I’m lost.
I take a deep breath, trying to push my distressing thoughts away.
“Don’t push your thoughts away,” Mina murmurs, and I crack an eye open before quickly closing it when she begins speaking again.
“Change your mindset. You’re not a victim here, but a survivor. You have survived so much that would have broken other people. Yes, bad things have happened to you. But you control how you react to them. If you don’t like how you feel, then change it.”
Her words stun me as they strike a chord.
She’s right.
Everyone else made their choices, and now I can make my own. If I know anything about my parents, Gran, and Lachlan, it’s that they wouldn’t ever maliciously hurt me. They would try their best to make the right decision at the time. I let that thought settle into my very bones. That’s right. They did the best they could, and they had their reasons. I can not dwell on things I cannot change.
Mina squeezes my hand gently. “Come back to your bodyand your surroundings.” I take another deep breath and open my eyes. My chest is lighter, and my head clearer.
“Better?” she asks, smiling at me.
I nod, and a smile begins spreading across my face. “It is. It’s not gone, but much more manageable.”
She places her hands on her hips, and her hair whips side to side as she looks around the training grounds.
“Let’s do some warmups and then some core work. It’ll help with all your training going forward if you have a strong core.”
“Sounds good,” I reply and follow her as she begins a slow jog around the training grounds.
“I’m glad the mind work helped,” she says. We jog slowly, following the perimeter of the fence around the grounds.
“Me too. How did you know I needed that?” I ask.
She jogs so gracefully, her feet barely make a sound against the dirt. “You’ve dealt with a lot in the past couple of days, and from what you said, you weren’t even aware this place actually existed. I assumed you’d be struggling with thoughts of betrayal.”
I grimace. She called that perfectly. “I am. Well, was. It was just hard to conceive a world where my parents kept something this big from me. It was only ever us three, and we were so happy. I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t tell me, ya know?”
She bobs her head and bites her bottom lip. “You must miss them a lot.”
I swallow hard and try to focus on my pace so that I don’t start crying. “I do very much, but in a way, I’m relieved they went together. They couldn’t survive without each other.”
Mina slows as we approach the large maple tree that holds Odin’s ax. “I wouldn’t understand what that’s like,” she murmurs. Sadness dims her usually bright eyes.
I struggle with the right words. “I’m so sorry, I—I didn’t know.”
She shakes her head. “No, it’s okay. I had a decent childhood compared to other Valkyries. But my parents never mated, and their relationship was rocky at best.” She reaches her arms up over her head and begins stretching. She’s so lithe and graceful with each of her movements, and I do my best to follow suit.
“That’s got to be rough, though, and I’m still sorry you had to deal with that growing up.”
She sits back down and straightens her legs out in front of her. “It definitely showed me what I did not want. It was always like our house was on fire. There was so much discord, and they wielded me as a weapon against each other, even though I never seemed to be good enough. I refuse to settle for a relationship like that. But it has been lonely.”
Understanding fills my eyes. “I had the opposite experience, but the same feeling.” I chuckle. “I don’t think I’ll ever have a relationship as great as my parents. Love like that is rare.”
Mina nods and grins. “Team ‘No mate’.”
We high-five.
She lies down flat and pats the ground beside her. “Okay, you’re about to hate me, but I promise it’ll be worth it.”
My stomach hurts so badly by the time we finish our core workout that it hurts to breathe. Mina cracks jokes on the way back to the Great Hall, and I glower at her.
“I swear to the gods, if you make me laugh right now, I’ll punch you.”
