by JD Nelson
She flew to Soren’s eye level and frowned. “Midgard you say?” Her voice was pleasant, but her expression said otherwise. “Why have I not heard of this sister in my own domain?”
Soren stood and helped me to my feet. “She was found on an excursion by Jakob Väsen, a mere day ago.”
“The elf king?”
“No, your majesty. Kristian Väsen is ruler of the dark elves. I speak of his brother.”
Her frown deepened. “Do not trifle with me, Son of Odin. Kristian Väsen could not lead himself out of the mouth of a dragon, much less rule the whole of the dark elves.”
Soren agreed, without a second’s hesitation. “Yes, your majesty.”
The queen turned her attention to me next. “I am the queen of Älvornas Rike, the land of the faeries.” She paused. “Erin, you are from my own beloved Midgard. May I ask your opinion on males who do not honor their promises?”
“I think—” I started and then stopped. I didn’t know how to answer her.
“With the truth,” Soren urged in my mind.
“I believe that a man…I mean, male, is as good as his word, your majesty.”
She harrumphed in Soren’s direction. “I see who got the brilliant mind in the family.” To me, she just gave a bright smile and said, “Call me Layla. Any creature who is wise enough to know the truth of that statement so soon in their existence should have the right.”
I smiled and curtseyed. “Thank you, Layla.”
She floated to my shoulder and stage-whispered into my ear. “Now that we are sisters in friendship, what would you say if I told you that your brother has not kept his promise to a dying friend—his best friend?”
My brother’s sigh told me that he was guilty of her accusation.
“What is the promise?”
Soren’s voice was full of disdain. “I am trying to keep my promise to Cedric. His true-mate is hidden and quite mad. You know this, majesty.”
In the space of a second, Layla grew to our height and poked Soren in the chest in anger. “Don’t you dare take that tone with me, Víðarr! You’ve had two years to do this one simple thing.”
“Simple thing? Are you the fucking mad one?”
I sucked in a shocked breath. “Soren!”
Her cool demeanor didn’t waver. “Might I suggest that you use your sister to find her? She is a fire-walker, I believe.”
The anger faded from Soren’s features. “You are right. Why did I not think of that? How can I thank you, majesty?”
She feigned deep thought while twirling a lock of her brunette hair around her finger. “Stop being yourself?”
I burst out laughing, and she joined me. Similar to Jakob and Viggo, the faery queen was pretty down to Earth for someone belonging to royalty.
“That is a helpful suggestion, Layla. Come Erin. We must take our leave.”
“That’s Queen Layla, son of Odin. Take care that you do not make us wait too much longer. My humor grows short.”
“I understand. You have my word,” he said, dipping into a deep bow.
I followed suit. “Goodbye, Layla.”
She hugged me. “Goodbye, my new friend.” She looked past Soren to the two steel-faced, but beautiful male faeries carrying a pale green shifting stone. “Take this stone with you as a gift of our friendship. It will help you until you can find your own magic.”
I took the stone from the two tiny males. “Thank you. This is too generous.”
One of the faeries whispered in Layla’s ear. “Not at all, Erin. Soren, please take your leave now. Loki has been alerted to your arrival.”
No sooner than the words left her lips, Soren grasped my arm and the forest disappeared.
Emelie’s smiling face greeted us when we arrived at their apartment. “Hey, nice outfit, Erin.”
I struck a pose. “You like this? I borrowed it from my sister-in-law.” I grinned. “I just love saying that!”
She grinned back. “I love it just as much as you do! Can you believe we’ve been married for two years, and he hasn’t introduced me to any of his thousand or so brothers and sisters?”
“That’s terrible,” I said in mock horror, giving Soren a stern shake of my head. “You should find a new mate, Emelie.”
She picked at the sleeve of her top and looked over to him in distaste. “He was an awful choice.”
“That is quite enough, you two.” Soren kissed her cheek, and they shared a quick, secret smile. They complimented each other so well. No matter their vast differences, they were perfect for one another. I hoped that, in time, he would approve of Jakob as my mate. I wanted my own compliment.
