Loki's Wolves

by K. L. Armstrong

  Hattie hit him. Matt winced and wanted to tell Baldwin to stop, but reminded himself that Baldwin couldn’t feel it, couldn’t be hurt. If Baldwin could draw off Hattie and Skull with insults…

  “Enough!” Skull roared. “You want to hit someone? Get back here and hit Thorsen. I bet blondie will feel that.”

  Skull advanced on Matt again. When he pulled back his fist, Matt launched his Hammer. It knocked Skull to the ground, flat on his back. He scrambled up, face twisted in rage.

  “You little brat,” he said, charging Matt. “I’ll teach you not to—”

  Fog swirled between them, so thick Matt couldn’t see Skull, could only hear him cursing as he fought his way through it. Matt stared at the fog. Had he done that? He did get a few wisps with his Hammer, but this was like smoke from a raging bonfire, spreading over the camp so fast—

  Don’t just stare at it. Use it!

  Matt realized the holds on his arms had slackened, and when he looked over, he saw that the Raiders holding them were gaping into the fog themselves. He yanked one arm free easily, then swung and plowed his fist into the jaw of one guy holding the other. The guy flew back and knocked over the Raider next to him, the two falling like bowling pins.

  Matt dove into the fog, the gray wrapping around him, everything else disappearing. He heard a grunt to his left and turned to see a Raider girl charging him, knife raised. Something hit her from behind, and she fell face-first, Fen on her back. Fen plucked the switchblade from her hand, folded it into his pocket, and leaped up.

  “Come on, Thorsen,” Fen said.

  Matt didn’t move.

  “I’m rescuing you,” Fen said. “Again. Don’t make me regret it. Come on.”

  Matt backed away.

  “What the—?” Fen began.

  A Raider leaped through the fog. Just a kid. Matt took him down. Then Fen grabbed his sleeve.

  “We need to go,” Fen urged. “The twins can’t hold the fog forever.”

  Matt paused. “That’s them?”

  “No, it’s natural. Just does that out here.” Fen sighed in that annoying way of his before adding, “Yeah, it’s them.”

  Matt hesitated. His brain said he shouldn’t trust Fen, but he did. He just did.

  He took a deep breath. “Okay. Is Laurie safe?”

  Fen’s face darkened, and Matt felt a stab of annoyance. Fen seemed to hate it when Matt worried about her. Did he think Matt had a thing for Laurie? He’d set him straight on that later. Maybe Fen’s world was different, but in Matt’s, you could have a girl as a friend without thinking of her as a girlfriend.

  “ ’Course she’s okay,” Fen snapped. “I take care of her.”

  And so do I, Matt wanted to say. But he knew better.

  “Okay, we need to get Baldwin and—”

  “Got him,” said a voice. Laurie appeared with Baldwin beside her.

  Fen scowled. “I thought I told you to stay—”

  “Yeah.” Laurie rolled her eyes. “And someday you’ll learn that I don’t always—”

  Two Raiders lunged from the fog. Matt took out one. Baldwin and Fen nearly knocked heads going for the other. A right hook from Fen sent the Raider back into the fog with Matt’s.

  A growl sounded somewhere in the fog, another joining it.

  “I need to get the shield,” Matt said.

  “What?” Fen said. “All this and you don’t have it?”

  “They took it back,” Baldwin said.

  “I’ll grab it,” Matt said. “Laurie, open a door. Take the others through. I’ll follow.”

  Laurie said nothing, and Matt peered through the thin curtain of fog between them. “Laurie?”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to do,” she said. “Open a door. I can’t.”

  “Okay.” Matt took a deep breath. “Um, I’ll get the shield. You guys just… go back to where you were hiding before.”

  “Can I go with you?” Baldwin asked Matt.

  “Fen?” Laurie said. “I want you to go with Matt.”

  “No. I’m making sure you get back—”

  “Go with Matt. Please. If they’re changing to wolves, you need to do that and stay with Matt.” She stared directly at her cousin. “I’m going to catch my breath and open a door for us. Baldwin will be with me.”

  Fen seemed to realize there wasn’t time for arguing. He nodded and gruffly told Baldwin to watch out for Laurie. Baldwin promised he would, and they slipped off into the fog. Fen went away, too, leaving Matt to fend off a Raider before returning in wolf form and quickly dispatching another.

