by S. T. Bende
Perfekt Balance
The Ære Saga: Book Three
by
S.T. Bende
The Ære Saga
Perfekt Balance
Copyright © 2015, S.T. Bende
Edited by: Lauren McKellar
Cover Art by: Cora Graphics
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage system without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
First publication: 2016, S.T. Bende
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Back Cover Copy
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Mange Takk
About the Author
Praise for Perfekt Balance
“An amazing story filled with non-stop action, romance, intrigue, and mythology. I read it in one sitting and by the end I wanted…no, I needed the next one. The Ære Saga is an outstanding series. Perfekt! S.T. Bende is my new author crush and I can't wait to see what comes next.”
– Jaymin Eve, International Bestselling Author of The Walker Saga
Back Cover Copy:
Become what you believe.
Elsa Fredriksen knows there’s a thin line between love and fear. As High Healer, she rights the wrongs committed by those who choose the darkness. But even Asgard’s secret weapon can’t undo every injury—especially when her fate is completely entwined with the god she’s trying to save.
Elsa’s in love with the Norse God of Justice. But Forse’s heart is ruled by fear—fear that the past will repeat itself; fear that opening his heart will compromise his ability to do his job; fear that he’ll hurt the one girl he desperately wants to protect. Again.
When Elsa faces off against the very monster she once swore to protect, her survival depends on a power she isn’t sure she can control. And when Forse’s worst nightmare unfolds in front of him, Elsa has to decide whether it’s more important to hold the realms in perfekt balance…or hold onto the guy she can’t imagine existing without.
Dedication
To my three boys—may your kind hearts continue to brighten every realm you touch. Jeg elsker deg.
Acknowledgements
An eternity of love to my handsome husband, for being my very own perfekt balance. Jeg elsker deg.
Tusen takk to our biggest little blessings, who bring us laughter, joy, and so very much love. We thank God for you.
Takk to my editor, Lauren McKellar, for keeping the Ære crew in line and filling my inbox with smiles, and to my proofreader, Sara Meadows, for helping our crew put their best broadsword forward.
Mange takk to my authorial Asgardians, Stacey Nash and Kristie Cook, for your friendship, and for always making my stories so very much richer. Takk to my real-life Unifiers, Heather Brandt and Lorna Richmond, for all that you do for me, our Asgardians, and our collective crews. Heather, you’ve jumped right in with both feet and made all of our groups such joyful places to be. Lorna, your Padawan gained so many of her gifts through your tutelage, and both Elsa and I are grateful you’ve shared your wisdom with us.
To the teachers who introduced me to the beauty of Elsa’s gifts, takk for bringing a new layer of grace to my worlds—both real and imaginary.
Thank you to my RagnaRockstars and our Valkyrie Team for your tireless enthusiasm and support. You always know how to make me smile, and I adore you for it. Tusen takk to every single reader who’s taken a chance on these stories. YOU are the reason I get to keep on dreaming across the realms, and I am so very grateful for the privilege. Thank you for choosing to share your reading time with me.
And to MorMorMa, for everything. Tusen takk, from the bottom of my heart.
“Awake, dear heart, awake. Thou hast slept well. Awake.”
-Prospero, The Tempest
CHAPTER ONE
“I’LL SHOW YOU MINE if you show me yours.” Forse Styrke lifted one corner of his mouth in a lazy smile. My heart thudded before tumbling headfirst into a familiar abyss.
“It doesn’t work like that, and you know it,” I reminded him.
Forse shrugged. “Fair’s fair.”
“And if the God of Justice says it, it must be true.”
Forse just winked.
“Are you going to let me do this or not? Odin knows I need the practice.” I planted my hands on my hips and blinked at my longtime crush and longer-time friend. It didn’t take him long to break.
“All right, all right.” Forse held up his hands. “The big, blue deal-closers win.”
I batted my eyelashes with a smile.
Forse reached up and brushed my temple with the back of one finger. A wave of goose bumps broke out across my neck as I leaned into the touch. Seconds after his knuckles grazed my cheek, Forse pulled his hand back and took a step to the side. “All right, Miss Unifier, give me your best shot.”
I pressed my lips together and extinguished the feeling of disappointment. Forse and I had danced this dance for a few months—longer, if I counted the time before I was stuck in the coma. Forse liked me…or I thought he did, but he pulled back every time we started to get close. And even though Odin had gifted me with the ability to read feelings, auras, and the occasional mind, I couldn’t get a grasp on why Forse wouldn’t let himself fall for me. My normally intuitive brain picked up on an inkling of fear flashing from somewhere in Forse’s emotional center, but I couldn’t for the life of me determine its source.
The God of Justice was proving to be one irritating wall of hard-headedness. And my supposed gift was completely letting me down.
