Odin's Murder

“Is this what it’s like for you and Julian? The twin thing? I can sense him. And Faye, too. They’re nearby. Not like before. When they were—” He grimaces, doesn’t say it aloud. “They aren’t in my head.”

I nod again. I let go of his shirt, and stroke my fingertips down the inside of his good arm, and watch him shiver at my touch, and the flash of connection that lingers between us. His nipple hardens under the t-shirt. “Do you sense me, too?”

“Yes. Hell, Cherry.” His voice rasps, and his fingers mirror mine, on the tender skin inside my elbow. I gasp when they keep going, light but bold, under the curve of my breast. “How am I going to get through this without you?”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for. Mary will get me through this year and it all will be fine.” His words are promising but he shifts, moves away a little.

“So Mimir is still going to be your case worker?”

“She’ll be around.

Someone needs to keep an eye on me.” He kisses the corner of my mouth. “And you.”

“Can I visit?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

“I can’t? Or you don’t want me to?”

“I don’t want you in that part of my world, Memory. It’s just...”

“I don’t care what it’s like!”

“No, it’s horrible. Those guys. No. I don’t want them to see you or talk about you or try to talk to me about you. I don’t want you to see how I live. It’s jail. Bars on the windows, stainless steel toilets, bunk beds and cafeteria meals three times a day. Let me finish my time. Let me finish it up and then be done with it.”

“No fights.”

“None. I promise,” he says, but the corner of his mouth is twitching, and his eyes promise nothing.

“And I’ll behave.”

He laughs. “Right.”

“I will! I can behave. No boys or fighting with Julian, or breaking into houses. I swear.”

He catches my chin between his hands. “Everything will be okay. In a year we’ll start our life over and deal with everything then. In the meantime, just have fun.” His eyes are clouded with gray, like he doesn’t believe what he’s saying, so I kiss him, soft, and then not.

“I don’t want fun,” I whisper against his mouth. “I want you.”

He stops my words with his lips, a hard kiss that leaves me gasping for more, clinging to his heat and my sanity. His hands are everywhere, shaping to my body until I moan. I grind into him, tugging at his shirt, pulling it up, frantic to touch his skin.

He pushes me away. He’s panting, eyes electric again. Then he smirks. “So, isn’t this like incest?” he asks. “Aren’t we like brother and sister, or cousins or something?”

I smack the arm that isn’t bandaged. “You’re so gross.”

A rap on the door has me pulling away. “Come in,” I sigh.

Faye and Julian stand in the doorway. Both look exhausted, dark purple rings under their eyes.

“Hey,” I say, smoothing my hair. “You guys okay?”

“Just wanted to say goodbye,” Faye says, pouting at Ethan. “I’m going to miss you.” Ethan nods and ducks his head. Only Faye could cause this boy to blush.

Mimir walks in without knocking. “Time to go. It’s a two hour drive and I need to be back before dark.”

Ethan’s arms tighten around me but I wiggle loose. I gawk at the ring that wraps her middle finger, now with a round smoky brown topaz in the eye-shaped setting, where the amber gem used to sit.