Runes #03 - Grimnirs (34 page)

“She hurt me, Echo,” Maliina begged. “Finish her.”

Echo didn’t even slow down, he grabbed my hand and pushed me behind him. “Think I can’t tell the difference, you evil bitch? She’s all yours, Eirik.”

Eirik’s fist slammed into Maliina, sending her flying across the room. He followed, his friend behind him. Echo pushed me toward Raine and ordered, “Get her out of here now.”

One second he was beside me; the next, he barreled into a Grimnir and the two of them disappeared inside what used to be the dining room.

“Let’s go,” Raine urged.

I know I was completely useless here, but still… “We have to stop this somehow.”

“Eirik can, but I must help him,” Raine said. “Go to his old bedroom and wait there while…”

Something sharp pierced my back, and I sucked in a breath. I didn’t hear the rest of Raine’s words. The pain was gone fast, but the warmth at the spot told me I was bleeding. I tried to reach where the pain had originated, even as the warmth radiated. Across the room, Maliina slowed down and smirked at me.

She’d done this to me. Had she snapped my spine as she’d promised?

“Go, Cora,” Raine yelled. “Run.” Then she was gone.

I tried to call her back, tell her that something was wrong with my back, but whatever I said, if I said anything at all, was swallowed by the crashes and thuds reverberating around us. Numbness replaced the warmth, spreading up and down my spine. Black dots appeared in my vision. I tried to move away from the carnage, but I couldn’t move my hands, legs, or head.

I tried to find Echo, but the fighters all looked the same—blurry masses of black and gray. My eyes found Raine and Eirik. She was yelling at him. My vision blurred, and they swung out of focus. I was going to black out.

No, I will not. I. Will. Not.
My vision sharpened.

The battle still raged on, but Eirik stood in the middle of the room with his right hand raised, the chain and the spiked ball at the end of his flail whipping the air with a whooshing sound. My heartbeat slowed down, each beat loud in my ears. I rolled my eyes down and gulped at the blood pooling at my feet.
My
blood.

Tears filled my eyes. Someone yelled my name. Was it Echo? I couldn’t tell, but I wanted to see him. Even if it was to say goodbye.

“Duck, Cora!” Raine yelled and raced toward me. Eirik had let go of the flail.

She tackled me, and we both went down. I couldn’t break my fall and landed face down in my own blood, probably bruising my cheeks and chin. I still couldn’t feel pain. But the numbness spread. It was kind of surreal. Raine must have realized I was hurt because I heard her scream.

She appeared in my line of vision, her mouth opening and closing. I didn’t hear a thing. She disappeared. Then a few of her words filtered through the weird haze cocooning me. “Too deep… can’t pull it… bleed out…”

I watched Eirik’s flail act like a boomerang, spinning and whistling as it sailed around the room, smashing everything it its path without slowing down. Everyone dived out of its way. He raised his hand and caught it by the handle. The chain wrapped around his wrist, the spiked top stopping as though he had some power over it.

Silence followed.

People pulled themselves from the floor and behind shattered walls and furniture, but the fighting had stopped. Eirik had gotten everyone’s attention. I closed my eyes with relief.

“I am Eirik, son of Baldur, grandson of Odin, father of the gods,” he bellowed. “When I speak, you listen. When I ask a question, you answer, or you will answer to me and the gods.”

I didn’t see or hear the response from the others because Raine yelled, “Help me!”

In the silence, her voice carried. Echo was the first to arrive. I didn’t see him. I felt him. Felt his hand on my face. Heard him as he bellowed his rage. “MALIINA!” he roared.

“No, she is mine!” Andris yelled.

A few thuds followed. Then there was silence. The eerie kind. I knew the moment Echo came back. I felt his breath on my face, the only place that seemed to have feelings on my entire body. I couldn’t feel anything from my neck down.

“Open your eyes,
Cora-mio.
Look at me,” Echo begged.

