All's Well in Asgard by E.J. Lowell

Author:E.J. Lowell [Lowell, E.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-03T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Dublin and Raylene sat on either side of the same stair on the steps outside their dorm building. It was early enough that the only sounds around them were the dozen or so brave sophomores, hapless freshmen, and desperate seniors who had taken it upon themselves to bear the burden of an 8 am class in the middle of the week.

Raylene had spent her couple of days back in reality furiously catching up on homework online, telling her mom she hadn't been feeling well, and making sure she wasn't missing any tests. She kept herself busy in part to forget about the weird pine cone still sitting in her bag, and in part to ignore the fact that Dublin hadn't texted her once. That wasn't terribly unusual, but the circumstances were different. This wasn't just his normal carefree airheadedness, and Raylene may or may not have cried herself to sleep the second night.

Dublin didn't look terribly good, having put zero effort into making himself look at all presentable. His hair was an oily mess, his shirt was buttoned up wrong, his hoodie strings were uneven, and it looked like he was wearing the same pants he'd worn when they'd gone to Jotunheim the first time. At least his shoes were tied. He was moping, half-asleep against the guardrail with his chin on his guitar case and his earbuds blasting music so loud Ray could hear it over the road noise.

She sighed to herself, and curled up tighter around her own bag. Her nails were a mess, picked ragged all the way down to her nail beds, again. And she hadn't taken the time to re-paint them, either. Still, she was wearing the boar necklace, even though she and Dublin apparently weren't speaking. She still got her homework done. She still managed to do her makeup, though she expected the jotuns wouldn't care either way. She still had her life in order. More or less.

Raylene frowned at the sidewalk. It was surprisingly easy to go back to living a normal life even knowing that she'd run into a literal Norse god in a book shop and proceeded to head to Jotunheim for him. Knowing Jotunheim, Asgard, and presumably everything else existed didn't really change anything. After all, she was just a college kid. What good did knowing that do her? And who would believe her in the first place?

“Hey.”

She glanced over. Dublin had taken one earbud out, but was still moping. Raylene managed a little smile in his direction, one he probably didn't see.

“Hey,” she said.

Dublin glanced over, then back at the street, and blew out a sigh that buzzed his lips. He scratched the back of his neck and finally turned the music off. They sat in silence for another minute or two.

“Gonna say anything?” Dublin asked. “Guess not, huh.”

“Do you want me to say something?” she asked.

He turned to fix her with a stare that was half beleaguered and half pleading, emphasized by the dark circles under his eyes.

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