Forecast (22 page)
Authors: Rinda Elliott
“He’s going to be fine. I know it.”
Hrafnasueltir
meant raven starver or coward. I knew Grim thought his brother was anything but a coward, so the insult, to me, felt like the something normal he’d talked about.
“You can predict that?” He scooted closer to his brother.
I shook my head, so miserably cold I tried to huddle in on myself. “My sister Kat is the one who does the future. I just feel that he’ll be fine. He’s a fighter. He jumped right in front of that elf’s knife for you.”
“I want to try to warm more of him, but I’m so afraid to touch or move him.” Grim’s voice broke. “His leg is so bad. The angle it’s bent is all wrong. It looks like his femur was snapped in half.”
Somehow, I knew Josh would never walk right again. That just like in the stories about Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr, he would stay lame the rest of his life.
Taran came back. He dropped the walkie talkie on the ground, then looked up and around as if scanning the sky for something.
I looked, too. Miles away lightning streaked the sky.
Taran held up his hand, spread his fingers wide, then closed them. He pulled the lightning our direction before flinging it at the pile of wood. It flamed so hard and fast Grim threw himself over his brother.
“Sorry,” Taran muttered. “I’ll get better.” He smiled at Grim then sat beside me. “I think as long as we avoid his leg and his head, we can lie against Josh to try to warm him. The fire will help.” His smile, tired and wobbly, made my heart ache. “He’d probably prefer your body up against him,” he said to me.
“Somehow I don’t think he cares who does it right now.” We huddled around Josh until gradually warmth began to creep through the layers of wet clothes. We watched the ravens circle us in the sky.
“I saw the wolves,” Grim said. “After all these years, all the times the three of us sneaked out of the house and came down here—getting grounded nine times out of ten because Taran’s dad has an annoying sixth sense—I finally saw them. Josh did, too.”
“They led me to Taran when he first went under.” I groped for Taran’s hand, hating the memory of how I’d felt when I’d thought he’d drowned.
“Taran, Coral didn’t give up once. She kept going back under that cold, dark water for you.” Grim’s head popped up from the other side of Josh. “Wait, you are still Taran, right? I was kind of out of it, but I heard someone else talking from your body.”
“I’m me.” Taran threaded our fingers together. He still held his hammer in his other hand, and I had a feeling it would be a while before he felt safe enough to let it out of his sight. “But I can feel him now.”
I turned until I could see his face. He was plastered to my right side. Josh against my left.
“He’s quiet for now,” Taran said as sirens broke through the cries of ravens. “But he’s there, and I can sense some of what he’s feeling.”
“What’s he feeling?” I asked softly.
“Worry. He’s knows this isn’t over. That we aren’t done.”
“We’re not.” I looked back up at the sky as the sound of a helicopter joined the sirens. “I can feel my sister right now. My younger sister, Kat. She’s terrified, but she’s also still pissed, so I think she’s okay. I don’t know for how long. I think we have to go where she is. Mist told me I’d be with my sisters in a place where there is fire and music on the lake. Kat went to Yellowstone.”
Grim groaned. “I know what place she meant. One or maybe more of the lakes there are famous for some mysterious music. Some campers say it sounds like voices—but it’s supposed to be really creepy.”
The searchlight on the helicopter found us. Taran sat up, started waving his arms. “We have to go after Loki.” He stopped waving as the helicopter landed and men poured out of it. He turned and looked at Grim, then his gaze locked with mine. “The fire part of what you said scares me, but we have no choice. I’m sure my dad will get us there fast.”
I nodded because he was right. We had no choice and I was pretty sure that I needed to be with my sisters for whatever else was supposed to happen. No, I was more than pretty sure—I felt it in my bones. Felt that my part in Ragnarok was bigger than it had been so far.
Taran stood and helped me to my feet so we could get out of the way as the paramedics circled Josh. “You know what, Coral? I’m kind of nervous about meeting your sisters.”
“Why?”
“Because I just met your parents and they tried to kill me.”
Chuckling, I hugged him. “Kat
can
be kind of a pain.”
“Don’t worry,” he said softly. “I can handle her. And together, we can handle whatever else is coming.
He kept his arm tight around me and I felt both determination and fear coming off him. I knew he understood the enormity of what we still had to face. I did. Dread over what was coming kept me silent as we watched the paramedics take care of Josh. There would be more giants. More elves. And probably a lot more of Loki’s insanity. But that wouldn’t be the worst of it.
Yellowstone National Park sat on top of the world’s most dangerous volcano.
And we were heading there.
* * * * *
The portents of Ragnarok:
three years of winter, roaring seas that lash
the land and an all-consuming fire.
The destruction of the world.
Don’t miss the climactic showdown in
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—Fresh Fiction
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ISBN-13: 9781459254787
Forecast
Copyright © 2014 by Rinda Elliott
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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