Page 58 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings (Love X Magic #3)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

BEYOND THE PIGMENT

Kari

M y bare feet padded against the floor as I paced from the window to the door, which happened to be quite the distance.

Gods could make endlessly large quarters for themselves, far bigger than one being could ever need.

And to think, this was just one of Odr’s chambers, the one meant to stoke his inspiration.

I, of course, would not be permitted in the one he once shared with Freyja.

My pacing didn’t cease until there was a knock on the door. I rushed over, already halfway en route. I found myself swinging the door open with little regard for who stood on the other side. There was only one face I wanted to see, and it was spotted with age.

“áma! Thank goodness!” I said, pulling her, perhaps a little too aggressively, inside the chamber.

“Get your oily mitts off me,” áma said in her croaky old voice. “Did you dump every incantation oil you could find on yourself? My gods!”

I shrunk back, removing my hands from her shoulders and wiping them down my fur-lined shawl. “I may have gotten carried away,” I admitted sheepishly.

“Go cleanse yourself from the elbow down. I need a fresh canvas to work with, and you’re far from it.”

I narrowed my eyes but began backing toward the wash basin anyway, biting my tongue.

I wouldn’t fight with the woman after she’d come all this way.

Rayna had sent Gunhild to collect her from the mist and deliver her to Sessrúmnir, and that was no small thing.

I couldn’t imagine seeing áma on the back of the fearsome pegasus, and I had to stifle a laugh before the windswept woman asked me what I was going on about.

When I was cleansed to áma’s satisfaction, I met her in the center of the chamber. She stood there with a wooden bowl, and as I approached, she shoved into my chest. “Mugwort is child’s play. Drink this.”

“What is it?” I asked, wearily taking the bowl from her and staring at the thick, red substance.

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to,” she grumbled, tucking wayward hairs behind her ears.

“áma, there’s no way in Hel I’m drinking whatever this is without knowing what’s in it first.”

She sighed and looked up at me before she muttered, “Once you know, you can’t unknow, but suit yourself. I’ve mashed together the heart from a silver fish hand-caught in a fjord, the blessed wolf-wine drained from five humans, tea made of Yggdrasil bark, and, uh, mint, of course.”

I winced and peered at the contents of the bowl. The only positive was the mint to settle my stomach after consuming raw heart and human blood. Next time she told me not to ask, I was going to listen.

“And the face you’re making is why I chose not to tell you,” áma sighed. “Plug your nose and drink up. There’s much to learn and not much time to learn it.”

I gritted my teeth and did just as she asked.

The thick, coppery liquid slid down my throat, and even after it was all gone, I waited several moments before I unplugged my nose and resumed breathing.

áma handed me a cloth to wipe my lips, and when I did, the cloth came away a diluted scarlet.

My nose wrinkled, but I turned my attention to áma so I didn’t have to dwell on what I’d done any longer.

“Very good. Now let that settle into your stomach,” áma said with a smack of her thin lips, “First thing’s first.” Her wrinkled palm smacked the side of my face with a strength I didn’t know she had.

My hand instinctively found my throbbing cheek, and I stared at the woman in disbelief.

“You will be an attendant to Freyja, Goddess of Fertility, War, and Love, and you will join her council. There will be many things you won’t know how to do, but you will uncover the answers you seek, always.

You will have a council of people to help you.

You will never be alone. Even now, you’re not alone.

Do not see my help as a weakness. You hear me? ”

“Yes, but did I really need to be slap?—”

“You don’t think you can locate Odr, but if you believe it, it will be so. You are young, with much to learn, but you are powerful already. Even the gods see it. Do not squander this opportunity on self-doubt.”

“I’m not squandering it,” I growled out.

“I heard you pacing, child. Do not lie to me. You don’t have faith in yourself. Tonight, when you lay your head upon a pillow of god, you will have a vision of someone other than yourself. Say it!”

This woman is ill in the mind!

“Say it!”

I swallowed and lowered my hand from my still-throbbing cheek. My dry lips parted, and I repeated her words back to her. “When I lay my head upon a pillow of a god, I will have a vision of someone other than myself.”

“When your eyes close and your mind goes elsewhere, you will see the God of Inspiration and Frenzy. You will find Odr. Say it!”

“When my eyes close and my mind goes elsewhere, I will see the God of Inspiration and Frenzy,” I echoed, not just saying it to appease her this time, but feeling the words down to my marrow.

“Good. Now, climb into his bed,” áma said, her knuckles pointed toward his impressive slumber mat. I did as she said, the pounding of my blood in my ears, mixed with that of five others.

When I was tucked under his bedding, áma stood to the side and took my hand. Her dark gaze softened as she brought her hand over my face and gently closed my eyes, humming to me as she did.

“With closed eyes, your mind opens,” she sang, her voice rough. “With open palms, what you seek finds you.”

My arms rested at my sides, palms up, just as áma sang. I felt a cool wash on my skin as áma painted shapes across the inside of my hands and up my wrists. My eyes remained closed, my mind focused. My visions usually found me in my dreams, a tangled web while I slept.

Not this time.

My chin tilted, eyes rolled to the back of my skull. I was mildly aware of the surroundings of my waking body, but the images that flicked through my mind were all I saw behind closed eyes.

Splashes of color drenched my skin as I peered down at myself.

The odd pigments reminded me of the surface of a sparkling fjord when the high sun greeted the water’s edge.

