Foresworn

“Magic. Which means it was deliberately set.” Arun sucked in a breath. “There were a bunch of kids in the barn!” He bolted.

I followed, his panic bleeding back into me so hard it stole my breath.

“If someone set this fire to kill us, it would have started in the old barn we turned into a main warehouse and place for everyone to sleep. It’s where a lot of the kids hang out.”

As we turned the corner on the last greenhouse, Arun skidded to a stop and I ran into him. I had to grab his coat to keep from falling on the icy path. Several kids stood there, and all but one turned to look at us.

“Watch out,” Kara warned. “We were hosing everything down and when this happened, it all froze to sheets of ice on the ground.”

Arun made a sound that stabbed into my heart, and I followed his gaze to the cabin. Stiff flames spilled from the entire building—the walls, windows and roof. Only one flame off the porch had started that slow dance. Arun jumped into a sprint toward the cabin. Tyrone, Kara, me and the other girl with red hair followed Arun.

“Wait,” I yelled at his back. “I don’t know how long this is going to last. You could run in there and then the fire could start back up.”

“His mother is in there,” Tyrone said as he ran alongside me before he sped up and ran side by side with Arun. I picked up the pace, as well.

Arun slammed into the front door, splintering it into pieces. “Mom!” he yelled as he disappeared inside.

“Please,” I breathed softly to my norn. “Please keep it like this a little longer.”

I actually felt her surprise but didn’t have time to ask again as the rest of us hit the door. I didn’t hesitate, running inside with Kara right behind me. Flames had engulfed everything in their living room, reducing what looked like a red couch and hand-carved furniture to piles. The smoke was thick in here—not as thick as the stuff coming off that plastic covering the greenhouses—but it still felt like inhaling rocks as we pushed through into the kitchen.

The heat was like nothing I’d ever felt—as if I’d stepped inside a crematory oven—and the blast of it burned the exposed skin of my face.

Arun was carefully trying to lift his mother, a slim blonde who wasn’t much bigger than me.

“I can’t tell if she’s alive,” he said, his dark eyes glittering with tears that could have come from smoke or worry. “And I’m afraid to bend her like this.”

“Here, I’ll take her feet and you hold her shoulders.” Tyrone helped Arun lift his mother. “Kara, can you get the back door?”

She’d already anticipated the question and had the back door open fast.

I looked around, not sure what I should try to save. I turned to go back toward the hallway I’d spotted to at least grab clothes for them, but dizziness swamped me.

The girl who carried Gullveig’s soul suddenly reached out and hauled me right off my feet before tossing me over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

“Hey!” I yelled.

“No time left,” she shouted as the world jumped into the rune tempus spin.

I screamed as she bent and all the blood rushed to my head. She swiped a blanket off the floor and I had no idea how she was moving with everything spinning as it was. But she threw the blanket over me and ran. Then she screamed as she jumped through a window. I could see nothing, could only feel us sailing through the air and over the front porch. She landed with a grunt and a cry, dropping me.

“How did you even know that was...What if the window hadn’t been that dir...you’re crazy! The world was spinning!” I scrambled out of the blanket and realized the lunatic who’d picked me up had caught fire. This time, I jumped her. I had the blanket wrapped around her before anyone else could reach us. Then I rolled us together in the snow until she started struggling.

“I’m okay,” she yelled, her voice muffled by the blanket. “You can stop beating me now.”

I realized I’d been smacking at the blanket, and I stopped and yanked it off her. Holding my breath, I expected to see scorched skin and charred, broken hair and instead she just lay there, grinning at me. “How are you not burned?” I asked as I pulled the now sopping and freezing blanket all the way off her.

She shrugged as she sat up. “I have no idea. I’m Gillian. Nice to meet you. And I can sort of walk through fire. It’s why we think I have Gullveig’s soul.”

I nodded, excitement sending me to my feet. “I do know that story. The Vanir goddess who kept getting burned by the Aesir.”

Another girl with short black hair dropped to her knees beside Gillian. Tears and black marks streaked her high cheekbones. “Gullin and Freya were in that first greenhouse.” She sniffed, offered me a wobbly smile. “I’m Sky. I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but nothing is nice right now.” She started sobbing. “Poor little guys.”

Gillian jumped up and ran down the hill. She didn’t stop—she ran right inside that first greenhouse.

“Is Alva okay?” Sky asked.

“Alva?” I looked around.

“Arun’s mom.” She wrapped her arms tight around her waist. “Did he get her out?”

“Yeah.” I walked around back to find Arun frantically hugging the woman, who sat bent over on a big tree stump. Harsh, racking coughs shook her thin frame.

He looked up, saw me, then bounded over the snowy hill between us to grab me and squeeze the breath out of me. “What you did,” he said in my hair. “What you did saved her. She’d passed out from the smoke, and she would be dead if it weren’t for you.” He hugged me tighter.

Gods, he was strong. I winced.

“Sorry,” he said, clearing his throat and letting me go. He stepped back, stared down at me. “Thank you so much, Kat.”

“It wasn’t me—it was my norn. But I’m glad.” That hug had been nice. I looked up to find him staring at me with a surprised look that held something else. Real interest. I took a deep breath to say something, anything, and a hard cough took me over.

Arun rested his hand on my shoulder.

“Got ‘em!”

Gillian’s yell made us all turn. I worked to get the harsh tickling out of my throat, watched her walk unscathed from a wall of fire. Her sweater was moving funny. She ran up the hill, laughing and gasping as she pulled a small creature from under her sweater. She handed one to Arun.

He laughed, held it up and kissed its grunting little face.

“It’s a pig,” I said stupidly, then cleared my throat as the coughing finally eased off. “They’re tiny pigs.”

“Babies,” Arun said. “They’ll get bigger. These are the best friends I wanted to introduce you to. This one is Gullin.” He held up the small black-and-white pig, and I had to actually curl my hands into fists to keep from grabbing it because it was freaking adorable. Gullin grunted and rooted around Arun’s neck like he was trying to wiggle as close as possible. Arun laughed and patted him. He looked at Gillian. “Freya’s okay?”

She pulled out another wiggling creature—also black and white—and grimaced. “I think she tried to bite me. Here.” She handed Freya to me.

It was my turn to grunt in surprise because she weighed more than I expected. “Are these teacup pigs?”

“Nah,” Arun answered. “They’ll grow to be a lot bigger than this. I’m not sure teacup pigs are even real. Think they all get big. But these cuties are potbelly pigs, so they probably won’t get as big as some of the monsters I’ve seen.” He held up the squirming Gullin. “You’d better not.” His smile faded as he looked out over the burning greenhouses.

The sound of sirens filled the air.

“Took them long enough,” Gillian said.

“Actually, it didn’t. Kat here stopped time, so it seems longer for us.”

“The greenhouses went up so fast,” Gillian said. She shivered, then began to lope down the hill again. “I’m going to save what I can out of the others.”

“Good idea. Wish I could walk through fire.” Arun turned and walked back to the stump where his mom sat wrapped in a blanket someone had found.

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