Emelie showed us into the kitchen where she was busy making gingerbread cookies. “I’ll make tea while you tell me how the meeting went.”
“The meeting did not take place. We were stopped by Queen Layla, who advised us against it.”
“Uh oh. Did she mention Cedric?”
“She did. However, she was helpful instead of cryptic today.”
I smiled and hopped up onto a bar stool with a flourish. “That’s because were super best friends now, and you’re a male who reneges on his promises.” He rolled his eyes at my crowing. I responded by sticking out my tongue.
Emelie made herself comfortable next to me. “Sounds as if she wasn’t too happy.”
“She wasn’t. She made herself big and poked Soren in the chest. It was pretty awesome.”
“What the hell did you do?”
“Nothing, little one. She was just agitated. It is normal for her.” He shot me a squinty-eyed, ‘Shut your mouth or I’ll kick your ass’ look.
If Emelie’s rolled eyes were any indication, she wasn’t convinced, but she kept quiet about it. “What else did she say?”
He sighed. “She said that Loki had been freed from his imprisonment.”
Emelie stood up, her eyes shimmering pools of mercury as she had a vision. “Odin is desperate. He knows, Soren.”
“What does that mean? Who is Loki?” I’d heard of him, of course, but knew nothing about his history. My coming here really underscored my need to learn the sagas of Norse Mythology. How I wished I’d devoted more time to it in my reading. Maybe then, I wouldn’t feel so woefully uninformed and unprepared.
“It means that shit just got real,” Emelie told me, going back to work on her cookies.
“Little one, don’t scare her. No one is in any danger within the rebellion. It is true; Loki is a trickster. A more cunning male than him I have never known, but he will not go against us. His actions will be against the one responsible for the wasted millennia he spent in pain.”
“Pain?”
His brows lifted. “You have not heard that ridiculous tale of the goddess Skaði punishing Loki by placing a serpent over his head? It was once thought that if his mate did not catch the poison before it dripped onto him, Midgard would tremor with the intensity of his pain.”
“No offense, Soren, but Norse Mythology is weird. I know little about it.”
Emelie shot her fist up in triumph. “Yes! See? It’s not just me. Those stories are mega-creepy.”
Soren continued without acknowledging her, as if he was accustomed to this kind of outburst from his mate. “Apart from the earthquakes, it is an accurate storytelling. That is a rarity among the sagas. Some do have a bit of truth behind them. However, a good portion is fiction.”
“I don’t like this, Soren. Why would he think it necessary to send Loki after Erin?”
“If Odin has recalled Loki from his torture, there has to be an important reason for him doing so. Baldur was a favorite son, and there is no doubt that fortune was on Loki’s side the night of the murder. Odin may have spared him, but he will never trust in him again. What I would not give to find out what Father is up to.”
“Damn it! Why can’t I see it? What kind of Norn can’t see the freaking future? And don’t you dare give me that practice makes perfect crap, Soren, or so help me, these gingerbread men will be the last cookies baked i
n this oven.”
Someone needed to stop the madness. Cookies were at stake. I laid a hand on my brother’s arm. “She’s threatening you with cookies, Soren. I think you should heed the warning.”
“I would not dream of mentioning that practice does indeed make perfect,” he said, with a mischievous grin. “That would be cruel.”
“For Pete’s sake!” I yelled, not quite loud enough to cover Emelie’s cursing. “Think about your loved ones. We all suffer in a cookie shortage. Some of us more than others.”
“In that case, I concede. My mate’s magic must be obstructed by an unseen source. A binding spell, perhaps.”
The whites of Emelie’s eyes were hidden under a sudden silver sheen of her magic. “Soren,” she started.
He took her hands. “What is it, love?”
“I’m seeing Freyr and Viveka.”
“Can you see where they are hiding?”
She furrowed her brow in concentration. “I can’t make it out. The vision is clouded by darkness. I only see a tall, crudely built stone building.”
