71

In the first week of the New Year, my stepmother and Pugh were convicted and imprisoned for their crimes.

A week later, Anya came back from a long walk with Skop in the first winter snow, happy tears in her eyes and a garnet ring sparkling on her finger. Cobie and I squeezed her so tightly she pushed us away, laughing that we’d cracked her ribs.

In two more months, my father returned home from New York, pink-cheeked and thirty pounds heavier. Victoria had grown her first tooth. I turned nineteen.

And six weeks after that, we had a wedding in Arbor Hall.

I wrapped my arms around Anya’s shoulders as she waited in the Roots, but she wriggled away from me. “You’re going to wrinkle my dress, you oaf.” I laughed and fluffed her skirt.

It wasn’t new, since we were economizing. But Anya looked beautiful in the rose-gold gown I’d worn the night Torden had first proposed in Asgard. Cobie, for once, wore white—a silk dress that had been my mother’s. It fit her like a sail, which was to say, it suited her perfectly.

I wore my green lace dress, the one I’d worn in England. I’d gotten my heart broken by a boy who’d admired me in it.

So what? Hearts healed. Stories twisted and turned for the better.

Besides, it was a great dress.

When the bow hit the hardingfele’s strings, it was time to go. Cobie started up the stairs, a crown of valerian woven into her hair. Anya took Alfödr’s arm, and I followed Cobie up to the ballroom.

Anya wore a crown of yarrow and myrtle, for love. Bear would’ve been proud that I’d looked up the flowers’ meanings.

“What’s this?” Torden nodded at my wreath, leading me up the aisle behind Cobie and Hermódr.

I smiled up at him. “Wallflower.”

“No more,” he whispered, kissing the engagement ring on my hand.

It meant faithfulness in adversity. And we would be, come what may.

At the end of the aisle, Torden went to stand behind Anya, along with the rest of his brothers. Bragi. Hermódr. Fredrik. Aleksei. Hodr. Only Vidarr and Váli had remained at home to protect Asgard.

Cobie joined me behind Skop, along with the rest of the crew.

I smiled at Daddy. He wore a linen suit—no more black for him—and a bright smile.

“Hello, everyone!” he called out. “And happy Arbor Day!”

The congregation responded with words of its roots and stretching toward the sky above, and I felt it like wind in my hair.

When Skop and Anya had said their vows, we danced and celebrated, and I couldn’t believe how different Arbor Hall felt from a year ago.

I laughed the whole night. I did not hide.

Peter was talking to his father beneath a holly tree when I finally saw him. He returned my wave, smiling brightly at Victoria and me where I stood near the buffet table, bouncing her on my hip and choosing a dessert.

I had wondered if I’d come back and find Peter smaller, diminished somehow in my eyes. But he wasn’t.

I was the one who had changed. I had gone, and I had come back. And all was as it should be.

Peter crossed to my side, hands in his pockets, grinning. He looked happy and relaxed, his hair a little longer, his shoulders a little broader. “Glad to see you home again.”

“Me too,” I agreed. “A lot’s changed.” I smiled—a real smile. Not the brittle thing I’d tried on for him the morning I set sail on the Beholder, but something easy. Comfortable, as we always should have been, if I had asked the right things of us. If I had been content with our friendship as it was.

And I knew now what love really felt like. So I could be.

“It certainly has.” Peter’s shoulders rounded a bit, as they always did when he was thinking. “You seem so . . . content.”

“I am,” I said. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

His smile broadened; I glimpsed the gap between his teeth. “That’s wonderful.”

“Peter!” Captain Janesley called to his son, gesturing at a circle of people around him.

“Yes, sir! Be just a moment.” He glanced back at me, still grinning. “I’ll see you at Mass later?”

I nodded, waving back at Captain Janesley. “Say hello to your mother for me.”

As he walked away, Victoria began to wail; she had a second tooth coming in. I tried to shush her, but Daddy swooped in.

“All right, then.” He scooped her out of my arms, cooing.

“But I—” I protested, stretching after my sister. I must have looked worried, because Daddy grinned.

“Who do you think walked with you at night? Do you think Victoria is my first baby girl?” Daddy smiled down into my eyes. “I’m back, Selah. I’m me again.”

I swallowed, and found I believed him.

It was almost a physical relief. Weight seemed to slide off my shoulders.

He winked at me and walked away, the sound of his laughter echoing off the marble walls and through the trees. Godmother went to him, trying to coax the baby away; I wasn’t sure who would win that battle. Probably all three of them.

As I watched, Torden took my hand and led me beneath a willow. We stood there together a long moment, taking in the party, his arms around me. Anya looked radiant.

“I want this,” he said in my ear. “I want this day for us.”

“I do, too.” I leaned my head back against his chest and looked up at him. “But your brothers are going to need you.”

Hodr had come home, and with Týr passed, it turned out neither Vidarr nor Váli wanted to take his place. Hermódr was the new heir to Asgard. He would someday be its Shield. He would need his brothers as he prepared for a role he’d never expected would be his.

As we watched, Torden’s father walked through the trees, speaking to Daddy.

Alfödr’s heart had changed toward me and toward Skop. I’d overheard the konge apologizing to our new captain the night before.

He’d said that he was wrong to lay hands on him, to dismiss his suit without consideration. That Skop’s bravery at Stupka-Zamok had proven him as worthy an ally as a king could wish. That his love for Anya was all any father could hope for.

“Have you heard anything about—” Torden arched his eyebrows down at me. I produced a letter from the pocket of my gown, biting my lip.

What if Torden balked, after all? What if he didn’t want to wait so long?

But his face lit up. “You were accepted?” I nodded, and Torden swung me off my feet and spun me around. “I am so, so proud of you.”

“You don’t think it’s too long to wait?” I asked when he set me down. The letter crinkled as my grip tightened anxiously.

Torden smoothed it out, tucking it back in my pocket. Then he led me out to the dance floor, to join his sister and his brothers and my crew, our friends and our family and the ones who counted as both.

“Take all the time you need, elskede. Chase all your hopes. You have so much possibility before you.” Torden fitted his chin above my head, his hands around my waist. Beneath the music and the party, I heard the beating of his heart. “I already know where my journey ends. It leads me home, to you.”