Sword of Secrets (Heroes of Asgard Book 1)

by S. M. Schmitz

  I raked a hand through my damp hair again and wondered how badly I was going to smell in the morning. When we left the airport, we were brought to this hotel, but Hunter and I had been left alone in a different room for most of the day. Tyr and Cadros brought us food twice and we were told to help ourselves to the bar in the room, but we didn’t see Keira or Agnes again until it was night and, then, Keira wouldn’t answer any of my questions about where she’d been or why Hunter and I had been jailed inside an admittedly posh hotel room with an impressive wet bar. I’m pretty sure Hunter and I at least did a little damage to their room fees by working our way through as much of that damn alcohol as we could.

  Maybe it hadn’t been such a great idea to drink so much when my nerves were a bit shot from having been abducted along with my best friend and hauled off to a tiny ass island country that was cold as hell. That may have had something to do with the nightmare, too. I collapsed back on the bed and closed my eyes. “Who else is a god of war in Norse mythology?” I asked him, keeping my eyes closed and an arm draped over them.

  I’d heard Tyr move like he was going to switch off the lamp for me but my question stopped him. I cursed myself for my big mouth. “There were lots. Only a few made it into the Prose Edda or Codex Regius though. Odin, myself. Sometimes, Thor is incorrectly identified as a god of war, but he isn’t. He’s a god of the sky and thunder and used to guard Asgard when it needed more guarding. With virtually no one left who believes in us, we don’t have much need for guards.”

  “Lots of war gods? Like how many?” One of these days, I was going to learn how to keep my damn mouth shut.

  I heard him scratching at his beard again. He seemed to do that when he was thinking. “Throughout time? I don’t even know, Gavyn. Perhaps Odin could tell you. He knows these things better than me.”

  I lowered my arm and scowled at him. “But you want me to believe you’re gods. Wouldn’t you all still be around? Should be pretty easy to get an accurate head count.”

  Tyr shook his head and explained, “Gods can be killed. Turns out, that may be a lucky thing for us if the Sumerians are serious. Besides, you read about Ragnarok, didn’t you?”

  God, we were back to his damn book. “Never mind,” I muttered. “Just turn off the light.”

  Tyr complied and turned off the lamp and I listened as his large body reclined on the mattress and he covered himself with his blankets. I found myself wondering if this was how Stockholm Syndrome began, because part of me actually liked the guy, even if he was really weird. And then I just thought I was either still drunk or starting to lose my mind, too, because I’m pretty sure it’s not a good idea to decide to become your captor’s buddy. So I rolled onto my side facing away from him and tried to fall back to sleep.

  Falling asleep this time was much more difficult because most of the alcohol Hunter and I had consumed had worn off by now, but the next time I opened my eyes, the darkness of the room had transformed into a murky gray and I could hear Tyr moving around the room. He was trying not to make too much noise, but the guy was freaking huge. It was like sharing a room with the Hulk.

  I sat up and glared at the hotel clock. It was almost 8:30 in the morning but the grayness of the room already told me the sun hadn’t really risen yet. I turned my scowl on Tyr. “Why did you have to take us to Iceland?”

  Tyr stopped whatever he’d been doing and faced me. “You always sleep this late?”

  I pushed the blankets off me and headed toward the bathroom. He was back to ignoring my questions and any fear I’d had the night before that I might be developing Stockholm Syndrome dissipated. I was back to being pissed off and wishing I could figure out some way to escape these bastards. Some hero.

  I took my time in the shower and when I finally turned the water off, I heard Keira’s voice in the room. I wrapped one of the fluffy white hotel towels around me and waited by the door to see if they were actually talking about Hunter or me, but unfortunately, they hadn’t become complete idiots over night. Keira got quiet then yelled at me to hurry up—we didn’t have all day because of the limited sunlight. So being the infinitely wise man that I was, I decided to see just how much I could mess with her because I was getting dragged off to another place I didn’t want to go to.

  I left the bathroom with only the towel wrapped around my waist and asked her if they planned on me going around Reykjavik naked, because they hadn’t let me pack. Keira handed me a stack of clothes. “Here. Don’t worry, they’re your size.”

