Perfekt Balance (The Ære Saga Book 3)

by S. T. Bende

  “Gods, I miss that smile.” Forse held his fingers to the screen, and I followed suit. It was almost as if we were touching. Almost…“I’m so sorry about all of this, Elsa. We’re doing everything we can to get you out of there. We’ve ported to three different towers but they haven’t been the right ones. If only we could break through the dark magic barrier, we could Bifrost you out of there and—”

  “It’s not enough to get me out. You need to take Runa into custody. She poses too much of a threat to the light realms.”

  “I agree.” Forse nodded. “But it’s more important to me to keep you alive. Have you ever wondered why I call you hjärtat?”

  Hjärtat was an endearment that was familiar but not too romantic; the kind of thing you could get away with calling a good friend…or someone truly special. Forse had never confirmed which side I fell on.

  “Why?” My heart rate tripled.

  “Because you, Elsa Fredriksen, are my—”

  “Are you talking to Elsa?” Tyr’s voice came through the screen, cutting off Forse’s declaration. My hopes were dashed as the face of the brother with the worst possible timing joined Forse in my communicator. “Thank Odin! We can’t track you. Do you have any idea how many towers there are in Svartalfheim? A few dozen match the height specs you gave us. The first few were busts, so—”

  “Um, could you give us another minute?” I asked Tyr hopefully.

  “Can you give us a DNA sample?” Tyr countered.

  “Excuse me?”

  “A sample. You say your tower is cloaked in dark magic, but is there any passage to the outside of the building from where you are? A crack in the wall, or a window or something?” Tyr asked.

  “I’ve got a window,” I offered.

  “Perfekt. If you can swab a piece of your shirt, or any loose article you can find in there, and throw it out the window beyond the perimeter of the cloak, the locator might be able to pick it up.” Tyr wore a V between his brows that rivaled Forse’s. At this rate, Idunn was going to have to double up production on the anti-aging apple serum.

  “Breathe, Tyr. It’s going to be okay.”

  “No it’s not.” Tyr clamped his jaw so hard I heard a pop.

  “Tyr,” Forse interrupted. “Look at her ear.”

  Tyr squinted into the screen. “Great Odin, she’s bleeding. Förbaskat, we need to find her now. Or so help me—”

  “Calm down!” I scanned my cell until my eyes fell on a pebble amidst the rubble of the floor. In one movement, I’d picked up the stone, pressed it against my bloodied wound, and flung it out the window. I gritted my teeth as I tried to ignore the searing pain. Note to self—do not shove sharp rocks into open wounds. Ouch! “Okay. I threw a bloodied pebble as far as I could, at a ninety-degree angle to the plane of this window. That probably doesn’t help narrow down where to search for it, since you don’t know where my tower—or its window—are located, but it’s all the information I have. Is the locator picking anything up on the rock? Or did I not throw it hard enough to cross the perimeter?”

  “It’s too soon to tell.” Forse looked frustrated as he stared off-screen. “Henrik wasn’t lying; the locator takes for-bloody-ever. Maybe if…hold up. Tyr, look at this.”

  Tyr leaned over, staring at what I presumed to be the locator. “What is that thing?”

  “Two beings just ported into one of the potential tower locations. And if the blood trace from Brynn’s dagger is correct, Tosk is one of them. I bet this is where they’re hiding Elsa.”

  I did a quick energy scan of my surroundings. “I don’t sense two additional beings here. Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure two creatures just showed up at one of our places of interest,” Forse said. “It could be your tower—maybe they’ve found a way to cloak their energy signatures from you.”

  “Gods, I hope not.” I shivered.

  Tyr swore. “You can run, but you can’t hide. Sit tight, Else, and be careful. We’re on our way.”

  “I’ll be here,” I said lightly.

  “Brynn!” Tyr shouted. “Pack it in. We’re moving out.”

  As Tyr stormed off-screen, Forse turned to me with a small smile. “We’re coming for you, hjärtat. And once you’re safe, I’m never letting you go again.”

  “Is that a promise?”

  “Absolutely.” Forse eyed me with determination. “And I’ve never gone back on my word.”

