Page 28 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings
“Of course there was. You think I just make things up for fun? To embarrass you?”
“I don’t know. All I know is I don’t trust a single thing that comes out of your traitorous mouth. Even if I forgave you, even if I thanked you for not letting the raiders end me, what good would that do? I’d still be here.”
“Yes, you would, but we could move on. I’m tired of?—”
“Oh,” Kari laughed wickedly, her pink lips turning up without a hint of joy. “I’m so sorry I’mboringyou.”
“Boring me? Never,” I admitted. “Testing my patience? Very much so.”
She lifted her chin in defiance, staring at me a little too long before she said, “Admit it.”
“Admit what?” I asked, tracing the curve of her frown with my heated gaze.
“You being there when I was shot by the arrow wasn’t a coincidence.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I murmured. “I follow death. It wasn’t odd for me to be in Stormheim.”
“You’re a gods damned liar!” she shouted, the legs of her chair scraping on the stone floor beneath us.
A traitor, a liar—I was growing weary of this human telling me what I was.
“Leave it be, seeress,” I ground out between my teeth.
“Your little name for me doesn’t fool me. Neither did the mugwort tea.”
My blood froze.
“Fruit tart, anyone?” Áma barged into the room with a plate full of fruit tarts. She placed them down on the table between us and shot me a glance that said I owed her.
“I’d love one, thank you, Áma.” Kari grabbed a fruit pastry off the plate, her fingers and jaw tense despite her sugary words. She brought the treat to her lips, and I didn’t watch as she took her first bite. I couldn’t give her any more reason to suspect me, and if I ogled her over the way she licked her lips between bites, I’d be in trouble.
“Well then,” Áma said, a false smile working its way onto her mouth. “Kari, you and I have a few things we need to work onbefore the two of you head off to the first gate. Why don’t you come with me to my incantation chamber, hmm?”
Kari got up, but Áma held out her hand and said, “Finish your tart here, child. No food is permitted in my incantation chamber, only ingredients. It’s better that way, you see. I’ll meet you there. Rune, show her the way when she’s ready, will you?”
With that, Áma was off down the hall, and I was left shaking my head. Pink bloomed across Kari’s face as the awkwardness got its claws into her, and a strange urge to pull her out of it took hold of me. I wouldn’t, though.
Not until she no longer saw me as a threat.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
OLD BONES AND ROTTEN SEIDR
Kari
“Rune can be a pain,” Áma said, giving me a once over. She held open the door to her incantation chamber, and I ducked inside the stone room with a weary smile. “It’s hard to earn her trust, no matter who you are. If you want to make it through your travels with her, you ought to focus on what she’s saying and doing, not what she’s holding back.”
“Yet I must be honest with her?” I asked, glancing around the cluttered room. There were shelves lined with bottled ingredients, several mortar and pestles, and prepared spells. One shelf was reserved for bones and treasures of the flesh, while another wall was reserved for strung up and drying herbs and flowers.
Áma shrugged. “She can be of great use to you. The more she knows, the more she can help. Don’t forget, at the core of this journey, she’s the one aiding you, not the other way around.” The old Asgardian pulled out two stools from under a long work bench and motioned for me to claim one.
“I’d beg to differ. I’ve stayed alive. She seems to have great interest in ensuring I don’t find my death, even if it would’ve made my path so much simpler. I don’t believe for one moment it’s out of the kindness of her heart. ”
Áma made a chuffing sound. “It rarely is with the godsortheir attendants.”
“So you agree she wants something from me?” I asked, running my nails over the wooden table.
“Who’s to say?” Áma said with a shrug. “But does it really matter? If she wants to keep you alive and help you break your curse for good, does it matter if her intentions do not align with your own?”
