Perfekt Balance (The Ære Saga Book 3) (17 page)

Since always. Not like our hearts, but they have an energy
center like every other living being. Look at the top of the stem;
where the petals meet the stalk. Use your abilities to extract the
ball that’s giving off a subtle pulse
. I made a note to explain energy systems to my
brother
yet
again
after we all got
out of here.

Tyr’s brain hummed as he narrowed his focus.
Silvery sparks bounced around his head, a sign he was accessing his
magic. When he touched the base of the flower, a sparkly energy
raced through his mind, down his arm, and out his fingertips. It
circled the hemian’s heart until it created an iridescent bubble.
Tyr held a finger up and pulled it back slowly, withdrawing the
bubble-encased-heart.

Now what?
Only
my brother could make a thought sound like a grunt.

Now take off Forse’s shirt and inject the hemian
heart
.

Tyr ripped Forse’s black T-shirt over his
head, and I was momentarily distracted by the image of Force’s
spectacular stomach.

Try to stay with us, Sis.

Shut up!
Warmth
flooded my energy, and a series of images from a
very
vivid dream I’d had once upon a
time flashed through my mind.

Elsa, that’s gross! You’re my sister!
Tyr shuddered. Sometimes, our little mind
mash-ups ended in total mortification. We’d both seen things we
wished we could unsee.

Then don’t look,
I hissed. Forse’s teeth began to chatter and his pallor
dimmed a shade.
Warm him up!

“Brynn,” Tyr barked. He pointed at Forse’s
exquisite, goose bump-covered chest.

Hurry,
I pressed.

“Got it.” Brynn knelt behind Forse and slid
her knees underneath his head. She folded herself over him so her
arms enveloped his, and rubbed her hands along the bare skin.

Now what?
Tyr
brought me back to the present.

Now magic the flower’s center into his
heart. Hold your free hand over his chest.

“Brynn. Lean right.” Tyr barked. “You’re
blocking my access.”

Okay. Free hand over the chest, check. I
need you to scan his aura to see if that iron wall’s still around
his heart. Do you know how to do that?

Please.
Tyr gave
a mental shove.
I was scanning auras and reading minds when you were still
in diapers.

Just do it already.

The
silver sparks pinged around Tyr’s mind as he scanned Forse’s
heart.
No blocks. His heart’s wide open. And it is
absolutely overflowing with love. Guess who it’s for?
Tyr couldn’t help but smile as
warmth flooded my energy once again.

But my happy dance would have to wait.

It’s good there’s a clear path to his heart, but I don’t
understand how it’s unblocked. There was a wall around it a few
days ago—one so thick even a bomb couldn’t have burst it
open
…That’s
it!
My energy
sparked.

What
? Tyr paused, his hand over Forse’s heart.

The beam didn’t hit his heart; it hit the wall. The barrier
he built to protect his heart is the reason he’s alive!
I couldn’t believe it. Forse’s
typically cautious approach to our relationship—and to everything
in his life—suddenly seemed like our saving grace. If the exploding
rock back at the battle site was indicative of what Runa’s blue
beam of death could do, Forse’s heart should have stopped beating
the minute he was hit. The fact that he was still breathing, albeit
barely, meant the beam hadn’t touched his heart at all. His heart
had been pierced by his own defenses. Granted his wall had probably
been charged with the energy from Runa’s beam, but he would have
received a transitive dose of dark energy, not a direct
one.

And that was something Tyr and I could
definitely fix.

Okay. Put the blue crystal aside and send the flower
directly into his chest. Try to apply it to the spot where his
heart was struck. It should look like a small bump, either an angry
red one or a black one, depending on how much magic already got
in
.

