“Yes. In fact, I’m going to call her right now, so you can talk to her. I’m happy you remembered me.” He pulled out his cellphone and punched in numbers.
How many people and incidents had I forgotten or imagined? “You’re going to the Homecoming Dance, right?”
He shook his head. “Wrong. The whole point of going in the first place was for you to show me off. You can’t do that when you just came back from the hospital and your memories are messed up.”
“You can go without me,” I begged him.
“Not interested.” He brought the phone to his ear. “I’m going to pick up your favorite movies and something to eat. Then we’ll hang out. Here, talk to Cora.” He gave me a brief kiss, then left. I had a feeling that seeing me so confused and vulnerable bothered him too much.
As he walked away, part of me knew I wasn’t being fair to him. I still wasn’t sure how to tell him it was over between us. He loved me and just wanted to spend time with me, while I wanted him out of the way, so I could spend my first night at home with Torin.
I finished with Cora, who said she’d stop by later. Then I sat by my window, booted my laptop, and waited for Torin to come home. He didn’t. Not worried, I went online and started researching Norns. Mom kept interrupting me, wanting to know my opinion on one thing or the other. I saw through her excuses. She was still worried about me and was checking on me on the sly. In between her visits, I managed to do some reading.
Norns were Norse female deities in charge of the destiny of Mortals. They were like Fates in Greek mythology, only more powerful. They even decided the fates of the gods. The more I read about them, the more I could see why Torin had freaked out. While there were only three Fates, Norns were many but tended to work in groups of threes. They often appeared when a person was born to determine their future. The good ones were kind and protective, while the evil ones were behind tragic events.
We had to be dealing with evil Norns—Marj, Catie, and Jeannette. It explained why they were always there before something bad happened. The night of my party, they’d helped Eirik and we’d had a blackout. The night I got hurt, they’d helped Torin with his party. What if they were at the Homecoming Dance tonight?
Trying not to panic, I went back to reading.
Of the three Norns that appeared when someone was born, one was in charge of the past, the second one was concerned with the present, and the third was in charge of the future. If Marj and her friends were Norns, they might have messed with everyone else’s memories and left mine intact. It might explain why I remembered them when no one else did. They might also have been there when I was born. Had they saved my life or tried to kill me then? Everything was so confusing. If only Torin was around to give me some answers.
Cora pulled up before Eirik returned. She wasn’t dressed for the dance and didn’t carry her garment bag or makeup tote either. Weird. In a few minutes, I heard her voice and Mom’s outside my door.
“Look who’s here to see you, honey,” Mom said in a cheerful voice. “Eirik called. He’s running late, but he’ll be here with dinner. In the meantime, if you girls need anything, let me know.”
“Thanks, Mom. Shouldn’t you be getting ready for the dance?” I asked as soon as Mom left.
Cora snorted and slumped on the window seat. “Like I’d go without you? So how are you feeling?”
“Fine. What about Keith? Isn’t he expecting you to go with him?”
“He wasn’t too thrilled when I told him I couldn’t, but he understood.”
My friends were annoyingly loyal. Sighing, I walked to the closet and removed the green dress I’d bought for the Homecoming Dance.
“What are you doing?” Cora asked, standing up.
“Getting ready for the dance. Did Marj swim this week?”
“Marj? Who’s Marj?”
“Never mind.” Three down, confirming I was the only one who could remember them, which meant I was the only one who could stop them from causing more mayhem. I chose a pair of shoes from my closet.
“Seriously, what are you doing?” Cora demanded.
“If you and Eirik insist on hanging out with me, we might as well do it at the dance. It’ll do me good to be up and about.” She stared at me as though I’d gone crazy. “Go get your outfit, Cora Jemison. Homecoming Dance, here we come. You can do my hair and makeup.”
“Hold up, crazy lady. You just came back from the hospital,” she protested. “You can’t just go to the dance. I won’t let you.”
“I’m not going to dance. I’ll dance vicariously through you.” I grinned. She frowned. “Look, I’ve been staring at the walls for a whole week, and Mom is beginning to drive me nuts. She uses some lame reason to check on me every ten minutes. I need a break or I’ll go crazy.”
