Page 67 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings
“Oh, stop,” Haddy said. “Stop looking for things to be mad about. Can’t you just admit the truth to yourself already?”
“What truth?”
Haddy gave me the side eye.
“What?” I asked again, louder this time as my annoyance shifted from Rune to my sister.
“You’re fighting just to fight. I’ve known you long enough to know you carry your anger, or pretend to, at least, far longer than you need to. You hate that awkward forgiving stage. It’s the same thing happening with Odel and Malfrid.”
“And that has to do with Rune how?”
Haddy rolled her eyes and blew out a dramatic sigh once more. “You don’t want to forgive Rune for taking you, because then you’d have to go through the awkward phase that comes after. You’d have to admit you forgave her before you even came to Helheim. I’m not sure when it happened. Only you know, but you must be tired of pretending.”
My teeth unclenched, and I just stood there, basket in hand, staring at my sister. She’d seen through me, but she’d known me her whole life and then some. Had Rune been seeing through me this whole time too? The thought of that was far more embarrassing than admitting I cared for the valkyrie. I knew she cared for me too; it was written all over her face when she found me in the Cave of Whispers. She’d proven it the day she’d broken her oaths and took down six raiders to save me, and when she’d refused to send me back to Midgard because she’d known it would’ve brought my death if she had.
“Haddy, I have to go,” I said, feeling my heartbeat quicken.
Was I really about to be honest with Rune?
The thought made me want to vomit all over myself.
“You sure do,” Haddy said with a big, knowing smile. I hoped she knew how much I loved her, because even as I gave her a big hug and kissed the top of her head, I still felt it wasn’t enough.
Bounty in hand, I headed toward Hel’s Hall. I stared down at what Haddy and I had found, but our options were limited. Herein Helheim, there was a whole lot of ice and stone. Maybe it was time I started focusing more on the spells that required nothing but my own natural seidr. After summoning ice and fire, I was beginning to believe I didn’t need to rely so much on bounties anyway.
Someone bumped into me, sending the contents of my basket all over the snow.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” the woman exclaimed. “Here, let me help you with that.”
Before I could get a good look at her face, the woman began collecting my sprawled items and returning them to the basket.
“Thank you,” I said as she handed me the woven handle. She looked up at me and smiled, and I swore, it was like looking in the mirror, though her hair was black and grey instead of berry blonde.
“Do I know you?” I asked.
“I don’t believe so, but who knows. Maybe we’re related!” The woman threw her arms up and laughed. “You must be new here. You’ll soon find ancestors dating back throughout time.”
“What’s your name?” I asked, scanning her features, the deep blue of her eyes, the freckles on her pale cheeks.
“Norfrid Bosdotter. It’s nice to meet you, Kari.”
“Norfrid Bosdotter?” I asked, my face numb with the cold but also the shock of running into my ancestor like this. The number of souls here was unfathomable. Out of all of them to run into me, it was the person Hel had given her “gift” to? The one who inadvertently passed it to my mother and me? I didn’t believe in coincidences like this. “How do you know my name?”
“Oh my, did I already slip up? I’m a seeress like you, dear. I can sense these things.”
“Except your seidr wouldn’t work in death. It dies with you and passes to your ancestors. It passed to me.”
“Um, yes. You caught me again,” Norfrid said with an awkward chuckle. “Hel may have told me you were here, and I may have been looking for you.”
“So why didn’t you just say that instead of running into me and pretending you didn’t know who I am?”
“Hel says you’re not very trusting,” she said with a wonky smile.
“For good reason. You started this conversation with a lie. Why are you here, Norfrid?” I asked, shifting on my frozen feet.
“Hel was curious about what you were up to, and I had no complaints about meeting my descendant.”
“She sent you to spy on me? Is she in there right now, watching me? You know she’s looking out of your skull with her creepy dead eye, right?” I asked, aggression lacing my tone, but I couldn’t help myself.
