Foretold (7 page)

“Touched her how?”

“For the gods’ sake, Hallur! I pulled her,
bleeding
, from a wrecked car in the river. I found my friend lying on the ground. Dead. Of course we stopped and hooked up outside. In the snow.” He paused. “What kind of person do you think I am?”

“What if she’s one of the dark ones?” This came from a feminine voice. The aunt?

The dark ones?

I held my breath. I had no idea what that meant. None. My brain scrambled over years of research. Kat, Coral and I searched everything trying to figure out where Mom had gotten the story of our death. I couldn’t remember a reference to dark ones. I’d have to call Coral and ask. She’d know.

A loud crash sounded from the kitchen. I flinched. Tiptoed fast back into the bathroom.

Tears burned the backs of my eyes as I quietly shut the bathroom door. I thought about the boy lying in the forest, probably covered completely in snow by now. Buried out there in the dark. Alone.

My mother had used some sort of bad spell, an old one. I’d followed her, hoping to keep her from hurting anyone and I’d failed. The knowledge ached deep inside me, like the start to a festering wound. And now I had this new sort of backward prophecy, or worse yet, a history lesson I wasn’t sure I wanted.
In violence conceived.

I suddenly missed my sisters so badly my chest ached. I had to tell them I’d found Mom. Tell them we were too late. Turning the clothes in my hand, I patted my empty jean pocket. Where was my phone? I thought back to when I’d last used it.

By Steven, in the woods. It had been in my hand when Vanir picked me up. I must have dropped it somewhere.

The dark ones
.

I straightened, my hands clutching the clothes as some old memory of dark elves nudged my mind but I didn’t have time to explore the thought before someone banged on their front door.

Chapter Six

The sheriff, a long, lanky guy with a shock of orange-ish hair sticking out from under a black wool cap, hooked his thumbs in the front pockets of his jeans. “You say you’re eighteen.” His skeptical expression didn’t escape me. I got this a lot from my looks, but I had shown him my license. “And you drove all the way here, in a snowstorm, from where?”

“Florida.” I carefully did not look at Vanir’s aunt, Sarah. Her last name, Eir, had freaked me out. Eir, in Norse mythology, had been the goddess of medical skill. The magic radiating from this woman like heat from a bonfire confused me. It hung thick and sweet in the air, smelling faintly of citrus. It was a good smell. Clean, healthy. She was a full practitioner of seidr magic.
Too many things were falling into place
. Fear coiled behind the wooziness that had finally settled in with a vengeance. This was too much.

Way. Too. Much.

Seidr, a Norse magic practiced mostly by women, could gift someone with abilities ranging from trance prophecy—like mine—to healing. It was believed by some to even be behind the berserkers who raged like insane people into battles. Reminded of Kat’s last prophecy, I frowned. Mom’s magic was definitely not seidr.

The cop, who must have noticed my attention had wandered, squatted in front of me. I cut my gaze to him too fast and swayed in the chair. Hands came down on my shoulders. That weird comfort seeped through my clothes and under my skin. Vanir.

He was still pissed. I felt it in the tension pouring off him. And he
had
to be curious about the
rune tempus
—yet he comforted me. I wasn’t imagining the narcoticlike sensation coming from his hands, either. Made me think of the stories of Odin and his use of seidr. Men had practiced it but were often considered feminine for doing so. Vanir was
anything
but feminine.

Boggled the mind to know I was being touched by a future warrior, one who carried part of the Allfather’s soul. And that I was surrounded by the very kinds of people my mother had spent my lifetime keeping away from me.

I shivered.

His fingers tightened.

Compassion chased away the suspicion in the sheriff’s expression. He had nice eyes, actually. Big, brown and friendly. Too bad about his nose. Maybe if his face hadn’t been so narrow, the nose wouldn’t draw so much attention.

Blinking stupidly, I tried to rein in my silly thoughts.

Vanir squeezed my shoulders again. “There’s no reason to suspect her. Steven was still alive and running in the woods when her car went off the road.”

“I still need to get the whole story.” Willy’s expression, though friendlier now, still showed doubt. “Start from the beginning.”

Exhaustion hit me like a slam to the head. I leaned my head back as I went over the whole story again, my head resting against Vanir’s stomach. It should have been awkward with his brothers in the room, but I didn’t give a flip what anyone thought. His heart beat strong and I took comfort in the noise.

“Stop badgering the girl, Willy,” Sarah interrupted, running water in the sink. “Can’t you see she’s exhausted? Sheer will is the only thing holding her up.”

“That and Vanir,” Ari said, throwing me a wink.

