Instead of roses, Tessa reached over and snatched the necklace out of Alessandra’s hand.
“What is wrong with you?”
“I had a little fun. You’re always so uptight.”
“I want to go home. I have a husband. And kids. I don’t want to spend all night out here with you bitches.”
“Is this where she says no offense?” Kera asked.
Erin shook her head. “No. She won’t say that.”
Leigh and Maeve each grabbed one of Kera’s arms.
“Wait—”
But they didn’t, both taking to the air, dragging her along.
And yes, it was as unpleasant the second time as it was the first. But at least this time she didn’t vomit when it was over.
Erin watched Leigh and Maeve take off with Kera. Then she looked over at the witches.
“You going back for them?” Annalisa asked her.
“No.”
“You worried the kid’s wrong?”
“I’m worried she has a lesson to learn.”
“Maybe. But we’ll be there for her if that happens.”
“If she lets us.”
Annalisa smiled. “Give her time. She’ll figure it out.”
Vig dropped off the first two with no problem. One in San Fernando Valley. One in Pasadena. The last one he took back to the kid’s home in Arcadia. They dropped into the giant yard, and Vig lowered the boy to the ground. But unlike the other two boys, this one didn’t immediately run inside to go looking for his parents.
That’s when Vig heard the yelling. Two people yelling at each other. They sounded drunk.
And based on the boy’s expression, this was not new.
“Hello, Bobby.”
Vig closed his eyes at the voice that came from behind him. “Odin . . . no.”
But, not surprisingly, the god ignored him and crouched down in front of the boy.
Odin was in a custom-tailored suit with custom-made Italian leather shoes. Kind of necessary when one was nearly eight feet tall in his “safe” human form. His long gray hair was pulled back into a braid and the eye patch that covered the sacrifice he’d made eons ago for knowledge was gunmetal blue to match his expensive suit.
“Bobby,” Odin began, “you don’t want to go back in there, do you? With all their arguing and complaining.”
“Odin—”
“You want to be strong and great, don’t you? You want to be like him.” He motioned to Vig with a tilt of his head.
“Can I have wings like him?” the boy asked.
“You already have those wings. They are already inside you. Your daddy has them, too, but he is weak and stupid and not worthy of this honor.”
“Odin. Stop.”
“But you’re worthy. And I can take you away from here. To some place where you’ll be safe. Where no one can ever hurt you again.”
The boy glanced up at Vig, back at Odin, then nodded.
“Would you like to come with me?”
The boy nodded again.
“Odin, you just can’t take the boy.”
“Why not? He’s made his choice.”
“He’s eight!”
“They haven’t even realized he’s gone yet.” Odin picked the boy up. “And he’s nine.”
The god faced Vig, one blue eye staring at him. “We all have to pay a price for honor and glory. But this boy has made the right decision. And we both know it.” He looked at the boy, smiled. “Come, child. Let’s get you to your new home.”
“I can take him,” Vig offered, hoping he could perhaps reason with one of the Elders at the house.
But Odin only smiled. “He’s not staying here. I have other plans for him.”
“O—” But the god was gone.
Vig let out a breath and glanced back at the house. The couple inside were still yelling at each other. Accusations, drunken threats. And completely oblivious to the fact that they’d just lost their son forever.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“I just hate when he does that,” Vig told Stieg.
Of all the Ravens, he was closest to Stieg but they never discussed the fact. Vig knew that would only make Stieg uncomfortable. He preferred to see himself as a man standing alone. But Vikings never stood alone. They couldn’t afford to. They needed each other to man their boats, to raid with, to protect their lands. They needed each other to survive. But Stieg’s life before the Ravens had been hard, and he’d never quite been able to shake that feeling of always being on the defensive. That he and he alone could protect himself from the horrors of the world.
“Trust me, the kid’s better off.”
“I know. I know. Sometimes Odin just pisses me off.”
Stieg chuckled. “Yeah. He does that.” He motioned back toward the main Raven house. “Hungry?”
“Nah. I’m going home.”
“Hoping your girlfriend called?”
“As a matter of fact . . . yes, I am.”
Vig walked to his house. It was a little after 2 a.m., but he wasn’t really tired. He could eat, though.
Then again, he could always eat.
As Vig came through the trees, he saw Kera sitting on his porch. She was still in her combat clothes, her head bowed.
“Hey, hey,” Vig greeted when he got near.
Kera looked up and gave a close-lipped smile. “Hey.”
Vig stopped. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“How did your hunt go?”
“Personally, I don’t think it went badly at all. I stopped them from massacring thirteen hippy witches.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah . . . except I don’t think the other Crows feel the same way about my lifesaving intervention.”
“Why?”
“They all started to give me this look.” Kera gazed at him, her mouth curling into a horrible forced smile.
