Page 48 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings (Love X Magic #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

HER GREATEST SACRIFICE

Rune

M y foot thrummed against freshly fallen snow, the powdery substance compacting more and more with every passing moment, though it never grew dirty, always white and beautiful.

Yet another illusion.

I huffed out a breath, the air around me turned foggy, as if I had a fire burning in my lungs. I was armor-less, seidr-less, and my heart was torn open and exposed to the raw, brutal elements of Hel.

The only shining light in any of this was a strawberry blonde seeress with lips so soft, it was maddening.

I stared at the Bifrost Bridge and replayed our kiss over and over in my mind.

I wished it’d been under different circumstances, that it hadn’t been the fear of losing her that’d made me finally kiss her, but I’d never take it back now.

The new and wonderful feelings budding and blossoming within me were all the more volatile after having to leave her.

It was too soon, but warnings needed to be sent and actions needed to be taken if I was going to keep everyone I cared for safe.

Odin knows.

He knew everything, and the columns holding up my life, my entire existence, were crumbling faster than I could rebuild.

I’d been standing across from the Bifrost, waiting not so patiently, since sunrise.

The rainbow hues of the Bifrost had long since burned itself into my eyes, so even when I blinked, I saw it.

I wasn’t sure if my plan would succeed, or if I was putting far too much faith in an attendant of Hel I’d bribed with a stunning dagger from Nidavellir.

Well, technically, it was made by Nori on Asgard, but the troll didn’t need to know that.

The Bifrost flared, and I jumped to attention. Two figures were spat out before me, and clearly, there was such a thing as being too eager, because my close proximity to the landing area meant a hairy troll screaming profanities knocked me down.

Groaning, I pushed him off me and muttered, “It’s about damn time!”

The troll rose to his feet, straightening out his dirt-stained tunic.

He grumbled something about a nasty pegasus and held out his hand for payment.

I brushed right past him and offered a hand out to Rayna, who laid on the ground in a heap.

When she didn’t move, I nudged her with the tip of my boot and called her name.

Nothing.

I whirled on the troll, dagger already in hand. “Your payment will be a knife to the gut if you don’t tell me what happened to her.”

The troll put his hands up. “I did what you’re payin’ me for, you crazy bitch. You asked me to bring her, and I did. She’s alive, isn’t she?”

I lowered the dagger for a moment, just long enough to kneel beside Rayna and check for a pulse. When her lifeforce thrummed against my fingers, the tightness in my chest eased. I pushed the whitening hair out of her face and took in her closed eyes.

“What happened?” I asked the gruff looking man, his grey hair matted with mud. “Did she not come willingly?”

“Didn’t give her the chance,” he said with a shrug, his lengthy nose twitching. “Once I got past that homicidal pegasus of hers, I took matters into my own hands. Don’t hire a troll if you don’t want a proper kidnapping. She should be awake by high-sun.”

“Fine. Why did it take you so long? I told you where she’d be,” I growled.

“And that would’ve been helpful if she’d actually been there. I had to grab her in Sessrúmnir, which was no stroll in the field. You’re lucky I’m not charging you extra for that.”

“Sessrúmnir?” I repeated, looking down at Rayna. “Why were you in Freyja’s Hall?” I whispered to the valkyrie, though I knew she couldn’t hear me.

“Payment,” the troll barked out.

I gritted my teeth and tossed the dagger by his feet. If he wanted his payment, he’d have to dig through the snow for it. “Get out of here.”

I turned my back on him, knowing that even without the speed or strength of my valkyrie gifts, I would sense any attack if he chose to be brave enough. As I shook Rayna, I heard the man retrieve the dagger and be on his way.

I wasn’t strong enough to carry her all the way to our room, but I also couldn’t leave her here in the snow to freeze.

With a whisper of apology, I reached my pointer and thumb into her nose, gripped a collection of short hairs, and yanked as hard as I could.

Rayna shot up right with a gasp, clutching at her face.

“What the actual fuck!” She glanced around for the culprit, and when she saw me, she instinctively punched me in the shoulder.

My eyes bulged at the pure strength her punch packed, and I failed at holding back my wince.

Rayna took a quick glance around to assess the area, the snow dusting her body.

Then, she noticed it. Her eyes locked on my hair, her gaze trailing from my roots to my tips.

“Rune…” She trailed off, her eyes softening. “I didn’t think your hair would turn so fast.”

