Arun smiled. “She tends to give extra love to those who need it the most. And if anyone does, it’s that kid.”
I leaned back against the beam behind me and stared at Arun for what felt like a long time to me and probably felt like forever to him. “Hey, I had a question about your name.”
“Arun? I told you that my mom—”
I shook my head. “No, your last name. Was it your mom’s or your dad’s?”
“Hers. I don’t know anything about my dad because he died before I was born. Mom said he was a sweet Irish man.”
“I would say you got your eyes from him, but your mother and uncle have them, too. It’s not often you see such dark eyes with light blond hair.”
“My great-grandfather was Shoshone. You know something kind of cool? The wyrd sisters are represented by the triple spiral, right?”
I nodded, my breath caught in my throat because that symbol had been a huge part of what wrecked my life.
“My great-grandfather was obsessed with the spiral and said it was a token of our family. He believed the spiral was a portal to the spirit world.”
“I don’t believe this,” I whispered as I closed my eyes. “This is unbelievable. You are exactly who I was supposed to find. Exactly.” Were any of us working through any of this ourselves or were the gods just moving us around like puppets on a stage?
Born of two magical clans that share life’s spiral. Light of head, dark of eyes, the young warrior will herald the beginning of Ragnarok. His hand to the death of a norn.
The very prophecy that had made my mother drag us all over the country, the one my sisters and I had a hard time believing, wasn’t bull—not at all. A part of me had known this, but to be faced with so much evidence. Two magical clans that share life’s spiral. There it was. Right in front of my face.
“Hey,” he said softly. “You’ve got that trip-to-Nowhere look coming back. Stay.”
I opened my eyes and stared at him, so mixed up I had to actually search for the ability to make words. “So what do you think of all that stuff I shared from Nanna?”
“Honestly? Mind-boggling. To think that all this fell into place so long ago and it’s all playing out now. Makes me feel a bit like curling up and sucking my thumb.”
I lifted an eyebrow. But the image made me smile, and it helped to lessen the fear coursing through my body.
“In a manly type of way, of course.”
And that did the trick. “There’s a manly way to suck your thumb?” Snickering, I leaned forward and stopped when we were a breath apart. He didn’t move, just watched me, and that fluttering thing happened in my belly again. This time, it didn’t make me scowl.
His gaze flicked down to my mouth, but he still didn’t move the last couple of inches.
Instead of kissing him, I told him the rest of what I probably should have shared earlier. “A warrior like you is supposed to cause my death.”
He leaned back fast, narrowed his eyes. “What did you just say?”
I grabbed fistfuls of his sweater and tugged him back. “Born of two magical clans that share life’s spiral. Light of head.” I touched his hair. “Dark of eyes.” I smoothed my thumbs beneath his gorgeous dark eyes. “The young warrior will herald the beginning of Ragnarok. His hand.” I paused, picked up his hand and ran my fingers over his palm, then traced his fingers. “His hand to the death of a norn.”
“Where did you hear that?” he whispered as he curled his fingers around mine and held on tight.
“That prophecy was given to my mother and is the reason my sisters and I grew up moving around. Our mother was so scared that a warrior would kill us, she slowly went mad. It’s why I came all the way here. I found the article about you in her stuff and thought she’d come after you.”
“To do what?”
I shrugged. “Hurt you? I don’t know. But I certainly didn’t think it was to kill you.” Hot tears pricked the backs of my eyes. “But I stood there and watched her kill that boy. She did it. She put an ice arrow into his heart without hesitation. There is nothing to keep her from doing that to you.” A sob escaped. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alva look our way.
“Shh,” Arun whispered. He tilted up my chin, wiped the tears from my face. “I will certainly not be killing you. Damn, Kat, I’m starting to really like you. And like I said, I don’t think your mother is in control of her body. We’re going to beat this. I know it.”
“I gave you the perfect nickname. You do dream of world peace, don’t you?”
“So?” He lifted a blond eyebrow.
“It’s the pipe kind, you know.”
“It may be a dream, but I still believe it’s possible. And it’s going to start with all of us.” He pointed around the room at all the kids who’d come here, knowing something bad would happen but showing up nonetheless. Brave kids who weren’t equipped to fight giants and elves. They were stronger than normal kids, but the strength of giants had to be even bigger.
How are we going to stop this?
And the fear that took hold of my chest again then seared a path through me that made me squeeze my eyes shut. Too many seesawing emotions had happened too fast. I. Just. Needed. To. Breathe.
“Come here, you,” he whispered before he leaned back against a support beam and pulled me around, arranging me so I was cradled between his legs, my back to his chest. He wrapped long, wonderfully strong arms around me and put his face against my neck. “We will figure this out. I promise.”
I leaned against him, feeling his breath on my skin, his warmth against my back. I looked over all the people who’d gathered here and for the first time in a long, long time, I didn’t feel separate from the world. Always before, I’d had just my sisters and that was okay. But now I was a part of this group. Valkyries and kids carrying gods and goddesses. A girl who shared a common past with me. Every single one of us had importance here, and though I knew some of us would die, there wasn’t one in this group who wouldn’t go out fighting.
