Foresworn (11 page)

Dru had always been off, but this was something different. This didn’t seem like my mother at all.

In fact, she didn’t even
feel
like Dru.

Arun helped the other boy to his feet and tried to pull him away, but the guy let out a cry of rage and ran toward her. She grinned, raised that crossbow and hit the kid in the center of his chest. He gasped, grabbed at the shining arrow and looked around at us before he fell.

My mother, or whatever she’d become, narrowed her eyes and looked at Brigg and Nanna; then she locked onto Arun. She snapped up her arm, shot another small shiny arrow.

Arun dived to the ground.

She advanced on him, reloading her small crossbow. Yelling, I ran toward her. Nanna and Brigg did, too. But Arun rolled, taking Dru down so hard, she slammed into the ground and tumbled right into the water.

Brigg sloshed into the shallow mix of water and snow after her, but she let this yell of fury rip from her throat that stopped all of us from moving.

Loud, deep and so obviously not a woman’s voice, the furious cry stopped my heart.

Dru looked at me one last time, her livid stare burning a hole right through me. Then she raised her arms and shot into the sky. I slapped my hands over my ears at the loud sound of shattering glass. It was like she disappeared into some kind of dimensional portal.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Shock locked my knees into place even as I dropped to them in the snow.

The boy she’d hit cried out, then gasped. Before I could blink, Arun, Brigg and Nanna were yelling and crouching over him.

But I knew it was too late even before I ran to join them. His still body made my heart stop.

My mother had just shot something into that kid with a god’s soul and she’d killed him.

Raven had been right.

Chapter Nine

The kneeling boy was Salvatore, and he seemed too soft to be carrying the burden of a god’s soul, but he knew who he carried. Hoenir, the god of silence. Salvatore had been traumatized even earlier by a battle between him, the boy who’d died and a group of scary humanlike men he was sure were hybrids of people and that creature from the
Alien
movies. Arun and I looked at each other after that explanation. He had to mean dark elves.

Salvatore only wanted to hear the music, and his friend had fought off my mother.

Only, I was 100 percent sure that had not been my mother.

The boy who’d died had been carrying the god Forseti. Justice, truth and peace. It was a hell of a way to die for someone like that. Someone who’d been traveling with another who seemed unequipped to deal with the hand he’d been dealt. Someone who’d been protecting him.

I wiped another freaking tear from under my eye. At this rate, I’d be out-crying Coral. I hadn’t known this boy, but he was the first of us to die here and it just brought our reality into stark light.

“So, that was your mother,” Arun said as he once again sat next to me in the greenhouse we’d turned into the sleep zone. “I want to say I could see the resemblance, but no.”

“I honestly think that she’s lost her mind. The thing looking at me from those eyes had nothing of my mother in them. I know that sounds crazy, but there it is.”

“She sure didn’t sound like any woman I’ve heard.” He shook his head and a blond curl slipped down to catch on his eyelash. He reached up to pull it loose, but I beat him to it. I rubbed his hair between my finger and thumb.

“It’s just as soft as it looks.”

He took my hand in his. “If that wasn’t your mother, then I have a pretty good idea who it might have been. The trickster god.”

“You think Loki is inside my mother?” I thought of all the crazy things she’d done lately. Thought of the snakes. “Oh gods, a few weeks ago our backyard became the biggest nest of snakes I’d ever seen. Even the exterminator we called out was shocked and, frankly, too much of a wuss to handle it.” I scowled at the memory of that idiot who’d said he’d be back to look into things.
Yeah
,
right.
He’d never returned. “There’s a symbol that represents Loki—with snakes.” I rubbed my fingers and thumb over my eyes. “I should have seen this. Should have figured it out before now.” I opened gritty eyes, stared into Arun’s dark, dark gaze. I couldn’t decide if this made me feel better or not. Knowing maybe it wasn’t Dru killing did help, but then, I didn’t know any of this for sure. I also didn’t know if she was working with him or against him if it was true. “Where do you think my mother is then? Stuck in there with him?”

“We don’t know that’s him, but my gut is telling me that’s what’s going on.” His gaze strayed to the corner, where Salvatore sat crying and rocking. “He really cared about the boy who saved him. He said that the evil woman had come after him three times and each time his friend had saved him. There must be something really special about him.”

“I wish I could remember anything about that god—but it’s blank.” I looked at the kid, then at Alva, who hadn’t left his side in hours except to get him food and drinks. She’d latched on to him when she’d arrived by the lake at the same time as the police earlier. “Your mom is getting attached.”

Arun smiled. “She tends to give extra love to those who need it the most. And if anyone does, it’s that kid.”

