Struck

by Amanda Carlson

  “Big enough to do serious damage.” Fen walked to the edge of the dock and peered over the side as it shook again.

  Sam came up to me, whispering in my ear, “Maybe we should leave another way? It might not be smart to get on the water with his…brother so close. How weird did that statement just sound? My life has become a figment of my imagination.”

  “Your life?” I chuckled. “Try mine. Do you know what the serpent looks like?” We were speaking in hushed tones.

  “Think leviathan.”

  I made a face. “What if I don’t want to?”

  Fen shook his head, hearing us just fine. “We must use the boat. Once it senses danger, it will transport us to safety. That is our only option. If we go back into the city, more danger lies ahead. It seems Verdandi has left no stone unturned. Dark elves will not be all that is waiting for us.”

  Tyr was still chanting, arms lofted above his head. The water where the boat had been moored wavered. I hoped that was a good sign.

  A splash came from our right, about fifty yards away.

  “Hurry,” I urged Tyr, fear clinging to the edges of my voice. “It’s coming.”

  “Working on it,” he replied. “It will be here shortly. It takes time to travel across realms.”

  The dock tremored roughly as shouts came from the street. I looked up to see an army of dark elves headed straight for us. There had to be more than thirty.

  Sam clutched my arm tightly. “I never thought my life would end like this. Being hunted by mythological creatures in my pajamas. Honestly, it never entered my mind.”

  “We’re not dying,” I stated evenly, shoving her behind me. Fen was right—when people I loved were in danger, I wouldn’t hesitate to defend them. My need to protect Sam was instinctual.

  I brought my weapons out in front of me—the newly acquired ice pick and Gram. The beasties were almost to us when a terrible roar rent the air. The dark elves skidded to a stop, toppling into each other like they were exiting a clown car.

  A low growl erupted behind us.

  “Is that what I think it is?” Sam whispered, clutching me painfully. “Fenrir is the son of Loki, and he’s a wolf. Is your boyfriend a wolf, Phoebe? Or do sea serpents growl?”

  We both slowly turned.

  Fen stood not three feet behind us in all his glory, dark fur billowing in the moonlight. He was several heads taller than we were, his teeth absolutely gigantic. My hand wouldn’t even fully close around one. Not that I wanted to give it a try. But still.

  He lifted his head and howled at the moon, which was partially occluded by clouds. I desperately hoped that any human within a ten-mile radius had not heard that.

  The dark elves picked themselves up and arranged themselves in a fumbling line, seemingly unsure what to do. Then they began to chatter amongst themselves.

  The pilings beneath us started to shake in earnest as something rammed itself into them. I didn’t want to think about how big that something was. A leviathan could be as big as a cruise ship.

  “Tyr!” I called, holding on to Sam. “You need to hurry.”

  “It’s almost here,” he answered. “Get ready to jump.”

  Fen paced in front of us as Sam and I made our way to the side of the dock where Tyr stood. He’d lowered his arms and muttered something under his breath, his head angled over the side of the dock.

  “Who are you talking to?” I picked up on the words brother and futile.

  “The Midgard Serpent,” he answered, like it was normal that he hurl insults into the Hudson.

  I peered over the dock. Only darkness lurked below. “I don’t think it can hear you.”

  Tyr flashed me a grin. It was the first time he’d even attempted to crack a smile. He didn’t look nearly as menacing with his happy face on. “I am cursing it. Our brother Thor has a beef with this particular serpent. If he were here, instead of grooming his two prized goats or having servants tend to his every need, he would be tearing apart the dock to get at it.”

  I coughed. Hard. I had to slap my chest to regain my composure. “Did…did you say ‘our’ and ‘Thor’ and ‘brother’ in the same sentence?”

  “I did. You have much to learn, sister.” He grinned again.

  I was about to answer when Tyr’s face suddenly changed from smiling to serious as he lunged forward. He grabbed both Sam and I under his powerful arms and, without pause, tossed us from the dock.

  The open water, white-capped and rough, loomed beneath us.

