Page 73 of Between Broomsticks and Beating Wings
Rune
Iam ruined. Forever ruined.
Not because of my lost title or the color returning to my hair, but from a far worse fate. Maybe the word “worse” wasn't right, because maybe the woman lying next to me was the best thing that had ever happened to me. If my fate was to be forever lost to her, I suppose I was the luckiest person alive.
Now that Kari had shared her very soul with me, I knew I could never have another. She ruined me for all others, and I wanted to bend the knee and kiss her feet in thanks. Having her was no sacrifice, but the greatest gift of my life.
I stretched across the mattress, sweat beading on my forehead, my chest heaving against hers. She stared deep into my eyes, and I felt a knot of fear in my gut. There was so much we still didn’t know about the deal between Freyja and Hel, or what Freyja wanted of Kari. I wanted to continue rolling around across the quilt with her, unravelling her for the third time that evening, but my mind was being pulled elsewhere.
We would leave in the morning, take the Bifrost with Rayna, and arrive in Fólkvangr. I hadn’t seen Freyja in a decade, yet it felt like just yesterday, she’d graced the valkyries for a feast in Valhalla. She’d arrived in a chariot pulled by two giant felines, and my sisters all pushed to the front of the room to see her enter.
She was grace, beauty, and love, but I wouldn’t let her affinity for light allow me to forget what she was: a goddess, a weapon if she so chose, a destroyer. I wouldn’t let her appeal pull me in, because Kari’s life was in her hands, as was my immortality.
“What is it?” Kari asked. “Where did you go just now?”
“It’s nothing,” I said. “I’m right here.” I brushed the hair out of her eyes and pressed a kiss to her forehead the way she had when she’d been in the bath, just after tending to me. It was a simple gesture, one I’d never given, yet I loved everything about it.
“Liar,” Kari said with a teasing eye roll.
“You love to accuse me of lies,” I pointed out, gently jabbing her in the side.
“And have I ever been wrong in my accusations?” Kari asked with a raised brow and an all-knowing tone.
I smacked my lips and then blew a breath up to the ceiling, “I got lost in my mind about tomorrow. But I’m back. I’m here now.”
Kari snuggled further into me, pulling up the quilt so it hid her bare body from my view. It mattered little, though, because I still had my hands wrapped around her, and I didn’t intend on moving them any time soon.
She kissed the side of my neck and whispered against my skin. “I’m nervous too, you know. But I also know my seidr is strong, strong enough to do whatever it is Freyja will ask of me. And you’ll pass your loyalty test and become a valkyrie once more. All will be right again.”
“Is this a vision you had, or just wishful thinking?” I asked.
“I’ve never been to Fólkvangr, so I haven’t seen anything useful, just flashes and symbols I’ve deciphered mean peace, but I don’t know whose peace I’m seeing,” she said. “And it’s not just wishful thinking. I believe in us, Rune. I believe if we stick together, there isn’t a single thing we won’t be able to accomplish. I mean, look how far we’ve come. Look at all we’ve done in the past two lunar cycles.”
“You may have a point.”
“Always do!” Kari hummed against me, which finally pulled a smile to my lips. I leaned forward and stole a kiss, then two, and then she was pressed tight to me once more.
Fuck, she’s magnificent.
Until tomorrow, when I had to face my fears head on, I would banish any thought that wasn’t of my sweet seeress.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
ACROSS THE RAINBOW BRIDGE
Kari
Hel handed me a fruit cake, her cold skin brushing mine as she did. Rune was holding the rare snow blossoms of Helheim in one hand and a jar of raw honey in the other.
“Now, what do you say?” the goddess of death asked from where she sat on her throne. The second she handed me the cake, I presented her with a slight bow and retreated ten feet in the opposite direction.
I bowed and held the cake above my head like a complete sycophant. “We have brought you gifts from our time in Helheim, sent with us by the Goddess of Death. She offers not only these delicious offerings, but me as well, a mortal seeress. I come willingly and have sensed only peace surrounding my entrance into Fólkvangr. I hope you accept these offerings and look down upon us with your loving favor.”
Rune suppressed a chuckle, but Hel ignored her as she offered me a slow clap for my performance. It’d been the fifth time she’d made me practice that little routine, and my arms were starting to grow sore from holding the densest dessert I’dever seen above my head. When I woke this morning, I knew I was in for an adventure, but I didn’t count on trials by fruit cake.
“Ah, that was the one,” Hel said, her teeth on display. After her first impression of me, she didn’t quite trust I’d have the best sense when it came to Freyja. I tried to tell the goddess I had nothing against Freyja and wouldn’t be anything but respectful, but Hel would hear none of it. I couldn’t very well deny her, so I went along with her little speech and got down on my knees with a cake in hand each time she demanded it of me.
Rune had spent enough time among the gods that she was given no speech. Hel also cared little for Rune’s part in all of this, for the former valkyrie wasn’t the one she was trading. Rune had tried to get more information out of Hel regarding the matter of the deal, though Hel gave us nothing but stares through mixed-colored eyes.
