Aerik charged.
Matt shoved Laurie out of the way and hit Aerik with a Hammer blast. A perfect hit, almost instantaneous, and he couldn’t help grinning as the troll sailed to the ground. Unfortunately, there were two others with him, and they were charging now. Matt dove to the other side, away from Laurie, hitting the ground and rolling.
“Hey!” Fen shouted. “Ugly number two! Over here!”
As Matt got to his feet, he started motioning for Laurie to get to safety, then stopped himself: they needed to get the twins untied. She was a step ahead of him and already racing toward them as her cousin baited the trolls.
Matt hit Sun with the Hammer as Fen dodged Leaf’s charge.
Fen ran up beside Matt as Aerik lumbered to his feet. “Word of advice, Thorsen? Stick to fighting. You have no future as a magician.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Aerik rushed them. Matt sent him flying with the Hammer, but by then, Sun was on his feet and Leaf had wheeled, and they were both running at Matt and Fen. They dove opposite ways, and the trolls went after them.
As Sun lunged, Matt launched the Hammer. Or he tried to. Nothing happened. He rolled as Sun’s fist came down, hitting the ground with a boom. He tried the Hammer again, focusing harder, getting madder. Sparks fizzled and drifted to the grass, barely even making it smolder.
Matt saw that massive fist coming at him again and tried to scramble up, but he was too late. It caught him in the shoulder, and he crashed into the nearest grave, his head striking it hard enough that he blacked out for a split second. When he came to, he was hanging three feet off the ground, staring into Sun’s face as the troll held him by the collar.
Matt clenched his fist and called on the Hammer. His hand barely glowed.
“You’re out of juice!” Fen yelled. “Think of something else.”
Matt started to yell back that he could use a little help, but Fen was facing off with Leaf. The twins were free and now with Laurie. The three of them were dancing around Aerik, trying to keep him distracted.
Sun shook Matt. “Give Hammer. Give Hammer now.”
“Wish I could,” Matt muttered. “But I seem to be running on empty.”
“Sun break Thor son. Break him—”
Matt swung at Sun and hit him square in the jaw. A knockout blow… that barely made Sun flinch and sent white-hot pain stabbing through Matt’s arm, like he’d punched a brick wall.
That’s what he is. A brick wall. Like Fen said. They’re monsters made of stone. You can’t fight—
“Give Hammer!” Sun roared. “Give now!”
He shook Matt so hard his teeth rattled and his stomach lurched and all he could see was the blur of Sun’s beady eyes and open mouth and—
Yes!
Matt clenched his teeth and waited for Sun to stop shaking him. Then he pulled back his fist and punched the troll in the eye. Sun let out a grating howl. Matt hit him in the other eye.
Sun dropped him, and Matt hit the ground as Sun staggered back, yowling a nails-down-chalkboard yowl.
“Sun no see! No see! Sun blind!”
“Thorsen!” Fen yelled.
Matt struggled up and wheeled to see Laurie in the grip of Aerik. The twins batted at the monster, who ignored them. Fen was twenty feet away, facing off with Leaf, who stood between him and his cousin.
“Thorsen!” Fen shouted again.
“Got it!”
Matt ran and launched himself at Aerik. As he did, he remembered why he hadn’t done this the first time—because it was like leaping onto a smooth rock face. There was nothing to grab. No, wait, maybe…
As he jumped, he managed to hook one arm around the troll’s neck and hold on. He reached around to grind his palm into the troll’s eye.
Aerik roared and dropped Laurie. He whacked at Matt, his claws catching Matt’s T-shirt. Matt lost his grip and fell off before he was hooked.
The troll spun as Matt jumped. He landed with Laurie, Ray, and Reyna. When Matt realized that, he tensed to run, to draw attention away from them, but Sun had recovered from his temporary blinding and blocked Matt’s path. He turned again, looking for a way out. Fen ran at them, Leaf right behind them, and then noticed that he was running straight for Sun and stopped.
The five of them stood together, three trolls circling around them, gnashing their teeth and rumbling with rage and frustration.
