Magic and Shadows: A Collection of YA Fantasy and Paranormal Romances

by T. M. Franklin

  “You were asleep in front of your house,” she said as though she had been concerned, “I brought you inside to get you warmed up again.”

  “Why was I outside?” I asked softly. What was the last thing I had done? I remembered Sif and me fighting earlier and Thor had stopped her, but…then what?

  “Alys, you look sick,” she commented, “You mortals are so easily killed. You should just lie down and rest.”

  As much as I hated agreeing with her about anything, she was right that I needed to rest. I had no idea why my head felt so strange, but a good rest would most likely cure it.

  “Thank you, Sif,” I said since it was the first time she had ever been kind to me.

  She smiled and walked out of my house with a skip in her step. “Don’t mention it,” she said, “you just rest up.”

  She closed the door and I pulled my covers up around myself tighter. Why was I so cold and tired? What had I done after the fight with Sif? And why was the goddess being so kind to me all of a sudden?

  2

  The next afternoon I felt much better and took a stroll around Asgard, picking flowers to put in a vase inside my home. I was humming and dancing my way through one of the many flower fields when Loki appeared next to me.

  “Good afternoon, Loki,” I greeted him warmly. “How are you this day?”

  He scowled at me and looked at the flowers in my hands. “Who are those for?”

  “Myself,” I answered honestly. “I wanted to add some to the vase in my home.”

  “What did you do last night?” he asked me with a clenched jaw. Why did he seem upset? I hadn’t done anything that should have upset him. What was wrong with me picking flowers?

  “I slept all night and most of this morning,” I admitted.

  “Slept?” he asked with worry. “Are you sick?”

  I shrugged.

  “Alys,” Thor called as he approached us, his jaw and fists clenched when he saw Loki. “Where have you been?”

  I looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean? I was just walking the fields collecting flowers.”

  “Where were you this morning?” he asked, “Were you with him?”

  “And what if she was?” Loki asked with a smug smile.

  “Whoa guys, calm down. Thor, I was sleeping. I just told Loki that I slept all night and most of this morning. I only woke up about an hour ago.”

  “What?” Thor asked in shock, “Are you ill?”

  Déjà vu. “I’m not sure,” I admitted. “It’s possible, but I don’t understand where I would have gotten an illness from.” None of the gods got sick, so it didn’t seem likely that I was sick all of a sudden. It was possible if one had traveled to Midgard and brought a germ back with them, but no one had traveled to Midgard in a year or more.

  “Did you eat?” Loki asked me.

  I shook my head. “No, I just slept.”

  “Would you like to come with me and get something to eat?” Loki asked with a sweet smile. It was rare that he looked so sweet and kind and I noticed that he looked that way more and more when with me. It was slightly terrifying. I was shocked that he was asking me to eat with him. He had never done that before.

  “You can’t honestly want to ditch me to go with him?” Thor asked as his hands balled into fists.

  “What?” I asked him. What was he talking about?

  “I invited you for breakfast this morning,” he told me.

  “No you didn’t.” I would have remembered that.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “I invited her for supper and she didn’t show up, so I should get the first meal with her,” Loki said.

  “Wait, what? When did you ask me for supper? I don’t remember any of this,” I said in exasperation. How could I have forgotten them asking me to share meals with them? That was a memory I would definitely want to have.

  “I asked you yesterday when you were at the stream with him,” Loki explained.

  “I didn’t go to the stream,” I whispered and clutched at my head as it began throbbing.

  “Yes, you did. We went to the stream and you were washing my shirt because it had your blood on it,” Thor whispered as he stared at me, “and Loki showed up and healed your ribs.”

  “My blood? Why was I bleeding? Why did you heal my ribs?” The headache became even stronger, making me sway on my feet.

  “What could have caused her to forget an entire evening?” Thor asked Loki.

  Loki was staring at me with a frightening anger that normally wasn’t aimed at me. “What do you remember about yesterday?” he asked me instead of answering Thor.

  “Sif and I got in a fight and then I don’t know what happened after that. I woke up later that night in bed and Sif was there. She said she had found me outside my home asleep and brought me inside.”

  Loki cursed in the old language and fire crackled around his clenched fists. He was glorious when he was angry and even though it was terrible of me, I wished that I could see him in his true fury.

  I started to fall and Thor caught me, resting a hand against my forehead to see if I had a fever. “I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier,” Thor said.

  It was no wonder they were mad at me. If I had stood them both up for meals, it made sense.

  “I think we need to go talk to Sif,” Loki growled.

  “No, we should go see Odin,” Thor said.

  Loki sighed. “You always want to run to the All Father like a child. We don’t need him. We can talk with Sif alone and find out what she did.”

  “How do you know Sif did anything?” I asked. “Maybe she really did find me outside.”

  “Why are you defending that witch?” Loki asked. “She takes every chance she gets to make you miserable.”

  “I’m just pointing out that it might not have been her doing,” I said softly. I didn’t want to take the one time she was nice and accuse her of doing something cruel if she really hadn’t done anything. That would definitely push our animosity to a whole ‘nother level.

  “You’re too soft-hearted,” Loki accused me.

