Page 111 of Rune

ThirtY-sEvEn

“HOW,” I DEMANDED in a low tone. “How did you steal me from Asgard?”

Móðirbit back her cries and hardened her face. “We did not steal you. You are our daughter.”

I pushed my hand forward. “My blood proves different. How,” I repeated. “Somehow you took a child from the clutches of the gods.”

“We didn’t know.”Móðir’slip quivered, her hands hovering over her belly. “Until you said it just now, we didn’t know you were a goddess.”

That left me with more answers, but it wasFaðirwho answered. “You were a gift, when we needed you most, and that’s all we knew.” He placed a hand over his wife’s where she was touching her stomach.

My gaze went there.

From behind them, Tova peered through the window, and upon seeing my face, she held our sisters back.Móðirlet a tear slip. “I lost a child,”Móðirwhispered, the words threatening to break. “I lost a son. And I prayed for the gods to give him back.”

Móðirhad always wanted a son. I hadn’t realized she had him once. “When?”

Finally,Faðirlooked me in the eye. “When you were born. And while the gods did not give him back to us, they gave us you. A toddler in the empty cradle, looking for someone to care for her.”

“I didn’t know,”Móðirwailed. “I thought you were an abandoned child or one who’d lost her parents, and who am I to refuse a gift of the gods? A man came in the morning to tell us you were from Odin, and we didn’t ask more.”

Hope unfurled inside me. Now I’d know who was responsible. “Which man?” I pressed.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. He had dark hair. Skin tinted blue. Lethal eyes like he would kill us if we didn’t accept. And to further honor us, he gave Tova Odin’s blessing. His only demand was no one know you were not born ours. But we had the marks from our son’s birth, and only had to move clans so those who remembered our son were gone. Then you grew up to look just like the rest of us, and we thought you really were made from us.”

I tried to process it all. Dark hair and lethal eyes. It had to be Aegir. He’d stolen me from Odin as a child.

No, his plan went deeper than that.

He wanted favor. “I was his token,” I whispered. Steal a child, and when everyone else had moved on from the search, he would reveal me, please Odin, and regain his spot in Asgard.

But he waited too long. Balder found me first.

So Aegir did the next best thing. He reclaimed favor by doing what he knows—lying. Aegir took the chance to redeem favor with Odin by claiming I was a fraud. And he’d known me my whole life, so he knew I didn’t believe I was a goddess. I’d never stand against him.

He’d tricked Odin with Tova’s blood somehow.

I should have tasted my blood right there in the cave when Tova mentioned Aegir had seen her.

Aegir would be punished someday. I’d look forward to it greatly.

As for me, I had a whole other family out there. My interest piqued. “I wonder where my parents are,” I said out loud.

My mortal parents flinched at the question. “The ones from Asgard,” I amended, chastising myself for saying such a thing in their presence.

Faðirsighed. “We don’t know. We were never given information.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, planting myself back in Danmark, instead of plotting my revenge in Asgard. “Did you ever plan to tell me I wasn’t yours?”

With tender moves,Faðiradvanced until his hands were in mine. I’d once felt so safe in his embrace, like as long as he stood nearby, everything would be fine. Now I didn’t know what to think. “You have always been our daughter,” he said fiercely. “We did what we thought was best and pray that is enough for you.”

It would have been enough, if I’d never found out. But now, there was a whole other part to myself demanding to be explored. Astrid. I tried the name out on my tongue. The one from Asgard. Odin’s rightful granddaughter, and true fiancée to Ve.

The entire time I’d been pretending to be his fiancée, I really was.

They’d tossed me from Asgard. Odin turned on me, and Ve abandoned me when I needed him most. But I lifted my eyesto the sky anyway.

I had family up there. And I had family down here. Two sides to the same person, and now I was free to share them both. A goddess, still desiring to live in Danmark, but not wanting to lose the gods she loves.

---