  They made their way to Skull’s tent. Matt had no idea where to even find it in the fog, but Fen must have been able to smell it. Matt wondered if the Raider would have put the shield somewhere else, but as he followed Fen, he could feel his amulet’s tingle, telling him they weren’t quite that bright. The shield was still in Skull’s tent.

  Matt emerged from the gray to see the tent… and two hulking Raiders standing guard.

  The bigger one grinned. “Skull said you wouldn’t leave without getting what you came for.” He raised his voice. “Hey, Sk—”

  Before he finished the word, Matt hit him with the same blow Skull had used on him—straight to the solar plexus. Never anything he’d use in a fair fight, but this wasn’t fair. And it shut the guy up fast. Before the second one could raise the alarm, Fen burst from the fog and took him down. Then he snapped at Matt, and Matt didn’t need a canine translator to tell him what Fen had said. Get your butt in that tent and grab the shield.

  Matt found the shield right where it had been the last time—under the blankets. He didn’t heft it over his shoulder; he held it the way it should be held, protecting his body as he stepped out. He was just letting the flap fall behind him when a small Raider came charging from the fog. As if instinctively, Matt raised the shield… and the kid plowed into it headfirst and staggered back, dazed.

  Matt motioned for Fen to follow him into the fog, but Fen motioned back, jerking his muzzle from the shield to the kid. Telling Matt to bash the guy again. Matt looked at the kid—maybe eleven—holding his head and blinking hard, and when he thought of hitting him again, he felt a little sick. He might have come a long way in a few days—he had no problem hitting a little kid or a girl if he had to—but that was too much.

  He shook his head. When Fen started to lunge at the dazed kid, Matt grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. Fen snarled and snapped, then snorted, yanked free from Matt’s grip, and ran into the fog. Matt followed.

  They’d barely gone three steps before the kid shouted, “They’re here! By Skull’s tent! They have the shield!”

  Fen growled back at Matt, as if to say That’s what I was afraid of, but didn’t slow down. It was okay anyway. They were deep in the fog, and as long as they kept running away from the camp…

  Matt caught a glimpse of a dark shape to his right. He turned to hit his attacker, only to realize the guy was about twenty feet away, running in the other direction. There were more shapes around him, some in human form, some in wolf. The fog was lifting.

  Of course it was. It wasn’t smart to split up any more than they had already, so Ray and Reyna would have gone back through the doorway with Laurie. There wasn’t anyone casting the spell.

  At least the Raiders were running in the opposite—

  “There!” a girl shouted.

  Matt and Fen sped up. As they did, Matt mentally calculated how many he’d seen. Four Raiders and two wolves, he thought. None were bigger than him. Maybe they could fight before others joined—

  He glanced back to see at least nine shapes, two more appearing from the left. Okay, not stopping to fight, then.

  “Fen!” It was Laurie’s voice from somewhere ahead. “Matt! I’ve got it. The door is open!”

  “Go through!” Matt shouted back. “We’re coming!”

  “I’ll get the others through and hold it open!” Laurie called.

  “No! We’ve got Raiders!” Matt glanced ba
ck at the growing mob behind him. Two wolves were leading the pack, closing the gap. “And wolves! Get through!”

  Silence. Was she going to listen? Or would she think he was exaggerating? Wanting her out of harm’s way because she was a girl? A week ago, he’d have done that, but he’d come to realize Laurie was pretty good at taking care of herself. She might not be big, and she might not be able to turn into a wolf or launch Thor’s Hammer, but she was smart.

  The problem was that he’d given her the You’re a girl—we must protect you line so many times that when there was real danger, like now, she might not believe him. It was like the little boy who cried wolf—he glanced back to see the two big canines almost at his heels now—or wolves.

  Go through the door, Laurie. Please just go through the door.

  Ahead he could see the clearing. And in the middle of it, a shimmering circle of color—the door. There was someone standing outside of it. A figure barely distinguishable through the last veil of fog.

  “Laurie!” Matt shouted. “Jump through—”

  “It’s me!” Baldwin called. “I stayed to help fight in case this thing closes—” He looked behind them, and his eyes rounded. “Whoa!”