Cora chewed on her lower lip. “She won’t go for it.”
“Oh, she will. Doctor’s orders. Go get your stuff.” I shooed her with my hands. “Oh, text Eirik and tell him about our change of plans. I have no idea where my cell phone is. Wherever it is, the battery’s probably dead anyway.” I waited until she left then went to Mom’s bedroom. “Is it okay if I go out with Eirik and Cora for a few hours?”
Mom frowned. She put down the book she’d been scribbling in and walked to where I stood. “Go where, honey?”
“The Homecoming Dance. I promise not to push myself.”
She sighed. “I don’t know.”
“But the doctor said—”
“That you shouldn’t sit for long periods of time, I know. I just hate the idea of you going anywhere right now.” She touched my cheek. “Every moment you’re out of my sight, I worry.”
“Mom,” I said and sighed.
“I know. I’m being everything I hate in a parent. Clingy and nagging.” She smiled then pressed a kiss on my temple. “Fine. Go, but if you feel dizzy or have any of the symptoms the doctor mentioned, you come straight home. No driving, no lifting anything, no alcohol, no—”
I laughed and kissed her, then walked back to my bedroom to change. Hopefully, Torin would be back before we left.
15. A CENTURY OR TWO
“Wow, look at this place,” Cora said when we entered the gym. “The décor’s better than last year’s.”
I had no idea what the theme was last year, but the transformation was amazing. The room was done in Trojan colors—gold and crimson. From stretched arches for taking commemorative pictures and gold and crimson gossamer curtains flowing from floor to ceiling to strings of twinkly lights and oriental lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Gold and crimson balloons littered the floor, and tall, lighted luminescent columns covered in black with gold streamers were strategically positioned around the dance floor. I searched for Torin among the dancers.
“That no good, lying, cheating bastard!” Cora snarled.
I turned and followed her gaze. She was staring at Keith, who was making out with some girl on the dance floor.
“He said he’d come alone, that he’d miss me. Yeah, groping another girl is the new missing me,” Cora continued with her rant.
Eirik laughed then faked seriousness when she glared at him. “Do you want me to go punch him?”
“Yes,” Cora said with glee, eyes flashing. She looked amazing in her blue dress, her hair teased and her makeup perfect. Eirik kept staring at her. “Go. Avenge my honor.”
“No, go talk to him,” I said. “Keith might only be with her because you ditched him to stay with me.”
“Oh, please. Don’t make excuses for him,” Cora snapped. “I should go over there and rip him a new one.”
I pushed Eirik toward Cora. “Dance with her. I’ll talk to Keith.”
Cora and Eirik eyed each other, but they didn’t make a move to join the dancers. I rolled my eyes as I walked toward Keith and his date and tapped on his shoulder.
Keith turned around and frowned. “Raine? What are you doing he—oh crap,” he added, looking past me.
“Yeah, she’s pissed, so you’d better have a really
good explanation.” Cora looked ready to commit murder. Then she grabbed Eirik’s hand and dragged him to the dance floor. Keith scrubbed his face, glanced at his date apologetically, and looked at Cora and Eirik.
“Good luck,” I whispered and walked away, continuing my search.
Staying on the outskirts of the dance floor, I searched for Marj, Catie, and Jeannette among the dancers. They weren’t here. A few times I thought I felt a zing, the tingling feeling I always associated with Torin’s eyes on me, but when I turned around, he wasn’t there.
The news about my accident must have spread because people turned to stare as I walked past. Usually too much attention bugged me, but this time I didn’t care. I couldn’t afford to feel self-conscious. Some members of the swim team and band even stopped me and asked how I was doing.
“Raine.”
I stiffened, recognizing Jess’ voice. Please, don’t let Torin be with her… don’t let Torin be with her… I turned.
She was with her friends and four other guys, two from the swim team and two I’d seen hang around her and her friends. None had shaggy black hair and sapphire eyes or the smile with a punch. I sighed with relief.
“You look amazing,” she said.
