StubHub Center in Carson, California was the National Training Center for the U.S. Soccer Federation. There was no telling which team was about to have an accident because they held camps and competitions for all U.S. Soccer programs. Torin and Andris could be waiting for fourteen year olds or men in their twenties.

Lavania drew my attention with, "I have soup and meat-filled pastries from a recipe I got from Goddess Freya's personal chef. He insisted it was healthy and filling. So sit and enjoy." She waited as we each got a bowl of the steamy soup. Then she passed out the pastries. They were golden and flaky on the outside, but moist and meaty on the inside. She sat next to Raine and asked, "How are you holding up, dear?"

"Fine," she said. "These are really good."

"Thank you. I stopped by to see your father. I didn't know he'd slipped into a coma."

I hadn't known either. Femi had said he was getting better.

"He's not been lucid since yesterday," Raine said with a shrug, but I saw the spasm of pain that crossed her face. It hadn't been easy for her watching her father battle brain cancer.

Conversation focused on Raine's father, turning lunch into a sober affair. Lavania finally changed the subject to Asgard.

I knew the major gods and goddesses. Some names she mentioned were new to me, but she made them come alive. In fact, she made the place sound magical. I could see why Immortals would love to get a chance to see Asgard. Since I would never visit, I didn't want to become bitter like other Immortals. In fact, the thought of being an Immortal without a purpose scared the beegeebees out of me. I had to find a way to deal with the dark souls.

I didn't get a chance to talk privately with Lavania or Raine about my medium runes during lunch. But I wasn't stressing about that. Raine and I were going shopping after school, and Lavania wasn't going anywhere.

Raine, Blaine, and Ingrid were waiting for me by the car after school.

"We'll follow you guys," Blaine said.

Confused, my eyes volleyed between him, Raine, and Ingrid. "Follow us to where?"

"To the dress shop," he said.

A nasty suspicion entered my head. "Blaine, Angie sells only women's clothes. And you don't shop locally, Ingrid. In fact, you don't wear anything that's not designer label."

Ingrid shrugged. "I'd like to see what the local boutiques offers. And I do wear off the rack stuff. Nurse's and soldiers' uniforms are never designers."

I narrowed my eyes. "You've been a nurse before?"

"A spy. A teacher. An office manager." She exchanged a grin with Blaine. "We Immortals are good at reinventing ourselves. From high schools and co-eds to nursing wounded soldiers in the battlefield."

"Oh. I just assumed... I, uh, never mind. I need alone time with my girl here, so you two can't come with us." I was being rude, but I didn't care.

Ingrid dismissed my words with a wave of her hand. "Don't worry. We'll leave you two alone. I just want to see what this Angie's Boutique offers."

Raine was trying hard not to laugh.

"Are they babysitting me?" I asked.

She shrugged.

"Echo stopped by the mansion this morning," Blaine explained.

"Was that why Torin and Andris were at school this morning? Because I thought they switched to online classes or just runed teachers and skipped school all together."

"They have Brigg's class in the morning," Raine said and took my arm. "You are one of us, Cora. Get used to it. If you're threatened, we're all threatened. If you need back-up, we provide it. If someone hurts you, we hurt them back."

Why didn't her words make me feel better? I waited until we were inside my car and headed toward Main Street before saying, "What if I stopped helping souls?"

Silence followed. A quick glance at Raine caught her staring at me with wide eyes. "You're kidding, right?" she asked, enunciating her words.

"Yes... no..." I sighed. "I don't know. It's the dark souls' fault. They scare the crap out of me."

"What happened between Monday when you were defending Dev and today?"

"A dark soul attacked me," I said.

"I know, but Echo said it will never happen again."

I rolled my eyes. "And how will my all-powerful and all-knowing boyfriend guarantee that? He can't be with me all the time." I pulled up outside Angie's. Blaine drove past us, looking for a parking spot. We stayed in the car and waited for them.

"You have us too, Cora," Raine reminded me. She reached out and rubbed my arm. "You love helping souls find closure. Don't let the dark souls stop you from doing that. Just like I won't let the Norns stop me from doing what's right."

She made it sound so easy. I wanted to be in control like her, not always looking over my shoulder. "The runes on my body are called medium runes. Ever heard of them?"

She shook her head. "Although that makes sense. Mediums communicate with the dead and that's what you do."

"Dark souls, or lost souls as Dev calls them, etch them on the people they possess. Or try to."

"What?"

I explained what Dev had told me about possessions and psyche ward patients cutting themselves. "The runes protect and stop those possessed from going crazy, except I don't feel protected. I wasn't even possessed, and my body felt like it was being sliced from the inside." I blew out a breath. "Maliina deliberately etched those medium runes on me. And now the dark souls know about me."

"That evil bitch," Raine said.

"I asked Ingrid if she knew anything about them, but she doesn't. She said something weird though. The night Maliina runed me, she said I'd become useful. Why would she say that? Did she know she'd mimic me? Possess me? Are you guys sure she's really in Hel?"

"Whoa, slow down," Raine said, gripping my shoulder. "Let's not jump to conclusions. The Grimnirs took her after that battle at the mansion. Have you talked to Echo?"

"No. I only found out about this during my drive to school."

"There you go. Talk to Echo before you start worrying. He, Torin, Andris, and these guys," she indicated Blaine and Ingrid, who were walking toward us, "have been around and know a lot. I've come to realize that when I have a problem or an idea, my first stop is Torin. At times Mom or Lavania. When they're not around, I go to Blaine or Ingrid. They're a wealth of info. Talk to Echo."

She was right. Maybe I was blowing things out of proportion. We got out of the car just as Blaine and Ingrid reached us. Together we entered the boutique. The salesgirl looked up from her phone and was about to dismiss us when she saw Blaine. She turned on a megawatt smile.

