Arctic Dawn (The Norse Chronicles Book 2) (18 page)

“Maybe.” Skyla shrugged. “I hope you’re right.”

“What about you?” I asked. “You’ve had all the same opportunities as Val to give me away. More.”

“We’re going to do this again? Haven’t I proven myself to you enough by now?”

I dropped my head and shook it. My heart wrenched at the idea that Skyla might be anything other than what I believed. “I don’t know what to think. But, yes, I do trust you.” I raised my head and met her gaze. “And I do know we need to find Tori before Helen does. We need to find out what
grim
means, and what Thorin and Corvallis have to do with it. I’m going to track Tori down. Maybe she can help us bring down Helen.”

“You’re going to recruit her?” Skyla asked with a sparkle in her eye.

“Or we can go back to Vegas and sit on our thumbs.”

Skyla laughed. “Girl, you’ve been hanging around with me for far too long. I’m obviously starting to rub off on you.”

I grimaced. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope it comes off with a little soap and water. I liked myself fine when this all started, and I hope to keep some of that girl with me when this all comes to an end.”

“So what are we going to tell Val?” Skyla asked.

“Tell him the ghost didn’t know anything useful. We can tell him that she saw Tori using the sword, but she didn’t know where she went with it.”

Skyla agreed to my suggestion, and after I helped her remove all traces of her séance, we parted ways outside the library. My thoughts centered on my bed, and my body craved a few hours’ sleep to make up for all we’d lost during the night. Val had left by the time I came back to my room, and I was relieved. I peeled off my clothes and fell into bed, too tired to find pajamas.

Chapter Nineteen

U
nable to ignore the persistent sunlight beaming in my face, I gave up and got out of bed. The lacy draperies over the windows did little to shield the light, and since most of the Valkyries rose at dawn, the possibility that a guest might like to sleep in likely never crossed their minds.

I showered, dressed, and went to find Skyla. She wasn’t in her room, and her bed looked as though she had never lain in it. Maybe military types made their beds every morning, but something told me Skyla had never gone to bed after we left the library, even though she had looked exhausted. I found her in the kitchen, drinking coffee with Val, of all people.

Dark circles shadowed her eyes, the result of a night without sleep. I sank into a chair next to her and gathered her hands into mine. “Skyla, what’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been up all night.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been thinking about Embla and my mother and what it all means.”

I shifted my attention to Val, who had shaved and changed his clothes. “You look rested.”

“Don’t let it fool you,” he said. “I spent the rest of the night searching the grounds for any sign of a lead in case things didn’t pan out with Skyla’s séance.”

“Did you find anything useful?”

“I followed a trail of burnt ground for a while. It led away from the house, north, but it faded out and disappeared where the highway cut through.”

“Tori hitched a ride?”

“Or had someone waiting for her.”

Since Skyla wanted to keep our conversation with Ariel mum, I had little else to say on the matter of Tori’s disappearance. I changed the subject by going to the refrigerator and digging out a carton of eggs. “Anyone want something to eat?”

“I’ll take something,” Skyla said through a yawn. She laid her head on her arms.

“Why not go to bed if you’re so tired?” Val asked.

The coffee pot had enough left to pour another few cups, so I made one for Val and another for Skyla. She grabbed it from me and sucked down a huge gulp before answering. “No time to sleep.”

“So,” Val said, “did you learn something last night after all?”

Skyla frowned into her coffee. “I talked to a ghost, all right. But she mostly mumbled unintelligible things.”

“Maybe you need more practice,” he said.

“Practice doing what?” asked one of the Valkyries, who shuffled into the kitchen, frowning, her gaze locked on the empty coffee pot. It was Embla, and Skyla and I both froze. “Sword fighting? I expected to see you in the gym this morning, Skyla, but you didn’t show.”

“I-I had a late night,” Skyla said. “I didn’t feel like it today.”

“You’ve got to take better care of yourself. If you want to be at your best, to be the kind of warrior we need you to be, you can’t stay up all night talking to ghosts.”

Skyla gurgled something nonsensical before stuttering, “How-how did you know?”

“It’s
my
library,” Embla said. “I know everything that happens inside its walls.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“At first I wasn’t sure what you were up to, but I decided if it was something important enough for you to steal into my room, hide under my bed, root through my things, and take my spare key, then it was something that didn’t require my interference.”

Blood drained from my face. “Do you have hidden cameras?”

Embla smiled and shook her head. “No. Just a good sense of when things go amiss in the room I’ve lived in for twenty years. You smell like a summer day, Solina. After all that smoke and soot, you were like an air freshener. Also, I haven’t cleaned under my bed since the fire, but there was a large patch absent of dust and soot in the vague size and shape of a young woman.”

