“She just took him.” Sally slumped onto one of the new bar stools at the marble-topped bar that separated the kitchen from the living area. She wasn’t sure how long Loki had been at the apartment, but he’d been making himself useful putting together Saga’s new furniture.
“But what happened? How can you be sure it was Hel?” Opal hovered at Sally’s elbow like a spotter in a climbing gym, ready in case Sally collapsed. The expression of worry mixed with fear on Opal’s face was too much. Sally looked down into her glass of water instead.
“I’m sure.” Sally thrust her free hand into her pocket and produced the charm bracelet. Loki frowned when he saw it, but offered no comment. He reached for another piece of the chair frame and went to work bolting it into place.
“I lost this in the woods in Helheim,” Sally explained to Opal and Saga. “And at the coffee shop when I came back with the chai, Zach was gone. But this was on his chair. So unless one of those unruly hounds decided to go rogue . . .”
Her voice trailed off. Had she been trying to make a joke? She felt dizzy and her heart was pounding in her chest. She gulped down the rest of the water and placed the empty glass on the counter. “We have to go after him.”
Balancing her laptop in one hand, Saga stood in front of Sally. “I’m still working on what the draugar might be after. But I don’t know why they’d go after Zach. Except maybe out of spite.”
Loki rose to his feet and turned the newly assembled chair upright. “Not spite, no. You’re looking for common threads among disparate activities.” He tore the clear plastic wrapping off of the chair’s leather cushion and settled it into place.
“Disparate, maybe, but not unrelated,” Saga replied.
“Not unrelated,” Loki echoed as he positioned the new armchair to the side of Saga’s tiled, gas-burning fireplace. He dropped a pair of small hex wrenches atop a growing pile of manufacturer-supplied tools on the carpet and strode toward a stack of unopened furniture boxes. He appeared to consider which piece to assemble next.
Sally wanted to throw something at him.
“Right now I don’t care who did what or why or how.” Sally’s voice was tired, despite the full meal in her stomach and a triple-dose of caffeine. She’d chugged both cups of chai tea on her dash from Coffee Horde, and only when she was passing through the outer security door of Saga’s building did she realize she’d accidentally stolen the shop’s branded mugs. She dropped them by the door. If they were still there in the morning, or whenever she finally got five minutes without a new catastrophe looming, she’d take them back to the coffee shop.
Her vision was starting to blur and she steadied herself against the counter. “I really just want all of this to be over already, so I can take a vacation or a spa day. Or a nap.”
Sally looked around for a real chair, something with lumbar support. The only one available was the armchair Loki had just assembled on the other side of the room. Lacking the energy to cross even the few yards of carpet, Sally melted in the direction of the floor and leaned against the base of the counter instead.
“Sally.” Opal knelt beside her and made a cursory examination, running her fingers over Sally’s face, shoulders, and arms as she looked for any injuries. Sally knew she meant well but after a few seconds of poking and prodding, Sally had to push her away.
“Sally needs to rest. A lot,” Opal said to Loki and Saga. “Whatever’s going on, is it something you guys can handle? Or call Heimdall to deal with it? Can you just leave Sally out of it this once?”
“We are not calling Heimdall.” Saga crossed her arms and paced across the floor. “We can definitely handle this ourselves. I can handle this. I just need a little more time.”
Opal rose from the floor and scurried into the kitchen. Sally guessed she was putting together a tincture or poultice that would act as nature’s Red Bull to get Sally back on her feet, or maybe she was concocting a sleepy tea to knock her out for a day or two. Sally hoped for the latter.
“But we are absolutely not calling Heimdall,” Saga muttered.
Loki lifted a hand to allay her concern. “So you’ll be pleased to know that Heimdall has elected to not get involved.”
Saga’s face flushed red, and the family resemblance to Thor was immediately apparent. Having little energy to do more than blink, Sally sat on the floor and watched Saga face off against Loki.