  “I know you haven’t,” I said. “It’s why I trust you.”

  Forse’s gaze clouded, but before I could ask what was wrong he signed off. “See you in a few.”

  As the screen went black, I leaned against the stone wall and closed my eyes. There was nothing to do now but wait.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  MINUTES TICKED BY, BUT nothing happened. My friends should have ported here by now; something must have gone wrong. Maybe the locator had misread the coordinates, or maybe my energy assessment had been right and Tosk had gone to another location. I grounded myself and pushed out my energy, but the only other mind I could sense in the building was Runa. I skirted around her, not wanting to alert her to my search, and pushed my energy to the border of the property. There wasn’t another soul to be found. My friends had definitely gone to a different tower…and if Tosk was there, they’d probably entered an extremely hostile zone.

  I’d have to go looking for them. If my intuition was right, they’d need all the help they could get.

  I pulled back to check on Runa. Her aura was still a red ball of anger, but she didn’t appear to be going anywhere. I pushed my energy out of the building and shot straight for the sky. The sun crept higher in the atmosphere, its filtered beams cutting through the perma-smog covering Svartalfheim just enough to lend visibility. In the light of day, I could see my tower was part of a large, abandoned castle, and that its moat was narrower than I’d previously thought. I made a note of the thick grove of trees circling the property, and the distance from the nearest mountain range. It was information I could pass on to Forse to help him track me if the locator failed to pick up my blood sample.

  From my vantage point atop the clouds, I saw a sea of towers. Maybe it was a zoning ordinance—all creepy gothic residences must come complete with one tower. Thankfully the actual structures were few and far between, and my scan for energy signatures revealed most were unpopulated. Dark elves must winter in the southern region.

  A pulse of light to the west caught my attention, and I zeroed in on the tower closest to the flash. The energy coming back at me sent a wave of calm though my chest, and I knew it had come from Forse. Dang it. They’d gone to the wrong tower.

  And judging by the intense darkness bearing down on them, my friends had walked straight into a trap.

  * * * *

  Tyr! I pushed myself into his head without asking for the second time in less than a day, but the situation totally warranted it.

  Elsa? He sounded confused. Where are you? The locator still hasn’t locked in on your DNA trace.

  Forget about me, I rushed. Get everybody out of there. It’s a trap. They’re coming from the northeast—

  But before I could finish warning him, an explosion rocked the compound.

  “Skit!” My brother swore out loud. “Abort. Elsa says it’s a trap. Coming from the north—”

  A second explosion blasted the area, sending my brother to the ground. Pain ricocheted across his mind, the sensation so intense I felt it along with him. Is your back okay? I rubbed the bottom half of my spine.

  It’s been better, he admitted. You felt that?

  Yeah. I rubbed harder, until the stinging ebbed.

  I scanned the screens in Tyr’s head until I came to the one that viewed Forse. He remained standing as a third blast shook the stones loose from the base of the tower. “Are you positive Elsa isn’t here?” Forse asked my brother.

  “She says she’s not,” Tyr muttered through his teeth. He pushed himself to his feet. A second flash of pain across his mind sent my hand to my ankle.
I sucked in a sharp breath at the knife-like sensation slicing through my tendon.

  Are you hurt? I pressed into his head.

  I’ll be fine. Just twisted something. Tyr moved forward, limping across the soot just south of the tower. When he reached Brynn, he bent down to help her up. The movement sent a stabbing ache shooting up my own calf.

  “You all right?” Tyr asked, ignoring the pain.

  Brynn bobbed her ponytail as she stood. “Barely. That thing nearly took my head of.”

  Tyr’s viewpoint scanned a car-sized boulder resting a meter from Brynn. “That’s not from the tower. Where did it come from?”

  Get out of there! I urged Tyr. There’s a blackness bearing down on you from the northeast mountains. Those explosions might have been activated remotely, but whoever’s triggering them will be there any minute.

  “Forse,” Tyr barked, as he pulled Brynn alongside him. The valkyrie unsheathed her rapier, and held it at the ready.

  “If Elsa’s not here, then where is she?” Forse growled.

