Page 6 of Inferno

“Who lives here?” I ask.

“She does.”

“Who?”

Before I even realize what’s happening, Odin grabs my arm, and we’re suddenly inside a room, standing at the foot of a bed. There’s a woman tossing and turning on the mattress, the sheet wrapped around her legs.

Suddenly, she bolts upright, her eyes opening wide. Shock courses through me as if to jolt my heart back into some sort of rhythm.

No.

“Yes,” Odin states as I take a step back. “Don’t worry, she can’t see us.

The woman groans as she flattens her hand over her chest, giving no indication that she knows she’s not alone. What I wouldn’t give to feel her beating heart.

“Lucky for you,” Odin begins. “You’re going to get to do just that.”

I whip my head in his direction. “Are you… Do you…” Swallowing past the unfamiliar lump in my throat, I tighten my hands into fists to keep my emotions from setting the house ablaze. “That’s?—”

“Emmaline Daniels,” he says matter-of-factly.

“Why have you brought me here?”

Odin rests a hand on my shoulder. “Inferno, Emmaline needed you when she was little, and she needs you now. Trouble is coming for her, and only you can save her.”

“Why me?”

“Don’t be a fool,” Odin chastises.

“How am I?—”

“Soulmates don’t just exist for humans.”

3

Emmy

After splashing water on my face, I stare at my reflection in the mirror. Nightmares are a regular occurrence for me, but this is the first time I’ve woken up and not felt utterly alone.

Weird.

When I walk out of the bathroom, I stare at my bed for a long moment. It’s the middle of the night, and I should try to get some more sleep, but something tells me that’s going to be damn near impossible, so I trudge out of the room and downstairs to the kitchen.

I grab the container of Chunky Monkey ice cream out of the freezer and a spoon before heading into the living room. Flopping down onto the couch, I curl my legs under me and begin flipping through the channels until I find a rerun of the Golden Girls.

It doesn’t take me long to finish off the ice cream, and once it’s gone, I set the empty tub on the coffee table and stretch out on the sofa. Closing my eyes, I listen to Dorothy and Sophia argue about the elder’s most recent money-making scheme. It all sounds so simple, so normal, and I find myself wishing I had a bit of that normalcy growing up.

After the fire, nothing was normal again. Or, more accurately, my sense of normal drastically shifted. All my friends were gone, my school was non-existent, and fear and nightmares became a constant in my life.

I must fall asleep because the next thing I know, I’m stirring awake to the sound of pounding on my front door. Groaning, I get up to open it, annoyed at having been disturbed when I was finally getting some rest.

“What?” I demand crankily when I yank open the door.

Steph arches a brow and shoves a paper bag at my chest. “I brought donuts,” she says as she pushes past me.

I close the door and turn to stare at her. “What are you doing here?” I ask.

She glances pointedly at the empty ice cream container on my coffee table and clears her throat. “Bad night?”

---