Page 69 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings
“Didn’t give her the chance,” he said with a shrug, his lengthy nose twitching. “Once I got past that homicidal pegasus of hers, I took matters into my own hands. Don’t hire a troll if you don’t want a proper kidnapping. She should be awake by high-sun.”
“Fine. Why did it take you so long? I told you where she’d be,” I growled.
“And that would’ve been helpful if she’d actually been there. I had to grab her in Sessrúmnir, which was no stroll in the field. You’re lucky I’m not charging you extra for that.”
“Sessrúmnir?” I repeated, looking down at Rayna. “Why were you in Freyja’s Hall?” I whispered to the valkyrie, though I knew she couldn’t hear me.
“Payment,” the troll barked out.
I gritted my teeth and tossed the dagger by his feet. If he wanted his payment, he’d have to dig through the snow for it. “Get out of here.”
I turned my back on him, knowing that even without the speed or strength of my valkyrie gifts, I would sense any attack if he chose to be brave enough. As I shook Rayna, I heard the man retrieve the dagger and be on his way.
I wasn’t strong enough to carry her all the way to our room, but I also couldn’t leave her here in the snow to freeze. With a whisper of apology, I reached my pointer and thumb into her nose, gripped a collection of short hairs, and yanked as hard as I could. Rayna shot up right with a gasp, clutching at her face.
“What the actual fuck!” She glanced around for the culprit, and when she saw me, she instinctively punched me in the shoulder. My eyes bulged at the pure strength her punch packed, and I failed at holding back my wince. Rayna took a quick glancearound to assess the area, the snow dusting her body. Then, she noticed it. Her eyes locked on my hair, her gaze trailing from my roots to my tips.
“Rune…” She trailed off, her eyes softening. “I didn’t think your hair would turn so fast.”
“You already know?” I asked, my throat betraying me as my voice cracked.
Rayna nodded, reaching forward to clasp my hand. “Odin summoned me. He tossed a piece of your distorted armor at my feet. For a moment, I thought he’d killed you.” Rayna paused, swallowing deeply. She shook her head, as if doing so would hold back her tears, but one slipped past her defenses anyway. That single tear rolling down her face shattered something inside me. Rayna didn’t cry, not when she realized she could never see her family again, not when she’d witnessed a mortal die by her hands, and not when she’d had her heart broken for the first time.
“Rayna,” I whispered, pulling her into a hug. “I’m here.”
She nodded again, this time with a hard resolve locked into her features. She leaned into me, her fingers brushing the tips of my hair streaked with deep brown. I held back my own tears as my sister touched my mortality, it seeping into her fingertips, reminding us both that we were now a world apart.
“You once told me Helheim would have to be set aflame before you went to Midgard without me. It’s now happened, and you will, in fact, go on without me. You must.”
Rayna pulled away from me, her eyes wide. “What are you talking about? Fire? In Hel?”
“Kari’s seidr is…more than I ever expected. She’s magnificent. You should’ve seen her when she found out I was stripped of my title,” I said, a small smile carving room for itself upon my face.
“Karisummonedthe fire?” she gasped. “Nine realms, Rune, we have so much to catch up on. Get me out of this snow and tell me everything.”
“She did,” I said, lifting myself out of the snow and pulling Rayna up with me. “Fire in one hand, ice in the other.”
“Great gods,” was all Rayna could manage as she dusted snow off her red leathers. “Even so, Ru, I can’t live an eternity without you. You are my mortality, much like Kari is yours.”
“That’s not true.” I shook my head. “You have Gunhild, Alvion, and Nori too. You are more than my sister. You’re Odin’s best now.Youwill be his favorite. That’s not nothing.”
“Fuck no, I’m not.”
“Stop being modest, Rayna.”
“I’m not being modest. I’m nothing to Odin now. If he won’t have you, he doesn’t have me either. No discussion.”
“Rayna…what did you do?” I took a step back, looking her over and assessing a deep change in my sister I’d been too distracted to see earlier, but now, it was all I felt.
She stared at me, her chin raised, her dark eyes hardened.
“Why were you in Fólkvangr?” I asked.
“I’m Freyja’s now, and you will be too.”
“For the love of all things living, you did not!” I strode away from her, not able to look upon her foolish face. My ass was frozen, my heart broken, yet my rage was more potent.
“What, Rune? You couldn’t have expected me to stay in Valhalla with that monster!” she yelled.
