Exploitation, page 8
He made a series of good points that were hard to counter.
Magnus worked her jaw, and sighed.
“I’m going to need a car,” Bragi said.
He made reservations, and the three of us ate in an awkward silence punctuated by Magnus occasionally scowling at Bragi, and him pointedly looking way. He didn’t eat much before he pushed back from the table, thanked me for the meal, and said he needed to go if he was going to reach his destination at a time when he could be seen.
Magnus didn’t look happy about it, but she blinked him to the car rental place, and was back in an instant.
I wanted to distract her from her unpleasant mood, and more importantly, I wanted to see her smile. That impulse ran deep. I led her to the couch, and pulled her to sit next to me. “You’re doing all of this for me, and I can’t remember anything about you. Tell me about you,” I prompted.
TEN
MAGNUS
I didn’t like this. Having no idea how to keep both Dahlia and my children safe. What Vidar did to Bragi’s house. Me sitting on my ass in the middle of nowhere, with no idea how to act or where to turn next, and relying on a man I swore I’d never trust again, to get us to next steps.
I should be doing something. Anything.
Anything besides waiting, that is.
Settling in next to Nico was a nice distraction. It didn’t clear away my anxiousness, but it did smooth the rougher edges. He wanted to know about me, and I wanted the same from him. Right now only one of us was capable of offering that information, and at least it meant I was taking action.
“What do you want to know?” I asked.
“Tell me the first thing that comes to mind.”
In other words, sift through the chaos of thoughts, and pluck one out that wasn’t why aren’t I destroying Vidar at this very moment and restoring you to who you were. “I love Star Wars.”
Confusion spread across Nico’s face. “Is that aliens fighting in space? Is it literal stars doing battle?”
“It’s a series of movies.” I couldn’t help but smile at his ignorance, though it was one of the things frustrating me. Seeing the world through his eyes was a unique and fun experience.
“A series of movies about literal stars engaged in battles?”
I smiled. “I suppose technically there are aliens and spaceships. But it’s about a normal boring orphan, living on a big ball of sand.”
Nico glanced toward the windows. “Like here?”
“Not as many mountains or as much scrub brush in the movies. But then they find out—”
“They?”
“There are three trilogies and each one has a different sand orphan.” Damn it. “I’m not doing the best job at explaining why I love them.”
Nico faced me, placed a finger under my chin, and turned my head toward him. “You’re perfect at explaining it. You have a little smile on your face that’s stunning.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. Sure, I’d learned all the lessons in attitude and flirting and molding myself to any situation, but this kind of genuine sincerity… I’d never been good at shrugging that off.
“What do the sand orphans do?” Nico asked. “Do they fight in the stars?”
“Technically, yes. But more specifically, they find out they have access to a power called The Force, which is kind of like magic, but they don’t call it that, and they take on an evil emperor.” I’d never described the movies that way before, and now that I was… Holy fuck, how did it sound so much like my own life?
As much as I loved the films, I hoped fate had written me a better script. I turned more of my body toward Nico, so my knee rested against his, and I could look him in the eye.
“They win, I assume. The sand orphans beat the evil emperor,” Nico said.
“In the best movies, the good guys always win.” Maybe that was why I liked those specific films so much. It was clear who was good and who was bad, and good triumphed. Kirby and Brit would tell me I was being naive, but I loved the idea. Mostly because in the real world…
I couldn’t finish the thought, but it made me frown.
“What’s wrong?” Nico searched my face.
“In the real world, sometimes the bad guys win, and that sucks.”
He rested a hand at the back of my neck, and pulled me closer as he leaned to press his forehead to mine. It was a simple touch, but it sent warmth and assurance flowing through me. “They won’t win this time.” He sounded so certain.
I didn’t know how he could be. “I hope you’re right.”
“I know I’m right, because I’ve never met anyone as determined and driven as you.”
His certainty combined with reality and my laugh tore out without permission. I straightened up, breaking the contact between us. It wasn’t that what he said was funny, but my brain twisted it and found the humor in his words. “The only people you remember meeting, besides me and Bragi, live in a tiny village on a small island. Some of those people are pretty driven, and a lot of them worship the old gods, but even then, I don’t think that’s a big enough sample size to compare me to.”
“It doesn’t matter. I stand by my statement.” Nico slipped his hand under mine, and lifted both, extending my middle finger and putting my claw ring on display. “Can anyone get a ring like that? That seems pretty handy. Are there magical gift shops where I can pick one up?”
Was this a better topic than evil ruling the world? I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like it. “Magical beings are stingy when it comes to sharing their power. The jewelry has to be gifted out of selfless love, and there’s a shortage of that in the world. “ It was one of the tricks Vidar used with the trinkets he’d given us, when we were Nobles. He used tainted blood magic to imbue gifts we’d received from others. That was his loophole for the gifted with love requirement.
“You have one, though. That proves how special you are.”
“I don’t know why you’re heaping on the praise.” I both loved it, and was suspicious. Sincerity wafted from him like the scent of freshly baked cookies. Warm. Delicious. Attracted to me.
