Kat had been hanging upside down from a branch in a giant tree, one sheltering the world, the Yggdrasil.
The Norse believed Yggdrasil was at the center of everything—it gave life. At the end of my bad dream, the ash was burning to the ground with my sister in it. She hadn’t been alone.
It could be nothing. Just a bad dream. Or this could have been a part of our weird triplet connection. It felt like something that was going to happen and my abilities had nothing to do with the future usually. But I had to know—had to check on her.
Pulling the covers from my face, I glanced at the nightstand and found one of those old-fashioned, curly corded office phones. Since I couldn’t call Kat’s cell phone collect, I went ahead and punched in the number. I could give the McConnells the cash.
The phone rang a long time. She didn’t pick up, so I called again. This time it took three rings. “Yeah?” she yelled into the phone.
In the background, I heard the slowing of a big rig’s air brakes. Closing my eyes, I sucked in a deep breath before answering because all I could see were the images from the dream.
Kat in that massive, gnarly branched tree.
That...that thing hovering over her. Some kind of fire demon.
Red, peeling burns covering her skin and her hair... Her long hair had been burned to her scalp.
I blinked away the horrifying images.
“Hello!” Kat yelled into the phone. “If you don’t answer, I’m hanging up. Who the hell is this?”
“Raven.”
“Gods, Raven! You’re lucky I answered. It’s freaking noisy here and I didn’t recognize the number. Where are you?”
“Oklahoma. I found him. Found Vanir McConnell.”
“I know. Coral told me.” There was a muffled curse and then a string of clattering thumps. She yelled, “I dropped the stupid phone! Just hold on while I find a parking space away from these loud trucks!”
I waited, looked out the window and realized why everything was silent. That loud, heavy driving precipitation had stopped, but white insulated the morning world. Trees, the two trucks by a detached garage—everything—had a layer of sparkling snow. There were drifts taller than me in places. As I stared, something dark skulked among the trees. Vanir’s wolves.
“I’m back,” Kat breathed into the phone. “Where have you been? I called you, like, five times last night and Coral is totally freaked. You’d better call her right away if you haven’t already.”
“I will. I don’t have my phone. Might have lost it.” I held my breath for a second, not sure how to tell her what had happened.
“You’d better find it, or pick up another somewhere because we have to stay in touch. I’m in Wyoming already and holy goddess crap it’s cold up here.”
“I expected it to take you longer. It took me forever to get here and Oklahoma is closer.” Yeah, me stalling. Nothing new there.
“Me? You’ve already found your warrior. Coral told me.” She snorted. “How?”
“I crashed into a river. He helped me out.”
This time, her silence wasn’t from dropping a phone. Strong, bordering on violent emotion trickled through the phone lines. Kat might have the temper of a badger but her ability to love, her loyalty to those she loved, was scary fierce.
“I’m okay,” I hurriedly added. “The car is in a river and will have to be towed, fixed—hopefully. I don’t even want to think about how much of my savings that will suck up. But I came out with only a lump on my head. Vanir’s aunt is a doctor and she stuck around to make sure I was fine. And get this, Kat, she has seidr. Big-time. And her name is Sarah Eir.”
“No shit.” She was silent then until a loud engine rumbled past on her end. “Wait, you met a doctor with seidr magic and her name is Eir? Like the healing goddess? That’s whacked.”
Shivering, I pulled the covers tighter around my neck, cocooned myself underneath. “It’s not only her. Vanir has brothers, all with Norse names and they look like their Choctaw-Irish father. And everyone here knows what’s going on, I just know it. This whole situation is too surreal, Kat. We’ve spent all our lives hiding our magic, knowing others don’t even know about it, and I walk into a family who knows things. Even the sheriff, I think. It’s liked I marched right into a book.”
“Sounds like it’s all coming together. Ragnarok. Just like the stories.” She went quiet.