They were trapped.
SEVENTEEN
LAURIE
“A DOOR OPENS”
Laurie’s heart was racing, and her lungs felt like someone was trying to suck the air out of them. They were surrounded by trolls, and they hadn’t fared well the last time they’d tangled with trolls. There were more of them, but Ray and Reyna were huddled together, Matt was low on energy, and Fen’s other form wasn’t too much use against creatures made of stone.
As the trolls’ circle grew tighter and closer to them, the pressure in Laurie’s chest intensified until she thought she was going to fall or throw up. She saw Fen and Matt both reach out to steady her, and she lifted both of her hands to signal them to keep back. As she did so, the air in front of her started to ripple. She widened her hands, staring at the oddly colored space in front of her. It was as if the space between her hands was taking on the colors of an opal.
“Laurie?” Fen stepped closer, but didn’t touch her. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t know.” She felt light-headed as the space grew, and she wondered abstractly how long had passed because she felt disconnected from her skin as she stared at the flashes of color in front of her and tried not to puke.
Beyond the light, she knew trolls waited. They had stopped and were staring at the portal that had appeared between her hands. Behind her were the twins. And in front of her, on the other side of the doorway she’d somehow created, was a room filled with plants. “Go on,” she said.
Ray said, “Where?”
“Who cares, as long as it’s somewhere without trolls,” Reyna muttered. She grabbed Ray’s hand and dove into the doorway, tugging him with her.
It hurt. Laurie’s body felt like she was being squeezed, and she thought for a moment that the trolls had grabbed her. They were all staring at her, the trolls and the boys.
“Go now,” she demanded.
Matt exchanged a look with Fen, but he said nothing as he went through the doorway. Then Laurie shoved Fen through the door and jumped in after him, leaving Deadwood and the stupefied trolls behind.
They weren’t inside the doorway long, but it felt like space was folding in on her. The pressure of letting others through the doorway was completely different from the sensation of going through it herself. It was as if she were being folded inside out, and the temptation to close her eyes was almost overwhelming. Fen’s hand held tightly to hers, and she tried to concentrate on that.
In either a moment or maybe a piece of forever, they stumbled forward into a giant open room filled with tropical plants and brightly colored birds. Overhead was a dome window, and through it, she could see trees outside. Around her in the room were orchids, and something scaled with a long, thin tail vanished under a plant she couldn’t identify. They were in a greenhouse or something; they were alive; and she was not, in fact, inside out.
There were also no trolls here. That alone was enough to make her want to sit down and relax for a minute. However, Matt and Fen stood on either side of her, looking around for dangers. Fen still had hold of her hand, and the twins were behind them. As Laurie looked around at their little group, she realized that everyone looked like they expected trolls or some other monster to jump out at any second, and considering where they had been mere minutes ago, that wasn’t an altogether unrealistic fear. They also, she admitted to herself, were darting looks at her like she was something peculiar.
“I’m going to puke,” she whispered to Fen.
As Laurie slumped to the ground, Fen said, “Put your head between your knees.”
“It’s all real,” Reyna said quietly.
“There weren’t any zippers, were there?”
Without seeing him, Laurie knew Fen rolled his eyes or scowled at them.
“Slow much?” he said.
“Be nice,” Laurie whispered, not because she was trying not to be heard but because speaking any louder seemed impossible right now.
“Don’t puke on my feet,” Fen said just as quietly.
“I’m okay,” she lied to him—and herself. There was nothing okay about how she felt. She had the horrible feeling that her insides had been turned wrong side out by whatever she’d just done. They were safe from trolls, but she wasn’t sure what had happened. Maybe the Norns or Valkyries or whatever else was out there had given her a weird gift. Right now, though, she wasn’t so sure it was a gift and not a curse.
“That was unexpected,” a boy said. “I’ve never seen a portal open before.”
Laurie looked up to see a boy who looked about their age watching them. She hadn’t noticed him at first when they’d arrived, but the whole making-a-gateway thing was dizzying. The others were staring at the boy, too, so maybe even going through the portal was unsettling for everyone.