“Elsa?” Forse waved his hand, and I snapped back to the present.
“Mmm?” A gust of wind pulled my attention to the redwood grove outside the window of my tiny house. Another storm was blowing in—the second one this month, and the sixth since December. A March shower in Northern California wasn’t unusual…but a winter of snowfalls this close to the ocean sure was. Better keep an eye on that.
Forse furrowed his brow in concern. “I lost you. Do you still want to practice your energy analysis, or do you need to lie down for a while?”
“I’m good. Let’s get started.”
“It’s only been a few months since you came out of the coma, and you know there can be residual effects. Maybe we should—”
“I’m fine, Forse, I swear. I just got distracted. There’s a
lot riding on me getting this right, so pretty please stand there and let me practice.”
“I would, but—”
“But nothing. You and I both know that if I don’t get a grip on this ability soon, the realms will be in serious trouble. Asgard needs a proper Unifier. My mom held the light realms in balance so well, they’ve kept it together since she died. But that can’t last much longer, and I don’t even want to think of how powerful the dark worlds will become if I don’t make this work.”
Forse shook his head. “I still think it’s too soon. Fenrir nearly killed you. You—”
I placed my hand on his arm and kept my voice soft. “I’ve got this.”
Forse and I stared at each other for a seemingly endless beat. He was the first to blink. “You’ll let me know if you need a break?”
I ran my fingers along the throw that rested on my tan sofa. The soft blue fibers matched my new curtains perfectly. “You have my word. Now let’s go over what we’ve learned since the Norns named me interim Unifier. Maybe we can avoid repeating some of our earlier, uh, mistakes.”
“Like the time you accidentally filled my energy with so much love I very nearly kissed Brynn?” Forse raised one eyebrow, and my cheeks grew hot. That hadn’t been an accident. Right after my parents’ deaths, the Norns had named me my mom’s replacement, and Forse had volunteered to help me practice unifying—bringing opposing factions together. On my first attempt, I’d pushed an overwhelming amount of adoring energy into Forse’s love center, thinking it would make him own up to his feelings for me. Brynn had walked in at just the wrong moment and almost reaped the benefit of my misguided work. Right place, wrong goddess. Lesson learned.
“Um, yes. Like that.” I stared at the recessed lights in my living room, willing the blood to drain from my cheeks. “So we won’t try that one again. Just like we won’t try to override your consciousness—sorry I ended up making you think you were a fairy.”
Forse glared at me.
“And we won’t try to mute your sense of self-preservation—seriously, I did not see the whole ‘handing over your broadsword and kneeling before my brother’ thing coming.” I giggled.
Forse glared harder.
“Right.” I covered my mouth. “And we definitely won’t invoke the guardian spirits from Valhalla. That did not end well.”
“Thanks for pulling me out before the inebriated ones tried to decapitate me. Remember, they train during the daytime. Off hours, it’s one giant mead-fest.” Forse folded his arms across his perfectly sculpted chest. His grey T-shirt strained against a set of flexed biceps, and his profile was backlit by the lamp beside the three-quarter-length window, giving him an almost ethereal glow. Oh dear gods, he is beautiful. So beautiful. It’s completely unfair that Odin would—
“Are you sticking your tongue out at me?” Forse asked.
Oops! I hadn’t realized I was licking my lips. Thank Odin Forse was as dense as a forest. “Erm, just giving you a hard time. I promise I won’t make those mistakes again. But you’d think with all the research we’ve done, all the books we’ve read and the subjects we’ve interviewed, we’d be closer to understanding how my mom did what she did. She made it look so easy. And it’s just…not.”
“That’s the thing about this particular job.” Forse shrugged. “Unifying’s an intuitive skill. It’s not like Tyr’s job, where he can look at old war strategies to assess an enemy’s weakness, or my job, where I can study the legal systems of the realms to get a handle on how they operate. What you’re trying to do is a mystery. All of the subjects we interviewed had no idea how your mom helped them; they just knew that she did. We really don’t have much of a choice—it’s trial and error or bust here.”
“Fair enough. So today we’re going to…” I blew air out of my lips in a frustrated stream. “Odin’s beard, what haven’t we tried? We’ve been at this for ages.”
Forse smiled, pale pink lips curving up to reveal a glimpse at two rows of blinding white teeth. Everything about him was perfekt. “Why don’t we stick with what you know? You’re an epic High Healer; try scanning my energy centers for blocks like you would with a regular healing, and if you find something pull it out. A removed block should make me more open to befriending thine enemy, ja?”
“Something like that.” I smiled back, trying not to get lost in the beautiful green vortexes of his eyes. “And if that doesn’t work, I’ll just bang my head against your chest and cry.”