I was determined to obey him, so I focused hard until I opened my eyelids. His beloved face was only a few inches away, yet I couldn’t touch him. He lay on the floor on his side, his eyes bright. I knew it was killing him to see me so helpless. Tears filled my eyes.

“Cold,” I whispered. At least I think I did.

“It’s okay,” he said and showed his artavus. The other one, not the scythe. “I’m going to etch healing runes on you.”

“Nnn-no,” I managed to say. “Love. You. Let. Me. Go.”

“No. You and I,
Cora-mio
, are meant to be together.”

“Take her to the hospital,” I heard Torin say.

“She won’t make it,” Raine said.

“Step back,” Echo snarled.

“Echo, you can’t,” Raine protested. “You know what will happen to you if you do.” Then her voice lowered. “
They
stopped fighting because Eirik ordered them to, not because of some love they have for you. If you mark her, they’ll report you to your goddess.”

“Let them. I’m not letting her die.” He touched my face, his warmth reassuring. “I will accept whatever punishment Hel throws my way, but she must live.”

“She will. Step aside.” I recognized Lavania’s voice. “I spoke to the goddess about the work Cora’s been doing with lost souls, and she gave her approval. Cora is compassionate and caring. Her love for her fellow humans will make her a perfect Immortal.” She knelt next to Echo. “Go to sleep, Cora Jemison. When you wake up, your new life will begin.”

I didn’t feel anything, but my eyelids grew heavy.

“I love you, Cora.”

Maybe I wanted to hear it or imagined it, but it sounded like Echo just told me he loved me.

***

Voices reached me from afar. I strained to hear them, to understand what they were saying. They grew stronger and became one.

“Come back to me,
Cora-mio,
” Echo begged. “I need you to love me, to make my life complete.” He stroked my face.

His voice faded, and I struggled to hold on to it through the foggy darkness that threatened to swallow me.

“I had my unhappy existence,” Echo said, his voice stronger. “Reaping. Sleeping around. Buying things on a whim and selling them. Then I kissed you and my life changed. You gave me a reason to laugh. To love. I now look forward to coming back from Hel because I know you’ll be waiting for me.”

His voice faded again. I wanted to tell him I’d willingly wait for him, but once again, there was silence. I tried to move, searched for him in the darkness. Then his voice returned.

“You’ve shown me that what’s on the outside doesn’t matter. That my heart might be damaged but it’s okay to give it to you. It’s yours, doll-face. You’ve had it from the moment you looked into my eyes and showed me I was worthy of your love. The moment I held you in my arms, you became mine and I became yours. You need to come back and complete me.”

A knock interrupted his beautiful monologue. Then Raine said, “How is she doing?” Raine sounded bad. Like she’d been crying.

“She’s still out,” Echo said in a low voice filled with anguish.

“And the others?” Raine asked tentatively.

What others? I struggled to open my eyes, move my fingers, toes. I could feel them now, like someone was filling me with adrenaline, breathing life into my limbs.

“Damned souls,” Echo snarled. “I threatened them, but they won’t leave. Your Valkyrie mentor did something wrong. I should have checked every rune she etched on Cora. Where’s the damn book? If she made a mistake—”

“Lavania didn’t make a mistake, Echo,” Raine said gently. “She never does. Maliina severed Cora’s spinal cord with that dagger. She might need a while to heal. Or you could add more runes on her if you want.”

Add more? He’d get in trouble. I struggled through the fog, opened my eyes, and found him. He was kneeling by the bed, his head bowed over my hand, his shoulders hunched in defeat. No wonder I couldn’t move my hand. He held it in a tight grip.

I glanced around and saw the souls. There were so many. I recognized a few from outside the grocery store. One by one, they drifted out of the room. They must have been waiting to see if I would make it. With them gone, I could now see that I was on Raine’s bed.

“I can’t live without her, Raine,” Echo mumbled. “I refuse to live without her.”

Echo wasn’t the type to open up to someone. That he’d admitted his innermost feelings to Raine said he was really scared. Scared of losing me, and I’d never loved him more. My eyes met Raine’s. They were red-rimmed. She grinned, touched her lips, and backed out of the room.

