must be really popular around here, then.” I watched him run the pad of his thumb over one of the smaller leaves, erasing the white spots. He clipped the next one off. “If you can heal the plants, why are you cutting parts off?”
“It’s better to cut back some of the leaves so more of the plant’s energy goes to the fruit.” He worked quietly for a few moments. “So what exactly was that magic you did in the truck stop?”
“What?” I grabbed his arm. “You know I did something there?”
He nodded, set the clippers down and patted my hand. “Don’t get upset.”
“Dude, don’t pat me, and don’t patronize me. I may look twelve, but I’m eighteen and don’t have a lot of patience.” I saw movement outside the greenhouse but ignored it. “Which part of my magic did you see?”
“All of it. You sent the world into a spin, stopped time and wrote a message in runes with ketchup. I watched you do it all. I even sneaked a peek when you went into the bathroom. Music on the lake is about this place. Means you’re supposed to be here, not running back to...Where was it? Oklahoma?”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand. It’s a family thing, and nothing is more important to me than my family.”
Arun stared at me, his arms crossed, his expression like the school counselor’s I’d had in the last year I’d been allowed to go to school. The one determined to find the reason why I’d defaced the cafeteria wall with maple syrup.
Apparently, I had a thing for condiments.
Wait, is syrup a condiment?
Because he continued to stare and because it made me feel like I’d just jumped on a roller coaster, I redirected his attention. “That guy you were with—that big guy—who is he carrying?” I knew. Of course I knew when I saw his missing hand, but I wanted it confirmed.
He flashed a white-toothed grin. “The guy in the cowboy hat is carrying a soul. He didn’t know which one until he met a Valkyrie who told him his is Tyr—the war god.”
“The one who lost his right hand to the wolf, Fenris,” I muttered. “I knew it.” A drop of sweat slid down my temple.
“You should take your coat off before you overheat. We’re keeping the houses extra warm lately to make up for the upcoming long winter.”
“So you know what’s going on? You believe this is Fimbulwinter?” I was talking about the three years of harsh winter we were supposed to suffer during Ragnarok. Some writings referenced one summer happening during the long frozen stretch and others said none. Whichever one—it was supposed to suck.
“Don’t you?” He held out his hand for my coat and draped it over his on the chair after I gave it to him. “You have incredible magic. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
I shrugged. “A lady in the restaurant told me that she’s heard music on Yellowstone Lake, so it could be something about that.” Frowning, I scratched the back of my hand, which was splotchy from the prickly stems. “Though, my norn usually gives me future messages.”
He nodded. “That’s what’s been bringing the others here. Some hear it. Some don’t. The ones who can’t are being brought in by Valkyries.”
“Valkyries,” I said, grinning. That was a bit much. I was leaning back toward the weirdo thing again.
His gaze flicked down to my mouth and his own twisted in response. “Tell you what. Grab your coat and I’ll take you on a tour. Introduce you to my two best friends and maybe a Valkyrie.”
The cold hit hard and fast, but I waited until we’d walked a ways before I put the coat back on. The snow had picked up. Luckily, the greenhouses blocked the wind, which made howling noises as it swept down into the valley. He’d talked about introducing me to people, yet I didn’t see any. The place was eerily quiet other than the weather. He opened doors to the greenhouses, pointed out the vegetable and fruit plants. They even had fruit trees in two of them. My stomach growled when I saw the luscious red apples.
Arun grinned at me. “Heard that. Tyrone will be back with the sandwiches soon, but here.” He walked inside, grabbed an apple and washed it in a sink before handing it to me. “We don’t use chemicals, so you can eat them right off the trees, but sometimes there’s dust.”
I bit into the apple and managed to not moan. Perfectly crisp and juicy, it immediately settled my stomach.
A girl with bright red hair walked past us, a taut scowl on her face, her arms full of heavy bags of fertilizer. I lifted my eyebrows. Three heavy bags of fertilizer. I couldn’t carry all those at once. “Is she one?” I asked after the girl disappeared inside one of the greenhouses.
He was frowning pretty hard. “She’s upset about something. Again.” He looked down at me, chuckled. “You’ll have a lot in common with her. She’s prickly, too. When she showed up, she had no idea what was going on, just that she can tell the future and her future was in these greenhouses. Her parents kicked her out when she was sixteen, so she came here. To the place she kept seeing in her visions. We think she’s carrying the soul of Gullveig.”
I tried to remember what I’d learned about that goddess, but all that came to me was prophecy and fire. I wanted nothing to do with someone associated with that particular element. “She was kicked out at sixteen?” Harsh. Yeah, my sisters and I had to pretty much raise ourselves, but Dru had never kicked us out, had never left us physically. Well, not until recently.
“She won’t say why they kicked her out, but we think it had something to do with the visions. Tip. She hates the word witch. It sets her temper off.” He chuckled. “And trust me, she got the fiery personality to go with that hair. You’ll get along.”
I ignored the dig, thinking about the fertilizer bags. “She’s strong, too, isn’t she?”
“We’re noticing that a lot of us are stronger than usual. But not everyone with a god soul is. You?”
“No.” And that was so not fair.
“Well, I saw you stop time. Actual time. You might have more power than any of us.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” I muttered. Not if I wasn’t in control of it. I waved my hand at the spread of greenhouses. “This is impressive. So, you sell the vegetables?”
“We do. But we’ve also been preparing for the three-year winter. We’ve canned enough food to feed a lot of people for a long time.”
“Aren’t you worried some will try to take this place? By force?”
“Got a pretty negative view of people, don’t you?”
“You grow up in campgrounds and see how you feel. Yeah, there are some hippy-dippy granola types, but a lot of those survivalists...Well, I live in the real world—I see real people in it.”
“Yet you carry the soul of a goddess inside you. Must be awfully confusing in your real world then.”
He had a point. I hated that he had a point, so I glared at him.
“Look,” he said. “I could tell you think all that stuff I said about Valkyries is bull. You said you have two sisters. I’m guessing triplets. Triplets who can stop time and write messages in a very old language. You have a norn. Do you have any idea how important that is?”
“I don’t have her willingly.” I managed not to wince when she twisted in my chest, but I put my hand there out of reflex.
His eyes narrowed and he straightened. “You really can feel her,” he murmured. “You can actually feel her inside you? That has to be awful. No wonder you’re so grumpy.”
“I’m not grumpy.”
He merely lifted an eyebrow.
“I’m