He jumped out of the way and hit the back of her knee with the staff. Her leg buckled, her knee landing in the snow. Grim rushed her, swinging the staff wildly.
Taran fought one of the two male giants. He swung his hammer at his knee and the giant snarled. The second male, slightly smaller than the other two, dashed at Taran. Taran turned and brought the hammer down on one of his feet. The crack let me know he’d broken bones. The giant squealed and punched Taran. Snow flew out in a wild arc as Taran hit a snowdrift. I ran to him, sliding into the snow on my knees.
“You okay?”
He nodded and jumped back into the fray, running, leaping and swinging his hammer into the thigh of the bigger male giant. The hammer broke skin and blood sprayed out over the snow. The giant fell, clutched his leg, then tried to catch Taran with his blood-covered hands. Taran batted each grab with hard, heavy swipes of his hammer.
More people came outside to watch and a lot of them stared at Taran...at the human boy who was doing more damage to two giants than the two boys and adult were doing with the third.
I looked back at the female giant as she grinned. Long white hair swung as she halted. I followed her gaze.
Grady had run out of bullets. Not that they’d been doing much good. But it was all he had. I didn’t even have a weapon—had never felt so helpless in my life.
The female giant took a menacing step toward Grady just as Josh grabbed the staff and slammed it into the back of her knee, hitting the same spot his brother had. She cried out and fell with a huge crash onto my neighbor’s roof, her head taking the brunt of the fall. She didn’t move after that.
Taran cried out and I instinctively ran toward him. He was pulling himself out of another snowdrift when I reached him. Blood covered his clothes. I gasped and started searching for a wound.
“It’s theirs. It’s giant blood.” He bent, tried to catch his breath. “They bleed a lot.” He rubbed his chest, winced. “That last hit hurt.”
I shook my head. “This isn’t working. We have to do someth—” I broke off and screamed as a hand like a vise swept me high into the air. The tallest male giant had picked me up, and I struggled and kicked, but couldn’t budge the thick, cold fingers that wrapped me shoulders to ankles. He pulled me to his face and a wave of body odor and putrid breath hit me. I gagged. “What, they don’t have baths or toothbrushes in Niflheim?”
The giant paused with my words, lifted one white eyebrow high. His eyes were bigger than my hand and the color of the amethyst I’d given Taran.
He began to speak and though his movements had been slow, his speech was not. Like the giant we’d seen the night before, he spoke in Old Norse and fast, so I could only pick up a word here and there. He talked of Niflheim and Svartalfheim and again spoke of daughters and darkness.
Taran let out a bellow that rivaled the shouts of one of the giants. They went still as the sky darkened and a low rumble of thunder shook the earth. A gust of wind picked up snow, swirling it all around us as Taran ran through my yard, leaped onto the hood of Officer Warner’s Jeep, then launched himself in the air at the giant who held me. He grabbed a handful of white hair, swung around and slammed his hammer into one of the amethyst eyes.
I squeezed my own shut and cringed when it popped with the most awful, wet sound. Blood spewed everywhere. The giant screamed so loud I cried out because I couldn’t cover my ears. He tightened his hand and I gasped, saw stars.
“Call your power!” Taran yelled as he slammed his hammer into the giant’s legs. Then did it again. “Other people are running out here and I need to help you!”
“It won’t work.” I tried to yell, but my lungs couldn’t get enough air. The giants had moved during my rune tempus. I gasped again, dizziness making the world spin in a way completely different from my rune tempus. “Verthandi,” I whispered my norn’s name for the first time in my life. “If you ever wanted to help me, now’s the time.”
This warm glow blossomed in my chest, easing the pain in my sore lungs, then flowing out into my limbs. It felt as if Verthandi surged into my entire body, and for a moment, I shared Raven’s fear. My sister had spent her life terrified her norn would wipe out her personality. For an instant, I tasted that rusty terror on my tongue. Then as the warmth spread and made every part of me tingle, I realized my norn had just wanted me to accept her fully. It was what all the norns wanted from us. They’d been with us from birth.
They loved us.
The tickle started in my throat, and I knew as I gathered as much air as I could that when I let it go, I could make the world stop. And it did. Everything began whirling around us, faster and faster. I didn’t shut my eyes this time—I stared into the remaining eye of the giant squeezing me, watching anxiety spill into that gaze.
Taran yelled, jumped up and smashed his hammer into the giant’s arm so hard he let me go.
Taran slid under me right before I hit the ground, cushioning my fall. “You okay?” he breathed as he rolled me off him and stood. He pulled me to my feet and once again put me behind him. He faced the two giants still standing, his hammer out and ready. I sucked cold air into my starved lungs over and over, until it began to feel as if spikes were stabbing down my throat and into my chest.
Everyone else around us stood like statues. Neighbors, in midrun, frozen in statues of shock and fear. Grady crouched near the legs of the female giant—who still wasn’t moving. I couldn’t see Josh and Grim. The wind had stopped. I glanced up to see the scary, dark rolling clouds had come to a standstill.
“Please stay near me,” Taran said over his shoulder, his dark gaze hurriedly running over me as if to make sure I was okay before he faced the giants.
