Page 34 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings (Love X Magic #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

LEAD THE WAY, GARM

Kari

I smelled Garm before I saw him. There was no denying his presence, even being on the other side of Hel’s thick gate.

Rumbling howls disrupted the false night, and the stench of rot permeated the air.

If Hel wanted to create a better reputation for her realm, a good place to start would be by getting rid of the giant wolf in front of its entrance.

Kind of a bad first impression, if you ask me.

Rune led the way, and Tove hissed and spat in my arms the entire time, knowing we grew closer to the creature that could very well gobble him up.

I tried not to think what would happen if things got out of hand and Garm decided he wanted a tasty treat.

Tove might have not been alive, but he was still a soul, and here, in Hel, even souls could be destroyed.

If the Norns had woven such a fate for Tove, there’d be nothing I could do to reach him again.

Cut it out, Kari. I begged myself, my heart beating far too fast in my chest as Rune used the gate’s knocker to alert our presence.

As if the wolf didn’t already know we were here.

Unlike most of the gates we traveled through, Helheim had a guard on the inside that didn't let just anyone in. The Goddess of Death was notorious for being protective over the souls in her realm. If she took you in, you were hers, and she wouldn’t let any outsider get a piece of you.

Garm let out another skin-quivering howl before the gate creaked open. A voice, mighty and demanding, reverberated through the air. The sound came from the blood-stained wolf, though he’d never opened his massive jaw to do anything other than lick his jowls upon spotting the hissing cat in my arms.

“State your purpose.”

Rune stepped forward and spoke, her chin pointed high. “I come from the House of Wings’ Valhalla sect, with a mortal who claims to have been cursed by Hel.”

The white-eyed wolf stepped forward before I could say or do anything, and when he did, he left a paw print behind in pure white snow larger than my entire body.

My throat worked on a gulp as I tried not to take in his foul stench.

Tove thrashed in my arms, and I was suddenly very thankful for the impenetrable fabric of my skirts as his nails flared in warning.

The guard of Helheim drew in a deep breath through his nostrils, right at the side of my face. My teeth were clamped tight, and when my eyes darted to Rune, she held my gaze in a way that was so soft and warm, I couldn’t help but settle my nerves.

Garm’s tongue rolled out before it slid up my neck and the side of my head in a slow, hot greeting. This wasn’t a friendly hello, but a test. He was tasting me, my emotions, my lies, but I’d spoken none, and neither had Rune.

The wolf let out a low growl in his throat before turning his hind legs to me, his tail almost knocking me over. My knees wobbled, but I held my chin up just like Rune, using every speck of restraint I possessed to not wipe the foul saliva off my neck.

He uses that tongue to fucking eat people. What happened to a dog’s mouths being cleaner than ours? I ranted to myself, because I couldn’t out loud unless I wanted to join whoever was surely already in the pits of his belly.

“Follow me,” the air around Garm seemed to say.

Rune moved first, Apple right beside her.

My feet felt frozen, as if the ice of Helheim had wrapped around my ankles and refused to let me move.

Rune glanced over her shoulder when she realized I wasn’t with her, and held her hand out to me as an offering.

I grabbed it without thinking, and only when her warm hand was in mine did I realize I’d been endlessly grateful to have been given her steady presence.

With our palms pressed together, I took my first step through the gate.

I kept my eyes trained forward, not wanting to appear nervous by looking around, even if everything in me was curious about this place.

For some reason, unlike being in Valhalla, I felt as if I was cheating by being here in Helheim.

I would have never ended up in Valhalla upon my death; I would have been carried here by valkyries in black.

Gold would have never found me, but the cold of Hel would’ve.

Rune squeezed my hand as we walked across a bridge made of ice and stone, reminding me I was still alive, and just because I was here didn’t mean I needed to stay.

Was I horrible if I left my family here? Could I stay in this place, be twenty-seven forever, all because I didn’t want to say goodbye to this fur ball in my arms that should’ve passed on years ago?

Rune stared at the side of my face, and I truly felt as if she knew everything going on in this chaotic mind of mine.

She knew my fears, and I think I was beginning to understand hers too.

I also had someone I didn’t want to say goodbye to, and I understood how stubborn we can be, how much we can hold on to what has given us comfort, even if it was holding us back.

