Gods (27 page)

The crow stared straight at her intently, the yellow eyes gleaming. I got a few more shots.

“I mean it. Go home. I have school tomorrow.” She blew it a kiss and raised her arm. “Go.” The crow turned and faced the night, glanced back at her, then took off. She covered her mouth as though to contain her laughter. “Oh my god, that was so weird.”

“Told you.”

She walked into my arms and wrapped her arms around my waist. “How did you know about the bond?”

“Someone explained it to me.”

“Does this someone have a name?”

“Tammy.”

She groaned and stepped back. “Right.”

I followed her back inside the house and locked the door behind us. Back in her room, she curled on her bed with her sketchpad. “Tell me about your dream home. What would you put in the living room?”

“You still won’t discuss her?”

“Nope.”

“She said because you healed her the same way you healed the crow, she’s linked to you, too.”

She scrunched her face. “What color would you paint your living room?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m working on a project and you make such a nice subject.”

She was so stubborn. I gave up trying to sell Tammy and joined her. We discussed color schemes and my photographs, including the ones I’d taken of her.

“These are good, but I want to see your friends,” she mumbled. I gave her the second memory card. She studied the ones of Raine. “She’s beautiful and delicate, until you look into her eyes. I bet she’s stubborn and kickass. What’s her gift?”

“Elemental magic and premonition. She doesn’t astral project. I think her premonitions are through clairvoyance.”

“Elementals usually are powerful. You have a lot of her pictures.”

“I spent a lot of time with her. And she’s very good at ignoring me and everyone else when it suits her, which made her the perfect subject.”

“I like her already. Where’re pictures of her Valkyrie?”

“Men make boring subjects.”

“Cora’s?”

There were only a few in the memory card. Celestia frowned as she studied the pictures. “Wow, she is gorgeous.” Her eyes volleyed between the picture and my face. “You two must have made a cute couple.”

I didn’t like the expression on her face. “We never dated.”

“Okay, would have made a cute couple.” She turned off the camera and scooted off the bed, then went to the bathroom. I followed. Maybe I shouldn’t have shown her Cora’s pictures. “So Cora still helps souls find closure?”

“Yes.”

“How did she get the ability?”

We’d already discussed this.

“Maliina marked her with weird runes. She was working with some Norns.”

“Rogue Norns?”

“That’s right.” I leaned against the doorframe and explained how one act by a jealous Immortal had changed the course of Cora’s life. For the first time since Celestia and I met, I couldn’t read her. Her heartbeat stayed steady and her scent was the same, yet I knew something bothered her. She squeezed some toothpaste on the toothbrush and brushed her teeth while I talked. I didn’t realize I’d moved until I had the toothpaste in my hand.

“So Maliina’s soul is still out there?” she said, rinsing off.

“Not for long. Rhys and Nara are hunting her down. If that fails, they’ll send Idun-Grimnirs.”

She blinked. “The ancients reap, too?”

I grinned. “Where did you think people get the idea of grim reapers from? They’re the last resort when a difficult dark soul refuses to be reaped and they never fail. Rhys said it’s humbling to watch them work. They move like souls. Dimples, about Cora,” I started.

She stopped flossing and glanced at me. “Yes?”

“You are not jealous of her, are you?”

“Should I be?”

“No. I thought we had a thing, but it wasn’t what I thought it was.”

A weird expression crossed her face. “Did she hurt you?”

I thought about it. It had hurt, but that was in past. “No. I was disappointed she hadn’t waited for me, but you can’t control love. The heart wants what it wants.”

“So I can’t hate her?”

“Jeez, no. She’s nice, most of the time. She can be annoying too. But then, so can Raine. I just don’t want you feeling jealous of her.”

Celestia closed the gap between us, until only inches separated us. She tilted her chin to study my face, her eyes narrowed. “Why then should I be jealous of her when you love little me, Eirik? Is it because she’s gorgeous?”

“You are gorgeous.” I stroked her cheek, and she leaned into it and smiled.

“I know, but she is exceptionally beautiful. Now if my best friend wasn’t one of the most beautiful girls I know, I’d feel intimidated. I already went through all the insecurity I could possibly feel with Hayden and realized I loved me the way I am. So no woman, however hot, would ever make me feel less pretty, less smart, or less gifted.” She made a face. “Speaking of gifts, I’m not too crazy about my new one. It’s on par with hers. I mean, who wants to be possessed by souls—”

I cut her off with my lips and lifted her up, her legs wrapping around me.

“Sometimes you talk too damn much,” I mumbled.

“Me? You are the slow one. I was wondering when you’d kiss me and stop me from hopping from one topic to another. I only talk to fill in the—”

I cut her off again. She was the most extraordinary girl I’d ever met and the most infuriating, yet I could never imagine loving anyone else. The second I faced the room; I realized we were not alone.

Rhys stood inside the room, his expression uneasy. I couldn’t tell from his expression how long he’d been standing there. A bad feeling washed over me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“You need to come home now,” he said and glanced briefly at Celestia. “Sorry for invading your privacy, but it’s important.”

“What is?” I lowered Celestia to the ground, but kept her close.

“Trudy sent me to find you. It’s your sister.”

“Can’t it wait until later?”

“No, go.” Celestia stepped back. “Trudy would not send for you if it weren’t important.”

“She’s being impossible. Einmyria, not Trudy,” I added when confusion flashed across Celestia’s face. “I invited her to eat with me in Grimnirs Hall and when she finally came, we spoke briefly and she took off in tears.”

“Did you say something to set her off?”

“Not really. Syn flirted with her, and I forbade her to date him. It was all a joke, and we laughed about it. The next second, she ran from the hall crying.”