“Where did you come f—”
“Around the corner as you portaled in.” The boy pointed at the walkway, which had, in fact, curved just out of their line of sight.
The boy himself was taller than her and Fen, but not quite as tall as Matt and the twins. He was almost as big as Matt, bigger than either Fen or Ray. Sand-colored hair, somewhere between light brown and blond, flopped in his face. Freckles dotted his cheeks, and brown eyes stared at them with open curiosity. He had on a T-shirt with what looked like an advertisement for a skateboard.
When he took a step closer to them, Fen growled.
“I got it.” Matt stepped in front of Fen and Laurie. “There’s nothing here to see, so—”
“He’s the person we’re looking for,” Laurie interrupted. The pins-and-needles feeling was back, and she suspected now that it meant that she’d found a descendant of the North. She smiled at the boy.
“You’re like a homing pigeon, aren’t you?” Reyna said from behind her.
Laurie looked over her shoulder, but said nothing. The sudden movement made her dizzier, and Fen was starting to look like a dog straining on a leash, ready to attack everyone. He leaned away from the twins and toward the new boy.
As she stood, she reached out for his hand as much for her stability as to keep him restrained.
“Come on.” Reyna pulled her twin farther away from them.
Fen and Matt stayed beside Laurie, but they kept an eye on the twins. Laurie noticed—with a not-insignificant amount of pride—that the twins didn’t move so far away that they couldn’t see the rest of the group. She and the boys had saved them from trolls, and while the twins might not entirely like the situation, they had enough common sense to know that keeping the girl with gate-opening skills and the two warriors in sight was a good idea. That’s what they are, she thought with a smile. Warriors. They might be kids, but they were going to do something amazing.
“Are you sure about this?” Fen prompted her.
She nodded. “I am.”
It felt good that they were all working together, and now that they had found this boy, they were even closer to having the whole monster-fighting team assembled. Everything was working out.
“I’m Laurie. That’s Fen, Matt, Reyna, and Ray.” She pointed at them as she said their names.
“Baldwin.” The boy smiled again. Unlike the twins, he seemed thrilled to see them, more so as he started talking. “This is so cool. I’ve never met anyone with weird powers like me before. I knew there had to be others. It’s like knowing inside that there’s something different about you, and then realizing you can’t be the only one. I mean, my parents took me to doctors, but I just knew that it wasn’t sickness. I just don’t ever feel pain or get injured. What are your powers? Are we like superheroes? I don’t read a lot, but I like comics.”
Everyone stared at him. Even the twins stopped whatever quiet conversation they had been having to look at him. Baldwin was excited, accepting the oddity of their situation with a happiness that was different from any of their reactions.
“Weird powers?” Fen echoed.
Baldwin nodded. “Well, most people can’t open portals… or can you? Can all of you do that? I bet I could get some epic air on my board if I could go through a portal.”
Laurie laughed. “This is so much easier than the twins.” She winced and looked over her shoulder. “Sorry.”
Reyna pursed her lips like she was trying not to say anything.
Laurie turned back to Baldwin. “I open portals. They do… other stuff.”
“Cool.” Baldwin kept smiling. “Like what?”
Laurie was half afraid that Fen was going to snarl at Baldwin. Cheery people got on his nerves, but before she could reply to stop Fen from being mean, her cousin said, “We’ll get to that later, but first—”
A noise nearby made Baldwin say, “Hide.”
The descendants, by habit or common sense, all stayed silent until Baldwin popped up from behind a giant fern. “Sorry. I thought it might be a guard. I can usually smile at them and they’ll be cool, but I’m not sure how it would be if there are other people here. I’d hate to get them or you in trouble.”
“A guard? We need to get out of here.” Matt looked around. “Wherever here is.”