  Matt couldn’t help chuckling as he ran. “Go through. We’re right behind you.”

  Baldwin waited until they were there. Then, with Fen, they dove through together. They hit the other side, tumbling together, Matt catching a claw scrape across his arm, Fen letting out a grunt as Baldwin’s foot connected with his stomach. They lay there for a second, catching their breath, until Matt heard Laurie say, “Um, guys…” He looked up to see the door gone. And in its place? Two very confused wolves were sitting in Baldwin’s backyard.

  “How do you like that trick?” Laurie said to the wolves. “Maybe I can’t change into a big, hairy monster, but you have to admit, that is cool. And useful.”

  The wolves started, as if just realizing they weren’t alone. They looked from face to face. One bolted, racing across the yard and vaulting the back fence. The other growled, fur rising, head down. But after another sweep of the seven faces in front of him, he turned tail, too.

  “Grab him!” Matt shouted as he launched himself onto the wolf’s back.

  Baldwin let out a whoop and grabbed the wolf by the tail. The wolf spun and dislodged Matt, but he grabbed a handful of fur with one hand. Then Matt twisted and clocked the wolf on the top of the muzzle. It was a trick his dad taught him for dealing with strays or coyotes. The wolf let out a yelp of pain. With both hands holding on now, Matt dropped over the wolf’s side and yanked the beast down. It didn’t stay down, but after some wrestling—with help from Baldwin—Matt got the wolf pinned. Then Baldwin sat on it, grinning like a big-game hunter. Astrid laughed. Even Ray and Reyna smiled at the sight.

  Fen walked from behind the shed. He was in human form and shaking his head.

  “Yes, I know,” Matt said. “I keep attacking things that can kill me. It is kinda fun, though.”

  Baldwin grinned. “See, I’m not crazy.”

  “Yeah, you are,” Fen said. “Thorsen’s just the same kind of crazy. I guess we should be happy you two didn’t try taking on the whole Raider camp yourselves.”

  “We were working on it,” Baldwin said. “But you totally ruined our fun. Spoilsport.”

  Fen rolled his eyes. Then he pointed at the wolf. “What’s with the captive?”

  Matt looked at the captive Raider, and when he did, he felt like letting out a whoop of his own. He didn’t, of course. That wasn’t very leaderlike. But he still felt that whoop deep in his gut. The sweet thrill of success.

  We did it. We got the shield. We got the descendants. We’re close to getting Odin, and he’ll help us with the rest. We did it, and I led the charge, and I didn’t screw things up. I made mistakes, but I learned from them.

  I can do this. I really can do this.

  “Hey, Thorsen,” Fen said. “I asked you a question. What’s with the captive?”

  Matt smiled. “I want to question him.”

  “Question him? What are you? A cop? Oh, wait…” He gave a disgusted snort and walked over to the wolf. “What do you expect him to tell you?”

  “Everything he can. What the Raiders’ plans are. Why they wanted the shield. Why they wanted me. Why they want Ragnarök to happen.” Matt paused and stared at Fen. “Most of all, who they’re taking orders from.”

  “Orders?” Fen said. “The Raiders don’t take orders from anyone.”

  “I think they are. Skull said something about taking me to meet someone.”

  Fen shrugged. “Other Raiders, I guess. There are more of them. Packs.”

  Astrid stepped forward. “I think Fen’s right. From what Odin told me, the Raiders are on their own here. They’re representing Loki in the final battle. Loki was in charge of the monsters. No one made him do anything.”

  “On second thought,” Fen said, “Thorsen might have a point. Skull’s a good Raider leader. But leader of all the monsters going into Ragnarök? No way.”

  Astrid turned on him. “You can’t give it up, can you? I say something, and you disagree. I agree with you, and you change your mind. I could say the sky was blue, and you’d insist it was purple.”

  “No, it’s not.” Fen pointed up at the night. “It’s black.”

  Astrid went to stalk away, and Matt started leaping off the wolf to go after her, but Laurie motioned for him to stop.

  She grabbed Astrid’s arm. “We need to work together. I agree that we should question the Raider. I have no idea if there’s some big, bad puppet master pulling the strings, but even if there isn’t, this guy can tell us something useful. I’m sure he can.”