  “For once, I have to agree with Loki,” Thor said, looking like he had bitten into something rancid.

  “I don’t want to be part of you questioning her,” I told them. “Plus, I’m hungry.”

  “Fine, let’s get you something to eat and then Thor and I will speak with her later,” Loki agreed.

  Thor followed Loki, and I followed them both. It was the first time I had ever seen them talk to each other without trying to kill the other or starting a fight. They whispered angrily back and forth as we walked and I could imagine what a team they would make if they could only get along. The other worlds would tremble at their combined might if only they could focus on things together like this.

  We walked into the castle and down the hallway to the dining hall. It was a glorious hall with high ceilings, chandeliers with candles, ornate sconces on the walls, and thick tables with benches enough to seat both the Aesir and Vanir races. It was lunch time and the room was surprisingly filled today. Most days, only about half of the gods and goddesses would gather at a time. Why were they all together today? Had something happened or was something about to happen? Sif turned around when she heard the door open and stared at the two gods and me in shock, and then glared at me with disdain.

  Loki walked to an empty table, sat down, and grabbed a roll of bread to eat. Thor sat down across from him and I stood in place. Who should I sit by? It didn’t matter which side I sat on because one of them would get mad, but who would be the least mad?

  Odin walked over to me and clapped me on the shoulder. “How are you today, Alys?” he asked as he pulled me down to the bench to sit between Loki and him.

  “I’m alright,” I answered vaguely and wished I could thank him for saving me from making the decision on where to sit.

  He put his large calloused fingers under my chin and turned my face to look at him. “Your nose seems to be healed perfectly.”

  “My nos
e?” I asked softly. “What happened to my nose?”

  “Sif broke it,” Thor told me. “I gave you my shirt to stop the bleeding and we went to Jord who healed your nose and then we went to the stream so you could clean my shirt.”

  I didn’t remember any of this. My head started hurting again and Odin’s eyes glowed with anger. “Who tampered with Alys’s mind?” he asked softly. The room silenced as soon as he began talking so everyone heard him. It stayed silent. Odin stood up and lightning struck the ground in the center of the room. “WHO WAS IT?!” he bellowed, making the walls shake and the ground beneath us tremble. It took all of my strength not to cower or hide under the table. I had lived with them my entire life, but still their bursts of anger were incredible and terrifying.

  Still no one moved. Heimdall walked into the room, a towering man with the whitest skin of any of us and gold teeth who was one of the most feared fighters in Asgard. I considered him a friend and visited him often just to sit with another being, not even talking. Heimdall held out a clear orb to Odin. I had only seen that orb once before and it was when Thor and Loki had lied to Odin about where they were the previous day. Somehow the orb projected past events in the air above.

  “One last chance to come clean,” Odin said as he took the orb from Heimdall. Still no movement. Odin whispered into the ball and then set it on the floor. It rolled to where the lightning had struck and began projecting. All eyes watched the projection and no one moved a muscle. It started with Sif and my fight, showing my nose getting broken and Thor shoving Sif off of me. Next it showed Jord healing me, Thor and me going to the stream, Loki talking to us, me falling in the stream, Thor saving me again, and then Thor almost kissing me. My face was aflame in embarrassment as several of the gods and goddesses turned to look at us. Next it showed me at home and Sif coming to my door where she used some type of magic on me that made me faint, whereupon she put me in my bed.

  “I told you it was Sif,” Loki said with dark tendrils of rage flittering around him.

  “Sif,” Odin spoke in a calm tone that only meant controlled fury, “you and I need to talk.”

  “Why does it matter if I erased a few hours of her memory?” she asked. “I didn’t harm her. She is perfectly healthy. Why does it matter if I tested out my new powers on this mortal?”

  “She is not just a mortal,” Thor snapped. “She’s our friend and a daughter of Asgard!”

  “She is not a daughter of Asgard!” Sif bellowed, her eyes widening and a look of madness upon her face. “She is a mortal who should have never been brought here from Midgard. She belongs down there and she should be there with her own kind. She is ruining the balance of Asgard and the Aesir.”

  Now I understood. It was so obvious. How had I not seen this all before? Now that she said it like that, I could feel it within my core that she was completely right. Thor and Loki should have been focusing on a goddess such as Sif or Sigyn instead of me, a mortal. “I’m sorry, Sif,” I whispered. “I didn’t realize what my presence was doing.”

  “Enough,” Odin said. “You are not upsetting the balance of anything. Sif is just a spoiled child who can’t see past her own selfish desires.”

  “What do you think our lives would be like if you weren’t here?” Sif asked me.

  I glanced at Thor and Loki and then at Sigyn and Sif. “It wasn’t my intention to divide you.”

  “You have. Your presence has caused the natural order of things to shift!” Sif yelled.

  “That’s enough!” Loki snapped. “The only thing she has done is brought to light your vile and selfish nature, Sif.”

  “Don’t talk to me like that, Trickster.”

  Odin waved his hand and Sif disappeared. “She shall be punished. Mortal or not, she has no right to tamper with a person’s memories and if she goes unpunished now, she might attempt to do this to one of us.”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered to Odin. And I truly was. I hadn’t seen past my selfish desires that Sif and Sigyn were the ones who should be trying to win Loki and Thor’s hearts. As much as that hurt me, I knew it to be true down to my very fiber.