  I rifled through the stack, and she wasn’t kidding: I was more than a little creeped out that they even knew what size to buy me. But I wasn’t going to let her know that. I threw the clothes on the bed and dropped the towel to the floor, wanting to watch her face to see if she was bothered by the naked man she was holding prisoner who was taking his time getting dressed in the clothes they’d probably stolen, too. I mean, if they didn’t have any misgivings about stealing people why would they pay for underwear? But Keira never even stopped talking to Tyr. And it was kinda cold in the room so I didn’t want to just stand there naked all day. I got dressed and finally glowered at Keira, who didn’t seem to think anything odd had happened at all.

  “You ready?” she asked. She stood up like I was just going to willingly follow her out of the room to wherever she was taking me now. I shook my head.

  “Not unless you’re buying me breakfast.” I was hungry, actually.

  “We’ll stop somewhere on the way. But we’re keeping the others waiting.”

  “What others?” I asked. And I regretted asking as soon as the words came out, because I didn’t want to meet any more of her insane friends who were running around pretending to be divine creatures from some old religion that I’d only even heard of because of pop culture. And I really didn’t want to meet anyone pretending to be Loki. That guy seemed like a total asshole.

  “The other heroes. This is where we agreed everyone should meet,” Keira explained. She was trying to hand me my coat—or the coat they’d given me at the airport, anyway—but I wouldn’t take it from her.

  “You’re bringing me to meet with a bunch of other people who’ve been kidnapped and hauled off to a remote, frozen island?” How the hell had no country’s authorities found us yet? Law enforcement had reached unprecedented levels of incompetence.

  “The island isn’t frozen, Gavyn,” Keira sighed. “It’s not even winter yet. Believe me, it will get colder. And we haven’t been able to find many, but you won’t be able to fight the Sumerians on your own.”

  “True,” I agreed, crossing my arms over my chest to indicate I had no intention of putting on that coat or going anywhere with her, “because I’m not fighting anyone. Period.”

  Keira tossed the coat on my lap. “Will it make you feel better if we let Hunter come along? I think Agnes is taking a liking to him. You might want to keep him around you anyway.”

  I grimaced at the thought of Agnes hitting on anyone, let alone my best friend. “She’s like three hundred years old,” I said. “No way she’s going to get Hunter into bed with her.”

  Tyr laughed and with his massive good hand, pulled on my arm and forced me off the bed. “She’s far older than that, and she can appear however she wants. She can easily make herself look like a pretty young woman, and if you come back to that, just remember: we warned you.”

  Despite how nuts they were, I was half convinced Agnes was a witch and I didn’t want to abandon Hunter to her. So I put my coat on and reluctantly agreed to go with them if they let Hunter come along.

  Keira and Tyr actually let us sit together in the backseat of the car as we rode out to what I imagined to be a huge abandoned warehouse with Icelandic warnings posted around the broken chain link fence about trespassing or maybe even nuclear waste being stored on the premises. And inside, we’d find a room full of men in their late twenties with sandy blond hair like mine, and maybe even blue eyes if they could find enough Scandinavianesque men to unwittingly fight in their army aga
inst an entirely different group of crazy people claiming to be gods no one had ever heard of.

  But Keira parked in a garage attached to a modern high rise and cut the engine. Maybe we were picking up another hostage or something before making our way out to the abandoned warehouse full of equally emasculated young men. Keira and Tyr got out of the car, and Hunter and I just looked at each other. I think he was expecting the abandoned warehouse, too.

  Keira knocked on my window and told me to hurry up. We were already late. I nodded toward the empty McDonald’s bag at his feet. “Dude, you’d think we could at least get better meals than this. Think if I play along and pretend to be some Norse hero, they’ll take us out for a steak dinner? Or hell, I’d settle for anything that isn’t served in a bag.”

  Hunter nodded. “Worth a shot. Although if they let us hit the wet bar again, I’m good with McDonald’s.” Keira opened the door and told us to get out of the car, but Hunter and I never did follow orders well. He looked at me thoughtfully instead. “What the hell did we eat last night?”

