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Was I going?
I thought about it for all of one second before making a decision.
“Of course I’m coming. What if you get cold? Someone’s got to be there to keep you warm.”
His humor curled between us, though his face showed no sign of it for once. “I don’t like the idea of you in danger.”
“Either way, your life is at risk there. And if your life is at risk, mine is too. If you go, I go.”
He shook his head at me, but gently caught my elbow and reached out toward Sevva. “Take us right to the edge of the cracked slab,” he told her. It wasn’t an order, but it wasn’t a request, either.
She accepted his hand, and closed her eyes.
A moment later, we were pulled inside the stone, traveling through an element that in no way should’ve held us. And yet, it did—and we moved.
Though I was unaffectedby the transportation, my stomach rolled when we landed in a cave that felt very, very wrong.
The feeling of it was insanely disorienting as I tried to regain my bearings, but with Odin’s magic so much a part of me, there was no way to ignore the land’s cracks and breaks and fury.
“Shit,” Odin growled, striding up to the slab and pressing his palms to the stone. His fingerless gloves separated parts of his hands from the rock, but enough of him was in contact with the element that I didn’t think the gloves would hurt anything. “What the hell did you do?”
“Exactly what you told us to stop,” Sevva admitted, her face pale and eyes wide. They were the same soft crimson color as Odin’s, but while she was afraid, he was just a calm sort of angry.
Odin commanded her, “Find Granite. Bring him to me. I can repair the stone, but it will take time, and I need to know he’s holding this deathtrap together while I work on it.”
“Okay. Should I tell the people to stop trying to transport past the slab?” Sevva asked, her shoulders calming as she stepped into leader mode.
“Yes. Tell everyone to stop touching things. They’re just pissing off the land even more.” He shut his eyes. “Go, Sevv. Velvet, I need your arms around me.” Odin’s voice was straining, but still strong and certain.
Sevva hurried away, and I strode over to Odin. “How do you want me?”
He didn’t even hesitate. “On your hands and knees, remember?”
I snorted, and heard his nearly-inaudible chuckle. He was making a joke to distract himself, and I’d always loved it when he did that.
His voice brushed my mind.“I need your chest to my back. Your arms around my waist. Your eyes closed and your cheek to my skin. When I reach for your magic, I need you to help me take it.”
Though the instructions surprised me, I followed every one of them, stepping up to his back and holding him.“I thought fire didn’t affect rock in Bluhm.”
“I lied. With enough heat and time, it relaxes it. Makes it softer, and calmer. And when it’s softer, it’s easier to move. I didn’t want you to know the power you’d have over me—I worried you’d walk away if you knew.”
As he spoke to me, I could feel him gently nudging the stone, urging it softly to change for him. It was angry, and resistant, and not yielding.
“Now, Velvet. Push your magic into mine. Urge your magic to meet me.”
I did as he instructed, guiding my fire to the place I could feel his power in our bond.
The room flooded with heat, and I almost imagined I could hear the earth sigh in relief around us.
Under Odin’s careful eye, the huge crack in the monstrous slab slowly knitted itself back together.
Sevva returned with Granite just as Odin finished. She was carrying the poor kid, who had his hands pressed tightly to his head. His entire body trembled with the effort of what he was doing.
I felt Odin’s thoughts darken.
“This is Sevva’s fault,”he thought, though he didn’t say it aloud.
One look at the woman told me that if he had said it, she would’ve agreed.
