Sigyn bent down and whispered three words into my ear—the same three words that were now carved into Babs’s blade. Then she drew back, still smiling at me. “And now it’s time for you to use your new gift, your new magic, to return to your friends.”
I closed my eyes and concentrated. A strange new power flowed through my body, like the wildflower had taken root in the cold frost that had coated my heart for so long. In my mind’s eye, I could see the winterbloom growing and growing, breaking through the hard shell of icy frost, and I could feel the power spreading out to every single part of my body. I sighed, welcoming the cool, soothing rush of power, and suddenly, I was able to breathe easier. Not only that, but I felt better, stronger, like the chimeras hadn’t clawed me to shreds.
Like I was whole again.
I opened my eyes and stared at the goddess. “Thank you, Sigyn. For everything.”
“No, Rory. Thank you for choosing to fight with me.” She smiled at me a final time, then stepped back and bowed her head. “Until we meet again…”
Sigyn’s gown started swirling around her, and that intense silver light flared again, separating us. When the light faded, the goddess was gone, and I was alone in the Eir Ruins. But I smiled, knowing that I would see her again, even as my own eyes slid shut and the ruins faded to black…
“If you don’t shut up, I’m going to come over there and cleave you in two,” a voice with a sharp, biting English accent snapped.
“Heh. I’d like to see you try it, you old codger,” a voice with a distinctive Irish accent snapped right back.
The two voices kept sniping at each other, and I slowly realized that one of them was Babs. But who was the other one? The low male voice seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it…
I must have drifted off yet again, because the voices faded away. Sometime later, my eyes fluttered open, and I realized I wasn’t dead. At least, I didn’t think I was dead. Not since I was lying in a hospital bed with a white sheet and a matching blanket draped over me.
“I told you to shut up,” that English voice snapped again. “Now look what you’ve done. You’ve woken her up when she should be resting.”
“I woke her up?” Babs sniped back. “Well, I say that you woke her up with your incessant chatter.”
And the two voices went at it again. This time, I came fully awake, and I pushed myself up into a sitting position.
Babs was propped up in a chair to my right, glaring at the chair next to her. Another sword was also propped up in that second seat, one with a man’s face carved into the hilt, complete with a single twilight-colored eye.
Vic, Gwen’s sword.
Vic and Babs glared at each other, and I got the impression that if they’d had hands, they both would have put up their fists and duked it out over who was making more noise, even though they were being equally loud.
“Hey, cousin,” a third voice called out.
I looked to my left to find a girl sitting in a chair on the other side of the bed. She was a year older than me and quite pretty, with her frizzy brown hair and violet-colored eyes. She was reading a Karma Girl comic book, which she set aside as she leaned forward in her chair.
Gwen Frost grinned at me. “It’s about time you woke up.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I sat up straighter in bed and glanced around. I was in one of the infirmary rooms in the Bunker, wearing a pair of white pajamas. An eerie sense of déjà vu swept over me. This was the same place I’d woken up in the first time after I’d seen Sigyn at the Eir Ruins.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice thick with sleep and dreams. “How did I get here?”
Gwen gestured at the two swords, who were still bickering about who had woken me up. “Well, from what Babs has told me, your friends rushed you out of the museum and down here. They didn’t know if you were going to make it, given your serious wounds, but by the time they got you here, your wounds were gone, like they had magically healed all by themselves. Everyone was quite shocked by that.”
I glanced down at my left arm, but the blood and claw marks were gone, and my skin was smooth and whole again. My other wounds had vanished as well.
“I was shocked by it too, until I noticed those runes on your sword.”
Gwen pointed over at Babs, who had finally fallen silent, along with Vic. Gwen, Vic, and I all stared at Babs, our gazes dropping to the silvery runes that glimmered on her blade. A red tint tinged her cheek, as if she were embarrassed by the sudden attention.
“What do the runes say?” Gwen asked in a soft voice.
Only a Champion could read the words on her specific weapon. To everyone else, even another Champion like Gwen, the runes would just look like gibberish.
I cleared my throat. “Devotion is strength.”
“And what does that mean?” Gwen asked.
“You know that Sigyn is the Norse goddess of devotion.”
She nodded.
“After I passed out, I woke up in the Eir Ruins, in the main courtyard with all those wildflowers. The two of us talked. It’s the second time she’s appeared to me in the last few days.”
Gwen’s eyes narrowed with understanding. “Sigyn made you her Champion.” Then she grinned again. “Well, it’s about time.”
I hadn’t known how Gwen would react to the news, but seeing how happy she was put me at ease. I told her everything that had happened, everything Sigyn had said to me about how my sacrifice had broken Babs’s curse and how she needed me to be her Champion to stop Covington and his evil plan.
“Every Champion receives some kind of weapon or magic from their goddess. Sometimes both. What did Sigyn give you?” Gwen asked.
I looked down at my charm bracelet. The winterbloom flower that Sigyn had given me was hanging from the silver links, right next to the heart locket containing the photo of me and my parents. I thought of what Gwen had said about my wounds healing themselves.
“I have a theory. Let’s see if I’m right.”
I reached over and plucked Babs up off the chair. I held the sword in my left hand and sliced the blade across my right palm. I hissed at the wound, and blood welled up out of the deep cut. But that strange, cool, soothing power I’d felt at the ruins flooded my body, and the wound began to seal itself shut. A moment later, the cut was completely gone, like I’d never sliced open my hand.
“Well,” I said. “That looks like healing magic to me.”
I set Babs back down in her chair.
“I feel different too. Stronger. Not like Viking or Valkyrie strong but more like my endurance is better and I can fight longer and harder.”
“You probably can,” Gwen said. “And you know what this means.”
“What?”
Her grin widened. “A goddess gifted you with magic, so I’d say that officially makes you a Gypsy girl now. Just like me.”
“Nah,” I said, grinning back at her. “I’m way cooler than you are.”
Gwen laughed at my joke, and I joined in with her chuckles. We sat there for a minute, lost in our own thoughts. Even Babs and Vic remained quiet.