Jess being nice was, I don’t know, disturbing. “Thank you.”
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“It’s the Homecoming Dance,” I said politely, trying not to be rude.
“I mean you were hospitalized with brain injury. Are you sure you should be at a dance?”
Her concern blindsided me because it seemed genuine. “Yeah, the doctor said I should stay active. It’s good for my brain.” Despite her niceness, I couldn’t bring myself to ask her if she’d seen Torin. “Uh, have fun, Jess.”
I left the gym through one of the side doors and headed outside. The Sports Complex housing the basketball court, the pool, and exercise room was separated from the school’s main building by a large patio with a waist-length wall and a parking lot. The crowd on the patio was even larger, but the chaperones were everywhere, so students didn’t disappear in their cars to make out.
I shivered, wishing I’d worn my coat instead of leaving it inside. It was cooler outside than inside the gym. Then a prickly feeling I often associated with being watched washed over me, and I turned.
Ingrid floated toward me. She wore a white, vintage dress, the hem touching the ground as she moved. Her blue eye shadow matched her eyes, and her blonde hair was piled up, wisps near the ears framing her face.
“He wants to see you,” she said.
I frowned. “Who?”
“Torin.”
My heart fluttered. “Where is he?”
“This way.” She headed back inside the Sports Complex, using a door that led into the broad hallway that cut across the building. We walked past the inner entrance to the gym and kept going. Two chaperones—a teacher and unfamiliar woman who was probably a parent—stared at us, but didn’t try to stop us. I started to worry. Ingrid had never done anything to show that she hated me, so there was no need for me to be afraid. Still, I wasn’t sure about going anywhere. Maybe I should find Eirik and Cora first or text them.
“Do you have a phone?” I asked.
Ingrid chuckled. “We have no need for modern technology, Raine.”
“I should tell my friends where we’re going,” I said.
She stopped. “Listen, you can either come or not. I don’t care. But you should know that he’s leaving.”
My stomach dropped. “Leaving? What do you mean?”
Ingrid shook her head and continued down the hallway. “Did you think he’d stay here forever? He has a job, you know. He does it, like all of us, then moves on to the next one.” She turned a corner.
I hurried after her, my heart pounding. Torin wouldn’t leave me. Wherever his job took him, he’d come back to be with me. I followed Ingrid into one of the girls’ restrooms.
“What are we doing in here?” I asked.
She ignored me and checked the stalls to make sure they were all empty. One wasn’t. She rattled on the door. “Move it. This bathroom is being closed. Use the ones closer to the gym.” A girl dashed out of the stall. Ingrid indicated the exit. “Go!” Then she locked the door behind her.
I stared at Ingrid with wide eyes, fear slowly beginning to trickle through me. “What’s going on?”
She ignored my question again and lifted the hem of her dress to reveal a black, leather thigh-strap with pouches. She pulled a rune dagger from one of them. This one was different from the one Maliina had used to draw runes on her skin. Ingrid stepped in front of the full-length mirror and started sketching. The dagger was some kind of sketching tool. The runes blended with the mirror. She stepped back, her eyes glowing.
“What are you do…?” My voice trailed off when the mirror moved and shimmered, until it no longer showed our reflection. The surface became less grainy. It rippled like the surface of water. Panic slithered up my spine. “What is that?”
“A portal,” she said. “It is how we move from place to place. Come on.”
I took a step back. “No, I’m not going in there. I’ll get a ride… home.” My gaze was transfixed on the portal. The watery surface peeled back to reveal a short hallway. The walls and the floor now had that weird watery look, and at the end was a room that looked vaguely familiar.
“Don’t you recognize the room?” Ingrid asked.
I nodded. “Eirik’s parents’ bedroom had the same wallpaper and carpet.”
“It’s the same room and you know it’s in Torin’s house. See, I’m not trying to hurt you. My sister might have, but she was under the influence of forces we’ve never dealt with before.” Ingrid extended a hand toward me. I still hesitated.