  We’d been pretty drunk by the time Tyr came to the room with our food. I remembered tearing into the bag but it could have been hamburgers or lutefisk. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t lutefisk, but I’m equally sure I would have eaten it anyway. Of the many stupid dares Hunter and I had survived, a surprising number of them involved eating things no human should eat. And even though I wasn’t really sure what lutefisk was, it sounded like something no human should eat.

  I was about to tell Hunter that, but Keira got impatient and decided to manhandle me again and literally dragged me out of the car. I hit my head on the frame of the door and cursed at the car then at her, but she just told me it wouldn’t have happened if I’d gotten out when she asked me. And Tyr just laughed and pulled Hunter out the other side. I rubbed the top of my head then grinned at Keira.

  “You know, it’s customary to kiss injuries.” I kept my hand on my head like I was mortally wounded.

  Keira arched one of those light blond eyebrows above her gorgeous pale blue eyes and motioned to Tyr. “Come kiss it for him then,” she told him. And that asshole actually leaned over and kissed the top of my head. They were still laughing at me as they escorted Hunter and me into the building that was disappointingly not a possibly-haunted abandoned warehouse.

  We were brought into a conference room where a dozen other people sat sipping on coffee and chatting and passing around a basket that looked like it had some sort of rolls in it. And no one was tied up or gagged or anything. Another gorgeous blond woman, who looked like she could have been Keira’s sister, noticed we’d entered and smiled and waved at her. Keira dragged me over to her. Hunter didn’t need Tyr to drag him anymore; the allure of the beautiful Keira-look-alike seemed to be doing a far better job than Tyr had anyway.

  “Gavyn, this is Róta.” As Keira introduced us, I deliberated whether or not I should shake the woman’s hand. A man who looked about my age was standing next to her, but he didn’t seem nearly as pissed off about being here as I was. Maybe Róta had slept with him. That would probably work a lot better than strong-arming and kidnapping him. Róta didn’t give me a chance to decide if I should shake her hand though. She stepped up to me and hugged me like we were old friends and what could I do? I hugged her back and shot Hunter my best what-the-bloody-hell-is-happening-here? look. He taught me that look, so I felt obligated to keep the “bloody” part in there, even if I was from Louisiana.

  Róta pulled out of the embrace but held onto my arms and never stopped smiling at me. “We’re so glad you’re finally here, Gavyn.” The longer she held onto me, the less congenial the guy standing next to her became, and I decided they were definitely sleeping together and I was about to get into a fight in a conference room in Reykjavik, Iceland over something I hadn’t even done. But oddly enough, Keira didn’t seem that happy about Róta’s overly friendly greeting. She told her something in what I can only assume was Norwegian and Róta let go of me but motioned to a chair next to her.

  “Why don’t you sit next to me, Gavyn? You’re such a mystery to us all,” she said, but if there was more to what she’d been planning on telling me, I stopped her before she could get it out.

  “I’m the mystery? I’m a twenty-eight-year-old guy from Baton Rouge who loves college football and recognizing where the hell I am when I wake up. Your… sister and her friends are the mystery here, and quite honestly, I’d just like to go back to the States. So if you could convince Gunnr here to give me my balls back so I can leave now, that’d be great.”

  Hunter snickered and added he’d like his back, too, before we left. Róta glanced at him and for the first time, seemed to notice I hadn’t come alone. “Who’s this?”

  “His friend,” Keira explained. “Gavyn hasn’t exactly embraced the idea he’s a Norse hero. Believe it or not, having Hunter here makes him less of a pain in the ass.”

  I squinted at Keira for slipping in yet another insult but Róta was undaunted. “Oh, don’t listen to her. She’s always been a bit disagreeable. Who can blame you for being uncertain when we don’t even know your family’s story?”

  Tyr grunted behind me, and Keira’s body tensed angrily but Róta ignored them. She grabbed my hand and tried to lead me to the empty chair next to the one she’d been sitting in but I was tired of being led around like a dog on a leash. A badly behaved one at that. I yanked my hand free and glared at Keira. “You said I was connected to all of you through my mother.”

