Heroes (Eirik Book 2)

by Ednah Walters

  “I must have been more exhausted than I thought. What made you decide to invite them inside? And where’s your dad?”

  “Working.” She leaned back to look at me. “Some nutcase called him about the dead Witches and another attack. They”—she indicated the Grimnirs with her head—“confirmed there were three attacks early this morning, one of them in the bayou, which explains why Dad is freaking out and wants Hayden and me to leave town.”

  I ran the tips of my fingers up and down her arms. “You don’t seem worried.”

  “Oh, I am. I just don’t think we should run and hide when our people are under attack. If someone comes after us, we fight back. If we know where the bastards will attack next, we issue a Call and head there to protect the people threatened. My dad doesn’t understand that an attack on one Witch is attack on all of us. He sees things in black and white. And now we have to deal with grave and morgue robbers, too.” She shuddered and hugged me tighter.

  “You could just come back with me to Hel’s Hall until this blows over.”

  She scoffed at the idea. “Yeah, right.”

  “If anything were to happen to you”—a growl rumbled through my chest—“I would not stop the shift or what would happen afterward.”

  “Yes, you will, because you are in control.” She took my hand, pulled me toward the others, and reached for a paper plate. “Do you want pizza?”

  “I cannot control my dragon form if you are in danger, Dimples.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Then it’s a good thing you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Spells and runes protect my car, the store, and Hayden’s apartment, Eirik. Tammy is a powerful Witch, and I’m spending the rest of the week at her house.”

  “And Rhys and Nara will stay here to make sure everything is okay.”

  She shook her head. “No, they can’t. First, it’s not fair to them. They should be reaping, not guarding me.” She lowered her voice, but I was sure the two Grimnirs could hear everything she was saying. “Second, I hate the idea of them out there in the cold because of me.”

  She was nuts if she thought I’d leave her without extra protection, but I wasn’t fighting with her over it. “Okay. Guys, Celestia insists she doesn’t need protection. Let’s go.”

  “Oh, she definitely needs us,” Nara said, picking up another slice of pizza, and Rhys nodded.

  “Snapping necks is a specialty of Immortals, so the Witches might be up against a powerful Immortal killer or killers, not Mortal Witch hunters,” Rhys said.

  “Not to mention Immortals are fast and use portals,” Nara added. “Call or no Call, Witches don’t stand a chance.”

  “We are the only ones who can stop them, so you’re stuck with us.” Rhys actually smiled. Celestia watched them slack-jawed, while I tried not to laugh at her expression. She glared at me.

  “Did you put them up to this?”

  “Nope.” I reached out and stroked her cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” I piled slices of pizza on my plate.

  “You can’t leave them here, Eirik. Order them to go with you or something.”

  “I can’t. They don’t answer to me. Just like Echo answers to my mother, they answer to my father. You have a problem with them, take it up with him.” That was true to a point. I did tell them to keep an eye on her or assign other Grimnirs to her. From their attitude, they’d rather do the watching. Maybe it was her generous heart, or maybe it was something else, but she’d won them over.

  “Don’t you dare leave!” Celestia warned when I pulled out my artavus.

  “I have a meeting with my father, Dimples. Kick them out if you like, and next time you see him, read him the riot act for presuming to know what you need.” We both knew she wouldn’t. I grinned.

  “You’re being a jerk now.”

  “My middle name.” I opened the portal and saluted her once I entered the cave. From her expression, she would make me pay. I was actually looking forward to it. She was still glowering when the portal closed.

  I wasn’t the only one entering the realm. Two Grimnirs appeared when I did. Since they weren’t escorting souls, I presumed they were my latest shadows. I’d told my mother I didn’t need guards every time I left the realm, but she refused to listen. Thank goodness the Grimnirs couldn’t follow us to other realms because I planned to fly to East Gjöll Pass and head to Jötunheim as soon as Karle came back. Granny wasn’t going to escape this time, not when I had Karle as a guide and Celestia as my bait.

