Souls (Runes series) Page 4

  “Well, not now.”

  “Good, because I really need to go.” I didn’t try to stop him this time. Knowing him, he wouldn’t sleep if he was worried about someone hurting me.

  Hugging a pillow, I watched him get dressed, his movements graceful. It never failed to amaze me how beautiful he was and how unaware of it he acted. He was humble about his looks because of a few stupid scars. He didn’t get that they made him hotter in my eyes.

  Echo glanced at me and smirked. “I know what you’re doing.”

  “What?”

  “Mentally taking off everything I put on,” he said, the golden glow in his eyes intensifying.

  I was. It was uncanny how well he read me. “So?”

  He smirked. “So, I love being your boy toy.” He closed the space between us. This time, the kiss was deeper, branding. “I’ll fortify the farm with protective runes before I leave. I don’t know how Dev made it past my runes, but then again, he was always so clever, the devious prick.”

  He stepped back, adjusted the hood of his duster, and pulled a scythe from the inner pocket. It was small, the size of a dagger, but the instant he engaged his runes, the blade and handle grew until it arched and towered above him. He sliced the air and a portal appeared. He studied me one last time as though engraving the image of me in his head. Then he was gone. The portal closed behind him.

  I padded across the room, through the portal to my room, and crawled under the blanket. I was falling asleep before I realized I’d left my pjs at his place.

  ***

  I’d barely fallen asleep when Mom knocked on my door. I grabbed the nearest thing to cover my nude body and it turned out to be Echo’s expensive sheet. I rolled it up and hid it under my pillows, then dragged my comforter around me.

  “Hey, sleepyhead,” she said when I unlocked the door and squinted at her through a narrow opening.

  “What time is it?”

  “Almost ten.” She pushed the door and I had no choice but to let her in. “I’m just here for your laundry. Aren’t you working at Moonbeam Terrace this morning?”

  “This afternoon,” I mumbled and followed her. “I have lessons with Raine this morning.”

  “Lessons?”

  Did I just say that out loud? Argh, I sucked at lying. Hated it. “She’s helping me with math. You know how good she is at math, and I suck at it.”

  “Suck is such an ugly word, Cora,” Mom scolded, throwing me a censuring look. “You and Raine are good at different things. That’s all.” She grabbed the wash hamper from the bathroom, then went behind the door and got used towels from the pegs.

  I rearranged the pillows so she wouldn’t notice the grey sheet. “She’s kind of a math genius.” I was laying it on thick. Like I said, I sucked at lying.

  Mom dismissed my words with a wave, propped the hamper on her hip, and studied me. “And you are an amazing writer. I stopped by your vlog and noticed you have quite a following now. Over half a million. I love reading your pieces.”

  I made a face. “Really?”

  “Of course. They’re insightful and thought-provoking.”

  “Oh. Thanks.” That was the sweetest thing she’d ever said about my vlogging. She’d hated my first vlog because it was mainly about boys and why they were hot. Gah, was I ever shallow. Now I focused on helping grieving families.

  “You do know there’s a rule against parents stalking their kids on social networks,” I teased.

  Mom laughed. “You have no idea how often I want to tell your subscribers I’m your mother. I’m so proud of you.”

  “No.” I sat up. “Don’t joke about that. Not the proud part, but the part where you tell my followers that my mother watches my videos and comments on them. You’ll ruin everything.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “How?”

  “You just will.”

  She sighed. “At least tell me it’s okay if I tell my friends about it.”

  “As long as they don’t mention they know me personally.”

  Mom frowned. “I don’t understand. I thought you wanted to share your thoughts with people.”

  “I do, but once my teen subscribers realize some of the comments are from you and your friends, they’ll stop following me.”

  Mom’s bewildered expression said she still didn’t get it. She was so generations back. Cassette players and records. Hunchback TVs and huge mobile phones.

  “Mom, most teens don’t want to hang around the same social websites as their parents. It’s nothing personal. They want to express themselves without worrying about censures and Mommy scowls, so please, no comments about me being your daughter.”