  Keira stood there defensively, still looking very much like some badass goddess who wanted to kick this other gorgeous goddess’s ass, but at least she answered me. “You are. We just don’t know how. Some stories are lost, even to us.”

  “This is ridiculous,” I muttered. I turned around to get away from them, but Tyr was blocking my way. For once, I didn’t even care that the guy could probably snap my neck with his one hand.

  “Move,” I ordered him.

  Tyr folded his arms across his thick chest and looked amused and that just pissed me off even more. “Goddamn it, Tyr, move,” I told him again. When he still didn’t get out of my way, I finally snapped. I don’t even really know what I was thinking, other than I needed to get away from these psychos. My hands had balled into fists and for a moment, it was like watching someone else punch Tyr in his large, round face, the behemoth of a man stumbling backward as the blood ran from his nose. I walked around him and out of the conference room door into the hallway of a building I’d never been in before and I had no idea where to go. Someone was behind me.

  I spun around but Hunter backed up and held his hands up, reminding me I was his friend and he’d rather me not kill him in some god-forsaken-frozen-island-country. I hit the elevator button instead. Other voices were filling the hallway now, which meant Hunter and I couldn’t wait for the elevator to get us out of here. I grabbed his coat sleeve and we ran for the stairwell. The voices behind us became more urgent but none of them were bothering to speak English anymore.

  We had to run down eight flights of stairs and when I reached the ground floor, I realized Hunter was no longer with me. I began to panic, wondering how I could have missed these assholes re-abducting my best friend and started running up the stairs I’d just come down when I heard him. He was still a flight above me, and I sighed impatiently as I waited for him to get to the ground floor. I listened at the door because by now, our captors had plenty of time to catch the elevator down and were probably waiting for us, but where else could we go? It was the only exit.

  Hunter was panting and out of breath by the time he reached my side and he nodded toward the exit door. It would lead into the lobby of the building, and our only hope was that none of the kidnappers would want to draw attention to themselves, because there was no way in hell I was going back with them quietly. Not again. I’d played their games in the hopes that neither Hunter nor I would get hurt, but I’d also been clinging to the apparently delusional expectation that the cops or airport security or
whatever the hell Iceland’s version of law enforcement was would get off their asses and rescue us.

  I leaned next to Hunter to speak quietly near his ear. “They’ll be waiting down here. Stay behind me and follow me, but do not go anywhere near them again. Got it?”

  Hunter was wide-eyed and still breathing heavily but he nodded. I opened the door leading into the building’s lobby and walked straight into the body of another beast of a man with a reddish brown beard and a Mjollnir necklace.

  Chapter Six

  Shit,” I muttered.

  I backed away from the man who hadn’t moved. I’m pretty sure walking straight into the guy hadn’t even thrown him off balance. I grabbed Hunter’s sleeve again and kept my eyes on the man with auburn hair and a long dark brown trench coat and couldn’t help wondering if he had a hammer hidden in there to smash my head in. I was going to have nightmares about this for the rest of my life.

  I glanced around the bustling lobby and it looked like there was some sort of bank down here; it was filled with customers conducting business, standing in line for an ATM, sitting at desks and punching furiously at keyboards. I looked back at the man I could only presume would tell me he was Thor if I gave him the chance. “You take even one step toward us, and I’ll scream my head off,” I warned him.

  He uncrossed his arms and scratched his chin, the same nervous habit Tyr had, but he was studying me, perhaps trying to decide if I was serious. “Gavyn,” he started, but I backed farther away from him. I could see the others around the lobby now, including Keira, and they were waiting on me to make some mistake or fall victim to a spontaneous fit of insanity so I would join their weird cult and pretend to be a mythological figure with them. Neither one of those things was going to happen.

  There was a security guard standing near the door and I was deliberating how I could get his attention. The Thor-wannabe must have noticed the guard, too. “Don’t do anything stupid, Gavyn,” he warned me.