  I’ll recap the landmarks I passed on my way to you later. Just get everybody out of there.

  “I don’t know yet. Just port us out of here so we can figure it out.” Tyr shifted his gaze to the horizon. His viewpoint narrowed as he pushed Brynn to the ground. An arrow pierced the air, soaring through the exact spot where she’d been standing. “It’s an ambush.”

  Forse swore as another arrow flew by. “Gather in,” he ordered, holding out his arms. Tyr and Brynn moved closer. “We’ll port on three. One. Two. Th—”

  Before he could finish his count, the sky exploded. A sea of shrapnel rained down on my friends. My body felt the sting of each impact as my brother’s vision clouded with pain. The screens in his head dimmed nearly to black as he and Forse hunched their bodies over Brynn’s. Through Tyr’s mind, I could see Brynn escaped injury. But the blood soaking through the back of Forse’s shirt showed he wasn’t so lucky.

  No! I screamed. Tyr, Forse is hurt.

  “You okay, Forse?” Tyr barked.

  “It’ll heal.” Forse shrugged, the blood dripping onto the soot. “We port on ‘now.’ Now.”

  And with that my friends disappeared, leaving my energy to scramble back to my body. I could only pray they’d made it to safety as the heavy footsteps of a monster thundered down on my cell.

  * * * *

  “Have you decided to play along? Or do I actually need to go kill someone to motivate you?” The door banged against the wall as Runa stormed into my cell. The soles of my shoes scraped against the stones as I scrambled to my feet. Runa bore down on me with all the fury of an enraged fire giant. Her nostrils flared as she crossed the room, boots pounding on rocks. “Well?”

  “I’m trying to track Fenrir,” I lied. Runa pulled her arm back, and I threw my hands over my face. “Don’t. I said I’m trying.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Runa spat. “Whatever you did to me before made me sick. There’s this…thing. Right here.” She jabbed at the base of her spine.

  “Thing?” I asked cautiously.

  “Yes. It feels…fluttery. I don’t like it. What the Hel did you do to me?”

  My eyes widened. Had I actually loosened the black knot? Stopped Runa’s dark side from completely choking out an innately good soul? Was it possible I wasn’t a total failure as a Unifier after all?

  “Stop smiling and undo whatever you did,” Runa demanded.

  “I can’t undo it.”

  Runa drew her hand again, and I braced for the impact.

  “I mean I don’t know how,” I protested. My eyes closed as Runa’s hand struck my ear. Ouch.

  “Figure it out. Now.” Runa glared at me.

  “In order for me to do that, you to have to let me back in.”

  Runa clenched her fists. “You better not screw with me again. I’ll off your boyfriend and the valkyrie in one strike.”

  “I know you will,” I whispered. Come on, Elsa. She’s giving you the chance. Don’t mess this up. I chose my next words carefully. “I’ll do my best to fix what’s wrong inside you.”

  “You will stop this awful feeling you gave me,” Runa corrected. “I’m not playing some game with you. Mess with me again, and it’s goodnight gods. Do you get that?”

  “I do. Just…”

  “Just what?”

  “Just promise you’ll be open to me? If you kick me out it’s not going to do either of us any good.”

  “Just fix this.”

  I closed my eyes and drew a breath. After doubling up on my protections, I pushed my energy at Runa.

  She pushed back.

  “I can’t fix you if you don’t let me in,” I reminded her.

  The growl that came at me sounded more resigned than angry. If that was progress, I’d take it.

  With a slow breath, I directed a stream of energy at Runa’s knot. It raced through the tangled trenches, searching for something, anything, that might tell me what had happened to Runa to wrap that black cord around her heart. If I could find the root of her anger, I could heal her emotional injury and eradicate her darkness. Then maybe she’d stop hurting the gods I loved. As I traced the windy path of the cord, information shot back at me. The clarity of the images was fuzzy, but Runa’s emotions hit me as if they were my own. All the while, I kept an eye on my mental stopwatch.

  Five seconds passed.

