Forecast (6 page)

“Yo Breen, how come you aren’t in jail? Your daddy pull some strings?”

The noise in the restaurant trickled into silence.

I understood Taran’s grimace then. He leaned down to put his lips by my ear. “He’s Stark’s best friend. That first kid who was hit with my hammer, remember?

Without thinking about it, I pulled off one glove and slid my hand into Taran’s, threading our fingers together. He straightened and smiled, surprise in his eyes as he squeezed my fingers gently.

Billy came even closer and I noticed another group our age watching from a table on the other side of the restaurant. One of the boys at the table was big, too.
What did they put in the water here?

“Breen,” Billy sneered when he stopped a couple of feet away. Then he surprised me by stepping right into Taran’s personal space. Which meant he stepped into mine, as well. Bristling at his bad manners, I put my hand on his chest to stop him. He looked down at me in surprise. Then, the slimiest smile crossed his mouth, and he let his body go loose, hunched his shoulders and leaned toward me.

“Are you trying to make yourself look smaller so I’m not scared of you or something?” I asked. “Because it’s not going to work.”

“Aw, you’re really cute. So small, I could put you in my pocket.”

“I suggest you don’t try that,” Taran said, voice low.

Billy continued to stare at me. “Don’t be scared of me.”

“I’m not. I meant you can’t make yourself look smaller.”

“Breen’s the one you should be worried about. Guess you don’t know he’s going around beating people up. Hit a girl once, too.”

I didn’t believe that for a second. Taran’s hand started to sweat as it tightened around mine. I wanted to reach out and stroke his side for some reason. The thought made me release the most gods-awful, girlie giggle ever. I promptly blushed—more out of humiliation.

Billy took it as a flirty noise, and from the short glance of shock I got from Taran, he did, as well. I gave him the raised brow “as if” look and he bit his lip as if he was trying not to smile, then looked back at the giant. But the tension I’d felt building in him lessened.

“I can’t believe you have the nerve to just walk around town like you’ve done nothing wrong, Breen.”

“I haven’t hurt anyone. Cops know it. They let me go.”

“And your daddy had nothing to do with that?”

“Nope.”

The giant kid suddenly grabbed the lapels of Taran’s coat and lifted him to his toes. I gasped, let go of Taran’s hand and kicked the big kid in the shin.

“Hey now, watch those crazy orange boots.”

“Billy, you better put me down.” The words caused me to shiver as they came low and gravelly from Taran’s throat. A warning dripped from each syllable.

“I think you should listen to him.” Grim added as he and Josh walked up to stand behind Billy.

“Go back to sticking things in your mouth, gay boy.”

I gasped and so did a few people around us.

Every muscle in Taran’s body went taut and that fierce energy I’d picked up from him before suddenly spilled so heavily into the room, others must have felt it. People started squirming in their seats.

“Bad move, Billy,” Josh muttered. “Bad, bad move.”

Taran’s fist shot out, hitting Billy so hard in the nose, the kid’s thick neck snapped back, and there was an audible crunch that had several around us wincing. Blood splattered Taran, but that didn’t stop him from jabbing Billy twice more until those huge fists released his coat. Billy staggered back, his hand over his face. “I think you broke my nose. There are witnesses here. You’re going down.” He looked around the room.

“What witnesses?” the other big kid I’d noticed earlier said as he came to his feet.

Blood splattered the floor when Billy whipped his head toward that table. “Sit your happy tourist butt back down. You have no idea what’s been going down around here—”

But the new guy interrupted. “You’re right. I don’t live around here, and I have no idea what you have against this guy. All I saw was him walk in, holding hands with his girlfriend, and you attacking him.” He looked at me. “Name’s Magnus.”

Billy turned that snarl on the guy, but he shouldn’t have taken his eyes off Taran. When Taran stepped forward, the fury pouring off his taut body made me wince. He wasn’t as big, but it was obvious he was more dangerous. I put my hand on his back, noticing that he went instantly stiff before he looked over his shoulder at me, eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Don’t know why you’re standing up for
Taranis
Breen.” Billy wiped the back of his hand under his nose, leaving a huge smear of red across his cheek. “Everyone around here knows he’s bad news. Killed his own mom when he was little.”