"If you need any help, just let me know," she said, her eyes not leaving him.

I grinned. Once upon a time, that would have been me. I could see Angie through the glass window working on an outfit. As usual, she had a tape around her neck and her dyed red hair was pinned up and away from her face. She was a gifted seamstress.

"We're here to see Angie," I said.

The salesgirl dragged her eyes from Blaine, put her cell phone down, and went to get Angie. In seconds, the redhead entered the room with three dresses draped over her arm.

"Cora, I've been waiting for you," Angie said. The hug she gave me was a bit awkward. She only reached my chin. She turned and saw Raine. "Are you also looking for a prom dress, Raine? I hope so because I found the perfect outfit for you."

Raine bit her lip. "Uh, Angie. I'm not buying anything today."

"Why not? You're not going to the prom? Isn't your boyfriend the handsome quarterback?"

Raine's cheeks grew pink. "My mother already made my outfit, Angie, or I would have been here weeks ago."

Nice save. Angie would be hurt if she knew Raine had bought her outfit online. I took the dresses and waved Blaine and Ingrid over.

"We've brought you some new customers, Angie. Ingrid and Blaine are looking for something special, too." A speculative gleam entered Angie's eyes as she studied Blaine. "For his girlfriend, Jess."

Blaine scowled. "Jess is not my girlfriend."

"Could've fooled me," I teased him.

Angie beamed. She'd probably catalogued Ingrid's designer clothes and accessories and concluded she had a potential wealthy client.

"You're terrible," Raine said.

"Just helping the local economy."

"Spoken like a local farmer's daughter."

"Mom's starting to have a terrible effect on me." I grabbed Raine's wrist and pulled her into the changing room. Now, we could talk uninterrupted. I stripped while she got comfortable on the concrete slab slash bench.

"So you're thinking Maliina never made it to Hel and is trying to use you as a suit?" she asked.

"An Immortal suit, Dean." Dean Winchester from the hit TV show Supernatural always called the human vessels demons used "suits." I stepped into the first outfit and pulled it up. "But how did she know she'd one day need to borrow my body?"

"The same way I knew about the seeresses dying. Maliina was a powerful witch and an evil Norn-in-training to boot. She could have seen something. Dark souls are not exactly on our side or on humanity's side. They do terrible things. That's gorgeous."

"Really?" I studied my reflection, turned, and checked my back. "You don't think it's a bit too short?"

"No. It's perfect for the prom theme."

"All That Jazz" was the junior prom theme. The dusty-rose, knee-length drop waist dress with fringes was so nineteen-twenties. I loved it. It came with a hair accessory-a hair band with feathers-and satin gloves. I adjusted the hairband and studied my reflection again.

"Red lipstick and a fake cigarette folder, and you're a full-blown flapper girl," Raine said.

"I love the twenties." I shimmied out of the outfit and tried the second one.

"I like the first one better," she said.

"Me too." The third one was a contemporary also perfect for the senior theme-Midnight in Paris. "I'll take this one and the first one."

Scuffles and shouting came from inside the store. Raine pulled her artavus from inside her boot before I could blink. She engaged her invisibility runes and so did I. By the time I pulled out my artavus from the inside pocket of my jacket, she'd etched runes on the door and created a portal. We could see inside the store.

Angie was back in her little office while her salesgirl was behind the desk, her focus on her phone. Blaine and Ingrid were missing.

CHAPTER 14. DINNER WITH THE GANG.

"Outside," Raine said, and I followed the direction of her gaze.

Blaine and Ingrid were with Rhys, who was glaring at Blaine as though he wanted to pound his face.

"What in Hel's Mist is going on out there?" Raine mumbled.

I didn't bother to change. I grabbed the clothes I'd worn to school, and the first dress I'd tried on and placed them in front of the salesgirl. "I'll take that one and the one I'm wearing. Tell Angie this," I touched the one I wasn't buying, "is just not me."

She stared at me with round eyes. "But you're wearing that-"

"I'm buying it, too. Okay? Just wrap those ones up." I placed my debit card on the counter, waved to Angie through the window, and indicated the dress I was wearing and the first one I'd tried on. She nodded. "I'll be back to sign the receipt."

"You can't leave the store-"

"I said I'd be back," I snapped and followed Raine outside. Rhys and Blaine turned, and their jaws dropped.

"What? Haven't you ever seen a girl try on a prom dress before? What are you doing here, Rhys?"

"Call off your Immortal watch dog so we can talk," Rhys said.

"Watch who you're calling a dog, Grimnir," Blaine snapped. "And we're not going anywhere."

I sighed. "Blaine-"

"Don't waste your breath, Cora. We're not going anywhere, not after what his partner did to you."

Men! "What is it, Rhys?"

"First, Nara sends her apologies for what happened on Monday." His eyes strayed to my cleavage, which was exposed by the sexy dress. "She would have come herself, but she had to reap."

"Then I'll accept her apology when she says it to my face. What else? And please, my face is up here, not on my chest."

Blaine laughed. Rhys glanced at Ingrid and pink tinged his cheeks. "I apologize. Um, I'm looking for Echo."

I crossed my arms. "He's not here."

A lopsided smile curled Rhys' lips, and dimples flashed on his cheeks. "I can see that. Could you tell him he and I need to talk?"

"Why?"

Annoyance crossed his face. and for one brief moment, I was sure he'd said something rude. Instead, he glanced at Ingrid again and said, "The dark souls are restless, and quite a number of them are headed this way."

My stomach dropped. "How do you know?"

"We reaped a few not far from here. Dark souls are loners by nature and territorial. We saw a group of them. If they're coming here because of you, Echo is going to need help dealing with them."