I got why. Coral believed wholeheartedly and while I did some—I mean, we were all living proof there was more to reality—Kat had shrugged off everything but what she personally experienced. The bunch of bunk as she called the stories that had been schooled into us. Our mother’s constant fear had been drilled into us. Mom had been told outright that one of us would die. And though we didn’t believe it, at the same time, now that all the rest was happening...
“I still can’t believe this is happening,” Kat said on a groan.
I nodded, though she couldn’t see me. “Kat, I’m really nervous about the aunt. She’s going to know what’s going on.”
“What do you mean? That our possibly crazy mother might be there? That she might scare your Vanir? Probably not a good idea to share. Just stay low. See if you can find Dru. But first, let’s back up just a sec.” She drew out the last word. “You said Vanir’s name with a lot of familiarity for just having met him last night.”
I started to run my fingers through my hair, then remembered the tangles...and the bump that throbbed underneath. I’d kill for a shower. “No, I didn’t. I said his name in a normal voice.” The heat in my cheeks disagreed. “Gods, Kat. That’s not important right now. You wouldn’t believe what...” I stopped, swallowed. How the hell do I tell my sister about my suspicions? Kat and Mom had never been close, but she was still our mother—no matter how rocky their relationship. I held my breath.
Too long by the way Kat released a dramatically loud sigh. “I wouldn’t believe...” she prompted.
“It’s bad, Kat. Mom’s here.”
“Coral didn’t tell me that. How do you know?”
And like that, all the grief from last night came crashing back into my chest like a tidal wave. The tears I’d managed to hold back spilled and a moan escaped my throat before I could stop it.
“Raven?” Fear and concern raised Kat’s voice.
I was probably freaking her out. I never lost it. Well, hardly never. I had in Mom’s room a week ago. In front of Kat unfortunately. But I couldn’t stop the emotion this time. Maybe it was the relief of knowing Kat was okay after that bad dream, maybe it was just the full-on acceptance that our mother had crossed the line. Maybe it was the terror I’d been holding back over the very real end of the world that was happening right at this very moment.
And that boy, Steven—it was just so wrong.
“Hold on,” I whispered on a sob. Setting the phone down, I tiptoed to the door and opened it as quietly as possible to make sure no one was in the hall. Seeing it was clear, I got back under the covers, shivering, trying to hold in the tears.
“Raven! What is it? Hey, talk to me!”
“I think she killed a boy, Kat,” I whispered before rushing in with the story starting with Vanir and the wolves and ending with being questioned by the sheriff. Kat was quiet throughout.
“I can’t believe that,” she said when I was done. I had to strain to hear her.
I closed my eyes. “I don’t know for sure, but there wasn’t a mark on him and it looked like he was killed with magic. Plus, I smelled the lavender.”
A truck engine sounded on her end. Kat stayed silent, even when it stopped.
“Kat?”
I heard her deep, shaky breath. “You know I’ve stayed mad at her, that I’ve always thought she was kind of loopy, but this? It doesn’t make sense. I don’t understand.” She made a pained sound. “Oh, gods...Coral! This will k
ill Coral.”
“She won’t believe it.” A cabinet slammed downstairs. I lowered my voice. “I have to find Mom, Kat.”
“Argh! No. You don’t. If she’s already crossed the line, you have to tell them! Why do you feel this need to protect her? I don’t get it! Look at how we grew up! All I ever wanted was a normal life and she made sure that didn’t happen. You should have just told them the truth last night. She’s killed someone, Raven.”
“We don’t know that for sure. And I have to be absolutely sure. Have to give her that. Anyway, have you been paying attention on your trip? On mine, nuts were coming out of the woodwork. It’s snowing at the equator, Kat! People are scared! We don’t know the situation here. What if this was something else?”
“You sounded pretty certain a minute ago, Raven.”
I clutched the phone tight. A part of me agreed with her. Wanted to turn Mom in and not be the host for this massive guilt. But I couldn’t. Not just yet. “My rune tempus hit last night and the runes said ‘in violence conceived.’ What do you think that means?”
