“I don’t know.” He urged her to follow him to an exit. “I just had a feeling.” He paused and looked at her. “You probably told me, seeing how we’ve met before, don’t you think?”
“I might have,” Raven conceded, then grew vague. “If we really did meet before.”
“We did.” He grinned. “And you will tell me where when you’re ready.”
A small smile ghosted her face in return. “How can you be so sure?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I just am.”
“What my younger self is feeling is similar to what I sense off spirits when they’re drawn to me,” Tor explained. “I typically know where they’ve been and where they’re going.”
“Going?” Trinity’s brows shot up. “As in heaven? Or Helheim or Valhalla in your case?”
“Ja, somewhat like that,” Tor said. “More so, though, where their soul might go after that. Where it might be reborn.”
Raven tensed when he put his hand to the small of her back and steered her around a mist-covered rock. It was the first time they had touched, and it caught her off guard. Actually, it did far more than that. A sumptuous electrical charge ran over her. A flash of blazing heat before a pleasant warmth snaked downward only to blossom into a dull ache between her thighs.
She did her best to focus on her and Tor’s tiny dragons and the astounding view he showed her at the exit, but it was difficult. “Is this how the forest in the Realm is supposed to appear?”
They were overlooking a tree grove every bit as mystical as the cave in which they stood. Sparkling dark mist curled around vibrant trees. Shadows seemed to live and breathe. It reminded her of the woodland from the trance she’d had right before Tor arrived in the future. It possessed the same spookiness. Mysteriousness. As though magical creatures might be peering out from the shadows.
“Do you like it?” Tiny Tor looked at Raven tentatively. “Does it make you feel safe? Welcome?”
“It was important to me that it did.” Though he had removed his hand, Tor remained close enough to keep her aura pulsing. “Important that you felt like you were home.”
“It did,” she murmured, trying to hold on to the memories flickering through her mind. Vibrant green grass. A wonderfully haunted forest. Fear yet peace all at once. She looked at Cian, certain he understood. “Why?” She glanced from the woods back to him. “Why does this feel like home?”
“Because you have been here before.” He eyed their location. “Or should I say somewhere the creator of this place replicated near perfectly?”
“The Great Serpent Níðhöggr,” she said softly. From the sounds of it, he knew what was coming when he created the Realm. What might be needed to aid dragonkind in the Great War. So said him creating Alfheim caves and trees in a place meant for dragons. Now, this? A Vanaheim cave and trees? Both worlds disliked dragons every bit as much as dragons did them.
“Tá,‘twas in part created by the Great Serpent,” Cian agreed.
“Who created the other part?”
“I cannot say.”
“You mean, will not say.”
When he offered no response, she focused on other things coming to her.
“So it was in part created by Níðhöggr, yet known about by only you, Tor.” She glanced his way, certain she was right. “Because when you first brought me here, only you knew of this place. And in a mountain ruled by seers.” She shook her head. “Yet it’s new to you now.” She glanced from Vicar back to him. “Both of you.”
“For the moment, anyway.” Tor issued a smile that made her breath catch when her tiny self, who had been working hard to refrain, finally squealed in delight and raced down into the forest grove. His eyes met hers, making it altogether impossible to breathe. “Yet I get the sense it’s only a matter of time before it all comes back. Before we remember why you chose me. Because youdidchoose me.”
“Yes,” Cian agreed, joining them. He looked from Tor to Raven. “But make no mistake, I wasn’t the only one who wanted you.” His gaze returned to Tor. “Trust me, I’m the least of what threatens you finding your way back to your mate.” His attention returned to the memory. “And you will get a glimpse at why with what happens next.”
