Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) Gwen Rivers (sneezy the snowman read aloud .TXT) 📖

“Yeah. Later.” I follow Harmony out into the August sunshine.

The cicadas buzz and the humidity is oppressive. My center of gravity has shifted and I’m feeling off-balance in more ways than one. The air is fresh though, much better than the stuffy interior of my bedroom.

Harmony heads down the hill to the lake. Not so long ago, the Wild Hunt had camped on its shores. Now, the surrounding area is still. Nothing livelier than the occasional croak of a frog or flit of a butterfly’s wing. The cattails bend gently in the breeze.

Harmony strips off her shirt dress to reveal a bathing suit. One of Chloe’s. It’s a red and white polka dot two-piece that looks bizarre next to her purple skin.

“I’m not swimming,” I say.

“No, but I am.” Braving snakes, the seer wades into the water and glides into an easy breaststroke.

I stare down at the pack in my hands. Curiosity drives me to slide the zipper and peek inside. I suck in a breath when I see the ratty sweats Aiden had clung to so stubbornly. The only thing I had given him to that point.

“Where did you find these?”

“They were in Addy’s trunk. I think your aunt knew that maybe you would need them.”

I hold them close and tears fill my eyes. Harmony concentrates on her laps and ignores my silent sobs.

The grief hurts so much worse than the night I decided not to cross the Veil. Isn’t time supposed to heal all wounds? Mine is festering. One of these days the infection will likely do me in.

“Underhill has him,” I say when Harmony comes to sit beside me. “Doesn’t she?”

She nods, water dripping from her midnight hair.

“Will he get free?”

“Not until she takes the thrones.” Harmony nods in the direction of my belly. “Freya has been good to her word. If you leave after she’s born, you and Aiden will both die. The Veil will fall and the worlds as we know them will end.”

I shake my head. “You’re asking too much of me.”

“He’s not dead, Nic. He’s not going to die, not unless you do something selfish.”

“Selfish?” I round on her. “How can you say that? Do you think I want to be a prisoner, tethered to the fey land for the rest of eternity?”

She holds my gaze. “I think you would rather be a prisoner beyond the Veil than a mother on this side of it.”

My lips part but I have no retort. No quip to show her how wrong she is.

Because every word is true.

“Our mother, mine and Aiden’s. You met her?” Harmony asks.

I nod. “And your father.”

“Then you’ve seen how devoted she is to him.” The seer looks out across the water. “A fantastic wife and a horrible mother. When she had to choose, she chose him again and again.”

I hear the pain in her voice.

“When I found out about Aiden and Freya…how she had seduced him…I felt sick. My entire life I thought that I was okay because even though my own mother hadn’t wanted me, the most beautiful goddess in Asgard had my back. Freya was looking out for me. But she was using me. The same way she used my brother.”

“Gods are selfish assholes,” I mutter.

Her lips turn up. “They are. And if you leave, who do you think will step in and whisk the One True Queen away?”

My lips part. “You’ve seen this?”

She nods once. “And nothing beyond Freya absconding with my niece. The gods will let the worlds burn in Ragnarök. You and me, your child, Aiden…we are all just pawns to them and their whims.”

I close my eyes. “How long must I wait?”

Harmony shakes her head. “Sixteen years, maybe more.”

Sixteen years without Aiden. “I’m the only one who can protect her?”

She nods. “Freya is afraid of you. She won’t try anything for fear of risking your retaliation.”

That makes no sense. “Why though? I don’t have fey powers anymore. I’m not an Unseelie queen. Why would an omnipotent goddess fear me?”

“Because you found a way in.” Harmony holds my gaze. “You can get to her.”

Freaking oracles and their doubletalk. “Into what? Stop talking in riddles.”

“Your dreams. You can go both ways. See the past or the future. And you can see ghosts.”

I shrug. “That and a few bucks will get me a cup of coffee.”

Harmony starts braiding her long dark hair. “Freya’s Valkyries walk the battlefields. They determine which soldiers will live and which ones will die. Which will be brought to Valhalla to live among the gods. Which others will go to the Veil. You captured one of hers and tethered the soul to the Wild Hunt. A Valkyrie belongs to you.”

“You mean to the Hunt.”

“No, Nic. You are the one who bound her. And through that creature, you have access to the goddess.”

I stare at her. “How?”

Harmony drums her fingers on her bare knee. “The spirits you see. Your regressions into the past. They are all connected to your blood. The souls you claimed are connected to your kiss. I’m no expert, not like Nahini, but I do know that if you find those strings and trace them, they will lead you to other strings. Your seer gifts are different from mine. They center not only in the future, but in the past as well. You can see those connected to you and those who are connected to them.”

“I still don’t understand why Freya would fear me because of this.”

“Don’t you get it? You have knowledge through that Valkyrie. And knowledge is power, Nic. Especially when it comes to the gods.”

I see the battered station wagon kicking up dirt on the road long before it comes to the house. After taking a much-needed shower I decided to fake being an active member of the household a little longer. I sit on our front porch, shelling peas that Laufey has grown in her massive garden. The garden is the one thing Aiden’s grandmother had thrown herself into to bide her own time until