Runes #03 - Grimnirs (26 page)

“YES! He wants to talk,” I wrote on the back of my crappy English paper and showed her.

“About?” she wrote back.

I grinned and brought the phone back to my ear. “You don’t need to pick us up. We’ll be there at…” I cocked my eyebrows at Raine. She glared back. “Eight.”

“Sweet,” Blaine said. “See you later.” The line went dead.

“I am not going out, Cora,” Raine said, standing.

“Why not? Because Torin is not around to hold your hand?”

Her cheeks grew warm. “That’s not it and you know it. Grimnirs—”

“Want a piece of me, I get it. I’m going out. You can come and help me find out what Blaine wants or stay at home and worry yourself to death.”

“Whatever it is, he can tell you tomorrow or at school on Monday.”

“Come on, Raine.” I gripped her arms, peered at her, and pouted. “Please. I need to do something normal. Hang out with normal high school students.”

She threw me a disgusted look. “He’s far from normal. He’s an Immortal with a chip on his shoulder.”

I sighed and let her go. “Look. For weeks, I thought I was crazy, thought that life as I knew it was over. Then I got better—no faked that I was better so they would let me go, only to come home to Echo and a new perception of reality. I need to spend one evening being a normal teenager.” I waited with a brilliant smile. Raine had never been into clubbing, even before she met Torin. I was a social creature and needed to be out there.

“Cora. Raine. Dinner.” Mom’s voice reached us, but I didn’t move.

“Please, Raine.”

She sighed. “Fine. Let’s eat dinner first, and if anything happens while we are at this… this new club, you do whatever you always do to summon Echo.”

I laughed and gave her a hug. “I don’t do anything. He just pops up.” We left my room. “At the store, I thought they left because they heard what I’d told them, but now that I’ve thought about it, I think they left because they saw him.”

Downstairs, Mom was removing freshly-baked dinner rolls from the oven. Cora and I set the table.

“Dig in,” Mom said when we sat, pouring homemade apple cider into our glasses.

The rolls were moist and hot. Dad broke a roll in half and smothered it with butter. “I’ve got a question for you two young ladies. One of my main characters, a princess, has just been discovered living among the commoners. She grew up being called Lumae, but her real name is Luminous Pendgaryn. What do you think? Is the name cheesy?”

“Luminous is pretty,” I said.

“I like it, too,” Raine chimed in. “Is she a Dorganian or one of the Paladins?”

“A Paladin,” Dad said.

Raine winced. “Poor girl. The Dorganians won’t let her live.”

Dad wore a mysterious smile as he served himself chili.

“Is she
the
Paladin Warrioress?” Rained asked. She loved books, and she’d read all my father’s sci-fi novels. “The savior of her people?”

“I’m not saying another word,” Dad said.

“Can I get an advance copy?” she asked.

“Whoa? Who are the Dorganians?” I asked, my gaze swinging between them.

Mom chuckled. “That’s what you get for refusing to read your father’s books.”

“I did read the first two books,” I said defensively and then glared at Dad. “Until he killed my favorite character.”

Dad laughed. “I know. You started a petition on my fan page.”

“So? Is he back?”

Dad, Mom, and Raine just smiled.

“Fine. I’ll read the next two books before your new release hits the shelves. I want to meet this Paladin Warrioress.”

For the rest of the meal, we discussed plots, heroes, and villains. Or rather, Raine and Dad did and Mom chimed in while I tried to keep up. I had to go back to reading his books. After dinner, Raine followed Dad to his writing cave, while I cleared the table.

“Mom, is it okay if Raine and I go out for a few hours? A bunch of our friends are meeting at that new club, Xanavoo, in half an hour.”

Mom looked at her watch, and then her eyes narrowed on my face. “Okay. But I want you back by midnight.”

“Thanks, Mom.” I kissed her cheek and dragged Raine upstairs. When she started talking books, she tended to get carried away. “It’s time to get ready.”

