I reach for my necklace. The runes against my fingertips ease the pang. It seems that I’ve turned my heirloom into a security blanket.
“I’m gonna jump in the bath and then what should I wear?” I ask Mathilda.
She rises from the floor. “You just bathe and leave the rest to me!” Her grin is wicked.
While in the bath, I brood over the past couple of days. Endless questions starting with “why” cycle through my mind constantly. Mixed with Julius’s emotional attack. Was he right? Did they not think I was strong enough to survive here?
I don’t think that my mother would leave this place to ruin if she knew what was happening here. But now I think I must stay here and see these wrongs righted. I should have been given a choice in this matter from birth, or at least told why I wouldn’t be getting a choice and why they decided this path for me.
My anger begins to build, but in the end, it’s futile. They won’t be giving me an explanation anytime soon. The bath soothes my aching muscles, and I sink lower into the tub. The water rises past my chest, my necklace shimmers, and the light from the torches on the walls casts shadows all around the chamber. I close my eyes and lean my head back against the rim of the tub, the eucalyptus oil in the water revitalizing me with each inhale.
Accepting Mathilda’s help was a good idea for “learning their ways,” but I need to speak with Odessa if I’m going to stay here long-term. I need to be able to travel back and forth to make sure Gran is ok.
I rise from the tub, water running in rivulets down my body, and I marvel at my newfound strength. The sharp pain between my shoulder blades has dulled to an annoying ache.
Mathilda calls from my room, “You decent?”
I wrap myself up in a navy blue towel before answering. She pops her head in the door. “I had a chair brought up, and I figured I could set it in here to do your hair and makeup.”
My smile stretches wide across my face. “Great!”
I’ve never done this before, but my excitement is burning through my veins. I’ve dreamt of this moment, getting ready for a night out with friends.
Mathilda breezes through the door, a tall chair in her hands, and places it in front of the marble sink. I watch as she hauls bags of products from my room. Glass jars and vials clink against each other as she sets them on the counter before heading back for hair brushes and ribbons.
“Alright, I’ll set everything up here, and you can get dressed. I think you should wear a red dress. It will set off your eyes and bronzed skin.” She smiles and gestures to the bed, a red dress lying apart from the other swathes of fabric on my bed.
The dress she suggested is stunning, but more modern than what I’ve seen other women wear here. It’s strapless, with pleats of ruffles running horizontally down the bodice into an asymmetrical hemline that cuts back up over my knee. I step into it and pull up, the fabric like silk against my skin. It fits like a glove, accentuating my hips and showcasing my long, lean legs. But it seems extravagant.
“Mathilda …” I call out to her.
The bathroom door cracks open.
“Gods. You look amazing!” she squeals as she jumps up and down, clapping her hands together. “Give us a spin!”
My smile is so big my nose scrunches, and I twirl in place.
“That’s the one!” she declares.
“Are you sure it isn’t too much?” I bite my bottom lip. Thedress is incredible, but it highlights my body in a way I’m not used to.
“No. I promise it’s perfect. Just wait till you see what I’m wearing.” She wiggles her eyebrows, and I giggle before following her back into my bathroom and plunking down on the chair.
She picks up a large brush and begins brushing my hair. While she works, she launches into her life story before I came. “I was born here. My mother was Gunnr, one of the original Valkyries. Our moms were best friends before my mom passed.”
Her hands still, and I see the familiar look of grief pass over her eyes in the reflection of the mirror.
I turn and grasp her hand. “I know what that’s like, and I’m so sorry,” I say, sympathy coating my words.
Mathilda gazes at me. “It’s rare for Valkyries to pass on. Our life spans are as close to immortal as possible, but it was weird. So sudden, both she and my younger sister were just gone.”
I bob my head, a lump forming. She lost a mom and a sister. That kind of grief, the kind from being the one left behind, is not foreign to me.
I mumble, “It is weird. One day, they’re there, and then the next, they’re just gone, and it’s hard to imagine a world without them in it.”
“Exactly,” she sighs before shaking her head. “But enough sadness. This is your first night out. We have to have fun!”
I face forward again, and she resumes brushing. I feel such a connection with her, and had I grown up here, I know we would’ve been best friends. The life I could have had if I were raised here flits across my mind. No endless moving in search of the adventure my parents obviously missed from this place. I could have belonged here, to these people.
