Foresworn (16 page)

Raven walked to the bunk and sat down so hard, it creaked. “So let me see if I got all this. This elf used magic to look human and he lured our mother to a gloaming grove. But my
rune tempus
said in violence conceived. Why use magic to change his appearance if he’s just going to force her?”

Coral dropped the feather and threaded her fingers with Taran’s. “He used a glamour to get her attention, to seduce her, and once in the grove, apparently he let it go. He took a lot of pleasure in telling me how horrified she was when she saw his real face. It’s possible he didn’t plan for it to be that way. It’s possible his magic didn’t work in the grove. It didn’t during my
rune tempus
.”

“I need a moment,” I mumbled before grabbing my coat and stalking out of the cabin. I slid it on as I moved away from everybody. I circled a couple of trees and didn’t stop until I thought they couldn’t hear me if I lost the battle to rip something apart with my bare hands. The fury twisting my insides erupted out of my mouth with a growl and I hauled my hand back to punch a tree.

Snow crunched behind me and someone grabbed my arm. “That’s really not the smartest idea.” Amusement laced Arun’s voice. “I know what you just heard is unbelievably bad, but don’t hurt yourself. If you have to hit something, hit something softer. Like me.” He tugged me back.

I slumped against him. “I know. I just can’t deal with...with—” I broke off. “It’s a lot to take in. Bet you’re a bit freaked to find out you’ve been making out with a dark elf.”

He turned me around, put his fingers under my chin and lifted my face. “I’ve been kissing you, Kat. I like you, so whatever made you can’t be all that bad.”

“You saw those things. They’re bad. Really, really bad.” I clutched his wrist. “What do you think it means? Do you think my sisters and I will start to look more like them? And why didn’t you tell me I looked pointy? When?”

“Hey,” he whispered before he leaned down and kissed me. This kiss was firm and nice and, for a second, I forgot that I was apparently not even human because what that kiss did to me felt very human.

I pulled back, sighed and stared up at him. “You’re trying to distract me.”

“Is it working?” He lifted an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Kind of.”

“Maybe I should try harder,” he whispered as he leaned down again.

“Thanks,” I said against his lips before he could mess with my head again with his mouth.

He straightened. “For what?”

I shrugged. “For kissing me anyway, I guess.”

He chuckled. “There is no anyway when it comes to me wanting to kiss you.”

I smiled and he shook his head. “What?” I asked.

“I thought I loved it when you scowl at me, but the smile is pretty damned nice.”

I scowled, but it held little heat. “Don’t get used to it.”

This time his laugh was louder. “Okay.”

He agreed way too easily, but I’d take that up with him later. I stepped away from him and leaned against the tree I’d planned to smack. “So what do you think my
rune tempus
about dark blood without rival really meant then?”

“I still think it means that Loki is taking out gods before the final battle. He’s making the playing field uneven. We can’t let him get any more kids. The elves and the giants—the dark blood—have to have something to fight. What I’m more confused about is your part in all this.”

“It’s our part.” Raven had followed me, too. She took my hand. “I didn’t have a chance to tell you the rest of the message I got. It said in violence conceived, of dark blood born, the trickster is freed at first breath of the norn. That’s our part in this. Mom knew that by giving birth to us, she was setting the end of the world into motion. The elves wanted this to happen. I don’t know why they picked our mom.”

“Then why are they trying to take us out? Coral said even the giants seemed to be after her more than Taran.”

“That part I don’t know.” She suddenly frowned. “Vanir and I saw a giant in Oklahoma and she seemed scared of me. Coral said her
rune tempus
talked about the creatures spilling dark blood. I think they don’t want us to get to that lake.”

“Then we have to.”

“We’ll leave first thing in the morning,” Arun said. “I don’t think we should be traveling through the woods at night. I’ll go make sure all the snowmobiles have gas.”

“I’ll help.”

I jumped at the deep voice because I hadn’t realized Vanir had followed Raven. I should have. The guy seemed to be plastered to her side. Luckily, I could tell she wanted him there. We watched them start to walk away before Arun stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Will you guys go back to the crowd? I’ll feel better if you do.”

“At least he asked nicely,” Raven murmured.

“Your Vanir seems just as nice.”

“They all are.” She took my hand and we started back toward the bonfire. “Every one of the kids we’ve met has been special. Even Taran with his occasional, um, grouchy moments. Which are a lot like yours, and this amuses me to death because of the way you and Coral clash.” She stopped and her gray eyes—exactly the color of mine—looked black in the low light. And I still wasn’t used to her crazy-short hair. Though, it did suit her. She squeezed my fingers. “You know, one of us could still die. Coral told me that she nearly did when Taran faced Loki in Fort Walton Beach and I nearly did in Oklahoma.”

