Page 18 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings (Love X Magic #3)

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE WORLD TREE

Rune

M y neck was broken, I was sure of it.

The muscles along my spine screamed as I straightened myself out from my cocoon. I’d refused to sleep on the floor last night, and the biggest raised surface in the main room had been the hard, too small bench.

Pulling the warm blanket off, I allowed my numb legs to fall off the side and onto the wooden floor below with a thunk. Only then would I start to recover blood flow.

That damned cat has better sleeping arrangements than I do, I grunted to myself.

I’d been forced out of the spare room and banished to the main room without even a blanket to my name.

A blanket, I thought as I gripped the quilt that still lay across my lap. When I’d fallen asleep, I’d had nothing but the fire to warm my skin, yet I’d woken with this mysterious quilt wrapped around me.

Had Kari…

I didn’t even finish my own thought, the hope creeping through my chest too dangerous. But even then, I felt an odd clench in my heart.

“Morning!” áma called out from the kitchen. “What did you do to get yourself kicked out of bed? I swear, if you leave, and I find that room covered in?—”

“There are no crumbs, áma.” I interrupted before she had the chance to accuse me again. You eat an entire loaf of bread in someone's spare room one time and never live it down, gods .

“Well, whatever you did must have been bad enough to be sent away without a blanket to keep you warm.” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.

My gaze dropped to my lap. “Did you put this on me?”

“I’m not heartless, you know. You were shivering in your sleep, even with those ridiculous leathers on. Won’t you wear a dress? You’re not in a war, child.”

“Mmm, thank you,” I muttered, lifting the corner of the quilt in lazy gratitude. How could I have thought the seeress who despised me had anything to do with bringing me comfort? I’d tried to fight for hers, yet she found it so easy to rob me of mine. “And the leathers are just fine.”

“Good morning, áma!” Kari practically sang as she sauntered into the modest kitchen, a small yawn escaping her lips as her eyes avoided mine. “That bed of yours is absolutely wonderful.”

“I’m so happy you had such a restful sleep,” I all but sneered at the woman, not able to school my features when fatigue clung to them.

“Give me a moment. I’ll fix you up something for breakfast,” áma said to Kari. “Why don’t you make yourself comfortable while you wait?”

“Oh, don’t you lift a finger to feed me. Rune has already kindly offered to summon all my favorite foods.” The seeress beamed at the older woman before flashing me a terribly wicked smile.

“Oh, did she now?” áma said with a suppressed chuckle. “Well, I won’t waste my food then. Rune, I’ll take salmon and eggs. And don’t forget the flatbread!”

Don’t start a war, Rune. Don’t start a war.

I sighed but reined in my emotions before I ended up needing my leathers after all.

My seidr wasn’t limitless, and I didn’t appreciate using it on pointless endeavors when I didn’t know the next time I’d be able to fuel it. Summoning salmon and scrambled eggs for áma certainly classified as a pointless endeavor, and Odin only knew what Kari was about to demand.

“Ah, yes! How could I have forgotten? One porridge coming right up. áma, can you believe Kari loves it completely and utterly plain?”

“I don’t?—”

I cut Kari off when a bowl of porridge appeared above her, and she had to choose whether to chastise me or focus on catching the bowl so it didn’t crash at her feet. She, of course, chose the latter.

If this wild creature was going to try to play games, she’d need to step it up.

Kari clutched the bowl but didn’t say anything as she let out an annoyed huff and took it to the small table next to the window.

She began pushing the tasteless porridge around her bowl with a silver spoon while I focused on making áma the most fantastic salmon and eggs she’d ever had.

Making the feast for her didn’t seem so pointless anymore when I could use it as a reminder to Kari that I had her under my thumb.

The three of us, or maybe two of us, enjoyed our breakfasts in silence, knowing we’d have more than enough to talk about soon enough.

áma had checked out Kari’s healing wound, cleaning it once more and reapplying fresh bandages.

She scanned the damaged flesh for any residual traces of Hel’s seidr, and, to no one’s surprise, she’d found her signature mark of death despite the lifting of the curse.

It was going to take a lot more than a trip to the underworld to lift the darkness of an ancestral sentence off the seeress’ shoulders.

“So, what now?” Kari asked.

“Well, we have a few options, though, I admit, some of them are better than others,” I said, leaning back in my chair.

I crossed my arms and wondered how I’d explain the complexities of the underworld to her in a way she’d understand—preferably a way that resulted in the least amount of questions.