I see it,
Tyr
confirmed. The silver sparks in his head lit up as he held the
hemian heart over Forse’s torso. As glitter rained inside Tyr’s
mind, the flower passed inside Forse’s skin and through his
sternum, then deposited itself neatly in the pebble-sized hole in
his heart. The organ emitted a gold glow as it accepted the plant,
absorbing its regenerative properties. Besides being an exceptional
binding agent, hemian was known to promote honor and fidelity,
virtues both innate in Forse’s genetic makeup and drilled into him
as justice god. I knew its structure would repel any dark magic
interfering with Forse’s healing ability.

Rule number one of being High Healer:
Darkness loathes light.

It worked,
I
confirmed. The light show in Tyr’s head dimmed, and I felt him
relax into relief.

So he’s good then?

Not yet. The hemian heart is repairing Forse’s, but you
need to withdraw the lingering dark energy. Isolate the tomad root
and use your fingertips to grind it into a powder. Then magic that
on top of the hemian
, I
instructed.

Forse shuddered as Tyr rubbed the root
between his finger and thumb.

“Is he doing okay?” Brynn asked.

“Keep warming him,” Tyr ordered. “Elsa says
we have to extract the dark energy now.”

“
Elsa,”
Forse murmured. His head rolled to the side, a small smile playing
at his lips. His energy pulsed weakly beneath pale gray skin. We
needed to get that darkness out
right now
. He was delirious.

Hurry!
I urged.

I am
. Tyr sounded frustrated. The light show began anew as my
brother magicked the tomad powder through Forse’s flesh. Forse’s
skin brightened the minute the dust broke through his chest bone,
and by the time it settled around his heart, Forse’s breathing had
almost returned to normal.

Leave the powder for thirty seconds then pull it out. The
tomad should work like a magnet to draw all the dark energy out of
Forse’s system. He’ll be exhausted and sore, but Odin willing,
he’ll survive
.

Tyr followed my instructions, and within a
minute Brynn cradled a healing, albeit battered, justice god in her
arms.

“He’s still cold,” Brynn’s fingertips grazed
the goose bumps that peppered Forse’s arms.

“Here.” Tyr threw Forse’s shirt at Brynn. She
tugged it over his head, sliding his arms through the holes and
covering the loveliest view in all the realms with disappointing
ease.

I can still hear you
, Tyr complained.

Shut up, Tyr! Fasten the larimar necklace around his neck.
Its heart-healing properties will work on both energetic and
physical levels, and should speed the recovery
process
. I waited while
Tyr followed my instructions.

“It’s on.” This time Tyr spoke out loud.

Brynn looked up. “That was scary. Is Elsa
doing okay in there?”

Tyr met her gaze. “She’s upset you took away
her view.”

Brynn
giggled, and even Forse gave a small smile. His eyelids flickered,
then opened, and he looked up at Tyr with a reverence that filled
me with joy.
He’s okay!

“You saved me,” Forse whispered quietly. He
stared at Tyr, his eyes glowing with warmth.

“It was nothing.” Tyr shrugged, but I could
feel his relief. Tyr had been nearly as anxious as I was. “I owed
you one from that time in Jotunheim when you jumped in front of
that frost giant and—”

“Not you.” Forse rolled his eyes. “Her. Is
Elsa still in your head?”

Yes!
I screamed.

“She is,” Tyr answered. “But if you don’t
stop staring at me like a lovesick puppy, I’m going to ban her from
my brain for life. This little infatuation fest is getting
weird.”

Tell him I miss him
, I pressed.

Tell him yourself
, Tyr groaned.
He’s awake. You can call him on the communicator
now.

Oh!
That would
be infinitely preferable to using my brother as a
walkie-talkie.

You said it
, Tyr
agreed.

“Tell Elsa I miss her,” Forse murmured. I
couldn’t help my grin.

I miss you too!
I shouted in Tyr’s head.

“She misses you too,” Tyr muttered
begrudgingly. “She’s going to call you any minute.”