“Wow, you’re really stupid,” Josh said through gritted teeth.

Taran yelled and lunged at Billy. Surprisingly, Magnus held him back. By the grimace on his face as he gripped Taran’s arms, it was obvious he struggled more than he expected.

Guess Billy decided that having Taran held back made him safe. He came at him like a lumbering bull, ducking to drive his shoulder into Taran’s chest. Magnus moved him out of the way.

“Hey!” one of the restaurant employees yelled as he came running from the kitchen. “Stop it or take it outside.”

Billy wasn’t listening. It was as if he’d let his anger take over his humanity or his ability to listen...or fight with any sort of brains or finesse. When he rushed Taran this time, Magnus let go so Taran could fight back. Taran smashed his fist into the side of Billy’s face, but Billy’s momentum still took Taran to the floor. I winced when Taran’s head smacked the hard, brown tiles. He tried to twist out from under Billy but was stuck.

I tried to push Billy off, but it took me and Magnus to roll his leg off Taran’s neck.

Magnus helped Taran to his feet then smiled down at me, showing very white teeth in his dark face. Noise in the restaurant began to pick up.

A tall, curvy girl came up to slide her arm around his waist. She studied me closely as she pushed her straight, blond hair off her shoulder. She had a gold beanie on her head that sparkled under the restaurant lights.

Magnus tugged her close and looked at her as if she’d hung the moon. “This is Mist.”

Her name was like a punch to the gut. I knew that name from my mythological studies. “Mist?”

“It’s an old family name.” She turned a smile on Taran, Josh and Grim, who now stood on either side of him. Josh turned a pretty spectacular shade of red and actually shuffled his feet a bit.

Did I say curvy? We’re talking full-on womanly hips, boobs—everything. She was a walking, talking Scandinavian warrior. Named Mist.

“Valkyries shadow.” I murmured the
rune tempus
from the first night with Taran under my breath, looking for her shadow.

I didn’t think I said it loud enough for her to hear me, but she turned to face me fully. We stared at each other. This was no kid carrying a Valkyrie soul, but the actual Valkyrie named Mist. I knew it with every fiber of my being. I’d read about her.

Goose bumps sprang on my arms.

My norn started shifting about and I didn’t even think about it, I just raised my hand out of habit, hoping to settle her down. Again, my gaze went to the tall, very dark Magnus. He was probably another warrior then. A warrior travelling with a Valkyrie.

To where?

“It’s a mess out there, isn’t it?” Mist pointed, and I turned to see that the wind had picked up even more. Trees had nearly bent in two and feathers from the flock of ravens still swirled in the air.

Someone in the restaurant gasped and the place went silent again as everyone turned toward a small, portable television somebody had set up on one of the corner booth tables. Probably an employee who wanted to keep an eye on the weather. On the small screen, a frantic newscaster was using words like multiple superstorms and evacuations going on in the entire lower half of Florida, Cuba and along the East Coast.

“Looks like we’re in for quite a ride,” Magnus muttered. “The storm isn’t hitting here, but they said earlier we could get a surge.” He looked at Mist. “Glad we left the Keys, but I guess we should have ignored the urge to stop here after all. I thought the snow was bad enough, but that storm coming in looks rough. Could be worse than they’re predicting.”

This was the first I’d heard of this—not that I’d had any time to catch the news. I started to ask him what he was talking about when something else in the overly packed restaurant grabbed my attention.

The same feeling from the night before at Taran’s—the dark, prickly evil—washed over me, and my mouth went dry as my gaze darted around the room, trying to find the source.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a pointy, dark face. Dark, like marble...not skin.
Oh gods
,
it was straight out of my memories.
I twisted my neck to look, but the man sitting in the booth seemed perfectly normal with his inky-black hair and beard. He tilted his head and stared back, a small smile playing about the corners of his red lips. I pulled my gaze away, only to see his dark skin and pointed features again out of the corner of my eye.

I tried to keep my face still, tried to stare into my peripheral vision without looking directly, but he stood. He moved funny, gracefully, as if his limbs were more liquid than solid, and as he came toward me, my heart started pounding, my hands started sweating.

