Gears of Mischief (The Valhalla Mechanism Book 1)

by Kendra Moreno

  She paused for a moment and smiled, and I knew she had heard his voice though she gave no other outward sign of doing so.

  “Should I do anything else, Your Majesty?” I asked.

  “Stop calling me by my title.” I froze. “If the world is ending, there’s no place for Queens and monarchs. Do your duty to the world, not to me. That is what I ask of you.”

  Loki grinned. “I like her.”

  “Now go,” the Queen ordered, gesturing for us to move. Then she turned and walked back towards the palace, shouting orders as she went, with no one beside her but her shadow.

  “That woman is my idol,” I murmured, glancing over at Loki. “You said Jӧrmungandr is another child.” Loki grimaced. “I’m not judging, Loki. I would never judge. What I’m asking is if Odin imprisoned all of your children to be released at the end of the world?”

  Thor glanced over at us, but he didn’t interrupt. He spent his time listening to whatever it was Skadi spoke of, whatever cauldron she had managed to find information on. It was another facet of his kindness, of his care for the man that hadn’t been cared for at all, it seemed.

  “Odin is the Allfather,” Loki murmured. “Whatever he decides, there is no questioning it. He, and the rest of the Aesir, decided my children were too beastly to remain free.”

  “And look what good that has done.” I shook my head in annoyance. Whoever Odin was, he did not deserve Thor and Loki, did not deserve to have them speak of him in fear.

  “Don’t,” Loki whispered, stroking his hand down my cheek.

  “I’m doing nothing.”

  “You have that look in your eyes.” He moved closer, pressing his body against mine. “As if you want to stab your dagger through someone’s eye. It’s a pleasant thought, one I would applaud, but a Midgardian is no match for the Allfather, little spy.”

  We would see about that, I grumbled in my mind.

  Tread carefully, Fenrir’s voice echoed. Odin is no fool, even if he acts as one. My father has attempted to free me for centuries, has attempted to escape his fate, but no one ever does.

  “What fate?” I asked, but the wolf remained silent after that, his eyes watching me, waiting for me to make connections I had no bridges for.

  The earth rumbled beneath my feet and I looked up at the storm that suddenly rolled in, thunder adding to the vibrations. I glanced over at Thor in question.

  “It’s not me,” Thor answered, wrinkling his brow, and I mused at the thought that the God could call on lightning at his will. What power at his fingertips. I might have been slightly jealous.

  “It’s Jӧrmungandr.” Loki grabbed my hand. “He’s waking. We have to move, have to get to high ground.”

  “My mother!” The sudden thought that my mother did not know to get to higher ground, and that she was alone in her house, waiting for news, in a home not built to withstand the sea, slammed into me.

  Loki cursed and tightened his hold on my hand, and then we all began to sprint, racing against time.

  “Get to high ground!” I shouted at the people we passed, those who were panicked after the cracks. “Get to high ground! The sea is coming!”

  Too many of them stared at us as we passed. Too many dismissed our words immediately, but I couldn’t help those who didn’t wish to believe. I could only help those who cared to listen.

  We wove through the streets until the River Thames came into view, and then ran alongside it, hoping that we made it in time. When the world began to shake and Fenrir scooped me up onto his back, running full tilt in the direction we needed to go, I knew it was going to be bad.

  I turned to look over my shoulder, at the Thames that began to splash from its banks as the water churned, and I knew we were never going to make it. The air seemed to grow heavy, the whole world holding its breath; perhaps, the whole nine realms were. Something was coming. Something was being released. The ground quivered.

  Something snapped inside the earth, something that sounded strangely like chains even as impossible as that sounded. If Jӧrmungandr was beneath the sea, how could I hear chains?

  Hold on, little warrior, Fenrir murmured in my mind. My brother is waking.

  And so, I did as the giant talking wolf said. I wrapped my arms around his pelt and trusted him to outrun the very ocean itself.

  A roar made the earth stand still.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The alarm that echoed through the city rose and fell in the silence that was a precursor of the danger. It bounced off the cobblestones around us, and though I was wrapped in the thick fur of Fenrir, though the rest leaped onto his back at his encouragement, it seemed to rattle my bones.

  There was not enough time. London would be lost to the ocean in the next stage. We had been too late, taken too long to warn them. Around us, small airships rose into the sky, far too little to hold the citizens of London. Some of the buildings were peppered with people on the tops of them. Some of those buildings might have been too short, but there was no more time to outrun it.

  “Don’t look back,” Loki murmured as he slipped behind me, his hands wrapping around my torso to hold me steady.

  “All that does is make me want to turn around,” I growled, glancing over my shoulder. It took me a moment to see it, the wall in the distance. No, not a wall; the wave. “Fenrir!”

  I see it.

  Fenrir ran as hard as he could, covering the distance in a short time, but we wouldn’t make it to our destination before the wave hit. No one offered to give up the mission, even in the dire circumstances. No one insisted it was too late or that we should head to high ground. Loki and Thor understood the life I needed to save, understood the connection, and so we raced along the River Thames with one goal in mind.

  Save as many as possible.

