by S. T. Bende
“They’re good. Mom wants you to come for dinner the next time we’re in Asgard. She looked at those pictures I sent her of you with Mia—she’s convinced you’re not eating enough, and she wants to fatten you up.” I could hear Forse’s smile, even with my eyes closed.
“I love your mom.” I grinned back, then furrowed my brow as I analyzed the next two orbs. “Your second center’s clear, and your third center is gorgeous—you really know where you fit in the world, don’t you?”
Forse sighed. “It’s the blessing and the curse of being of Asgard—when Odin gifts you a title, you kind of have to stick with it.”
“Tell me about it,” I murmured. “Fourth center is…hmm.”
“What?” Forse asked.
“There’s something in your love center—a little speck that’s popping against the gold. Would you mind if I went in deeper?” Asking permission was a requisite of healing; I assumed the rules were the same for unifying. A god’s spirit was uniquely theirs, after all.
“You do what you have to do,” Forse agreed. But the speck grew bigger as he spoke. Interesting.
“Okay.” I took a breath and pushed my energy against Forse’s, making my way through the waves of gold surrounding his heart until I neared the speck. This close to the core of the love center, the energy was a muddied brown. That’s strange. I pressed closer, and for the first time I felt a resistance. With another breath, I ploughed forward. Forse’s energy pushed back, rejecting my advances. I squared my shoulders and tried again, and this time the energy parted to let me though. The moment I caught sight of the iron wall surrounding the center’s core, the brown energy closed ranks and pushed me back, forcibly ejecting me from the justice god’s energy field.
“Elsa? Are you all right?” Forse’s hand reached out to steady me. My eyes flew open. The sudden transition had thrown me off balance. Forse’s fingers squeezed my shoulder, and I fixated on the way the thick muscles of his forearms flexed as he pulled me back up. “Why don’t you lie down for a bit?”
“I’m fine.” I tore my eyes away from Forse’s arms and studied his face. “What happened? You pushed me out.”
“I…uh…”
Forse’s body language spoke volumes. His shoulders were tense, his fists clenched. Everything about him screamed run.
“Hey.” I reached up and placed my hand over his heart. It pounded against my palm in a frenetic rhythm, its anxious beat a stark contrast to the soothing snowfall outside the window. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pressured you. You don’t have to talk about it, whatever it is.”
“I want to help, Elsa, it’s just—”
A whirl of violet-blue eyes and vanilla perfume interrupted Forse’s explanation. My brother’s girlfriend threw open the front door and burst into my living room, her normally sleek hair frizzing beneath a light layer of snowflakes.
“Hei, Mia. Is everything okay?” My hand fell from Forse’s heart as I moved to her side.
“Not exactly.” She finger-combed her hair into submission.
“What’s going on?” Forse asked.
“Well, first of all, it’s snowing again. We live in Arcata, for Pete’s sake. If I’d wanted to walk to class in the snow, I would have stayed on the East Coast for college.” Mia shook her head. “But more importantly, Tyr wants to see Forse back at his place right away. I figured I’d find him here.”
“Am I that predictable?” Forse asked.
“Yes.” Mia nodded. “Elsa, you’d better come, too. Tyr was doing the jaw-clench thing. Whatever it is that’s got his boxer-briefs in a twist, it’s probably not good.”
Forse raised an eyebrow at me, and I shrugged. We’d had a string of calm months since we got Freya back from Helheim. We were about due for a crisis.
“Let’s go.” Forse crossed to the hooks by the entry and helped me into my jacket. He tugged his sweater over his head and opened the front door. Mia filed through, and I followed suit. As we walked across the forest to my brother’s house, I snuck a glance at the god clenching his fists beside me.
Something told me it wasn’t Tyr’s summons that had him on edge. What was Forse Styrke hiding behind that iron wall?
CHAPTER TWO
“TYR’S IN THE MAN cave. He told me to send you up.” Mia closed the front door of my brother’s cabin and hung her keys on the hook. Back in Asgard we left our houses unlocked, but Midgard was so crazy these days, we’d agreed the extra security was necessary.
