Forecast (21 page)

Darkling blood to spill.

The Valkyries were taking the warriors to the final battle where warriors were to meet their fates and the giants were marching there to fight as well. Only, this read like they were going there to kill me and my sisters.

They were supposed to spill darkling blood
.

Loki was using my mother’s research and knowledge to take out the gods before they could get there, which led me to believe they needed to get there just as my sisters and I had thought.

But we were supposed to be there, too. Together. I felt it in my soul.

Loki’s voice, so loud and odd coming from my mom’s body, broke into my thoughts. “I’ve had enough of these games tonight. Odin may have gotten his power before I could take him out, but you’re still teetering on the edge of yours, Thor. So sorry.” Loki lifted my mother’s arm, and moonlight reflected off the ice arrow in the crossbow. She released it and I screamed and tried to yank Taran down. But he stood strong and swung his hammer, deflecting the arrow with a small pinging noise that didn’t go with the horror of what I knew was on that arrow.

“Black salt,” I murmured as my own knowledge of magic came to me. “My blood.” I shoved my good hand into my pocket and pulled out the vial of black salt. He hadn’t used it all. I opened it and poured the salt into the blood on my hand. The sting made me suck in a breath, but I turned and rubbed the mixture on Taran. He ignored me, swinging again as another arrow came at us.

“I can do this all day, Loki,” he said, and something in his voice made my gaze fly up to his face. His eyes glowed as he glanced down at me. “Start the world back up, Coral.”

Good idea. I shut my eyes, concentrated and asked for Verthandi’s help because I still had no knowledge of how to start and stop things on my own. But as the feeling began to swirl in my throat, I knew I’d figure it out, that eventually, I’d be in complete control of this power. The spin hit fast and hard and was so startling, I flung black salt all over Taran as I flailed on the pier. He grabbed the sleeve of his red coat I still wore and stopped me from falling in. He held my arm hard, but didn’t let go as everything came to a shuddering stop.

He smoothed my hair back from my face. “You okay?” he asked as Josh and Grim began yelling and running toward us.

And that was all it took. Taran’s attention on them as Loki fired another arrow at him. The ice struck his shoulder so hard, it flung him back.

He tumbled into the water.

And took me with him.

Chapter Fourteen

The cold sucked all thought from me instantly, froze my limbs. Then, as my head broke the surface, I heard a cry and looked up to see my mother falling to her knees where I’d been standing. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut and she seemed to be struggling, then she stopped, looked at the pier and reached down. “You gave him black salt?” And it was her voice again. “Clever girl.”

Something rushed past her, something moving so fast, I couldn’t make out what—not until elves grabbed Josh and Grim. Grim struggled against one’s hold but looked at me in the water. “Taran went under!”

Taran had let go of me after we hit the water. I frantically trod water, looking for him. When I didn’t see him, I sucked in a deep breath and dived, hardly able to move in my thick coat in the frigid water. The darkness here was absolute—I couldn’t see a thing.

I swam to the surface, took another deep breath and went back under. I had never imagined how cold water could become. It seemed to invade every pore, making my bones and muscles ache. Still, I pushed away from the pier and swam around, and when I came up again, I slammed into a piece of debris—probably part of a boat. Stars blinked behind my eyelids as I grabbed onto the floating wood and took a couple of precious seconds—seconds Taran might not have—to chase off the dizziness. Then I ignored my mother’s voice as she yelled for me, took another deep breath and was about to go back under when magic rippled along the top of the water, creeping over me in prickles, like sensation returning to a numb limb.

My eyes flew open wide as a faint light showed on top of the water, then another and another. I counted nine before the lights began to take shape as they drew closer. White spirit wolves loped over the water, running toward me, and as they neared, they suddenly veered to my left and slowed. Everything about them glowed, from the long, elegant legs to the tips of their silvery fur. Their light shone on the water as the harsh squawks of ravens filled the night air, and I saw Taran’s hand splash on the surface of the water.

I swam that direction and as I reached him, his hand grabbed my coat and he started sinking. Panic hit me hard. I flailed and tried to tug free, struggled as his weight pulled me deeper and deeper under the water. My lungs started to feel like they’d burst. I began to feel light-headed and dizzy. I couldn’t pull away. He was too strong.

His hand to the death of a norn.

The prophecy was coming true and he wasn’t even aware of what he was doing.

When the water rushed into my throat, it burned and burned...until it stopped burning altogether. I quit struggling because I couldn’t—couldn’t force my limbs to move. I stared into the pitch black feeling as if I suddenly floated on air.

When Taran started thrashing and let go, I still couldn’t fight—could only feel myself sinking. But he grabbed me and pulled me to the surface. He came out of the water and somewhere far off, I heard him yelling, felt him trying to breathe into my mouth.

“Oh no, you don’t!” His voice, tinny yet loud seemed to be coming closer. “I’m not letting you go!”