  “I knew the consequences of your existence here when I brought you,” Odin told me. “And it is a decision I will never regret.”

  He might not regret it, but perhaps Sif was right about me needing to go to Midgard. Odin disappeared and everyone began talking again and eating. I should have been starving, but my stomach only ached with sorrow now. I stood up, bowed to Loki and Thor and walked out of the dining hall.

  “Alys!” Thor called after me.

  I did not respond. My heart hurt, my head hurt, every fiber of my essence hurt. Instead of heading home I went to Heimdall’s castle, Himinbjörg, where he watched the Bifrost and could see the other realms. He hadn’t returned yet, but he had given me an open invitation to come and view the other realms two years ago when Odin forbade me from traveling to them when they all went on adventures and trips together. I sat in a chair that he kept nearby and looked upon Midgard. The Midgardians were learning more and more things that I couldn’t understand and using contraptions that were incredible. They had a device that allowed them to communicate to another across the world and one device that let them freeze an image on it and even print it out onto what they called paper.

  I watched a group of teenagers walking together, talking, holding hands, and laughing. Life was so different there than here. What would it be like down there? Would I have friends? Would I have a good life if I went down there?

  “You would be greatly missed if you left,” Heimdall said in his gravelly voice, a mug of mead in his hand. He sat down against the wall where he had several cushions for lounging. He drank a lot of mead and the cushions were very comfortable, especially when drunk.

  “She’s right,” I whispered as I continued to watch the teenagers all over Midgard.

  “Whether she is correct about you altering the intended events of this world or not is irrelevant.”

  “How?” I asked, turning away from Midgard to look at him.

  “You’re here and the events have already transpired. Do you really think leaving now will mean Thor or Loki will want Sif? If she is the reason you leave, they will despise her for it.”

  He was probably right, but… “What if she isn’t the reason I leave?” I asked him.

  He halted with his mug halfway to his lips. “Alys, that is not what I meant.”

  “You have the powers of foresight. Look into the future where I go to Midgard,” I begged him.

  “No,” he said and then took a long drink from his mug.

  “Why not?” I demanded.

  “Because Odin will not be pleased to find out that I did such a thing.”

  “Heimdall,” I whined, “I need to know. Would I survive down there?” There were all kinds of things like diseases, tornadoes, and monsoons. I wasn’t really sure what any of that was honestly.

  “No.”

  “Heimdall.”

  “No.”

  “Please.”

  “No.”

  “Come on!” I begged him.

  He groaned and stood up to refill his mug. “I will grant you one question, Alys of Asgard, but I will not send you to Midgard this day, no matter the answer or how the answer makes you feel.”

  Okay, I had to think of a good one. It had to be broad enough to get a full answer from him, he could be tricky at times, but also not so broad that his answer could mean something different. What did I want to know? I was almost positive that I could survive on Midgard, so that wasn’t the question I wanted to ask. Should I ask who Thor’s wife is in the future? No. Loki? No.

  “Take your time,” he teased me as he relaxed on the cushions again. “I have nothing else to do.”

  “Shh,” I ordered him as I paced back and forth across the chambers.

  He laughed at me and watched the other worlds while I thought.

  “If I go and live on Midgard within the next year, will balance be restored to Asgard?” I
asked him softly.

  “This is the question you wish to ask me?” he asked me in shock. “Are you certain this is the one you wish answered?”

  I nodded my head. It really wasn’t the question I wanted to ask, but it was the one I needed to ask. The answer would determine my course of action over the next year.

  “Very well.” He set his mug down, closed his eyes and began murmuring in the old language. His eyes flew open and looked like two glowing pearls. “If Alys goes to Midgard within the next year and lives there, the balance of Asgard will be restored. However, there will be consequences to the actions and payment will be necessary.”

  “What kind of payment and when will it be due?” I asked him.

  His eyes returned to normal and he said, “You were given one question, not three.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered, even though part of me felt terribly depressed at the confirmation.

  “Perhaps it is time that Asgard is off-balance,” he said softly. “It might improve matters instead of making them worse.”

  “I appreciate your attempts to make me feel better. You are a good friend,” I told him, kissed his cheek, and headed out of Himinbjörg. The trip back to my home seemed to take an entire day and when I finally made it, the sun had long since set. I pushed open my door and was shocked to find Loki sitting at my table asleep.

  I tip-toed over to him and stared at the handsome god before me. He was given such a sour welcoming at school every day that it was a wonder he even showed up. I wasn’t sure why the others disliked him so much. He did like to play tricks on them, but it was never anything overly serious or dangerous. I looked at him in this vulnerable state and wished the others could see him as I did. He was simply misunderstood. I reached towards him, my fingers inching towards a lock of hair that had fallen across his face as he slept.

  I was a breath away from touching it when he grabbed my arm and opened his eyes. “What are you doing?” he asked me sleepily.

  “I, uh…”

  “Don’t lie to me,” he ordered me.

  “I was going to brush the hair away from your face,” I admitted with flaming cheeks.