One clasped his arm above the elbow—the part below dangled as if his elbow had been completely crushed. Blood poured from his destroyed eye and from different hammer-inflicted wounds. He’d lost a lot of blood, his already-pale skin so white now, it blended with the snow. The other giant, the shorter one with shoulder-length hair, lurched a step toward Taran, his purple eyes narrowed as he dragged his mangled foot. A wound on his side bled in a steady, morbid stream down his hip and leg.
Taran lifted his hammer.
I couldn’t breathe. Terror locked my knees, but I forced myself to take a step back. If I held on to Taran, he wouldn’t be able to fight. He couldn’t be worrying about me. I had nothing to use against giants. All I had in my arsenal was knowledge of freaking herbs. I made a vow that if I got through this, that would change.
Dark eyes pierced me as Taran looked over his shoulder. “Please,” he whispered. “Stay close to me.”
The giant with shoulder-length hair and the broken foot suddenly snarled and jumped toward us. His purple eyes narrowed on me as he tried to reach over Taran’s head. His finger brushed the top of my head. I screamed and dived to the side because the look on his face let me know he wouldn’t be lifting me in the air to look at me—he planned to rip me apart. He tried to grab me again, and I rolled on to my back, crawling backward in the snow. Pure fury, laced with fear, blazed from his gaze.
He was afraid of me.
More than he was of Taran.
Taran yelled again, jumped in front of me and the next swing of his hammer took one of the giant’s fingers off. It sailed into the air, landing somewhere past where the female giant still lay. He screeched, loud and long, then backed into the other creature, so fast and hard, they both went down.
I screamed, thinking they were going to land on the others, but they hit the ground next to Grady, sending a wave of snow into the air. Taran ran and grabbed his father, setting him safely away as one of the giants crawled to his hands and knees.
Shock sent me scrambling to my feet when he crawled and came for me again.
He should have stood. Taran smashed his hammer into the side of the giant’s head. His eyes rolled back and he crashed to his
side and lay still.
The last standing giant used his one good arm to get to his feet, then reached into the house across the street and tugged the female giant loose. With one arm still useless, he clutched the woman around the waist, stared hard at Taran, then me. He spoke, his words half-muffled through his labored breaths. All I caught was finna and end. He was saying we would see each other again.
The giant turned and ran, crushing an overturned motorcycle under one huge foot.
I took a cautious step toward the still creature and saw the glassy, fixed stare of a dead thing.
Taran ran to me, clutched my arms. “Is any of this blood yours?”
I shook my head, feeling my lips tremble. But this time, the tears didn’t come.
Anger surged through me. “Come here,” he whispered as he tugged me into his body and wrapped his arms tight around me. “When that thing picked you up, my heart stopped.” He lifted me off the ground and hugged me. “I have never been that scared in my life.”
“Me, neither,” I said, squeezing him back. “I don’t want to let you go.” His lips were against my neck.
“Then don’t.”
“We’ll freeze.” He started walking us toward my house.
“I don’t care.”
“How, Coral?” he whispered into my neck. “How did you come to mean so much to me so fast?”
My heart flipped over. “I don’t know, but I feel it, too.”
He set me down in my living room, handed me a notebook, then tugged off the mesh glove so he could cup my cheek. His hand was surprisingly warm. “Those things wanted you. Just like the elf in the restaurant.”
“They seemed to.”
“It has to do with the prophecy you told me about. About how you and you sisters can stop the end of the world. It’s just this world, isn’t it? Theirs—the giants’, the elves’—their worlds will live on?”
I nodded. “But I really don’t know what I can do to stop any of this. Maybe my sisters and I are just supposed to keep the gods like you safe? And it can’t just be three of you. My mother is taking out others and I can’t understand why. When this was about keeping her daughters alive, I got it. I didn’t like it, but at least I understood her motives. This is ridiculous.”
“It feels like we’re being messed with.”
And a moment of clarity hit me so strong and so fast, I choked on the name that sprang into my throat. But then, nausea hit and I knew I was about to see something new.
I turned toward him, stepped close and wrapped my free arm around his neck. I had to stand on my toes to bury my face in his neck. He released my hand and put both his arms around me, holding me so close, I could feel his still-rapidly beating heat through our clothes. “Don’t let me go,” I whispered, because when I closed my eyes, I knew I’d be somewhere else as soon as I opened them.
And I was.
* * *
I turned in a circle, taking in the uneven white mounds of snow around me. I stopped when I recognized the huge, stone pillars beneath Brooks Bridge. Covering my mouth, I took a step closer. Or tried to. I couldn’t interact with the world during my vision. If this had been real, I would be stumbling over snow-covered debris. A barge had crashed into the shore, was several feet up on land and had spilled its contents. From the shapes, I guessed cargo boxes—orange and green from the colors peeking through the snow.
Like in my last vision, the air had the faint taste of tingling magic to it.
Something moved out of the corner of my eye and I turned to see a black-feathered coat disappearing around a bridge pier. She reappeared, halting and staring. I turned to see what she looked at. Huge chunks of busted-up boats littered the shore, floated in the water. Then, I spotted other people moving—pretty far away from us. Squinting, I tried to make out who would be walking during my rune tempus, and gasped when I recognized Mist’s golden beanie and Magnus’s black skin. He sat on the ground, cradling his head. He must have fallen again when the world started spinning.
