“What’s that?”
“When I got free, and I would get free, you wouldn’t find me again, and we’d spend the rest of my days playing the most epic game of hide-and-seek that ever existed.”
Thorin huffed. “You’ve threatened me with that before.”
“It isn’t a threat.” I jimmied my covers higher, snuggling them around my neck. Then I rolled over, giving Thorin my back—a dismissal, if he translated my body language correctly. “Like I said, it’s a promise.”
Chapter Thirty-three
I woke again in darkness, and the numbers glowing on the alarm clock beside my bed displayed the time: a few minutes after four o’ clock. Guess I’ll have time to sleep when I’m dead… if I’m lucky. The house creaked. Something thumped and rattled. I slid out of bed and opened my door. A light shone from across the living room. I followed the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and found Baldur leaning against a kitchen counter, mindlessly swirling a spoon around his mug.
“Where is he?” I asked and crossed my arms over my chest. Cool morning air seeped through my thin cotton T-shirt, and I shivered. Without taking my eyes from Baldur, I backed into the living room, snatched the afghan draped across the sofa, and wrapped it around my shoulders.
“Already gone. He left about half an hour ago.”
“And we’re just going to sit here, twiddle our thumbs, and wait for him to come back?”
Baldur set his mug on the counter. Shadows haunted his eyes, and deep lines scored his forehead and formed parentheses around his mouth. “What else are we supposed to do?”
“Go after him.”
“That would violate Rolf’s terms.”
“Since when do we let Rolf dictate what we do?”
“He’ll give the sword to Helen if we don’t.”
“And if we don’t go, and if Rolf does something tricky—and you know he’s going to do something tricky—then who’s to blame when Thorin suffers the consequence?”
Baldur set down his coffee and stood up straighter. “And what if something happens to you? I’ll be the one who has to live with the God of Thunder’s wrath. Do you know what that’s like?”
“Uh, yeah,” I said wryly. “I’ve had some experience.”
“For an eternity?”
Okay, got me there. I gave him a crooked smile and shrugged.
Baldur smiled in return. “I don’t know why he calls you Sunshine. Your nickname should be Bulldog.”
“I’d take it as a compliment.”
Baldur snorted, and it turned into a chuckle. “You would. Okay, Solina. If you’ve got an idea, I’ll hear it. Thorin going to Rolf alone and unarmed doesn’t sit well with me either, if you want to know the truth.”
I nodded. “I do have an idea. It’s not much, but something is better than nothing, I guess.”
Baldur made a beckoning gesture, urging me to get to the point.
“You remember what you told me when we were trying to escape from Helen’s warehouse? You said you could create a rune that would make me totally invisible if you had your full strength and time to prepare. Well, you still don’t have much time to prepare, but I figure you have more than you did back then.”
Baldur cocked his head like a curious dog, and some of the worry lines faded around his eyes and mouth. He glanced at the window and the sky beyond it, as if judging the nearness of sunrise. “I have the time.”
“You have enough strength?”
“Guess we’re about to find out.”
“Is it that easy?” I asked. “I wish for invisibility, and you snap your fingers and make it happen?”
“Easy? Have any of your abilities come easily for you, without cost?”
“Of course not.”
Baldur nodded. “It drains your physical energy, and it’s finite, right? Your powers aren’t unlimited.”
“Right. It also means I’ve spent a lot of time running around naked.”
Baldur chuckled. “It’s going to cost you a normal life, too. Even if this all ends, things will never be the way they were.”
“It also cost me a brother. If I hadn’t lost Mani, I have a feeling I would still be as mundane as ever.”
Baldur set down his coffee mug and folded his arms over his chest. He tilted his head and looked at me through his lashes. “Do you know how Odin got the runes in the first place?”
I nodded. I had read the story in my research, although the details were cloudy. “He hanged himself from the world tree and stared into the well at its base until the runes accepted his sacrifice and revealed their shape and power.”
Baldur huffed and rolled his eyes. “Out of the mouths of babes…”
“I summarized,” I said. “I know it was more complicated than that.”
Baldur shrugged. “Not really, Solina. What you said was the important part. The sacrifice. The suffering. That is the cost of runes. I have paid the price, dearly. Over and over.”