I liked this brother. He wasn’t much older than Vanir and me—maybe twenty or twenty-one—and he seemed the type who looked for the positive, no matter how bad the circumstances.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I want to help.” So I told them again about being on the road, seeing Vanir and everything else that led up to being in this seat. Everything except what they really needed to hear. Guilt burned inside me, twisting, tearing.

My gaze zeroed in on Sarah. Knowledge shone in her steady stare. She knew we shared seidr. Knew there was more to the story than what I’d given the sheriff—that I’d come here to see the runestone in the national park here. That my family had Scandinavian ancestors and I planned to major in history in college. That part was completely true, anyway.

“Sorry,” Sarah murmured as she cleaned the wound on my head. It stung, but that was nothing compared to how bad I felt emotionally. Between the crash, the run through the woods and finding that poor kid, I could barely pull coherent thoughts together. Vanir’s hands tightened on my shoulders and this time, when the room started to spin, I knew it wasn’t my
rune tempus
. As the world around me went dark and the floor came up toward my face, I heard Sarah yell, “Crap! Catch her!”

* * *

When next I opened my eyes, I was in a bed in a nearly pitch-dark room. I blinked at the green numbers of a digital clock into focus—2:00 a.m. Every muscle in my body was at full alert and someone had planted a cotton field in my mouth.

As carefully and quietly as possible, I sat up and swung my legs to the side of the bed. The sweatpants bagged over my feet. My head still throbbed; the pounding over my right eyebrow kept me from opening my eyes all the way.

Normally, if I woke up feeling sick, I’d just go back to sleep and hope it was all gone by morning. But I was
dying
of thirst.

I stood and tripped over the sweatpants that flopped to the floor, then
over
something on the floor. Luckily the wall broke my fall. The loud thud made me wince. Grumbling under my breath, I waited for the stars to quit blinking behind my eyelids. When I could see again, I found a wolf staring back at me, its eyes glowing faintly in the low light.

Instant trepidation froze my already cold feet to the floor. I turned slowly, stepping back until my spine touched the wall. Earlier I hadn’t been afraid of the wolves, but waking in a strange dark room with one staring at me changed that.

A gust of wind rattled the house, letting loose one of those low, eerie moans.

The wolf’s gaze never wavered, but it tilted its head and a strip of moonlight streaked black gray and white fur. The black nose twitched as the snout wrinkled and I think I sucked all of the air out of the room as I waited for the growl.

I closed my eyes.

The wolf sneezed.

Like that, my fear was gone again. My shoulders slumped. “What are you doing in here?” I whispered. “If someone had told me a week ago that I’d be sleeping in an unfamiliar house with three strange men and two wolves, I would have told them to lay off the crack pipe.”

“We’re not so strange.”

My girlie squeak would have embarrassed me more if the wolf hadn’t stood up and nearly knocked me into the wall again. A lamp clicked on. Hallur sat in a chair in the corner of the room, his big white cast propped up on the footboard of the bed.

“Vanir wanted to stay with you but I didn’t think that was the best idea.”

“Why?” I croaked, my throat desert-dry. I bent over to roll the sweats and nearly squeaked again when I realized the shirt gaped at the neck. I straightened. Doubted he’d look but I wasn’t going to offer up a free peep show, anyway.

Hallur looked a lot nicer without a scowl pulling his black brows together. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone with the kind of instant chemistry you and my little brother are showing—and while you’re all beat up and bruised to boot. There are three others here. Easy enough to take shifts to keep an eye on you. Sarah really didn’t want you sleeping yet with your head so messed up, but you took the decision out of her hands. Plus, we didn’t want you to wake alone in a strange room.”

“Three? There’s another brother?”

He shook his head. “Sarah stayed overnight. She didn’t feel right leaving you here alone.” He shifted, but didn’t drop his foot from the end of the bed. “Is there something I can get you?”

They were all so nice. So very, very nice. My guilt over the entire nasty situation crawled up to pound in my chest. “I’ll get it myself. I just need water.”

He pointed to the door I’d assumed went to the closet. “Bathroom is through there—after the closet. You have your own sink. It’s a Jack and Jill plan with Vanir on the other side. You feel okay to walk? You hit the wall pretty hard.”

“I tripped over the wolf.”

“Yeah, funny thing that.” He shifted in his seat—one of those seventies-style, gold recliner chairs—and propped his pillow on the other side, tucked the throw blanket more securely over his shoulder. “Never seen those animals take to anyone like they do Vanir.”

“Well, it’s new to me. Animals usually like my mo—sisters, more.” I could have said
my mom.
That wouldn’t give anything away. And keeping to the truth as much as possible would help me keep up with the parts that weren’t so honest. Animals really did love my mother. Earth witches seemed to have an affinity with them. Even Coral had the occasional cat following her home.

“How many?”

“Huh?” My own wandering thoughts made me forget where we were in the conversation. Heat crept up my cheeks.

