Gulp.
I go still. I can’t help it. My body completely freezes. A mix of fire and ice flows toward me, like someone’s turned on a heater and an air conditioner at the same time.
“I would tell you not to be afraid,” Vipunen says. “But that would be foolish. You can’t stop the fear you feel, not yet. You will learn in time to live with the fear and let it feed you, fuel you. For now, be afraid Hanna. Be very afraid.”
Well, fuck.
“Hello.” I clear my throat. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
Even when you’re shitting your pants, it’s good to keep your manners.
Vipunen chuckles, causing the cave to rumble. “I suppose you’ve heard a lot about me.”
“Just that you’re the all-knowing God who taught Death everything he knows.”
“I’m not a God,” he says, and from the way he trails off I feel like he wants to say I am the God of all Gods.
“Well, you’re definitely a big somebody,” I tell him.
Silence falls. In the distance I hear the plunk of water, like something is dripping into a puddle or pond.
“Do you know why you’re here, Hanna?”
“You’re going to train me how to fight?”
“I’m not going to train you. I’m going to uncover what you already know.”
I shuffle on my feet, moving my sword from one hand to the other. “I appreciate your faith in me, but I’ve never fought with a sword before. I can fight with fists and feet. I practice—”
“I’m aware of your life, Hanna. I know what you have accomplished in your meager years. You don’t need to explain any of yourself to me. I know it as I know everything else.”
I have to admit, it’s comforting when someone knows what you’ve gone through. You cut out all the small talk, the getting to know each other stage. Then again, I don’t know shit about him.
“Are you psychic?” I ask, eager for information. “Do you see the future?”
“I see many futures, yes. However, I rarely know which one will come true, which one will come forward. The wills of those in this life create different futures for themselves.”
“Come forward?”
He sighs with a touch of impatience. His breath is warm and cool and damp. It smells vaguely like rain on pavement. “Mortals have the mistaken belief that they move into the future,” he explains. “That is not true at all. The future moves into you. That is how manifesting works. There are an infinite number of futures and possibilities out there for you. Time passes through you, it moves past you. You stay still. Whatever energy you put forward is what will align with a future with that same energy, and that is the future you will attract.”
“This is sounding like a bunch of woo-woo,” I say.
He laughs again and somewhere something heavy, like a rock, splashes into water. “Says the Goddess of Death as she faces an unseen giant.”
He has a point. “So you can’t see my future?” I ask.
“I can see infinite versions of it. No doubt you can see the same.”
Hmmm. I guess I can see the many different ways my life will turn out.
“Can you tell me if I end up being part of the Prophecy of Three?”
Silence. More dripping.
“I told Raila about the prophecy,” I tell him, going on. “She’s my Deadmaiden. I guess you already know that. I’d heard about the prophecy when I was captured by the Bone Stragglers. Guess you already knew that too. But she had said that I shouldn’t tell Death. Why is that? Shouldn’t he know?”
“I admire your devotion to him,” he finally says. “I didn’t think you would choose that future for yourself so soon.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know what has happened between you both, there are no secrets where I am concerned. I expected you to hold your ground a little longer around him, let that anger fuel you. It has fueled you in life so far.”
My cheeks burn in a flash of shame. I’m glad he can’t see them beneath the mask. “I didn’t expect to be grilled about my feelings today. And I am holding my ground,” I add quickly. “I just believe that if I’m going to be married to him, if he’s my husband and king, I should know why I can’t tell him certain things. We’re supposed to be equals.”
“Ah,” he says. “So that’s the path you’re choosing.”
He says this as if it’s the wrong one.
“Look, I came here trying to find my father. I did. I saved him, or at least I got him out of Tuonela. I didn’t expect to be eternally stuck here. I had a life in LA, you know, and I know you know this. That’s all gone now. All I have now is to live a whole new reality in a whole new world, and so far nothing is happening to me by my choice.”