“And I don’t want to live without you either, Echo,” I whispered.

Echo’s head whipped up before I finished the sentence. He scrambled to his feet and sat on the edge of the bed. He reached out as though to pull me in his arms, but then he stopped. “How are you feeling? Are you in pain? Can you move? Can I hold you?”

“Yes. I feel great.” I moved my arms and wiggled my toes. “No pain.” I started to sit up.

“No. Don’t move.” He slid beside me. “I just want to hold you. The last two hours were the worst of my life.”

I curled in his arms and inhaled. He smelled so good. Felt even better. When he buried his face in my neck, I wrapped one arm around his broad shoulder and pressed the other against his chest. His heart was pounding hard.

“I’m never letting you out of my sight. Never.”

That was a useless vow since he was a reaper and I had school, but it was nice to hear him say it.

“I’m going to enroll in your school until you finish.”

“You hate hanging around Mortals,” I reminded him.

He laughed, his warm breath on my sensitive neck sending sweet sensations down my back. “I’ll be hanging around you, not them. Don’t ever scare me like that. Every second you didn’t wake up, my heart wilted.”

“I still want it. Wilted or damaged. It’s mine.”

“Then you have it. And my dark soul. And scarred body.”

“I love your scarred body.”

He chuckled, the sexy sound rumbling through me. “I love you, Cora Jemison,” he whispered in my ear. Then he trailed hot kisses along my neck. I tilted my head, giving him better access. “I promise to love and cherish you for the rest of our lives and beyond.”

He claimed my lips and sealed the promise. His warmth surrounded me as he took over my senses until nothing else mattered but kissing him. Holding him. I almost hadn’t made it. Almost missed this chance to be with him. To hold and kiss him. To touch him. Tears rushed to my eyes and raced down my face. He must have tasted them because he lifted his head.

“Whoa, sweetheart,” he murmured, cupping my face and wiping the wetness with his thumb. “What is it?”

“I almost missed out on us,” I murmured, feeling ridiculous to be crying over nothing. “On loving you.”

“I would not have let it happen. You are mine,
Cora-mio
. I’m never letting you go. Alive or dead, you are mine,” he said in a fierce voice.

I studied his beautiful face, his incredibly sexy, long eyelashes, his sensual lips. I couldn’t imagine a life without him, and now we had eternity. “Forever.”

He grinned. “I couldn’t have it any other way.”

Then a thought occurred to me. “What about Eirik?”

Echo frowned. “He wants to visit his parents. He sent the other Grimnirs with a message after Andris finished off Maliina. He is going home.”

I frowned. “That is not good.”

“It is brilliant. He realized his mother would never leave him, you, or Raine alone until she had him, so he decided to make himself available. You can’t kidnap someone who willingly walks right to your door and demands entrance. And since he’s not dead, he can just waltz right out of Hel. The gates of Hel cannot hold him in.”

This was a new development, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

“I don’t know if he’ll want to leave,” I said slowly. “He was so angry and bitter when we spoke. He even said he wasn’t interested in love because he’s been burned twice. That maybe he wasn’t meant to find love, like his mother. He might decide to stay there.”

“Then it will be his choice. He has issues to work through, Cora, and he’s chosen to work through them in Hel, not here or in Asgard. His friend is going with us.”

“With you?”

“Eirik told the Grimnirs that he’d already agreed to leave with me. He also told them Maliina was responsible for the deaths of the other Grimnirs, which ties the loose ends rather nicely.” Echo chuckled. “My Grimnir brothers were terrified of him. They were convinced he might tell Hel they were working with Maliina, so they’ll do and say whatever he tells them. I might not like the fact that he’s in love with you, but I have to give it to him. He’s Odin’s grandson. Wise and smart for his age. He’ll be okay, so stop worrying.”

He nipped my shoulder, and I trembled. Smirking at my reaction, he soothed it with his tongue. For a moment, we were lost in each other. He pulled me onto his chest and settled against the pillows. “He wants to see you.”