Again, there was silence on her end of the phone. From her, anyway. In the background I heard several engines.
“I think my norn is trying to tell me something about our birth,” I added.
“No,” she said, voice low. “No. Dru doesn’t hold back. Innocent childhood isn’t a sacred thing in her world. It’s not her style. Gory bedtime stories are my first memories. She would have told us.”
“Maybe not.” I stared out of the window, wishing I could whitewash the horrible thoughts buzzing around in my head.
“What if it isn’t?” She growled so loudly, I could almost feel the rumble of it through the phone. “What if it’s something stupid from the past that has absolutely nothing to do with this? You could get in big trouble, Raven.”
I closed my eyes. “I know.”
“Sounds like you’ve found the right guy. I’m calling Coral and we’re coming to help. In the meantime, you know where to look.”
“Not really. Campgrounds are out in this weather. She has to be in a hotel, but I can’t figure out how. She didn’t have much cash.” I picked at a loose thread on the blanket. “How long do you think it’ll take you to get here? I have no car and I can’t waste the money to rent one. I still have to find a hotel and I’m worried about the cost on that. Have you had trouble finding rooms? I did every single night. Spent a fortune to get here.”
“Yeah, I’ve had trouble, but it got easier up here. People are used to driving in snow, so they didn’t all stop immediately. Since Coral’s guy lived closer, she’s been driving around, trying to find him, but she told me last night every hotel in the area is packed. Our neighbors are taking people in.”
“Coral’s not, right?”
“Don’t think so.”
My tears had stopped, but my chest felt heavy. “Kat? I can’t let Mom hurt Vanir. He’s...well, he’s really cool.”
“I thought I detected heat. So, I guess you won’t end up in Gefjon’s hall, after all?”
I frowned, tugged the covers over my shoulders, recognizing Kat’s need to tease to diffuse the situation. In Norse myth, women who die virgins end up in Gefjon’s hall. We’d grown up teasing one another about ending up there if Mom was right. The air in the room felt chillier as my cheeks heated up. I squirmed under my tent. “Probably not.”
“Really? Holy crap! I’m coming down there now. Get off this phone, call Coral and tell her you’re okay.”
“Bossy much?”
“I told you. She’s freaking.”
This was a bad thing. Our middle sister was as interested in magic as our Mom and she didn’t have control of hers. Besides, seidr worked a lot off human emotion.
“Raven?” Kat’s voice was so low I hardly heard her.
“What?”
“Do you have the feeling one of us isn’t making it through this? All the other stuff Dru told us is coming true.”
“We are. All three of us are going to make it. We’re going to fight. And think about it. Mom changed things so maybe she’s altered all of it and fate is now in our hands.”
“I’m not sure that makes me feel better.”
“Yeah, nothing like a little pressure. But I’m determined to keep Mom from hurting Vanir and I plan to do it without dying. Stubborn as you are, it shouldn’t be hard for you, either.”
“But Coral...Coral’s—”
“Coral is a lot stronger than we think. She’s going to be fine.”
“You know you’re channeling that parent vibe again, right? You’re, like, minutes older than me.”
“Sometimes every minute counts. I gotta go. Promise to call you again later.” I hung up the phone and purposely shoved the nightmare vision of my sister’s bare, bloody scalp to the back of my mind.
I had to believe we were changing things.
* * *
Awkward didn’t come close to describing breakfast.
Ari chuckled when I padded into the room, my fists full of sweatpants. I’d snatched a shower—after carefully locking both doors to the bathroom. Finally. Felt better, but I was in serious need of some gel. My hair sproinged all over my head like I’d fought an electrical outlet and lost. Other than the monster bruise on my forehead, the numerous red scratches and dark circles rimming my eyes—oh, and the red from the tears—I looked pretty normal.
I smirked with the thought.
Vanir threw me a smile while he rummaged noisily through a drawer.
