Prophecy (25 page)

“Oh, sweetie. Was it a panic attack?”

“No. I think I’m exhausted.” My limbs were as heavy as my eyelids.

Mom ushered me forward. “Well, I’m not surprised, but I am beat and I’m due back at work in less than twelve hours. I vote for comfort food and sleep.”

“Deal.”

She squeezed my hand. “You have to take better care of yourself next year. I won’t be around to make sure you eat or sleep. Maybe a swim scholarship is a bad idea. You never know when to take a break.”

I didn’t have the heart to point out living with her hadn’t kept me fed or rested either. “I thought you loved my tenacity and determination.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah. It’s great.”

Liam followed us into the sunlight. Mom unlocked the passenger door on her old Bronco and I climbed inside. She was as stubborn as me. She’d left her fancy Saab at Dad’s house when we moved out. She hadn’t wanted to owe him anything, though, in my opinion, he owed her plenty. I cranked down my window as Mom rounded the hood to the driver’s side.

Liam leaned over the window frame. “I’ll check on you soon. If you attend the memorial, I want to drive you.”

I nodded.

Mom’s door popped open. “Ready?”

The engine rumbled to life beneath us and Liam backed away. Mom drove home at half the speed limit, yawning through every intersection. She parked in front of the house and turned in her seat to face me.

“Liam’s coming to see you later?”

“He’s driving me to the memorial.”

“Only if you feel like it. You might be coming down with something. Take it easy tonight. Skip swim practice for a day or two. The season hasn’t even started, yet.”

“’Kay.”

“Are you really okay?” She stroked my arm.

Not at all. “Yeah.” I nodded. “I think all the drama over me needing a nap was a bit of overkill.”

She laughed. “Maybe.”

I slid onto the sidewalk and waited for her to meet me. “Thanks for bringing me home. I probably could’ve finished the day. I should’ve tried.”

She made a sound of exasperation and ignored the statement. “Liam seems nice. I can tell you like him.” Her mouth tipped at the side. “It’s funny how things work out. I’d give you a hard time about what kind of boy he is and how well you know him, but…” Tears welled in her eyes. “I’m glad you’re home today. You’re safe and smiling and you are hands down the very best thing that has or will ever happen to me.” She pressed her forehead to mine and petted my hair.

“Mom. I’m fine. I feel good. Tired and hungry, but good.”

“How about a toasted cheese sandwich then? I bet I have chicken noodle soup. Let’s get inside.”

We jogged up the front steps through frosty air that didn’t come close to the chill worry had left in my bones. Chester greeted us with his nose pressed to the glass on our front window. “Woof.”

Mom twisted the doorknob and Chester launched at us.

“Hello, baby boy.” Mom headed for the kitchen with Chester on her heels.

I went to bed. The dream started immediately.

I was back in elementary school. Lisa Hopkins hadn’t shown up for homeroom. The women with the dark suits and sad eyes came instead. They’d told us Lisa was dead. They’d come to help us sort through the details and make sense of our second loss that month. Amy Hirks had died two weeks before. Lisa, Amy, and I had met in infancy when our moms had weekly coffee dates and we’d drooled on one another. Amy and Lisa were born the same day as me. Mom had been on duty for their births, too. She’d delivered them the same afternoon Bio Mom wandered into her life and left me behind. When Amy’s and Lisa’s moms learned mine had a new baby in her charge, they’d became fast friends and bonded over motherhood. The girls and I had bonded over dry Cheerios and eventually, Barney.

Then they’d died. For a cautious second grader like me, it hadn’t taken long to realize I was next. Those girls had had two things in common, me and their birthdays. My birthday.

After a year of counseling, I’d added some new words to my second grade vocabulary. Coincidence. Tragedies. Accidents. Lisa had drowned. Amy had chased her cat into the road. Coincidence. Tragedies. Accidents. Until Justin showed up in fifth grade with his big hat and southern charm, I only spoke to Allison, convinced I was a curse or that I’d been cursed. Either way, it was safer for everyone if I kept to myself, hence the swim obsession. Swimming was a solitary ordeal. Well, it was back then. Lucky for Allison, we had nothing in common, and that made us safe friends. Eight-year-old logic at its finest.

My dream morphed from the little classroom, changing in fast forward from second grade to twelfth. In the hallway near my locker, the ladies watched Justin and me. They recognized Liam and Oliver. Swords of light hid inside their saggy black shirts and cardigans. Silly. Women weren’t Vikings. A scream pierced my heart and I pulled in a ragged breath.