“Elsa, will you be okay if I go upstairs?” Forse turned to Mia before I could answer. “She was working with me back at her place, and I think it took a lot out of her.”
Mia wrung her hands. “Are you all right, Elsa? I made lasagna for dinner, and my lasagna usually makes people feel better. Do you want to stick around?”
I shook my head. “I told you, Forse, I’m fine. Wait, did you say lasagna?”
“I did indeed.” Mia nodded.
“We wouldn’t want to impose…” Mia’s lasagna was amazing. But she and my brother hadn’t had a lot of alone time lately, and I did not want to incur the wrath of the crankiest god in the cosmos. Maybe Forse and I could take dinner to go…
“Hush your mouth, you’re not imposing. Brynn and Henrik will be home any minute, and you know how much they eat. I made enough to feed a small army.”
“Well, if you insist.” I grinned. “Can I help you make a salad?”
“All done.” Mia took my hand and pulled me toward the kitchen. “You can keep me company while we wait for the guys.”
I felt Forse’s concerned gaze as I followed Mia down the hall. Before I got to the doorway, I released Mia’s hand. “I’ll be right there,” I said. Mia nodded, heading into the kitchen as I turned to study Forse. He stood at the foot of the stairs, a deep V between his brows.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked.
“I’m fine. You know you’re never going to get anything done if you spend this much time worrying about me.”
“I know, but you almost fell back at your place. You’re pushing yourself too hard.” Forse kept his voice soft. He tucked his thumbs through the belt loops of his fitted jeans. Concern emanated from his grass green eyes.
The whole effect kind of made me melt.
“I don’t really have a choice. Asgard needs a Unifier. Besides”—I turned the tables—“you’ve barely slept since we got Freya back. Between your regular work as Justice and whatever it is you and Henrik are doing with that locationizer—”
“The locator. It’s going to be a useful tracker if, Odin forbid, there’s another abduction. If it had been operational when Hel took Freya, we could have found her in under a day.” Forse raked his hand through his light brown waves. They were streaked with gold highlights that complemented his tanned skin beautifully.
“Really?” I asked.
“Pretty sure.” Forse raised his voice so he could be heard in the kitchen. “Mia, you sketched the initial design. If we’d had the locator in December, it could have tracked Freya within twenty-four hours, right?”
“Sure, if she’d been in one of the light realms. But given her coordinates, the answer is no.” Mia poked her head around the corner. “The locator’s infrastructure incorporates älva dust, which is a light magic-based compound. The surplus of dark magic in Hel’s sanctum would have rendered the dust, and therefore the locator, useless. The device will perform in dark realms like Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, and even the outlands of Helheim, but dead spots neutralize the älva dust. And by dead spots, I mean spots heavily riddled with an excessive dosage of dark magic. Not spots covered in dead people…like where Hel was keeping Freya.” Mia shuddered before ducking back into the kitchen.
“That’s a major design flaw,” Forse admitted. “Henrik and I need to get on that.”
“Maybe you do,” I agreed. “But you don’t have to do it tonight. Between the locator and catching up on your sentencings, you’ve been working nonstop lately. You need a break.”
“Mmm.
” Forse’s brow relaxed and one corner of his mouth turned up just a fraction. “How about we make a deal? I’ll slow down for a night if you will.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning it’s Friday. After dinner, we go back to your place, pop in a movie, and forget about our to-do lists.”
“Okay,” I said, my outward calm a stark contrast to the joy pinging around my heart. I knew Forse well enough to know I needed to let him take this at his own pace, but the thought of snuggling up against him in my darkened living room, sharing a bowl of popcorn in front of the fireplace…well, it made me feel positively euphoric.
Thank Odin I was the only one in the room who could read energy. Mine was absolutely bouncing off the walls.
“Say hei to Tyr for me,” I said casually.
Forse nodded, then jogged up the stairs to find his friend. His dark jeans hugged the perfekt muscles of his backside, and when I finally turned around and walked into the kitchen, Mia gave me a rueful smile.
“Sorry I interrupted you guys back at your place.” She handed me a cup of tea and tilted her head toward the hallway. “It looked like I walked in on a moment.”