Vig winced. “That’s not good.”
“I know! And then, while they were looking at me like that, they’d say things like, ‘Oh. Well . . . that’s good. Uh . . . yeah. Sure. Good.’ And then walk away. Since I’ve done that to people myself when they’ve fucked up royally, but I didn’t want to be the one to tell them . . . I know what I’m looking at.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” Kera admitted. “I did the right thing,” she said adamantly. “I think.” She shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You’re not sure?”
“Not really.” She put her hands in her hair, scratched her scalp. “Ahh! This is so frustrating! I’m not used to not feeling confident when it comes to military decisions.”
“I wouldn’t worry, Kera. If your decision was a mistake, you’ll know when it comes flying back to haunt you.”
“Thank you?”
“Sorry. Was that too direct? My sister says I’m too direct.”
“No, no. I like direct. Even if it means things blowing up in my face.”
Vig decided to change the subject. “How did the flying go?”
“They threw me off a building, two managed to catch me and drag me all the way to and from the witches’ location.”
“They didn’t teach you to fly?”
“I don’t think they wanted to be bothered since they’re not sure I can deliver. I just didn’t see the point of killing people who hadn’t actually done anything wrong yet. They just had some necklace. They hadn’t actually used it yet.”
Vig sat down next to Kera on the porch, their legs hanging over the side, their shoulders pressed against each other.
“Not every situation requires a full-on murderous assault, Kera.”
“Did you kill anybody tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.”
“But we also rescued some kids. That felt good.”
“Maybe I would have been better off being a Raven.”
“Probably. But you’re a girl. And girls are ooky.”
That made Kera laugh.
“Since we have a couple
hours before daylight,” Vig suggested, “why don’t I show you how to fly?”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Are you just afraid to fly?”
“No.”
“Did you vomit a little when the Crows took you up?”
“No, I did not.” She brushed nonexistent hair off her face. “I threw up when we landed.”
“Well, that makes all the difference.”
“It does in my mind.” Kera jumped off the porch and faced Vig. “All right. Let’s just do it. Just do it and get it over with.”
“It’s flying, Kera. You’re not about to be put on an altar as a human sacrifice.”
She stared at him. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“And you won’t let me fall to my horrifying and painful death?”
“Never.”
“Okay then.” She nodded. “Then let’s do this.”
“Now before we start, there is one thing you always need to keep in mind during this process.”
“What?”
“That everyone, at some point in their life, wants to fly. And soon you’ll actually be doing it.”
“Which means . . . what? Exactly.”
“That you’re better than everyone else.”
She laughed. “Well, when you put it like that . . .”
Vig’s arms tightened around Kera’s waist and his wings extended from his back. He looked into her face, his eyes locking on hers—and they were flying.
Heading straight up, past trees and nearby power lines, until he stopped to hover thousands and thousands of miles above the ground.
Well . . . actually, they probably weren’t that far up, but it sure felt that way.
“Kera?”
“Huh?”
“You’re not breathing.”
“I’m not?”
“No.”
“Oh.” She let out a breath.
“Now . . . take one in.”
“Can we just get going on this?”
“Not until you start breathing. Normally. Not like you’re going through labor.”
Kera took a few seconds to remind herself how to breathe normally.
“Good,” Vig finally said. “Very good.”
Kera felt one of Vig’s arms loosen from her waist and she grabbed his biceps with both her hands, digging her fingers into the muscle.
“I’ve got you,” he promised.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure.”
Vig pressed his fingers against her middle back, pushing her chest forward and into his.
She liked how that felt even through her thin tank top.
What she didn’t like was the brief pain that came when her wings extended from her back.
“I know,” Vig soothed when she gritted her teeth a little. “It still hurts. It will for another day or two. But don’t worry. It won’t last.”
Kera chose to believe him and focused on the feeling of air moving through and around her wings.
She tried to move her wings by lifting her shoulders but Vig shook his head. “No. You don’t need to do that. Your wings move separately from your shoulders.”
“Then how do I get them to, uh . . . flutter?”
“How do you walk?” he asked, his voice low and calm, his body warm.
Yeah, this was way better than getting this lesson from one of the Crows.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “I just . . . walk.”
“That’s what you need to do with your wings. They’re part of you now. So flying, getting your wings to move, is as simple as getting off a chair and walking.”
“And how do I make that happen?”
“Think about what you want. This is new to your muscles, like walking for the first time after an accident. You need to think about what you want your body to do and then your muscles will translate that into action. The more you use your muscles to control your wings, the easier it will become. Eventually, all you’ll need to do is think that you want to go . . . and you’ll go.”
“Will it really be that easy?”
“Eventually, yes. You just need to be patient with yourself.”
“I don’t do patient. I can’t sit here and think for ten hours hoping my wings start to move when I really need them to move and function properly now.”
