“It’ll be alright, Alys,” Troy whispered to me.
“Can you contact the Greeks?” I asked softly.
“That may not be wise,” he said tentatively.
“Can you?” I asked again, more as a demand instead of as a request.
“Yes.”
“I want to speak with them.”
“I will contact them as soon as I get back to work,” he said. “I don’t have the ability to contact them right now.”
“Apollo,” I whispered softly. What were you like, Father? Were you a good god or an evil one? Surely the God of the Sun was good. Did he have a wife? If so, what would she think of me? What were the other gods like?
Drake walked inside and asked, “What happened?”
“Odin came,” Troy said.
“You’re alive, so that’s a good sign,” Drake said with a smile.
“She’s part Greek,” Troy told Drake instead of discussing the meeting with his father.
“Greek? Hm, that’s interesting. We have more contact with them than the other gods, but they’re still aloof.”
“She wants to meet them.”
“Which one? Definitely not Hera or Hades. Perhaps Zeus or even Hercules. I think Hercules is still on Earth.”
Who were all of these people he was talking about? Were these my family members? Or my father’s family members?
“We could start with Hercules. He’d be the most sympathetic to her,” Troy agreed.
“He’s also one of the more level-headed ones of the group. I think that’s because he’s half.”
“Half?” I asked and tilted my head to the side.
“Hercules is half god like you. His father is Zeus, the leader of the Greek gods, and he lives on Earth.”
“So, he’s my brother? Or cousin?”
“He would be your uncle, actually. He and your father are half-brothers.”
“The Greeks are quite the odd group when it comes to family relations,” Drake said.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “This is insane.”
“It is a lot of change and information to take in,” Troy agreed.
“You know they’re going to want to talk to her,” