He pulled his hand back as though scalded and scowled, blue eyes dimming. For a moment, we stared at each other. He looked shocked by his response. I wasn’t.
“I am,” he said, frowning.
“You’re what?”
“Angry, but I don’t know why. It’s obvious that Lavania and Andris didn’t tell you about me, yet you know details about my personal life only the two of them know.”
“That’s because—”
“Please, let me finish. I was here when Andris and a bunch of Valkyries came to collect the souls of your swim team members.”
“You were one of them,” I cut in. “You lived here then left just before the meet.”
“You must be mistaken.” He sighed. “I don’t remember living here, but it’s familiar, so I must have visited them. I was in Washington to reap some college kids while the others were here. We hadn’t yet decided to make Kayville our base.”
I shook my head. “The Norns gave you false memories, Torin. We were neighbors.”
“Norns don’t mess with the memories of Valkyries. There’s no reason to.”
“But—”
“Look, I don’t want to argue with you. You tell me things you insist I did and said, yet I have no memories of ever saying or doing them. I thought Ingrid or Maliina might have told you, but Andris swore he never told them anything about my past. Maybe Maliina overheard stuff and shared them with you before she went rogue. I don’t know. All I know is I never met you until two weeks ago when you kissed me. I’ve spent the last two weeks thinking about you, and I think I now know what might have happened.”
His voice came to me as though from afar, hope slowly dying with each word from his mouth, until a giant gaping hole remained. I wanted to say something, but my tongue stayed glued to my mouth, which had gone dry. So I waited, heart pounding.
“Our paths must have crossed and you misunderstood,” he said gently.
“Misunderstood?” I whispered.
“The nature of our relationship.” He let go of the car door and shoved his hands in his front pants pockets again. “I make a point of not getting emotionally involved with Mortals. It is counterproductive. So if I did something to mislead you in any way, I’m sorry. It was not my intention.”
He paused, his jaw tense, his gaze steady. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t, the finality of his previous words echoing in my head like my worst nightmare.
“I’ll not always be a Mortal,” I whispered. “I plan to start training as soon as possible.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Why?”
My mind went blank. Then jumbled thoughts slammed into my psyche. Just because he couldn’t remember didn’t give him the right to write us off. Anger slowly crept in and mingled with the pain. Misunderstood the nature of our relationship? Emotional involvement with me was counterproductive? He wasn’t willing to find out the truth or give me the benefit of the doubt. He just assumed he couldn’t have gotten involved with me, a Mortal.
“Why? What kind of question is that?” I asked through clenched teeth.
His brow shot up. “One you should be asking yourself.”
Hating that I had to look up at him, I stood. He didn’t even have the decency to step back. The heat from his body leaped and wrapped around me, messing with my head. Usually, I welcomed the effect he had on me. Now, it just pissed me off.
“I’ve asked it a gazillion times, and I keep coming back to me, my mother, my entire existence. My mother is a Valkyrie. Norns marked me when I was a child for their diabolical reason, so Valkyrie and Norn magic flows in my veins.”
He smirked. “So? That doesn’t mean you have to become one.”
“The Norns are after me, Torin. Just because you don’t remember things doesn’t mean I don’t. Dealing with them was horrible. I have to be prepared this time.”
He cocked his eyebrows. “I heard you stood up to them and accomplished something. Do it again. Show them you are one Mortal they can’t bully. Being a Valkyrie is a lonely, crappy existence. Being a Norn is even worse.”
His attitude stank, even though I knew about his loneliness. I was meant to take it away, complete him. The thought fueled my anger. Before I realized my intention, I poked him in the chest. “It’s only crappy because you are too pig-headed to change. You choose to be alone when you don’t have to be. You had a chance to make me immortal, and you took the moral high ground.”
He grabbed my finger. “I’d never knowingly sentence a Mortal to this life, not even one as lovely as you.”
That hurt. I yanked my finger from his grip. “I wouldn’t want you to if you got down on your knees and begged.”
Blue flames leapt in his eyes, which moved to my lips before locking with mine. “I don’t beg, Freckles.”
“You lost the right to call me that, Valkyrie. And FYI, if I wanted to, I could make you beg.”
He leaned closer, making me catch my breath. He smirked at my reaction. “I could turn the tables on you like that, Freckles.” He snapped his fingers.
I cocked my head. “Oh, is that supposed to scare me?”
“It should. In fact, get your lovely ass back in your car and drive as far away from me as possible.”
I swallowed, feeling reckless. “I’m not afraid of you, Torin St. James.”
He leaned even closer, his breath fanning my face. Memories of our kisses mocked me. I wanted to reach up, grab his face, and force him to remember, make him tremble and breathless.
“Just because I don’t like emotional nightmares with snarky little Mortal girls doesn’t mean I can’t take what I want when I want it and move on without losing sleep over it.”
Thoughts of kissing him disappeared from my head. Snarky little Mortal girls? I wanted to smack him. “You’re a jackass.”
He laughed. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
“I loathe you.”
“That’s even better. Don’t forget it when you come to my house for lessons,” he added and flashed that smile I’d once thought was sexy, but now made me want to kick him. “I’ll try to make myself scarce, but I’m not promising anything. So try to keep the snarky comments to a minimum. As for the girlish crush you think you have on me, it will pass. They always do.”
“It already did at ‘misunderstood’,” I shot back, getting behind the wheel and slamming the car door. He was the most annoying, shits-for-brains guy I’d ever met. Girlish crush? That was the last straw.
He stared at me through the window, then turned and strolled to his Harley. Each step that took him away felt like a spike through my heart. If I thought he’d hurt me before, this was ten times worse.
I wasn’t sure how long I sat in my car seething, nursing my pain, trying to think of ways to erase every trace of feelings I had for him from my heart. I should have kicked him. Bet I would have sent him flying across the parking lot. Or hurt myself. He was a Valkyrie, after all, and had superhuman strength. I wonder where mine came from. Probably from the three Norns healing me when I was a baby. What else had they done to me?
***
Within minutes, I pulled up behind Mirage, my family’s store. The back door made its usual annoying ding as I entered, and Jared looked up. He smiled and waved. He was my parents’ only employee. Now that Dad was back, the temp Mom had hired was gone. I glanced around the display room.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Your mom just left. Your pops is in the office,” Jared explained.
“He’s not with a customer, is he?”
“No. Go on in.” I walked between displayed mirrors and picture frames. Most of the merchandise was kept in the back, so there was enough aisle space for browsing. Even though we custom-framed print pictures for a furniture store and a few works of art for museums in Portland, majority of the work done at the store was for the Valkyries. One had to look closely to see the runes etched on the frames of the larger mirrors, which Valkyries used as portals. We shipped them all over the world.
“Y
es?” Dad’s deep voice said when I knocked.
I stuck my head in the office. He was on his laptop. “Are you busy, Dad?”
“Not too busy for you.” He waved me inside and stood.
“I thought I’d pop by and see how things are going.” The urge to cry rolled over me. I closed the gap between us and hugged him. When he tried to step back, my arms tightened.
“Pumpkin?”
“I’m okay, Dad. I just need a longer hug today. That’s all,” I mumbled. He was still thin from being sick and almost dying after his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean. The tan from the cruise made him look less starved, but he was far from his old self.
He pressed a kiss on my head. “Was it that bad?”
“Gruesome.” Especially my last encounter with a certain stubborn Valkyrie. I let go of Dad and gave him a sheepish smile then walked around the desk and dropped onto the chair opposite his. “I have tons of catching up to do. Piles and piles of reading material, packets of assignments, pre-tests… Grr.” I slouched on my seat. Dad watched me with an indulgent expression. “I know I should be happy my teachers care, and I will, once my grades are no longer pitiful. But right now, I just want to scream.”
He chuckled. “Go ahead. No one will hear you but me, and I don’t mind. I’ve missed your vents.”
I rolled my eyes. He was such an enabler. I inclined my head to indicate the computer. “What are you working on?”
“Accounts. Boring stuff.”
“I thought Mom already did them.”
“She did.” He flipped through the pages of a ledger. “She does an amazing job, but it doesn’t hurt to have several copies in different formats.”
“Where’s Mom?” Her coat was missing from the pegs by the door.
“She went home to get the rest of the ledgers. She should be back any moment.” He got up and reached for his coat. “Come on. I’ll buy us coffee from down the street.”
“Yay!” I hopped up. “I thought you’d never ask.”
He laughed. “I thought you came to see me.”
“I did, because I know you never mess with tradition.” As long as I could remember, we’d walk down to Café Nikos for hot chocolate and pastries whenever I stopped by the store after school. Decaf lattes replaced hot chocolate when I turned fifteen.
I hugged his arm as we left the store. It was cold and wet, and very few people walked along the storefront. Café Nikos had its regulars, most of them local artists and students. Some, hunched over their laptops, were online using the free wi-fi Nikolaus provided. Others were busy having heated discussion at their tables.
“Tristan, nice to have you back,” Nikolaus, said, hugging Dad.
“It’s nice to be back, my friend,” Dad said.
“That must have been a horrifying experience. It’s good to hear the airlines never gave up,” Nikolaus added. He and Dad were locals and had known each other since high school.
Dad chuckled. “I wish I could give them the credit, Niko. That honor goes to Svana. She never gave up.”
Salivating over the pastries, I only partly listened to my father’s miraculous rescue story. Dad had told me the same story before we left for the cruise and all of it was half-truth. Mom never hired a private security firm to search for him, and their investigators hadn’t found him two weeks ago at a remote hospital in a little town in El Salvador and flown him home. The reason Mom never gave up was because she’d contacted her Valkyrie sisters, who’d reassured her that Dad’s soul hadn’t been reaped. Every time I’d caught her talking to the mirror, she’d been using it as a portal to communicate with them. They’d even tried to locate Dad’s whereabouts, but Torin was the one who had found my father and brought him home. He’d probably used a portal.
We bought half a dozen pastries and sipped our drinks on our way back. The sound of a motorcycle filled the air and my heart danced, but I didn’t turn to look. Torin and I were done. I refused to allow him to mess with my head again.
***
Mom still was not yet back when I left the store, but her car was in our driveway when I entered our cul-de-sac. As I drove past Torin’s, my gaze automatically went to the garage to see if his bike was there. The door was closed. I berated myself for looking, for wondering if he was home. It was going to take a while to get over him and completely erase him from my heart and my head.
“Mom?” I called out when I entered the house.
No response.
I checked Dad’s office then headed upstairs. She wasn’t in her bedroom or mine. I placed my bulky backpack on the desk and my oboe by the door. Just as I was about to turn and leave the room, the telltale prickly feeling on my nape told me I was being watched. I glanced out the window, and my eyes connected with Torin’s.
My heart trembled. Stupid heart.
He smiled and gave me a mock salute. I flipped him off. He laughed and turned, and I saw that he wasn’t alone in his bedroom. Lavania walked to his side and touched his arm. She’d changed out of the gray outfit she’d worn to school and now wore a violet silk dress. It looked like lingerie. Sexy lingerie.
She saw me and waved.
Feeling a little sick, I turned and left my bedroom. It was official. My tutor, trainer, or whatever they call Valkyries like Lavania, was my boyfriend’s new girlfriend. No, my ex-boyfriend’s girlfriend. The worst part was our houses were so close I could see inside his room, which meant I might actually see them making out. Imagining them together hurt, just like watching him with Jess had months ago. He wasn’t supposed to be with anyone but me.
Refusing to let it get to me, I headed downstairs for something to eat.