Forse
smiled. His eyelids closed, no doubt heavy with both physical and
mental exhaustion. I stared at his peaceful form, knowing
underneath his shirt, his chest wound was already regenerating with
fresh skin. The process would involve a good amount of pain, and
he’d be wiped out for a few hours, maybe even a full day. But he
would survive. And with his wall gone, he might finally be able
to
live—
which was
what I’d always dreamed for him.

We need to let him sleep this off
, I told my brother.
That was a big-time healing, and his
body’s going to need time to catch up. Ask him to call me when he
wakes up.

Will do. The minute he’s well enough to travel, we’re
coming after you again
,
Tyr vowed.
But I don’t think it’s smart to split up this soon after an
attack.

I agree. Just take care of Forse. And be careful,
I warned.
Runa is on a warpath. She wants
Fenrir, and she’s willing to kill Forse to get me to give up his
location.

You don’t know the dog’s location
, Tyr said.

She thinks she can make me use my gift to
track him.

She doesn’t know you very well, does she?
I could hear Tyr’s smile in his
words.

Nope.

Tyr
sighed.
We’ll get out of here together. Be safe out
there. Wherever you are.

I love you too, big brother.

With one final look at Forse, I withdrew my
energy from Tyr’s head and made my way back to my body. It was cold
in my tower, but I didn’t care about the chill. As soon as Forse
woke up, I’d get to talk to the god I loved. And on a deep, knowing
level, I could sense that he loved me back.

I just had to wait for him to realize it.

“
HEI
.” I EXHALED AS
I spoke, releasing the tension of the past
few hours into one breath. My fingers loosened their grip on my
forearm, my knuckles cracking as they stretched for the first time
in thirty minutes. Apparently, willing my arm to ring hadn’t been
particularly efficient.

“
Hei
,” Forse repeated. “I’m sorry that I slept for so
long.”

“
Don’t
be. Your body needed the rest.” Physical beings took
much
longer to recover
than their energetic counterparts. We’d removed a significant
amount of dark energy from Forse’s heart. It would have taken a
mortal days to recover from a healing of that level, if they’d been
able to recover at all. Thankfully for my nerves, Asgardian bodies
were much more efficient.

“What I needed was to talk to you.” Forse
looked so serious, it caught me off guard.

“Are you okay?” I asked cautiously.

“Thanks to you, I am.”

“It was nothing,”

“It was everything,” Forse corrected. “But
why am I wearing your necklace? How did you get it to Tyr?”

“I tucked it into the emergency kit before we
left, just in case,” I admitted. “I was afraid I’d lose it if I
wore it around my neck on the Bifrost trip, but it was too special
to leave behind. I’ll expect you to return it to me the minute I
see you.”

“Deal.” Forse smiled. “You know I’d be dead
if it wasn’t for you.”

I waved my hand. “It was a group effort. Tyr
technically performed the healing; I just talked him through the
steps. Besides, that necklace did half the work for us. Larimar
heals the heart on both physical and energetic levels, and because
that particular crystal was a gift from you to me, its tie to both
of us increased its potency. So in a way, you saved yourself.”

“When are you going to realize how incredibly
special you are?” Forse rubbed his jaw. “Your gift is unlike
anything I’ve ever seen.”

“Thanks, but that’s not true. We have lots of
healers,” I reminded him. “Any one of them could have extracted the
dark magic.”

“
Ja
. They’ve worked on me before, and it was nothing like what
I felt when you did…whatever it is you do. Hel, it was even
different from the other times you’ve worked on me. Did you change
your approach?”

No, you did. You dropped your wall and you can
actually
feel
now, you
robot.
I wanted to shout
the truth at him, but Forse’s feelings were something he’d have to
sort through on his own. It would have been nice if he’d sorted
them
before
I got
trapped in a lunatic’s tower, but one worked with the hand one was
dealt.

“I think you’re going to find you’re seeing
things with a lot more clarity from now on,” I answered honestly.
“Runa’s beam knocked some, erm, extraneous matter loose, and Tyr
and I just cleared out the remnants.”