* * *
This time I started my dream already on fire.
I wasn’t diving into it. Wasn’t waiting as it slowly crept toward me.
No, this time the burn came first.
My skin turned black and began to peel from my arms. The pain was unlike anything I could have imagined because it felt like someone was trying to fillet me. No sounds penetrated the loud crackling of my hair on fire. The burn. The burn became everything.
I tried to sit up, but something was holding me. Arms around me from the back. I flailed and began to whimper and struggle.
“Hey, it’s okay, it’s just me,” Arun said, tightening his arms. “I guess we nodded off. Everyone just left us sitting here.” He started to laugh, then made a strangled noise as his body went stiff behind me. “Something’s wrong. Smoke! We have to get out of here now!”
I choked; then coughs tore through my chest and throat. I couldn’t breathe because it felt as if I were being cooked from the inside out. I wasn’t just dreaming of fire this time—it was really happening. Again.
Cries sounded outside just before a horrific crash sent dirt flying out around my face.
“It’s another fire! Where’s my son?” Alva sounded like she was on the other side of the wall we’d been leaning against.
Smoke filled the greenhouse so rapidly, I lost track of the door’s location. I stood and grabbed my coat and Arun’s. Heat seared my back, and I looked over my shoulder to see the entire wall behind me on fire. Arun tugged on my arm. I started to run with him and tripped over a sleeping bag. Before I hit the ground, he caught me, but another pain stabbed into my thigh, then splintered into lines of pain, like poison was flowing through my veins.
I patted my leg, expecting to find an ice arrow like the one we’d seen in Forseti, but there was nothing there. “My leg,”
I gasped, looking up at Arun. “Can you see something in my leg?”
“No. Come on.”
The pain in my leg eased, but my lungs felt like they were on fire. Before we reached the door, Gillian ran into the building. “Hurry!”
We grabbed our coats and burst out the door with her before running away from the building.
Tyrone, Kara and the others had already turned hoses onto the greenhouse. It was the only one on fire this time.
“Did anyone see how it started?” Arun bent, resting his hands on his knees as he started coughing. “Damn, this is really pissing me off now.”
Kara handed her hose to Sky and walked up to us. “We were all out here. Nobody was even near that greenhouse. And I swear it started from the roof.”
I shivered and put my coat on, stared at flames once again as they tried to climb the sky. “Did you see Branton?”
Kara nodded. “Yeah, he’s around here somewhere. Came for the free food the people in town keep bringing. I swear, if I didn’t miss my home so much, and it wasn’t so damned cold, I’d move here just for the people.”
“Kara, where is Branton now?” Arun asked.
She shrugged, then ducked as fire sort of leaped from the greenhouse onto a nearby tree. Despite the thick layer of snow covering its branches, the tree went up as if had been dead and dry.
Another arc of fire jumped from that tree to another.
We ran farther into the valley. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out and looked at the screen. “Gods, Vanir McConnell, your timing stinks. Again!” I yelled into the phone as Arun pulled me farther from the burning trees.
“It’s Raven, Kat. Have you talked to Coral? She’s not answering her phone and—”
I could hardly hear her over the sound of the fire, but I thought of the phantom leg pain from earlier. “Are you hurt? Because I felt something really, really bad a few minutes ago.”
“I’m okay. Listen, it’s not Mom. It’s Loki and—” She suddenly stopped talking, which was good because the fire shot across the ground and enveloped a tree near us.
Arun grabbed my arm, and we started running toward the parking area with all the vehicles and the SUV where we’d stored all the backpacks earlier. “Yeah, Peaceboy and I have figured that out already. Sorry I haven’t had a chance to call.” I had to stop talking to try to catch my breath.
“Are you running?”
“Shit, Raven, I can’t talk! We’re dealing with a fire here.”
“One last thing! Loki is using a feather cloak to travel.”
“That ugly feather coat? Weird. I’m sorry. I promise I’ll call, but I gotta go right now.” I hung up on her just as an explosion sounded behind us. Arun shot back the way we’d come and I followed, instantly relieved to see that everyone had been far away from the greenhouse that now lay in pieces across the valley of snow.
Arun found his mom and hugged her.
“I’m okay,” she said. “And it was only one greenhouse this time. But I don’t understand this—we didn’t store anything in there that could have exploded like that.”
“I don’t think that had anything to do with what was in the greenhouse, Mom.”
I realized we’d been running around so much, we’d never told her about Branton. In fact, we’d never even discussed Branton.
Then I actually saw Branton as he ran toward the vehicles. It shouldn’t have been so dark out yet, but clouds filled the sky in a thick wall that obliterated light. The fire lit up the area so well; his streaked hair was perfectly visible as he jumped into the SUV where we’d stored most of the backpacks. I grabbed Arun’s arm and pointed. “You don’t have time to explain. He’s getting away with a bunch of the supplies.”
Arun took off toward the cars, digging in his pockets. “I don’t have any keys on me!” he yelled as he stopped in the middle of the snowmobiles.