“You spoke to Heimdall?” Saga’s voice was barely above a whisper, but her anger and indignation were plain on her face. “Why would you, how could you even—”
Loki waved her off. “Heimdall and Maggie and Rod will remain at the Lodge to defend against any trouble that might be directed their way. In the meantime . . .”
“Wait, is the Lodge in danger?” Opal came around the marble countertop. “Have you guys just been totally downplaying the threat here? How much trouble are we actually in?”
Three controlled blows to the apartment’s front door announced an impatient visitor in the hallway. Sally startled and found herself on her feet before she realized her body was moving. She heard a low buzzing in her ears and feared she was running on nothing but adrenaline.
“Is that the draugar?” Opal’s voice was small and nervous as she moved to stand beside Sally like a sentinel.
Sally looked to Saga and Loki, easily the most capable in the room in the face of immediate danger. Saga remained plenty angry, while Loki broke into a mischievous grin. Two more heavy blows sounded on the door.
“If you are displeased about my consulting Heimdall,” Loki said, “I can say with some certainty that you are really not going to like what I did next.”
Saga was visibly grinding her teeth. “You didn’t.”
Loki gestured toward the door. Saga huffed and stomped across the floor. She unbolted the door and threw it open.
Thor didn’t bother with pleasantries. He pushed past his sister and scowled at everyone present. His eyebrows knitted into a single unit as his face flushed almost purple-red.
“So,” the big god growled. “Which one of you geniuses is the author of this current fiasco?”
Sally wasn’t sure if she should raise her hand. Was this her fault, or Loki’s? Or Hel’s? Or all of them together? She was part of the century’s worst tag team, but she was prepared to take responsibility for her participation. She rested her weight against one of the new bar stools and took a breath.
Before she could speak, three bricks crashed through the windows of Saga’s eighteenth-floor apartment.
14
For the second time in as many days, Thor was hosting an impromptu family meeting around his breakfast table. Considering the number of eaters at his small table and the volume of food on offer, he wondered how Frigga and Odin had afforded to feed everyone for so long.
It was nearly midnight, but Bonnie was serving pancakes and putting out a hearty breakfast spread. Thor sat with his back to the window overlooking the rear yard. By force of habit, he consumed everything in sight while he considered this latest fiasco from all sides and attempted to form a battle plan.
On his right, Saga was downing stack after stack of pancakes almost as quickly as Bonnie could serve them. He wanted to smack his sister on the back of the head—for letting the crisis escalate before asking for help and for not allowing Bonnie to sit still for five minutes in her own kitchen. But for once, Saga had her brother’s appetite and he thought she could stand to gain a few pounds. Or were they both stress eating?
Sally sat on the other side of the table, looking stricken and pale. On the hasty ride across town in his truck, Thor had gathered that her boyfriend had gone missing—possibly kidnapped by Hel, Loki’s cursed and unruly daughter.
Why did it always seem to come down to Loki and his belligerent offspring? Even the kerfuffle in Norway started with the Frost Giants kidnapping Loki. Though he’d been the victim in that scenario, Loki was still at the center of it, and Thor felt justified laying that blame at Loki’s feet.
Loki and Opal
sat on either side of Sally. Opal picked at her short stack of pancakes and managed a few bites of bacon and eggs. Loki stared absently out the window and sipped a glass of orange juice.
The three bricks that had sailed through Saga’s apartment window sat on the floor by Thor’s feet. That anyone managed to throw bricks through an eighteenth-floor window was impressive enough. That draugar had done the throwing distressed him. The draugar had come calling, and there was nothing subtle about their visit. It was something of a miracle that he’d managed to get everyone to his truck without the dead-eyed ghastlies grabbing them.
He needed to know what the draugar were doing in Portland, and why they’d swarmed Saga’s apartment building. Why they’d burned down Sally’s building, and why they’d shown up in his own neighborhood. But so far, the guests at his table were short on answers.
Thor stared hard at Loki and willed the god of chaos to crack. It didn’t work. Loki finished his orange juice and nodded his appreciation to Bonnie when she refilled his glass.
