“Don’t waste your time reassuring the human.” Bolthur put his breakfast plate down by the sink with a bang. Everything he did was aggressive, it made me jumpy. “We should leave now. It’s a half day there and then we’ll have to wait to get an audience. There’s no way I’m going to travel back in the dark after we get shot down.”

“All right.” Ake paused by the door, reaching down to pick up a pack and slinging it over his shoulder before turning to me. “Ready to go, Valka?”

It was weird the way he said my name. So formal. “I’m ready. And it’s Vee, no one calls me Valka.”

“Aw, how cute.” Bolthur sneered. “Do we all get nicknames now?”
            Something in me was at the breaking point. There was only so much I could deal with, leaving Eli behind was already putting me on edge, and this guy wasn’t helping. I curled my lip at him, making my disgust clear. “What is your problem? Do you wake up in the morning and practice being a complete jerk, or is it just something that comes naturally to you? And yes, I have a lot of nicknames I think would apply to you, but my mother taught me better.”

Gunny raised her brows and pressed her lips together, nostrils flaring, clearly holding back her laughter. Bolthur just glowered at me, and he started to open his mouth, but the commander cleared his throat, interrupting whatever he’d been about to say.

“Let’s try to keep this civil, you two. Especially you, Bolthur. Gods, she’s practically a child and you’re baiting her. What’s the matter with you?” He turned for the door, ignoring the outraged looks he was getting from Bolthur and I.

“I am not a child.” But it came out sullen, and under my breath. Sort of like…well, like a child. Cheeks burning, I turned to Eli. “We’ll be back soon. By lunch time tomorrow I think.”

He stepped closer, hesitating, reaching out to touch my arm briefly. For a second, with his usual smile gone, and his brow creased, he reminded me a little bit of Cain, and my heart twisted in my chest. The thought of Eli’s brother would always remind me of my days in the cage, and when I found out about Kalda.

That was why I was leaving now though. That was why I would put up with Bolthur, and put on a brave face going before a king and queen who might very well call me a liar. For Kalda.

“You’ll be okay, right?” He glanced over my shoulder, and his eyes went even darker. “I don’t trust him.”

I didn’t have to turn to know he was looking at Bolthur. “Neither do I, but even as a jotun, his body is partly made of water.” I gave him a smile, and his concerned expression relaxed a little.

“You’re somewhat terrifying, you know that?” Eli said. “I’m just glad you’re on my side now.”

“Same.” He had no idea how glad I was to have him on my side. If it hadn’t been for him…well, it didn’t bear thinking about. “I’ll see you in a bit. Have fun with Bifky, get him to make us some more bacon when we get back, okay?” I gave him one last, bright, fake smile and then turned away, heart beating hard in my chest.

Ake was leaning against the open door, eyes fixed on Bolthur, which was probably why the shorter jotun wasn’t making any rude comments about my goodbye. He just looked sullen.

“Keep a watch on at night, Bifky.” Ake said. “And kick the rest of them out of bed after we leave, all right? I want double vigilance while I’m gone.”

Bifky nodded his understanding.

Then we were filing out the door one by one, and I was falling into step behind Gunny, and Bolthur was right behind me so there was no way I was going to turn around to look at Eli one last time, even though it felt a little like my stomach was trying to lurch up into my throat. I hated leaving him here, so out of his element. It felt like leaving Fiske all over again. I knew it was nothing like that, Eli wasn’t in any danger. But it still felt like one more small betrayal. Like I kept failing the people who cared about me.

Snow crunched under our horses’ hooves as we made our way through the forest, deeper into the woods, pushing between fir trees coated in white powder. Thankfully Ake had provided me with a thick fur coat that went down past my knees, and sturdy boots for riding, so the cold was mostly held at bay. He’d instructed me to change out of the dress before we left, and into something more practical, the oversized clothing in the drawers. I could put the dress on once we got there, that way I didn’t have to seek an audience looking like a bum.

