“Val had plenty of opportunities to kidnap me and take me to Helen himself, but he hasn’t. Why not?”
“He’s keeping your confidence so you’ll feed him inside information. He can’t kill you himself, but so long as you trust him and let him close, he’ll always know where you are, and when the time is right, he’ll call for Skoll.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s too convoluted. The truth is usually simpler than that. I won’t believe it. Not Val. You were wrong about Tori, and you’re wrong about him.”
“Maybe.” Skyla shrugged. “I hope you’re right.”
“What about you?” I asked. “You’ve had all the same opportunities as Val to give me away. More.”
“We’re going to do this again? Haven’t I proven myself to you enough by now?”
I dropped my head and shook it. My heart wrenched at the idea that Skyla might be anything other than what I believed. “I don’t know what to think. But, yes, I do trust you.” I raised my head and met her gaze. “And I do know we need to find Tori before Helen does. We need to find out what grim means, and what Thorin and Corvallis have to do with it. I’m going to track Tori down. Maybe she can help us bring down Helen.”
“You’re going to recruit her?” Skyla asked with a sparkle in her eye.
“Or we can go back to Vegas and sit on our thumbs.”
Skyla laughed. “Girl, you’ve been hanging around with me for far too long. I’m obviously starting to rub off on you.”
I grimaced. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope it comes off with a little soap and water. I liked myself fine when this all started, and I hope to keep some of that girl with me when this all comes to an end.”
“So what are we going to tell Val?” Skyla asked.
“Tell him the ghost didn’t know anything useful. We can tell him that she saw Tori using the sword, but she didn’t know where she went with it.”
Skyla agreed to my suggestion, and after I helped her remove all traces of her séance, we parted ways outside the library. My thoughts centered on my bed, and my body craved a few hours’ sleep to make up for all we’d lost during the night. Val had left by the time I came back to my room, and I was relieved. I peeled off my clothes and fell into bed, too tired to find pajamas.
Chapter Nineteen
Unable to ignore the persistent sunlight beaming in my face, I gave up and got out of bed. The lacy draperies over the windows did little to shield the light, and since most of the Valkyries rose at dawn, the possibility that a guest might like to sleep in likely never crossed their minds.
I showered, dressed, and went to find Skyla. She wasn’t in her room, and her bed looked as though she had never lain in it. Maybe military types made their beds every morning, but something told me Skyla had never gone to bed after we left the library, even though she had looked exhausted. I found her in the kitchen, drinking coffee with Val, of all people.
Dark circles shadowed her eyes, the result of a night without sleep. I sank into a chair next to her and gathered her hands into mine. “Skyla, what’s going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been up all night.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been thinking about Embla and my mother and what it all means.”
I shifted my attention to Val, who had shaved and changed his clothes. “You look rested.”
“Don’t let it fool you,” he said. “I spent the rest of the night searching the grounds for any sign of a lead in case things didn’t pan out with Skyla’s séance.”
“Did you find anything useful?”
“I followed a trail of burnt ground for a while. It led away from the house, north, but it faded out and disappeared where the highway cut through.”
“Tori hitched a ride?”
“Or had someone waiting for her.”
Since Skyla wanted to keep our conversation with Ariel mum, I had little else to say on the matter of Tori’s disappearance. I changed the subject by going to the refrigerator and digging out a carton of eggs. “Anyone want something to eat?”
“I’ll take something,” Skyla said through a yawn. She laid her head on her arms.
“Why not go to bed if you’re so tired?” Val asked.
The coffee pot had enough left to pour another few cups, so I made one for Val and another for Skyla. She grabbed it from me and sucked down a huge gulp before answering. “No time to sleep.”
“So,” Val said, “did you learn something last night after all?”
Skyla frowned into her coffee. “I talked to a ghost, all right. But she mostly mumbled unintelligible things.”
“Maybe you need more practice,” he said.
“Practice doing what?” asked one of the Valkyries, who shuffled into the kitchen, frowning, her gaze locked on the empty coffee pot. It was Embla, and Skyla and I both froze. “Sword fighting? I expected to see you in the gym this morning, Skyla, but you didn’t show.”
“I-I had a late night,” Skyla said. “I didn’t feel like it today.”
“You’ve got to take better care of yourself. If you want to be at your best, to be the kind of warrior we need you to be, you can’t stay up all night talking to ghosts.”
Skyla gurgled something nonsensical before stuttering, “How-how did you know?”
