled to the snow-covered ground. Why did everyone think I could live up to a great family name, when all I did was screw up?

  Dann moved closer, prompting me to lift my head. I expected to see a pitiful frown, but instead found a soft smile.

  “No one said you can master your powers overnight. Sometimes the simplest of spells will take longer, even though forms of advanced casting may come easier. And then there will be times when you won’t be able to recreate magic you’ve already succeeded at before. Nevertheless, neither of these factors undermines your magical abilities. Take it from another Class Five caster.”

  I fiddled with my Eitrhals’ chain in an attempt to alleviate some of its pendant’s weight.

  “How long did it take for you to master your powers?”

  With a sigh, he ran a hand through his hair, forcing it to ruffle in every direction. “I apologize for the improper use of words. Mastering your powers is practically impossible, because we keep learning new spells and new ways to use our magic throughout our entire life. Thus, the answer to your question would be… I’m still learning.”

  “But you’ve mastered evocation?”

  “Technically. However, I’ve never tried creating Draugar, therefore it’s possible for me to fail at it. More than once. The same goes for all aspects of necromancy. Do you understand now?”

  “Mm-hmm. Is that why you came after me? To talk about evocation? Scold me over the new troubles I caused?”

  He grimaced, almost baring his upper jaw. “Patricia shouldn’t have put you in the middle of such an intrinsic issue, least of all burden you with the task of taking a side. Frankly, I regret not being there.”

  “Why? Did she use your auditorium for manipulative purposes behind your back?”

  “No, the lecture hall is free for every guard and staff member to use however they wish. I’m simply sorry I wasn’t there to see you rub it in everyone’s faces.”

  My mouth fell open. “The fuck?”

  He laughed, shrugging off my brutal bewilderment.

  “You’re twenty, correct?”

  I nodded, biting back another swear.

  “A twenty-year-old girl, who just learned of the supernatural world’s existence, was put in the middle of a centuries-old quarrel between wise and experienced casters. And she handled them fairly, relentlessly, and with a bold attitude no one else would have shown, had they been in her place. I believe congratulations are in order, not a scolding.”

  I took a step back, unable to contain the loud gasp that escaped me. Was he implying I had actually done something… properly?

  “Silence? You’re usually straightforward in speaking your mind.”

  “Yeah… I know, it’s just… Umm…”

  “Not what you expected from the snobbish dick?”

  Guilt vexed through my system. Once again, I had been too quick to form wrongful opinions, based on my past.

  “Sorry about that. You’re not a snobbish dick.”

  “Thank you. But you are correct, I wanted to talk to you about evocation. Many necromancers find it problematic at first, especially if they’ve been raised like humans. It might be hard for you to admit it, but everyone needs a little bit of tutoring or assistance with something, and you don’t have to keep–”

  He couldn’t finish because a gigantic snowball flew from the side and hit him right in the jaw.

  Seeing him get struck in the middle of his sentence, with the collision sending slushes of snow all over his face, hair and collar, made me burst into uncontrollable laughter.

  All of a sudden, I forgot about Axel, evocation, Maksim’s cousin Diuri, the voice in my head and basically every tiny shred of irritation which had been coursing through my system this afternoon. Then I forgot about the shit that had happened since the beginning of November. I even forgot the past with all of its disappointments.

  Every nasty thing, hanging over me like a faithful shadow for almost a year, just vanished.

  I simply laughed, for the first time in so long, that I couldn’t recall the last time I’d heard myself burst into sincere, absolutely uncontrollable, jaw-breaking laughter. I hadn’t felt like this in what seemed like an eon. Not only amused, but free and careless.

  Dann stood motionless for a few moments, looking in the direction the snowball had come from, and his resting bitchface only kept me laughing. His expression slowly eased before he shoveled the snow out of his collar. I bit my lips and
pressed my hands to my mouth, trying to cease my laughter, but I couldn’t.

  It was only after I followed his eyes that I stopped laughing – and stopped breathing altogether.

  Aurora was standing there, one hand on her waist, the other one holding a snowball on stomach level. The snow contrasted heavily against her black clothes, but she wasn’t trying to hide the ball in her hand. I saw a red-haired girl next to her and a boy on her other side – the one Monika had introduced as Yaroslav in the Dining Hall earlier this week.

