Page 52 of Vicar
“And I finally meet the woman in love with my sister’s fated mate,” Trinity returned, not frightened by Revna like some might be. If anything, she felt a certain affinity. Likely because they both had a half influenced by Múspellsheimr.
“In love?” A womanly smile curled Revna’s mouth. “Perhaps.” She shrugged a slender shoulder. “Perhaps not.”
“In love with a dragon?” Loki visually licked Revna from head to toe with the way he looked her over. “When you could have a god like me?”
“I have no need for a god like you.” She might not have spared him a glance, but the way she sauntered over to Trinity was most certainly for Loki’s benefit. “I do, however, have a need to understand this particular sister better.” She stopped in front of Trinity and tilted her head this way and that as if studying her. “You do have a conflicted spirit, don’t you, she of three dragons? The perfect trinity of worlds.”
A strange sensation rolled through her at that. “As far as I know, I’m only one dragon.”
“And you are.” Revna cupped her cheeks and looked deeply into Trinity’s eyes. “One dragon strongly subjected to three worlds. One dragon fighting to maintain balance.”
Though she had passed through Helheim, too, she wasn’t there long enough for it to matter. Long enough to be one of the worlds that influenced her.
“It’s never felt like a fight,” she murmured. Was the seer hypnotizing her? “It came naturally...helped others.”
“But a fight regardless,” Revna said so softly she barely caught it. “One you must get to the bottom of.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” came a third voice. “And to do that, she must witness Múspellsheimr.”
There could be no doubting the identity of the tall, muscular blonde who appeared with a hammer strapped to his back. Not just because of his overwhelming presence but because she actually knew him. Perhaps not as well as Jade, but well enough.
“Thor,” she exclaimed, humbled. “I...” Missed him? Forgot how much she respected him? Best to stick with the obvious because it made perfect sense now. “You held onto our stone for us all these years.”
“I did.” He took her by the shoulders when Revna backed away and looked at her fondly. “You have done well since you left here, Trinity.” He nodded once with approval. “Done well taking care of your sisters.”
“My brother-in-arms,” Loki murmured. “Forever surprising me with how involved you were with my Forge.”
“Someone needed to be.” Though Thor spoke to Loki, his gaze remained on her face. “For your female dragons were put at much risk before they were ever even born. Much risk because you acted so rashly.”
“Rashly?” Loki snorted. “Has this war not been strengthened by what I did? Will we not win because of such?”
“Maybe.” Thor squeezed her shoulders and stepped away. “Maybe not.”
“How do we know each other?” she asked Thor, still reeling that she knew the God of Thunder. The guy from Norse mythology who wasn’t supposed to actually exist. “How did you end up with our stone?”
“You know me because you sought me out when you were little.” Thor gestured at the shore, where another memory manifested. This time without little Vicar present. “You sought me out because you were scared of losing Vicar.”
Her dragon was around the age she'd been when she wanted to become the figurehead on Vicar's ship.
“I’m so sad,” she murmured when her dragon’s emotions washed over her. “And confused.”
Little Trinity sat on the shore, roared at the incoming storm, then lowered her head in worship. “Please help me, Thor,” she prayed. “Please tell me how to make this stop before I lose Vicar.”
Nothing happened but rumbling thunder in the distance, so she shifted to her human form, fell to her knees, and prayed in Norse.
“I know Norse,” Trinity whispered, startled. She glanced from Vicar to her younger self. “You taught me your language.”
“Ja,” he murmured, remembering along with her. “The more outgoing and different you became, the more important it seemed.”
“In case I found myself in a difficult position,” she realized, recalling as well. He’d spent long hours teaching her.
“Which you did on more than one occasion,” Thor said. “Enough so that I knew you needed my help every bit as much as Jade did.”
“But not at the beginning, right?” She looked at him. “You weren’t there in Ireland for me, were you?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Though I wish I were, I was not summoned by Adlin MacLomain, so I didn’t come.”
She wasn’t sure what to make of that. Adlin was an infamous time-traveling wizard who did everything in his power to keep not only his Scottish kin safe but their Viking ancestors, the Sigdirs. So coming to Jade’s aid made sense. Why not Trinity’s, though? Something she asked Thor, but he had no answer for.
