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“How about ouch?”
She snorted, eyes on her coffee. “So passé.”
He snorted. “So you just say it for...what? Fun?”
Her eyes moved from her cup to him. “Fun? What do you mean, fun?”
“It just seems out of place. Your last name is Muñoz, you’re from Arizona, and you’re Latina...all of those things don’t exactly point to-”
“Point to what?” Grace eyed him over her coffee mug.
“Well, Odin, for starters.”
“It’s called religious freedom, honey. Look it up.”
He blinked at her, coffee mug pausing on its trip to his mouth. “You worship Odin?” he asked, looking at her like she might spring a second head or third arm at any moment.
“Well, not in the traditional sense,” she replied, hitching a hip against the counter. “But if I did, it would be called Asatru.”
“Wait, what?”
She laughed and shook her head. “It’s nothing. Stop looking at me like I’m going to cast a thunderbolt at you. It’s just Paganism. Nothing to be scared of, and I don’t follow anything anymore. Haven’t for a while.”
“But you used to? I’m not judging, just curious as to the whole Odin thing.”
She sipped her coffee, eyes losing their mirth as she thought over the way she had come to use the term, how she had even discovered who Odin was outside of a comic book.
“It’s...complicated,” she said finally, voice soft.
“Well, it’s not like this place has a television, so lay it on me.” He slid into a stool at the counter and leaned his chin on his hands as he watched her balk.
She looked around them with raised eyebrows. “No television? What is this?Survivor?”
“It’s called romance, honey. Look it up.”
“Haha, so witty. I like you,” She leaned closer and kissed his cheek, one of her hands ruffling his hair as she rounded him to sit at the stool beside him. “You’re so much more than a pretty face. I think I’ll keep you around.”
“Yes, yes. Stop trying to change the subject. Get back to the Astral-whatsit.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “Asatru.”
“Yeah, that.”
She sucked in a breath and lowered her eyes to the mug in her hands. The steaming coffee comforted her, the warm ceramic in her hands giving her a point to ground herself. It was never easy when she talked about Lilia, which was something there was no way around, not without lying to Anton.
“Have you ever heard of Valkyries?” she said after a minute.
“Warrior ladies, right?”
“That’s them. Fierce and loyal maidens who welcomed warriors into Valhalla after a battle that pleased Odin, the god they served. The Valkyries picked the bravest warriors to enter Valhalla. I learned about them one day when I was about nine at the library. It was…” She cleared her throat and closed her eyes as she saw Lilia’s smiling face in her. “It was a rough time for me and my family because my sister, she-she drowned that summer.”
Anton went still beside her. “Grace…” he breathed, eyes wide. “You don’t have to tell me about this. I didn’t know when I asked.”
She opened her eyes and gave him a quick smile. “It’s fine. Really. I should, well...it’s probably time you found out about Lilia. I mean, she would come up eventually if this continues to be a thing.” He nodded, going silent and putting a hand on her shoulder in encouragement, and after a moment she began to speak again.
“Anyways, it was a bad time. Lilia was always so brave and beautiful and I wanted to be just like her. And after she died, everything wasn’t right. My family just broke. They fell apart, and it didn’t matter how much I did or what I tried, they didn’t want to see me for me. They resented me.” She sniffled, and Anton made a low sound in his throat before he stood and grabbed a Kleenex from the box on the counter.
“Thanks,” she murmured, dabbing at her eyes and wishing she could tell the story without tearing up. “One day that summer, it was only a month or so after Lilia’s death, and my mother was in a full breakdown. Now I understand, but then I didn’t. I was scared too, and all I wanted was my mommy. I wanted them to tell me it would be okay, but they couldn’t, so somehow or another I got dropped off at the library for one of those lame reading circles for kids. And I wandered off because screw the man, right? They aren’t going to tell me to read about Little Bo Peep when I know there's more salacious stuff out there.”
