The body. Not Baldwin. Not the guy who’d been talking to him, laughing with him, fighting beside him only a few hours ago.
Matt took a deep breath and started to close the door. Then he stopped. Something was missing. His shield. He’d put it there, propped up against his bag earlier. Now there was just his backpack.
Matt strode into the hall and almost bumped into Laurie. When he opened his mouth, he was ready to ask where Fen was, but instead what came out was, “Have you seen Astrid?” And once he’d said it, he didn’t correct himself. He knew what he was asking, and he knew, in his gut, that it was the right question.
“Um, I don’t know. I heard the back door close, and I thought Reyna said it was Astrid, but…”
Matt took off at a jog.
By the time Matt got outside, Astrid was hopping down from the fence. Across her shoulder was an oversized gym bag, the fabric stretched by some large object within.
Some large object? No, it was his shield. Matt knew that even before he started across the yard and felt his amulet tingle.
He waited until he was on the fence before calling, “Hey! Astrid!”
She was in the neighbor’s yard, partly hidden behind a rose garden. Matt saw the bag strap fall from her shoulder as she lowered her burden to the ground. Then she stepped from behind the roses without it.
“Hey,” she said. She gave him a sad twist of a smile, her gaze downcast, swiping her fingers under her eyes as if she’d been crying.
“Where are you going?” he asked, as casually as he could.
“I just…” Another swipe of her dry eyes. “I just needed a few minutes to myself.”
“Oh. Okay. I thought… well, it looked like you were leaving. For good.”
She paused. Then she walked back to him and looked up. A deep breath, then she spoke carefully, as if the words pained her. “I think I am leaving. I’m sorry, Matt, but this isn’t working out. Fen… he scares me. I’m sure he killed Baldwin. I don’t know how, but…” She shuddered. “He’s a monster. I know you don’t see that now, but you will. Just…” She laid her fingers on his arm. “Be careful. I don’t want him to hurt you.”
“He won’t. I just… I can’t figure out why he killed Baldwin.” He tried to say it like he thought it was true.
“Because it’s in the myth. He was destined to. You know that.” She tightened her fingers around his arm. “You have a traitor in your midst, and I just pray to the gods that you’ll figure it out before it’s too late. But in case you don’t, I’m going to find Odin and tell him and let him warn you. In the meantime, forget what I said about getting your Hammer. Fen will only steal it. Protect the shield, too. He’ll go after that, if he hasn’t already.”
“I’m not worried about that. I know exactly where the shield is,” Matt said.
“Are you sure? I really think you need to check and hide it.”
“It’s already hidden. Right over here.” Matt broke from her grip and walked over to the rosebushes.
Astrid raced after him and grabbed his arm, but he shook her off. When he reached down to grab the bag, she jumped on his back, grabbing his shirt and wrenching it so hard that the collar tightened around his throat. He started to choke and spun, fist out. It hit her and when it did, his amulet seemed to ignite, blazing so hot he gasped.
She ran at him, her face twisted into something so ugly that it stopped him in his tracks. She jumped on him, and he fell back with her on top of him. The amulet blazed again, scorching his skin.
Why couldn’t you have done that sooner? A little warning would have been nice.
Matt hit Astrid with a fast jab, followed by a second. As he pushed up, she started falling off him, then grabbed him again, both hands wrapped in his shirt. She hissed, and he caught a flash of her white teeth heading straight for his neck. He managed to push her away before she could bite him. One good heave and she went flying to the ground. When she tried to scramble up, Matt knocked her down again.
She seemed ready to bounce up. Then she stopped. Her shoulders folded in, and her hands flew to her face. She started to sob.
“It’s not my fault,” she said. “He made me do it. He said he’d kill my family if I didn’t.”
“Who made you do it?” Matt asked.
“H-him,” she sobbed. “He made me do it, and if I don’t come back, he’ll kill my family.” She lifted her face to his and her eyes seemed genuinely red now. “Please, Matt. Let me go, and I’ll tell him you’re heading to North Dakota. You’ll be safe.”
She reached out and wrapped her fingers around his arm, and when she did, the amulet’s heat scorched again.
Matt shook his head. “You’re going to answer a few questions. Then, if I think you’ve told me the truth, I’ll let you go.”
She looked up, and the red shot right through her eyes, through the whites and through the irises and even the pupils.
“You just don’t know when to give up, do you?” She lunged to her feet and gave him a shove.