He’d moved like that in my nightmares. The ones I’d had as a kid, over and over until I’d gone to bed afraid every night.

I backed away from him, looked around to see if others were watching him—looking for expressions that would tell me if they saw two different images—and in the blink of an eye, he was in front of me, his hand out as if he wanted to stroke a finger down my cheek.

Magnus made a startled noise from right behind me. “What the—”

My norn suddenly twisted and writhed so hard in my chest, it actually hurt. I cried out, put my palm over my heart to calm her, but it almost felt as if she screamed in protest.

I flashed back to those times in the tent. She must have been with me, but I hadn’t felt her move then—not until I’d turned nine.

Now it was like having someone stick a billows in my chest—squeezing over and over, sending painful streams of thick air to thrash and fill until it was hard for me to breathe.

She wanted me nowhere near this man-thing.

So, she did what she did best.

The man’s face grew pointier and darker, smearing to the side as the world around me slid into a spin. The gray tables, beige booth seats and a massive picture of corn folded around me, creating a swirl of color that forced me to close my eyes and grab onto a half wall behind a booth.

When the world jerked to a stop, my eyes flew open and met the frozen stare of the man...no, creature, in front of me. He must have been using some sort of glamour that didn’t work during my
rune tempus
because though he was human in shape, he was something completely different in color. Skin like polished onyx reflected light, and his hair—the color of snow—had been shaved nearly to the skull. His stare, black as one of those ravens outside, was aimed directly at me, and held something odd. Something like curiosity. No it was more like...fascination. Maybe even wonder.

I shuddered, stepped back and onto someone.

Someone who grunted.

“Oh my gods, I’m so sorry.” I knelt next to Magnus. He lay flat on his back, eyes scrunched closed, his hand on his stomach. “I didn’t mean to step—” I broke off, shock making me blink at him. “You’re moving around. You’re aware!”

He put a hand on his stomach. “Yeah, but I’m not feeling too happy about it.”

Someone else crouched down beside us and my mouth fell open as I met Mist’s beautiful amber eyes. She smiled, patted Magnus’s chest.

“This happens a lot to you, doesn’t it, Coral?” Taran said on a groan from somewhere behind me. I glanced around to find him on the floor next to the table where Josh and Grim were also frozen in time. I hadn’t noticed them sitting down. Grim was mid-steal, a shrimp dangling from his fingers over his brother’s plate.

Magnus sat up, glanced around and frowned. “It happened again?” He looked at me, his wide eyes bright against his skin. “I get the awake and aware part now. How are you moving?” He pointed to Taran. “He’s moving, too.”

I plopped down onto my butt on the hard floor. “Are you saying time has stopped for you like this before?”

He nodded. “For me and Mist. It started a couple of days ago. The world just randomly started spinning, then everybody else froze.”

“A couple of days ago,” I repeated, thinking hard. Nobody had ever gone into this with me, not even my sisters. “It’s been happening to me for nine years.”

“Damn. Really? I’m sorry.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Do you get used to it? I keep falling. I’m afraid one of these times, I’ll crack my head open.”

I kept running his words through my mind. A couple of days ago. “Did it first happen at night? Around ten o’clock?”

He nodded and groaned as he stood, still rubbing his head. “That’s right. Do you know what this is?”

“It’s my magic, and nobody has ever gone into it with me before until ten o’clock at night two nights ago, when he was with me.” I pointed to Taran. “The two of us together must have triggered something. But what? And why?” I thought of the vision of the kids near the bridge. The one who had been knocked off the pier—he’d been moving, too. I studied Magnus. He was built like a linebacker with broad shoulders and big hands. He was traveling with a Valkyrie.

Could their being aware have something to do with carrying gods’ souls?

“Do you know what’s going on?” I looked at Mist.

Long, blond hair swung against her chest as she shook her head. “I don’t understand your magic. It’s new.” She studied me as she stood. Hard. “You’re more than the others.”

“What do you mean?”

She frowned. “You aren’t a mere carrier. You are of magic, as well.”

“Oh,” I breathed, nodding. “My mother is a witch.”

Her smile was sad. “That’s not what I meant.” She looked behind me.