I took the mug and crossed to the island countertop. Then I pulled out a stool and sat down. “You didn’t. Forse is…well, he’s Forse. You know how guys are.”
“Overprotective? Overbearing? Bossy? Stubborn? Impossibly concerned with your wellbeing to the point they assign you a full-time bodyguard?” Mia came to sit beside me, carrying her own cup of tea.
“You must be talking about my brother.” I took a sip. Mmm. Spearmint.
“One and the same. I love Brynn, and I love spending time with her, but you and I both know she’d rather spend time with Henrik, instead of following me to midterms and hovering over my shoulder in the library. At some point, Tyr’s going to have to understand that I can take care of myself.” Mia tapped her French-tipped fingers against her cup.
“True,” I agreed. “But that ‘some point’ isn’t going to be a few months after a homicidal wolf tried to kill you.”
Mia let out a delicate harrumph.
“Face it, Mia, when you signed on to date Tyr, you signed on to a lifetime of weird. And part of that weird comes with a security detail. If you don’t like it, you can always get a mortal boyfriend.” I bit back my smile, knowing full well what was coming next.
“You hush your mouth, Elsa Fredriksen. I love your brother, and that’s that. But sometimes I wonder if he’s ever going to see me as his teammate, instead of as someone else he has to protect.”
“He’s Tyr the Protector. It’s literally in his job description.” I took another sip of tea.
“I know, but…”
“Hey.” I reached over to cover Mia’s hand with mine. “I get it. He treats me the same way, and I’m a Key.” Keys were gods who played integral functions in the Asgardian infrastructure—Seers, Procurers, Transporters, and me—the quirky High Healer/Unifier hybrid. “But you’re a mortal. And he’s in love with you. It’s going to take him a while to stop helicopter boyfriending you.”
“Helicopter boyfriending?” Mia giggled.
“You know what I mean.” I squeezed her hand. “Someday you’ll stand at Tyr’s side and protect our realm with a strength that matches his. You’re just going to do it in your own way. And until then…” I shrugged.
“Helicopter boyfriend.”
“Exactly.”
We exchanged a smile. Mia brought her mug to her lips and took a sip. After a minute, she turned back to me. “So when do I start training?”
“Training?” I tilted my head.
“To be a Unifier. The sooner I get up to speed, the sooner I can help you guys protect Asgard and Earth. And the sooner Tyr will drop the whole bodyguard thing, right? God knows Brynn needs to be focusing on her own life right now, not mine.”
Adrenaline surged through me as Mia’s question ran across my brain. Train Mia? I barely understood what unifying was, how was I supposed to teach the most important person in my brother’s life to use it to protect the realms…and herself? I stilled an involuntary shiver and pasted on a smile to deflect the question. “Brynn’s a pretty formidable valkyrie. She’s got things under control.”
“Yeah, but she needs to be spending time with Henrik. They’ve waited forever to get to be together.” Mia nodded.
“True. But they’re making time for each other when they can.” I willed my heartbeat to settle. “They’re not here right now, are they?”
“No. They’re out for a run. Wait.” Mia’s brows shot up and I permitted myself an inward sigh of relief. Mortal diverted. Mission accomplished. She’d dropped the Unifying question for now, but I knew my reprieve was only temporary. Mia was as tenacious as she was smart, and she desperately wanted—and deserved—to use her natural gift of bringing people together to help our team. My resolve to learn the elusive unifying skill strengthened. Mia needed me. The realms needed both of us. I wouldn’t let everyone down. Figure it out, Elsa. Fast.
“Wait what?” I grounded my energy to the kitchen and centered myself in present time. I could worry another day.
“Wait, Henrik never runs.” Mia connected the dots. “He lifts weights and boxes and does that suspension training thing, but he hates jogging. There’s no way he’d…”
“Exactly.” I nodded. “They’re good. Now how about you? We haven’t gotten to catch up since you finished midterms. Are you doing all right?”
I did a quick scan of Mia’s energy. As always, her love center emitted a radiant, pinkish-gold hue. She was one of the most refreshingly open mortals I’d met. But her visualization center was muddied. She was understandably anxious about the future and what it meant for her, especially since Tyr’s nightmares kept coming true—the gods close to him were under siege, and so far we hadn’t done the best job of protecting ourselves.