  Baldwin nodded. “I agree. So how are we going to do this?”

  TWENTY-THREE

  FEN

  “THINGS FALL APART”

  The Raider, Paul, had turned back into a human shape, and Matt had dragged him over to Baldwin’s shed. Fen and Matt stood staring down at the Raider. Behind the prisoner, Baldwin dug around in a big cardboard box, muttering as he did so.

  Matt asked a bunch of questions—all of which Paul completely refused to answer—while Fen assumed the job of enforcer: he knocked Paul back to the ground every time he tried to get up and escape.

  Although he’d been raised around fights and harsh discipline, Fen felt horrible all the same. At least Laurie wasn’t at the shed to see him like this. He hadn’t even hurt Paul, just kept him from escaping, but Fen knew that Matt was too much of good guy to beat answers out of anyone. Not that Fen was bad. He just wasn’t as good as Matt. Plus, there was a pack order here; whether anyone admitted it or not, Fen knew that Matt was in charge. So Fen stood silently and waited for Matt to decide what they needed to do.

  “Aha!” Baldwin blurted.

  Fen glanced at him and shook his head. At least Baldwin wasn’t freaked out by the whole capture-the-enemy thing. He’d tugged out a dingy shirt with straps on it and was untangling it from a string of Christmas lights.

  “It’s a straitjacket,” Baldwin said in reply to Fen’s glance.

  All the while, Matt kept talking, asking about the Raiders’ plans, their travels, where Mjölnir was, and why the Raiders wanted the shield. It was a waste of time; Raiders didn’t betray their packs. Fen knew that, and he respected it. If the situation had been reversed, if it had been Matt or Fen taken captive, Fen was positive they wouldn’t talk, either.

  “He’s not going to talk,” Fen said quietly. “Skull and Hattie will kill him if he does.”

  “We won’t let them,” Matt insisted. He turned to Paul and added, “You tell us, and we’ll protect you.”

  Paul snorted and made a rude gesture.

  “Here.” Baldwin held up the straitjacket thing in one hand. He looked utterly unabashed as he announced, “I went through a Houdini phase. This is an escape-proof jacket.” In his other hand he had a roll of duct tape. “And this will keep him from yelling. My parents aren’t back till tomorrow, but if
the neighbors heard yelling out here, they might call my mom.”

  “I’m… not sure…” Matt began.

  “Let him sit out here and think about it,” Fen suggested. “We can go in, eat, and try to reason with him later.”

  “I could eat,” Baldwin interjected.

  After a moment, Matt said, “Okay.”

  With relief, Fen slapped a piece of tape over Paul’s mouth, and then he and Matt wrestled him into the jacket.

  “Go ahead in,” Fen suggested to Matt. “Let me give him some wolf-to-wolf advice.”

  “Okay, but then I want to talk to you,” Matt said very quietly.

  With as little emotion as he could, Fen said, “Sure.”

  Then Matt nodded, and he and Baldwin left.

  Fen stared at Paul, trying to force the younger wulfenkind into submission, and said, “Think about it, Paul. Whether you tell us or not, Skull will beat you to find out if you did tell. You could stay here. Don’t be stupid.”

  Paul snorted through his gag and rolled his eyes.

  “You’re making a mistake,” Fen said, and then he stepped out of the shed and pulled the door closed behind him.

  There weren’t a lot of times in Fen’s life that he’d ever felt like he belonged. Sure, with Laurie, he had, but even there, he’d had to keep a lot of secrets. Being part of a team, being one of the descendants of the North, being destined to do something real and important felt awesome—and Fen had a sinking feeling that it was also about to end. The way Matt had looked at him when he said he’d wanted to talk made it pretty clear that one of the Raiders had told Matt about Fen.

  As he walked toward Baldwin’s house, Fen admitted to himself that he should’ve told Matt and Laurie about the Raiders and the deal with delivering Matt, but he couldn’t. Now, he wasn’t sure what to say or what Matt knew. He liked Matt well enough, all things considered, and even if he didn’t, he respected him. That didn’t mean he wanted to have their little talk in front of everyone. A trickle of fear crept over him at the thought of not only being kicked out, but of everyone hating him.