Glancing around the kitchen, I took in what I couldn’t last night. Big and bright with three huge windows, two by the table, one over the sink. The cabinets were stained a light brown offset by a dark granite counter in black with lighter specks of brown and cream. A healthy fern hung in front of the sink’s window and I wondered which of the brothers had the green thumb.
Not a frilly thing in sight.
Sliding glass doors opened to a wooden deck. Snow about three feet deep rested in drifts against the glass. This kitchen would have felt homey if that sight was just a regular, plain old winter mix. In winter. Ari glanced at it more than once as he worked the stove.
It was a constant reminder that nothing was right with the world. Should be blazing hot out there now, should be birds and butterflies and bees filling the air. Summer stuff.
And I shouldn’t be in a house with strangers chasing down a mother who might have killed someone. My shoulders sagged.
Ari flipped a pancake, caught my hungry gaze on the plate of stacked ones and smiled. “Morning,” he murmured.
“Good morning,” I said to the whole room. Usually, I couldn’t eat when I was this upset, but the scent of hot pancakes and warmed syrup made my stomach grumble.
Hallur sat across from me with his foot propped in a chair. “You look better than you did last night.”
“Before or after I hit the floor?” I could not stop my gaze from straying to Vanir’s broad shoulders as he growled and moved to another drawer. He had to shove Ari aside to get to it.
They acted a lot like Kat and I did.
Heat crept up my cheeks when Hallur caught me staring at his brother. I quickly looked down at the table, running my hand over the thin lines carved into the top. I tried not to think about Coral crying during our quick phone call. I planned to call her back later, make sure she didn’t try to drive in that shape—not in all this stupid snow. “My cell phone,” I blurted.
“On the coffee table.” Ari set the spatula down and cupped both hands around his coffee mug, locking his knees when Vanir pushed him. “We found it in the woods last night. It’s dead. We don’t have chargers that fit that kind, so I hope you brought one.”
I had. In my suitcase. “How far is it to where my car went in?”
“Couple of miles.” Vanir opened another drawe
r. A few pieces of paper fluttered out. He ignored them. “I’ll go get what I can out of it this morning. Then I have to go back to the sheriff’s office. Dreading that.”
I didn’t have to ask why because I knew it had a lot to do with his friend, and plus, in the motels I’d managed to find on the way here, I’d caught the news. The media had latched on to Snowmageddon again. They had no idea how close they were to the truth. The sheriff’s office would probably be a hotbed of people arrested for crimes like looting—panic had a way of loosening rational thought. I’d read every rendition of Ragnarok I could get my hands on and one thing that seemed similar across the board was the flood of evil that would take over. Crime would rule.
Hallur held his cup toward Ari. “Think you can tear yourself away from that pot long enough to share?” After Ari reluctantly took his cup, Hallur frowned at Vanir. “Take Ari with you when the tow truck gets here. I’ve already called them, so that should be soon.”
Vanir dug into another drawer, shoved his hand toward the back. “I’ll need help if the river’s up more or if her car has moved.” He laid something on the counter, then reached over to snatch a bite of pancake. “What do you say? You’re the one with the biggest muscles.” He grinned, batted his eyelashes comically.
Ari smacked Vanir’s hand with the spatula. Hard. “Shut up. And keep your grimy hands off my cakes.”
When Vanir turned to me, he held scissors. He pulled a chair across from mine and propped my foot on his jean-clad thighs.
He started cutting the bottoms off the pants. My mouth fell open. “You just ruined a perfectly good pair of sweats. I would have given them back as soon as we get my suitcase.”
“This is a cheap pair—no big deal. I have several.”
His hand was still warmly wrapped around my ankle and I hoped the table blocked his brother’s view—though it did nothing for my cheeks. I’m sure they could feel the heat from my blush.
Vanir kept cutting until the pants didn’t sag over my feet. Setting the scissors on the table, he dropped his hands back to my ankles. I immediately tried to remember the last time I’d shaved my legs, then thought about what I jerk I was for even thinking about such a thing with my crazy mother out there.
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