Page 71 of Rune

“Okay then.” Her words were clouded, like she wasn’t saying what she wanted to. “Let’s fight.”

She raised her dagger and advanced, thrusting this time. I hooked my blade, feeling the slice of iron as the weapons collided before twisting to yank. Tova held tight, and recovered quick enough to strike first.

“Quicker, Rune,” Ve instructed. But it was tricky to be quick when my mind was caught on the way his tongue rolled with the R in my name, in a way it hadn’t done before.

Tova grinned like she could see my distracted thoughts. She struck again. I had to yank all my focus back to the fight to keep her blade from ripping at the skin on my chest. I poised with the blade up, more prepared to defend against her next attack.

“You’re too hesitant with her,” Ve told me. “Fight.”

Tova looked from behind her mane of hair that had fallen over her face. “Who are you helping train? Rune or me?”

“You,” he said. “If she doesn’t attack, you won’t get a real taste for the final challenge.” He nodded to me. “Summon the aggression of Thor and go again.”

I attacked. Tova deflected easily, and struck first again. “Is Thor really like that?” Tova asked. “Aggressive?”

“He’s big,” I replied.

“He has the body and the temperament of a lion,” Ve said. “Thor wouldn’t easily fall in battle. Think of him as you fight.”

I closed my eyes, pushing away thoughts of Ve and worries for my sister, and summoning my strength. When I opened them, I felt the power surge within me.

This time, I advanced. Tova lifted her axe, but mine came down hard enough to splinter her hilt. Her gaze turned fearful as she took it in, then tossed it aside to roll.

I allowed her time to fetch another weapon. Then I advanced again.

Once more, the hilt splintered.

“How are you doing that?” Tova asked.

“Okay, ease back a bit,” Ve commanded. “She hasn’t your strength.”

I didn’t know I had my strength. I tried to rein it in as Tova wordlessly selected a third weapon—a long-tipped sword—and held it up. Caution pierced her gaze, and now she was on the defense.

Tova struck. It was as if for the first time, we were evenly matched. I took her blows with ease. She rolled to escape mine. Sweat marred her forehead before it appeared on mine, and it was she who lost her breath sooner. She gripped the sword with two hands and hurled it my way.

I threw myself backward to avoid it. My elbow hit Ve in the gut hard. He grunted.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine,” he whispered back.

“You’ve gotten stronger in Asgard.” Tova wiped the sweat from her brow.

“I think it’s the water,” I replied dryly. There wasn’t time to unpack the question of my heritage.

“And what of Odin?” Tova asked the question plainly, but I suspected it was to buy time to find her breath. Pride filled me. It wasn’t often she needed a break first. “What is the almighty Odin like?”

“That is a hard question to answer,” Ve said, watching as I led the attack this time. “To most, he is someone to be feared, for when he makes decisions, they can seem swift and extreme. But to Rune—his family—she sees him differently.”

“How the tides have shifted, that Odin favors you now,” Tova said.

Ruin was the child I meant to mark as my own?

The mark somehow went to Tova instead.

I swallowed hard. “He favors me because he thinks I am his descendant,” I replied. “So I see a different side of him.”

Tova raised her weapon to begin again, but I thought quickly. “What of Aegir?”

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