Page 19 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings
Rune shook her head as she pulled her armor out of the wardrobe. Piece by piece, she began securing it over her red leathers, tightening straps and adjusting her breastplate. The brilliant golden armor was unmarred, all but for a line gouged through the chest piece. I watched as she paused to run a thoughtful thumb down the mark before she resumed getting her things in order.
I tried to ignore the reflection in her armor, but I found myself staring ruthlessly at that gouge, wondering why itseemed so familiar. When my gaze sharpened, I realized, while unintentional, that I’d been staring right at her breasts. I should have looked away, but even she didn’t move. Out of the side of my eyes, I saw her watching me, and I couldn’t help notice the way the metal warped around her body so perfectly, she looked as if she’d been dipped in liquid gold.
Rune cleared her throat, and my eyes shot straight across the room—straight to the mirror hanging mercilessly on the gilded wall.
“Great gods,” I screamed, clutching my cheek. “My face!”
I scrambled out of the bed, my hands shaking as my gaze locked on my eyes in the reflection.
Ocean blue.
Deep pools of ocean blue.
My knees threatened to buckle, and the only thing that held me upright was knowing I wouldn’t be able to see my reflection from the floor. I could hear the blood pulsing in my head as my hands fell to the mirror, knocking on it and double checking it wasn’t some cruel trick.
There was no rot, no goo, no peeling skin, no black veins—just the smooth skin I’d always known there to be from the truth of my touch. One hand was still on the mirror, the other one on my face, which shook back and forth in disbelief.
“What did I tell you about screaming?” Rune hissed, marching toward me. I could barely hear her over my own heart and the swirling thoughts filling my mind.
“My, my—” I stuttered, not knowing where to begin. How did one explain what I now saw? Or, more importantly, what I didn’t.
The sound of fists pounding on wood echoed from down the hall.
“For the love of all things living,” the valkyrie cursed. She ran to the glass embedded into the wall and pushed open the panes.Breeze brushed the little hairs over her face as she raised her fingers to her lips and let out a loud whistle. “Come here, seeress. Your ride is on its way.”
“My what?” I asked, but she just clicked her tongue impatiently and strode over to where I stood with numb limbs. She pulled me over to the gap in the wall, pushing the bench out of her way to make room for me. Tove squirmed and screeched as she yanked him off the bed and tossed him into my arms. I held his fragile body as his nails retracted.
“When you feel the wind hit your face, jump.” She pushed a bag into my chest, then motioned for me to put Tove inside so I could free my hands.
“Jump?” I said, peering out at the midnight sky. She blew her frustration into the air, sending the scent of hazelnuts and raspberries in my direction as she grabbed Tove out of my arms and did it for me. When the bag was slung over my shoulders with a small hole at the top for Tove to stick his head out of, she grabbed me by the shoulders and squared me in front of the gap in the wall.
I could hear beating wings before I saw them, and my gut clenched as the anticipation of wind on my face gripped me. With a loud whoosh, I felt pressure on my back. The dreaded feeling of falling overwhelmed me as I stumbled out the hole in the wall.
That bitch pushed me!
I only had a moment to right myself before landing on the back of a huge pegasus with white wings. I gripped it around the neck with all my strength, suppressing a scream that fought valiantly up my throat.
“Take her to the mist!” Rune shouted, and the pegasus took off into the star-filled sky.
Rune’s pegasus shot through the air at a nauseating speed. Flashes of images of white feathers and the feeling of flyingracked through my brain—bits of memories of my travels from Midgard to Asgard.
“You left without me! Seriously?” someone shouted from behind me, but I didn’t dare turn around. Whoever it was clearly didn’t intend for their words to fall upon my ears, and I wasn’t so confident that if I moved, I wouldn’t tumble through the clouds to my untimely death.
“Epli!” the voice called again, and only when an apple came soaring past my head and in biting range of the white pegasus did the creature slow its pace. The crunch of fruit in the winged horse's teeth vibrated through its neck and into my hands. “Rune, what are you?—”
It wasn’t until Rayna grew closer that she realized I wasn’t her sister. No, I was just the woman she couldn’t stand for some reason unbeknownst to me.
Her black pegasus soared next to me, and only then did Rayna and I lock eyes. “Did you…steal Apple? How did you manage?—”
“I didn’t steal this pegasus! I was thrown on top of it,” I yelled out into the sky, hoping my words cut through the wind enough for the valkyrie to hear me.
“Her! Not ‘it’,” Rayna grumbled, having no difficulty speaking through the wind, no doubt after decades of practice, maybe even centuries. “I assume it was Rune who threw you?”
I nodded, watching the way her eyes rolled in response.
“And I assume, since you’re heading in the opposite direction of the Bifrost, that you’re not going back to Midgard?”
“I can assume that to be the case, yes!” I yelled; I didn’t have much more information than she did.
