Free Foresworn by Rinda Elliott Page A

milling near the fire trucks. Tyrone was frowning at something Kara was saying. With her hands. She talked loudly with her hands in wide, arching gestures. Her red curls flopped wildly around her head.
    Arun and the others talked openly about the god souls in the kids. About what was happening. They’d been preparing packs for this, preparing food for this. I’d spent my entire life never talking about any of this, never sharing about my norn or why we stayed on the run. And here was a group of people who shared in the very thing I’d thought set my sisters and myself apart. This whole day felt surreal. Meeting all these kids who knew they carried souls even though they couldn’t feel them. Meeting Arun, who could stroke his finger down a leaf and heal it.
    This horrific fire that obliterated years and years of hard work.
    I shivered, my heart aching over their loss.
    Branton plopped one of my blankets over my shoulders. “It’s okay if you don’t want to answer. There are some in the group who don’t talk much, either. Some have been here a while. Like Gillian, Tyrone and Kara. Did you meet them? They’re pretty cool.”
    Tyrone walked by still carrying Gullin. I thought of the god Freyr and the golden boar who pulled his chariot.
Gullinbursti.
“All we need is Skirnir,” I said half under my breath.
    “I know who that is, but no.” Branton laughed, shook his head. “No servants for Arun. He doesn’t even let his mother wash his laundry. He’s the most self-sufficient person I know.”
    “Then he won’t give his weapon away, will he?” In the stories, Freyr had given his sword—a magic one that fought battles on its own—to his servant, Skirnir, as a reward for Skirnir’s help in getting Freyr’s wife interested in him. That gift was what led to Freyr’s death in Ragnarok because all he had to fight with was the horn of an elk. Or...I guess it would really be an antler of an elk.
    I eyed Branton, noticing he shook his head and tugged on his ear again. “You seem to know a lot about the gods,” I said, barely managing not to frown. Something about him felt off. I couldn’t place it. He seemed nice and friendly, but my skin still prickled.
    “I know a lot about some of them. I mean, I grew up around these people and their stories. Some of the best stories I’ve ever heard.” He shook his head, hit the side of it like he had water in his ear.
    “You okay?” I asked.
    He stopped messing with his ear. “Sorry. Snow must have gotten in there, and now that it’s melting, it feels weird.”
    I didn’t believe him. Something was telling me not to believe him.
    When my norn twisted about in my chest, I realized it was her.
    She didn’t trust Branton, either.

Chapter Five
    We spent hours going through what was left of the greenhouses once the fires were out and we barely made a dent. Some of the houses had survived, so it could have been worse, but I couldn’t imagine how Arun and his family felt right now. All this loss on top of knowing what we apparently faced. I couldn’t deny it any longer. I wasn’t going to Oklahoma, not yet. Not when other warriors were coming here.
    Arun didn’t stop moving until his mother handed him a bottle of water and pointed to the spot next to me. I’d found a place to sit under part of a greenhouse that had only half burned, wanting out of the wind and snow for a few minutes. I needed to catch my breath.
    “Where are the horses?” I asked Arun when he stopped in front of me.
    “What horses?” He sat and propped his arms on his raised knees.
    I pointed to a stack of hay bales. “Aren’t those for horses?”
    There were black streaks in his light blond curls. They sort of sproinged about when he shook his head and laughed.
    “What?” I glared at the laugh though I was kind of glad to hear it.
    Crap.
He was starting to get to me.
    “You’d think we’d have horses. A lot of people around here keep them because they’re great for getting around in the