Page 21 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings (Love X Magic #3)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

NO GOODBYES

Rune

I t’d been a week since Kari and áma began their lessons, and in that time, Kari and I had managed to avoid each other for most of it. We ate meals with áma as our buffer, since when we were alone, tension filled the air, and the two of us found some reason to bicker.

One of those days, I was feeling rather generous and put cinnamon in Kari’s otherwise plain porridge.

The next day, apples. I’d still given her the same meal three times a day, while making elaborate and tasty dishes for áma, Tove, and me, but until she let me in the bed with her, cinnamon and apples were considered my kindness.

She’d been lucky I hadn’t let her starve, seeing as I’d woken each day with a tweaked neck and a stiff back.

I spent my days with Apple, flying around the Valley of the Mist and rejuvenating my seidr upon her back.

I was using far less than I was used to, not having to cater to every whim of the souls I was responsible for.

There was a deep need within me, however, one I craved to fulfill.

While I’d wanted a break for so long, taking souls was ingrained in me.

If you do something enough, it becomes a part of you, and a collector of the spirits of the slain was who I was, who I’d been for centuries.

Now that I was out of Valhalla, I was still in my leathers, still upon Apple's back, my white hair still in elaborate braids, but I hadn’t worn my armor since I’d stripped myself of it on the first night in áma’s home.

My body felt light without it in more ways than one, but today was my last day of that feather feel.

Kari had been making progress, and áma had enough of our presence.

While Kari still felt she had so much to learn from her, it was time we moved on, for áma’s sanity and for our safety.

While we were hidden in the mist, we were still in Asgard, and I didn't want to give Odin more reason to find us. If he entered the mist, it would be war, and everyone hidden within the mist would pay. We weren’t the only ones living under Odin’s nose, but we were certainly the newest, and the ones with the most heat on us.

I’d been yearning to see Rayna, and I’d picked up Apples’ reins many times to send her a message in any way I could, but I caught myself each time.

She had no idea if I was still alive or where in the nine realms I was.

I hated to make her wonder, and the feeling that was birthed from the lies and secrets hung over me as heavy as a storm cloud.

I’d chosen Kari over my sister, and Kari fucking hated me.

Truly marvelous.

Apple swooped down through two rock houses on the mountainside before nose diving toward the valley below. Today was the day I’d go to Helheim, and I’d be collecting as much power as I could in preparation. Once we went through the Asgard gate, we’d have to go the rest of the way on foot.

The path between gates sat outside the realms. Gods ignored them in favor of the Bifrost, so they were claimed by monsters and traveled by low powered beings willing to take their chances.

I was neither.

Apple whinnied as she landed near áma’s home, and I gave her a pat on the rear. I conjured an apple and tossed it in the air for the bottomless pegasus.

“That’s my girl,” I whispered as she chomped on the fruit, sending apple juice spraying two feet in every direction.

“She’s very beautiful.”

Peering over my shoulder, I spotted a strawberry blonde standing with a basket in her hands. Tove sat within it, fat and happily eying down an insect in the distance.

“You’re talking to me now, are you?” My attention was on Epli, where I scratched at the spots her armor usually covered. She too got a nice break from her gilded cage, and I’d made sure she’d gotten the most out of it.

“I was never ignoring you,” Kari said. “If you haven’t noticed, áma and I have been rather busy in the incantation chamber. Doesn’t leave much time for chatting.”

“I imagine it doesn’t,” I agreed. “It’s probably for the best, seeing as we’ll be getting more than enough of each other in the upcoming weeks.”

“When you’d told me we’d be traveling through the gateways, I hadn’t realized it’d take so long to get to each of them. I didn’t expect we’d be in a…purgatory of sorts.”

With one last pat, I dropped my arms from Apple and left her to graze.

My gaze wandered over to Kari, taking in the lined smock áma had given her.

It was far simpler than anything I’d ever had in Valhalla.

The under bust leather supported her, cinching the rust colored fabric of her dress that complemented her hair.

She wore a shawl, as she often did, the edges of it embroidered with runes.

