Page 42 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings
“You’re not going to stab me in my sleep, are you?” Rune murmured, her back facing me.
“No. Rayna would gut me before I had the chance, I think.” I let out a disappointed sigh, which pulled a chuckle from the valkyrie. “I just wanted to… I don’t know. I want to see something.” I stared up into the sky, in awe of its unique beauty, trying not to overthink what I was about to do.
I heard Rune’s armor clink as she rolled to her other side so she could face me. Next came the distinct sound of a metal blade sliding out of its sheath. She stared into my eyes, her blue ones swimming with the fire blazing behind me. Rune offered up the dagger, hilt first, and I grabbed it with a slight wobble of my hand.
“You know,” Rune started, still pinching the blade between her fingers. “No matter what you see, your eyes will still be beautiful to me.”
I tried to swallow the lump in my throat, but my mouth had suddenly gone very dry.
“Can you stop flirting with the mortal? I’m trying to sleep over here,” Rayna called out, breaking the growing tension. Instead of getting annoyed or embarrassed, Rune simply smiled and released the blade. I gave her a soft grin in return, then steadied myself, dagger in hand.
No matter what you see, your eyes will still be beautiful to me.
Her words echoed in my mind as I turned the hilt in my hand so the flat edge of the blade was facing me. It wasn’t a large weapon, and the surface area of the reflective steel was rather insignificant, but I could see myself all the same. Rune had been right about one thing—my eyes were beautiful to me too.
A sigh of relief left me, and I lowered the dagger after taking a long look into it.
“No screaming. I’m taking that as a good sign,” Rune whispered, as if not to disturb her cranky sister.
“A good thing indeed.” My chest was light as I handed the weapon back to her. I’d wished I’d had the courage to look into it sooner.
Rune held her hand up and said, “Keep it. I have more than I know what to do with.”
“You trust me to have this?” I asked, holding the deadly thing up so the firelight glinted across the blade.
“I told you I’d earn your trust, and that starts by giving you mine,” Rune said, her white hair cascading over her shoulder like freshly fallen snow. The stubborn lump was back, rendering me speechless once more. I wrapped my hands around her gift, keeping it close to me, feeling secure for more than one reason.
Rune Dragomir trusted me.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
DWARVES OF THE NEW MOON
Rune
We all stood in front of the gate to Nidavellir. There were no serpents, fire giants, or a creepy black nothingness threatening to swallow us whole, because unlike the first few gates we encountered, the entrance to the realm of dwarves was quite discreet. Kari had walked right past it, thinking nothing of a large, curved branch from which vines cascaded.
Pulling the curtain of foliage to the side to show the iron gate hidden behind it, I held them in place and said, “After you.”
Rayna took it upon herself to stalk in front of Kari, Gunhild right behind her, muttering something about how insufferable I was being. Kari offered me a sheepish smile as she and Tove snuck under the branch next. Apple and I followed shortly after, and I took one last glance into the dimming sky before stepping through the gate, pulling it closed behind me and securing it with aclick.
There was no use spending another night in a pile of hay when there were perfectly good inns in Nidavellir, even if you had to push two of the beds together. I hadn’t visited in a fewyears, but Rayna, a couple of other sisters, and I had taken the Bifrost on our respective pegasuses more times than I could count over the centuries.
Once we walked through the gate, we weren’t met with unnatural whispers or man-eating snakes or demons. What weweremet with was music, sweet, earthy music. It was dull and rhythmic, emanating from somewhere underground. It’d been a long time since I’d come through the Nidavellir gate.
I glanced around at the mountainous region to get my bearings, pretending I didn’t see Rayna and Kari watching me out of the corner of my eye. Striding forward, I followed the music, something scratching at my brain, telling me to remember. I let my feet take me, as if the muscles held memory. The others followed me, glancing up at the new moon as they went. Kari was in for quite a treat tonight, and anticipation crept up my spine at the prospect of what may come out of our time here. Nidavellir wasn’t named after the new moon for nothing.
When we approached the base of the first mountain, I said, “This is as far as the pegasuses can come.” My gaze locked on Apple, then on Gunhild. Kari turned to find Tove, and when she did, a shriek escaped her lips, her hands flying to her mouth.
“What happened to him?” she asked, motioning to her once orange cat, who was now incorporeal and tinted blue.
I placed my hand on her shaking arm. “It’s okay, seeress. Nidavellir is not of the heavens or the underworld, much like Midgard. Once we leave, he’ll be his orange, solid self again, I promise. While you’ve been getting used to him seeming like he’s living once more, you have to remember, Tove is still a spirit.”
Kari stared at her companion and then nodded her head.
“He’ll be safe here with Epli and Gunhild. If he tries to run off to find you or get into trouble, they’ll know what to do.”
Kari let her head tilt to the side, then let out a sigh. She blew a kiss to Tove as he released a loud meow, seemingly unbothered by his slip back into ghosthood.