  “Feeling chatty, I see.” Aurora leered with a sinister smile, throwing the ball an inch up and catching it back in her palm. “Why don’t you and the Swallow join us?”

  Swallow? I wanted to kick her for that nickname! Or at least shove a hefty amount of snow down her back.

  “Actually…” Dann drawled out while bending down and grabbing a handful of snow. “Learyn was just telling me she needs to go to the library. But I, however, am more than willing to make you apologize for that snowball.”

  “Bring it!” Aurora gestured to her brother with her free hand.

  I hurried to cross the courtyard, peeking over my shoulder at each step to make sure the bitch wasn’t going to “accidentally” hit me. She seemed genuinely engaged in her game with Dann and the other two.

  I wasn’t stupid. I knew Aurora had suggested for me to join them only so she could find some other way to hurt me. But the way Dann had lied to her, so casually and creepily fast, made me wonder if the Council knew Aurora had killed me just for the kicks of doing so. Otherwise why would the nicest, most forgiving and talkative lecturer want to get rid of me and accept to get into a snowball fight with the others?

  The Council knew the truth. And if I went missing, someone would notice and would come looking for me before I rotted away. But most of all, it also meant if I fought back and harmed their precious blonde bimbo, they would know she had deserved it.

  Things were starting to look up. Now all I had to do was focus on my magic.

  The Nøkken’s Song

  Apparently, there was no such thing as Thanksgiving in Norway.

  But I was raised in the US with American customs and traditions, and while I had immediately embraced the name Learyn Dustrikke, I couldn’t eradicate the Leah Dust rooted deep within my mind.

  So, I called my aunt on Thursday morning, the final Thursday of November. All I got was her voicemail. She wasn’t in the habit of sleeping in late, and I had no explanation as to why her phone was turned off.

  The same thing happened after my session with Brühl. Then I called her again in the evening after my book club meeting. Still no answer.

  Based on me being horrible to her the last time we’d spoken, things between us were left unresolved. She was in her full right to be angry with me. However, I didn’t expect her to be angry enough to purposely switch off her phone. For a while, I pondered over going to Administration and requesting a guard to Aperture me to San Francisco, so I could talk to her in person.

  It was a bad idea, since she obviously wanted space and distance. When my uncle Thomas died, she kinda shut into herself. I figured she must have been going through a similar phase these past weeks. After all, something had indeed died – our old life.

  I went about the rest of my afternoon without trying her number again.

  And I didn’t see Monika all day long, until she woke me in the middle of the night, jumping on my bed.

  “Get up, get up, get uuup!” she sang, rocking on all fours over me.

  I groaned and tried to push her away, but her excitement was unyielding.

  “Get uuup!”

  “Nooo,” I whined, burying my head under the pillow.

  “Liv and Max are throwing a party!”

  I produced an inarticulate grunt.

  “Up! Now! Come ooon!”

  Turning over with another grunt, I rose to a sitting position. She finally stopped jumping. “Why are you waking me up? Who the fuck is Liv?”

  I had heard the name somewhere, but I was in no condition to start digging in my brain.

  “My brother’s on-again, off-again girlfriend; they’re back together, and they’re throwing a party tonight! I just got home, but everyone is there. Come on, we need to go now!”

  “Whaaa–” I yawned. “What time is it?”

  “One in the morning. Come ooon, you have to meet her! Her parties are to-die-for!”

  “Tomorrow,” I muttered and pulled the covers over my head. Monika uncovered me, grabbed the blankets, threw them on her bed, and yanked me up on my feet. “Ugh, fine, I’ll get dressed and meet her, but then I’m going straight to bed!”

  Magic was already too much. I couldn’t handle wild parties at this point. Yawning and putting on the first pair of jeans I saw, I immediately lost all sleepiness when our door burst into bright emerald flames.

  I turned towards the unexpected blaze of light, just in time to see Aurora strutting in with another girl. The red-haired one I had seen on the weekend with Aurora and that guy from Russia – Yaroslav.

  “Didn’t they teach you how to knock in middle school?”

  My nagging at the two intruders came out in growls while I tried to hide my half-naked body with my hands. I didn’t have time to put on a top, only that pair of jeans, and now I wished for a Victoria’s Secret bra instead of the plain black one I was wearing.

  “Oh, please!” Aurora’s minion laughed, trusting forward her double Ds as she placed her hands on her lower waist. “It’s not like you’re hiding something worth seeing.”