  I ignored my shadows, munched on my pizza, and joined several Grimnirs with their souls. One woman caught my attention. She wore a long robe and had long stringy hair. Since meeting Celestia, I had stopped believing all Witches had long stringy hair and walked around in flowing robes. But Witches were dying, and if one made it to Hel, she could tell us who killed her.

  “Is she one of the Witches?” I asked.

  “No,” her reaper said. “She was a psych ward patient.”

  Psych ward reminded me of Cora and the conversation I’d had with Celestia. I was thrilled she’d been curious. It showed her interest even though she’d deny it if I asked her.

  The hall was quieter than the last week, and I actually liked things getting back to normal. The guards bowed, a habit I’d tried to break with little results, but that wasn’t why I stared at them. There was something different about them. I just couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

  “Where’s my father?”

  “In the family quarters,” one of the guards said.

  I handed him the empty paper plate and was halfway across the Throne Room when I noticed the black drapes on the windows. The lights had also been dimmed. I was used to coming home to blazing crystals the last several weeks. I paused, glanced back at the guards, and realized why they looked different. They wore black armbands with their green and black tunics.

  Something was wrong.

  I hurried toward the family quarters. The paintings and ceiling murals were covered with black sheets. Since the cloth covered the entire hallway ceiling, they were tailor-made for just this purpose. It was the same in the rotunda—every painting, mural, and statue was covered, and the lights were dimmed.

  Whatever was going on had something to do with my family. Had something happened while I was on Earth with Celestia? I started to sweat, the urge to shift blindsiding me.

  Easy. Breathe. Find out what’s going on. When the urge to shift got worse, I engaged Odin’s rune. I hurried to my parents’ quarters. Litr opened the door before I reached it.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, searching his face. He was dressed in black too.

  He glanced toward the interior of the room. “I don’t know what happened. Usually, we don’t go into mourning until the day before your sister’s birthday and end the day after. Your sister’s birthday is a week away.”

  “Is that why the murals and the paintings are covered?”

  “Yes. Your parents are in mourning.”

  No wonder the guards wore armbands. The entire hall was mourning with them.

  “Where are they?”

  He pointed toward their private den. When I got there, my mother wasn’t in the room, just my father. From his glazed eyes, he’d been drinking.

  “Son, you’re back,” he said. “Want some mead?”

  I shook my head. “No. Where’s Mother?”

  “In her room. You wanted to talk. Have you any news?”

  What did he mean by “in her room?” They shared a bedroom, and the den was really more mother’s than his. Father liked open space with lots of light while the den was dark and the only light came from the fireplace.

  “Grandmother bit Einmyria. In fact, she’s made a habit of biting children across the realms.” I told him what I’d learned from Karle’s father and the Frost Jötnar. “As soon as Karle gets here, I’m asking him to take me to his village to talk to his people. Someone there might know something about Einmyria.”

  “No, we’ll take guards and search every village, every cla
n, and every realm.” He waved his chalice, almost spilling the drink. I removed the cup from his hand and put it down.

  “No, Father. If we leave with guards, Mother will want to know what’s going on. I’ll go with Celestia and Karle once he gets here.”

  “Son, I love that you enjoy Celestia’s company, but this is something a Mortal should not be involved in.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. She is involved. Grandmother bit her too. That’s how I managed to make contact with the Frost Jötnar. She connected with a bitten boy in an underground village. I’ll need her to find Einmyria.”

  “She bit Celestia too? The poor girl.”

  I chuckled. “I wouldn’t call Celestia ‘poor.’ She’s tough.”

  He nodded. “Yes, she is. Perhaps it’s better this way. Your mother won’t suspect you are leaving the realm when Celestia is around. She can never know, Eirik. Not until your sister is home. She’s hurting right now and it’s my fault. Why is it so hard to find one little girl? She would have grown up to be just like your mother. All the realms would have come to marvel at her beauty. Instead, we have the shrine.”