“We’re currently in the valley beyond the mist, which is close to a gateway to Yggdrasill, the World Tree.

Through the World Tree, we will be able to travel to the eight other worlds, including Hel. ”

“Midgard is between Asgard and Hel. We’ll have to travel through it, won’t we?” Kari pulled Tove into her lap, a warning not to take her back to her mortal world despite all the bitter words she threw at me for bringing her here.

Before she could get even more defensive, I said, “No. We can bypass Midgard, and we will. As long as you don’t accidentally wander through its gates, your precious feline will be fine.”

The muscles in Kari’s face relaxed.

Peering down at the fat orange animal in her arms, I summoned a bowl of white fish on the floor on the far side of the room.

He leaped off Kari with a strangled meow as he beelined it toward his treat.

I’d imagined it’d been quite some time since he’d eaten anything at all, and though he no longer needed to, here in Asgard, it wouldn’t pass through his little teeth and mouth. He could enjoy the food for once.

I wasn’t sure why I’d done it, but I imagined if Apple had gone years without any fruit, I’d want her to have a little treat too. I couldn’t let my frustrations with his human cloud my judgement and allow me to take my emotions out on the innocent feline.

Kari watched as her cat devoured the contents of the bowl, a small smile forming on those pink lips.

I tore my gaze away from her before I found myself lost to her features and the subtleties of their movements.

I wouldn’t stare at this woman. Though it felt as natural as breathing, my time watching her was over.

It had to be.

Kari tore her eyes from Tove and asked, “Tell me more about the World Tree. I want to make sure my mortal understanding isn’t built off mere legends and tales. You’ve actually travelled through it.”

I nodded and leaned back in my chair, settling in for a long conversation.

“Yggdrasil is an ash tree connecting the nine realms. Its branches and trunk extend through the worlds and heavens, and its roots tap into even more locations, including Hel. Asgard is the top realm, in the branches, and Midgard is directly below it, along the trunk. There are, however, many creatures who live within the tree, and avoiding them will be our biggest challenge. They must not be ignored in our plans, as much as I’d like to pretend they’re not there at all. ”

“Jormungandr,” Kari muttered, her lips parting.

“Yes, I’m sure you’re very familiar with his story. The serpent surrounds your human world, after all.”

“He’s the son of Loki and the giantess, Angrboda. All three of their children were born monsters. The serpent, Jormungandr, the wolf, Fenrir, and, of course, Hel.”

“Correct, and we’ll have to avoid the first two if we want to make it to the third alive. Jormungandr won’t be our only obstacle, though. Within the World Tree, there’s also the dragon, Nídhoggr. Not to mention, the stags and the eagle, and of course...”

“Okay, okay, one creature at a time. Is the dragon…truly as horrible as everyone says?”

“Well, that depends on what side of the war you’re on, but in Asgard, he’s seen as the personification of chaos and evil and has been known to herald the end of time.”

“Oh, good. Will he be hard to avoid on our way to Hel?”

“Nídhoggr is coiled around the tree, where he feasts on its roots. We’re coming down from the branches here in Asgard to travel to Hel, but?—”

“Let me guess: that’s where the eagle resides.”

“Well, yes,” I said. “The eagle remains at the very top of the tree, and that wind you feel on Midgard is due to the beating of his wings. But we don’t have to worry about him, though, because we are traveling down the trunk instead of up.”

I searched around for something to write with so I could better explain the path we were going to need to take from Asgard to Hel. “What I was going to say was?—”

“You’re forgetting about the Norns!” áma called out from the kitchen, where she scrubbed all the dishes we’d used during breakfast.

“I didn’t forget about the Norns,” I grumbled. “I just wasn’t going to mention them.”

“The squirrel?” she called out again.

“áma! She doesn’t need to know about every being in existence.”

Kari fiddled with the edge of the wooden table and said, “Okay, but now I’m curious about the squirrel.”

I sighed and ran my hand down my face. I was going to get nowhere if I kept getting interrupted. “The squirrel runs up and down the World Tree, delivering tidings. Mostly, he delivers insults to the dragon, Nídhoggr. I don’t know how the thing hasn’t been eaten yet.”

Kari held back a chuckle, almost as if she didn’t want to give me credit for saying something that amused her. Her lips twitched again, but then she took a deep breath and nodded her head, as if I’d told her something as dry as why rain falls from the sky.