  She no longer frowned. “That explains the colorful language I noticed some of them use. Very distasteful.” She gripped the basket and started for the door. “Oh, do you want a pie to take to your friends at the nursing home?”

  “Definitely. Mrs. J and the gang would never forgive me if I didn’t.” Lauren, Mrs. J’s daughter, dumped her at Moonbeam Terrace Assisted Living Home and had never returned to visit. Worse, she was only an hour away in Portland. I’d never do that to my parents, no matter how annoying they got in their old age. Just before Mom closed the door, I remembered my conversation with Echo. “Mom?”

  She poked her head back into my room, her eyebrows up.

  “How old were you when you got married?” The brows went way, way up. One would think I just told her I was about to have an alien baby.

  She re-entered my room. “Thirty-two. Why?”

  “Nothing. I was just wondering.” My cell phone dinged, but I ignored it. It was probably a text from Lavania about my lessons. For a woman born millennia before the industrial revolution, she had mastered the use of a cell phone fast.

  Mom closed the door, her eyes wary. “Honey, you’re not pregnant, are you?”

  “Mom! No-oo, of course not.” Echo and I used protection. “I’m going to college, and babies are not part of my plan.”

  The relief on Mom’s face was comical. “Good. I know you’re eighteen now, but…”

  My phone dinged again. Lavania to the rescue. I grabbed it and checked the LCD screen. It wasn’t her. “I need to answer this, Mom. It’s from Raine.” And yes, I was eighteen, an adult, which meant she couldn’t legally stop me from marrying Echo, but I wanted them on board. The secrets I kept from them were enough. Too much. I needed their blessing on this.

  She nodded, then left my room frowning. I sighed with relief. Telling them I wanted to get married wasn’t going to be easy. It didn’t matter that Echo had come to our house several times or that Mom thought he was a good influence on me and Dad loved discussing history with him. I was their only child, and they wanted the best for me. Echo had to prove to them he was. I glanced at my phone.

  “Lessons canceled. Lavania left this morning. Going to the site. Want to come?” Raine had texted.

  Frowning, I stood. The site was the section of forest where Echo and the Valkyries had fought Torin’s father and his Immortal followers. I’d barely known that Norse gods were real and already I was filled with curiosity about Asgard. I couldn’t imagine protecting humanity on behalf of the gods for centuries and never being thanked or asked to visit the gods’ realm. So in a way, I understood the Immortals’ warped reasoning. They might have gone about it the wrong way, but there should be a way to thank Immortals for their devotion to the gods and the Mortals. A yearly pilgrimage to Asgard or something.

  “Going with Torin?” I texted back.

  “No. Just me. He and the others are rpn. Mom too.”

  Rpn meant reaping. “I thought the place was off limits.”

  “It’s been a week. I’m worried. Don’t trust the Norns.”

  I frowned. Raine had the kindest heart and she felt things deeper than most girls I knew, but sometimes I feared for her. She was so reckless. She and Eirik had taken me under their wing in middle school when they’d found me crying after P.E. I’d just started at their school after being homeschooled and had b
een miserable and totally ill-equipped to cope at a public school. She inspired loyalty in people, and there was nothing I wouldn’t do for her. It wasn’t because she was a powerful Seeress or the announcer of Ragnarok. Even Eirik, my first crush and grandson of Odin, had proven over and over again that he’d sacrifice the wrath of the gods for her. Raine was loyal and courageous and annoyingly stubborn. Chances were she was going to the battleground against everyone’s will.

  “Wait for me,” I texted back.

  She sent back a smiley emoji with heart eyes. I showered, changed, returned Echo’s sheet, retrieved my pjs, and then headed downstairs. Mom stuck her head out of the laundry room when I stepped off the stairs.

  “Leaving already?” she asked.

  “Unless you need help with something,” I said.

  She dismissed my words with a wave. “I’m fine. Don’t forget to eat something.”

