Immortals (Runes book 2) (31 page)

I frowned. “So you two haven’t spoken since?”

Cora shrugged. “No. So what did you do yesterday?”

How could she give up on Eirik so easily? “Torin and I went to Multnomah Falls.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Boring.”

I grinned. “It’s not the place, smarty pants, but the person you’re with. What did you do?”

“We went to visit my mother’s friends in Salem.” She crossed her eyes. “All they talked about was organic this and organic that. Even their daughter, who’s my age, just yapped about composts and cow manure… Disgusting.” She shuddered then looked up, and her lips tightened.

Eirik sat across from us at a different table with the four girls. Cora’s eyes kept straying to them even after Drew and Keith joined us. Eirik completely ignored us. I wanted to march to their table and kick him. I felt so bad for Cora.

***

Torin’s garage door was open when I entered our cul-de-sac. They were back! Grinning, I parked and debated whether to stop by their place first. Even as the thought crossed my mind, their front door opened and Andris stepped out. I waved.

“Wait up,” he called and partially jogged across their lawn.

“How did it go?”

“How did
what
go?”

“Reaping,” I whispered.

He shrugged. “Same as usual. ‘But I can’t be dead,’” he said in a falsetto voice. “‘You most definitely are dead, but you’re lucky because I’m taking you to Fólkvangr, where you’ll live in the lap of luxury for thousands of years until the big battle at the end of the world,’” he added in his normal voice. “‘Can I say goodbye to my parents?’” he added again in a high-pitch. “‘Uh, they can’t see you, stupid. You’re dead,’” he finished, reverting into his regular voice again. He shook his head. “Idiots.”

I tried hard not to laugh. Despite his annoying disregard for life, his narration had been funny. “Don’t call people names,” I said, starting for the front entrance.

He followed me. “They’re not people. They’re souls, ghosts. Do you have time to hang out?”

Hang out? Okay. “Depends. Where’s Torin?”

“Practice, and Lavania won’t be here until five. She helped, too, and is still in Valhalla.”

“Okay. Come inside.” I unlocked the door and stepped aside for him to enter.

“Thank you.” He paused before entering. “Did I mention you look rather fetching in your outfit?”

I snorted. “Fetching?”

“Gorgeous?”

I made a face. “You don’t have to compliment me, Andris. I’ve already agreed to hang out with you.” I closed the door, putting down my oboe and backpack at the foot of the stairs. Andris looked toward the living room.

“Can I get something to drink?” he asked.

“Sure.” I waved toward the wet bar.

He retrieved a glass from above the sink and poured a generous amount of one of my father’s alcoholic drinks. “Want some?” he asked, holding up the drink.

“There’s soda in the fridge behind you.”

He removed one, even got me a glass. I usually just drank from the can. He came around the counter and sat on a stool, then took a long sip of his drink. “So, how was school?”

“Really? You came to my house to discuss school?”

“It’s an icebreaker.” He drank another mouthful, and I realized he was nervous. Weird.

“School was fine. How many souls did you guys reap in the training place?”

“Twenty, thirty, I didn’t keep count.”

“Do you know how many football players are going to die?”

“Nope. Don’t particularly care either.” He chugged his drink.

“Is that why you’re not nice to them?”

“It is a lot easier to tell someone you don’t like or care about that they’re dead, so I try not to get too close. Torin, on the other hand, likes to be nice. It’s part of his… thing.”

Did that mean Torin had no problem telling people he liked they were dead? I opened the lid off the can, chugged my soda, and waited for Andris to tell me the real reason he was at my house. He still hesitated, draining his drink and pouring more. Maybe I should put him at ease by focusing on something else.

“Do you remember when you thought Torin and I weren’t together anymore and you said he was sacrificing so much for me and I had no clue?”

Andris frowned. “I said that?”

I nodded. “Yes. What did you mean?”

He rolled his eyes. “Nothing. You know me, always hoping to get a reaction.”

I didn’t believe him. “Torin owes someone a favor.”

“He does? I’m sure it’s not that important or I would have heard about it.” He leaned forward. “Now back to me and my question. You promised to tell me about Maliina.”

No wonder he was a mess. My interaction with his ex-mate was the reason she’d turned evil. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

“Do you remember our first meeting at the park during the Ultimate Frisbee game?”

He winced. “Yeah. I’m sorry I made her jealous. I should never have flirted with you.”

I studied him. Was he blaming himself for what she did? “You didn’t tell her to attack me, Andris. She chose to react the way she did.”

“Did she ever draw runes on you?”

I shook my head. “No.”

He put his empty glass on the counter, got up, and paced. “That doesn’t make sense. She must have. Maybe you didn’t notice. The only way Valkyries turn evil is when they draw evil runes on Mortals.”

My mind raced as I tried to remember everything that had happened between me and Maliina. “At the dance club, she thought I had gone outside to meet you and was quite angry. She drew runes on herself.”

He stopped. “I checked her rune book and didn’t see any evil runes.”

I had no idea what drawing runes on her had to do with her book, but I let it pass. Then I remembered the incident at the pool. “She runed Cora one night after we’d gone swimming.”

