After half an hour’s searching, I hadn’t managed to find anything but trees—lots and lots of pine trees stretching high toward the sky, their gray needles reaching for the swirling fog.
“Stupid, useless death-realm,” I growled to no one in particular. Only then did I realize that my throat wasn’t really sore anymore. And I wasn’t thirsty, either.
Odd.
However, my bladder was still functioning and making its unhappiness with my delay known.
Great. More squatting behind a bush. An eternity of it, in fact. Peeing outdoors had been one of the many sucky things about my trek through Washington and Oregon with Modi and Bjarni, and I’d intensely looked forward to the luxury of indoor bathrooms for the entire journey. Only now it seemed like that was yet another comfort I would never experience again.
My hatred toward Grim was at a boiling point as I squatted next to a pine tree to relieve myself.
There was a bright red streak in my underwear. I stared at it, dumbfounded by the almost obscenely rich color in the midst of all the gray. It took me several moments to realize I’d gotten my period.
I’d… actually gotten my period. In Hel. I was dead, yet I was still menstruating. Fuck. My. Life. Or death, as it were. Fuck my death. So hard.
It was only while I was looking for moss on the forest floor to stuff into my panties that I realized this was the first time since I’d left my home that I’d bled. I’d been too swept up in Fate and myth and saving the world to track the dates, but now that I came to think about it, I should definitely have had at least one more period between arriving in Iceland and now.
Had I gotten pregnant during my last heat? Was this…? I swallowed thickly and pressed a hand to my abdomen. Oh, God. No. Please, please, no.
I didn’t have any more tears left. Didn’t have the capacity for anymore sorrow. I’d lost everything already, and if this was more than a delayed period, then…
Mechanically, I gathered the rest of the moss and placed it as best I could in my underwear.
For a moment I just stood there, staring blindly ahead into the gray forest. I didn’t have anywhere to go. I thought about continuing into the woods and letting them swallow me up, but the thought of being all alone in Hel was even more awful than having to see Grim’s face again.
In the end, I walked back toward the clearing. I hadn’t paid much attention to which direction it lay when I went out to search for water, but as I made my way back through the pine trees, the path seemed clear, almost as if I had a homing beacon to guide me through.
When I broke through the tree line some twenty minutes later, both Grim and Mimir were awake.
The darkhaired alpha seemed to have been pacing. He stopped when he spotted me, angular features pulling into a frown. “Don’t wander off on your own. This is dangerous territory.”
I snorted in disbelief. “Dangerous territory? I’m dead, remember? How much worse can it get than dead?”
“Decently bad,” Mimir said, his voice mild and irritatingly cheerful. His eyes flicked to the funnel cloud in the distance. “There are stages of death, my pretty plum. All things considered, we’re lucky.”
I eyed the bodiless man for a long moment, but decided against pointing out that he’d probably feel luckier with legs. Instead I glared at Grim. “I don’t see why you’d care if I extra-died, seeing as you were the one to kill me in the first place.”
Grim’s full lips pulled up in a sneer, but instead of replying, he stiffened, nostrils flaring.
“What?” I asked, shifting uneasily. He was staring intently at me—or rather, at my crotch. He crossed the distance between us, eyes wide and locked on my lady bits.
Grim had never struck me as interested in… well, me. I still recalled that asshole Surtr’s comment that he’d assumed Grim’s kind reproduced asexually, and frankly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it turned out to be true. His sudden interest in my nether parts was wholly disturbing.
“Is that…?” Mimir said behind me, shock in his voice. “Is she truly…?”
“What?” I repeated, taking a step back from Grim to escape from his personal space.
It brought me closer to Mimir, who gasped and said, “She is!”
“I’m what?” I spun around to face him, partly to avoid Grim’s continued stare.