I spread my coat on the ground, used my backpack as a pillow, and curled up by the fire. The hunger pangs twisted my gut, but I ignored them. If Eirik could go for five days without food, I could survive a few… hours.
“Wake me up when you are ready to talk,” I mumbled.
Something tickled my nose and my eyes flew open. The fire still burned and I was still on the floor, yet something felt different. I sniffed. There was the aroma of barbecue in the air.
I looked down and frowned at the blanket covering me. No, not a blanket. Animal skin. The outside was leather, but the inside fur was soft. And it was huge. The humming had stopped.
“If you think I’m going to thank you, think again,” I murmured, running my hand over the fur. It was so soft, like the skin of some exotic animal. Then I noticed a large wooden bowl of roasted meat—a bird’s thigh—and bread. My stomach growled. Pride be damned. That looked good. The size alone said it was from something bigger than a giant turkey.
I sat up and pulled the wooden bowl closer. Anyone who used utensils and a blanket couldn’t be a monster. And from the size of the animal skin and size of my servings, she was a giant.
“Thanks,” I called out and tore into the food. There was nothing to drink, but I didn’t mind. The meat was juicy and the bread, though hard on the outside, was soft on the inside. The singing had stopped, but I could swear heavy breathing was coming from the dark entrance to my right. Part of me wanted to meet this giantess who kept luring me to this cave while a different part of me was wary. As long as I was in the well-lit part of the cave, I was okay. Or so I kept telling myself. But I wasn’t okay. I should have been home yesterday.
Maybe the giantess was lonely and bringing me here was her way of having company. The cave was high enough for a giant of Trudy’s size. I hadn’t met her father or sister, so I just assumed Trudy was the standard size. The owner of this cave could be a shifter, too.
My eyes started to close again. Why was I so sleepy?
“Who are you?” Silence. “Why can’t you come in here and sit with me? I don’t care if you are a giant or something else.”
There was movement in the dark, but no one came inside the cave. Sighing, I tried to go back to my food. I plucked the meat from the bone. I’d lost my appetite and I was so sleepy. I’d just woken up, yet…
I was on the floor with an animal skin covering me. Hmm, it was so soft, and the food an arm’s length away looked so appetizing. Something tickled my memory. All this looked familiar, yet I had barely arrived in the cave. I was sure of it. I just had breakfast and left Eirik’s place, yet I was so hungry.
I picked up the bowl and ate, got up, and stretched. “Can you at least tell me why you don’t want me to leave?”
The humming started.
“I swear, if you don’t stop that, I’m going to the mouth of the cave and throwing myself into that crazy void so you’ll have no choice but to either scrape my lifeless body from the bottom of the ravine or let me astral project home.”
The humming grew louder like she was agitated. An idea popped in my head. Maybe we could communicate.
“Okay. Okay. I’m not going to do that.” She stopped. “Let’s try something. If I say something you agree with, hum softly. If you don’t agree, don’t hum. Okay?”
She hummed. This might actually work.
“I didn’t astral project here. You brought me here to this realm on Monday.”
She hummed, a definite yes. I knew it. It explained the lack of an aura. She’d snatched me before I entered the astral plane. Wait a second. That wasn’t right.
“You didn’t get me from the astral plane. You yanked my soul from my body. You soul-napped me.”
A soft hum. Sounded like an ashamed yes.
“Then you let me go after the first time.” Another yes. “Why?” Silence. Not a yes or no question. “You knew I’d come back.”
Another affirmative.
“So I’m a hostage and you are the one keeping me here.” Silence. Getting annoyed, I asked, “Am I right?”
A hum.
Damn, Doctor B had been right. Whatever brought me here would take me back, he’d said. At the time, I’d thought he was talking about Eirik, not some shy giantess who refused to show her face.
“So now you don’t want me to leave.” A hum. “If I were to leave now or jump down that fog-covered ravine, you wouldn’t let me go home?”
Another yes.
I got up and paced, my mind racing.