He’d been crouched on his toes, and the push knocked him off balance. When he saw her going for the bag, he shouted, “No!”
His hand shot out, Hammer launching, but she veered at the last second before grabbing it, and was heading across the yard, for another neighboring yard.
Matt hesitated for a second. He looked at the bag. Then he raced to it, grabbed it, and went after Astrid. He pursued her over three fences, but she was a faster runner, and with each one, he fell farther behind, until he climbed the fourth, looked out, and saw no sign of her.
“You!” a voice boomed.
Matt followed it to a second-story window, where a man glowered down at him.
“Get out of my yard now, or I’ll come down there and—”
Matt didn’t hear the rest. He was already running for the gate.
Matt spent twenty minutes searching for Astrid. There was no sign of her. He’d have to go back to the house and see if Fen could track her. In the meantime, at least they had the shield. And they still had Paul. Whatever Astrid knew, Matt bet the Raiders did, too.
Matt walked to the shed. He opened the door, looked in, and saw a pile of cords and discarded duct tape. Paul was gone.
TWENTY-FIVE
LAURIE
“LET’S GO TO HEL”
When Matt had gone upstairs to Baldwin’s room to talk to Fen, Laurie had followed him. They didn’t talk, but she knew as well as Matt did that Fen had tried to save Baldwin. She wanted to tell all of that to Fen, but he was gone. She walked over to the window—which was still open—but she couldn’t see her cousin outside anywhere. Matt had taken off after Fen had, but Laurie wasn’t really sure if Matt could say or do anything to bring Fen back to them.
Laurie had been to funerals, so it wasn’t the first time she’d been in the room with a dead person. It was different with Baldwin. He’d just been alive, laughing, and being his goofy self. Staying in the room with Baldwin now that he was gone wasn’t like being at a viewing at the funeral home with her dad. This was her friend, one of the descendants, and he was dead.
The whole thing felt unreal, more than trolls or mara. Monsters were one thing, but a dead friend was another. Laurie felt like she was in a haze, too shocked to even cry, though tears kept falling from her eyes. She’d gone downstairs to wait. By then, Fen, Matt, and Astrid were all missing. She was alone in the house with the twins, who retreated to another room. On the heels of their victory in getting the shield, they’d lost in a way no one could have seen coming.
Who dies eating pizza? It was insane. It should be impossible. They weren’t even at a battle.
Laurie half sat, half flopped down on the sofa, thinking about how quickly everything changed. It was wrong to be here in Baldwin’s house now that Baldwin was gone. She imagined his parents coming home and finding him. The boy who was impervious to injury had died—which didn’t make any sense.
The only thing that could kill or injure Baldwin was mistletoe. Pizza wasn’t made with any
sort of mistletoe. It simply didn’t make sense.
A door opened, and she scrambled up to see who it was.
Fen walked into the kitchen.
“I’m sorry,” Laurie murmured. She started to go to him, to grab him and hug him, but he looked so angry that she stopped.
Fen looked at her, and she knew he wanted to tell her it was okay, but it wasn’t. If someone had blamed her for anything, Fen would’ve jumped to her defense—even if she’d done it. She didn’t think he had done anything wrong, and she hadn’t thought it when Astrid had implied he’d caused it. She’d been shocked, scared, and crying. By the time she’d thought to speak, Fen was already gone.
“I didn’t think you did anything wrong,” she swore. “I just… I didn’t have time to tell you. I would’ve. It was just that Baldwin was just here, and then he was…” Her words trailed off, and she swatted at the tears that were on her face again.
“Dead,” Fen finished.
He grabbed the jar of red-pepper flakes and unscrewed the top. Silently, he poured it into one hand and poked at the flakes with his finger.
“It’s not all pepper,” Fen said flatly.
Her gaze flickered between his upraised hand and his red, swollen eyes. He might not be crying right now, but she could tell that he had been.
“Mistletoe?” she asked.
“It has to be. Someone put mistletoe in there and left it on the counter for him to… Astrid.” Fen looked at Laurie with fury in his expression. “She said it was easy. She thanked me. She thanked him.”
He slammed his hand down.
“She poisoned him, and she knew I couldn’t stop it.” Fen looked like he was going to snap, and his voice sounded increasingly like an animal’s growls were twisted around his words. “She watched him die. She killed him.”
Laurie could hear the anger seething in Fen’s voice, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak. Astrid had poisoned Baldwin. She’d put mistletoe in the pepper shaker, and Fen had put the poison on Baldwin’s pizza without knowing he was killing him.
