Bridge Burned: A Norse Myths & Legends Fantasy Romance (Bridge of the Gods Book 1)

by Elliana Thered

  Despite Claire’s reassurance, despite her steadier breathing, her pupils remained too big. And while she’d been perfectly alert just minutes ago, she didn’t focus on my face now. She didn’t seem to be seeing me at all.

  I let out a sigh and sat back on my heels.

  This wasn’t going to get better on its own. Claire needed an emergency room, not my half-assed attempts at homeopathic cures.

  It was good enough for the Alfar.

  The Alfar weren’t here. Papa wasn’t here, not even Willow.

  You’re on your own. Figure it out.

  I had a handful of Tansy’s Stars. What I didn’t have was time to run around finding water or building a fire or, least likely of all, finding a container whole enough to hold the tincture.

  I could go back to the cabin. Faucet, pan, stovetop. Simple. I didn’t technically need an official bridge stone—those had been for the purpose of memorizing a given navigational set, at a time when the Alfar rarely visited the mortal realm themselves. The exercise of visiting and memorizing the standard bridge stones was intended to give a set of vivid enough details that we could anchor the ways we created between worlds.

  I’d lived in Midgard for six years. I had plenty of vivid details of locations, one of which was my cabin.

  As long as Heimdal didn’t show up. Would he think I’d go back there? Surely not. In fact, it might be the perfect way to avoid him if I had to go back to Midgard. It could be the one place he wouldn’t think to look for me.

  Maybe.

  “Wanna go home.” Claire leaned against me as she mumbled, but I wasn’t sure she was actually talking to me. She’d closed her eyes. “Joel will help me. I shouldn’t have left him. Gonna prove I love him.”

  Irritation skimmed the surface of my barely-restrained panic.

  Later. She won’t hear anything you say to her right now, anyhow.

  Back to Midgard, then.

  Again, I hesitated. Claire’s mention of Joel brought to mind Loki and the swirls of dark chaos that drifted around Claire. Had Loki been tracking me? Using Claire and her boyfriend somehow? Surely bringing Claire to Alfheim had cut him off from her. He wouldn’t think I’d go back to my cabin at Cox Lake Resort, either.

  Another thought chased the tail of the previous. If Heimdal and Loki were both looking for me, then how likely was it they’d eventually run into each other?

  My throat closed. Because that was how the end of the world began—with the two of them.

  And me.

  Claire’s forehead rested against my shoulder. She still muttered under her breath, although I couldn’t make out the words.

  Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

  If I wanted to help Claire, I had to take her back to Midgard. Start at my cabin, try the tincture—trusting my father’s ways—and then…

  And then, if Claire got better, I could leave her there, in my cabin. And I could return here. Maybe bring a few things with me and… What? Stay here forever, the last Alfar all alone in her long-dead world?

  I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Right now, I didn’t have time to try.

  All the trouble I’d gone to, to avoid the snares that had caused me so much heartbreak the last time. No matter what world I traveled to, I couldn’t seem to escape.

  And now I was going to walk straight back toward the greatest heartbreak of them all. On purpose.

  Beside me, Claire continued to mutter fitfully.

  Maybe it was being in Alfheim that made me hear Papa’s voice so clearly in my head. Maybe I was so tired that my self-interest had worn away to reveal my true Alfar nature, for the first time in nearly six years. But hear my father’s voice, I did.

  We are who we are, whatever they name us.

  I was Alfar. If I wanted to continue claiming that birthright, I had no choice but to help Claire if I could. If that meant facing down Heimdal or Loki or both, then that was what I’d have to do.

  I secured Claire with an arm around her shoulders and made sure the Tansy’s Star was tightly in my grasp. Then I opened the way back to Midgard.

  Thanks for reading!

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