“I haven’t nearly done anything yet.”

She held my hand almost as tightly as Arun had earlier. “And that could mean you might be the one in the prophecy.” Her expression turned fierce. “I won’t let that happen.”

I hugged her and laughed when Coral was suddenly there with her arms wrapped around both of us.

“I heard,” she said as she buried her face in my hair. “I won’t let you die, either.”

I pulled back, looked at each of them, and lied through my teeth. “Look, I’ll give you my oath here and now. I won’t be dying.”

Maybe I should have told them. About the fire nightmares. I even opened my mouth, but before the words spilled out, my norn made a sort of violent jerking motion in my chest. I closed my eyes—it hurt like crazy. But I knew she didn’t want me to tell them, and I even thought I knew why. If they were too focused on keeping me alive, they wouldn’t pay enough attention to everything else going on.

So I couldn’t tell them that it was me.

All I could do was hope that whatever the three of us were supposed to do together happened before the fire got me.

Chapter Thirteen

There weren’t enough tents for everybody, so some had to bunk in the small cabin. It was probably ridiculously crowded in there—I wasn’t sure there was enough floor space, but I doubted they slept any more than I expected to. Hallur, Vanir’s older brother, limped in last. The cold was hard on his broken foot. Apparently, he’d fallen off a roof before the snow ever started. A shadow lurked near the front porch, and I held my breath until I saw the red of Gillian’s hair. She could not stop staring at Vanir’s brother and I didn’t blame her. He was only in his twenties and absolutely gorgeous with his broad shoulders and midnight-colored hair. Hopefully, her interest in him would help with her grief over Sky.

Arun and Tyrone had gone back to get Sky’s body. Alva had wrapped her in a blanket and placed her close to the cabin—which was why Gillian was hovering there. She was guarding her friend’s body more than watching Hallur. Thankfully, the snow had stopped a few hours before and the ravens had moved on, so all we heard over the gathered voices of our group was the occasional howl of a wolf.

“Is Vanir’s other brother that good-looking, too?” I asked Raven.

She nodded as she threw a sleeping bag into the tent we’d decided to share. There weren’t many hours left in the night, but we needed to try to sleep at least some.

Vanir and Taran had joined a few others in the first watch, and as I observed them talking quietly together on the outskirts of our camp, I could see why both my sisters had started caring for them so fast. Then I looked for Arun, spotted him watching me as he crouched in front of the tent he would be using. He smiled as if he’d just been waiting for that last connection before sleeping. Our gazes seemed to lock and I smiled. He nodded, then crawled into the tent.

“Wow, never thought I’d see you reacting to someone like you are Arun.” Raven smirked as she crouched by the tent opening.

“Like you have room to talk.” I curled my lip at her.

We’d decided to share with Coral, and Raven maneuvered so she was facing me as she backed in. “I feel bad for Vanir. He took first watch because he can’t sleep yet. He’s worried about his wolves. They ran after the helicopter a long ways.”

Taran suddenly let out a loud whoop. Coral, who’d been about to crawl into the tent turned toward him.

“Coral!” He waved her over, holding out his phone. “Guess who wants to talk to you?” His grin was so blinding, even from across the clearing, I couldn’t help but smile.

But Coral’s beat his as she mimicked his whoop, jumped to her feet and ran around the bonfire. “Josh? Is it Josh?” She did a little happy skip.

“He’s okay! Just pissed we didn’t bring him up here!” His voice grew quieter as Coral reached him and snatched the phone.

Raven, who’d stuck her head back out of the tent, nodded. “They were worried about him all the way here. Josh and Grim are Taran’s best friends—well, I get the feeling they’re more like brothers. Anyway, while my Vanir was hanging out with the pilot, Taran and Coral both were either calling or being called. Seems his friends have adopted Coral into the family.”

“Like you have room to talk. My Vanir? Plus, I saw Hallur hugging you good-night.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” she muttered as she crawled back into the tent.

I leaned over so I could try to see her inside, but it was too dark to read her expression. “Seriously, Raven. Are you like really attached to him? To the point you’ll...” I couldn’t even finish the sentence.

She reached out and snagged the hand I had gripping the opening to the tent. “Hey, don’t worry. I’ll admit I gave thought to moving closer to him and I know it’s crazy-fast and all, but I really care about him, Kat. And it’s not my imagination that both you and Coral seem to have gained boyfriends, too.”