  “The boob comment, Gabriella? Really?” Much to my surprise, Aurora almost scolded her friend. “You know she’s a Dustrikke. You have to shoot special insults at her.”

  “Whatever, it’s not like it wasn’t true,” Gabriella scoffed, tossing her flaming red locks to the side. Oh, how I wished that hair dye would seep into her brain and make it rot!

  “Monika, it’s late November,” Aurora declared, taking a step forward.

  Had Gabriella’s hair dye turned Aurora’s brain into mush?

  “Thanks for stating the obvious, blondie,” I replied on Monika’s behalf. “If you’re done cosplaying the calendar we all have on our phones, would you be so kind as to leave our room?”

  “Every room in the castle is my room, you tiny munchkin, and I wasn’t talking to you! Monika, it’s late November. You know I can’t ask Max or Ragnar, so that leaves you.”

  I scanned Monika’s face. She didn’t look as puzzled or irritated as I felt, so Aurora’s words definitely meant something to her. A few seconds later, my roommate finally opened her mouth, and what came out of it only confused me further.

  “We were just heading to a party; the Nøkk can wait till tomorrow.”

  “Unless you can convince your brother to swap places with you, I’m all out of options. You know the Council doesn’t feel happy when a Larsen denies aid to a Nordstrøm in need.”

  “You know plenty of other Larsens!”

  Aurora glanced around the room. “The only Larsen I see is you.”

  “What the fuck is going on?” I nearly shouted, frantically looking from Aurora to Monika and back to Aurora again.

  Blondie didn’t budge an inch. Monika sighed and shook her head. “Okay, we’ll do it tonight, but only if Learyn comes with us. She’s never seen a Nøkken before.”

  Aurora made a disgusted face.

  “Not going to happen!”

  “Either she goes, or I stay,” Monika pressed, ceremoniously sitting on her bed. “Take your pick, Aurora, I have aaall night long.”

  Aurora just kept staring at my roommate, so I took my chance.

  “What are these Nøkken things?”

  Gabriella burst into mocking laughter, as if I had asked the stupidest question in the history of mankind.

  “These Nøkk things,” Monika corrected me. “Nøkk is the plural form of Nøkken.”

  I was so not in the mood for a grammar lesson right now.

  “Fine, wha
t are these Nøkk things?”

  “They are water spirits with beauty beyond comparison to anything in this realm. Although many have written poems and songs about them, you have to see them with your own eyes to understand. They were the inspiration behind Hans Christian Andersen’s Danish tale of The Little Mermaid. The Norwegian Sea is full of them. A small part of their population goes near Forsand every year in late November; and well, it’s late November now. Please, you have to come!”

  Why did it seem like Aurora was trying to force Monika into going with her to see these Nøkk, if they were awesome enough to inspire the popular Danish fairytale?

  “Where’s the catch?” I decided to ask straightforwardly.

  “For the love of Freya!” Aurora exclaimed. “If I have to wait all night long for you to explain two and two to this Martian, I’m better off listening to Ragnar’s complaints, Monika!”

  In that moment my hate for the bitch settled even deeper. Had I chipped her manicure or something? She treated me like I was on her radar from the very beginning, and I didn’t even know why! All I knew was, my growing rage towards her made me want to start acting violent all over again.

  “Long story short, these creatures aren’t too fond of necromancers, so only a few of us can see them. We, the Larsens, are among these few. You have to come, trust me!”

  Monika insisted I needed to see some invisible water spirits because they were super pretty? I was about to decline because I didn't want to spend my time with Aurora. Besides, my aunt had told me not to leave the island under any circumstances.

  But then Monika opened her mouth again.

  “Did I mention there’s a fjord? And the northern lights are visible tonight.”

  “Screw precautions, I’m totally in!”

  The mention of a fjord immediately convinced me, in combination with the famed northern lights. I hadn’t seen them even once since I came to the land of fjords and northern lights!

  “If you fuck this up for me, I’ll transport you to Jotunheim!” Aurora bared her teeth at me. “Your five-foot-nothing ass will feel right at home with those Jötnar giants.”

  Grinding my teeth, I growled like a caged animal. Right then and there I wished I could swap every single magical fiber in my body for the sole skill of making looks kill. I loathed her!