I studied them, the symbols all speaking of safe passage and blessed voyage.

Clever girl.

“Mmm…well, the trip will give us plenty of time to discover what it is you truly want.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kari asked, following me back inside áma’s home.

“Midgard, Helheim, somewhere else. You’ll need to end up somewhere when all is said and done. I assumed you’d like to be the one who chooses that location.”

“Are you girls ready to leave me yet?” áma asked.

“We’ll be out of your hair shortly,” I muttered to the woman.

She sat upon that gods awful bench, picking pieces of lint free from it.

If I heard one little comment about leaving quilt lint behind, I was going to lose it.

I loved áma, always had, but we may very well murder each other if I had to spend one more day with her. “Epli and I need to armor up.”

I turned to Kari. “And I suggest you do anything you need to as well. Hooves up at mid-sun.”

Meandering off into the chamber Kari all but forbade me from entering, I headed over to the chair in the corner, where my untouched armor lay. Well, it was supposed to be untouched.

How mysterious.

As I grew closer, I noticed my breastplate was askew from its original position.

Had Kari tried it on? Had her chest tried to squeeze into the golden plate molded from my very form?

Plucking the breastplate off the chair, I inspected it to ensure it hadn’t been tampered with in any way.

I wasn’t sure I trusted the woman not to sabotage me.

When my inspection was complete and no sign of damage or mischief was found, I began strapping each piece of armor on until I was a warrior once more. When I was ready to go, my arsenal of weapons was next, starting with the sword I wore at my hip.

By the time I was done, I had a few more weapons than I normally carried, dipping into the collection I stored at áma’s.

I wasn’t new to the path between gateways, nor was I to gods and monsters.

Because of these previous endeavors, I would take any precaution that felt necessary, and the double axes on my back certainly felt so.

When I stepped out into the hall, Kari stood there in her simple dress and shawl, a basket still in hand.

But now, instead of Tove, it was filled with various ingredients and glass bottles.

Her bottom lip stuck out before she sucked it in.

She got a good look at me, weapons and all, and said, “Well, now I’m feeling quite underdressed. ”

“I think we can do something about that, don’t you?” I said with a little smirk, tugging on the end of her shawl.

“You happen to have a spare set of leathers and armor laying around?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I scoffed. “Not just anyone can wear armor like mine.” The red and gold metal wrapped around me like a second skin was a symbol of ultimate warrior status. Kari could never dream of getting her hands on it—even if I had a feeling she’d already tried.

She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. “Then what can you do?”

“Come with me.” I beckoned her into the spare bedchamber. “You know, áma was quite the woman in her day. She still has all sorts of reminders of her time entertaining the gods. Before becoming too entangled with Odin and hiding herself away, that is.”

“What happened?” Kari asked as she followed me.

“He’s been known to enjoy the company of other women outside of his marriage to Frigg, and let’s just say áma knew better than to stick around when it all blew up in her face.

Odin kept his ravens on her for a long time, watching her every move until she figured out how to disappear into the mist all together. ”

“That all sounds way too messy for áma,” Kari said with a surprised chuckle. “I can’t picture it.”

“That was a long time ago,” I said with a sigh.

“A lot can change in a millennia.” Stories like these were a reminder that while I’d been alive far longer than I’d ever thought possible, I was a speck in the timeline for áma.

My life since has been a heavy dose of death clashing with untouchable life.

I’d been surrounded by gods and static features, yet I carted souls off on a nightly basis.

My own identity got lost in the mix so easily, sometimes making me feel ancient and invincible, and other times so utterly young and fragile.

“I suppose so,” she said, running her thumb down a wooden wardrobe. “Is what you seek in here?”

“Did you do some exploring, seeress?” I asked, thinking of my armor and wondering what else she’d gotten her curious hands on during her lonely nights in this chamber when her lips were too tired to cast any more spells.

The skin on the tips of her fingers were already turning black, cursed from all the underworld seidr, and I couldn’t help but imagine that sight reminded her of her once cursed eyes.