“What happened?”
I flop back on my side against the pillows, as relaxed as I can be with these dumb wings. “Well, at the end, I think the item of significant note was that in addition to Freya transforming from her human shape back into an ice dragon. . .I also managed to turn Odin into a human.”
Axel looks pretty skeptical. “Could these just be dreams? Crazy things that your brain’s having difficulty processing? I hear humans have them often. Sometimes they’re a result of their fears or something that has happened, or even a mix of things you wish would happen with things you fear.”
I sigh. “They could be nonsense, I guess, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt just like before, when I found out all the information about Jörð and the origin of the heart—when I got wings.” I glance down at the edges of my wings now.
“I called her.” But Axel’s frowning.
“There’s a human phrase that goes something like, ‘never meet your heroes,’ because it can be hard when someone you love and trust turns out to be. . .” I trail off, unsure how to finish.
“What are you saying about Euphrasia?”
I shrug. “I’m not sure. But if it was a real memory, and if she was there. . .”
I hear her reach the door. Euphrasia has giant legs, for one, and for another, she wasn’t working to stay quiet. You called me here? When she sees Axel in human form, her eyes widen. You can shift into your human form again? Do the others know?
I stand up, swinging my legs out of bed and marching toward her. I try to look impressive and command her attention, but that’s hard to do in floral jammies. “I had a weird dream last night,” I say. “I’ve had a few now, and we have reason to believe they’re not dreams, but memories.”
Euphrasia turns away from Axel and toward me slowly. Then you know.
“Were you bonded to my mother?” I can hardly believe it. “Why didn’t you ever say?”
Are you Gullveig, then, Elizabeth Chadwick? She frowns.
I drop one hand on my hip. “I’m not, but she might have been me. Or, you know what I mean. When you met me, you said nothing about a connection.”
Did all the blessed have wings? Axel has climbed out of bed too, and he shifts into his golden earth-dragon form. Before we left earth, before I hatched, did you have wings?
Euphrasia turns away from me right away. It’s clear which relationship matters the most to her. We all had wings. Her frown deepens. No one discusses it. We don’t like to talk about what we’ve lost.
The earth blessed and the water blessed both lost their wings? Axel asks. But why?
She shakes her head and closes her eyes. It takes her a few seconds to open them again. There were no earth blessed. Only the water blessed lost their wings. Her voice is the barest whisper of a sound in my head. It was my fault for defying Freya, and no one knows, and I never talk about it.
Axel’s bellow could probably be heard halfway across Australia. You will talk to me about it now.
I drop one hand on his leg. “Let’s not summon anyone else inadvertently, right?”
He exhales and nods.
“So here’s the thing. You’ve known a lot of things for a long time, and you didn’t share any of them. Why not?”
Axel’s fuming a little, and I pat his leg again.
You are Gullveig. She tilts her head slowly. But also, you aren’t her at all. You’re at once harder and also younger. You’re kinder, and also less resilient. You may have been made of the same material that she was, but it was clear you didn’t share her memories.
It would have been helpful to know whose memories she was getting, Axel says. And to know that she had a past life that was connected to all this.
I’m sorry for not sharing. Once you know more about the story, it will make more sense why I tried not to alter the course of destiny and what was meant to happen in the order it was meant to unfold. As Jörð’s ch?—
Why don’t you tell us more of what you’ve kept hidden, and I can decide whether you were trying to help by not sharing. Axel’s really bent over this.
“Here on earth, there are lots of things we humans don’t tell our children, not because we don’t love them, but because we do. Once they’re old enough or the time is right, then we share. I wonder if it was like that? I’m sure Euphrasia meant well.” And now I’m defending her. I was outraged moments ago, but now that I see her, it feels obvious.
She’s not the enemy.
“We do have to leave pretty soon,” I say. “We have that little matter of finding another ten thousand humans to save all the new dragons, remember?”