Okay, so that last one wasn’t like the cookies. The entire blend was wonderful and strange. The fact that I felt him. It made the entire conversation more intimate, but knowing what was in his heart almost felt like cheating. Like I was breaking some sort of rule.
“I’m being honest,” Nico said. “I get the impression you don’t see a lot of that.”
From Dahlia. From my friends, but, “No, it hasn’t been the standard in my life. I don’t think it is for most people.”
“That’s a shame. The world needs more honesty.” He put my hand down, but didn’t let go, tangling his fingers up with mine instead. “Tell me more about you. It’s not my life, but it’s fascinating.”
How was I supposed to meet an expectation like that? “I’m a natural redhead. Carpet matches the drapes.” I pushed out a laugh, to keep him from taking me seriously, and fumbled for a better answer.
When Nico reached up and separated a strand of my hair from the rest, my breath caught. He wrapped the hair around his finger, and his fingers brushed my scalp. All of those things I felt from him zinged through me like I’d chugged his emotion.
It should be too much, but it was one of the most erotic sensations I’d ever experienced. Like a full body rubdown in the blink of an eye, that left my nerves tingling and my skin wanting.
“May I kiss you?” Nico’s soft question echoed loudly in my head.
Had I ever been asked that? I licked my lips. “Yes.”
His kiss was gentle. The barely-there brush of his mouth over mine, with no demand in his touch.
What spilled from his heart was different. Potent. Conflicted. He wanted to push for more. Wanted me as badly as I did him. But his own lack of knowledge held him back.
The onslaught spilled through every place he touched me, filling my senses and thoughts, until the deluge of feelings was terrifying. Suffocating.
I broke away, struggling to keep my reaction from surfacing. “I…” I wouldn’t say something as cliche as I can’t, but there was no other way to explain it. Whatever it was that let me feel other people, it had better be temporary, or I wouldn’t be able to fuck, or even kiss, ever again.
How did Bragi survive this for centuries? Why would he want it back?
“It’s okay.” Nico slid his hand to my cheek.
His conflict was back, clashing with mine. I wanted to break away, but I also wanted to feel those bits of him that were sincere. That kept me wrapped up in him.
He pressed his lips to my forehead so sweetly, I nearly choked on the sugar. This feeling could consume me in a heartbeat if I let it. His adoration would easily wrap me in a ball of flame, and I’d be my own phoenix.
I needed to step away from the edge of that hole. I tried to be subtle, gentle, about breaking the contact between us, but I still felt his twinge of hurt curiosity.
“We should watch Star Wars.” I managed to keep my suggestion from sounding too bright and forced.
“All right.” Now Nico was confused.
I didn’t like these sensations at all. I should ask Bragi about it. Or see if Dahlia, Fen, or Frey could point me to a resource.
Going to Dahlia was dangerous, though. Not that I could avoid her forever, but after Vidar’s threat… I hated the idea of avoiding her, and hated even more the idea of losing her.
Bragi really did make the most sense, with this being about empathy as far as I could tell. But would I get a real answer out of him? Even being able to recognize if he was lying didn’t mean I’d know what the truth was instead.
Fuck it, I’d do my own research. I knew where to look online, and how to tell the bullshit from the ancient tomes translated into a modern text. I was brilliant and uncovering information.
Tomorrow.
Tonight, even if I needed to make sure I was careful with Nico, I wanted to spend the evening cuddling with him and watching my favorite movies. Seeing him react to something new to him.
And wondering what was going on with my head. I wouldn’t be able to avoid those thoughts, no matter how much I wanted to.
ELEVEN
BRAGI
I’d spent the last several weeks with only me and myself for company. After less than forty-eight hours with Magnus and Nico, I dreaded the notion of being alone with my thoughts again.
This was a waste of time. I hadn’t told Magnus and Nico that because I was cruel, or to stop them. I wanted the two of them to succeed. Driving down this freeway in the dark, with no company other than the occasional pair of headlights from truckers I passed, I couldn’t help but flash back to the last time I’d done this exact thing.
It wasn’t as if bathing in the stream, or collecting the items before then, would hurt anyone. It would consume our time, and I suspected that was what Magnus needed more than anything. Regardless of what she believed, I would do anything for her or Nico.
And while we were using this to keep our hands busy, our minds could be working on the appropriate solution.
The emptiness outside matched the space in my head where emotional noise usually lived. It was disconcerting and wrong and I didn’t like that it gave my thoughts room to expand, like bubbles growing unchecked. Fragile, easily obliterated, but so numerous many replaced one over and over.
I shook the thoughts away. According to my clock and trip mileage, I was maybe an hour out from the next leg of my journey. Only one more hour of telling myself not to think. Not to remember. Not to dwell or fall into some misplaced sense of guilt. I’d done what I needed to, back then. Every step of the way, I did what was required of me by me.
What else could I replace the meandering with, though? Thoughts of Vidar? Of my apparently obliterated home?