  “Hi, Daddy.” Dad was at his writing alcove off the living room. I kissed his cheek and got a pat on my hand. He was editing a hard copy of his latest story. Interestingly, it was about aliens invading a small rural town. He was inspired after Echo chased some Grimnirs across a neighbor’s vineyard and left behind flattened vines. Speculations had followed. Alien invasion. Local hooligans. Kids playing a prank. Rival farmer. Of course, Dad didn’t know Echo had been involved.

  “How’s the story?” I asked.

  He grinned. “Coming along nicely. They’re from a planet several light years from earth and didn’t just crash land on earth. They’re after something.” He tapped the papers. “That’s what I need to figure out.”

  If only he knew. “I’m going to the nursing home after I’m done at Raine’s, Mom,” I called out, heading to the kitchen.

  “Then don’t forget Mrs. J’s pie,” Mom said, leaving the laundry room. “I also packaged two for Raine’s family.”

  She’d already put them in boxes. Mom supplied local stores with pies made from our farm’s organic produce. Of all her pies, the apple ones were the most popular. I hated anything with apple in it. We made our own apple cider for pity’s sake.

  I grabbed the boxes, a pear, my keys, and cell phone, and headed outside. Sometimes I wished my parents knew everything about Echo. I’d use the portal instead of driving to and from Raine’s house. I sent her a text that I was on my way.

  Flipping through radio frequencies, I found ninety-four-point-five, the station that played pop music, and sang along. I was close to Raine’s home when a sudden blast of cold air filled my car and Echo appeared in the back seat.

  Now that I knew about portals and how to access them, I realized he took too many chances teleporting into a moving car.

  “You really shouldn’t do that when I’m driving,” I warned him, hiking up the warm air. “You could get hurt.”

  “You are my beacon, doll-face, not the car.” He dropped a kiss on my nape, his lips cold. “Where are you going?”

  “Raine’s. Do you want me to pull over?” Every time he came from Hel’s Hall, he needed to be warmed. Sometimes I wondered how he’d survived without me.

  “I can wait. Why are you visiting the young Norn?”

  He had a nasty habit of not using people’s names. It was so impersonal. Must be his way of keeping distance between him and others. He still called Torin and Andris Valkyries.

  “Her name is Raine, Echo,” I corrected him, my eyes volleying between his reflection in the rearview mirror and the road ahead. “And she’s my best friend.”

  He rolled his eyes, rubbing my nape and stealing my heat. “Why Raine’s?”

  “She’s decided to visit the forest.”

  Echo groaned. “And she chose the moment St. James is gone.”

  “I don’t think she planned it. She’s worried the Norns didn’t fix the trees.”

  “Probably her witch side itching to come out. That’s how it is with elemental witches. Once they connect with their source of power, it pulls them.” He forked his fingers through my hair and then pressed the strands to his face and inhaled. He had a heightened sense of smell because he could tell every scent on my body. Shampoo. Conditioner. Body wash. Cream. “Hmm, nice,” he murmured.

  I reached up and stroked his hair as I entered Raine’s cul-de-sac. His hair was cold, the tips still frozen. I brought the car to a stop outside Raine’s house. Every time I came to her house, I was reminded that her father was terminally ill. She was dealing with so much crap, yet she’d managed to stay upbeat. I didn’t know how she did it.

  “Come here,” I said to Echo after moving the pies out of the way.

  Echo moved to the front seat, pulled me onto his lap, and buried his face in the crook of my neck, his arms looping around my waist. He was still freezing.

  I rubbed his back and let him warm his hands under my shirt. I’d bet old Mrs. Rutledge, Raine’s neighbor from across the cul-de-sac, was cataloguing our every movement for her gossipy friends.

  “So, it’s just you and the Norn, uh, Raine going to the forest?”

  “Yes. Do you want to come?”

  “I am coming,” he said in a voice that dared me to contradict him.

  “Are you worried about Dev finding me?”

  “Nope. He’ll be taken care of.” His voice changed when he said it.

  “How?”

  “Grimnir Bounty Hunters.” The look that crossed his face said he hadn’t meant to say that. “I’m coming with you guys in case the Norns appear. I don’t want them focusing their attention on you. So far they’ve left you alone, and I prefer it that way.”