Celestia shook her head. “You can’t forbid her from dating someone she likes.”

“I know that, but I’m her brother and it’s my job to look out for her. In fact, I told her that exact thing before she took off.”

Celestia frowned this time. “Maybe you caught her off guard. I mean, Angrboda filled her head with terrible lies and there you are being nice and brotherly. Did you at least check on her before coming here?”

“Of course. She refused to open the door.”

Celestia smiled. “Go and find out what’s going on with her.”

“I’ll be back.” I stole a kiss and followed Rhys through the portal.

A worried Trudy was pacing the front hall when we arrived. “Someone attacked Einmyria. She was screaming and covered with claw marks when the goddess entered her room, Eirik. Your mother had to knock her out with her scepter because she wasn’t making sense.”

I was in the rotunda before I realized I had moved. By the time she finished, I was pushing open the door to my parents’ quarters.

“Who attacked her?” I asked, my eyes connecting with my mother’s. Someone must have told them I was on my way. Instead of answering, she hurried toward me. My father’s expression was unreadable. I glanced at Trudy, but she couldn’t meet my eyes. My mother did something she’d never done before—she hugged me. She was taking this hard. If Einmyria could see her now, she’d forget the nonsense Crazy Granny had put inside her head.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Mother whispered.

“Bottom of what?” I pushed her away, hating that I couldn’t appreciate the significance of the hug. “What’s going on? Who attacked Einmyria?”

“She’s a confused girl, Eirik, and—”

“Mother! Who?”

“She said you did, but we don’t believe a word of it,” Father said. “You’d never harm her.”

“Half the things she hurled at us didn’t make sense,” Mother added. “But one thing we know for sure is you didn’t hurt her.”

~*~

CELESTIA

Eirik didn’t come back. I was used to sleeping with him, but that wasn’t the only reason I had a fitful night. I was worried about Einmyria’s situation. Maybe we were wrong about her. Maybe she was really Eirik’s sister and Crazy Granny had screwed with her head. Come to think of it, the old Jötun might have said what she did to mess with me too. Grams had taught me to never let someone play me like a puppet. If it happened, it was because I let them.

Annoyed with myself, I stomped to the kitchen for breakfast. Dad was drinking coffee and reading the paper. He looked up and chuckled.

“Woke up on the wrong side of the bed?”

“Something like that.”

“What time did Eirik leave last night?”

I stared at him. “I, uh, ten. Rhys came for him. Something about his sister.”

“Uh-huh. And what is this new gift you have? You two are quite loud when you argue. What’s your new gift? Should I be worried?”

Oh yes, you should.
“No. I can heal things.”

He choked on his coffee and put the mug down. “Heal?”

“Like the crow that hit my windscreen. It had a broken wing”—and neck—“and I healed it.” I didn’t think he was ready for bringing things back to life yet.

Dad scrubbed his face. “Is that why it was on the porch causing that racket?”

“Yes, until I told it to go home.”

“You talk bird now?”

I laughed and he joined me. “No, but it seems that when I healed it, I gave it some of my life force.” He frowned, and I knew I was losing him. “It became attached to me.” He groaned. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to go all over town healing animals and turning our home into a zoo.” He wore a dubious expression. “Okay, I’ll try not to.”

“That’s good enough for me.” He pressed a kiss on my temple. “A healer, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Your grandmother often said you had a bright future ahead of you. She got that right.” He headed toward his bedroom, shaking his head. At least, he didn’t know the rest, which I was still trying to wrap my head around.

I got milk from the fridge and added it to the cereal, but I couldn’t eat. It wasn’t every day you learned you had the ability to bring the dead back to life. I changed and headed out the door. Daiku and Ranger were waiting with my soy chai. Was this my norm now? I thanked them.

“Is everything okay in the hall?”

They nodded. “We didn’t see him, but the instructions were the same,” Ranger added. “Escort you to school and hang around.”

“What’s up with them?” Daiku asked, pointing at the other side of my car.

I walked around and smothered a groan. Crows had invaded my home and were feeding on worms on our lawn. Seriously? Of all the lawns in our neighborhood?

“Ignore them.” As though to thwart me, one of them flew down and landed on the roof of my car just as I opened the door. The crow’s loyalty could get annoying real fast. It moved closer, bobbing its head. “Listen, Merle. Yes, you have a name now. Since I don’t know whether you are male or female, I went with Merle. I’m happy I helped you, Merle, but you can’t keep doing this. Worse, you brought your family. Go and continue being a bird. I have school, okay?”

It stopped by my hand, reached down, and rubbed its head against my fingers. When it lifted its head, I noticed that only one of its eyes was yellow. The other one was dark brown. I stroked the feathers on its head. Daiku murmured something.

“What?”

“
Yatagarasu
,” he said.

I had no idea what he meant, but I saw the time. I had to go. “Go, Merle. Be a good birdie and stop stalking me.” The crow flew off and joined the others. When I turned around, Daiku was staring at me as though I’d sprouted two heads.

“Don’t ask. A very boring story.” I entered the car and Ranger got in the back. Daiku surprised me by sitting beside me.

“Anything involving crows is never boring,” he said. “Crows are divine. Let me tell you a story about
Yatagarasu
, the divine crow that guided Emperor Jimmu, the first ruler of Japan, and his army through treacherous regions and battling chieftains, until he won and created an empire.”

Ranger groaned. “Not another one of your long stories, rōnin.”

“Ranger, I want to hear this,” I scolded him.

For the short drive to school, Daiku regaled us with tales of the sacred crow sent by the gods to help humanity. “Kamo people, my clan, are reincarnations of
Yatagarasu.
Before I became an Immortal, I was a high priest in the shrine of the gods in Kumano Temple and Shrines.”