Ooh, if I cry, maybe he’ll comfort me. Wrap his arms around me and pull me close so I can—
Not helping!
Forse chuckled, oblivious to my inner turmoil. “My chest can take the head-butt,” he pointed out. “You crying, on the other hand, might just break me.”
My cheeks flamed again. “Okay, here we go. Unifying 101, take nine hundred.” I was going to learn how to bring spirits together if it was the last thing I did. Not only was it my Odin-given destiny, at least until I could pass the torch to my brother’s mortal girlfriend, Mia, but it was a key function of Asgardian security, therefore vital to the survival of our race and the realms as we knew them. Plus, there was a smidgeon of a chance my using Forse as a practice buddy might just open his heart to the possibility of finally dating me. Which, of course, would just be a pleasant side effect of my education, and not at all the reason I was working so hard.
I wasn’t totally selfish, after all.
“Let’s do this,” Forse said. He closed his eyes, and I followed suit, drawing a deep breath. I exhaled and pressed my palms toward the ground, expelling all foreign energy from my body. Calling my energy back to me was second nature, and as I expanded my energetic bubble to nudge against Forse’s space, I sent a prayer of thanks to my mom for passing on this extremely useful, albeit highly confusing, gift.
“You’re in now, aren’t you?” Forse sounded uncomfortable.
“What’s the matter, Justice? Don’t trust me?”
“I trust you. It’s just…”
“It’s okay; I know it’s weird. You can push me out at any time. You know the drill, just intend to eject my energy from your space. Your energy will follow your intention.”
“I’m not going to push you out,” Forse said. “We’ve got to be getting close to cracking this.”
“It would have been a lot easier if we’d known I got Mom’s unifying gene,” I whispered. “She could have explained everything to me before Fenrir…well, before.”
Forse’s energy flickered, and an air of remorse passed through his aura, dimming it a notch. “I’m so sorry we lost your parents.”
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t sic Fenrir on them.” I sent a wave of love at him—just enough to be the equivalent of an energetic hug, definitely not enough to send him off trying to kiss the first girl who walked by. Again. Lucky Brynn.
“Yeah, but—”
“But nothing. They’re gone; it’s nobody’s fault but Fenrir’s…well, Fenrir’s and hers.” I forced the image of Fenrir’s accomplice out of my head. “And that devil woman fled Asgard the day of the attack, so let’s move forward and give Mom a legacy to be proud of.”
Forse nodded. I knew it was hard for him to put his worry aside, but he stayed very still and his energy started to calm. “I’m all yours.”
Gods, I wish.
“I’m going back in,” I declared. “Let’s see if I can get it right this time.”
Forse nodded again. With the path to his energy centers clear, I began my assessment. Analyze each location. Identify any blocks. Isolate and remove the barrier. It seemed simple enough. Odin willing, this approach worked. Between Fenrir’s attacks, Hel’s abduction of our love goddess, Freya, and this bizarre cold spell in a realm plagued by global warming, I sensed the perfekt balance of our realms was starting to tip toward the dark side. If I could just hold it together until my brother got around to marrying his girlfriend, Mia, then under Asgardian law she’d assume the role of Unifier. I had every confidence she’d be brilliant at the jo
b. She had an innate knack for smoothing out emotionally charged situations, and she somehow managed to make my normally uptight brother calm enough to see the big picture. Once Mia could take over as Asgard’s Unifier, I’d get to go back to my other full-time job, High Healer—a calling I was considerably less bad at.
For all our sakes, I hoped Tyr proposed soon. Like, yesterday, soon.
“Elsa? Are we still doing this?” Forse interrupted my derailed train of thought.
“Yes. Sorry. I’m really distracted today.”
Forse chuckled. “Am I that boring on the inside?”
“Quite the opposite. You’re positively brilliant on the inside.” He was. His entire being was filled with a striking golden light. It was a testament to a life lived with ære—honor.
“You flatter me, hjärtat. Now get to work.”
“Yes, sir.” I zeroed in on the glowing light at the base of Forse’s spine. Mortals called the pulsing markers along the spine chakras, but Asgardians knew them as energy centers. These tiny orbs contained a blueprint of Forse’s past, and predicted the choices of his future. Each represented a different function—for example, Forse’s first center, the one at the base of his spine, permeated a clear white light. It made sense that the center reflecting his family of origin would be so pure—Forse’s dad, Balder, was the God of Light, and his mom, Nanna, was the Goddess of Warmth—the immortal embodiment of maternal love. Forse’s childhood had been uncharacteristically secure for an Asgardian, and he’d maintained a close relationship with his parents and his brother once he took his own title.
“Your first center’s clear—no blocks there. How are your parents?” I asked.