  I’d never met a Norn—Maliina didn’t count—but from what Raine said, I shouldn’t wish it. They were manipulative. Powerful. Raine was more powerful though. I had a feeling they feared her.

  “You’re warm enough. Come on. Time to go inside.”

  “Not yet.” His caresses became intimate. I closed my eyes, helpless to control my responses or resist him. Not that I wanted to.

  “When we have kids, I’ll have to remind them that this and this,” he point at various parts of my body, “are mine. They can borrow them, but I claimed them first.”

  Echo and children? The idea was mind-boggling.

  He stopped messing with me, peered at Raine’s house, and frowned. “I’ll wait here.”

  I gathered my wits and shook my head. “No. You’re coming inside with me.”

  “Her parents are home and the Immortal nurse—”

  I kissed him, shutting him up. He always acted like people would reject him just because his Grimnir Druid brothers and sisters did. What he did—insisting they help turn their people Immortal and earning eternal servitude to goddess Hel—he’d done for the love of his people. He wore a loopy grin when I stopped kissing him.

  “Do it again,” he teased.

  “I’d love to, but Raine’s waiting. Come on. You have pies to carry.”

  I scooted to my seat and opened my door. He was still in his seat when I walked around the car. He didn’t put up a fight when I opened the door, took his hand, and pulled him out of the car. I opened the back door and pointed at the boxes of apple pie.

  He grabbed the boxes and grinned. “I love it when you’re bossy. Major turn-on.”

  “Keep walking, Mr. One-track-mind.”

  Raine answered the door when we rang the bell. She didn’t mask her surprise when she saw Echo. We hugged. Then she gave Echo a “Hey.”

  He smirked as though he enjoyed seeing her flustered. “Don’t I get a hug?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re carrying pies.”

  I plucked them from his arm and nudged him toward her. They’d better work on being friends without all this awkwardness. She hugged him. This time, he was the one who couldn’t mask his surprise.

  Raine swept her hair away from her face, her cheeks pink. It amazed me how she could look incredibly sexy without much effort. Her brown hair had a tousled look as though she’d just gotten out of bed. I’d have to work on my hair for hours to pull off that look.
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br />   “Come inside,” she said, stepping back.

  I glanced around. Her mother was back on Valkyrie duty and was gone, but her father’s nurse was always around. “Where’s Femi?”

  “With Dad.” She glanced at Echo. “Are you coming with us?”

  “Cora insisted,” he said.

  I laughed and elbowed him. He was such a liar. Good thing Raine appeared relieved by his response. “I’ll put these in the fridge. Two are for your family, and one is for Mrs. J at the nursing home.”

  “Someone ought to track down her daughter and force her to visit. It’s been what? Three months since you started there and she’s never visited?”

  “The nurses said it’s been over six months. Maybe there’s something you can do?” I glanced at Echo.

  He smirked. “Sure, hun. I can scare Mrs. J’s daughter to death, then take her soul to Corpse Strand for being ungrateful.”

  Raine laughed. “Good one.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t encourage him.”

  Raine led the way to the mirror portal in the living room. It responded to her and opened to a forest. Cool. She could do surface to air portals now. My attempts were pitiful. I could only do portal-to-portal. We followed her.

  “You sure this is the place?” Echo asked, kicking a rock.

  Raine shook her head. “I’ve spent the last couple of hours searching different sections of the forest, but I couldn’t see—” She moaned and clutched her stomach.

  “What is it?” I asked, rushing to her side. She doubled over again, her face scrunched in pain. “Raine—”

  “The trees are dying,” she whispered, her breathing shallow.

  I glanced around and frowned. What was she talking about? There was not a single dead tree anywhere. It was spring and sunlight bathed the green foliage, casting shadows all around us. I turned to ask her what she meant, but she was already staggering down a path, her runes engaged.

  I glanced at Echo. “Do you know what she means?”

  “She has elemental magic. Her powers are connected to the earth. If the trees are dying, she’d feel it. Come on.” He took my hand as we followed Raine, who was way ahead.