Thorin smirked. “Who says I’m the good guy?”
“You’re one of the few not trying to kill me. Makes you a good guy in my book.”
“Have you never been in a car like this before, Sunshine?”
I snorted and thought of the plain white Civic sitting in my driveway at my parents’ house. I’d had that car since high school, and I had bought it already used and well worn. “I don’t really roll with the Jag-you-wah crowd,” I said, pronouncing the name in a bad British accent.
Thorin winked. “Then you’ve been missing out.” He barked something in a foreign language, and the driver stomped the gas pedal. The car leapt forward like a thoroughbred eager to run. My pulse took off along with it.
“What about cops with radar guns?” I asked, breathless. “I thought you said police complicated things.”
Thorin stared out his window as the highway roared past us. “Do you trust me, Sunshine?”
That was a loaded question if ever there was one. I closed my eyes, leaned back against the headrest, and tried to loosen my choke-hold grip on the door handle. “Yes,” I croaked. “Why do you think I called you over anyone else?”
Thorin’s response came after a lengthy pause. Maybe my frankness confounded him. That would be a first.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he said. “Try to relax and enjoy the ride.”
Val Wotan met us in the entrance hall of the Sacramento Executive Airport, a small annex for private jets near the larger, commercial airport. The moment I sighted Val’s familiar face, my emotions jumped up and took off in a confusing swirl. Anger partnered with affection and spun a dizzying waltz. Antipathy and longing locked eyes and stalked around each other like partners in a hostile tango.
Val set his mouth in a thin line. His jaw jutted, and blue sparks glinted in his narrow stare.
“This is going to be a long trip if you’re going to insist on brooding all the way to New Breidablik,” I said as I passed him on my way into the airport’s small lobby.
“I’m not brooding,” Val said through gritted teeth. He stalked behind me, and I imagined him panting and growling like an angry bear. “You lied to me, and I am trying desperately hard not to shake you until your teeth rattle.”
I hacked a derisive laugh and spun around to face him. “You haven’t learned anything, have you? Don’t you know by now that I don’t respond well to threats?”
Val sneered. “Maybe I need another lesson.”
“You’re being a humongous jerk about something that isn’t that big of a deal.”
Val’s face shifted, and something pained and frightened showed in his expression. He stepped closer and loomed over me. He didn’t touch me, but he had to know his superior height and size intimidated me. Except for a desk clerk, whose attention Thorin was currently occupying, the tiny airport lobby was empty. No one noticed Val’s hostility. So much for airport security.
“You were gone for nine weeks,” Val said in a strained voice. “We didn’t know what happened to you other than you lied to us and ran off from the Aerie’s relative safety with three women of disputable loyalty. There was no one to fight, no quest to undertake to bring you back, no oracle to consult.
“Just… poof”—Val spread his fingers to mime smoke disbursing through air—“you were gone. And you think I’m supposed to act like nothing happened? You think I’m being unreasonable? Get a clue.”
Well, when he puts it like that…
Val leaned down, and his eyes bored into mine. “You might hate me, Solina. But every moment you were gone was agony for me. Don’t ever do that again.” Without giving me an opportunity to form a rebuttal, Val dropped his gaze and turned his back to me.
I didn’t hate Val, but I didn’t like him a whole lot, either, and I refused to placate him or soothe his ego with apologies and self-justifications. I shouldn’t have to. I haven’t done anything wrong.
Thorin finished checking in with the counter clerk and returned to the waiting area, where Val and I stood in a cold and stifling cloud of silence. Thorin glanced between us, rolled his eyes, and motioned for us to follow him outside. A sexy, lustrous charter jet awaited us, and it brought to mind glossy Tag Heuer and Polo advertisements. In the commercial playing in my head, some exotic creature, a leopard or a panther, descended the airplane’s steps wearing a diamond-studded collar.
She was no slinky jungle cat, but the flight attendant who greeted us was close enough. She introduced herself with, “My name’s Samantha, but please just call me Sam,” and purred over Thorin and Val. She moved about the cabin with preternatural grace despite her three-inch heels. I didn’t hate her for her sophistication and elegance, but man, I really wanted to.
While the guys settled into their seats, I went to the galley and searched for something to drink. The flight attendant tried to intercept me, insisting she would provide the refreshments.
“I got it under control,” I said. “I’m professionally trained and everything.”
She arched a manicured eyebrow, shrugged, and turned away. I passed beer bottles to the guys and sat down with my own tumbler of ice and Diet Coke.
“I know you’ve already explained everything to Thorin,” Val said. He leaned back in his seat, folded his hands in his lap, and kept his face arranged in a pleasantly neutral expression—neither apologetic nor critical. “But I’d like to hear it for myself. Tell me everything that happened from the moment I last saw you at the Aerie.”
I closed my eyes and let my head drop against the headrest. “I’ll tell you, but let’s be clear about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I am not defending myself. I stand by every one of my actions, every one of my decisions. The fact that we are all still alive today has a lot to do with the choices I made, and I will not apologize for misleading you.”
“For lying.”
If that’s not a donkey calling a mule ugly… I opened my eyes, leaned forward, and glared at Val. “For doing whatever it takes to ensure that Helen does not win.”
Val winced. Then he nodded. After that, I told him everything: of the dream about Helen attacking the Aerie and killing Thorin with Odin’s spear; of going to Oneida Lake; of losing Kalani; of Inyoni’s betrayal; of my fight against Skoll and my transformation. I told him about waking cold and wet on the banks of Lake Norman, about the park ranger finding me and taking me home. About my days on the road and getting a job in San Diego before I had to run away again.
“Why San Diego?” Val asked.
“It was as far away from home as I could go.”
“Why didn’t you call us right away? Why didn’t you come back to Alaska or go back to the Aerie?”
I huffed. “I couldn’t go back to the Aerie alone because I don’t know who to trust there anymore. Helen has infiltrated at least some of the Valkyries, if not all of them. As for going anywhere else… I was hoping I could just be a ghost. I was bankrupt—no powers, no fire, no way to protect myself. Letting everyone think I was dead or gone was the safest thing for me at the time. Or so I thought. I have since discovered it’s impossible to completely disappear in this world. Someone always knows how to find me.”