  “Get to high ground!” Thor boomed, his voice echoing as loudly as the siren. “Get in the air!”

  “Loki,” I whispered, my breath shaking in my lungs.

  “I’ve got you, Tillie.” But he couldn’t. I was human, completely mortal, and not even a God could fight the wave that closed the distance between us.

  Fenrir sent up a howl as he ran, the volume of it nearly bursting my eardrums, but it was the answering roar that spiked my anxiety.

  “Brace yourselves!” Skadi shouted, and I had just enough time to look behind us again, just enough time to clutch Loki’s arms around me and fill my lungs, before the tidal wave slammed into us, and swiped Fenrir off his feet.

  THOR

  The water was freezing, so cold it even chilled my bones as it washed over us, as Fenrir fought to keep himself upright in the barrage of water, but even with his size, Fenrir barely kept his head above water for two seconds before we were tumbled forward, and beneath the frigid cold.

  I reached out shaking arms to search the spot Tillie and Loki had been holding onto Fenrir, and panic shot through me when I felt nothing but open water. My chest tightened.

  We broke the surface and I quickly pushed my wet hair from my eyes, keeping one hand fisted in Fenrir’s fur. The poor wolf was struggling to keep us afloat, his legs kicking as fast as he could, but even though Fenrir was powerful, water wasn’t his domain. .

  “There!” Skadi shouted, pointed to where Loki hung from Fenrir’s coat, his other hand wrapped tightly in Tillie’s. She was in the water, her face breaking every other second to take great gasps of air before she was dunked under again.

  “Pull her up!” I shouted, trying to find a way to move without being jostled into the water myself. My lightning would do no good here, my hammer useless.

  A building appeared in front of us, the water pushing us forward towards it. We were going to slam into the side, and Loki only had a fragile hold still on Tillie, the force of the water too great.

  “Fuck,” I snarled, releasing Fenrir just enough to move over, to move closer to where Loki fought the pull of the sea. His powers glowed brilliant green, his attempt to bring her back into her seat with the help of his magic, but he didn
’t have enough time to do so. He didn’t have enough reserved to fight Mother Nature.

  Fenrir slammed into the side of the building, the concrete breaking away at the impact. My hand slipped on Fenrir’s fur just as the pressure of the water rushing against the building pulled us under. I watched as Loki screamed beneath the dark water, his glow bright enough to light below, and I saw the moment Tillie’s fingers slipped free.

  She kept her mouth closed instead of screaming. She was clever when it came to such things, but there was only so much a Midgardian could handle, and the frigid sea wasn’t one of them.

  I dove after her just as Loki used his powers to disappear and reappear closer, but the problem with power was he was too slow with the constant movement of the current. Loki had to see where he was going, had to see it clearly in his mind before he could reappear there, and by the time he had the location in mind, the water already swept Tillie further away. He tried to appear behind her, but the current was unpredictable, jerking Tillie from side to side.

  Using brute strength, I powered through the water, following Loki’s glow that kept a light on Tillie, even if he could not grab her. I saw the panic start in Tillie’s eyes, her fight to get to the surface, to breathe, but she continued to tumble from the waves, her hair swaying around her like a siren’s as she fought the pull. The water cast a dark blue sheen over her skin, washing her out, and if not for Loki’s glow, it would have been easy to lose her in the vastness.

  I saw the building appear before Loki did, and knew it would be our only chance to get to her in time. If we missed, Tillie would drown, and I refused to think of going through Ragnarök without her, not after we had barely found her.

  I swam, arm over arm, kicking my feet hard, slipping past Loki, my eyes intent on the woman fighting for her life. If I calculated correctly, we would all slam against the building only a half second apart, but if I missed her, the water would suck her down again towards the street. I broke the surface and took a great gulp of air just as the others did, all taking gasping wretched pulls of the thick air.

  Tillie slammed into the building first, all the breath she had pulled in whooshing from her body. I hit right behind her, Loki behind me, and I was already reaching for her as she started to go under. Our fingers touched, and realizing I was going to miss, I pushed myself forward, clasping her forearm just as we were jerked back under the dark water.

  TILLIE

  I had no air, my lungs strained with emptiness, and I saw nothing but darkness and brief flashes of green I assumed were from Loki’s power. I knew they were both attempting to reach me, knew that if I only held on for a few minutes longer, they would reach me, but I was only human, and my body reacted violently to the loss of air.

  The building took the breath I had managed to pull in, the tips of my fingers growing bloody as I attempted to grab onto the concrete, failing. Just as I began to slip back beneath the water, someone touched my fingers, missed, and true panic filled me.

  I was going to die before we had even truly begun.

  The River Thames was going to be my grave.

  And then I felt the strong hand latch around my forearm just before the frigid water closed over my head. I could barely feel it with the numbness, Loki’s fire no longer warming me as I was swept away from him, but I felt the large body wrap around me to protect me, knew it was Thor by his size alone.

  When he locked his lips with mine and filled my lungs with precious air, I nearly cried at the relief. I wrapped my arms and legs around him, trying my best to help hold on even with the numbness, even as we were swept through the city. I had no idea where we were, no idea which street this was, the water too dark to see much more than brief glimpses of buildings.