  I could almost imagine the jaws of the serpent coming up to greet us, gobbling us up in one massive bite. I screamed, still clutching my weapons, one in each hand, thinking this was going to be the end. I’d been such a fool to trust Tyr! All he’d really wanted to do was kill me the entire time.

  The boat solidified a second before we landed.

  I tumbled and rolled onto the deck, coming up quickly, my mouth poised to tell Tyr exactly what I thought of that stunt. But I was silenced as Fen leaped into the air above me, soaring fluidly, his body aimed toward the stern as the biggest sea serpent I’d ever seen—which was an oxymoron, since I’d never seen one—came roaring up out of the depths to meet him.

  A scream caught in my throat.

  The serpent’s mouth was bigger than Fen’s entire body! He was going to be eaten alive.

  At the last possible moment, the powerful wolf pivoted his body, his mouth latching on to the creature’s neck as they both plunged under the water in a torrent of waves.

  I ran toward the back of the boat, trying to keep my footing, hoping beyond hope Fen would surface immediately.

  There was nothing there, not even any bubbles.

  The boat bounced as Tyr landed behind me. “Is the human okay?” he asked in a worried tone.

  I’d forgotten Sam! I glanced over my shoulder. She was splayed on the deck where we’d been tossed. I rushed to her side, putting my weapons in my pockets. “Sam, Sam,” I called, patting her face with my hand. “Are you okay?”

  She sputtered, her eyes creasing open. “Ow.” She rubbed her forehead as she blinked. “I think so. My brain feels like it’s been cracked open. Lemme lie here for a second. I need to get my wits about me.”

  “Okay,” I told her, glancing around until I spotted an old wool blanket. I rushed over and snatched it up and covered my friend with it. “I have to find Fen. Stay here.”

  “Not going anywhere,” she muttered.

  I rushed back to the stern and peered over the edge again. The water was dark, nothing visible. To make matters worse, the boat began to blink like it was getting ready to disappear. “We can’t leave yet,” I said, my voice a little frantic. “Fen is still down there!” Tyr stood to my left, glancing up at the dock where the dark elves had amassed. They peered down at us, their greedy fingers drumming, their faces smiling grotesquely. “Why aren’t they attacking us?” I asked. “We’re easy pickings now that Fen’s gone.”

  “They wait to see if the Midgard Serpent will do their work for them,” he told me. Then he called up to the elves, “Isn’t that right? You wait to snatch the prize without doing any of the work.”

  “We will wait,” one of them called back. “The serpent will be upon you soon enough. We are not so foolish as to get eaten.”

  I grabbed on to Tyr’s arm. “Please tell me Fen’s not gone.”

  “He’s not gone.”

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked, hope resonating.

  “Because he is the strongest, most capable demigod I’ve ever met. Plus, the serpent is his brother. Neither will kill the other.”

  “But what if the serpent gets the upper hand and something happens out of their control?”

  “It won’t.”

  At that moment, the boat blinked in and out of existence for a full two seconds. I yelped, grabbing on to Tyr’s arm. “We can’t leave without him!” I was trying to keep it together, but losing Fen now wasn’t an option.

  “He will be back,” Tyr said in a confident tone. “If
the boat leaves, we will find him another way.”

  “No!” I cried. “That could take too long. If he’s on his own, he could get captured and sent away again. He needs our help. We can’t abandon him!” He’d saved my life no less than three times. I wasn’t leaving him alone.

  “He is a demigod. And a powerful one at that. He will endure, as he always has.”

  “How can you be so calm?” This conversation was infuriating me. “You said you left Asgard to make amends. In order to do that, you have to be helpful and kind, and right now Fen needs your help. We have to wait for him!”

  “The boat is spelled. It’s out of my control. It will leave when it decides to leave. The spell is set up for my protection above all else.”

  I left his side and wrung my hands, beginning to pace. “Come on, Fen,” I murmured.

  A loud splash came from the bow.

  I rushed along the side of the boat to the front. There was a small platform to stand on. I grabbed on to the rail and leaned over, spotting movement below, but I couldn’t tell what was happening. It was too dark.