I blushed with mortification. “Well there goes my CIA application after all.” All that sneaking around for nothing. Why couldn’t I just sink into the floor and disappear?

Embla turned to Skyla again. “I suppose Ariel wasn’t the only ghost you were thinking about last night either, was it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your mother.”

Skyla’s face slackened, and her mouth fell open. “What are you saying?”

“Solina found the evidence, didn’t she? A picture of you as a sweet, young girl. I know each of those photographs as a mother knows her children’s names, and I know when one goes missing. It seems you’ve learned more than you bargained for in your search for that key.”

“Why do you have those pictures?” Skyla asked.

Embla shrugged. “Because. Your mother was my sister, and I am your aunt.”

The room went silent and airless as a vacuum.

“M-my mother was an only child,” Skyla said after overcoming her shock.

“It would seem that way, but no, she was my little sister. We had an older sister, too, but she died as a baby. Your mother never knew her.”

I saw a similarity in their looks—matching eye shape and bone structure. They shared the same distinct chin and jaw lines. Embla’s skin tone was darker and cooler, and her black curls were tighter and a little coarser. Skyla’s Puerto Rican genes added amber tones to her skin and lightened her hair color several shades, but their genetic relationship was obvious once it was pointed out.

“My mother never mentioned you,” Skyla said.

“She wouldn’t. It’s the side effect of leaving the Aerie.”

“My mother was a stay-at-home mom. She was on the PTA and baked cookies for fundraisers. What do you mean she left the Aerie?”

“Kara was Valkyrie,” Embla said, “just like me. She was my sister, my closest friend. Our mother died not long after Kara’s birth. The Valkyries showed up a few days after her death and told Kara and me what we were. They took us to the Aerie to raise us and train us. We never saw Father after that—I barely remember him. Your mother and I were inseparable… until your dad came along. That girl fell hard and fast. A man in uniform has a way of doing that.”

“So,” I said, “no coincidence you followed in your father’s footsteps.”

Skyla pulled a face. “He wasn’t going to raise any princesses.”

“That explains a lot.”

Skyla ignored me and turned back to Embla. “She sure didn’t seem like any of the Valkyries I’ve met so far.”

“The sword I gave you yesterday belonged to her,” Embla said. “I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how. The Valkyries’ existence is supposed to be a close-guarded secret. If a sister chooses to leave the order, she has to take a vow of silence.”

“Who would believe her anyway?” Skyla asked. “To anyone but us, it would sound crazy.”

“Still, the sisterhood takes no chances. If a woman chooses to leave, she has that freedom, but she must keep our secret. It’s more than a simple promise that binds her tongue. She’ll be physically unable to speak of it, and eventually her memories of us will fade.” Embla gave Skyla a meaningful look. “By the time you came along, the Valkyries were a distant memory to her—more like a dream. She wouldn’t have spoken of us. She
couldn’t
have.”

Skyla frowned at Embla. “What could have made her want to leave this?”

Embla shrugged. “Love.”

“Oh, gag me. My mom and dad fought like cat and dogs.”

“That doesn’t mean they didn’t love each other.”

“Bullshit,” Skyla said. “He spent as much time as possible away from us.”

“What about when she got sick? He was there for her.”

“How would you know?”

Skyla had never offered much information about her past, and I had never had the guts to ask. Truthfully, I had let my problems overwhelm me, and I hadn’t spent much time worrying about Skyla’s background. That was self-centered of me, perhaps, but there in the Valkyries’ kitchen, I found Skyla’s lineage intensely interesting. Val looked equally intrigued.

“You never saw me,” Embla said, “but I was there. I watched her. I watched you.”

Skyla’s cheeks flushed a deep, angry crimson. “Why wouldn’t you tell me? You knew, but you kept it from me. Do you know what it would have meant for me to know who I was?”

“I wasn’t sure it was a good idea in the beginning,” said Embla. “I debated whether this was the life for you or whether you should be allowed to live as a normal woman. But I see now that your heritage will not be denied.”

“Did Tori know about me?”

“She knew your mother.”

“Why did she lie?”

“At the time, I thought she was protecting us. Now, I think she was protecting her own self-interests. I’m sorry I didn’t come to you with this sooner. I could have helped you so you wouldn’t feel the need to sneak around.”

Val sighed and rolled his eyes. “I told them to just ask in the first place. But,
no
, they wanted to be a couple of Charlie’s Angels.”

