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Chapter Six
Tyr
I slidthe comb through my beard one last time and made a thorough check in the mirror.Clean, trimmed, and styled…My eyes narrowed at an unsightly single hair sticking defiantly out of place. I snatched my trimming scissors off the sink counter next to my beard oil, and snipped off the affronting hair.
Satisfied, I ran my fingers through my hair before cleaning my mess. Irritation still simmered under my skin; I’d tossed and turned all night. And when sleep didn’t work, I had hoped going for a long walk and replaying my conversation with Astrid yesterday, and my attempts to get her to remember, would allow me to forget seeing Aya act so casually in that house, as if she belonged there. When that hadn’t worked, I’d done my damnedest to work off my frustration by making a dent in the woodpile. However, I had to stop after a while, or I risked someone noticing my lack of exhaustion, so I chose to take a long shower and tidy myself up. I had to look my best, after all.
Nothing ended up dissipating the chaos raging inside me. I’d had my suspicions that the Aya Astrid had talked about was the one I knew. Everything added up too well, but I hadn’t been prepared to be proven right.How long has Aya known Astrid in this life and not told me?
I shut my eyes and sucked in a slow, deep breath, trying to clear my head. Allowing these thoughts wouldn’t help me.
Didn’t work. I couldn’t stop replaying how Aya had spoken to me as if she had something to do with me showing up here… like she expected me. She didn’t contact me. Her magic didn’t call to me like it had in the past. I knew that call.
My hand clenched into a fist.The call that told me we’d failed Astrid.
Leaving the bathroom, I stalked through my cabin for the door. She had some explaining to do, and I wouldn’t wait any longer.
I swung the door open and stopped short. Amber eyes peered up at me.
“Trjegul.”
The cat’s eyes squinted and her tail swished back and forth lazily. I crouched and scratched her behind the ear. She purred and rolled her head until I was scratching her under the chin.
“I can’t believe Freya is actually calling you Tuggy now.” I grunted. “Actually, it’s her; of course she would.”
The cat pulled away and gazed at me with eerily intelligent eyes. Back then, I had always assumed Freya had normal cats who would die when their time came, and she’d replace them. But no, these two lived on, and they showed signs to be more than just felines. But Freya never divulged what her cats truly were.
“You couldn’t possibly tell me what the hell is going on so I don’t have to deal with Freya, could you?”
Someone chuckled. “How long do you think you can run from your problems, Norse god?”
I snapped my attention to my right, where a tall, lean man with angular features and a freckled, pale complexion sat on a rock. The light breeze teased his tousled black hair. Vibrant green eyes gazed back at me. “Who are you?”
“A resident, like you.” He had a strong, lilted accent.
There weren’t many residents here. Astrid had told me the names of them all. “You must be Sean.”
The man grinned. “That’s what they call me here, yes.”
A muscle in the back of my neck tensed. This man made me uneasy.He knows what I am.However, I didn’t know what he was, and that didn’t sit well with me at all.
Sean’s grin widened. “Still haven’t figured it out yet? Maybe this will help?”
Before my eyes, his ears changed to a more pointed shape, and his eyes became more vibrant and inhuman in color. Had I not been a god, I may have also been overcome by the alluring beauty he now exuded, regardless of my preferences.
I tilted my head, eyes narrowing. “What business does an elf have here?”
He blinked too innocently and gazed around. “Why wouldn’t I? This place is beautiful and quiet. It heals me to be so far from the advancements of this age.”
“You could always go to the fae realm.”
The fae had done decently well adapting to the developments of societies over the millennia, but this most recent century, with the ever-advancing technologies, had proven to be the most difficult.
More and more, the fae shifted to their own realm, sometimes choosing to never leave. Those who remained did their best to incorporate both technology and nature into their lives. They’d even gone as far as to make mortals reliant on their more modern deal schemes of credit cards and insurance, like Good Neighbor.
Sean’s eyes shifted away. “You know as well as I, elves are not welcome in the fae realm.”
I tilted my head. I did not know that.
