His eyebrows rose. “I could surround them with an army, but they might notice. Are you prepared to come back from the dead and explain to them what’s going on?”
“I don’t know...” I eyed Skyla’s plate again: unnaturally white eggs, limp spinach, gluten-free toast. I missed my mom’s sausage gravy and biscuits. A wave of homesickness washed over me. “It might be worth it, if it kept them safe.”
Thorin set his phone on the table and pushed it toward me. “Anytime you want to break the news to them...”
I stared at the phone and considered the cold swirling in my gut. “How can I face down wolves and gods and stone warriors, but I’m too afraid to call my parents?”
“My men understand what’s at risk,” Baldur said. “They understand there’s more to this world than meets the eye. They are not infallible, but they will serve. Your parents are under the best protection I can offer, unless you want me to take them to New Breidablick. I’m perfectly willing to host them, but you know you’ll have to be the one to make the invitation.”
I dropped my spoon, and it clattered against the edge of the bowl. “Okay. That’s what I’ll do. Thorin and I will head to North Carolina. I’ll talk to my parents, tell them everything. I’ll convince them to come to New Breidablick.”
“I think we’ll all rest easier,” Baldur said. “And I think you should consider going to them sooner than later, especially if getting in touch with a real völva is going to be as difficult as I think it...” Baldur trailed off as his gaze settled somewhere behind me. His face hardened, and he clamped his mouth shut.
Curious, I turned to look behind me, searching for whatever had upset him. There, in the dining room doorway, stood a pale woman, wrinkled and white as winter snow in every way except for her eyes, which, even from this distance, burned a feverish green. She wore ripped jeans, a hot-pink T-shirt that said “SASSY!” in fluorescent colors, and black Chuck Taylors. I had expected someone more like Professor McGonagall and less like Punk Barbie’s grandmother, but if völvur were in short supply, I’d take what I could get.
Having spotted Baldur, the old woman raised her chin and peered down her nose at our group. She lifted a knobby, gnarled finger and pointed in my direction. “I’ll talk to the girl.”
My attention swung to Baldur, and I gaped at him, silently asking for an explanation. “Solina,” he said, without meeting my gaze. “I’m making an educated guess, here, but it appears the völva you’ve been looking for has found you.”
Still stunned and mostly speechless, I rose from my chair and crossed the room.
The wrinkles in the old woman’s face deepened as she scowled. Her hair stood out around her head in cotton-candy puffs, and she leaned against a slim, knobby cane carved with intricate patterns. “Only her.”
I glanced over my shoulder. Skyla and Thorin had stood up behind me, obviously intending to follow. I waved them back. “Do what she asks, please. I can’t afford for her to change her mind before we know if she can help me or not.”
Before I reached her, the old woman turned out of the dining room and crossed the lobby, heading toward the hotel’s main entrance, moving faster than her cane would have suggested. But it’s not really a cane, is it? If she’s who I think she is, that’s her wand or magic stick or whatever... Even if my lame publicity attempts had somehow caught her attention, I wondered how she had known exactly where to find me. Perhaps she was truly clairvoyant.
How do you know Helen or Val didn’t send her?
That thought stopped me in my tracks. “Um, ma’am.” I raised my voice to carry across the lobby. “I can’t just follow you out that door. I don’t know if I can trust you.”
The wizened woman stopped and turned on her heel, graceful despite her apparent age, spiderweb hair bobbing as she moved. Her expression seemed critical, green eyes cold and hard, deep parentheses forming around her mouth, but she smiled and transformed her face into something radiant and bright. “It’s good to know you aren’t a complete idiot. I can work with that.”
She had stopped near the doors leading outside, and I approached her with hesitant footsteps. “Let’s start with names,” I said.
Close enough to touch now, I held out my hand, offering to shake. Her lips puckered, and she eyed my hand as if I had offered her something unseemly. Instead of taking it, she folded her arms across her chest, hands tucked firmly beneath her armpits. “You’re Solina Mundy.”
My eyes popped wide, and I stifled a laugh. “Well, yeah, but I already knew that.”
“But you didn’t know I knew it.”
“I guessed as much. Or why else would you be here?”
“You’re looking for a völva to train you.”
My heart fluttered like a butterfly in a strong storm. Had I found her, whoever she was, so easily, after all? “And you are a völva, I take it?”
She narrowed her eyes again and thinned her lips but said nothing.
The butterfly sensations settled, and my humor drained away. “Are you always like this?”
“If you are to be a seer, you will have to learn how to find your own answers.”
I stifled an irritated groan. “I think I’ve seen this movie or read this book or played this video game before. Now enters the frustratingly vague fortune teller.”
The lines between her brows deepened. “Are you accusing me of being a cliché?”
I bit my lip and offered an apologetic grimace because, yeah, I had sort of accused her of that. “Sorry?”
Her face brightened again as she laughed. “My name’s Gróa, and I’m just messing with you. My Winnebago’s outside, double parked. We gotta go before I get towed. Getting that thing out of impound always costs a fortune.”
I glanced at the dining room doorway and wasn’t surprised to find Skyla and Thorin there, wearing matching scowls. I turned to Gróa and chucked a thumb over my shoulder toward my loyal companions. “I’m not sure those two are going to let me go anywhere on my own. I’m not sure I want to go anywhere on my own. Not until I know if I can trust you.”
She leaned around me, narrowed her eyes, and grunted. “You’ll be perfectly safe with me, you know. I’m not afraid of those ravens. Or the wolves.” She tapped her temple as she widened her eyes into a kooky stare. “Can see ’em coming from a mile away.”
I gave her an uneasy smile. “Really?”
She blinked at me, wide eyed and grinning. “Wouldn’t be worth my salt if I didn’t.”
“Sunshine?” Thorin asked, having moved up behind me in his usual silent way. Surprised, I flinched and spun around to face him. He narrowed his eyes at my strange new companion. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?”
Gróa stopped leaning on her cane. She stood up straighter and patted her flyaway hair. She cut her eyes to me, batted her lashes, and waggled her eyebrows. It was almost... flirtatious? Gesturing to Thorin, I said “Um, Gróa, this is—”
“Magni, Son of Thor,” she said. “I’d recognize those cheekbones anywhere. And that nose. The hair too. Shoulders, and...” She scraped her gaze down Thorin, head to toe and back up. She waggled her eyebrows again. I nearly choked trying to hold in my laugh. He shot me a dark look. “Looks a lot like his old man.”
Thorin’s eyebrow arched. “You knew my father?”
She shook her head and waved him off. “Never in person. But I’ve seen him.”