  I didn’t know what I thought would happen as I started to feel the numbness spread. I had been saved with air—though we still tumbled beneath the water without breaking the surface—but now I was going to die from the cold.

  When I saw a shape move in my peripherals, I broke our life kiss long enough to turn and meet giant golden eyes, eyes as large as my head. I jerked against Thor in surprise, barely keeping my mouth closed, and the giant serpent flicked a tongue at me, teasing.

  Do not fret, favored, a new voice echoed in my head. You will not die today.

  Jӧrmungandr’s long serpentine body swept beneath us and curled, until we were wrapped in his coils. We broke the surface a second later, sweet air filling my lungs just as Jӧrmungandr snapped his body around a building, halting us at the edge of the giant crack that split the city.

  The water rushed inside, buildings, steam cars, people swept inside the massive crevice as if going over a waterfall. Panting heavily, I clung to Thor, my fingers stroking the giant serpent that kept us from suffering the same fate.

  “Thank you,” I rasped, glancing between both of them, my voice barely audible, but Thor’s hands tightened around me even as Jӧrmungandr turned intelligent eyes on me.

  The pleasure is mine, favored, he purred, and the tension left my body just long enough to close my eyes. I just needed to rest a moment, breathe in air I had always taken advantage of. Then we could go find my mother and figure out the next step, how to get to another realm. I sighed, soaking in Thor’s warmth.

  “Where’s Loki?” I murmured, realizing he wasn’t with us. “Where are the others?

  “Dark elves!”

  I snapped my eyes open at the shout, relieved at the sight of Loki on top of a nearby building. He was no longer sporting his horns and he wore his tattered clothing again, the green tendrils gone. The power he had absorbed from me was gone.

  “He spent his magic attempting to capture you,” Thor murmured, understanding my question, unhooking his hammer from his belt and passing me a long dagger. “This fight will be one we cannot lose.”

  As I watched, dark elves crawled up the buildings around us, heading for those who had not been able to get into the air, those that survived the wave but were without protection. Airships were lowering ladders to help but they would be overrun before they could get them all to safety.

  “Thor!”

  “I see them!”

  And then lightning shattered around the God that held me and crackled along my skin.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  In the distance, I saw the airships hovering in the air, saw as they threw down their roped ladders to get as many of the people onto the airships as they could, but the dark elves broke through every crevice, climbed every building, as a swarm of bodies. There were three airships over the buildings overloaded with citizens, not nearly enough. Perhaps, the largest one would be able to take most of them, the airship sporting Queen Victoria’s colors.

  “Where are they all coming from?” I shouted, searching for a source, but it was as if the elves came from the very darkness itself.

  “Jormun!” Thor shouted instead. “Can you get us all beneath the largest airship?”

  The giant serpent uncoiled and began to push through the water, Loki and Skadi leaping on as we passed. Fenrir managed to leap between the tops of buildings, barely avoiding some of the humans that cowered before him. I imagined we made an odd sight as we headed for the airship the elves seemed to be focused on. Four people riding on the back of a massive serpent and a giant wolf dancing over buildings would no doubt be talked about in the coming months, if there was anyone to still talk that was.

  “The Queen!” The largest airship was hers. The Queen had managed to get her largest airship in the air, multiple ladders hanging from the edges to offer help to those in need, and she would not budge until she did so, even as her guards began to fire at the elves climbing up the sides. Respect for the monarch filled me as she moved with her people, as she helped pull up those that were starting to climb aboard. When she fired her own weapon into a dark elf’s face, I knew she was perfect to remain my idol.

  Jӧrmungandr slithered through the water, taking us to the building where the most people were cowering on top of, makeshift bridges hang
ing over the ledges to get more people over from the other buildings. The dark elves just started to spill over the sides, their eyes vicious, as our ride practically threw us onto the rooftop and dove beneath the water, taking as many of the elves with him as possible. He began to churn around the building, creating a whirlpool that kept new elves from climbing, but it did nothing for those already swarming up the sides.

  “That’s what I’m bloody talking about!” I shouted to the giant snake as I brandished the large dagger Thor had given me and began cutting at the elves that crawled over the edge.

  Your praise is appreciated, favored.

  When this was all over, I was going to ask the giant serpent why he called me ‘favored’.

  We each took a side, protecting the people in the center, protecting those still crawling across the bridge over churning water. Above us, the Queen shouted orders, helped her people onboard at her soldiers’ sides, firing her pistol when she was able to pause. She watched us work, watched as our energy began to wane from fighting first the sea and then the swarm of creatures.

  I was expecting the weaker elves. I wasn’t prepared for the one with glowing red eyes to vault over the edge and kick me in the chest, the force of his kick sending me backwards into the crowd of people waiting to climb aboard and knocking the air from my lungs.

  I snarled as I straightened, the citizens behind me helping me forward with their hands, lending me their strength in the face of such a thing. Someone pushed a large gun into my hand, and I smiled at the man in thanks.

  “Hello,” the dark elf purred.