“Okay. Here goes nothing. So, I’m supposed to help Eirik.” She hummed. “Help him with what? He is back on his feet and is getting along with his mother.” Silence. Okay, so that wasn’t clear. “He still needs my help?”
A firm and long hum followed.
“Is this about his past?” Silence. “His future.” A quick response.” I sighed. “Fine. How long are you keeping me here?” No response. “Are you going to keep me here until I help him?” More humming. “Great. Just freaking great. Have you any idea what my family and friends are going through right now? What my father is going through? I am his only child,” I yelled. Then I felt stupid because the giant didn’t really care about me. Her concern was Eirik. “When I come back again, I’m going home.”
Silence.
“That had better not be no, or I swear… You cannot keep me here indefinitely.” More silence. I snatched up my coat from the ground and didn’t bother putting it on. “Next time I come here, I’m going home whether you like it or not.” I grabbed the rest of my things and glared at the dark doorway, wishing I could see her so I had a face to hate.
~*~
EIRIK
For two hours straight, I ignored the Grimnirs and hit the punching bag, releasing the tension that had built up over the last three days. Being cooped up in the dungeon wasn’t fun, especially when it was self-imposed. I’d done drills, eaten, refused to move despite my mother’s threat, and slept. I missed Celestia. No one seemed to care that she was gone or even asked about her. It was as though she was never here.
Rhys joined me the last hour. He was an enigma. Twice in the last three days, he’d come downstairs to spar with me. Serious and quiet, he hardly said a word, except, “Do you want a sparring partner?”
He’d brought boxing gloves and sparring staff. Even now, he ignored the other Grimnirs in the gym. His partner sparred with a group of female reapers but kept glancing over at us. I had a feeling she usually worked out with him and probably felt slighted that he’d decided to join me.
Like most Grimnirs, Rhys used speed and strength runes while sparring, boxing, or doing hand-to-hand combat, so I engaged mine too. He was a superior fighter, but he didn’t try to show off, even when his partner and her friends stopped their workout and watched us. I’d spent most of my time in Asgard working out with the warriors, so I wasn’t too shabby, but the Grimnir was lighter on his feet.
“If you want to hit the showers, they are down that hallway.” He waved to our left. “They have sauna and steam rooms, tanning booths, and a bar with refreshments. The booths for watching fights are up there. Some face the basketball courts and others the boxing ring. Your mother spares no expense when it comes to upgrading our facilities.”
I’d noticed. I didn’t say anything as he showed me around. What could I say? My mother was a shoo-in for the Employer of the Year award and fell short for the World’s Greatest Mom’s award?
“Your father said you want to know certain things,” Rhys filled in the silence.
Certain things as in my sister. I nodded, happy he’d brought it up. I could see why my father had given Rhys the task of finding my sister. The Grimnir exuded a quiet confidence that was reassuring, and he seemed discreet.
“Walk with me, please,” he said, and I followed him down a broad hallway.
“So, how long have you been searching for her?” I asked once we left the gym behind.
“Since they took her, which was the night she was born, and the Norns replaced her with
a dead body.” His voice was devoid of emotions, but his eyes gave him away. He was pissed. “It hasn’t been easy because we have very little to go by. Just that she is a girl, born a year after you were taken. We are sure she lives with Immortals, but we haven’t been able to locate them. Every time we think we are on the right track, we hit a dead end.”
“For sixteen years? How many Immortals are out there?”
“We don’t know, and they are private. They have the means to disappear or hide publicly. Unlike us, they don’t always have to use their powers, so they can hide in plain sight. Most don’t want to have anything to do with us, because they believe we have an unfair advantage.”
“How? You reap souls twenty-four seven while they live like kings with wealth they’ve accumulated over the centuries. What’s not to love?” His Immortal guardians had been loaded, too.
“But we visit the realm of the gods and talk to you guys. They don’t. That’s what most Immortals I’ve met want, so they haven’t cooperated with us in our search.”