I patted my pocket and nearly shouted in triumph when I pulled out my keys. “I’ve got mine! Come on!”
We climbed into my Jeep and I shot out after Branton, snow spewing from either side of the vehicle because I hadn’t moved it since I’d arrived and the stuff had piled up around the tires. The whole thing shook as I forced it over the snow.
“Have you ever driven in this kind of weather before?” Arun asked, wincing as he braced his arms on the dashboard.
“Nope!” I pressed my foot on the gas harder and swerved when a short tree suddenly appeared in my headlights.
“I suppose it would insult you if I offered to drive?”
“Yes and no.” I grunted when I went sailing over a snowbank, swerved and managed to get control of the Jeep.
“You do realize I don’t know how to respond to that, right?”
“Shh! I’m trying to concentrate.”
“Kat, seriously. We should pull over and let me go after him. I’ve grown up driving in these kinds of conditions. It’s not like I don’t think you’re perfectly capable, but if he gets away with all those supplies, we’re screwed.”
He was right. I knew it. Stubborn pride had me keeping my foot on the gas, but I pulled over and jumped out of the Jeep. He did the same and grinned at me as we passed by the hood.
When he took off after Branton, the ride went a little more smoothly—and a lot faster—and I pushed back my bruised ego. “Where do you think he’s going?” I asked when we reached the main road.
Arun squinted left then right before he took a sharp right. The Jeep swerved on the slippery road, but Arun righted it quickly. “He’s headed to Yellowstone.”
“Now? Should we go without the others?”
“I’m just going after him to get the backpacks.” He sped up.
I hurriedly put on my seat belt and resisted the urge to close my eyes as we seemed to fly down the snow-covered road. “Not many have been driving this way,” I said as I eyed the sides of the road. “There aren’t even any piles built up. Don’t they send out plows or trucks with snow things on the front?”
“Snow things?” He released a short, sharp grin that faded quickly into the tight-lipped anger of earlier. “Yeah, but these are unusual circumstances. Nobody knows how to handle this snow right now. Not even those of us who’ve grown up around this. With the storms lately, people are just huddling in their homes.”
“And yet, here we are racing down a highway covered in snow, chasing a pyromaniac.”
He slammed his hand on the wheel. “I can’t believe I’ve spent my entire life with him and didn’t know. He’s never showed any signs of having a power. He seemed a little jealous of mine a few times over the years, but I keep thinking back and remembering little things now. Like the way he loved setting paper on fire in his trash cans. I’m even remembering bigger things. His first home burned down. I remember his mother telling mine the story. They barely got out of the house alive.”
“He’s obviously been hiding this from you. It’s not your fault.”
“But I never felt anything from him.”
“You told me it only happens the first day or so, so you probably did and don’t even remember it.”
“There he is!” Arun sped up, but Branton must have realized he was being followed because he did, too.
I kept my eyes open even when we slid around one curve that had a drop-off to our left. Shivering, I turned up the heat, then twisted to see if I’d left any blankets in the Jeep, but I hadn’t. We’d used them all after the first fire. Luckily, we’d grabbed our coats. My throat felt scratchy, my chest tight. I could only hope it was from inhaling the smoke.
“If I can stick to Branton’s butt, we’ll have access to the backpacking supplies and we’ll be fine.” Arun said as if he’d read my mind. He slowed.
“What are you doing? I thought we had to stick to his butt?”
“This drive is too dangero
us to take at these speeds. If Branton doesn’t crash, I’m pretty sure I know where he’s going. There’s an old patrol cabin we used to hike to. He always ran off there when he was angry with his mom.”
“Why would he go there? Won’t he realize you’ll know?”
“I think he wanted me to follow him. He’s always wanted me to follow him, was always running off to hide in this place.”
“He said you two have always been best friends. That was all on his part, wasn’t it?”
Arun nodded, his mouth twisting. “I care about him and he’s my friend, but he’s never been a best friend. There were just too many things over the years. Problems. He does dumb shit. Steals, lies about stuff. I knew he had emotional issues, knew he never got over his dad leaving them.”
“Yet you’ve always followed him to this cabin when he’s upset. Stayed with him.”
“Yeah, I’m a pushover.” He squinted at something ahead of us, then swerved onto the right side of the road.
I followed his gaze, saw some kind of huge lump in the snow. As we passed, I caught a hoofed foot out of the corner of my eyes. It stuck up from that pile of snow. Poor thing had just frozen there like that. “That’s not how I see it. You’ve been a good friend, and this whole time he’s been dishonest.”
“Maybe not. He could be like the others who didn’t know.”
“He seems to have control over his fire power,” I muttered, then grimaced. “I’m sorry. That was a lousy thing to say. This has to be killing you.”
“Yeah, it is. We might have had problems over the years, but I still considered him a friend. And his mother is my mother’s best friend. He helped me put together those packs. Went with me to buy the tents and everything else whenever we could. Jealous or not, I never would have expected him to turn on me like this. Turn on us all. I just can’t understand what happened.” He suddenly leaned over the dash, slowed the Jeep even more. “He slowed again. I know they’ve closed the road up here, so he has to stop.”
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