Soren stood when her eyes cleared. All traces of his earlier humor were gone. “This changes things. We need to call a meeting and make a plan of action. Emelie, will you contact Nils, Jakob, and Viggo?”
“Of course,” she said, getting up. “Come with me, Erin. You’re looking a bit peaked.”
A blush filled my cheeks. “Sorry, everything seems to move so fast here.”
She laughed. “Not to alarm you, but all of this is because of you. We haven’t had this much excitement in two years.”
“Great,” I mumbled, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
She held out her hand. “Come on, you need sunshine and girl talk. Stat.”
I couldn’t have agreed more. “That sounds great. You’ll tell me about the fire-walker thing later, Soren?”
“Of course. Go have your girl talk. I’ll be here, still trying to figure out what girl talk is, when you get done.”
I grinned and gave him a quick hug. “Thanks.”
Emelie led me to a bright sunroom at the back of the apartment that displayed a good portion of Ásgard. My father’s castle was a speck in the distance from here, and I was almost sad that we didn’t get a chance to travel through the forest. It was amazing, even from this distance. I sat on a large chaise with Emelie and stared out into the expanse. “This place is beautiful.”
“It is. Soren chose a beautiful place for us to live. This apartment actually sat vacant for a few decades while he waited on me. Isn’t that romantic?”
“Unbelievably romantic.”
I could tell she was excited to have someone to talk to, but I couldn’t help but think how heartbreaking it must have been for Soren to have this empty reminder of his true-mate when her mother united Emelie’s fate with the king’s.
Whether it was her magic or the guilty look on my face, she saw right through me. With narrowed eyes twinkling with mirth, she put her hands on her hips. “They told you about Kristian, didn’t they?”
“Kind of. They told me to ask you for specifics.”
She shrugged. “Let me guess. Viggo?” When I nodded, she continued. “There’s not much to tell. Kristian is a sweet male, but he’s not my true-mate. You should meet him. He’s handsome and single.”
Oh my God, she was trying to hook me up with my almost-boyfriend’s brother. I tried not to squirm. “Uh, I’m not looking for anyone right now. Thank you for thinking of me though.”
“Let me know if you change your mind. I’m seeing you with a Väsen. I can sense the signature in your future. What about Viggo?” She wiggled her eyebrows. “He’s…nice.”
I cringed. “For a brother, maybe.”
“Huh. I thought for sure it would be one of them.”
I wondered why she hadn’t made the connection between Jakob and I. Jakob would have been the logical next choice, but she didn’t mention him at all. I guess it’s possible that she thought his serious demeanor didn’t mesh well with my free spirited ways. But, somehow, I didn’t believe that was what it was, especially with her own mating having striking similarities to my own situation.
Emelie thought about my future for a minute more and then shook her head as if to clear it. “I know you have questions, so I’m just going to let you ask me anything you want, and I’ll answer to the best of my ability. Just don’t tell Soren. How does that sound?”
“Awesome. The first thing I want to know is what Soren discovered from the book.
“Not much. The one thing that we know for sure is that it came from Odin’s library. He isn’t in the habit of loaning out important artifacts, so we assume that either Freyr or Viveka stole it while they were there on a visit and left it with you because you alone have the power to cast the spell. How they knew that you would have that power is the mystery.”
“Wow. How crafty of them.”
“That is Viveka to a tee. I suspect she holds more of a role in this than Freyr even realizes. Why would she go to all this trouble to serve under him? That cannot be what her ultimate goal is. There’s no way.”
“How did they know that I was Odin’s daughter? Do you think they know who my mother is?”
She nodded. “They must. Viveka knows a great many things that she shouldn’t because of her talent. She even lived among us, disguised as my great aunt Katrine, for a short time. That is where the promise to the faeries comes in.”
I almost fell off my seat; I turned to her so fast. “What!”
