Seeress: Book Three (Runes Series) (3 page)

Witches sacrificed chickens, didn’t they? These feathers were too big for a chicken. Maybe a giant turkey? I reached down to pick up one without blood but my hand only caught air.

Realization hit me. The stupid things weren’t real. The whole set up wasn’t real. The runes faded away. The fire flickered and the building disappeared from under my feet, leaving me in total darkness. I opened my mouth to scream.

“She’s coming around,” Torin said.

Bright lights shone on my eyelids, and I was lying on my back. I opened my eyes and found Torin. His features were taut, eyes shadowed, and hair a mess as though he’d run his fingers through it. The words I’d heard echoed in my head.

Had I witnessed something about to happen? Why would Torin want to visit a Seeress?
Kill
a Seeress?

“You okay?” he asked.

No, I was totally freaking out. I shook my head. Of course, he misunderstood and went into his protective mode. He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me.

I tried to wiggle out of his arms, but they tightened. He sat in the chair we were using earlier and placed me firmly on his lap. I got the message: I wasn’t going anywhere.

Torin’s eyebrows shot up. “That should be my line. Your eyes glowed, and then you slumped over in a dead faint.” His voice was bleak.

“They’re still glowing,” Andris added.

I looked up and tried not to cringe. They were all here, Valkyries and Immortals—Andris, Ingrid, Femi, and even Blaine. I groaned at the curiosity in their eyes. My first vision and they all had to be here for the humiliating details?

“You had to call them in?” I griped, elbowing Torin.

He didn’t even flinch, his jaw set. I hated it when he got that look. It meant nothing I said was going to stop him.

“I had to send someone to get your mother,” he said.

“What? She’s supposed to be sequestered until the end of her hearing.” I looked around. “Where is she?”

“Andris was just about to leave. And FYI, you are more important than a stupid hearing.” His eyes dared me to tell him I was wrong.

“The hearing is important, too. She comes back and poof goes her only chance to rejoin the Valkyries.” He
would
send for her and damn the consequences. And knowing my mother, she’d ignore the rules and run to my side. “You know what? Forget it. You are impossible and annoyingly stubborn. How long was I out?” I asked.

“About an hour,” Torin said. “What happened?”

I shuddered, remembering the scream. “I think I got my first vision.”

Torin’s eyebrows slammed down. “You think?”

The others left the counter and grabbed chairs around the kitchen table, eager for details. Andris was having a lazy Sunday, which meant pajama day. From his messy hair, he’d probably been having a read-a-thon. He winked when our eyes met.

Ingrid watched him with a hard-to-read expression. She always looked like she’d stepped out of bed ready to wow the world. Perfect hair. Flawless makeup. A body any Victoria’s Secret model would kill for wrapped in the latest designer outfit.

Blaine grabbed an apple from the bowl before taking a chair. His expressionless face said he didn’t really want to be here, but he was part of the group whether he liked it or not. Femi stayed by the counter, working on her laptop, but I knew she wasn’t missing a thing. She might be a housekeeper slash nurse, but I had a feeling Mom had asked her to keep an eye on us.

“Raine,” Torin urged, his arms tightening around my waist.

He was tense and edgy, and being this close to him was making me edgy, too.

Gripping his hands, I pulled them away from my waist and moved from his lap to the adjacent empty chair. He leaned forward as I explained what happened.

“It was just so weird,” I finished. Torin scowled as though he could see through me to the parts I’d omitted, like the part he, or the man sounding awfully like him, played. “Anyway, that’s it,” I said. “My pitiful first vision.”

“There was no pentagram inside the circle?” Andris asked.

I shook my head. “Just the inscribed runes, the fire, and the feathers.”

“That’s Seidr,” Ingrid murmured from my right.

I glanced at her. “Say-what?”

Ingrid’s cheeks grew pink. “Seidr, the magical practice of my people,” she said. Ingrid was originally from Norway and still spoke with an accent. Unlike the others, she’d only been an Immortal for about a century.

“You sacrificed chickens?” Andris asked.

Ingrid glared at him.

“Raine mentioned feathers and blood,” Andris protested and shot her an apologetic look. “It is not a stretch, right?” Ingrid’s face said she wasn’t forgiving him. “Tell us about Say-der,” he urged, pronouncing it slowly.

Ingrid shrugged. “Maybe I’m wrong.”