  A preschool-aged Runa sits alone outside a schoolhouse, waiting for someone to pick her up. A teacher comes out, shakes her head, and offers a hand. “Your parents forgot again? Well, I’m sure they’ll send someone for you. In the meantime, you can wait in the classroom with me.”

  Ten seconds.

  A young Runa cowers in a closet, cradling a toddler in her arms. She looks a year or two older than the toddler, who gazes up at her with confusion. Runa starts to hum, her voice drowning out the sobs of a woman being beaten. “Hide and seek is almost over,” she reassures the tot. “Then I’ll take you to a special park. A park far, far away from here.”

  Twenty seconds.

  A primary-aged Runa stares in horror while a woman lies on the bathroom floor, screaming. “How can you be so selfish? Only a monster would stop me from killing myself. Why would you wish this never-ending pain on your own mother?”

  My gut clenched, and my perception of Runa tilted on its head. The images from Runa’s past were heartbreaking. They didn’t excuse what she’d become, but for the first time I understood why she had so much darkness inside. Her life had been so different from mine…she’d never had a childhood. And now she would live out the rest of her days in Asgardian prison. What an awful existence. This girl needed help—the kind only a High Healer could provide.

  As I readied myself to blast light at Runa’s black hole of pain, one final memory flashed at me. It was so intense I felt myself sucked into its vortex as if it were a vacuum.

  An adolescent Runa walks outside, head low and face strewn with tears. A male figure follows at a distance, hatred dripping from his words. “I knew it. I always knew you were the one who took him from us when he was a baby. You bring him home by nightfall or you are dead to me. Do you hear me? If you don’t come home with your brother tonight, don’t bother coming home at all.”

  My stomach churned, and my hands flew to my mouth. In the vision, Runa looked exactly the same age as she’d been when she arrived in Asgard. She even wore the same blue sweater she’d been wearing when Forse had first introduced her to us. I remembered, because I had one just like it. I’d tried to bond with Runa over our obviously similar fashion sense, but she’d blown me off. She’d blown everyone off, except Forse. He’d been the only one she let in.

  Why hadn’t I tried harder? If she’d had more friends, seen more kindness, maybe whatever goodness had inspired Runa to protect that little boy could have won out. Instead, Runa had become the very thing she grew up fearing. A killer. A monster. A—

  “You. Little. Liar!”

  The shriek made my energy retract l
ike a recoiled spring. I pulled away from the pain inside Runa, retreating into myself and staring wide-eyed at the enraged face directly in front of me. The young girl from Runa’s memories was barely recognizable behind the angular red face hissing obscenities. Runa grabbed my hair, her long fingernails stabbing my scalp as she forced me into the wall. The crack of skull on stone was almost deafening. As I fought to shirk the darkness that threatened to overtake me, I stared at Runa.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “For everything that happened to you. For not trying harder to be your friend. For all of it. I’m sorry.” A hundred mallets thudded at the back of my head, and my lids grew heavy as I gave in to the pain. I drew a raspy breath, and whispered the words I never thought I’d say. “And I forgive you.”

  Runa drew a sharp breath, and behind my closed eyelids I could have sworn I saw a flash of light within her aura. Was she feeling surprise? Disgust? I’d probably never know. In the next instant, whatever emotion she’d felt had passed, and Runa’s rage took over.

  “You’re not half as sorry as you’re going to be,” she hissed. “You had no right to betray my trust. But turnabout’s fair play, right? You take a memory of mine—I’ll take something of yours. I hope your boyfriend’s ready to die.”

  Panic squeezed my heart as Runa’s heels clicked on the ground. But I was trapped. By the time she’d slammed the cell door, the pain was so intense my body had started to shut down. My hands lay limp at my sides, too weak to channel healing energy. And as I drifted into blackness, I sent one final thought to the universe.

  I’m sorry.

  I wasn’t sure who I was talking to; I only knew that I’d failed. I’d failed Runa all those years ago, when I’d written her off as a mean girl instead of trying to find out why she was so cold. I’d failed my friends when I couldn’t undo the energy block that would end up killing us all. And I’d failed Forse—who’d done everything in his power to help me fulfill my destiny—when I couldn’t perform my first and only assignment as Unifier.