Immortals (Runes book 2) (42 page)

Cora jumped up and disappeared into the bathroom. The doorbell rang, and I headed downstairs. It was almost eight, but my parents were still not back. I didn’t know whether to start worrying. I opened the door and blinked. Andris, Ingrid, and Roger stood on my porch, not Eirik.

“Hey. What’s, uh, going on?” I asked.

“Just checking on you guys,” Andris said. “Can we come in?”

“Sure.” I stepped back. Cora came downstairs, hair fluffed, lip-gloss applied. Andris saw her and groaned. “Behave,” I warned him from the corner of my mouth then added louder, “Cora, you know Andris and Ingrid, and this is Roger, Andris’ friend.”

The way Cora eased into conversation with the Valkyries you’d never guess she didn’t like them. We were crowded around the wet bar, talking and laughing, when Eirik arrived. He heard the voices coming from my living room and frowned.

He dropped my car key in my hand. “I was planning on using your mirror to get home.”

“You still can. Come inside.” I grabbed his arm and tugged, but he didn’t budge.

 
He shook his head. “I’ll head to Torin’s.”

“No one is there. Torin and Lavania are gone, and the others are here. Come and hang out with us for just a few minutes. Please.”

“Hey, what’s keeping you guys?” Cora called out, and the effect on Eirik was instant.

He grinned. “You didn’t say she was here. Let’s go.”

“Whipped,” I whispered as he followed me.

“Shut up!”

For an hour, we just hung out like normal teenagers. Eirik and Cora even went back to their playful teasing and flirting. When she left at nine, she was smiling.

“Where are your parents?” Andris asked before they left.

“Out, but they should be back any minute now.”

“I don’t like leaving you alone,” Andris said.

I made a face. “I’m seventeen, Andris, not five. Besides, he’s going to hang around until they return.” I indicated Eirik with a nod. He was in the kitchen wolfing down the rest of the pizza.

Andris hesitated, but he gave me another lecture on not going anywhere without telling him. I closed the door and marched to the kitchen to call my parents. They weren’t picking up. Now I was really worried. I texted them, and we went upstairs.

***

It was another hour before sounds came from downstairs.

“They’re back.” I ran downstairs. “Where have you been? I called and texted you guys for like…” Dad looked dead tired, and Mom’s eyes were red as though she’d been crying. “Mom? What’s wrong?”

She smiled, but her lips trembled. “Come here.”

We hugged. But when Dad joined us, I knew something was wrong. “You guys are scaring me. What’s going on?”

“Sit down, pumpkin,” Dad said, his arm going around my shoulder. Mom took my hand. Together, they led me to the couch.

 
Turning my head left and right, I studied their faces. The foreboding feeling I’d had earlier returned. “What’s going on? Is it about Torin? Did something happen to him?”

“No, honey,” Mom said. “This is not about Torin. It’s, uh, about your father.” Her voice shook.

“What about Dad?” I studied his face, his pallor, which seemed to have gotten worse. “You’re ill, aren’t you?”

He nodded. “At the beginning of last summer, my doctors diagnosed me with stage IV tumors in my brain.”

No.
My mind screamed what I couldn’t articulate. My eyes clung to him, my chest squeezing.

“They ran tests and confirmed that the tumors are too deep and too advanced,” Dad continued. “They couldn’t operate, and chemotherapy would have been useless.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I cried.

“Your mother and I decided to wait until we exhausted our options before talking to you. After my diagnosis, I received a call from a specialist in Hawaii, an oncologist who’d developed a radical treatment using a virus. The virus could kill brain cancer cells and not healthy ones. That’s why I went to Hawaii last summer. We usually use portals to deliver mirrors, but this time I flew because his people were waiting for me at the airport.”

It explained the flight to and from Hawaii. “What did the specialist say?”

“She started me on the treatment. They were supposed to continue every month, but my plane went down. The tumors grew.”

I shook my head, tears racing down my face. “No. No, I refused to accept this.”

“You must.” Dad wiped my cheeks. “During the cruise, I stopped by to see her when we disembarked in Honolulu. Today we confirmed it. The tumor has metastasized, and I am no longer qualified for the treatment.”