  The boat blinked again. I could feel it trying to gather energy. Maybe my body was more attuned to such things now? It was fueling up for the journey, getting ready to leave, to take us somewhere safer.

  “Fen!” I shouted. “You have to come up! The boat is leaving.”

  Something was rising to the surface quickly.

  I stepped back, realizing that maybe it wasn’t too smart to be dangling off the edge while a leviathan that wanted to kill me lurked below.

  The serpent’s head broke through the water.

  It was the size of an SUV.

  I gasped, tumbling backward, as it arched up in front of me. Its eyes were dark as coal, its scales jet-black and as big as manhole covers. It was focused on me. I’d never seen anything living that huge before. Water rushed off its long, sleek body in rivers, waves crashing around its body and the boat.

  It lunged toward me, and I stumbled, my back hitting the wheelhouse of the houseboat.

  There was another splash as Fen leaped from the water smoothly, right onto the bow in front of me. His jaws were open and snapping, his growls low and furious. His fur was drenched, but otherwise he looked no worse for wear.

  “Halt.” Tyr came around the corner. He held a huge harpoon gun, his muscles tense but steady. The loaded spear was bright gold and looked sharp enough to tear through a bank vault. “This arrow will fell even you,” he called to the serpent. “I know you seek the freedom we all crave, but it’s not going to happen this way. Go back to the deep. Your day will come soon enough.”

  The serpent narrowed its eyes on Tyr as it rose farther out of the water.

  It wasn’t interested in hearing Tyr’s sound logic.

  Cackling came from the dock. The dark elves had front-row seats for the show. The only thing missing was popcorn, or grubs, or whatever they ate. Once I was gone, swallowed by the leviathan, they could happily report back to Verdandi that my death had been gruesome, no doubt exaggerating their role in my demise.

  I cringed back as the serpent began to sway its huge column of a body back and forth. It was readying itself to land like a wrecking ball, effectively smashing the boat to smithereens.

  “You give me no choice, serpent!” Tyr yelled. “This will cause you great pain. Just be thankful Thor is not here. If he was, you’d have three of these in you by now.”

  As the beast came down, Tyr shot the spear.

  Fen backed into me, pressing me against the wood, trying to protect my body as best he could.

  The serpent let out a noise of distress that sounded like something in slow motion. It was a low eerie sound. But its body was already moving. It was coming down, no matter what. I wrapped my arms in Fen’s fur, Sam the only thing on my mind. Even if the rest of us managed to survive this, she would not. I cursed myself for bringing her along and putting her in the kind of danger that would get her killed.

  As the giant head of the serpent was about to crush us to pieces, the boat blinked out of existence.

  When we popped back, it was dark, and we were on a small river, with high fjords running on either side.

  I was screaming.

  I hadn’t realized I’d been screaming.

  It took me a moment to get a hold of myself, my breath coming quickly, hyperventilation a real possibility. Fen, in the meantime, shifted back to his human form smoothly. He appeared normal, like nothing had changed. Except his hair was wet.

  He gathered me in his arms, and I went willingly, locking my hands around his neck, choking back sniffles from the ordeal, pressing my face into his shoulder.

  Tyr cleared his throat from beside us. “I’m going to go figure out where we are and see about the human.”

  As he turned to leave, Fen said, “We are in Jotunheim.”

  “How do you know that?” I said, my face muffled in his jacket, my body sagging with relief. I was tired. I could sleep for a week.

  “The air here has a particular scent, as do all the realms. But we can’t linger. The giants who live in these lands are dangerous.”

  “More dangerous than the gigantic sea serpent hell-bent on killing us with its tractor-sized head?”

  “Everything is gigantic here, even the rodents.”

  I shivered. He rubbed my back, leaning down to kiss my neck. “We must get you to Yggdrasil soon,” he whispered. “You must feed from the tree. You are depleting too quickly.”

  “I need to see about Sam first,” I told him. “I can’t believe we put her in that much danger. She could’ve died.” I pulled back to see Fen smiling. “What are you smiling about? This is not funny.”