Runes appeared on her arms. The next second, she’d grabbed my arm and was moving toward the portal. I closed my eyes, expecting the worst, but instead, there was a gentle brush of cool air on my skin, and my feet landed on a solid surface. The coolness disappeared, and we stopped moving.
Ingrid chuckled. “You can open your eyes now.”
I did, slowly. Behind me, the portal closed, the watery surface shifting and remolding into a floor-to-ceiling mirror, which I recognized immediately. It used to be in Eirik’s parents’ bedroom when they’d lived next door. They must have left it behind. Were they part of Torin’s world?
Heart pounding, I swallowed. “Do you use only mirrors as portals?”
“Any surface where we can draw runes can do, but we prefer mirrors. They’re more efficient.”
She walked to the door and unlocked it. During the party, the door to this particular room had been locked. Was the portal the reason? The door to Torin’s bedroom was ajar. There was no furniture, no sign that he’d ever slept there.
My insides tightened with dread. He wouldn’t leave without me. My stomach churned at the thought and nausea rose to my throat. I followed Ingrid downstairs, almost tripping in my haste. Downstairs, the furniture he’d used for the party was gone. The emptiness closed around me like suffocating fumes.
“Where is he?” I asked in a voice I didn’t recognize, fear constricting my throat. “Torin!”
“He’s not here,” a familiar voice said, and I whipped around. Andris closed the fridge and faced me. He carried a bottle with a clear liquid, his eyes glazed and his silver hair disheveled as though he’d run his fingers through it.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Gone. Maliina, too, and they’re never coming back,” he said, his words slurring.
Air left my lungs, and dizziness washed over me. I gripped the rail. “I don’t believe you.”
“Look around you, sweetheart,” he snarled, making the endearment sound like an insult. “Do you see any furniture? Does this look like a place he plans to return to? No, he’s gone, and he took my mate with him.”
His anger was like a slap on the face. The last time we talked, he’d been polite, nice. “Where did he go?”
“Hel’s disease-ridden realm or worse.”
Torin hated Hel’s Mist. I swallowed past a knot of panic. “What could possibly be worse than Hel’s world?”
“Being indebted to evil Norns put in charge of death and mayhem while you slowly become like them… cold, cruel, dead inside. No one challenges Norns without paying a price, yet he decided to do it for you, Lorraine Cooper. Once a destiny has been set, no one messes with it. Torin changed yours. He broke the ultimate law.” He twisted the lid off the bottle, threw it, and watched it bounce off the wall, then guzzled some of the drink. He swallowed, made a face, and shook his head. “You,” he pointed the bottle at me, “my lovely, should have died at the park. That was your destiny. He did the unthinkable. He saved your life and changed it. Then on your birthday, he intervened again. Saving you and changing your destiny meant saving the others and changing theirs. Then at his house last weekend, he intervened again.”
“But these were accidents started by Maliina—”
“Who was being used by evil Norns,” he snarled, his eyes glistening. “Bitter old hags. If I’d known, I would have saved her.” He rubbed his eyes, and for one brief moment, I thought he was crying. “There’s a reason why we don’t interact with Norns, Raine. They screw with people’s heads. Mortals, Immortals, gods, it doesn’t matter. They control all destinies. Now my mate is gone because of them, because of you. Something about you drove her insane with jealousy.”
He hadn’t minded Maliina’s jealousy last weekend during Torin’s party. Not sure what he wanted now, I stepped back and glanced at Ingrid. She wore an unreadable expression, but she blocked my path to the front door and huge boxes blocked the back door. There was no escape.
“I don’t understand what my dying has to do with your job.”
Andris smirked. “You were on our list, Raine, and everyone on our list leaves with us. Torin changed that because he couldn’t resist you. He crossed you out and, by doing that, sealed his fate.” He walked toward me, guzzling his drink, his face twisted with anger. No, not just anger. Grief, too. He really loved Maliina. “The worst part of this is you have no idea what’s going on. You’re just a Mortal girl who thinks she’s in love, or in lust, or whatever you think you feel for Torin. From what I remember, Mortals’ love never lasts. It comes and goes on a whim.”
Runes (Paranormal Romance, YA,) Page 24