“Ah, there you are,” Mom said.
I jumped. “Where did you come from?” I noticed the portal in the living room shimmer and remold itself until it was once again a wall mirror. “Did you just use that?”
She grinned. “It’s so convenient, isn’t it? I was next door talking to Lavania, and two seconds later, I’m here. I’m so happy I can do that freely without worrying about you seeing me.”
“What if Dad saw you?”
She dismissed my concerns with a flicker of her wrist, charms jiggling on her bracelet. “Sweetie, he’s a Mortal and can’t really see portals. Come here.” She enveloped me in a hug and perfumes that defied description, then leaned back and studied me. “You look terrible.”
I made a face. “Thanks. How come I couldn’t see portals even after I could see runes?”
She cupped my cheeks and planted a kiss on my forehead. “That’s because the veil lifts slowly and gives a person time to adjust. If it happens fast, which is rare, a person can become overwhelmed and think they are hallucinating. Imagine seeing invisible Valkyries with their glowing skin, souls of the dead, portals appearing and disappearing. You’d go crazy.” A scowl settled on her face. “You’re not seeing souls yet, are you?”
I shuddered. “No.”
“That ability will happen with time. So, Lavania told me what happened at school. I plan to call your principal first thing tomorrow morning. Name calling is bad enough, but slashing your tires? Spray-painting your car? I will not have you bullied by anyone.”
“Don’t, Mom. I can handle this on my own. Please.”
She shook head head. “No, I can’t do that. Your father… Oh, he’s not going to be happy when he hears about this.”
“Please, don’t tell him. Just let it go. Torin fixed the tires, so no one can slash them again, and I really don’t want to draw more attention to myself.”
Mom’s lips pinched as she mulled over what I’d just said. She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Please, Mom. Just don’t do anything. If we make a big deal out of it, the students will only become more hateful.”
She sighed and pressed a kiss on my forehead. “Okay. But if they do it again, I will make them pay.”
I sighed with relief. “Sure.” Then I remembered that a Valkyrie’s idea of “pay” might be very different from humans. “Pa
y how?”
“Oh, sweetie, the things we can do with basic runes. Clean magic.” She took my arm and led me toward the kitchen. “I could have their hair fall off, warts grow between their toes, give them diarrhea for a week, pig ears, snouts…”
“Okay. Let’s not go Morgana on anyone.” I tugged my arm from her hand and picked up an apple. “I have enough to deal with without worrying about you turning people into pigs.”
She pinched my nose. “I was just kidding. Your dad already made dinner, so go finish your homework and don’t worry about a thing. Oh, how was your first day with Torin?”
I didn’t want to discuss Torin. “Like I expected. He doesn’t remember me.”
“Give him time. He will. If he doesn’t, he’ll fall in love with you again.”
I wasn’t holding my breath. First, he had to want to. That wasn’t going to happen if he thought I had a crush on him. Second, I had to spend time with him for anything to happen. He had offered to disappear every time I went to their house. Jerk.
Mom reached for the keys she’d left on the counter, and I realized she was about to leave. “Do you have a minute, Mom?”
She glanced at her watch. “Your father is waiting, but what’s a minute more. What is it?”
“Can we sit down, please?” I indicated the breakfast nook in the kitchen. Eying me curiously, she pulled out a chair and sat. I sat across from her and played with the apple while rearranging my thoughts.
“You’re beginning to worry me, sweetheart. Just say whatever is on your mind.”
“Who is Eirik?”
She blinked. “Why do you ask?”
“He cannot be a Mortal. You told me his parents had special duties here, and he knows everything that happened to me, which means the Norns didn’t erase his memories. So, who is he?”
Mom sighed. “Oh, hun. This is one of those questions your trainer will answer.”
“But I need to know now. The Norns came to see me at school and said things.” Color drained from her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but I gripped her hand. “Let me finish, please.”
Immortals (Runes book 2) Page 5