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“Thinking, and waiting for Aya to get back.”
His brow rose. “Did she walk off?”
I shook my head. “No, she went to another city real quick.”
He gazed at me, and I blinked. “What?”
“It’s just…” He shook his head. “You said that so easily. I thought you might still be struggling, with how distant you’ve been.”
I pursed my lips. “I’ve needed the space to think and process. That made it easy to accept when she disappeared right in front of me.”
He chuckled. “Sounds like her. Do you mind if I join you?”
I glanced at my phone, which showed I still hadn’t received a text. “Sure.”
He sat next to me. “You expecting a call?”
“Aya said she’d text me when she was about to come back. I think she wants to make sure I don’t scream when she shows up right in front of me out of nowhere.”
Tyr chuckled. “Would you do that?”
“I’d probably punch her, too.”
He belted out a hearty laugh.
My phone chimed and lit up with a received text. It was from Aya.
Kirby agreed to come.
I chewed my lower lip and responded with a quick acknowledgement. I knew she was going to talk to Kirby. Aya thought it would be a good idea to have her as support for Fen, as the two had a good relationship in this life. And, in the event Tyr did find out about this meeting, which was appearing to be much more likely, and sooner than I wanted, she would do what was needed to keep the peace. At least, Aya thought she would.
However, she didn’t give me any indication regarding how much Kirby wanted to be here. I didn’t know if she was doing this out of a sense of duty, or because she wanted to see me, too.
I wasn’t sure why this bothered me. My memories of her were still hazy. But I knew we were friends once, and Aya had been so insistent, I felt like she wanted to see if we could rebuild that bond. That, of course, was if we wanted to, once we found out if the two of us had compatible personalities in this life. I still wasn’t sure how to feel about these gods’ desires to bring back something from the past.
“Kirby?” Tyr said.
I jerked my head up, finding him looking at my phone screen. I turned off the screen. “It’s rude to read someone else’s texts.”
He held up a placating hand. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend. I just noticed her name. Is what Aya is doing, grabbing Kirby?”
I contemplated telling him and decided it couldn’t hurt. “Yeah. She thought it would be a good idea for us to meet.”
“You remember her?”
I rocked my head back and forth. “Kinda. Very few memories. But that’s not why she wants us to meet. Well, it is, but also, she’s experienced with this memory thing, so she might be able to help me.”
It wasn’t a lie. Sure, I was dodging the main reason, but Aya had said Kirby had experience with how this memory-regaining bullshit worked.
“Would you be okay with me staying so I can see her as well?” Tyr asked. “I haven’t seen her since she originally died. It’d be nice to catch up with her. And with the four of us in one place, it’d be almost like old times.”
My gut clenched.Why does him mentioning only four bother me?I knew he’d exclude Fenrir, but something nagged at the back of my mind that I was missing someone else. And yet no one else had ever been mentioned around me so far.
Though there was more to his wording that didn’t settle well with me, either. “Tyr, we need to talk about that.”
His brow pinched together. “What’s wrong?”
I took a deep breath. “I need you to understand—no matter what you might have hoped when finding me, I’m not the Astrid you knew. We may share a name, and some similarities, but I’m a wholly independent person, with different likes and dislikes.”
