NocC 006 - Olivia Gates - Immortal, Insatiable, Indomitable - Harleqiuin 2012-01 by Nocturne Page B

one will be major fun.”
    Vidar grunted in disgust. “Dream on, crones. And do your worst. All I care is that you spare Kara. Since she’s here, then you reneged on your deal, took my soul and won’t release hers. I guess I walked right into that. But at least do this one thing that might excuse your existence. End her torment.”
    “You still believe the sob story she told you? Priceless.”
    “Shut up and give her peace.”
    “Oh, fine. Let’s go along with your delusion about what’s happening here for a minute. How do you propose we do that?”
    He looked back to the indifferent Kara. Then he turned solemn eyes to them. “Make her forget me.”
    “Wow, dude, stupid and stupidly noble, unto eternity and beyond.” Sigrun’s eyes twinkled at him. “You want a side order of the same mercy for yourself?”
    Vidar snorted. “No, thanks, and hold the taunts.”
    “You sure? We’re feeling generous in celebration of netting ourselves a first-of-its-kind life-form here, so we advise you to make use of this one-time offer—two amnesias for the price of one.”
    “Don’t you dare come near my memories. Not that you can. We Lokians have parts of our memories fueling the souls you so covet. That’s where my memories of Kara and my love for her reside. Mess with those and the whole package degrades. Your choice.”
    The Dísir went silent.
    Then Sigrun probed, “But you can do it, can’t you? You can wipe out the memory of her and that of your love for her. Why not do it and spare yourself an eternity of kicking yourself for being such a fool?”
    He looked at Kara. Her eyes were no longer impassive. There was such…condescending pity in them.
    He turned to Sigrun. “That’s another thing you have no hope of grasping with your deficiencies. But if you want my answer for your records, the memory of Kara, of loving her, will be the one thing to make my afterlife worthwhile, just as they made my life for the brief time I had the blessing of having her in it.”
    This time the Dísir’s silence lasted longer.
    When Sigrun finally spoke, her sneer had lost some of its corrosiveness. “You’re so cute when you’re in denial. You can’t face it that you, the ultimate trickster, are trapped for eternity because you fell into her honeytrap. You cling to your belief in her like a five-year-old in Santa. But if she’s so true, why isn’t she saying anything? Why is she looking at you with such pity in her eyes?”
    “You’re keeping her silent, but she doesn’t need words to communicate her emotions. You’re making me see indifference and pity, but I feel her turmoil and desperation, for what she considers my sacrifice, when giving up anything for her is a privilege.”
    The gloating in the Dísir’s eyes wavered.
    Then disappointment crashed in its place.
    One of the other two exclaimed, “By Freyja’s pigtails! All this effort and all we get is this intractable mule.”
    The other one huffed in exasperation. “We might have eternity, Sigrun, but with this one it means only that he’ll have that long to drive us insane. He’s a lost cause.”
    Sigrun finally leveled fed-up eyes on him. “Congrats, you big lout. You’ve thwarted us. If you loved Kara any less, if you had the least distrust in her, we would have kept both your souls. But contrary to what you think, we didn’t write the manual of fate, we just abide by its letter. On the first page, it says it is people who damn themselves by their weaknesses and actions. And damn your blue eyes, you acted only with ridiculous resoluteness, while Kara, that silly girl, did everything with infuriating selflessness. By the Dísir’s own rules, we have to issue you a full refund of your souls.”
    The brunette Dís nudged her. “Tell them the rest already.”
    Sigrun exhaled in chagrin. “We have to issue you a reward along with those, too, dammit. Your hearts’ desire.”
    The blonde Dís quirked an eyebrow at him. “What will that be? Or shall we