I shook my head. “No, it can’t be true. There must be something we can do.” I looked at Mom. She was weeping silently. “We can use runes, can’t we, Mom? We’ll heal him. Make him Immortal.”

Mom shook her head. “Runes heal wounds, not mutated cells. He can’t be turned, sweetheart.”

“Then we’ll use them to keep him alive.” I turned to face Dad. “I’m not giving up, Daddy. I’m not losing you again.”

He sighed and pulled me into his arms. I didn’t know how long I cried before his words penetrated. “You have to let me go, sweetheart. You have to. We’ve had seventeen years, and we will have a few more weeks… months…”

“No.” I pushed his arms. He tried to tighten his grip, but I wouldn’t let him. I wiggled out of his arms until he let me go. I jumped up, knocking my knee against the coffee table without feeling the pain. “I won’t give up. I won’t. I’ll find the right runes, the right doctors.”

“If I depended on doctors, I’d be pumped full of pain meds and bed-ridden. Runes have eased my pain these past weeks,” Dad said.

“I’ll create new ones. Torin will help me.”

Mom shook her head. “He can’t.”

“He will!”

She sighed. “Sweetheart, I didn’t manage your dad’s pain. Torin did, and he knows a lot more about runes than any Valkyrie I know.”

Was this the secret he’d been keeping from me? Dad’s illness? Was he here to reap his soul, too?

“He brought me back from the brink of death when he found me after the plane crash,” Dad said. “He has done enough.”

“Then it’s my turn.” I looked down at my father, his face gaunt, his eyes shimmering with unshed tears. I’d known he was ill. I just hadn’t wanted to accept it. “I love you, Daddy. Don’t ask me to give up and accept things the way they are because you didn’t raise a quitter. I will find a way to make you better.”

24.
 
GRIMNIR

Tears racing down my face, I entered my bedroom. Eirik stopped pacing, his eyes red as though he’d been crying. “You heard?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

We met in the middle of the room, finding comfort and solace in each other’s arms.

“He can’t die, Eirik. I won’t let him.”

“I know.” He lifted me up the same way Torin had yesterday and carried me to bed. Part of me wished he were Torin; the other knew he understood what I was going through better. He loved my father, too. He didn’t speak again, just held me until I fell asleep. He was still there the next morning and woke me up.

“I don’t want to go to school,” I mumbled and burrowed deeper under the covers.

“You have to. Staying in bed won’t make your dad better. In fact, it will only make him feel guilty for telling you. I think this is why they didn’t tell you in the first place. They knew you’d indulge in self-pity and—” He jumped out of the way of my kick.

“I’m not indulging in self-pity. I’m thinking.” I
was
feeling sorry for myself. I couldn’t lose my father.

“Well, think your way into the shower. You smell, and your hair looks like you haven’t washed it in—” He dodged the pillow I’d thrown and disappeared through the portal.

“I hate you, and I don’t smell.” I forced myself to shower and change. A few minutes later, I left my room. I was about to knock on my parents’ door when I heard their voices coming from downstairs.

Dad was cooking breakfast while Mom read the newspaper out loud. The scene was so familiar tears rushed to my eyes. I wanted to be angry with them for keeping this from me, but as long as there was a chance that I could help, I had to focus on that. I had a plan. Well, sort of. I just needed to get out of the house first.

I cleared my throat, and my parents both looked at me. “I’ll help with the breakfast.”

“No, you will not,” Dad retorted. “Cooking, running, and biking are a few things I plan to savor for as long as I possibly can, so sit down.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but Mom caught my eye and shook her head. I sat and watched him for any signs of, I don’t know, fatigue, eyes-rolling in the back of his head. His fall last weekend made sense now. The cancer probably messed with his balance or something. Why did he run and bike when he could keel over any second and die? It didn’t make sense.

If I didn’t know the truth, watching my parents discuss and laugh over newspaper articles would have been normal. I couldn’t relax, let alone laugh at Dad’s teasing. In fact I found their nonchalant attitude irritating. I wasn’t sure what I wanted them to do. Walk around with long faces? Fight back?

“You should have told me,” I said when there was silence.

