Chapter 8

Erik

I wasin the cabin of a Norse goddess and the snow was stopping me from returning down the mountain. The thought hadn"t left my mind since Skadi had headed out to go back to the site of last night"s party. It was probably a good thing she was gone, it meant that I had time to actually process what was happening.

And the fact that I"d been admiring her in a way that definitely wasn"t appropriate to be thinking about a goddess. At least I had no reason to believe that she was the spiteful kind, though I didn"t remember enough mythology to be absolutely certain of that.

I glanced up at where she said the library was, considering whether it was worth checking out the books she said were up there. I knew it shouldn"t, but there was a part of me that felt as if that was an invasion of privacy, even if there was clearly more to her than any of the stories told.

I pushed all of those thoughts to the side and headed into the guest room to get my guitar. It was lucky I"d thought to bring it in with me last night, I didn"t like to think how badly it could have gotten damaged if I"d left it in the cold all night. I should have left it at home to begin with, but it always felt wrong to go anywhere without it.

The bed wasn"t the best place to sit and play, but it was the only one I could think of, and I strummed a few chords, humming along to warm up my voice. The sound bounced around the room, transporting me away from a snowy mountain and into a world of my own.

Thiswas what music was all about. I did enjoy that I got to share it with the world, but this was the best bit for me. Sitting alone in a room with my guitar and the chance to sing. No one was around to hear, and even if they did, it would be through a wall. It was a shame I couldn"t do more of this, but that wasn"t possible if I wanted to continue making my living in the job I loved.

After a while, I found myself composing new lyrics, trying them out with a few different chord progressions, but nothing sounded quite right. I"d need to play with them a bit more before I found the right composition.

My mouth was dry by the time I stopped and I set my guitar down so I could go and get myself something to drink. My thoughts went back to the delicious coffee I"d had earlier, but it didn"t feel right to have that without Skadi. She might have said it was fine to help myself, but that didn"t change the fact I was in her house, and that I was an unexpected guest.

I opened the door and headed out into the living space, surprised to find the goddess already sitting at the kitchen island.

She looked up and flashed me a smile that made her seem otherworldly beautiful. How I"d ever thought she was mortal was beyond me. Now that I knew, it was clear even from the way she sat that she was perfection.

"I didn"t realise you were back," I said uselessly.

"I didn"t tell you," she pointed out. "I heard you playing through the door."

"I"m sorry, you should have told me to stop."

"I liked it." There was a softness in her tone that made me certain she was telling the truth.

"I"m glad." The musician in me was pleased to hear that someone enjoyed my music, but there was something more than that which responded to me. "Was everything okay at the cabin?" I wanted to ask specifically about Donel, but she probably wasn"t going to know the answer.

Skadi nodded. "Everyone"s fine. They"ve got plenty of resources, and from what Lofn said, most of the guests seem excited about being able to stay an extra night for free."

"Ah, so Jinx won"t be suffering as a result of the party?"

"I"d have thought you"d be more concerned about your current host," she joked. "But no, Jinx will be fine. I"m sure there might be a guest or two who kick up a fuss, but for the most part it"ll be fine. I mean, who comes to a party on a mountain and doesn"t at least consider that they might end up accidentally snowed in?"

"I"ll admit that it didn"t cross my mind," I said.

"And yet you had snow shoes and your guitar in your car."

"The car"s actually my grandfather"s, I don"t really have need of one here," I admitted. "The snow shoes are also his. I wish he wouldn"t go out when the weather is bad anyway, but you know what people are like."

"Stubborn and unchanging even when they should be more flexible?" she checked.

"Something like that. Grandfather doesn"t seem to accept that he"s gotten old."

"He must be very old if you"re worried about him."

"What do you mean?" I asked, frozen in place while I waited for her response.

Skadi cocked her head to the side and studied me. "Well, he"s alv, right? So if you"re worried about him, it must mean he"s approaching three hundred or so."

"You know a lot about alvs."

"I"ve lived on this mountain for most of my life. Except for the brief time I spent by the coast."

"It seems like an odd place for a snow goddess to live," I said without thinking.

"Not when you consider that my ex-husband was a sea god."

"Odin"s a sea god?"

"Not Odin, that was just a rumour made up by my followers. Nj?rer is a sea god. He"s a good man, but he loves the sea and I love the mountain and the snow, we were fundamentally incompatible."

"How did you fall in love in the first place?" I asked, realising that this was probably the reason she didn"t believe in romance now.

"Who said anything about love?" she muttered bitterly, then sighed. "Sorry, we weren"t talking of my past, we were talking of your grandfather."

I wanted to ask her more, but could recognise the change of subject for what it was. Skadi clearly didn"t want to talk about her. "He"s two hundred and fifty, but he"s from the line that has a bit of human mixed in, so he"s feeling his age more keenly than some of the others."

"Ah."

"I know he"ll likely be fine, even in the cold, but I worry about him."

"With good reason. Nature will do what nature will do. No feat of god or man will ever change that."

"That"s an odd thing for a weather goddess to say."

A strange smile spread over her face. "Or is a weather goddess the perfect person to be able to say it?"

I blinked a few times, trying to work out how to respond to that. "I guess?"

"The weather is a fickle thing," Skadi said. "And the powers of gods are a lot more limited than mortals would believe. Weather gods can"t really control the weather, we can mostly just influence a small immediate area. But I"m not about to start conjuring snowstorms, nor can I divert them. What I can do is sense what they are doing most of the time, and bend a small amount of snow to my will. But I can"t conjure it from nothing. If you dropped me off in the middle of the desert, I wouldn"t be much good. I"d also get sunburnt, which would be annoying for anyone with me."

"Why?"

"Oh, because I would complain about it a lot," she responded. "They"d be so sick of me by the end of the first day."

I laughed. "All right, so no taking you to the desert."

She nodded. "It"s one of the most important things to know about me. Though I do like the heat. In fact, I wouldn"t mind a trip to the sauna."

"Don"t let me stop you."

"You could join me, if you like," she suggested.

"I don"t have anything to wear."

She shrugged. "I don"t mind. It"s your choice. It"s through there if you want to join me." She got to her feet and gave me a smile that I was reasonably sure meant she hoped I would join her, but I didn"t know enough about her to be certain of that.

I stood there for longer than I should admit while trying to make the decision. There was something about Skadi that drew me to her, even if some of my instincts were screaming that she was a goddess and that was enough of a reason to run away.

But I didn"t want to. And not because she"d been kind enough to rescue me from the snow either. There"d been something about her that captured my attention since the moment we met at Lofn"s party.

Which was when I realised my mind was made up, and I already knew exactly what I was going to choose when it came to joining her.