  “The shrine” was my sister’s nursery.

  “Why can’t we tell Mom the truth about Einmyria? Then we wouldn’t have to sneak around.”

  Father sighed. “I tried, Son. But I went about it the wrong way, and now she won’t talk to me.”

  “What happened?”

  “I told her about you and the part I played when the Norns took you away to ease the way. She didn’t give me a chance to tell her about our Einmyria. She flew into a rage and stormed off. She ordered Maera to cover everything.”

  Scales appeared on my arms. I didn’t try to stop the partial shift. I stood.

  “Where are you going?” he asked, squinting at me.

  “To see Mother.”

  “No one is allowed inside that room when she’s in mourning.”

  I frowned. “Not even you?”

  “Not even me.” He stared into the fire. “I go when she’s asleep, but on Einmyria’s birthday, or yours before you came back to us, your mother stayed in your rooms for twenty-four hours straight. She’s starting early this time. Because of me.” He chugged his drink. “I tried talking to her, but she threw things at me.”

  That sounded like something Mother would do. Without saying another word, I left the den. The need to shift fully became unbearable. My dragon form was reasserting himself. Once again, my ability to control the shift was slipping. I tried Odin’s rune, but it was too late. I could smell my mother’s pain and rage. My nails hardened and elongated.

  Calm down, damn it! Einmyria is alive. Mother just needs to know that and everything will be fine.

  The shift stopped, but I knew I wouldn’t control the shift if she needed him. I stopped outside the door, took a deep breath, and blew it out slowly. I’d never knocked on a door since I arrived in Helheim. I knocked.

  “Go away, Eirik,” came sharply from inside.

  That sounded nasal, like she’d been crying. “I can’t. I need your advice.”

  “Ask your father.”

  Okay, lying wasn’t going to help here. “I want to hear about Einmyria.”

  “I have nothing to say.”

  “I can’t hear you. Can I come inside?” I didn’t wait for a response. I turned the knob and opened the door, the light of the hallway falling into the room. I’d expected a crib with a mobile, a rocking chair, and maybe some murals of rainbows and cute bears. Instead I was met with chaos. The utter destruction of the room and the furniture showed my mother’s anguish.

  The murals were charred as though she had thrown bolts of lightning at the walls. The crib was legless. The rest of the furniture was smashed up and baby clothes were on the floor. I could see my mother’s silhouette at the other end of the room. She was seated on a couch or a lounge.

  “I told you not to enter,” she snapped.

  I closed the door and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. Engaging my runes would only piss her off since Odin’s rune always appeared first and I didn’t think she’d appreciate it.

  “Talk to me.”

  No response. I could hug her, but the gesture would be lost on her. She might have no problem receiving hugs from my father, but she was still getting used to mine, which left one thing. My dragon form. She preferred me in scales.

  The room was huge even by bedroom standards, bigger than mine, so there was enough space to shift. Since everything was destroyed, I wouldn’t be breaking anything. The ceiling was also high enough to accommodate my height. Not that I planned to stand.

  I swallowed the sounds even though it hurt like crazy to shift without pain and endurance runes. I stepped forward and away from the door as my bones snapped and elongated, separated, and reshaped. By the time the shift was complete, I was close to passing out from the pain.

  When it receded, I took inventory. I was in the middle of the room, my head close to the ceiling, and my tail was by the door. I could see Mother better now. She watched with an unnerving intensity. Without saying a word, I tucked my legs and settled on the floor, flattening any furniture still standing. I waited.

  She didn’t talk, but I knew when the anger left her. She reached out and patted my head. “What do you want to know?”

  “How long did you know her?” We both knew who I meant.

  “Three days.”

  “I know you named me Eirik because I’m destined to rule forever.” She pushed my head, and I grinned. “But why Einmyria?”

  “Her eyes.” Mother sighed. “She had the most beautiful gray eyes with specs of silver, like freshly fallen ashes from smoldering ember. So we named her ashes. Einmyria. Her hair was golden. You may have your father’s looks, but Einmyria had his coloring. She would have had his coloring,” she added softly.