He cursed as he fought the water and the weight of my body. The rush of liquid from my lungs seared. I choked, gagged, tried to suck in air, and it hurt so badly, I felt myself losing consciousness.

“That’s good,” Taran said. “Breathe. I won’t let you die.” Something in his voice was off. He slurred. As he started swimming toward shore, it seemed that his grip grew looser. One stroke, I thought. Two strokes. The silly giddiness made me feel like I was floating on something soft again, made me not care so much about the pain of trying to breathe. But something still wasn’t right. Five strokes, six, seven, eight.

Taran stretched, groaning as he took a last, ninth stroke. He shoved me in front of him, and my knee touched bottom, touched land. Water rushed out of my throat as I crawled, threw up and kept crawling. Light surrounded me and I blinked my gritty eyes at the spirit wolf standing over me. It turned its head, snout down, and I saw that Taran was sinking again.

I tried to yell, gurgled on the water still working its way out of my body and crawled back toward him, but someone grabbed me. I struggled, my horrified gaze on Taran as he disappeared.

“How interesting,” Vrunlin said as he lifted me completely free of the water. “In the prophecies, Thor is bitten by the serpent, takes nine steps and dies. But in reality, it was poison and nine swimming strokes.”

“He’s not dead. Let me go!” I thrashed, which sent more water up out of my throat and all over him.

“Charming,” he muttered as he slung me over his shoulder and carried me farther from Taran. Absolute fear for Taran kept me kicking and screaming, but nothing I did fazed the elf. He patted me on the back of the knee as he joined his group of elves, who laughed at the sight of me squirming and trying to kick this...this thing I refused to accept was my father.

The redheaded elf wasn’t laughing. He let go of Grim to try to snatch me. I tumbled off Vrunlin’s shoulder as he hissed and slashed out with his long, scary fingers. “Mine,” he growled. Red slashes appeared on the other elf’s cheek. He dropped me and I hit the ground hard as they started arguing in their language again. Apparently the red elf wanted my...wanted Vrunlin to kill me.

Grim quickly knelt next to me, but his eyes were on the water where Taran had disappeared. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine. Hurry! Can you get to Taran?”

He didn’t even hesitate. He stood and ran toward the water. The redheaded elf, already livid, lifted his arm, and moonlight reflected off the long dagger in his hand. He drew back to throw it at Grim. I scrambled to my feet and jumped him, grabbing his arm to throw off his aim. He shook me off, I hit the ground again, then looked up to see him aim.

Josh tore loose from the elf holding him, lunged toward the elf with the knife. Before I could get up to help, one of the other elves reached out, plucked him from the air, and in a blink had snapped his right leg above the knee and dropped him.

Josh bellowed in pain and I got to my hands and knees to go to him, but the redheaded elf drew back his foot and kicked Josh in the head. Hard.

Josh didn’t move after that.

I crouched there, stunned, unable to comprehend what had just happened, waiting for him to move. I couldn’t hear the sound of the birds above us or the water sloshing against the shore. There was only my own blood, rushing in my ears as this horrific, hot pain filled my chest.

I stared at Josh, lying there so still, and fury and pain like nothing I’d never felt burned through me until I was on my feet and screaming as I ran at the first elf who’d hurt him and dropped him on the ground. “Like he was nothing!” I yelled as I launched myself at him. “You dropped him like he was nothing!” Moonlight glittered on his black eyes as they went wide, but I didn’t get to him in time.

Vrunlin intercepted, holding on as I screamed and fought. I wanted to rip them limb from limb. My fear for Taran and Josh...my fury, built until I felt a swirling in my throat. I knew then, knew that I had more untapped power, and just as I was about to see what I could do, a roar sounded.

This one made everything around us go quiet. Even the birds. We turned toward the water just as a crack of thunder boomed so loud, the ground rumbled and shook. It rolled just under the surface like an earthquake.

Grim made a horrible noise of pain as he pulled Taran from the water, his eyes on his twin.

Taran let go of him and stood there, breathing hard. His head was down as he looked at the elves, the glow of his eyes as bright as the ones from the spirit wolves. Another rumble of thunder rolled over the earth and Vrunlin’s grip on my arms tightened. I could actually feel fear coming off him.

Grim ran and fell to his knees next to his brother. His hand hovered over Josh’s back and the devastation that swept over his face ripped my heart completely from my chest. Sobbing, I tried to struggle free, then Taran made that sound again—that deep, rumbling roar—and as I watched, his eyes began to glow even brighter.

Then his hammer did.

He wasn’t wearing the mesh glove that might have helped in the fight against the giants before, and I didn’t think it was going to matter. Fury slashed across his face and he ran at us.

Vrunlin, still holding on to me with a death grip, relocated us so suddenly, it felt as if the cold air actually moved through my wet, freezing body. But he didn’t stop—not until we were away from the others.