“How many sisters do you have?”

“Two. We’re triplets.” I tried to swallow but it was useless. My mouth was the Sahara. “I’m really thirsty,” I said again.

“I bet. Go on ahead.”

I padded on my bare feet across the wooden floor, feeling the edges of a rug here and there. I was careful not to trip on the ends of the sweatpants that flopped over my feet. Before stepping through the doorway, I looked for the light switch and flipped it on.

Inside was a walk-in closet to die for.

Eyes wide, I took in the mostly empty space with its hanging rods on either side. Only a few winter coats hung on one side and a handful of board games were stacked on the shelves over the racks. I’d always wanted a walk-in closet, but after spending more years in a tent than in a house, any closet was good. This one would cause a knock-down, drag-out with my sisters.

The thought made me smile as I opened the next door and reached for the light switch. I carefully closed both doors so the noise wouldn’t wake Vanir, then leaned over the sink. There was a paper cup dispenser next to the switch. I snatched the bottom cup and filled it with water. The cool liquid was heaven on my tongue and throat. Three of those and I felt a little better—good enough to take a look at myself.

And instantly wished I hadn’t.

I looked even worse than earlier. Still had the road-mapped face and dirty, scraggly spikes of hair, but now I could add dark circles standing out on death-pale skin. I filled one more cup with water.

The door clicked open.

Vanir placed one finger over his lips before pulling me out of the bathroom and into his room. He softly shut the door behind me.

My nose hit the middle of his chest—that nice, wide chest. Now that the
rune tempus
wasn’t scrambling my brain, I could pay better attention. His white T-shirt was snug and did nothing to hide the muscles I
had
noticed earlier. He kind of made me feel like the fairy sprite my mom called me. The weird thing was that it didn’t bother me. Well, other than the warm, gooey feeling I had in my gut while standing this close to him.

In fact, I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt
more
like a girl.

He’d obviously showered because he smelled fantastic. Sort of woodsy, spicy. Plus, his hair, freshly washed and dried, was something to see. I kind of wished we’d stayed in the bathroom light because it looked like the color of ripened wheat I’d seen in Nebraska cornfields. It slid silky and thick around his face. Oh, I wanted to touch. See if it was as soft as it looked.

Then I remembered my own not-so-soft hair and changed my mind. His fingers would stick. On second thought, it was a good thing the room was lit only by moonlight.

He tugged me away from the door. The sweatpants bagged over my feet, threatening to trip me, so I did what I could with my free hand to tug them up. I did
not
want to let go of his hand. Like in the other room, I felt hardwood beneath my feet, followed by a rug and then wood again. He had a big room with a queen-size bed. I tried not to stare at the bed, with its messy white sheets, and failed.

About a million butterflies sprang to life in my stomach.

Ripping my gaze away, I caught moonlight glittering off a monitor in the corner and I nearly started drooling. I’d give anything to own a computer of my own. Hell, I’d be happy to have a room of my own to put it in.

Near the window, he stopped and lifted my face into the moonlight, his thumb slipping softly over my chin. I held my breath.

“You look better than when you nearly face-planted in the kitchen.” His whisper brushed over my face. My chest tightened as his hair slid forward, throwing some of his face into shadow. But I could feel him looking at me. “Sorry for pulling you out of the bathroom so fast but I didn’t want my brother to figure out I was in there—I wanted to talk to you alone. They’re all nosy. So, do you feel better?”

I started to nod, but the lump on my head reminded me to stop. “Yeah,” I whispered back. “It was nice of your aunt to take care of me.”

“Did Hallur tell you she stayed? She’ll probably want to poke and prod you again in the morning.” He shook his hair back, revealing a grin. “Once, I fell out of a tree and broke my arm. She hung around for days. Then another time I fell out of the tree house—” He cleared his throat. “I liked trees when I was a kid.”

“I did, too! Until this one time when my
ru
—” I broke off.
Crap
. I’d ruined the mood.

His smile disappeared. “You were about to talk about that weird thing you did in the bathroom, weren’t you?” He looked away from me, sighed. “I was really pissed earlier, but I decided to talk to you first. What happened?”

I didn’t answer right away because I didn’t know how to. Lying completely would only trip me up in the long run, and besides, I couldn’t bring myself to outright lie to him more than I already had.

“Remember I said I have Norse ancestors?” My mind whizzed over how much to share. He deserved at least some of the truth. “It’s like what you do with your hands...wait, do you know what you’re doing?”

He lifted an eyebrow.

My cheeks warmed. “Yeah, of course you do. Most people don’t really know that magic exists—not unless they have it or know someone who does. You obviously do. So do your brothers and it’s obvious your aunt does. But
what
do you know about magic?”