“Sweetheart—”

“No, Mom. You’ve known for months, and it’s been weeks since Torin found Dad.” The late lunches and dinners made sense. I got angrier. “You’ve been spending more time together knowing he could be gone any minute, while I…” my voice trembled to a stop. “And last week he wanted to tell me and you asked for one more week. You should have told me!”

“Raine,” Mom took my hand, “I wanted you to have time with him without his illness coming between you. Think about all the things you’ve done. The fun things you did on the cruise, running and biking on Saturdays, your discussions—”

“I don’t care,” I snapped, tears threatening to fall again. “You should have told me.” I jumped from the table and stomped away. I could feel their eyes following me until I left the house. Andris tried to get my attention, but I pretended not to see him. I was in no mood to talk to anyone.

At the parking lot across from school, I sat and stared at the students walking past, dreading getting out of the car. Three weeks ago I’d dreaded leaving my car because of what had happened at the meet. Today I wished I had the power of premonition, so I could know how long Dad was going to live. My eyes welled up with tears.

Torin.
How I wished he were here. I texted Eirik then went back to staring at students.

I jumped when my front passenger door opened and Andris slipped into the seat. “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah.” I wiped at my cheeks.

“You’re crying.”

“So?”

“So you’re better than this. I know you miss Torin, but this…” he indicated me with a brief wave of his hand, “weepy, pathetic excuse of an Immortal is not—”

“Andris.” I cut him an exasperated look. “Leave. Now. I want to be alone.”

“Okay. You don’t have to tell me twice. I’ll shut up. In fact, pretend I’m not here.” He got comfortable in his seat. I wanted to curse him out, scream at him, but then I remembered what Torin had told me. I could trust Andris.

Staring straight ahead, I tried to keep my voice calm as I spoke. “Last night, I found out that my father is dying of brain cancer and no one told me. I’m pissed. And if you ever call me pathetic again, I will slug you.”

“I’m sorry.”

I turned and studied him. He seemed contrite. “Sorry for what?”

“For your father’s illness. For calling you pathetic and clingy. You have to admit you’re weepy though.”

For once, I didn’t find his warped sense of humor funny. I got out of the car and grabbed my backpack. We walked into the building without speaking. I groaned when I saw Drew and a bunch of jocks in the foyer. I didn’t want to deal with them or see the excited faces of students. The stupid game wasn’t even today, yet everywhere I looked were flags and crimson, black, and gold decorations.

“Where’s St. James, Raine?” Drew asked, his gaze bouncing between me and Andris.

“Do we look like his keeper?” Andris asked rudely and steered me past them. For once I appreciated his rudeness. No one bothered us again.

I waited until they couldn’t hear me before I turned and smiled at Andris. “Thanks. I couldn’t deal with them. Not today. Are you going to give the coach Lavania’s message?”

“Yeah. You want to come?”

“No, thanks.” He walked me to my locker then disappeared. Cora was talking about tomorrow’s game with some girls near the lockers. They were already pumped even though the game was tomorrow. I couldn’t care less. Drowning in my own misery, I hardly paid attention to her as she prattled on. She didn’t even notice when I slipped away and headed upstairs.

Instead of entering my math classroom, I opened the make-out closet and turned on the lights. It was empty and big enough for four people. I wasn’t sure it would work, but I had to try.

“Catie! Marj! Jeannette!”

I waited. No one appeared
.
I closed my eyes and tried again.
CATIE. MARJ. JEANETTE. GET DOWN HERE NOW.

I opened my eyes and waited. Nothing happened. Torin had gotten it wrong. I couldn’t summon the Norns. The first bell rang as I left the closet. People gave me weird looks as they hurried past. Let them speculate why I’d used the closet. I didn’t care.

Math and history classes felt empty without Torin’s presence. My father’s situation made his absence even more painful, or maybe it was the other way around. I couldn’t tell. I was miserable and angry. Third period was over when I saw Eirik waiting for me by the door.

“Where have you been?” I asked.

“I couldn’t sleep last night, so I went home and crashed. How are you holding up?”

I shrugged. “I tried to contact the Norns, but they didn’t appear.”