I assumed the note—I know—was a reference to my missing powers. Not a big surprise there, that he’d have figured it out. The only reason we were allies to begin with was to learn how to defeat our individual prophecies, so I knew his as well as he knew mine.
Another reason to visit Maeve was to ask about Vidar. She hadn’t been willing to share that information in the past, but this was another opportunity to try. She’d consulted with both of us, about power and acquiring it and retaining it.
From the outside, it might seem as if her helping anyone who could pay was a form of evil. She wasn’t. She didn’t have the same investment in day to day humanity that mortals did, but even when she gave out information, she wasn’t reckless about it. She didn’t help with destruction or death or chaos.
She trusted the people she worked with to do the right thing with the knowledge she provided.
The time passed more quickly than I expected, before I was pulling over to the side of the road, and parking my rental car behind a rocky outcropping.
I shut off the engine and the headlights, and let darkness and silence wrap itself around me. This far out, in the middle of nowhere, the main light was from the stars and moon. But it was overcast tonight, and that left me swimming through the pitch black.
A shiver sped through me as I stepped into the open air. I wasn’t safe out here until I crossed the invisible border into Maeve’s. I’d be protected by her magic, by the shell that required anyone in her territory to play nice.
Until then…
If anyone was looking for me, Vidar for instance, I was a sitting duck.
My eyes adjusted to the blackness enough for me to make out shapes, and I headed toward a patch of juniper bushes. The fact that the lush green plants grew in the middle of a dry, desolate desert, was a good indicator this was magically monitored land.
As I reached a hand into the shrubbery, needles pricked my skin and bark chewed at my flesh. I extended my fingers, searching for a different text. Feeling for—
There it was. I tightly grasped the worn wood handle, and tugged the tin lantern free.
The instant I touched it, a soft glow emitted from the object. Barely enough to make itself seen, but it would grow brighter as I worked my way toward Maeve’s.
Something pierced my shoulder from behind, and pain tore through me. I dropped the lamp, and couldn’t bite back my scream.
What the fuck?
Another spear drove through my thigh, this time I could see the ice glisten in the weak glow from the ground, before the weapon evaporated in wisps of cold.
A shadowy figure stepped in front of me. “You’re a hard man to track down.”
Probably because until I’d lost my power, I preferred to stay hidden in another realm, away from people and their feelings.
My wounds weren’t healing—this was a magical attack.
Considering he’d pierced me with instantly evaporating ice, that was a well duh kind of moment.
“Did Vidar send you?” I needed something to say, and that flew to the tip of my tongue.
He spat on the ground. “As if I’d ever do anything for that vile— You don’t know who I am.”
“Should I?” One thing I shouldn’t be was so flippant, however, I recognized most by their emotional signature and I couldn’t feel that anymore. He attacked me without warning—why the fuck would I give him consideration?
His roar told me I’d given the wrong answer, and another attack pierced my side, knocking me back, and pinning me to the ground until the weapon vanished. Then another. And another. A rain of ice spears driving through me one after another until I was on one knee, gasping for air and struggling with consciousness.
“Hel used to do a trick like this. She’d be disappointed you’re not better at it.” I should be quiet now. However, if he didn’t like Vidar or me, there was a good chance he was a student, and hated her too. Taunting him would either earn me another wave of pain, or piss him off to the point of distraction. I was willing to gamble.
“Shut up.” His roar shook the ground. “You’re always talking. Taunting. Why the fuck can’t you shut up?”
It was a curse sometimes, really. “You’re obviously here to take out your frustration. If I stayed silent, would that help?”
His angry shout didn’t tell me if that was the right answer or not. “Just tell me where Magnus is.”
Maybe I should know this man. It wasn’t easy to make out features through the darkness and pain, but I squinted and tried.
Nope. I was certain he hadn’t been a Noble, but if he was familiar with me, he’d been in the running. If he was wielding this kind of power, that also meant Vidar had incorrectly read what kind of threat he’d be. There was a level of satisfaction in that knowledge.
I’d be smug when I wasn’t being torn to shivering pieces. “Why would I know where Magnus is?”
“Because you never left her alone. Everyone saw it. You creepy, obsessive old fuck.” Another wave of attacks, and I had to be full of holes at this point.
There really was a point where the pain became a big blur of numb. Would I survive something like this?
“You’re a friend. I understand that. I could call Magnus. You could talk to her.”
“None of your bullshit tricks and manipulations.” He grabbed his head and shook it hard. “Stay out of my mind. Stop.”
If something was in his head, it wasn’t me, but I was a bit concerned about what was making him think I was poking around in his skull. “Where did the power come from? You’re obviously strong. A warrior.”
“I’m half Jotun. Which you know.”
It was absolutely news to me. Now that I could see how unstable he was, my biggest hope was to hold out until Maeve got pissed off about the magic so close to her border, and showed up to expel him. I certainly wasn’t bringing Magnus into a fight like this. “I didn’t know. I swear it.”
“Stop lying.” He summoned another wave of spears.