“You already know?” I asked, my throat betraying me as my voice cracked.

Rayna nodded, reaching forward to clasp my hand.

“Odin summoned me. He tossed a piece of your distorted armor at my feet. For a moment, I thought he’d killed you.

” Rayna paused, swallowing deeply. She shook her head, as if doing so would hold back her tears, but one slipped past her defenses anyway.

That single tear rolling down her face shattered something inside me.

Rayna didn’t cry, not when she realized she could never see her family again, not when she’d witnessed a mortal die by her hands, and not when she’d had her heart broken for the first time.

“Rayna,” I whispered, pulling her into a hug. “I’m here.”

She nodded again, this time with a hard resolve locked into her features.

She leaned into me, her fingers brushing the tips of my hair streaked with deep brown.

I held back my own tears as my sister touched my mortality, it seeping into her fingertips, reminding us both that we were now a world apart.

“You once told me Helheim would have to be set aflame before you went to Midgard without me. It’s now happened, and you will, in fact, go on without me. You must.”

Rayna pulled away from me, her eyes wide. “What are you talking about? Fire? In Hel?”

“Kari’s seidr is…more than I ever expected. She’s magnificent. You should’ve seen her when she found out I was stripped of my title,” I said, a small smile carving room for itself upon my face.

“Kari summoned the fire?” she gasped. “Nine realms, Rune, we have so much to catch up on. Get me out of this snow and tell me everything.”

“She did,” I said, lifting myself out of the snow and pulling Rayna up with me. “Fire in one hand, ice in the other.”

“Great gods,” was all Rayna could manage as she dusted snow off her red leathers. “Even so, Ru, I can’t live an eternity without you. You are my mortality, much like Kari is yours.”

“That’s not true.” I shook my head. “You have Gunhild, Alvion, and Nori too. You are more than my sister. You’re Odin’s best now. You will be his favorite. That’s not nothing.”

“Fuck no, I’m not.”

“Stop being modest, Rayna.”

“I’m not being modest. I’m nothing to Odin now. If he won’t have you, he doesn’t have me either. No discussion.”

“Rayna…what did you do?” I took a step back, looking her over and assessing a deep change in my sister I’d been too distracted to see earlier, but now, it was all I felt.

She stared at me, her chin raised, her dark eyes hardened.

“Why were you in Fólkvangr?” I asked.

“I’m Freyja’s now, and you will be too.”

“For the love of all things living, you did not!” I strode away from her, not able to look upon her foolish face. My ass was frozen, my heart broken, yet my rage was more potent.

“What, Rune? You couldn’t have expected me to stay in Valhalla with that monster!” she yelled.

“Monster? Rayna, being a valkyrie is your life. You worked so hard to get to Valhalla, and you threw it all away for what? Me?” I scoffed. “I’m not worth your future.”

“You’re worth my life!” She shoved my shoulders, and I couldn’t keep my footing in the snow.

I tumbled backward, my sister’s screams in my ears as I fell.

Tears welled in my eyes at the weakness in my bones, the defiance in her voice.

My bare hands gripped the icy snow, and I stared down into the endless white, the last remaining pillar of my former life in pieces before me.

Hands swept under my underarms, and the next thing I knew, I was standing once more. My hands were freezing, but I didn’t move to warm them. Rayna rested her chin on my shoulder, a shaky sigh leaving her lungs. We stood there for a moment, two sisters on opposite sides of the same war.

Finally, my resoluteness broke, and I turned to meet her gaze.

Before I could speak, she said, “Freyja is pleased to have me back, Rune. I don’t feel like I’m taking a step backward, truly.

I feel like I’m taking a step forward. Maybe not in my career, but in my life.

You know more than anyone what life in Valhalla can do to a person.

I want to find my own happiness, to be content.

During my year in Fólkvangr, I was so focused on being promoted to the Valhalla sect, I never looked around and was grateful for what I did have.

I don’t want that life anymore. What better place to do that than the hall designed for nothing but peace and tranquility? ”

“You did this for you? Not just me? You mean it?” I asked, scanning her all too familiar features. Her blonde and white hair was messy, flakes of snow clinging to the braids that swooped up and out of her face. Her dark eyes softened, and in them, I sensed her truth.

“I do,” Rayna said, and that admission had my clenched fists relaxing. “And…I told her I wouldn’t re-join the sect unless she took you too.”

I took a step back, pressure building in my widened eyes. “What? You did? What did she say?”