Thor turned his attention to the Rune Witch. The girl was depleted and looked like little more than a flesh bag to contain her brain. He shivered at the gruesome image. Had the draugar gotten so far inside his head?
“Sally, you should eat something,” he said.
Sally stared at her food. Her eyes were red and it was clear she hadn’t gotten a decent night’s rest in some time. She wavered in her chair, and Thor worried she was on the verge of a blackout.
She picked up her fork and made a feeble stab at the edge of a pancake, then gave up. Bonnie brought her a glass of orange juice, and that prompted signs of life. Sally drank the juice down in one long pull. A glimmer of clarity returned to her eyes, and Bonnie settled a cup of coffee beside her.
“So,” Thor announced too loudly. He looked pointedly at Loki. “Before we get into the particulars of cracking heads and solving this current problem, is it safe to assume this is all your doing?”
Loki glanced briefly at Thor and looked out the window again. “Perhaps. Or in part. Technically speaking, it was Sally who opened the way between worlds.”
“What?!” Sally dropped her fork onto her plate with a clatter. “Only because you told me to!”
“Is that what he made you do, that night out in the woods?” Opal glanced from Loki to Sally and back again. If Opal had enough dark magick to match the venom in her eyes, she would be a formidable opponent. Thor counted himself lucky she was on his side.
As it was, there were too few allies gathered around his table. He didn’t expect it would be long before the draugar reappeared on the street outside. The thought of bricks sailing through his own windows or his family being threatened seared him like hot coals.
“And you didn’t want to call anyone for help!” Opal lashed out at Saga. Saga shrugged and forked more pancakes into her mouth between gulps of coffee.
“I told you I could handle it myself,” Saga mumbled with her mouth full. “Everything was fine.”
“You mean the part when your entire building was overrun by draugar?” Thor restrained himself from bringing his fist down on the table, but only barely. “Your neighbors could have been in danger. That’s what you call ‘fine.’”
Saga gestured across the table toward Loki with her coffee mug. “He’s the one who went to Heimdall.”
This time Thor did smack the table. Sally jumped and spilled her coffee, and he felt a pang of guilt.
“If Heimdall doesn’t think it’s worth coming into town, then I don’t know what everyone’s agitated about.” Saga got up to pour herself another cup of coffee. “I told you I’ll figure out what the draugar are after, and how to stop them from getting it.”
Thor glared at Loki. “You went to Heimdall before coming to me.”
He caught the glimmer of a satisfied grin on the old trickster’s face and felt heat rising in his chest and up his neck. If not for his young son sleeping upstairs, he swore to himself he’d reach across the table to snap Loki’s neck and then tear him limb from limb for good measure.
But then Thor took a breath. Of course he wouldn’t hurt Loki, not permanently. The dark god had been his father’s ally, and now he was the Rune Witch’s mentor. Even though every crisis appeared to hinge on Loki’s history or his influence, Thor had a feeling that eliminating him from the equation would only worsen their problems instead of making them better.
“Heimdall has elected to remain at the Lodge and protect the Yggdrasil and other proximal concerns there, which is sensible. I assume these draugar have not come from Helheim.” Loki spoke as though something infinitely more interesting was playing out beyond the dark window at Thor’s back. On principle, Thor refused to turn in his seat to see for himself. He wouldn’t give Loki the satisfaction.
“How do you know that?” Thor’s voice was rough with anger, but he kept his seat. He hoped Odin would be proud of how he was handling himself. His breakfast table wasn’t exactly the great hearth of the Lodge, but it was where the family—these members, at least—were gathered.
Saga sat back down and picked up her fork. “They came from the sarcophagi at the Nordic Cultural Center.”
Sally made a small choking noise and gulped down her coffee.
“And the others?” Opal asked. “You said they’re gathering reinforcements. Building an army?”
“They want to go home. Or more accurately, they want to move on,” Saga said calmly. “And I’m guessing they’re tracking Loki as a means of doing that.”