Andris snapped his fingers. “That was it. Did Cora act strange afterwards?”

“Yeah. She almost landed us in a ditch on our way home.”

“Have you noticed anything different about her now?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“I wonder if that’s the reason Lavania doesn’t like her.”

I snorted. “Lavania doesn’t like her because of Eirik. She thinks Cora is not good enough to date him.”

“That’s crap. A deity can consort with anyone he likes. Mortals, Valkyries, A, Elven, other deities.” He chuckled. “He could even date giantesses. Something about Cora bothers her.”

I didn’t like their attitude toward her. “Yeah, whatever. If the bad runes Maliina etched on Cora are making her give evil vibes, blame Maliina, not Cora.”

Andris frowned. “What was she thinking? By marking a Mortal with bad runes, Maliina sealed her doom. She’ll never find her way back.”

He sounded so sad. He must still be in love with her, which was so heartbreaking. I touched his arm. “Hey. Maybe she will. You never know. ”

He shook his head. “No, she won’t. Thanks for telling me.”

I walked him to the door then went upstairs to start on my homework. At the back of my mind, I kept thinking about Andris.

***

“Today we’ll start on runes,” Lavania said hours later. Once again, we were seated on the floor in their living room. On the table were the leather belt with the artavo and two books made out of brown leather with runes on the cover and gold clasps. One was thicker and older.

“Can I ask one question before we start?” I asked.

“Sure.” Lavania poured water into her glass.

“You said you’d tell me more about the difference between Immortals and Valkyries.”

“Once we etch basic runes on your skin, you can engage them to give you special abilities associated with them. Then we’ll move to bind runes, which are combinations of several runes. They are more powerful and specific. Bind runes for speed, healing broken bones, protection against car accidents, opening portals, visual acuity so when you move at an accelerated speed you can still see things like a regular person. When you have these abilities, you’ll be officially an Immortal. However, not all Immortals become Valkyries.”

“Why?”

“Like I told you before, you have to convince souls to leave with you to become a Valkyrie. Some Immortals don’t have it in them.”

I remembered the souls at the cemetery and shuddered. “Is that so terrible to want to be an Immortal?”

“No. Remember I told you about
Völur
?”

I nodded.

“
Völur
are Immortals, but they are so rare we haven’t had one in several millennia. We’ll discuss them in detail later. Right now, we’ll focus on the other Immortals. They become servants, age faster than Valkyries and gods, and miss out on some of the cool things Valkyries can do.”

Yeah, escorting souls. Yippee. “Servants?”

“Someone has to take care of the gods. Eirik’s guardians, Johan and Sari, are Immortals. When Valkyries fall, like your mother, they become Immortals. Still want to be just an Immortal?”

I made a face. “For now.”

“Then let’s turn you into one.” She passed me one of the books, opened the leather belt, and gave me an artavus. She opened the second book. Single runes were sketched neatly in rows. The pages were thin, like animal skin on drums. “Practice drawing the runes, starting with the first line. I’ll tell you what they mean as you sketch them.”

“I sketch with an artavus?”

She grinned. “Try it.”

Expecting it to rip or burn, I placed the tip of the blade on the page and sketched my first rune. Instead of cuts or burns, I had a nice black rune. Hmm, interesting. For an hour, all I did was sketch one rune after another. Those associated with the major gods—Odin, Frigga, Freya, Thor, Tiw… Then we moved to the virtues—courage, wealth, health, victory, family, destiny, joy…

We took a break while she made us tea, then we went back to the living room. As soon as I sat and opened my book, I noticed the empty pages. “What happened? I had four pages of runes, and now they’re blank.”

Lavania grinned. “That’s because you’re only practicing.”

“What do you mean? They self-erase?”

“In a way. When you use the artavus to sketch runes in these books, they disappear after a few minutes. Just like when we sketch on mirrors and walls to create portals.”

“But Torin’s book has runes on its pages.”

“So will yours, once you start etching them on your skin. You see, whenever you use your artavus to etch a rune on your skin, the rune appears here.” She tapped on my book. “Over the years, you’ll have more and more runes. Think of it as a passport to your immortality. Take the
stillo
and sketch Freya’s rune on your arm.”

I stared at her. Was she kidding? “Now?”

“Yes.”

I shot her a dubious glance. “It’s going to hurt.”

“Of course, it’s going to hurt. You have to suck it up, dear.” She stood. “I’m going to make more tea.”

I stared at the blade, then my arm, and shuddered. This was so not happening. The door opened, and Torin walked in. He summed up the scene in a glance and smirked. “First rune?”

“No smartass remarks,” I warned.

His grin broadened.

I made a face. “Was your first one painful?”

“Very.”

“Thanks a bunch for making me feel better.”

Chuckling, he closed the door, dropped his gym bag, and walked to where I sat. I highly doubted he noticed Lavania in the kitchen. He sunk his fingers into my hair, gripped the back of my head, and kissed me, taking his time. The artavus fell from my hand. I threw my arms around his neck to hold him in place. He made such a good snack.

He broke the contact and whispered, “You will be fine.”

Would I? His eyes said he believed in me. I swallowed. “How do you know?”