“Yeah, but Coral’s lives close to us.”

“And Arun?”

Not knowing how to answer that, I knelt to climb into the tent, glanced over to find Coral still on the phone. A massive shiver shook her body, and Taran wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled his face into the side of her neck. She patted one of his arms around her as she chattered into the phone. Taran wasn’t as big as Vanir or as tall as Arun, but he was strong, sturdy, and I bet all that restless energy pouring off him made him really warm. Like Arun warm.

I suddenly wanted to be cuddling up to him tonight. Just having an idea of what we faced tomorrow had me too nervous to sleep.

“Kat?” Raven squeezed my hand. “What are you going to do about Arun?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I really don’t. But he no longer has a home. His so-called friend burned everything down.”

She tugged me into the tent, laughing when I lost my balance and fell on her.

“Hey, why’d you do that!” I wriggled, laughing when she made a pained “oomph” noise. “You did this, so I don’t want to hear any whining about bruises tomorrow.”

She suddenly hugged me fiercely. “I missed you and Coral so much.”

I hugged her back. “Same here.”

Raven pulled back. “You might not have to worry about Arun. Did you not see how Taran’s dad was looking at Alva?”

I went still, half balanced on her leg. She pushed me off and I fell into the back...or was it the side...of the tent. “Like
looking-looking
at her?”

“Big-time.”

“Did she look back?”

“Big-time.”

“That’s so weird.”

“Not if it gets his family to Florida.”

“I can’t see them leaving here. They own all that land up here, after all.” And I didn’t say it out loud, but I knew without a doubt Vanir’s entire family wouldn’t be moving to Florida. And all this speculation could end up being pointless. We were about to fight giants and elves.
Giants and elves!
“I can’t believe we’re wondering about the future right now,” I muttered.

“It’s a good thing.” Her voice quieted as she stretched out into the sleeping bags we’d zipped together. “Goals give us reasons to keep working, to keep fighting. To have hope.”

Coral appeared, shivering hard, and climbed inside. “I haven’t been able to get warm since I crawled out of the water under the Brooks Bridge.” She turned and wiggled, then yelped. “Gods, Raven, your hands are like icicles.”

“I hate all this snow,” Raven grumbled. “I keep telling myself that if Loki made all this happen somehow and we all find a way to stop it, the snow will end.”

I was quiet as Coral maneuvered herself out of her coat and inside the sleeping bag beside Raven.

“So your friend is okay?” Raven asked her.

“He will be. It took me so long because I had to talk Grim out of coming here. Now that he knows his brother will be fine, he feels like he should be up here with us.”

Coral had told me about Josh and Grim, twin brothers and Taran’s best friends. Just from her tone I could tell she was nearly as crazy about them as her new boyfriend.

“There won’t be enough time for him to get here, anyway,” Raven pointed out.

We could barely move in the small space, but I didn’t mind. Even though a part of me wanted the comfort of Arun, I needed to be with my sisters. Besides, I could tell Arun’s mother wasn’t that cool with me sleeping with her son—not when it wasn’t an emergency “stay warm” sort of thing. Raven and Coral had pretty much said the same thing. Seemed all the adults were happier not to see us climbing into tents with their family members.

As of tomorrow, Arun would be eighteen, and the rest of us already were, so it was pretty damned ridiculous. Especially when we took into account what we were facing here. But I supposed I could try to take comfort from that small bit of normal. And the more I thought about it, that’s probably what Alva, Hallur and Grady were trying to do—keep a small bit of normal.

I lay there a long time, whispering with my sisters, listening to what had happened to them over the past few days and was glad we were together.

* * *

Everyone was understandably quiet the next morning. Once Taran and Vanir told Alva about how they came into their full powers, she suggested we wait until sunset, that we could take the day to prepare.

Taran’s dad, the pilot, Vanir and Taran took the helicopter out to see what we would be facing. Arun, Gillian, Kara and Tyrone scouted out ahead on the snowmobiles. They didn’t plan to go far, but Arun insisted on finding a route without surprise pits in the ground.

While they were gone, Nanna joined me and my sisters by the fire while we ate more freeze-dried food. I hadn’t even paid attention to what I grabbed—it probably tasted like any of the others. Besides, I was too worried about Arun out on the snowmobile. Silly because he knew this terrain well—I know—but something in his expression this morning as he’d pried Gillian from the wrapped Sky, made me worry his grief would keep him from paying attention. I wanted to be with him, to make sure he was okay.

I frowned down at the noodles and red goo in my food packet.

Gods
,
I
have it bad.

