“Dumb answer, bonehead.”
He groaned. “Man, I’d forgotten what a pain you can be. Just give me your hand.” I did, narrowing my eyes at him. He was acting really weird. He studied my pink polished nails. “Remember I told you Mom drew locator runes on my sister?”
I nodded.
“Mom has the same runes, and now so do I.” Eirik rolled back his sleeve and stretched his arm toward mine. I instantly recognized the runes that began appearing on his skin. They were the same ones I’d seen on the green baby blanket at home. Before I could ask him what was going on, the same runes appeared on my skin. I jumped up and stepped away from him, my eyes volleying between his arm and mine.
“What are these?” I rubbed my arm, but the runes stayed.
“The locator runes Mother etched on you respond to mine and hers. Cora, you are Einmyria.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m not. I can’t be.”
“That was my reaction too. In fact, it took me a while to connect the dots because your parents and the Immortals in this town protected us so well we didn’t even know we were different. Your blanket and those runes are the proof I needed to confirm you are my sister. I would have told you last week when I found out, but I decided to talk to your parents first. They wanted to be the ones to tell you about them and your adoption.”
“You’re wrong, Eirik.” I shook my head. “We look nothing alike.”
“I look like Dad and you…” He studied me and frowned. “Damn.”
“What?”
“You’ll have to see for yourself, little sis.”
“Don’t call me that.” I moved away as though putting some distance between us would nullify his confession. “I’m not your sister.”
“You think I wanted this? I thought I had a crush on you, my baby sis.”
“Do not call me that, Eirik. I’m eighteen, and your sister is seventeen.”
“The ages given by the orphanages were wrong. You are seventeen, not eighteen, Cora. Your birthday was a couple of weeks ago, not in December like you were raised to believe. You just turned seventeen. Listen, it took me a long time to find you, and it never crossed my mind you were Einmyria. Unless we engage them, the locator runes can only be seen by souls. They are the reason souls are drawn to you, just like they are drawn to Mom. And me now.”
This was insane. Eirik could not be my brother. “Maybe it is a coincidence.”
“Ask your parents if souls were drawn to you when you were young and before Maliina marked you with medium runes. Medium runes stabilize possession, while locator runes can be detected by souls and Idun-Grimnirs because they are ancient. Locator runes also help our family find each other. Crazy Granny etched them on Mom, too. Ask your parents about the baby blanket you were wrapped in,” Eirik added. “It has our mother’s runes at the corners and locator runes all over it. She never thought you were alive, or she would have moved every obstacle to find you. She tried with me, but she was broken after she lost you. She became angry and bitter. Consumed by her pain. She’s not anymore.” Eirik sighed. “She knows who you are, Cora, because I told her, and that’s why the two Idun-Grimnirs were here. They were looking for you. I didn’t tell her where you were because I promised the Jemisons I’d give them time to talk to you first.”
A wave of dizziness washed over me, and I realized I was holding my breath. I sucked in air and exhaled. I needed to look at the blanket again. Talk to my parents. No, they’d lied to me before. I needed to talk to Echo. Everything Eirik said pointed at me being his sister.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
“To come to Eljudnir and meet Mom and Dad.”
I cringed. I didn’t need another set of parents. “When?”
“Now would be nice. The Grimnirs will tell Mom they found you, and she’ll expect me to bring you home. She won’t force you or anything like that,” he added quickly. “But she’s suffered enough, Cora. Knowing you are alive and don’t even want to meet her is going to hurt her even more.”
Crap! “I need time to catch my breath and process all this. This is too much.” I still didn’t want to believe it. “This week, I learned Mom and Dad are not my biological parents. Today, you are telling me I’m your sister and our grandmother is not only crazy, she is responsible for the attack on the other kids like me. Why would I want to go to Eljudnir with you?”
“Because you belong there.” Eirik rubbed his nape and sighed. “I know it’s a lot to process, but Mom deserves to meet and know you, her only daughter. She deserves to be happy, Cora, because she’s been unhappy for a very long time. And visiting Eljudnir will give her the same closure you give souls. It’s what you do. How can you give so much to them and deny your own mother?”
“Eirik…”
“And it’s not just for her. There’s our father, who’s known you were alive and has been searching for you for seventeen years. He deserves to know you. Then there are our grandparents, Odin and Frigg. They deserve to know they have another grandchild.”
“I didn’t mean I wasn’t going to go. It’s just too much.” I covered my face, wanting to crawl back in bed and shut out the world again. “It’s been five days, and I still can’t look at my parents without feeling betrayed and hurt. And now this?”
“You will forgive the Jemisons because they are your parents, too. Even though you don’t have biological ties with them, they’ve loved you and provided for you physically, mentally, and emotionally as though you were their flesh and blood. That’s something no one can or will ever take away from you. If it weren’t for them, you’d not be the person you are today.”
I blinked. I’d expected him to say the Jemisons weren’t my parents, period. The changes in him weren’t just physical. Eirik had grown mentally, too.
“Thank you for saying that,” I said. “You are right. Despite the secrets and the lies, they are my parents.”
“That’s how I feel toward Raine’s family and the Seville’s. But getting to know Mom and Dad filled something in me I didn’t even know was missing. I found who I really am because of them, especially Mom. She has this amazing ability to see things and guide you to your fullest potential. She’s tough, and her methods can be unorthodox, but she comes from a place of love. She and I knocked heads, but in the end, I embraced who I am.” A grin lifted his lips. “Because of her, I found Celestia. When she astral projected into my room and got trapped, Mom knew exactly what she was and never once hinted or kicked her out. It gave me a chance to get to know Celestia and fall in love. I don’t think I would have found her if it weren’t for Mom. You are more than a medium, Cora. She can help you find out who you really are.”
She sounded larger than life. Scary. “I need time to process all this and be in the right place, mentally and emotionally, before I can meet them.”
Disappointment flashed on Eirik’s face, and I felt terrible, but all he said was, “Okay. I’ll talk to Mom.” He stood. “That was a lot to dump on you, but I wanted you to know the truth. All of it. Secrets nearly destroyed our family, and I want us to heal. All of us.”
It was surreal, but it was slowly sinking in. “I agree. Secrets destroy, and that was a lot to dump on me. I was still trying to imagine you as a dragon, then bam… you’re my brother. Next time give me a few days in between to process.”
“So you don’t want to hear about Jessica? She’s the girl who pretended to be you, and is now part of our family because Mom and Dad didn’t have the heart to kick her out after I exposed her.”
I gave him a tiny smile. “Not today, but I’d love to meet Celestia.”
“I left her in Asgard when I saw the Idun-Grimnirs outside the mansion. I knew they’d probably scare you, so I left her behind and raced here. I’ll bring her to meet you.”