A hollow feeling settled in my stomach as I listened to them. There could be another explanation for what they were seeing. Dev. He’d possessed people and messed with their heads, and his memories and energy could have transferred to Celestia when she’d helped him.
“Can you compare the different energy inside her with another?” I asked.
The Dwarves studied me.
“Yes,” the one touching Celestia’s head said. “Do you know where it’s from?”
“Yes.” I couldn’t tell them how Celestia had helped Dev. Echo had said those with her kind of gift kept it a secret. “She treated a friend of mine. Maybe his memories and energies were transferred to her. If I brought him here, could you check his energy and compare it with hers?”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that happening, but then again, I’ve never met a healer like this young lady,” the first healer said. “So young yet so powerful. Yes, I can compare their energies.”
I glanced at Eirik. He wore a bleak expression. “We need to bring Dev here.”
He nodded and called out, “Echo?”
Echo entered the room. He must have been in the living room. “I’ll get him.”
“No, send Rhys and Nara. Father wants you to keep an eye on Cora.” Eirik went to Celestia and dropped a kiss on her forehead. Then, ignoring everyone, he headed for the door.
“Eirik,” I said when he brushed past me.
“I need to be alone,” he murmured and continued out the door.
I saw the pity on the others’ faces. They didn’t have to say it. They all knew helping Dev had messed up Celestia, and Eirik was pissed about it. He was probably blaming me for it. Without speaking to anyone, I left the room.
Echo was talking to Rhys and Nara in the rotunda. I walked past them without slowing down and headed straight to my parents’ quarters. I dropped on my bed and went back to the place where I’d been when I’d first arrived in Eljudnir, blaming myself for what was happening to Celestia.
Chapter 15. I’ll Die For You
A knock at the door announced Echo. Without saying a word, he crawled beside me and tucked me under his chin, not caring that my mother might walk in on us.
“It’s not your fault,” he whispered.
“It is.”
“Do you want me to talk to Eirik?”
“No. In his present mood, he might barbecue you.” I sat up. “The weirdest thing is I know she’ll be okay. I saw it in a vision. She was with me in the glass hallway, looking down at you fighting one of the giants. Raine was there, too.”
“When did you see this?”
“This morning after breakfast. I don’t know how Celestia wakes up, but she does. In the meantime, I have to find a way to help her. We’ll start by exonerating Dev.”
“Rhys and Nara went to get him. I don’t think memories are transferable. Energy, yes, but not memories.” He stroked my arms. Then he reached down and laced our fingers. “I’m supposed to ask Litr to bring you lunch.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I am. You want to come with me to Grimnirs Hall for lunch?”
I lifted my head to study his face. “Seriously?”
He nodded.
“Okay.”
“Good. May I carry you there?”
“Is that your way of telling the entire hall we are together?”
“Eating lunch together does that. Kissing you does that. Carrying you is my way of keeping you close to my heart.”
I grinned. No wonder I was crazy about him. He said the sweetest, corniest things ever. “I like the thought, but I’d feel ridiculous. I don’t want my people to think I’m the kind of woman who needs to be carried around. However, I’ll eat lunch with you in the hall. So put me down, please.”
“Can’t I at least carry you to the door? Hold you just a little longer?”
Really corny. A knock on the door interrupted him, and I wiggled from his arms. Litr was on the other side of the door when I opened it. He didn’t even blink when he saw Echo.
“The Rising Star wants to see you outside the dragon’s room. He sent Karle, but he got lost.”
“Dragon’s room?” I asked.
“It’s where he changes, but we are going to lunch first,” Echo said.
“No, we’re going to see him first,” I said.
Echo groaned. “If he does or says anything to hurt your feelings, he’ll have to deal with me,” he vowed, and Litr chortled.
“It’s not funny, Litr,” I reprimanded him.
“No, young goddess. But you need these before you go outside.” He gave me a green fur-lined cloak with a hoodie. The inside was warm and so soft I sighed. The gloves, also fur-lined, came to my elbows.
“Thank you. They fit perfectly. Whose are they?”
“They are your mother’s.”
My mother’s. I might not have known her for most of my life, yet I felt a closeness to her that was hard to explain. Maybe it was because she took such pride in my work with souls and was excited about my abilities, while Mom and Dad in Kayville had tried to hide them.
“Okay, Mr. Hothead. Let’s go.” I took Echo’s arm. “And you cannot pick a fight with my brother. He’s hurting, and we both know he would not have asked Celestia to help Dev if it weren’t for me. So I’m responsible for her situation.” Echo opened his mouth, but I shook my head. “Not a word. Let’s prove that Dev didn’t contaminate her energy, and I’ll stop blaming myself.”
We followed Litr to the rotunda, then through a portal to a hallway with high small windows. Mother hadn’t shown me this side of the hall.
“He is outside.” Litr pushed open a side door, and cold air drifted into the hallway.
Echo went ahead of me and growled. “We have a problem.”
“What?” I asked, trying to see around him.
“Some of the preening buffoons are coming this way. Litr, get Syn and some guards. I don’t know what Eirik was thinking asking you to join him. I have a mind to go out there and give him a lecture on your safety.”
“Do you really think I’m not safe, or is my father just being overprotective?”
“I’ll take overprotective over a mob knocking you down in their eagerness to meet you. When they present you, it’s going to be in an orderly, stately manner. You are a goddess and deserve to be treated like one.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I kept quiet. Litr returned with Syn and two other guards. They went to intercept the guests while Echo and I trudged through the snow to where the golden and the gray dragons stood, hot breath blowing from their noses and turning the air foggy.
“I’ll help Syn keep them away,” Echo said and left. I tilted my head to study the dragons. They were huge, but Eirik towered over the gray dragon, his scales gleaming. I wondered why he didn’t have his chipped horn fixed. He lowered his head and stared at me with his big eyes. Everything about him was huge. His jaws. His teeth. His wings.
“I’m sorry for storming out like that.” His voice was a low rumble that was both familiar and strange.
“Don’t be.”
“No, I shouldn’t have. Trudy just chewed my ears for doing it. I didn’t know you thought I did it because I blamed you for Celestia’s situation. Far from it. If anyone should take the blame, it’s me.”
“Why? Celestia helped Dev because of me, not you.”
“No, I asked Celestia to help him because I felt he deserved it. He helped Raine’s father down that aisle, he helped save you from dark souls, and he brought Echo and Rhys back together, which meant no tension around the hall. Mother was getting tired of their rift. Helping Dev was for everyone, but the decision was mine. If he contaminated Celestia’s energy, it’s because something went wrong and laying blame is not going to fix it. Are we good?”
Every second I spent in his company showed me how much Eirik had grown and changed. “Of course.”
“You haven’t met Karle, have you?”
I waved at the gray dragon. “No, but I saw him and his sister when they arrived. Echo said you are from J?tunheim. Nice to meet you, Karle.”
Karle stared at me slack-jawed without responding.
Eirik groaned. “Ignore him. If his sister were around, he’d get his act together. What? Why are you staring at me like that?”
How could I not stare at him? He was a dragon. A freaking talking dragon. My brother. “Damn, you are huge.”