Nanna was in the middle of telling Coral about her grandmother’s dandelion root tea when the ground shook.

As voices faded around us, the ground shook again, over and over, and the rumbling sounds in the distance filled me with alarm. I looked at Nanna to find her watching the ground as though she was waiting for a hole to open up, too. She caught my gaze and grimaced just as the helicopter sounded.

When Grady stepped onto the ground, I knew we had a problem. His skin was pasty white, his expression fierce as he argued with his son. Grady and Taran looked so much alike as they faced off—down to the scrunched eyebrows and tightened lips. Grady’s hair was a darker blond and he was bigger, but I figured that was temporary. They took their argument into the forest.

Coral watched anxiously; then a faint smile pulled up her lips. I looked back to find Taran pulling his dad into a fierce hug.

“He’s just scared,” she murmured. “Grady. You know what they had to have seen by the lake. Taran and his dad fought giants at home, so he knows what we’re in for. And you should have seen Vanir’s brother’s face when he saw his first one on the way here. Raven and Vanir faced one down in Oklahoma, but apparently Vanir’s wolves chased it away.”

I glanced around for Vanir and found him talking to his brother, both with overly long hair, but one blond and one solid black, similar to the color of my own hair.

“I need to mix up some protection spells,” Coral mumbled as she wandered off.

“I’ll help her,” Nanna said before following her.

Raven and I both turned as someone yelled to find the pilot stepping down from the helicopter, his loud voice carrying as he said he’d radioed in for help and that he refused to fly anyone back to the lake.

Alva growled, her gloved hands in fists as she stomped toward him. Grady hurried toward her, and soon half our group stood around arguing with him. It grew worse when Arun and the others returned.

I tuned them out, watching all the fierce expressions, the waving arms...the absolute love the older people had for the younger ones. And it made me think about Dru.

She was out there terrorizing people instead of here, worried about her daughters. In fact, I wondered why she hadn’t shown her face today—what was holding her up. She’d looked so, so bad standing in that water as she’d looked at me. Looked at me with someone else’s expression.

And something loosened in my chest. I didn’t hate her—not like I’d always thought. And to know she was probably trapped inside her body, fighting an insane Norse god, made me feel rotten.

Coral believed anyone would be crazy after having poison dripped on his face for centuries.

Guess I could understand that.

“Did you hear that?” Raven asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

I shook my head.

“Those rumbles and ground shakes were from giants jumping into the air and trying to catch the helicopter. No wonder the pilot is freaked out.” She stood up, touched my shoulder and looked at me with gray eyes so like mine. “I’m feeling a bit freaked out myself. You okay?”

I shrugged. “Think I just need a few minutes.”

She nodded, leaned down to hug me, then left me alone.

On my way back to the tent we hadn’t yet taken down, I tripped over a limb and managed to get snow up under the blue parka Alva had brought me. After hurrying into the tent, I stripped off the dry coat and the red sweater I’d also borrowed, then pulled the wet T-shirt underneath over my head. I dug around in the backpack we’d left in here earlier, looking for fresh clothes, then stared in horror at the only shirt packed inside. A red tank top.

My hands shook as I stared at it, not sure I could bring myself to put it on. Not when I’d been wearing it in every fire nightmare lately. But a shadow fell over the opening of the tent and I hurriedly pulled it on, planning to take it back off once I was alone.

Arun crouched there, his nice lips curved in a smile that managed to be friendly and still sad at the same time. “Mind some company?”

“Just you, okay?”

He looked around, the sun that had managed to break through the clouds sparkling in his blond curls. “Like anyone else would fit with me in here with you. Everyone is still arguing, anyway. Doesn’t matter. We’ll be going to the lake soon whether we have the helicopter or not.” He crawled in, closed the tent and sat cross-legged in front of me. “Your sisters are great.”

I nodded, wrapped a sleeping bag around my shoulders and picked up the food I’d dropped when I’d crawled in. I took a bite, grimaced at how cold it had grown and stuck my fork in it. Setting the packet down in the corner, I nudged the other sleeping bag toward Arun.

He settled it over his lap. “I like Taran and Vanir, too. Oh, and Magnus. Did you see the size of his hands?”

Magnus, who’d lurked around the campsite with the Valkyrie Mist, had to be one of the biggest guys I’d ever seen. Bigger than Tyrone even. He had to be nearly seven feet tall and everything about him was massive from his head to his feet. He had the kind of really dark black skin that made his teeth flash startling white when he grinned, and he did that a lot. Especially when the blond bombshell he traveled with was anywhere in his sight. “His hands are bigger than my head.”