“Reptile Gardens, Rapid City, South Dakota.” Baldwin swept his arms out. “I love it here. I keep hoping they’ll let me see the venomous snakes up close, but every time I get near someone freaks out.” He paused, and for the first time, his cheeriness faded. Then his grin was back. “I thought maybe at night, though, since it’s just a couple of guards here…”
“The snakes aren’t on display?” Laurie frowned. She wasn’t exactly a snake fan, especially right now, when she kept thinking about the Midgard Serpent, but it seemed odd for a place calling itself a “reptile garden” to not have venomous ones on exhibit.
“Oh, no, the snakes are on exhibit, but I want to touch them, so I stayed after hours tonight.” Baldwin looked at them as if his explanation made sense—which it didn’t.
“Great,” Fen muttered. “He might be nicer than the makeup sisters here”—Fen pointed over his shoulder—“but he’s mental.”
Baldwin laughed. “No. Not at all. I just wanted to experiment with the snakes, but now you’re here. The snakes will wait.”
“It’s like the myth,” Matt said.
They all looked at him, and Matt continued, “He’s Balder. The god couldn’t be hurt by anything except mistletoe… and he was really nice. Always happy.”
“Huh?” Ray and his grumpy twin sister rejoined them.
“You mean he’s impervious to injury?” Reyna pointed at Baldwin. “From everything?”
“Except mistletoe,” Matt repeated.
“I’m a god? Cool… Huh. I’ve never seen real mistletoe.” Baldwin looked dangerously interested. “So, if I poked myself with it, it would hurt?”
They stared at him. Fen’s mouth opened to say something, but then he closed it and shook his head. After a moment, he walked away. The twins followed him.
“No, really,” Baldwin said as he caught up to Fen. “Do you snowboard? Skate? I have a ramp.” His words never seemed to end, but instead of Fen growling, he had slowed down so Baldwin could keep pace with him.
Matt looked at Laurie questioningly, and she shrugged. She could find the descendants of the North well enough, but that didn’t mean they were going to make a lot of sense to her. The twins were still keeping some sort of secret; she was sure of it. Baldwin apparently wanted to poke himself with a stick to experience pain. All she really wanted was to hide away somewhere, get a shower, and maybe put on some clean clothes—or at least wash hers.
After they left Reptile Gardens, they walked to Baldwin’s house. Along the way, Matt filled him in on the coming of Ragnarök and what it meant that Baldwin was
a descendant of the god Balder. Maybe it was because of his inability to feel pain, like Fen’s wolf thing and Matt’s Hammer power, but he had already known there was something special about himself, so he accepted their explanation with the good-natured ease that Laurie suspected was his response to most everything. If anything, he was too eager. He wanted to fight, loved the idea that his invulnerability was because of an upcoming battle, and—perversely, in Laurie’s opinion—was crazy excited at getting to see a giant snake.
“It’s even better than the little ones at the Reptile Gardens,” Baldwin was saying as he opened his house door. “And unless the snake is made out of mistletoe—which would be weird, right?—it’ll be just like everything else. No pain. No injury. This is just too epic.”
As they followed him inside, Laurie was secretly glad it wasn’t like the oversized place where the twins lived. She was pretty sure that neither she nor Fen would be comfortable somewhere like that. This was just a regular-sized place surrounded by other normal houses.
Fen flopped down on the sofa. The twins sank gracefully to the floor in movements that mirrored each other. Matt paced the room, looking out windows and locating exits.
“You could all stay here if you want tonight. My parents are away for the weekend. I’m supposed to sleep at the neighbors’ house, but they don’t ever make me. People are always weird like that, letting me have what I want. Is that a descendant thing too? Do you all get treated like that?” Baldwin went into the kitchen as he was speaking, his words all hyperfast. “You’re probably hungry, too.”
“No, but yes, hungry,” Fen said, but Baldwin was already gone. Fen rubbed his face and then called out to Matt, “Thorsen? What’s the myth on him?”
“Aside from the can’t-be-hurt-by-anything-but-mistletoe part, everyone likes him because he’s just so nice. I bet that’s why he gets what he wants. People just want to make him happy.” Matt looked away from the window at them. “In the myth, all the gods liked him. They made a sport of throwing weapons at him, but it wasn’t to hurt him, though.”
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