“I have to go home and change,” she griped, making it sound like a chore.

“I’ll change then apply makeup at your… What are you doing?” I closed the door, but my eyes stayed on her. She was etching runes on the mirror with an artavus.

“Creating a portal to my room,” she said nonchalantly.

There must be a gazillion ways of creating portals. Before, at her place, she hadn’t used an artavus. Echo didn’t even need a surface. He used the scythe to open his dark portal to Hel.

I inched closer as the mirror changed texture and became grainy. The surface churned, coiling in circles until a portal appeared. The floor and walls looked like
they were covered with a swirling, white cloud.
Raine’s room was visible at the other end.

I touched the wall. Solid. Tested the floor. Solid.

“Go ahead and try it,” Raine said.

I stepped through the portal, the ground solid under my feet. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I was in her bedroom. Grinning, I walked back to my room.

“How come you didn’t use an artavus at your house? The portal just appeared.”

“The runes are already etched on the frame of my mirror, making it a portal. I’ll be back in half an hour.”

As I watched her walk into her room, I wondered if I should mention what Echo had told me about Grimnirs using me as bait to get to Eirik. Maybe someone would warn Eirik not to ever come back.

***

“It looks packed,” Raine said.

It was. We were lucky someone backed out just as we pulled up. I clasped my bag, wrapped my arm around Raine’s, and hurried into the building. My red sweater dress was sexy and didn’t need a bra. I had topped it with a leather jacket and added knee-length black boots.

Raine looked amazing in print jeggings and an emerald top. She’d curled her hair, and her makeup was flawless. The Raine I’d known before I went to the psych ward was gone. Maybe it was discovering her destiny or having Torin in her life that had caused the change. Whatever the reason, my best friend was now a total knockout.

We entered Xanavoo and looked around. Other than the jocks and their girlfriends occupying several tables, I recognized a few faces from our school in the crowd, including Ingrid. Majority of the patrons were from Walkersville University. A few whistles followed us, while others turned and ogled us as we walked past.

Drew saw us first. His eyes widened and then narrowed. Was he still sulking about last weekend? Pia and another cheerleader sat on either side of Blaine. Sat was being nice. Both were practically on his lap. He’d dated a Mortal before, so I knew he had no problem with human girls. He didn’t realize we’d arrived until someone yelled, “Hey, Raine. Where’s St. James?”

“Family emergency,” Raine answered without missing a beat.

“When is he coming back?” someone asked.

“Tonight,” she said.

Blaine, ever the gentleman, stood and gave up his seat for Raine. Then he practically pushed Pia in Heath Kincaid’s lap and offered me her seat. Heath was a running back with dreadlocks and walnut-brown skin. He changed girlfriends often, so I wasn’t surprised when I caught him staring at my chest when I removed my jacket and draped it on the back of my chair.

“I was about to give up on you two,” Blaine said. “What can I get you to drink? Soda? Beer?”

“Root beer,” Raine and I said at the same time and exchanged a smile.

Silence descended on the table.

“What happened to Torin?” Heath asked. “He wasn’t at practice yesterday or today.”

“His aunt is still sick again.” Raine glanced at me and added, “Lavania’s mother.”

I nodded, joining in the charade. Raine must come up with excuses every time Torin went missing.

“Poor Lavania. No wonder she quit school after only a few weeks,” Leigh said, and then she looked at me. “I remember you two didn’t get along.”

I didn’t rise to the bait. I simply shrugged and said, “We made up.”

The waitress brought our drinks and placed them on coasters in front of us. Blaine pulled up a chair, so he sat between Raine and me, his arm resting on the back of my chair. Drew’s annoyance and the way his gaze volleyed between Blaine and me didn’t escape me. What was I? The one that got away? It was only one kiss. Or Maliina had done something to screw with his head.