I leaned back against the beam behind me and stared at Arun for what felt like a long time to me and probably felt like forever to him. “Hey, I had a question about your name.”

“Arun? I told you that my mom—”

I shook my head. “No, your last name. Was it your mom’s or your dad’s?”

“Hers. I don’t know anything about my dad because he died before I was born. Mom said he was a sweet Irish man.”

“I would say you got your eyes from him, but your mother and uncle have them, too. It’s not often you see such dark eyes with light blond hair.”

“My great-grandfather was Shoshone. You know something kind of cool? The
wyrd
sisters are represented by the triple spiral, right?”

I nodded, my breath caught in my throat because that symbol had been a huge part of what wrecked my life.

“My great-grandfather was obsessed with the spiral and said it was a token of our family. He believed the spiral was a portal to the spirit world.”

“I don’t believe this,” I whispered as I closed my eyes. “This is unbelievable. You are exactly who I was supposed to find. Exactly.” Were any of us working through any of this ourselves or were the gods just moving us around like puppets on a stage?

Born of two magical clans that share life’s spiral.
Light of head
,
dark of eyes
,
the young warrior will herald the beginning of Ragnarok.
His hand to the death of a norn.

The very prophecy that had made my mother drag us all over the country, the one my sisters and I had a hard time believing, wasn’t bull—not at all. A part of me had known this, but to be faced with so much evidence. Two magical clans that share life’s spiral. There it was. Right in front of my face.

“Hey,” he said softly. “You’ve got that trip-to-Nowhere look coming back. Stay.”

I opened my eyes and stared at him, so mixed up I had to actually search for the ability to make words. “So what do you think of all that stuff I shared from Nanna?”

“Honestly? Mind-boggling. To think that all this fell into place so long ago and it’s all playing out now. Makes me feel a bit like curling up and sucking my thumb.”

I lifted an eyebrow. But the image made me smile, and it helped to lessen the fear coursing through my body.

“In a manly type of way, of course.”

And that did the trick. “There’s a manly way to suck your thumb?” Snickering, I leaned forward and stopped when we were a breath apart. He didn’t move, just watched me, and that fluttering thing happened in my belly again. This time, it didn’t make me scowl.

His gaze flicked down to my mouth, but he still didn’t move the last couple of inches.

Instead of kissing him, I told him the rest of what I probably should have shared earlier. “A warrior like you is supposed to cause my death.”

He leaned back fast, narrowed his eyes. “What did you just say?”

I grabbed fistfuls of his sweater and tugged him back. “Born of two magical clans that share life’s spiral. Light of head.” I touched his hair. “Dark of eyes.” I smoothed my thumbs beneath his gorgeous dark eyes. “The young warrior will herald the beginning of Ragnarok. His hand.” I paused, picked up his hand and ran my fingers over his palm, then traced his fingers. “His hand to the death of a norn.”

“Where did you hear that?” he whispered as he curled his fingers around mine and held on tight.

“That prophecy was given to my mother and is the reason my sisters and I grew up moving around. Our mother was so scared that a warrior would kill us, she slowly went mad. It’s why I came all the way here. I found the article about you in her stuff and thought she’d come after you.”

“To do what?”

I shrugged. “Hurt you? I don’t know. But I certainly didn’t think it was to kill you.” Hot tears pricked the backs of my eyes. “But I stood there and watched her kill that boy. She did it. She put an ice arrow into his heart without hesitation. There is nothing to keep her from doing that to you.” A sob escaped. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alva look our way.

“Shh,” Arun whispered. He tilted up my chin, wiped the tears from my face. “I will certainly not be killing you. Damn, Kat, I’m starting to really like you. And like I said, I don’t think your mother is in control of her body. We’re going to beat this. I know it.”

“I gave you the perfect nickname. You do dream of world peace, don’t you?”

“So?” He lifted a blond eyebrow.

“It’s the pipe kind, you know.”

“It may be a dream, but I still believe it’s possible. And it’s going to start with all of us.” He pointed around the room at all the kids who’d come here, knowing something bad would happen but showing up nonetheless. Brave kids who weren’t equipped to fight giants and elves. They were stronger than normal kids, but the strength of giants had to be even bigger.

How are we going to stop this?

And the fear that took hold of my chest again then seared a path through me that made me squeeze my eyes shut. Too many seesawing emotions had happened too fast. I. Just. Needed. To. Breathe.

“Come here, you,” he whispered before he leaned back against a support beam and pulled me around, arranging me so I was cradled between his legs, my back to his chest. He wrapped long, wonderfully strong arms around me and put his face against my neck. “We will figure this out. I promise.”