My mother lifted her arm, her movements pulling my gaze back to her, and I cried out when I saw the small crossbow in her hand.
“No,” I yelled, but she couldn’t hear me.
She let an arrow fly, and I covered my mouth and watched, helpless, as it sailed toward Magnus and Mist. But the Valkyrie must have sensed it coming because she grabbed Magnus by the arm and hauled him out of the way—putting her body in front of his. Then she scrambled to her feet, helped him to his and they ran.
My mother aimed again. I remembered that she’d seen me in the vision before, so I started waving my arms frantically. The shock that froze her in place as she saw me would have been comical if I hadn’t right then spotted something at her feet.
My purple coat.
The one that had the sea snake venom in the pocket.
The grin that stretched her mouth as she saw where I’d looked didn’t look at all like my mother’s smile. She bent and lifted my coat into the air, then winked. Her scraggly hair stood out all over her head and that smile—that creepy, too-wide smile...it wasn’t hers.
That was not my mother. The knowledge raked painfully through me and settled into a throbbing wound in my chest. I rubbed my sternum, feeling my norn’s dismay as she realized it, as well.
Someone had taken over my mother. And she—he or it—had the sea serpent venom.
I was pretty sure I knew who it was.
Someone who had taken Thor’s hammer in the past. Someone who loved to mess with him.
“Take me back to Taran, Verthandi.” I whispered. “Please.”
But she didn’t. Not at first.
Instead she took me to my neighbor’s backyard. Something dark moved in my peripheral vision. My palms began to sweat because I knew what I would see. A dark elf stepped into the yard. It wasn’t the one I’d seen in the restaurant. This one had long, reddish hair and he moved slowly, as if he was still hampered by my rune tempus, but had found the strength to fight it. He wasn’t alone. Five more followed him. They all wore the long coatdress like uniform outfits. All in black. Two had the white hair of that first elf I’d seen in the restaurant, one had a long, black braid and the last’s bald head shone like a polished eight ball.
They never looked in my direction, and I followed their gazes as one pointed.
At Grim and Josh, who had come around the house—probably to see the giant. Because the other one had taken her, they now looked at a patch of bright red blood in the snow.
Grim still held the magical staff in his hands.
I yelled as the elves slowly walked to Grim. They seemed confused by the double image of Josh and Grim together as they argued and made gestures toward the staff. I could do nothing. This was a vision. My body was actually in my house—so very close.
How come my mother could see me but not these elves?
Then another one stepped around the corner. One I recognized. And his black gaze locked onto me and stayed. He didn’t alert the others to my presence—he only narrowed his eyes, locking me into his stare even as my heart pounded in terror for Josh and Grim. Then he bent, picked up a stick and wrote something in the snow fast before straightening back up to watch me. I stood, helpless, as the elves carried the twins toward him.
He was definitely the creature who’d terrorized my childhood. I sneered at him and his sudden grin startled me.
It caught the attention of the redheaded elf, who turned my way, but his gaze brushed right past me. Why could only one of them see me?
Then it hit me.
My mother could see me.
And this one, lone dark elf could see me.
In my gut, I knew exactly what that meant.
Bile rose in my throat as the creature I was starting to think might be my father watched me over his shoulder as he walked with the other dark
elves. Ones carrying Josh and Grim away. I woke up in my body with a gasp of pain. Taran wasn’t holding me—he’d laid me on the couch under several heavy blankets and was kneeling beside me. “You’re back,” he said. “I’m so glad. Did you know that you go as stiff as everyone else whenever you have a vision?”
I shook my head. “Nobody has ever been with me through these. I told you that.”
“I can’t imagine how scary it must have been when this first started.” He frowned, then grimaced and reached toward his chin where some flakes of blood had dried. “What did you see?”
Frantic, I sat up and shoved the blankets off so I could run.
“Coral!” Taran yelled from behind me as he followed, the sound of his shoes hitting the porch loud. “Wait!”
“I can’t!” I sprinted across my yard, the street, then my neighbor’s yard. Skidding as I turned the corner of my neighbor’s house. I looked at what the elf had written—surprisingly in English—but the first word was smudged. The second said bridge. Hurrying, I followed the footprints in the snow. My visions were of things happening in the present. They had just been here! I ran faster, groaning when I hit a snowdrift that pulled at the tired muscles of my thighs.
When I hit the next street, I knew they’d gotten away. The footprints grew farther apart, as if they’d been able to finally fight all the way through my rune tempus and run. I’d seen that thing move in the restaurant before it had wrestled with my rune tempus. At full speed, I’d never catch them. “Oh gods!” I covered my face, heaving.
“What?” Taran skidded to a stop next to me. “What made the footprints?”
“Dark elves.” I dropped my hands, stared down the street where the footprints continued to widen. As my rune tempus began to end and the world started its spin, I turned to Taran. “I know where they’re going.” I put my hands on his chest so he’d look at me. “They took Josh and Grim.”
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