“I’m a little uncomfortable,” Mia admitted. “I’ll feel a lot better once I know I can help keep the peace around here. Maybe then we’ll stop being attacked by people. Or, by dogs. Or by demons. Or whatever.”
The poor girl didn’t yet understand that we would always be under attack. It was the nature of being of Asgard. You didn’t get to rule the realms without making a lot of enemies. Loss was just the name of the game.
I miss them so much.
“Elsa? Are you okay? You’re gripping your mug really hard.” Mia gently pried my fingers away from my cup.
“Sorry. I was supposed to be checking in on you.” I shook the memories from my head. There was little point to dwelling on the past. It wouldn’t bring my parents back, and it sure wouldn’t help Mia’s peace of mind. I grounded myself in the present. Again. “Okay. What were you saying?”
Mia squeezed my fingers. “I’m asking you to train me. I’m tired of feeling like the helpless human—I want to do something to actually help y’all out. Midterms are over, and I’ve got two weeks off for spring break. My parents and Jason are coming out for the first week, but then they’re going back to the East Coast, so I’ve got free time. If you’re up to it?”
I bit my bottom lip. My reprieve hadn’t lasted a full two minutes. But how could I train Mia to be a Unifier when I hadn’t mastered the allegedly inherited skill set myself? Unifying was supposed to be in my blood. Under my mom’s dominion, we’d lost fewer lives than at any point in our history.
And here I couldn’t even break through the blocker on the crush-of-my-existence’s heart.
“About that,” I hedged. I owed Mia an explanation for my foot-dragging. “I’m not exactly the best Unifier just yet.”
“Too bad.” My brother burst into the kitchen like a bull in a china shop. He stopped in front of the sink, crossed his arms over his chest, and eyed me levelly. “At the moment, you’re the only Unifier we’ve got. Time to goddess-up and get in the field.”
“What are you talking about?” I tucked one blond wave behind my ear as Forse stalked into the kitchen behind Tyr. His jaw was clenched, his shoulde
rs pulled back to military attention, and the wrinkle between his brows was so deep, it could have held a pencil. “What’s going on?”
“Ask him.” Forse jutted his chin at Tyr and stood behind me. He put his hands on the back of my chair as he stared my brother down. “For the record, I do not agree with this.”
“I know you don’t.” Tyr met his glare. “But we don’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.” Forse’s voice was even, but his hands clenched my chair so hard, I heard a knuckle crack. The tension in the room was palpable; the kitchen was draped in the thick, red fog of anger.
The emotions were overwhelming. I shut down my abilities so I could focus. “What. Is. Going. On?”
Before I got my answer, the front door slammed and Brynn and Henrik’s footsteps pounded in the hallway. When they skidded to a stop in the kitchen, I noticed Brynn’s T-shirt was on backwards. I bit back a smile.
“How was your ‘run?’” Mia teased, using her fingers to make air quotes.
Brynn flushed before tucking her head into Henrik’s chest. “Good,” she muttered.
“We got your text, kille. Everything okay?” Henrik rested his hand on Brynn’s lower back. She stuck her tongue out at Mia, who giggled in response.
“Everything is great. We have a twenty on one of our top-ten fugitives.” Tyr didn’t take his eyes off Forse.
I turned around. “That’s a good thing. Right, Forse?”
“That’s not why I’m upset.” Forse held Tyr’s stare. I’d turned off my extra sense, but anyone could see the equivalent of energetic fire shooting from his eyes. Yikes.
“What’s Forse upset about?” Mia asked.
“He’s upset because I’m bringing Elsa into the field with us to retrieve the perp.” The vein in Tyr’s neck pulsed. Oh, great. He was really mad, though whether it was at Forse, me, or this yet-to-be-identified perp, I hadn’t yet assessed.
“She’s not ready. And you know it’s probably a trap.” Forse spoke through gritted teeth.
“Maybe. Which is why Brynn and I are going with you.” Tyr nodded.