Ingrid didn’t talk much. She’d been used to living in the shadow of her more beautiful and magnetic older sister Maliina. Then when Maliina went psycho and started working for the evil Norns, Ingrid crawled farther into the shadows. She probably felt ashamed of all the mayhem her sister had caused. This was the first time I’d heard her offer an opinion on anything.

I kicked Andris under the temple and gave him the behave-or-else glare. “I don’t care if you are wrong or right, Ingrid,” I said. “Tell us about this practice.”

She glanced at Torin and blushed even harder. Torin, I’d noticed, tended to make her more nervous.

“Pretend they’re not here,” I urged her. “I do it whenever they act like morons.”

She smiled. “It is a trance magic,” she said. “We use it for many things, but what you heard was probably a Seeress in a trance seeking guidance from the spirit world.”

I wasn’t sure I liked that. “Why did she appear to me?”

“I don’t know,” Ingrid said, but I had a feeling that she did.

“I think it is the other way round,” Femi said from the counter. We all looked at her.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Torin said. “Raine is a Seeress.”

News flash, love of my life. I haven’t seen anything yet to warrant that title.

“I know, but I think the Seeress reached out to Raine.” Femi stepped down from the stool. She was about five-six, the shortest of all the Immortals I’d met so far. But she knew how to command attention with her personality and voice.

She pushed her hands into the pockets of her nurse’s tunic and studied our faces. The uniform wasn’t really necessary, but she insisted on it. How had she put it? She was covering all bases in case our nosey neighbors wondered why Dad wasn’t in a hospital or nursing home.

“How much have you learned about the path of the Valkyries, Raine?” she asked.

“It is a journey and only a select few make it,” I said. “Spiritual people are chosen by priestesses and taught about magical incantations, spells, and runic magic. If the high priestess deems them worthy and receptive to the idea of immortality, they are taught about the path to the gods. In olden times, it took years to get to that point. Now?” I shrugged. I was the poster child of high-speed transition to Immortality. “Anyway, from these priests and priestesses, a select few are chosen to become Immortal and given artavo for etching runes. Some stay on earth to serve humans, while others become Valkyries.”

Femi nodded. “Those not chosen to become Immortal continue to practice magic. Now, there all types of magical practices out there, but Ingrid is right. What you heard or saw are used in Seidr.”

 
“Whoa, I didn’t go through
all that
to become a Valkyrie,” Andris interrupted.

“It is a bit different for you boys,” Femi said. “You were chosen in the battlefields, but Lavania made sure she chose well.” She slanted Torin a look then Andris. “You are both very spiritual.”

Torin nodded impatiently.

“Nah,” Andris cut in. “I’m not buying this spiritual crap. I didn’t learn about the gods and runes until
after
Lavania healed me and turned me into an Immortal. It was a life-or-death situation. In fact, I was in a bathhouse getting my—”

“We don’t want to hear about your bathhouse adventures, Andris,” Ingrid interrupted sharply. “Let Femi talk.”

I was so liking this new Ingrid. She was coming out of her shell and kicking ass. Even Andris gawked at her.

“I wasn’t talking about
that
,” Andris protested.

“You always do,” she said. Then, as though she realized she was once again the center of attention, she blushed. I reached for her hand and squeezed.

“I agree with Ingrid,” Torin said and gave Andris a look that said if he opened his mouth one more time, he was going to flatten him, which was like waving a red flag at a bull. I really didn’t need their testosterone crap right now.

“Down, boys,” I said. “I want to hear this.” Silence followed as our attention shifted to Ingrid. She hesitated.

“Tell them, sweetheart,” Femi urged her.

Ingrid gave her a small smile. “Seidr is a trance magic because you can only do it when you are in a trance. It can be used for good or evil, so some consider it a dark magic,” she said.

She had all our attention. Even Femi pulled out the last chair and sat.

“The Vanir people and gods practice Seidr, but Goddess Freya, a Vanir, is the one who brought it to Asgard and taught it to the Aesir gods. Odin, his wife, Frigga, and even Thor’s wife, Sif, now practice Seidr. Odin is known to go into a trance or to appear to be asleep when he’s off in different realms. He uses spirit guides to see things, including his birds.”

Lavania had mentioned Odin’s birds and how they gathered information for him. She never said how Odin used them. Ingrid gestured as she continued to talk, her cheeks flushed. This was the most animated I’d ever seen her.