Sally looked confused. “Why Loki?”
“I think we’re missing the larger point,” Loki stated calmly.
“Which is?” The entire conversation was testing Thor’s patience. He hadn’t forgotten there was an innocent tangled up in all of this. A mortal had been kidnapped from Portland on Thor’s watch.
“We are dealing with two different quandaries.” Loki rested his hands on the table and interlaced his fingers. In his black shirt and with his dark, graying hair loose around his shoulders, he looked like the CEO of a trendy outdoors company or tech startup. “There are the awakened draugar, and there is Hel trying to gain her own foothold in Midgard. Related concerns, but not coordinated.”
Sally slumped in her chair. She was fading again. “It’s all my fault. Again. If I hadn’t done that spell in the woods, and if I hadn’t gotten sparky in the museum . . . And now Zach is, well, he’s in Helheim, isn’t he?”
Thor took a deep breath and unfolded his clenched fingers. “You were led astray. You were not properly prepared.”
He glared again at Loki, and this time the old trickster definitely smiled.
“She has to learn,” Loki said. “One way or another. Do you think anyone took me by the hand and showed me the way?”
“But I’m not you!” Sally spat. The Rune Witch still had some fight in her. That helped loosen the angry knot in Thor’s chest.
“And a human is paying the price for your negligence.” Thor was careful to direct his words at Loki.
“I fear we must present Hel with what she wants.” Loki turned to Sally. “You have the power to bring resolution.”
“I can’t fix this!”
“That is not what I said.” Loki turned his gaze to Thor. “I did not kidnap Sally’s friend. I did not raise the draugar or direct them to attack. I did not prepare Sally for surges of chaos energy. Because I had hoped it would go differently for her.” He looked at Sally. “For that, my friend and pupil, I am deeply and earnestly sorry.”
Loki looked across the table at Thor. “Blame me, if you must. Use me to rectify this situation, if you can. Sally has the strength and the ability, even if she does not yet believe it herself. I do not mind the sacrifice.”
Thor worked his jaw back and forth. His anger was still brewing, but now he didn’t know where to direct it. Loki had offered to put his own life on the line, which Thor found troubling. Was their situation truly that extreme? But no one had raised the issue of what Hel might set her sights on once
she’d been imbued with the power she craved.
The smile returned to Loki’s face, and it brought an eerie gloom to the table. “Whatever we do, we must do it soon. Hel is willing to make a trade, if her emissary is to be believed. She will keep Zach alive to honor her end of the bargain.”
“That’s good, right?” The hope on Sally’s face nearly broke Thor’s heart. The Rune Witch was yet so young. After all she’d seen and done, there was still a thread of innocent optimism that ran through her. Thor wished that what he had to ask her to do wouldn’t kill that in her forever.
Heimdall slid his phone into his pocket and tried to ignore the nasty look from Maggie. It wasn’t yet dawn, but she hadn’t been in bed when the call woke him. He figured she was up reading or making plans for the homestead, but he couldn’t find her anywhere in the house as he roamed from room to room while he was on the phone with Thor.
But then she’d walked into the living room at the end of the call, and he chastised himself for not taking the call outside. Life with her was becoming more uncomfortable than he’d thought possible.
She made no secret that she didn’t want him talking to Thor. It didn’t matter that Thor was his only surviving brother or that there were fewer and fewer Old Ones with each passing year. In Maggie’s eyes, Thor was now a rival chief, and it was her opinion that he was joining forces with Loki to drag the Lodge into a shady and entirely unnecessary supernatural conflict.
Maggie wanted Heimdall to concentrate on shoring up his own position as head of the Lodge, whereas Heimdall wasn’t sure what meaning head of the Lodge, or the Lodge itself, had anymore.
He turned to face her, fully prepared for an onslaught of questions and accusations. “Before you start, you have to understand that we might actually have a serious threat on our hands.”
Chaos Magic (Rune Witch Book 5) Page 17