“Okay.”
“What are you smiling at?”
“Well . . . your wings are moving.”
Surprised, Kera glanced back and saw that her wings were moving. “Sure that’s not just the air up here?”
“If it was, your wings would be high over your head. You are controlling them.”
Kera dug her fingers into Vig’s flesh. “That’s great. But don’t let me go.”
“I won’t,” he said on a chuckle. “I promise. Just enjoy. Close your eyes and try to understand what your muscles are doing.”
Again, Kera ended up using her meditation skills.
Of all the many things she’d learned while in the Corps, it fascinated Kera that the one thing she’d been using most the last few days was flippin’ meditation.
She went through all her usual steps to ease into the meditative state and upon doing so . . . she could feel it.
She could feel the muscles moving her wings. The feathers closest to her back brushing against her spine. The wind . . . God, the wind moving through each individual feather.
Kera pulled her wings back into her body then thought about her wings extending. At first, nothing happened. She tried harder and still nothing.
She quickly realized, though, that she was trying too hard. She needed to relax. She needed to breathe. So she did, loosening her finger-tight grip on Vig’s biceps and resting her forearms over his shoulders.
That’s when she felt her wings extend from her back easily and with much less pain, and she heard Vig whisper, “Beautiful.”
She didn’t know if he was talking about the way she seemed to be picking all this up relatively quickly or simply how she looked with her wings extended from her back. She didn’t know. She didn’t care. She just knew she liked it.
Kera then brought her wings back a bit and let them . . . beat? Yeah. She let them beat against the wind while Vig held her. And it all felt so natural. So much a part of her already.
“Kera,” Vig said, his voice so very soft. “Open your eyes.”
Kera did, slowly. She smiled at Vig.
“Look at yourself,” he gently ordered.
She did that as well . . . and realized that Vig was no longer holding her. She still had her arms around his shoulders, but she was the only thing holding herself up.
The realization nearly sent her plummeting back to earth, her wings abruptly retracting back into her body.
Laughing, Vig caught her around the waist. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay! You let me go!”
“Because you didn’t need me anymore.” He kissed her. Nothing intense, just a peck. But again, she liked it. “Now, start again. You already did it once, you can do it again. I know you can.”
So Kera did.
Vig watched Kera unleash her wings again and begin the process of getting them to move on their own. This time it took her even less time. When he knew her wings could keep her aloft, he loosened his grip. She hovered there, by herself.
It was beautiful.
“How do you feel?”
“I . . .” She briefly closed her eyes until she admitted, “Fucking amazing.”
Vig grinned. “Told you. I’m going to pull away now.”
Her eyes snapped open. “You are?”
“Trust me. You’ve got this.”
“I’ve got this.” She nodded. “I’ve got this.”
Vig’s wings pulled him back, away from Kera, his arms slowly moving away from her completely.
At first, she started to drop a bit. But she closed her eyes, relaxed her body—and probably her mind—and her wings took over, carrying her higher.
/> Vig let Kera hover there for a few minutes. Let her get used to just that movement. But he had faith in her and her commitment to making things happen now.
“Okay,” he said, “now you’re going to fly.”
“I thought I was flying.”
“You’re hovering. And hovering is really important. But now you’re going to fly.”
“Okay.”
“First you’re going to go higher. Then, you’re going to lower the front of your body and raise your legs out, arms at your sides. Keep your wings moving and you’ll see that they will go forward and back, using the air to push you forward. In scientific terms—”
“I don’t do science, so don’t even finish that sentence.”
“Okay. You want me to show you first?”
“No.”
Kera closed her eyes, took in a breath, let it out. She did that several times, then she shot straight up. Vig followed, watching her closely, ready to grab her if she started falling back to the ground. But she didn’t. Instead, she followed his directions perfectly and suddenly . . . Kera was flying. Her body cut through the air and she sped off.
Vig rushed to catch up with her, watching as she flew. She abruptly turned in midair and came shooting back toward him. Her wings brushed against his face as she passed him. He turned and, again, followed her. But Vig quickly realized he didn’t have to anymore. Kera was moving on her own and completely comfortable.
He stopped, hovering right over the Raven house. A few of his brothers returning from a hunt paused by him.
“What are you doing?” one of them asked.
“Waiting.”
“For what?”
In answer, moving like a missile, Kera shot by them. Even better, she was laughing.
“We’re under Crow attack!” one of the brothers cried out.
“We’re not under Crow attack,” Vig quickly told him.
“Then what is she doing?”
“Flying.”
“Why is she doing that here? Over our territory?”
“Because I’m helping her out.”
Another brother laughed. “Helping her out. Nice, Rundstöm.”
Vig crossed his arms over his chest and stared at his brother until the Raven eased back.
“I was just kidding. I was just kidding!”