“I couldn’t save him,” Fen whispered.
Laurie grabbed Fen and pulled him to her. “It’s not your fault.”
Although Fen didn’t pull away, he didn’t hug her back, either. “It’s just like the myth. I had a part in killing him.”
Laurie squeezed her cousin, as much to let her buy time as to let him calm down. She wasn’t entirely convinced that Fen could contain himself if he saw Astrid. What if she comes back? The reality of it was that one of their group had been murdered by another. She didn’t know if she could handle Fen doing the same thing—or if Fen could.
They were still standing there when Matt walked into the room. He looked as devastated as Laurie felt. Fen pulled away from her and squared his shoulders, bracing himself for a fight.
“Astrid’s gone,” Matt said.
At the same time, Fen said, “Astrid poisoned Baldwin.”
There was a long moment of silence as the boys looked at one another. Then Matt took a deep breath. “You were right,” he said. “About not trusting her. I should have listened.”
Fen shrugged. “I didn’t have any proof.”
Matt met Fen’s gaze. “I still should have listened.”
Fen nodded and shifted uncomfortably. Laurie cleared her throat and rescued him by asking Matt, “What happens in the myth? After Balder died, what did the gods do?”
Matt paused, and then, slowly, he smiled. “They went after him.”
“Went where?”
“To Hel, the land of the dead.” Matt looked from Laurie to Fen and back again. “Do you think you can open a doorway there?”
Laurie took a deep breath before she could answer. This wasn’t some little thing they were considering. Go to Hel? Could they even do that? What kind of monsters were there? All sorts of fears swirled through her, but in the middle of the fear was hope. If they could do this, they could bring Baldwin back. She nodded. “I do find descendants of the North.”
The horrible look of sadness slipped from the boys’ faces, and Laurie felt herself smiling, too. They didn’t need to discuss what would happen next. They knew what to do.
The twins walked into the kitchen. “We should probably take off before Baldwin’s parents get home,” Ray suggested.
“We are,” Laurie said, and then she turned to Matt. “Did the gods succeed?”
“No,” Matt said slowly. “The myth says Hel wouldn’t give him up because Loki didn’t mourn.” He clapped Fen on the shoulder. “But you are mourning.”
Fen grinned. “Well, then it looks like we need to go to Hel.”
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We want to thank the following people for making this book possible:
Sarah Rees Brennan, for suggesting one sleepy morning over an airport breakfast of donuts that we needed to write a “Kellissa book”;
Meghan Lewis, Breanna Lewis, and Dylan Marr, for coming up with titles for the books;
our agents, Sarah Heller and Merrilee Heifetz, for believing in the project (and us);
film agent Sally Wilcox, and foreign rights agent Cecilia de la Campa, for enthusiastic support;
Megan Tingley, Kate Sullivan, Samantha Smith, and the rest of the team at Little, Brown and Atom, for taking a chance on us;
Xaviere Daumarie, for creating gorgeous art; Deena Warner, for building a great website; and Azoulas Yurashunas, for constructing traditional Viking shields;
and our kids (Marcus, Alex, Julia, Dylan, and Asia), Kelley’s assistant (Alison Armstrong), and our friends (Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Ally Condie, and Margaret Stohl), for feedback on the book at various stages.
CONTENTS
WELCOME
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE: MATT
CHAPTER TWO: LAURIE
CHAPTER THREE: FEN
CHAPTER FOUR: MATT
CHAPTER FIVE: MATT
CHAPTER SIX: LAURIE
CHAPTER SEVEN: MATT
CHAPTER EIGHT: MATT
CHAPTER NINE: LAURIE
CHAPTER TEN: MATT
CHAPTER ELEVEN: FEN
CHAPTER TWELVE: MATT
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: LAURIE
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: MATT
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: LAURIE
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: MATT
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: LAURIE
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: MATT
CHAPTER NINETEEN: FEN
CHAPTER TWENTY: LAURIE
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: MATT
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: MATT
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: FEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: MATT
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: LAURIE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Text Copyright © 2013 by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr
Interior illustrations © 2013 by Vivienne To Shield and logo by Eamon O’Donoghue based on the work of Lisseth Key
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected].
Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017
www.lb-kids.com
First ebook edition: May 2013
ISBN 978-0-316-23110-7
Loki's Wolves Page 23