“But Freya will always remain the goddess of Seidr. She shape shifts into other animals and even owns a magical coat of falcon feathers that turns her into a falcon when she wears it. That’s why Seidr Seeresses cover themselves with animal cloaks or sit on cushions made of feathers.” She peered at me. “The blood you saw was probably from the Seeress being killed.” She glared at Andris. “We don’t sacrifice chickens.”

He smirked. I wondered if he’d deliberately mentioned sacrificing chickens to get a rise out of her. He was the one who had runed her and Maliina, making them immortal. Surely, he must know about their practices.

“While in a trance state,” Ingrid continued, “a person takes spirit journeys. Some use familiars, like Odin’s birds. Others use spirit guides. They can conjure images, good or bad, and project them into the minds of others. Deliver spells. Blessings or curses. But the more advanced practitioners and the Seeresses can travel to other realms. Just like Odin and Freya.”

“Can they visit Asgard?” Blaine asked.

“Still planning to visit your girlfriend?” Andris teased Blaine.

Blaine sat up, eyes narrowed, but one glance from Torin and he sank back into his seat. But the look he gave Andris could have neutered any grown man. Andris just smirked.

I kicked him under the table again.

Andris glared. “Do that again and you’ll be sorry.”

Torin smirked. “Really?”

He could convey so much with just a word. This one had whoop-ass written all over it. Andris just shrugged as though saying “whatever.”

“Uh, the journeys can take them anywhere, but most of them go to Hel,” Ingrid said. “All our ancestors are in Hel’s Hall. So when you want to know something, they are the ones you talk to. Some Seeresses communicate with the Norns.” Ingrid paused then added slowly, “I think the Seeress probably connected with you, Raine, instead of a Norn.”

If she’d reached over and slapped me, I wouldn’t have been more surprised. Norns were the bane of my existence. It was my job as a Seeress to see their secrets, damn it. Not become the go-to person for magical people who couldn’t communicate with them. I crossed my arms and pressed against my stomach, feeling a little sick.

“Why in Hel’s Mist would she connect with Raine?” Torin snapped, and Ingrid jumped. “She’s not a bloody Norn.” His accent tended to grow stronger when he was pissed. I reached for his hand under the table and interlaced our fingers.

Ingrid threw me an apologetic glance and shrugged. “Maybe the Seeress is a novice and didn’t know what she was doing.”

“Or maybe she knew exactly what she was doing,” Femi said slowly, and we all focused on her. “Maybe she wanted Raine to witness her death. Like Ingrid had said, Seeresses do other things, not just travel to different realms. They roam this realm too and do things, good and bad. Drive people crazy with spells or protect them from harm. Find missing children and dogs. Cheating spouses. Those with powers over elements can mess with nature. They can cause winds, storms, drought. Seeresses communicating with each other is something I’d never heard of before, but she may have chosen to connect with Raine instead of a Norn for a reason.”

O-kay. She wasn’t helping. Torin looked like he wanted to rip something apart. Why would a Seeress want me to witness her death? Everyone was staring at me as though waiting for something.

“My watch said it happened at three in the morning. Maybe I’m supposed to find this Seeress and help her before she is killed,” I said.

Femi nodded. “That’s possible.”

“Do you remember anything about the city, landmarks that could give us a clue about where she lives?” Torin asked.

“No. It’s still blurry, but the landscape was flat. No mountains and hills. No water. Lots of tall buildings.” Kayville’s tallest buildings were only four stories high.

“That could be anywhere,” Torin said and leaned back into his chair, but I could tell his mind was racing and searching for a solution. “The death of one Seeress will go unnoticed by the magical world. Several could start a ripple.”

“He said another Seeress had sent him, or something along those lines,” I said.

“Maybe we should warn witches not to hold a séance for some psycho killer at three in the morning,” Andris suggested.

I liked that. “Can’t you guys talk to the other Valkyries?” I asked. “So they can warn the Seeresses in their reaping grounds?”

Torin looked like he was about to argue, but then he nodded. Reluctantly. “Valkyries don’t socialize with witches, unless they’re about to turn them.” He glanced at Blaine. “But the Immortals can help spread the word. I’ll be back.” He squeezed my arm, jumped up, and disappeared toward the portal.