Could that explain the Sevilles’ attitude? They’d hated living on Earth. In their case, they were even given a place in Asgard because of me. Still, they’d disappear there for days and leave me behind with nannies.
“How the hell did you find me, and how long did you guys search?”
For a few seconds, Rhys didn’t answer, and I realized we’d been walking for a while and the hallway had narrowed considerably. Instead of light crystals, sunrays bounced off snow-covered terrain and poured into the hallway, which appeared to bridge two buildings. At the other end of the bridge was an even larger castle. It wasn’t the only one. More buildings loomed above the mist in the distance. Bridges connecting closer ones were visible.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Those are Eternal Halls for souls,” Rhys said. “This is just one of the exterior bridges connecting Eljudnir to the rest of the halls. Did your father tell you he’d asked me to keep an eye on you?”
That was still humiliating. “Yes.”
“Your mother’s search team started right after you disappeared. Even with a description and the birthmarks, they couldn’t locate you until Maliina met you and used you as a ticket to come here.”
I couldn’t contain my excitement. “Birthmarks? Where?”
“The ones you had when you were born covered your entire back all the way to your neck.” He glanced at me and shrugged. “They’re gone now, of course.”
“What did they look like?”
“Like psoriasis spots. They were exactly the same size and shape. Ah, here we are.” He stopped in the middle of the bridge and faced left. “Take a look.”
Below in the open was a dugout arena, an amphitheater of some sort. In the middle were about a dozen men and women sparring. On the makeshift snow-bleachers were more of them cheering and jeering. All of them, the fighters and the spectators, looked like post-apocalyptic survivors. Hair long and stringy or knotted in dreadlocks, gray clothes wrapped around arms, hands, and legs as though to ward off cold. Fingers left unprotected to grip whatever weapons they were using. The spectators drank from tumblers and plates piled with food.
“Who are they?” I asked, only mildly curious. My thoughts were on the marks on my back. This could be something or nothing.
“Hel’s army, souls of the worst criminals, mass murderers, gangbangers, and the bottom of the barrel in every civilization,” Rhys said. “They are shipped from Corpse Strand and given a chance to prove their worth. Then they are sent back at the end of the day. They get to fight, eat, and get a day’s rest from torture. Better fighters return the next day, so as you can imagine, the more ruthless ones catch a break often.”
As though they realized, they weren’t alone, the ones taking a break looked up and saw us. Some raised their tumblers and smirked. Were they the ones I was to train with? I wouldn’t put it past my mother to throw me in the pit with them and leave me there in the name of toughening me up.
They were using all sorts of weapons—swords, daggers, maces, and axes. I missed my mace. My mother keeping it didn’t make sense.
“Are the weapons magical?” I asked.
“Yep. Made by local Dwarves.”
If her ragtag army was allowed to use magical weapons, I didn’t see why I couldn’t. I understood that she hated my grandfather, but Odin hadn’t given me the mace. A Dwarf master blade smith had carefully crafted the weapon and put in the perfect runes, so it only responded to me.
Rhys stepped away from the window, and we headed back to the main building.
“Do you guys ever train with them?”
He grinned. “Wouldn’t be fair on them, would it?” Rhys said. “We have speed and extraordinary strength on our side. All they have is a bad attitude. Ten minutes and they’d all have broken necks.”
“Souls don’t die.”
“But they hurt, bleed, and pass out. The goddess wouldn’t want us messing with her selection process. Do you need anything else from the mansion? Nara and I are heading out after this and I could swing by.”
“No, I’m okay for now.” I wanted to ask if he’d seen Raine and Cora, and if Cora was still with Echo, but pride stopped me. No one would ever know how I still felt about her. We walked the rest of the way in silence, which suited me. I had a lot of thinking to do. We stopped by the gym.
“You want to train again tomorrow?” Rhys asked.
“Sure. Same time?”
“Yep. If you don’t see me around, ask my partner. Come on. I’ll introduce you.”
