at attention.
“Does it stay like that?”
“Nah. It’s only for a little while. It’s like my body has to get used to being around someone like us. It won’t happen again after a few days. Should have seen the hair on my head the day Tyrone showed up here from Kansas. Couldn’t tame the spiky Mohawk no matter how much gel I used.” He nodded toward the door. “Tyrone is that big guy you saw outside.”
“He’s one of us?” And like that, I jumped on his crazy train. Years of keeping quiet, of never talking about the magical part of my life just flew out of the window. “There are more here?”
He nodded as the sound of snow on the plastic roof and walls grew louder. Wincing, he looked up. “It’s getting worse. And so many have been coming lately. We worry that some will get lost in the woods.”
“Who’s we?”
“My family. My mother, her brother and his wife. They started these greenhouses when I was a baby—when my mother first realized what was going on. She was raised on the stories of Ragnarok. When she realized I carried Freyr’s soul, she and my uncle Axel got the first greenhouse going.”
He just threw out the name Freyr. The word Ragnarok. So matter-of-fact. Like they were normal words—words that were a part of anyone’s usual daily conversations. I’d known who he carried the second I’d seen the tabloid article, and my suspicion had been confirmed when I had seen how absurdly good-looking he was. But suddenly I wanted to know so, so much. “I’ve never met anyone other than my sisters who carries someone’s soul. Does he squirm around in your chest? Make you feel crazy emotions? Cause pain?” I stopped, chewed on my lip. “Does he make your life a living hell?”
He frowned. “You can feel yours moving? Nobody has said they can feel theirs.” He shuddered, horror darkening his expression. “No wonder you’re so prickly.”
Prickly? Prickly? I glared. “I have two sisters, and they both feel theirs, too. If you can’t feel yours, how do you know he’s there? How did your mother know?” I pulled the tabloid article from my pocket and smoothed it out because I’d stuffed it in there when the cashier at the truck stop had made me angry. “So this stuff is true? You make crops magically appear?”
He took the paper, stared at it, then shook his head. “This is what brought you here? Imagine that. Finally something cool from this stupid article. And no, it’s not true. This thing caused us so much trouble. For a year after it came out, we were dealing with the craziest people showing up here at all hours. We got hundreds of Bibles in the mail. Hundreds.” He held up the paper. “I can’t believe this is why you came here.”
“So if it’s not true, how did your mother know?” Of course, I didn’t know how my mother knew about the one prophecy she’d drummed into my sisters’ and my heads our entire lives. The one about the future warrior with dark eyes and light hair who would kill us.
Arun stared at me for a few moments, then pointed to a leaf next to my head. It was partially brown and shriveled. He slowly reached out and stroked his finger over the leaf, caressing it like one would a small pet.
And as I watched, the brown part of the leaf fell off while the rest perked up. The attached vine lifted, thickened, as a healthier green color spread rapidly to the center of the plant.
Dark, dark eyes stared hard at me as my mouth fell open.
“Wow,” I breathed. “I tracked down Swamp Thing.”
“Which one?”
I stared at the now perfectly healthy plant. It wasn’t like magic was new to me. I had it with my rune tempus. My mother had it. Even Coral had a little extra something. But his was just so...so...cool.
“Which one?” he repeated.
“Huh?” I blinked up at him.
He chuckled. “Which Swamp Thing? There was more than one. The first couldn’t even talk.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Does it matter?”
He leaned against a support beam and crossed his arms. Intriguing muscles popped along his upper arms. “Swamp Thing is my favorite superhero.”
“Felt a kinship with him, did you?” I touched the healthy plant. Swamp Thing was one of my favorites, too. Well, until recently when I spent too much time gagging at some of the new graphic images. I didn’t share that, though, as I tried not to be obvious about checking out his biceps. And I was leaning toward the version who had more muscles. I bit back a grin. “So your mother saw you do that...that thing to a plant?”
“When I was a baby, my mother was carrying a sick potted flower in one arm when she came to check on me. I grabbed it and gave it health.”
“Touch something else.”
He blinked at me as one corner of his mouth turned up. “What would you like me to touch first?” His voice dropped a whole octave with the question.
He could not have meant that the way it sounded. I stared, trying to read his expression and failing. When he started to laugh, I narrowed my eyes, then pointed to a dead plant.
Arun shook his head. “I can’t bring it back to life. Once the energy is gone, there isn’t anything for me to boost. That’s all I do. Give already existing energy a spring in its step.”
“Can you heal people?”
“I wish. No, it only works on plants.” He picked up garden shears and snipped off a few leaves.
“You must be really popular around here, then.” I watched him run the pad of his thumb over one of the smaller leaves, erasing the white spots. He clipped the next one off. “If you can heal the plants, why are you cutting parts off?”
“It’s better to cut back some of the leaves so more of the plant’s energy goes to the fruit.” He worked quietly for a few moments. “So what exactly was that magic you did in the truck stop?”
“What?” I grabbed his arm. “You know I did something there?”
He nodded, set the clippers down and patted my hand. “Don’t get upset.”
“Dude, don’t pat me, and don’t patronize me. I may look twelve, but I’m eighteen and don’t have a lot of patience.” I saw movement outside the greenhouse but ignored it. “Which part of my magic did you see?”
“All of it. You sent the world into a spin, stopped time and wrote a message in runes with ketchup. I watched you do it all. I even sneaked a peek when you went into the bathroom. Music on the lake is about this place. Means you’re supposed to be here, not running back to...Where was it? Oklahoma?”
I shook my head. “You don’t understand. It’s a family thing, and nothing is more important to me than my family.”
Arun stared at me, his arms crossed, his expression like the school counselor’s I’d had in the last year I’d been allowed to go to school. The one determined to find the reason why I’d defaced the cafeteria wall with maple