I could feel the cold wind slapping my cheeks, and it made my eyes water. I hated it, I hated the sensation because it scared me. It made me think that maybe it was a little bit colder than the last time I’d been outside. Was it colder, or was I slowly turning more human? Or more…whatever I was. Some kind of mutant freak.

I couldn’t be human because I could still feel the water all around me. It was such a different feeling than it had been when I was in the ocean, completely immersed in it, but it was still there. I could sense it in the snow blanketing the ground, and very faintly, in the clouds over our heads, puffy and white. It wasn’t going to rain. That was a startling thought, that I could predict the weather. But it made sense. Those weren’t rain clouds, so I couldn’t sense them very well.

The other thing, stranger still, was that I could sense the water moving through my companions. Not nearly as much as Eli had inside of him, but still there, and moving as they moved, shifting position in my line of senses. It was like some sort of strange radar, but I didn’t sense heat or movement, just water. I could pinpoint where each person was, even if they stepped around a tree in our path and I lost sight of them momentarily.

A talent that would come in handy if I were to ever go on a hunt. Or, more likely, if I were to be hunted.

Gunny looked over at me just as I was staring at her, wondering how much water she had drunk over the last couple days. She had less in her body than the other two. “What?” She wrinkled her nose at me. “What’s wrong?”

My face went red. “Uh…nothing. Sorry, just phasing out.”

Now she was staring at me. “Interesting. When you talk your breath hangs in the air, like a human. Well, not as much, but still…”
            I shrugged, reluctant to talk about it. “I’ve changed since the experiments.”

Gunny’s eyes went wider, and she glanced down at my fur coat. Up ahead Ake and Bolthur was keeping a steady pace, slightly faster than we were. Thank god, the last thing I wanted to talk about in front of either of them was the weird things that were going on with my body right now.

“Can you feel the cold?” Gunny asked.

“A little bit.” It was hard to admit. It sent fear through me, like something icy was eating away at me from the inside. “It changed after…well, you know. I started to feel the cold a bit at the same time the water thing happened.”

Gunny blinked, still staring. “So…the water thing, does it work exactly like your old power used to work.”

“Nothing like it.” I leaned over slightly, pretending to check the saddle bags, uncomfortable with where this conversation was going. But at least she was talking to me, it was keeping me from thinking about the fact that I was already tired and we’d only been riding for a few hours. As a servant you didn’t ride much, so this was taking its toll. My legs and backside were aching. Of course, if I mentioned this, Bolthur would ridicule me.

I would tough it out. This information needed to get to the king and queen as fast as possible anyways. Clearing my throat, I kept my eyes on the pommel of the saddle.

“The power you’re born with is sort of…inside already, you know? This is different, it’s outside. I can feel water everywhere and I can use it if I want to.”
            Gunny looked impressed, which made me feel a little less like throwing myself out of the saddle just to avoid the conversation. At least she didn’t think I was a freak.

“Wow. That could come in majority handy. I mean, it’s not like ice or fire, where you can’t affect your own kind unless you’ve got serious mojo. You could just use it on anyone.”

“Um, I guess so.” I shifted in the saddle, trying to get into a position that wouldn’t send bolts of pain shooting up my lower back. “Hopefully I won’t have to do that.” Again, was what popped up in my mind as soon as I said it. Hopefully I won’t have to do it again.

Desperately, I grasped for something, anything at all, to change the topic. “I guess you’ve made this ride a bunch of times, huh? Do you live at the palace?”

I’d never seen her there before, so it was doubtful, but it beat talking about my weird problems.

Gunny shook her head. “Nope, full time guard. Was born and raised in the castle though.”

My brows shot up. “Muspelheim?” That shouldn’t have been that surprising, when I thought of it. Her dark complexion gave that away. But most of the guards this close to the pass on the palace side came from there. “What brought you over to this safehouse?”

Gunny was about to answer when Ake called back over his shoulder. “Another hour and then we’ll set up camp.

Thank the gods. All I wanted to do was lie down right now, preferably on something that didn’t move.