My hands were strong, the tips of my fingers shaped in hard lines meant for wielding, creating.

Upon noticing a patch of unpainted skin, I reached for my brush, only to notice the color I needed was gone.

Gone. Gone. Gone.

This wasn’t right, couldn’t be right, until the color I needed was mine once more. How had I not realized I was running low on the shade? It shared the pigment of the sun when cast behind the clouds, the way it lit the sky in shimmering beams of light the perfect balance between pink and blue.

My brush clattered against my tools, and I, too, was gone.

A rainbow swallowed me whole and spit me back out in a land of white.

This new place was one my heart beat for but my mind could not place.

Golden spheres rolled upon the ground and trees bent, forming tunnels for me to walk through, a shade from the blinding sun.

I knew where I needed to go, but as I walked, walked, walked, I moved no closer.

The pigment began falling from my skin, leaching into the soil below me, until I, too, fell beneath the dirt and roots of the realm.

I was pulled down and down and down until I sat within the roots of the very tree that had stolen me.

My hands were empty and my heart was too as I realized I was colorless, pigment-less.

My gaze fell upon my hands, memories moving across my palms much like the plays I often watched on Asgard. My home.

I stirred with a gasp, sitting up right, my arms flailing out on either side of me.

“Settle,” áma spoke in a low, steady tone. “You’re here, back within yourself.”

My fists clenched the damp bedding, and I took three breaths before I threw layers of quilts and furs off myself.

I ran to the easel in the far corner of the room and ran my fingers over the canvas.

My eyes flicked to the empty jar of pigment, and before I knew what I was doing, my finger dipped inside the jar and rubbed the sides for remaining residue.

When I held my finger up, a shimmery purple coated the side of it.

“What are you looking for?” áma asked, peering over me. I jumped to the side, not realizing she had snuck up on me.

“Where would someone go for pigments such as these?” I asked, motioning to the collection of jars and dried brushes. “I’ve never seen anything like them on Midgard.”

áma picked up a jar and rolled it between her fingers. She hummed before she said, “That’s because the properties within don’t exist upon Midgard. These are laden with seidr and rare elven elements.”

“Elven?” I asked, staring down at my finger still stained the unique shade of a cloudy sunset.

The land of white.

“Alfheim!” I blurted. “Odr has to be in the realm of light elves. I think he’s trapped. I-I saw him being dragged through the Earth, and I think he missed his home.”

áma slowly nodded, her grey, wiry hair falling into her face.

“The light elves have underground prisons made of sentient trees to keep their prey trapped and isolated. It is very possible he went for more pigments but found himself in a bit of trouble along the way,” áma said before her mouth split into a too-big smile.

“Why are you smiling?” I asked, my stomach dropping at the odd sight.

“Because you did it.”

“I did, didn’t I?” I said, my hand lifting to my still-damp face. The tips of my fingers found the curve of my lips, and the knowledge of what I’d done washed over me in a wave so fierce, my knees wobbled. “I need to go tell Freyja!”

“Not so fast,” áma said, grabbing my arm before I could run past her. “It’s the middle of the night. The guards won’t let you anywhere near her.”

I peered out the window over my shoulder, realizing she was right when I saw the glow of the moon and its glittering starry sky. “I’ll wait until morning, though I can’t say I’ll be able to go to sleep now, not after this discovery.”

“You should try. You may see something else in your dreams that could prove useful. That, and you weren’t exactly asleep while having that vision of yours. How do you expect to continue practicing your seidr in the coming days without rest?”

“I wasn’t asleep, you’re right,” I mumbled.

“It was so odd. In the beginning of the vision, I was aware of my body and of your presence, but the deeper into the vision I was pulled, the less I sensed anything outside of myself. Odr and I felt one in the same, even if the vision wasn’t the clearest.”

“If you don’t need to be asleep for a vision, that means you’re understanding your mind and the workings of your seidr. It’s said the seeresses on Freyja’s council can have them in the waking hours, and one can even have visions on command, though I’m not sure how reliable they are.”

“On command?” I asked in amazement.

“Yes, well, they’ve had far more time to hone their skills. Who knows what you’ll be capable of in a thousand years.”

I coughed on my own spittle, my hand flying to my chest to force myself to take in a meaningful breath.

One thousand years?

“Oh, I’ve done it now,” áma said, gently patting my back. “Yes, girl, you’ll be alive for many years to come, just like that valkyrie of yours when she shows her loyalty to Freyja.”

“Rune,” I said with a lingering cough. “Finding Odr was the only thing keeping her from offering herself to the goddess, but now, there’s nothing standing in her way.”

“If they find Odr, that is. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” áma said. “Now, climb back into that bed and find your rest. We have a big day ahead of ourselves in the morning.”

I nodded once, and as I began walking over to rest my head, I caught a glimpse of the pinkish-red marks across my skin.

There were open eyes crusted onto my palms, runes fingerpainted onto each of my wrists.

I wondered if I should wipe them off, or if I should risk the lack of sleep to possibly uncover more about Odr and his whereabouts.

I climbed into the bed, curling under the sheets. A sigh escaped my lips, and for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t worried about my future. I had every faith in Rune to show herself loyal to Freyja, and surely, after finding her husband, she would let me stay within her realm.

The immortality didn’t matter to me, and neither did the fancy position on her council. What I cared about was a woman with two names. I couldn’t wait to get back to her to tell her what I’ve done for the goddess. For us.