Skyla pouted. “No one would talk to me, Embla. If I brought it up, people changed the subject or flat out told me to mind my own business. Besides, we didn’t know who to trust. Some members of the Aerie have shown questionable loyalties.”

Embla chuckled. “We are an elite bunch of snobs, aren’t we?”

Skyla dropped her gaze and shrugged.

How diplomatic of her,
I thought
.

“You were right not to trust anyone. With Tori gone, there’s a vacuum of power. Who or what will fill it has yet to be seen. Some of the sisters may be willing to look for the Aerie’s next leader outside the Valkyries as easily as they would look inside.”

“Outside the Valkyries?” Skyla asked. “Like Helen?”

Embla’s mouth twisted as if she’d swallowed something distasteful. “Yes. Like Helen.”

“What about you?” Val asked. “Where do your loyalties lie?”

Embla blanked her face and said, “With the order of the Valkyries, of course. Always and forever, my sisters come first.”

While I made brunch for us all—omelets and toast—Embla told us about the memorial service the sisters had planned for after sundown to remember the women lost in the fire. Embla asked if I would arrange a reception with snacks and hot drinks for when the service ended, and I agreed.

After they cleaned their plates, Skyla and Embla went to look through the collection of photographs Embla kept under her bed. I stayed in the kitchen to wash dishes and start on the list of items Embla had requested. Val left to find his own entertainment, giving me the time I needed to give Thorin a private call.

I dashed upstairs to dig my phone from my bag. When I dialed Thorin’s number, it rang and rang, but he never answered, and the call never switched to voice mail. I gave up and called Thorin’s store.

Val’s roommate answered. “Thorin Adventure Outfitters, Hugh speaking.”

“Hugh, it’s Solina.”

“Solina. We have to stop meeting like this… over the phone. I’m much sexier in person.”

I rolled my eyes. “Right. So sexy. It’s the reason I have to stay away from you all the time. Couldn’t keep my hands off you otherwise.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“So, besides wanting to hear your stimulating voice, the reason I’m calling is that I’ve sort of lost contact with Thorin. Have you heard from him lately?”

“The last I knew, he was with you.”

“Something came up, and I had to take a side trip without him. Skyla and Val are with me, though. Thorin’s not answering his cell, so if you hear from him, tell him I called and that I’m okay.”

“Um, sure. Anything else?”

“I guess that’s all… No, wait a minute. Does the term
grim
mean anything to you? You ever hear anyone mention it in relation to Thorin and Corvallis?” Bringing up Ariel’s words was impulsive, but Hugh was far enough removed from the whole ordeal to be a safe contact. I hoped.

“Sure. It’s the Boss Man’s brother.”

“It is?” My voice went high with surprise. “He has a brother named Grim?”

“Yes. Modi Grimr Thorin.”

“Why have I never heard of him?”

“They’re not close.”

“So, how did you know about him?”

“Me and Boss Man go way back.”

That made me pause. “How far back? Like… ancient?”

“Is that what you’re really calling about?”

I huffed. “Do you know where this brother lives?”

“Corvallis, I think. Why are you asking?”

Bingo!
I had a new lead on Tori, but I wasn’t about to share that news with a guy I barely knew.
Think fast, Solina
. “I overhead Thorin mention it, but didn’t think anything of it at the time. Maybe that’s where Thorin was going when we lost touch. If I could call Grim, I could find out if Thorin is with him. It’s pretty important.”

“His contact info is probably in the store’s database.”

“Could you check?”

“I don’t want to piss Thorin off, handing out information about his family.”

“Hugh,” I said. “This is important. Give me the number. I’ll take all the heat, I swear.”

“Have you ever seen Thorin when he’s pissed?”

I almost choked on laughter. “I’ve seen it, been the cause of it, and lived to tell the tale. Now, Hugh,
please
.”

“Okay, but don’t tell him I told you.”

“I owe you one.”

“How ’bout a beer next time you’re in town?”

“Hugh, if I make it back to Siqiniq, I will buy you a whole damn keg.”

I dialed the number Hugh gave me, reeling at the possibility of the existence of yet another Aesir. In the desert, I had asked Thorin if he had siblings, but he changed the subject. Hugh had said they weren’t on good terms, which might have explained Thorin’s reticence.

I expected to get a voice mail and was not surprised when an automated voice told me to leave a message. I stated my name and reason for calling but doubted anyone would really call me back. I was wrong, though. Moments after I left the message, my phone trilled to life. Caller ID displayed the number I had just dialed, and I stared, eyes bugging wide, as if witnessing a miracle.