  “Your friend is stronger than you think.”

  32

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  ____________

  “Are you kidding me?” Sam’s face could not have been more incredulous if we’d told her she was going to sprout wings and become a fairy. “I have Asgard blood running through my veins? How do you know for sure? That’s freakin’ awesome!”

  “When I was in my wolf form, I scented you,” Fen replied. “There’s not really anything that can be kept from me when I’m in that state.”

  We all sat on ledges and crates on the back of the boat, discussing our next plan of attack, the moonlight bright enough to see. In fact, it was so bright it was almost like the sun. Sam sat up straighter, the bag of ice she’d been holding to her head falling to her lap. She ignored it. “I’ve never known my father. He skipped out before I was born. It’s kind of weird that I met Phoebe pretty much on her first day in New York. What are the odds two gals with Asgard blood would meet up in the shoe department at Macy’s?”

  Fen shook his head. My head rested on his shoulder, his hand on my thigh. Energy leaped between us, helping me cope with everything that had happened. “There are no chances. You were sent to interact with Phoebe in some way. The reason why is just not clear to us yet. Your blood is diluted. If your father left before you were born, it is he who likely hails from Asgard, but he is no god.”

  “Oh well. You win some, you lose some,” Sam countered, still seemingly happy with the news. “This is mind-blowing. So, I’m someone’s pawn? How did they control me and make me work at Macy’s? Mind games? Weird Asgardian sorcery?”

  “No, nothing like that,” Tyr answered, his mouth quirking slightly. The boat was in desperate need of repair, and since we had arrived in Jotunheim, he’d been back and forth trying to put things back to rights. It was a losing battle. At this point, the boat was being held together by a few nails and sheer determination. “Who got you the job?”

  “Um”—Sam bit her lip—“it was my uncle Marty. He’s not really my uncle by blood, he’s just a good friend of my mom’s. He’s an ad exec who did some work for Macy’s. He called me and said he heard Macy’s was hiring. I didn’t even have to interview. The money was better than what I was making before at a small boutique, so I took it.”

  “Was Pho
ebe already working there?” Tyr asked, picking up a hammer.

  We glanced at each other. “We started the same day,” I said. “But I got the job while I was still in Wisconsin. I applied over the internet a few months before I moved to New York.”

  “So, my pseudo-uncle Marty is from Asgard?” Sam asked. “Wow. He seems so ridiculously…normal.”

  “Not necessarily,” Fen said. “He could’ve been influenced by another. Gods do their work subtly. There are enough agents of Asgard in Midgard at any given time to get most any job done. Someone could’ve planted information for your uncle Marty to find, then pass on to you.”

  “What does having Asgard blood mean, exactly?” Sam asked. “I’m thinking superhero with a side of badass.”

  Tyr paced over to a broken board, the boat rocking as he shifted his weight. “It means you’re stronger than a human, more resilient, and you may possess some hidden talents depending on who your parents are.” He nailed it back up.

  “Hm,” Sam said. “I’ll take it. Maybe my hidden talent is dancing. I can rock out some mean moves.”

  “No.” I chuckled. “Your talent is your huge, gigantic brain. You can remember anything. You’re like a human dictionary. It’s amazing.”

  “Ah-ah.” Sam stuck her finger in the air. “You mean an Asgardian dictionary. You know, because if my brain is half Asgardian, then it’s not totally human. Maybe that makes me a Humgard? Or an Asgan?”

  “Stop,” I laughed, “I can’t take your unbridled happiness any longer.”

  She wasn’t daunted. “I’m going to start working on my brain-to-brain communication capacity. BBCC for short. If my brain is big and magical, I should be able to figure out how to do it.”

  “Is that a real thing?” I asked.

  “Nope, I just made it up.” She giggled while pushing her fingers against her temples and closing her eyes. “But I’m planning on perfecting it nonetheless.”

  Tyr picked up some errant pieces of wood off the floor. “Our father was likely involved with making sure you met Phoebe. He wants to keep her safe at all costs. He will have the answers you’re searching for.”