Page 43 of Thorulf
Jade shrugged and shook her head. “I’m sure we'll find out why soon enough.” She sighed. “Until then, I wish I understood the rest of it.” She looked at her sister. “How could I be here and in the future at the same time without you knowing?” She glanced at Thorulf. “And why have you and I forgotten so much? Especially sharing a lair.” She rounded her eyes at Maya. “I didn’t even have one back home.”
“It sounds like you didn’t need one,” Vicar kicked in. “Not if you had one here.”
“Which would have meant I was here often.”
“Yet you were never gone away for any extended period of time that I know of,” Maya said. “Even then, if you’d been over a thousand years in our past, I would have sensed it. Aunt Elsie and our sisters would have too.”
“Unless,” Thorulf theorized, “her godliness disguised her somehow.”
Jade looked at him curiously. “How would it do that when I didn’t even know I possessed it, never mind how to use it?”
“It’s hard to know.” He eyed where their little dragons had just been. “Maybe at one time youdidknow how to use it and, like all of this, simply forgot.”
“That makes sense,” Vicar agreed. “Which leads us back towhyyou forgot.”
“Which undoubtedly leads towhomade them forget.” Dagr looked at Jade with sympathy. “It seems, at least at the moment, we have two likely candidates.”
“The purple dragon for sure,” Maya continued. “And now I think Thor likely had a hand in this too. Wish we’d found out how much before he vanished.”
“You and me both.” Jade eyed the area with what looked to be nostalgic curiosity. “So what happened to my memories of you, Maya? Of Trinity and Raven?” She looked Thorulf’s way. “And I can’t help but wonder, based on what we’ve seen so far, did we ever shift into this form? Were we ever human together?”
He had been wondering the same things. “It seems strange that we wouldn’t have shifted.”
“I agree.”
“Itiscurious we don’t see your memories anymore, Jade.” Maya glanced at Dagr. “Maybe it was just because of all the godly energy around when we closed the gateway?”
“Enemy godly energy right at our doorstep.” Vicar cocked a brow at Thorulf, clearly more his Múspellsheimr self at the moment. “Atyourdoorstep, brother.”
“Which means nothing,” Dagr defended, glancing from Thorulf to Jade. “Especially considering Thor protected the lair. Still stands by us. By Jade and Thorulf.” He scowled at Vicar. “You just witnessed how fond of Thorulf and Jade, Thor is. Do you think he’d want Jade seeking her truth with Thorulf if he thought your brother was allied with the enemy? More than that, do you think he wouldn't be taking more immediate action if he thought his own flesh and blood was truly involved with the Celts?”
“That’s one way of looking at it,” Vicar conceded. “The other is that Thor and Loki use a traitor in our midst to smoke out the bigger enemy.”
“You think our truth will lead us straight to Mórrígan.” Jade seemed to consider Vicar’s theory with a bit more thought than Thorulf appreciated. “That they’re using Thorulf and me as bait?”
“Is it such a far-fetched idea?” Vicar clasped his hands behind his back and eyed the horizon like an overlord in his kingdom. “If I were a god, I’d use anything at my disposal to conquer the enemy. To win this war.” He shook his head. “Something as trivial as sentiment would not get in my way.”
“Ah, I see we’ve returned to the dark side.” Jade joined him at the edge. She might seem at ease, but Thorulf felt her deep-rooted dislike of the spot. “So Thorulf’s at the heart of all evil, and he and I are the suckers getting played.” She narrowed her eyes, surprising Thorulf when she defended him. “Though you would think if your brother was at the root of all evil, a Múspellsheimr dragon such as yourself would know it.” She tilted her head. “Because when all’s said and done, having been the ultimate good guy in your former life, an enigma among your kind, you’rethatintuitive.” She shrugged. “Yet I get the feeling your dragon hasn’t sensed a thing about Thorulf's possible betrayal.”
A slow smile curled Vicar’s mouth that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “I see you’ve decided to listen to your sister, after all.” When she arched a brow in question, he leaned a little closer and winked. “You’ve decided not to wait to see if I want Trinity first but welcome he who betrayed you into your heart again.”
“Or,” she countered, “I’m playing the same game as the gods.”
“But you’re not,” he murmured.
“Impossible to know.”
Jade might say that, but Thorulf felt the shift in her dragon. She still felt betrayed and hurt but witnessing their memories was helping. Shifting some of her anger away so she could see more clearly. Understand whatever it was they had forgotten. And he couldn’t be more grateful.
Jade was, however hesitant, giving him a chance.
“I can only wish you the best then,” Vicar murmured, evidently coming to the same conclusion. He nodded at Thorulf in acquiescence, his tone somewhat dry as he tossed his brother Loki’s Dagger. “Of course, I’m here for you both every step of the way.” Naturally, he contradicted himself in a flash when he manifested a bow and arrows and strode for the exit. “I’m going hunting.”
“Is that really so wise?” Maya asked when Vicar strode into the storm and vanished. She looked at Dagr in concern. “He’s unprotected out there.”
“Yet he always manages somehow,” Dagr muttered.
“So he goes out into godly storms often?”