“Callie?” Mom knocked on the door. “I have toasted cheese and chicken soup.” She set the plate and bowl on my nightstand. “Care if I lay in here with you?”

I tossed the blankets back, thankful for my mom, food and the relief she brought with her. The counselors were gone. It was only a dream. I sat slowly. Mom curled up beside me as I sipped soup and noshed on toasted cheese. She drifted into an easy sleep. For the first time in my life, I envied her. She did things right. She was rooted in her life and I was a lost balloon heading for the trees. I closed my eyes the moment I finished lunch. Dreams were kinder with Mom beside me.

Mom got ready for work in stealth mode. I roused a few times with lids and limbs too weighted to lift. Heavy whispers rose up the steps before the front door snapped shut and the Bronco outside rumbled to life. The creak of floorboards against silence startled me. Exhaustion clung to my bones. I cracked one eye open. The room around me was dark and foreign. Sluggish thoughts ebbed and fell. “Is someone there?” My ears pounded with effort. Someone was near. I pulled both eyes open.

“How are you feeling?” Victoria folded socks in the dark. My piles of clothes were arranged in stacks by category. Jeans. T-shirts. Sweaters. Hoodies.

I pulled the comforter up to my chin. “Fine. Better. What are you doing? Are you cleaning my room?”

“Your mother asked me to sit with you while you slept.” She stacked clothes on my rocking chair and dusted her palms together. “Your room is atrocious. How can you find anything?”

“I have questions.”

She raised a perfect eyebrow.

“You’re a woman.” My sleep-riddled brain scrambled for articulation. I needed answers before my opportunity disappeared.

“Yes.” She turned to face me with hands curved over her tiny waist.

“But you aren’t a Viking.”

“No.”

“How do you know so much about them?” Was she a human in love with Mason as I suspected?

“I’ve been with the Hales a very long time.”

I chewed my lips before asking my next question, the one that kept me up some nights. Vikings were pure testosterone. On crack. Amplified. Extreme. Carnal in a mythological demigod way.

“Liam says they’re stronger when they satisfy their need to compete and fight. He said exerting themselves is fuel for them.”

“Yes.”

“He also said relationships fail them either because another Viking takes the woman or she questions the nature of their feelings until she leaves.”

“Many times. Yes.” Her wide grey eyes settled on me in understanding. Sincerity changed her expression from amused to troubled as she seemed to make a decision.

“Liam asked me not to share something with you, but I’m deciding to overrule him.”

I smiled.

“Liam is stronger with a counterpart. I know what you’re asking in your over-complicated way. You want to know about physical love. The act of love, like other human challenges and feats of bravery, strengthens him.”

My smile fell. “You mean sex.”

“I mean love.”

“But having lots of sex would strengthen him,” I challenged.

“Yes. That’s true, too, but love is much more than physical, especially if they find their true mate. There’s an undeniable cosmic connection between a Viking and his mate. As powerful as Liam is, with love in his heart, he becomes unstoppable because he would stop at nothing to protect his true love. It’s true for them all, of course.”

Hope rose in my chest. I could help Liam by loving him. “So, I’m not helpless. I love Liam. You should see Allison and Oliver. They’re adorable together. Allison and Oliver. You and Mason. Liam and me.”

Victoria’s gaze drifted a moment. “You love him?”

My heart skittered. “Yes.” The undeniable truth lifted me.

She nodded. “Your love changes things. It’s a blessing in many ways. I can leave now.”

“Where are you going?”

Victoria crossed the room and squeezed my hand. “Home. All will be well. Liam’s here.”

Ding dong
.

I stumbled down the steps on rubber legs and pulled the door open. Liam stood in the cold with a bouquet. “Do you like flowers?”

I threw my arms around his neck. Victoria slid through the doorway, pulling a scarf over her chin. “Good-bye.”

“Are you here to babysit me now?” I danced on icy wooden porch planks in bare feet. “Come inside.”

“Thank you. How do you feel?”

Tired of that question. “Can I get you something from the kitchen?”

“No. I thought I could help you with your Ohio History paper. I’ve been a terrible partner.”

I laced my fingers in his and pulled him up the steps to my dark room. I snapped the light switch on. When did it get so dark? “Don’t worry about it. I finished the paper yesterday. Oh! I missed the memorial.”