Nara, his female partner, made Rhys seem more talkative. After the intro, we headed to the changing rooms. I was impressed. The only thing missing in the Grimnirs’ changing rooms were flat-screen TVs, tuned to ESPN, but I doubted the reception was great in Hel. Otherwise, it rivaled the best gyms on Earth.
“Hey, I forgot to ask you something,” I said before Rhys and I parted ways. Since way too many Grimnirs were walking past us, I lowered my voice. “Have you spoken with Maera?”
“Not since we got back. Why?”
“I have a friend of a friend back on Earth that might be in trouble. I just wanted to confirm it.” Damn, I didn’t even know what town in Louisiana Celestia was from. I never asked, but she had a slight southern accent and she’d mentioned her father coming back from New Orleans. “They live somewhere in Louisiana. Her name is Hayden and her family owns a shop called Tammy’s Cauldron. Ever heard of it?”
“I know the shop. Why?”
“Are you supposed to reap Hayden?”
Rhys chuckled. “The daughter? No. The Valkyries would go crazy if I did. Both mother and daughter are Immortal.”
Immortals befriending Witches was not uncommon. Maybe Celestia was marked to become an Immortal, too. That might prove to be interesting. The thought improved my mood considerably.
After a long shower, I headed toward the front hall. I was about to walk past a hall when I heard my mother’s voice and slowed down. She was giving a welcoming speech to the souls. She took her time to reassure them and promise them places where they could rest and relive past memories undisturbed. Her concern for their comfort seemed genuine, but it was hard to reconcile the woman talking to the souls with the one who was building an army of killers and murderers. Maybe this was why Odin had put her in charge of the dead from the nine realms. She could be caring to those that needed it and a badass warrior leader to psychopaths. Odin was her enemy, and she would fight the Asgardians. Too bad he learned about that after he’d given her the realm to rule. My allegiance was not carved in stone. My sister’s, when I found her, would not be either. I’d make sure she made it to the new world.
I was starving. I sent a guard to find Litr, and by the time I reached my room, the Dwarf was waiting for me. I hated using portals, so I’d walked.
“Food, Litr. Trays of it. I’m starving.”
“Your father wants you to join him for lunch in an hour. He still wants to meet your friend.”
Final
ly, someone remembered her. “Celestia is gone, and I don’t think she’s coming back.”
“Your father will be disappointed.”
“He’ll survive. If I’m eating in an hour, could you please get me a snack? A bowl of fruit or something and, uh, a mirror?”
He frowned. “A mirror?”
“Full length.” I wanted to see my back as I engaged and disengaged the runes on my body. I’d avoided checking my back, but after my talk with Rhys, it was time to try again.
By the time I stripped to my jockstrap, Litr had returned with a bowl of fruit. I thanked him, grabbed an apple, and munched on it as two men hauled in a mirror with a built-in stand. They propped it in the corner adjacent to the bathtub.
I waited until they left then engaged my runes and walked to the mirror. I studied every inch of my skin, then turned and checked my back. Black runes mixed with glowing ones.
I’d lied when my father asked me if I had a gift. Maybe it was because I didn’t consider it a gift. I could cause Mortals to go crazy with rage. Rile them into frenzy. Make them an extension of me so they felt my emotions. If I was pissed, they got pissed too. My grandfather called it berserking. It was actually the origin of the word berserk. During a battle, I could make men fearless, he’d told me. It had nothing to do with runes. It was some weird energy that came from within.
The first time it happened, I was in Kayville. Raine, Cora, and I had been hanging out at a local rock-climbing joint. Seeing Cora—well, actually, it had been Maliina mimicking Cora—flirt with some football players had pissed me off. The rage had pulsed from me and affected everyone in the place. The next thing I knew, they were pounding each other while I stood aside and watched. Raine, in her need to protect me, had kept quiet—until it had happened again.
I watched my back as I disengaged each string of runes.
CHAPTER 12. NOT MY TYPE
EIRIK
A curse filled the room and I looked up. Celestia.
“Dimples? You’re back?” My excitement died when I saw her expression. She was furious.
Demons (Eirik Book 1) Page 18