“What? Why?”

“I want to make a deal with them. I will willingly join them in exchange for my father’s life.”

He stopped in the middle of the hallway. “No, you can’t. What will Torin say?”

My throat thickened. “This is my decision. He’ll understand.”

“No, he won’t. That’s equivalent to being a nun, Raine. I’m not letting you do it.”

“I wasn’t asking for your permission. I wish I hadn’t told you.” I brushed past him.

“Raine!”

“I expected your support, Eirik. I thought you of all people would understand just how important family is. I guess I was wrong.” Students walking past turned to stare. Then I saw the Norns standing at the end of the hallway. I hurried after them.

“Cafeteria is that way,” Eirik said.

“I’m not hungry.” They were walking away. I ran to catch up.

“RAINE!” Eirik yelled.

I ignored him, turned the corner, and saw the Norns disappear into the band room. Last time, I’d made a deal with them in that same room. I burst through the doors, my breathing harsh. I closed it softly behind me, my eyes swinging from face to face, my heart pounding. The temperature in the room was cooler, but that didn’t bother me anymore.

“How dare you summon us?” Marj demanded.

“Easy, Marj.” Catie moved closer. “Why did you call us, Lorraine?”

“Did you catch the person poisoning Eirik?” Jeannette asked.

I shook my head. “No, but I will. I want to make a deal. If I’m one of you—”

“A deal?” Marj asked, and I could almost taste her anticipation.

 
“Haven’t you learned something from our past interaction, young Mortal?” Jeannette asked. “We don’t make deals. We are Norns. We shape destinies.”

“Yet, I keep changing mine,” I snapped. “That either means I’m one of you, like you keep claiming, or I’m something else.” Uneasiness entered their eyes.

Silence followed, the shock in their eyes telling me I was on to something.

“What am I? What makes me so different? Why do you desperately want me to join you?”

“We saved you and because of that you are now one of us,” Marj said, but I knew she was lying. Then something Lavania had said weeks ago flashed through my head.

“I can see you in whatever form when others can’t, feel your presence, summon you, but the best part, I can stop you, at least your evil faction, from taking lives.”

“You got lucky,” Jeannette said in a sneer.

“Then I’ll get lucky again. If I’m just one of you, like you claim, I want to be in charge of two destinies. Eirik’s and my father’s.”

“Your father?” Catie asked. “Your father is already dead, Lorraine. We don’t deal with the dead.”

“He is not dead,” I snapped.

“According to the records, your father’s soul was reaped months ago and sent to Hel’s Hall,” Jeannette added.

“Your father is still alive?” Marj’s eyes narrowed.

I swallowed, uneasiness creeping through me. Had I made a mistake coming to negotiate with them? “Yes. So what?”

“So someone let him live.” Marj moved closer and slowly walked around me. “Someone who was supposed to reap his soul gave him a pass. Now who would do that for you, Lorraine?”

Torin. Oh no. Cold fingers crawled up my spine.

“Who would alter someone’s destiny without our say so?”

Dizziness washed over me. Behind me, the door flew opened and Eirik, Andris, and Ingrid walked in. They looked around.

“Are you alone?” Eirik asked.

They couldn’t see the Norns. Good. “Yes.”

“Phew,” Andris said. “We thought you were in here with the Norns making another deal.”

Marj and Jeannette wore tiny smiles that screamed they’d won. Catie looked pissed. I wasn’t sure whether she was angry with me, her sister crones, or Torin. What had he risked to bring my father back to me? And now, in my grief, I had clearly condemned him. Worse, my father was headed to Hel’s Hall for eternity.

“No, I just came for my oboe.” I hurried forward and grabbed my oboe case from the shelf.

“I didn’t know you were playing in the pep band tomorrow,” Andris added as we left the room.

“I’m not. I’m going home early, and I need to practice a piece.”

***

I wanted to curl up in bed and cry myself into oblivion, but I couldn’t afford it. I didn’t have the luxury. I had screwed up, and now Torin was in trouble. There must be a law against not reaping a soul. I spent the afternoon pouring over runes, combining single runes to create new ones. I had to find a rune that could cure my father.