Page 44 of Rune

“Easy, Liv,” Ve yelled from the side. He stood with a spear in hand and worry etched across his face. It warmed me that he would be worried for my safety, before remembering I was his best ticket out of Asgard.

“She’s got this,” Liv replied with a devilish glint in her eye, pausing to rub the edge of her weapon clean.

“I appreciate your faith in me.” Truthfully, I held up better than I thought I would. I adjusted my grip and widened my stance.

Before Liv could reposition herself, I cut inward. Her eyes widened the moment before the blade reached her.

It was cheap to attack when she wasn’t prepared, and because of that, I pulled my weight back and let the blunt face knock into her. That was all the warning she would get though. As her head snapped up in surprise, I wound the axe in an arc over my shoulder and swung down.

She was more prepared this time. Her weapon came up to meet mine. The weight of my swing drove her axe into the ground and her to her knees.

She grunted, still gripping the handle. With a jolt, she ripped the axe upward and sent me staggering back.

Liv glanced to the side. “No concern for me though?”

“You’re doing great,” Leif shouted with feigned enthusiasm. Liv rolled her eyes. “So unappreciated,” she muttered, then tightened her stance.

I thought she was going hard before, but her next attack nearly tore my axe from my grip when I blocked it. She swung again, slicing from outward and snagging on my tunic. I jumped back as she swung again.

As soon as her blade passed by, I sliced with my own, but she was quick to yank her weapon back in defense.

As she raised her weapon, I put my hands wide on the handle, dropped to a knee, and lifted it up to deflect. The axe head stopped right above my forehead.

Liv’s hand shot out to grab hold of my handle. I yanked it back, but she held fast. With her other hand, she flipped her axe in the air, grabbed hold of the iron head, and swung the handle against me. It knocked into my chest and sent me rolling backward, banging my head into the wooden wall. There was a crack, and wood splintered.

My head roared. “I relent,” I said. It was unnecessary. She held both axes in her hands.

“I said careful!” Ve yelled.

“She’s fine,” Liv replied. She knelt at my side. “You’re fine, right?”

“I’m very aware of my teeth right now,” I mumbled. My voice seemed to echo in my own head. “I can taste them.”

“You can taste your teeth?” Liv asked, raising one brow.

“I feel like my whole body is vibrating,” I continued.

Liv looked over her shoulder to the others. “She’s perfectly fine.” Then she whispered to me, “You’re lucky these aren’t the real games. You’d be dead right now.”

“I think I got the first hit in,” I reminded her. I shook my head to try to clear it, but that only made the buzzing worse. I checked behind me to see what had broken.

A wooden grate with five oak spools created ventilation through the stone wall, leading into a tunnel of sorts. One of the bars had snapped when I hit my head against it, and now hung lopsided from the top and bottom where it had cracked in the middle.

“Where does this lead?” I asked, trying to reposition the bar. A cold draft came from within.

“Outside eventually.” Liv helped fix it. “There. No one will know it’s broken.” She dropped my axe at my feet. “Go again?”

I shook my head. “Give the axe to Ve, and he can spar next. I need to rest before my breathing gets bad.”

She shot a look over her shoulder. “Ve would never touch an axe.”

I frowned. “Why not?”

Ve was with his brother, but shooting us looks. Liv adjusted herself so her back was to him, and dipped her tone. “He doesn’t like to talk about it, but his sister was killed by a mortal. They found her in Norway with an axe in her back. We gods are easier to kill on Earth.”

Aware of how Ve was watching me, I tried to school my expression flat. But my eyes still flared wide. With her words, chunks of Ve’s story clicked into place. That was why he stiffened at the mention of a sister. That’s probably why his parents didn’t want him to go to the mortal land where his sister had been killed. My words to Erik came back with a sting.You’ll lose them in the end.I’d been chastising him for holding on too tight, warning him he’d lose his child. Meanwhile, he already had.

“Why does he want to go there so badly if that’s where his sister died?”

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