I leaned against him, feeling his breath on my skin, his warmth against my back. I looked over all the people who’d gathered here and for the first time in a long, long time, I didn’t feel separate from the world. Always before, I’d had just my sisters and that was okay. But now I was a part of this group. Valkyries and kids carrying gods and goddesses. A girl who shared a common past with me. Every single one of us had importance here, and though I knew some of us would die, there wasn’t one in this group who wouldn’t go out fighting.

* * *

This time I started my dream already on fire.

I wasn’t diving into it. Wasn’t waiting as it slowly crept toward me.

No, this time the burn came first.

My skin turned black and began to peel from my arms. The pain was unlike anything I could have imagined because it felt like someone was trying to fillet me. No sounds penetrated the loud crackling of my hair on fire. The burn. The burn became everything.

I tried to sit up, but something was holding me. Arms around me from the back. I flailed and began to whimper and struggle.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s just me,” Arun said, tightening his arms. “I guess we nodded off. Everyone just left us sitting here.” He started to laugh, then made a strangled noise as his body went stiff behind me. “Something’s wrong. Smoke! We have to get out of here now!”

I choked; then coughs tore through my chest and throat. I couldn’t breathe because it felt as if I were being cooked from the inside out. I wasn’t just dreaming of fire this time—it was really happening. Again.

Cries sounded outside just before a horrific crash sent dirt flying out around my face.

“It’s another fire! Where’s my son?” Alva sounded like she was on the other side of the wall we’d been leaning against.

Smoke filled the greenhouse so rapidly, I lost track of the door’s location. I stood and grabbed my coat and Arun’s. Heat seared my back, and I looked over my shoulder to see the entire wall behind me on fire. Arun tugged on my arm. I started to run with him and tripped over a sleeping bag. Before I hit the ground, he caught me, but another pain stabbed into my thigh, then splintered into lines of pain, like poison was flowing through my veins.

I patted my leg, expecting to find an ice arrow like the one we’d seen in Forseti, but there was nothing there. “My leg,” I gasped, looking up at Arun. “Can you see something in my leg?”

“No. Come on.”

The pain in my leg eased, but my lungs felt like they were on fire. Before we reached the door, Gillian ran into the building. “Hurry!”

We grabbed our coats and burst out the door with her before running away from the building.

Tyrone, Kara and the others had already turned hoses onto the greenhouse. It was the only one on fire this time.

“Did anyone see how it started?” Arun bent, resting his hands on his knees as he started coughing. “Damn, this is really pissing me off now.”

Kara handed her hose to Sky and walked up to us. “We were all out here. Nobody was even near that greenhouse. And I swear it started from the roof.”

I shivered and put my coat on, stared at flames once again as they tried to climb the sky. “Did you see Branton?”

Kara nodded. “Yeah, he’s around here somewhere. Came for the free food the people in town keep bringing. I swear, if I didn’t miss my home so much, and it wasn’t so damned cold, I’d move here just for the people.”

“Kara, where is Branton now?” Arun asked.

She shrugged, then ducked as fire sort of leaped from the greenhouse onto a nearby tree. Despite the thick layer of snow covering its branches, the tree went up as if had been dead and dry.

Another arc of fire jumped from that tree to another.

We ran farther into the valley. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out and looked at the screen. “Gods, Vanir McConnell, your timing stinks. Again!” I yelled into the phone as Arun pulled me farther from the burning trees.

“It’s Raven, Kat. Have you talked to Coral? She’s not answering her phone and—”

I could hardly hear her over the sound of the fire, but I thought of the phantom leg pain from earlier. “Are you hurt? Because I felt something really, really bad a few minutes ago.”

“I’m okay. Listen, it’s not Mom. It’s Loki and—” She suddenly stopped talking, which was good because the fire shot across the ground and enveloped a tree near us.

Arun grabbed my arm, and we started running toward the parking area with all the vehicles and the SUV where we’d stored all the backpacks earlier. “Yeah, Peaceboy and I have figured that out already. Sorry I haven’t had a chance to call.” I had to stop talking to try to catch my breath.

“Are you running?”

“Shit, Raven, I can’t talk! We’re dealing with a fire here.”

“One last thing! Loki is using a feather cloak to travel.”

“That ugly feather coat? Weird. I’m sorry. I promise I’ll call, but I gotta go right now.” I hung up on her just as an explosion sounded behind us. Arun shot back the way we’d come and I followed, instantly relieved to see that everyone had been far away from the greenhouse that now lay in pieces across the valley of snow.

Arun found his mom and hugged her.

“I’m okay,” she said. “And it was only one greenhouse this time. But I don’t understand this—we didn’t store anything in there that could have exploded like that.”