Just as much as Tove was holding me back from living, I was holding Rune back from her destiny.

Garm snapped his salivating jaws in our direction, and I dropped Rune’s hand so fast, it could’ve been on fire.

“What do you need, Garm?” Rune asked, unbothered by this monstrous creature before us. I imagined she’d seen worse. Maybe the true monsters didn’t look like Garm, instead the old men who lived in golden castles.

“Give me the mortal,” the air said as he let out a low growl.

“She’s not mine to give,” Rune said, because I wasn’t an object to be had, and she knew that. “I’ll be staying by her side, nonetheless.”

“She won’t like it.”

“She’ll get over it,” Rune said. I held my breath as she talked to Garm as if he was beneath her, and I guess in the power structure, he was.

Garm may have been a direct attendant to Hel, but Rune was a direct attendant to Odin, and he was the Allfather.

Rune would always have more power than the attendants of any other hall or realm, even if they were ginormous and stained an ominous red.

Smoke rolled out of Garm’s nose, but he didn’t fight Rune on the matter.

As we continued walking through the cold expanse, I tucked my shawl into my belt.

I folded my arms against my chest to try to retain the heat within me that bled freely into the frigid air.

If only fire wasn’t immediately extinguished in this realm.

I suppose there are other ways of keeping warm.

My gaze wandered over to Rune, and now, it was my turn to take in her profile as she stared off at something in the distance.

Before I sought what she was focused on, I stole a moment to observe her features, trying to piece together last night.

I felt as if something lingered in the air between us.

There was something to be said, but I couldn’t remember what.

Whatever it was, I kept trying to work it over in my mind, because even if the memories weren’t all there, it still warmed me from the inside out.

Up ahead, I finally spotted the haze of a palace. I wasn’t sure if it was made of black stone, or if the distance was playing tricks on my mind.

“We’re here,” Rune said. “Are you ready, seeress?”

“Seeress?” Garm echoed, his front paw hovering in the air instead of taking its next step onto the snow-covered stone.

It was my turn to speak now. I couldn’t expect Rune to fight this battle for me, because we both knew Hel would expect to hear from me.

I may as well start now.

“Yes,” I said to the light grey wolf. “Part of my curse, I assume.”

“I see.”

Neither Garm nor we spoke for the remainder of the trip across the icy bridge to Hel’s Hall, and it soon became apparent that the palace we walked toward was, in fact, carved of pure onyx.

“Your pegasus companion may take flight. She is not welcome inside Hel’s Hall,” Garm finally said.

Rune patted Apple on the rear, and the pegasus trotted down the bridge before leaping off the side into the air. Her wings snapped out and caught her gracefully, and she became a blur of white across the snowy sky.

When she was gone, Garm continued the rest of the way down the bridge until stopping before its impressive entrance. While eerie at first, the second I stepped into the building, I was surrounded by an otherworldly warmth, as if the stone on all sides of me whispered everything would be okay.

My fear slipped away with each step I took, and as I glanced over at Garm, I realized he was cleaned up, no longer tainted and splattered with the evidence of violence.

I wasn’t sure if what lay outside this place was the illusion, or if something about Hel’s Hall made me see and feel what I wanted.

“Will we be taken directly to Hel?” I asked, peering down at my skirts with little leaves clinging to them. The words Rune spoke to me about looking presentable when I’d first arrived in Valhalla played in my mind.

“She is expecting you now. She won’t like it if we make her wait much longer.”

Great. I look like shit, and I probably smell like it too, I thought to myself, though I’d been relieved I was given the chance to clean the ale off my skin and clothes earlier this morning. I’d rather look like I was rolling around outside as opposed to the floor of a dwarven tavern.

We rounded a corner, and I spotted a wide-set double door.

I steadied myself with a deep breath, telling myself I was ready.

Hel was a goddess, the Goddess of Death, and in moments, I would be standing before her.

I’d thought a million times about what I’d say to her, but it felt as if all the preparation I’d done was fading into an abyss in my mind, leaving me with nothing but “Hey, you cursed my family.

Undo it. And give me my cat back while you're at it.”

Garm halted in his tracks as we approached the stunning black doors. They split down the middle, a sliver of light exposing what was on the other side.