I sipped my drink and half listened to the conversation around the table. As usual, they were talking about football. Raine must hang out with these guys a lot because she jumped right in. She even teased the guys, including Drew, who seemed to thaw just for her. This was no longer my scene.

“Dance with me, Cora,” Blaine whispered in my ear.

Since the whole purpose of tonight was to do something normal, I was relieved to get up and get on the dance floor. The club was like all the others scattered around town. Dance floor on one side, bar and sitting area on the other, and pool tables in the back room.

Blaine pulled me into his arms. Funny how I used to think he was hot. Six months ago, I would have loved this—my head on his shoulder, getting lost in the music, the envy of every girl in the room.

Things were different now. His arms weren’t the ones I wanted. His scent, masculine and spicy, didn’t send my pulse racing. Only one man, one Grimnir, had the power to make my pulse leap like that. I should not have come here tonight. Echo might even be in my room right now, wondering where I was.

“I know everything about you, Cora Jemison,” Blaine whispered in my ear.

My stomach dropped. I leaned back to study his face. “What do you mean?”

“I know about PMI and why you ended up there.”

My feet faltered, but I recovered. “Since you are an Immortal, I expected you would.”

“I know that Maliina marked you. She lived with us for a few weeks when they first arrived here. I don’t know the details, but I know she went rogue, joined the evil Norns, and tried to hurt Eirik.”

I relaxed a bit. I wasn’t sure where the conversation was headed, but he didn’t sound like he was about to scream my secret at the top of his lungs.

“Be careful with Valkyries and Grimnirs, especially Echo,” Blaine said. “None of them can be trusted.” He stiffened. “They are here.”

Echo? I turned to look.

“Hey, St. James,” reached me before I saw them. Andris headed for the bar, while Torin knocked fists with other jocks, walked to Raine, and claimed her. The man didn’t care that the whole room’s attention was on them. He kissed Raine like he was starved for the taste of her.

Blaine noticed that I was distracted. “You can’t trust these people, Cora,” he whispered harshly. “They take and never give back. Use people and never look back.”

I remembered what Raine had said about Immortals offering Valkyries support. “I thought you worked with them?”

“My parents do, but you are an Immortal now, and we Immortals must stick together.”

“Blaine—”

“Let me finished. Valkyries and Grimnirs think they can boss us around, make us do their bidding whenever, yet when we need them, they ignore us.”

That didn’t sound right. “What happened?”

“I asked Andris to make my girlfriend Casey Immortal, but he refused. We Immortals can’t turn humans.
They
can. She’d still be alive today if he’d done it.”

“So you have a problem with Andris?”

“And Torin. He told Andris not to do it.”

I sighed. “Torin wouldn’t even turn Raine, Blaine. And look what happened to Maliina when Andris turned her. He used his own artavus and she went psycho.”

“Ingrid is fine,” he retorted.

I felt sorry for him. He must have really loved Casey. “I think their decision not to turn Casey wasn’t personal. There are laws.”

“Bullshit. Andris had turned two Mortals. Echo is rumored to have turned hundreds. I lost the girl I love because of them. My family is earth-bound. I want to be in Asgard to serve the gods.”

And to be with Casey. Wow, when these people loved, they went all in. Body and soul. No holding back. I wanted that same all-consuming love.

My glance touched Torin and Raine, who were now on the dance floor, cheek to cheek. I wanted what they had. I wanted someone to kiss me like he couldn’t get enough of me. Touch me like he’d die if we didn’t. Look at me like he was seeing me for the first time every time we were together. I wanted Echo. Not just now. I wanted him always. Forever.

“That’s where you come in,” Blaine said. He must have been talking while I’d spaced out. “Only a powerful Valkyrie or Grimnir can finish my training, or a god can request my service. Torin and Andris won’t help, so that leaves…”

“Echo?”

Blaine laughed. “No. I tried talking to him and he laughed in my face. I want you to talk to Eirik. Ask him to send for me.”