Others he apparently didn’t care about, because he didn’t move to help as Taran raged and swung his hammer. He went
berserk
. The elves—even with their speed—couldn’t get away as he swung his hammer into one after another. He turned back and forth, slashing and beating at their bodies and heads in a dance of power that stole my breath. He let loose another of those ground-vibrating roars and the spirit wolves responded with howls. The ravens added their voices to the symphony.

Vrunlin’s arms tightened around me as he took a step back.

Taran stopped moving, facing the only remaining elf besides Vrunlin. The one with long red hair—the one who’d kicked Josh. Before Taran could lift his hammer again, that elf snatched Grim off the ground and held his knife to Grim’s throat.

“Let him go,” Taran said, and it wasn’t just Taran speaking. A deeper, harsher voice layered over his.

All the hair on my body stood on end as Taran’s power began to radiate from him, spilling over the ground and into the air.

Someone began to laugh, and even Grim looked as Loki joined us.

“So much drama!” Loki snorted. “I love it.” The trickster god walked my mother’s body right in between Taran and the elf holding Grim, who sagged over the creature’s arm, his gaze locked back on Josh. “Black salt! The girl is smarter than I realized. Black salt and her blood. It’s the only reason you are still alive to wave your silly little hammer. Her other spells slowed me down a time or two, but this one was good. She saved your life.”

Lightning ripped across the dark, revealing a sky filled with ravens. Thousands of screaming birds, their black wings beating under the angry, black clouds spilling higher into the sky. Rumbles of thunder, one after the other, shook the earth. Loki lifted my mother’s arm and the icy arrow on the crossbow glittered in the scant light.

But all Taran did was bark out a laugh that didn’t sound like his own. “We’ve all had enough, Loki.” He lifted his arm and lightning streaked down from the sky and snapped at my mother’s body. She scrambled out of the way, shock making her eyes glitter wide. Taran lifted his free hand and the grin on his face made me suck in a breath. Confidence and power emanated from him, made him seem larger than life. The entire debris-filled area lit up as he pulled—and that’s what it looked like—another bolt of lightning down from the sky. This time, he flung it at my mother so hard, the feathered coat caught on fire. She,
he
, frantically patted at the smoldering feathers, then stood.

“This isn’t over,” she ground out through clenched teeth just as she bent her legs, ready to take off.

I yelled, hoping to catch my mother’s attention. I’d seen
my mother
kneeling on that pier when I’d been in the water.
My mother
had been fighting Loki’s possession—she had tried to go in that water after me.

But before she took off into the sky, the elf holding Grim let go of him and wrapped around her as they both shot up.

The sound of shattering glass was loud enough to war with the clap and rumble of thunder.

I stood, stunned, breathing so hard, my pants sounded harsh in the sudden return of eerie silence. Then I fell to my hands and knees. I looked up, over my shoulder, to find Vrunlin watching Taran as his long, creepy hand came toward me. I cringed, but he only patted my head and bent down to whisper, “I will live to see you again—to see all of you girls together. So fascinating you turned out to be.” He disappeared, reappeared to drop my bag on the ground next to me. “You will need that device inside to call for help.” And with that, he spun around and took off.

Taran’s hammer hit the ground next to me and I let out a startled sound when he picked me up and crushed me to his chest. He didn’t seem at all worried about his strength and I smiled, so happy that he’d let that go. I knew his cold, wet clothes didn’t feel any better pressed against him. In fact, I was pretty sure I’d never be warm again. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the cold actually hurt. Down deep in the bones hurt. Like when I’d been in the water.

“Oh gods, Taran. I’m so sorry about Josh. I’m so, so sorry.” I started crying and I didn’t care about it, not with this, not when such a wonderful person had been just broken and kicked and...

“He’s not dead!” Grim yelled. He lay down in the snow next to his brother, their faces inches apart.

Taran and I ran to kneel beside them. I winced when I saw the bloody gash in the side of Josh’s head. “Are you sure?” I whispered.

Grim nodded, then sat up. “We have to get him help. Now!” He stood, ready to run, and I reached out, clasped his hand.

“We have a way to call for help.” I pulled the walkie-talkie out of my bag and handed it to Taran. He contacted his father, then had to admit that he hadn’t called when we’d found the twins. We hadn’t actually had time. Amusement warred with my relief over finding out that Josh was still alive. The amusement came from Taran having to placate his dad. Taran, who’d just offed five elves with nothing more than a hammer, then pulled lightning from the sky. He was still trying to explain as he walked a few steps away from us, his voice rising as he argued with his dad. While he talked, he gathered pieces of broken wood and piled them next to us.

I figured out what he was doing and started to help, but Grim spoke quietly and I knelt back beside him.

“I never thought I’d like to hear those two yelling at each other,” Grim said as he held his brother’s hand between both of his. “Hey,
hrafnasueltir
,” he murmured softly. “Time to wake up and show me you’re still in there.” He blew on his brother’s fingers, rubbed his palms gently over his brother’s skin to warm him before looking back at me. “Taran and his dad arguing feels like something normal. I’m so scared Josh will die. He’s barely hanging on.”