“She will be fine.” I touched the baby’s soft hair. “Your daughter is beautiful.”
“Thank you.” An older girl came from their group and showed me where Celestia had healed her. She was her older daughter, Laufey. She was almost as tall as Celestia but sounded like a child.
As though a floodgate had opened, more came forward. Pregnant mothers, old men, children. The more I commented on their babies, the more they wanted to talk. Some of the visitors were asking about Celestia, while others wanted to know where I’d been all these years. I avoided answering questions about me and focused on Celestia. In minutes, I was surrounded. Creed and his guards wore helpless expressions as they were pushed out of the way.
“Back up, please,” Echo called out, and the questions stopped. He hadn’t come alone. Syn, Nara, and Rhys were beside him. The four towered over the Dwarves, who stepped back.
“You didn’t have to scare them away,” I told Echo and received a scowl.
“Creed, I got her.”
The guard nodded and walked away with his partners.
“We should be heading that way, Goddess. Your mother is expecting you.”
I glanced toward the Sorting Hall. The windows facing the east, where the visitors had erected their tents, were in the opposite direction.
“Just a second. Like I said, I’m checking out the competition.” I took off. The goddess had brought me to this side of the building to show me the Banquet Hall and the Ballroom. It led to the eastern Resting Halls. The room curved and disappeared around the bend. Ahead were the unstained east windows. Several staff members were pretending to clean them while studying the people outside. They moved away when they saw me.
Beautiful, colorful tents were erected everywhere, their colors stark against the white snow on the ground and the outer wall. Some of them were huge and gaudy with gold frills and embroidery. Surrounding them were smaller ones of similar colors. All had flags at the highest point.
Echo slid beside me, while the other three spread out as though creating a no-walking zone around me. I didn’t know how the goddess did things here, but I didn’t think it was necessary for me to have guards, suitors or not. What could they possibly do? Kidnap me? The guests in the Waiting Hall hadn’t seemed dangerous, just eager to meet me and ask about Celestia.
Ignoring Echo, I focused my attention on the craziness outside. “So the colors of the flag represent a realm?”
“A clan,” Echo said. “The ones with single colors are for various Light Elves families from álfheimr. That belongs to a minor god from Vanaheim, and so do those two. The black with snarling saber tooth tiger belongs to a Dokkalfr.”
“A what?
“Dokkalfr means Dark Elf. They are a warrior race, like Asgardians. They left álfheimr after a civil war and couldn’t find a home anywhere else. The Dwarves allowed them to settle in Svartalfheim. They live on the surface while the Dwarves build their homes underground.”
Back at home, I had shown zero interest in other realms, except Helheim. Now I wish I’d read more or asked Lavania.
“Do you know any Dokkalfr?” I asked.
“No, but Eirik is friends with one,” Echo continued. “Niorun. She has silver eyes, lots of tattoos, and an attitude. You can’t miss her. I saw her around earlier. Like Lavion, she has an open invitation to Ejudnir and shouldn’t be camping out there, but I saw her out there. She and her maiden warriors must be guarding a prince from their land. The tents to our left belong to shifters from southern J?tunheim,” Echo continued, adding anecdotes whenever he mentioned different clans. He pointed out the different flags and banners of the Cat, Bear, and Raven Clans, ice giants, and the water giants.
“The fire J?tnar rarely bother with other realms, but you never know.” He inched closer and took my hand, threading our fingers together. “You might be the one to make them leave their homes.”
He was trying to be funny, but I wasn’t amused. I didn’t understand the customs of these people and hated that he was being forced to participate in them. More carriages were still arriving at the gates.
One had a huge red and yellow flag with an animal in the center, but that was not what had me gawking. Two dragons—one gray and the other white—circled above them. They flew over the castle, bellowing and causing a ruckus. They disappeared out of sight.
“Is that the Dragon Clan?”
Echo chuckled. “The dragons are Karle and his sister, Olea. They are from Ironwood Forest Wolf Clan. Your clan.”
I blinked. “Mine?”
“Yes. They are your mother’s people, so that means they are yours, too.”
I’d been an only child with Mom and Dad as my only living relatives for so long it was strange imagining an extended family. When Raine had come into my life, I had considered her an honorary sister. Now, I had two sets of parents, a brother, an almost sister-in-law, an adopted sister who couldn’t look me in the eye, and a clan. A clan. My people. It was surreal.
“One of the mothers in the Waiting Hall said she was from the Wolf Clan. Celestia saved her baby.”
“Eirik and Celestia often visit them. I’ll take you if you’d like.”
It was the first time he’d included himself in what I might do in other realms. “They are giants?”
“J?tnar, yes,” Echo said. “But they can shift to regular sizes. Some, like your mother and you, don’t have the ability to shift back and forth.”
“Isn’t that why Angr… uh, my grandmother didn’t keep me and left me in Ironwood Forest?” Home of my clan. It was going to be a while before that sank in, but I liked it. I belonged to a freaking clan. “Because I couldn’t shift?”
“Yes. I know you are discovering your roots, and I’m happy for you, but we would never have met had she not left you in that forest.”
I glanced at him and grinned. “I don’t know, Echo. I’d like to think you and I would have found each other somehow. We were meant to be together. All this crap my father started is not going to change the fact that my destiny is linked to yours.”
“When you say things like that, I want to open a portal, take you to my quarters, and make love to you,” he said while staring straight ahead.
“Why don’t you?”
Chuckling, he lifted my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. As though he remembered we were not alone, he glanced over his shoulder. For whatever reason, he returned to his old, spontaneous self. He cupped the back of my head and kissed me hard and possessively in full view of the hall and anyone staring at our window.
“I hope the prancing peacocks out there saw that,” he whispered when he lifted his head. It took a few seconds for my world to right itself and for my senses to come close to resembling normal. Then, what he’d said registered, and I glanced outside.
I’d been so busy staring at the spectacular tents I hadn’t paid attention to the people sitting or standing in front of them. Some were warming themselves by fire barrels, while others didn’t appear bothered by the cold. One giant didn’t even wear a shirt. He wore a robe, his masculine chest bare. His face was hairless, and even from where I stood, I could see his striking features. He was the giant from my vision. Could Echo take him?
“Stare hard enough and he’ll know you are interested,” Echo mumbled.
I chuckled. “I can still look at a man and marvel at his perfection.”
“No, you can’t. I’m the beginning and the end for you. Your destiny is with me.”
Was that jealousy in his voice? I lifted my hand and brushed the back of my arm against his. “It is. Doesn’t change the fact that all this is new to me and I’m allowed to stare.”
“What if they misunderstand and think you are interested in them.”
I scoffed at the idea. “Then that’s their problem, not mine. No, that’s your problem since you insist on fighting them. Now, stop scowling and take me to your goddess.”