  “Father said she had your beauty.”

  “Your father loves me and only sees what he wants to see.” Anger entered her voice as she continued. “This time, he went too far.”

  I wasn’t going to choose a side, so I kept quiet. Silence followed.

  “I guess I should talk to him,” Mother said.

  “Only if you are ready. There’s no hurry.” She was almost back to her normal self. I could feel it.

  “Is that the human you talking or the dragon?”

  “We’re one and the same, Mother. One and the same.”

  She chuckled. “One day you will be, Eirik. I know you struggle to reconcile both forms, and I have not been very helpful. You are one. Learn to accept that.” The crystal on her scepter started to glow, the light flooding the corners of the room.

  I studied her. She still didn’t engage her runes. She was exactly how they’d depicted her in Earth literature. One side of her youthful and the other side old. Not ugly old. She had lines around her mouth and eyes of a much older but still pretty woman. Even though the eye on that side was blue, her hair was gray and less lustrous. It was a fascinating contrast. The whites of her eyes had rivets of red from crying, and her nose was red as though she’d wiped it a lot. She watched me warily like she was expecting me to react negatively to her true self.

  I shifted closer and rested my cheek against hers. “Can I tell you a secret?”

  She didn’t respond, but she didn’t push me away either.

  “The real you is beautiful, Mother. Exactly how I’d pictured you.”

  A weird sound escaped her. I wasn’t sure whether it was a laugh or a sob. I rested my head on her lap and the legs of the lounge gave out. This time, I was sure she laughed.

  “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t change indoors? I can’t salvage anything in here.”

  The scolding rolled off me. She was no longer in a dark place, and that was all that mattered. She lifted her scepter and brought it down on the carpeted floor, sending a pulse of magical energy across the room. It tickled. No, something moved under my belly, then my tail. I stood as pieces of broken furniture lifted and coalesced. Legs joined dressers
. Clothes lifted off the floor and landed in drawers, which slid into the dresser. Even the crystals and sconces moved back to the walls.

  “I’ll send Litr with a change of clothing,” she said, standing. “If you need me, I’ll be with your father.”

  “No, I’m good. I promised the warriors a fight tomorrow morning. They’re learning to dodge fire, and I love to scare the crap out of them.”

  “As long as you don’t kill them. They’re mine, not your toys. And speaking of toys, I’m happy you took my advice and brought Celestia to visit. You’re a lot more relaxed.” She tapped the scepter against my leg. “Don’t move until you shift back or you’ll break the furniture again.”

  “Celestia is not a toy,” I called out, but she just laughed.

  Celestia was many things, but a toy wasn’t one of them. I turned my head left and right, and studied the room. Now, this was more like it—the perfect baby room. Cribs and drawers intact, beautiful murals of meadows, flowers, and fluffy clouds. I wondered if Jötunheim looked like that.

  Litr entered the room with a robe and walked under me to place it on the lounge. He gave me a thumbs-up and left. I shifted, slipped on the robe, and walked around the room, opening drawers and cupboards. All the baby blankets had Mom’s rune on them like a logo. Maybe the blanket Granny used when she’d kidnapped Einmyria had the same rune.

  ~*~

  I got up early the next morning, wolfed down breakfast, and took Garm for a morning run and a ride. I was at Celestia’s by seven, but she was still asleep. I found Rhys and Nara drinking coffee on the patio. They were not cloaked.

  “No one relieved you?”

  “We took turns keeping watch. Ms. Celestia introduced us to her father,” Nara said, grinning.

  “What?”

  “We are officially security detail sent by the Witches Guild to guard her because of the threat against the Witches,” she added. She was having way too much fun with this. “The Guild is run by your powerful family. You, of course, are the young man she helped four months ago. You should have seen Rhys’ face when she came up with that. I think it’s brilliant.”