She picked up a box of tissues from the table and put them in her lap. “Viveka came to us disguised as Katrine when Soren summoned her to help me cope with my new Norn abilities. My great-aunt, was a Dis,” she explained. “They’re kind of like assistants to Norns. Anyway, Soren’s friend, Cedric, seemed to fall in love with her, and she acted much the same way. Her attention was consumed by him. We had no idea she wasn’t who she said she was. What reason did we have to believe anything else?”
“That she is able to do that is scary. How can you ever be sure anyone is who they say they are?”
“You can’t. Soren doesn’t enjoy hearing me say this, but I think, for a moment, she forgot that she was there against us. I saw her after Cedric was mortally wounded by Freyr. She was grieving for him as a widow would. It is the one time I’ve ever felt pity for her.”
“How did you find out she was an impostor?”
“That is the most amazing part. We didn’t have a clue until after we captured Freyr and Viveka and put them in a cell. Not even twenty-four hours later, we have her on camera shifting back into Katrine’s form and freeing him.”
“You haven’t seen them since?”
“Not a peep in two years.”
I sighed and sat back. “I am never sleeping again.”
She gave me a sage look and nodded. “That would be safest.”
“So, how do the faeries fit into the story?”
Plucking a tissue out of the box, she wiped her eyes. “Cedric was a great friend to the faeries that lived in the garden of Soren’s ruined estate in Sweden. We buried him there. The faeries just want to make sure Cedric’s memory is honored by Soren keeping his promise to save his true-mate. Soren, of course, wants more than anything to be able to fulfill the promise, but how? We don’t even know where she is.”
“Save her? From what? Herself?”
Emelie’s eyes widened. “I’m an idiot. The faeries are known to be vague to the point of ridiculousness. Why did I not think of this before?”
I was confused. “Think of what?”
She got up and grabbed my hand. “Come on, we have to tell the guys, now.”
Lost, I followed her lead and tried to look as if I knew what the hell was going on.
Soren stopped talking in mid-sentence when we entered. “Emelie, what is it?”
She was so excited she could barely speak. “Erin, she—she figured out the riddle! It’s so simple. It was staring us in the face!”
“Darling, I have no
idea what you are talking about.”
“The faeries! They’re vague.”
Soren was mystified. “Yes, love, they are.”
“I mean that ‘saving her’ is vague. What if they mean for us to save her from herself?”
“Shit.”
I looked up for Nils’ when I heard his voice and spotted Jakob sitting in a dark corner, smoke curling upward from a lit cigarette between his fingers. My eyes couldn’t have found him faster if he were sitting in a spotlight. I drank him in, wanting so much to kiss his lips, to feel his hands on my body.
To my disappointment, Jakob only nodded to me as if we were passing on the street. It was obvious he knew how to play it cool. Me? I knew how to drool and draw hearts around his name in my journal. I was pathetic.
Soren was thankfully oblivious to my reaction. He was ecstatic. “Erin, you are a miracle! Jakob, you know Viveka best. Go to Uppsala and see if you can find her.”
“Where do I start? She could be anywhere.”
I spoke up. “Emelie said she was in a crudely built stone building.”
“Yes, a tall one,” she elaborated.
I paced the room, thinking. A tall, crudely built building in Uppsala, what would that be? The answer came to me out of the blue. “The temple at Uppsala! Wasn’t the temple built for humans to worship Odin, Freyr, and Thor?”
“Yes. How did you come up with this idea?” Soren asked, amazed.
“I read a book on human sacrifices once.” They all gave me looks of disconcert. “I own a bookstore. I read a lot. Stop looking at me.”
Soren started barking orders. “Jakob, forget Viveka, look for the temple. Start with the original site. Nils, find your father, and then meet up with Jakob. I will visit my brother, Thor.”
“How amazing,” I said, sitting down before my weak knees buckled under my weight. How could I have forgotten that Thor was my brother, too?
Soren huffed. “He is not that amazing. Trust me.”
Emelie giggled at her mate’s reaction. “You’re cute when you’re jealous, Soren.”
