Chapter Two
TOR KNEW TWO thingswhen Raven began to vanish. First, he knew her. Unquestionably. Second, and far more daunting, she was dying right in front of them.
“What do you mean dying.” Jade scowled. “According to what you said on Trinity and Vicar’s adventure, she was always dead. Now, conveniently, she’s dying again?” She shook her head and frantically tried to take Raven’s hand. “This can’t be happening! She must be having some sort of adverse reaction to you again, Tor.”
Raven seemed more perplexed than panicked or upset while she continued looking at her hands. As she watched her sister’s hand pass right through hers.
“Whether Raven’s having a reaction to Tor or not,” Dagr’s eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly, “sheisdying in a sense.”
“She is,” Maya agreed, equally shaken. “I can feel it.”
Dagr and Maya were Helheim dragons, so it made sense they would feel Raven’s soul cross over.
“Is this what you did when you traveled back in time to see Tor, Raven?” Jade asked, even though Raven couldn’t answer yet. “Not astral project, but...die?” She frowned at Tor. “It would certainly explain why you thought she was dead.”
It would and did because, in a sense, she had been. He was certain of it. As certain as he was that at one point in time, he had gazed at her often. Found her stunning with her luxurious black hair and exquisite features. Her lips were full and kissable. Her thickly lashed eyes, a haunting silvery turquoise. Moonlit prisms that could both unsettle and excite. Slightly taller than her sisters, she was willowy and fine-boned, her curves perfectly proportioned.
“You’re not dead, dear,” Elsie said to Raven, obviously accustomed to being the soothing mother figure. “Not when you were just alive.” She wrung her hands and glanced Tor's way. “And will be again, right?” She shook her head. “Because I don’t have the ability to see ghosts, so, clearly, Raven is just suffering something related to the Forge.”
“I’m sure,” he agreed, despite having no way of knowing. What hedidknow, what he was accustomed to, was comforting those who had lost loved ones. Who wanted him to communicate with them for peace of mind that all was well on the other side. And he had countless times.
This, though, with Raven, felt different.
Shefelt different.
“You’re not sure of anything,” Raven finally managed when she adjusted to talking. Her gaze narrowed on him, her composure admirable considering she had just become transparent. “Not when it comes to my current state or if you truly want to be here or not.”
While tempted to deny it, he knew better. He owed her the truth because Revna was bound to come up sooner or later.
“You’re right,” he conceded. “I wasn’t sure if I should come.” He remained perfectly honest. “It was...a difficult choice.”
“I know.” Her expression was impossible to read. “Yet you walked away from her. You came here.” She seemed a little too nonplussed. As though she forced herself to remain unaffected. “And I don’t think you did it out of spite.”
“You sensed my thoughts,” he assumed. How else could she be so accurate? Because he had been watching Revna with Loki before coming here.
More pointedly, he had been fuming with jealousy.
“No, I wasn't following your thoughts.” Raven seemed caught off guard. “But someone else’s.”
Someone else’s? That made no sense.
“Oh,shit,” Jade exclaimed, figuring it out. “That’s what you were talking about before Tor arrived. Why you said he was getting further away and closer all at once. You had to have been sensingRevna'sthoughts.” She frowned between the three men as though they would have the answer because the seer was from their era. “Why would that be?”
“My guess?” Raven answered when the three had no explanation. “Because we’re connected somehow.” She perked a brow at Tor, not shying away from the subject. “Which must be rather disconcerting for you.”
At the very least.
How could Revna and Raven be connected? What did Revna know? Because, without a doubt, she knew something. Which could explain her behavior lately. Why she was toying with Loki. Yet for all her flirtation with the god, Raven was right. Tor wasn’t there out of spite or to make Revna jealous. Rather, he had been compelled. Not to Raven as a woman, per se, but compelled like he was with spirits when they needed help.
Now here Raven was. A spirit.
“Yet I don’t need anything,” she replied, following his thoughts a little too effortlessly. Although her face gave away nothing, there was no missing the edge to her voice. “Not from you.”
