“No.”
Now it’s my turn for silence. I put Yoko in park but don’t shut her off. I want the benefit of the heater. Half of me wants to ask him what’s going on with Cassidy. All of a sudden she is with him all the time like some sort of major character in our lives. I want to lay into him about how he’s meant to be with Issie, how every time Issie sees him with Cassidy her heart breaks a little bit. Instead I say, “Why not?”
“It’s just not a good time right now,” he says. “I’m sorry, Zara.”
I feel dismissed. I tell him everything that’s happened as quickly as I can. When I’m done, I rest my head on the steering wheel. It smells like ketchup for some reason.
“That is fascinating.” He pauses. “It implies a mythology behind weres and shifters, you know? It means I was right to start to explore those Norse myths.”
“Yeah. Can you use those mad research skills of yours and really focus in on Valhalla and Valkyries? I can’t believe there’s this whole other type of fae that we didn’t even know about, Devyn. It freaks me out.” I lift my head up from the steering wheel. Outside, everything is white and cold and barren. The wind moves the tops of trees, scratching them against the sky. “Can you tell Nick? About what happened?”
“Yes, Zara, I’ll tell him that you let a pixie go.” He sighs so loudly I can hear it through the phone.
“Thanks.”
“He knows you’re soft, Zara. Don’t worry. He won’t be mad for long.”
“You think?” I open the door, scan the area for signs of pixies.
“I know. I’ll take care of it. Wow. Valkyries and Valhalla. I can’t even imagine what this means . . .” He hangs up mumbling and doesn’t even say good-bye.
I close the car door behind me and rush up the walkway to the front porch. I take the steps two at a time and shove my key in the door. I don’t look behind me. I never do. I’m always too afraid of what I might see out there, what kind of dangers are hiding behind the trunks of trees, waiting.
After an hour of doing homework I start googling “Valkyrie” on the Internet. The first thing that comes up is some 2008 movie about Hitler starring Tom Cruise. There’s about a page of that and some links to female bodybuilders before I get a hit on Norse mythology. I know Dev’s probably doing the same thing at his house, but whatever . . . I can’t not try to learn stuff. Basically, all I get is that Valkyries brought slain warriors to Valhalla, the hall of Odin, who is the head god guy. Yeah, I’ve got mad research skills. I can’t figure out if it’s an actual place on Earth like say, Norway, or more like heaven.
The door to the house opens. I don’t look up from the screen. “Hey, Betty!”
“Nope. Not Betty,” Nick’s voice says. He shuts the door behind him and steps into the living room. He yanks off his coat and puts it on the post at the end of the stairs.
I put my laptop on the coffee table next to some old Stephen King books my stepdad used to read and jump up toward him, talking as I walk. “You cannot be mad at me, okay. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure he was a pixie. He was dying and I couldn’t let that happen and when that Valkyrie woman came I just—I don’t know. I couldn’t let her take him.”
Nick’s hands catch the back of my head. He smells like the forest. His eyes stare into mine. I look down and he says, “I am not mad at you, Zara.”
“Good!”
“I’m just frustrated. I never should’ve left him there, but I ran out of time. Now he’s loose again and that sucks, but you—I know how you are. You aren’t someone who can just let something die.” His mouth moves in closer and he whispers, “I’m not mad. It’s part of why I like you so much.”
His lips lose their straight line and soften. I lean. Our lips meet and he is all gentle and tender. His hand moves through my hair. “You are complicated, though.”
We sit on the couch and kiss some more. I happy sigh and squash myself against him. “We’ll have to go looking for him now. I’m sorry.”
“I know.” He flops down and puts his head on my lap. His long legs hang off the side, over the armrest. He smiles and closes his eyes. I run my fingers across his forehead and the delicate skin on his eyelids. He grabs my hand and kisses it, then lets it go.
“You’re so good to me,” he murmurs and then—just like that—he’s asleep. Guys.
I manage to get my laptop and put it on the couch next to me. I keep looking up things about Valkyries until I hear a tapping on the window. It’s a robin. There’s a piece of paper dangling from its beak. It hits the window again and drops the paper before it flies away.
I slip away from Nick as gently as I can and tiptoe across the room to open the front door. The paper is on the bench on the porch. It’s tiny and all rolled up. I look around. There’s no sign of the robin. In fact, there’s no movement anywhere. I unroll the paper. The writing is minuscule and almost calligraphic:
Your wolf is in danger. If you want to know why you’re going to have to set me free. Two days. Do not bring the weres.
I tuck the note into my pocket and shuffle back inside. Nick moans in his sleep. I touch his eyelids. I have no choice if Nick’s in danger. Of course I don’t. I have no choice at all. I’ve been summoned by a pixie via a bird. A bird? Panic fills me. If he can summon me via a bird, can he summon someone else? Maybe get rescued?
“This is not good,” I murmur. “Not good at all.”
Pixie Tip
Pixes are ruled by kings—and by needs. Exercise extreme caution. Turns out they can use birds.
Two days later, Is and I are frantically driving away on crazy, tree-lined paths.
“I’m not sure this is smart,” Is says.
“Can we ever be sure things are smart?” I say, all philosophical. “We have to be confident, Is. We have to trust ourselves to do the right thing.”
“Uh-huh,” she says not very convincingly.
The note freaked me out. I didn’t tell Nick even though I wanted to. Instead, I planned—I recruited Issie’s help.
From the back of the station wagon comes a tired male voice. “As much as I enjoy the prattling insecurity of teenage American females, I was hoping for some relief back here. Could you untie me now? Or must we continue with this mock-kidnapping charade? It was my idea for you to release me.”