“No one expected you to be there. A few people saw you ride to school with me and assumed I bewitched you. Others think you’re anorexic or pregnant.”

“Jeez. Did anyone talk about Kristy at her memorial or just me?” I flopped onto my bed. Nerves popped and sizzled under my skin. I was probably the last girl in my senior class who couldn’t be pregnant, this side of Immaculate Conception.

Liam chuckled. He walked in a slow circle around the room, touching everything with long, steady fingers. Swim trophies. Pictures of Justin and me on four wheelers. Me on my dad’s shoulders in kindergarten. Liam laid the bouquet on the dresser. “This is your dad? Do you miss him?”

“Yeah. Sometimes I miss him. Other times, it helps to tell myself he wasn’t my dad. He didn’t owe me anything. It hurts that he betrayed Mom though.”

“What do you mean he’s not your dad?” The bed sunk beneath his weight, but my heart flew.

“Um.” After my talk with Victoria about powering Liam up, too many wild thoughts invaded the conversation.

“Your mom had another husband?”

“No. Oh, no. Nothing like that. Mom adopted me, unofficially, the night I was born. She helped my biological mother deliver me. Bio Mom didn’t want me and she was beat up pretty bad, so my mom said she’d keep me. Bio Mom never came back to sign paperwork or make it official, so it’s a weird situation. My folks used to worry she’d come back and take me away one day. I used to worry she’d come back and not want me.”

“They kept you? Is that legal?”

“It’s not official. No one ever asked to see the papers. If they did, I suspect Dad could’ve fabricated something. No one tried to claim me and Mom and Dad couldn’t have a baby on their own.” I blushed at the implication and hurried on. “The timing worked out and here I am.”

I pulled my legs onto the covers and caught Liam’s wrist in my fingers. “I’ve been reading at night about mythology and I found a story about two ravens.”

“You mean Huginn and Muninn? Odin’s birds?”

“I think they’ve been following me since the day you moved here. I saw them for the first time on the night I learned about your family’s return.”

His puzzled expression worried me.

I tugged his hand. “What? What are you thinking?”

“It’s nothing. Why don’t you rest?” Liam pulled his wrist back. I didn’t let go.

“I slept all day. I don’t believe it’s nothing. Those birds are everywhere. What do they mean? What’s Odin looking for?”

Liam’s mouth fell open. “You’ve done your homework.”

I lifted both eyebrows in a challenge. “Talk.”

“I think maybe he’s looking at warriors for Valhalla. He’s probably awaiting our leader, like the rest of us. Hopefully, he’s keeping an eye on the clans.”

“The Stians?”

Liam’s eyes flashed green. His jaw stilled. The pulse in his neck jumped.

“Liam. Answer.”

“Other clans are coming. They’re uniting to move against the Stians. The other girls, the Wells students, belonged to men in two different clans. Those clans called brothers in other clans. Allies around the globe who, too, have suffered loss at the hands of the Stians want retribution.”

“A ‘move against them’? Like a war? Will they win?” Maybe this was the answer. The Viking masses would demand balance in their world. “Could this battle restore the balance?”

“It could destroy what’s left of the balance if the Stians win. They’re outnumbered, but they won’t back down and they won’t lose honorably. There are likely to be many human casualties in your town.”

“My town?” I gasped. “Why here?”

“The marked one will rise here.”

“See. You keep saying that. What does it mean? What will happen to Justin when the change comes? Will it hurt? Will he have to leave? What about his parents?”

“You love him.”

“Yes. Answer. Now.”

Liam looked away for a few beats before returning his gaze to mine. “The change isn’t painful. If we’re right and he’s the true Viking leader, he can do as he pleases, only traveling as needed to settle skirmishes when they grow out of hand. He can stay where he chooses.”

“King Justin.” The craziness.

“Justin will become the earthly leader. He’ll have great responsibilities, but he will answer to Odin. He will be revered but challenged at every turn. Leadership of our kind isn’t something I envy him.”

“You shouldn’t envy anything about him.”

Liam inched closer, captivating me with his flashing green eyes. “I envy what he has with you.”

“Don’t.” I pulled on the sleeves of Liam’s coat until he tossed it on the floor. “He and I don’t have this.” I brought his lips to mine, pulling his massive chest down to me as I moved to the center of my bed.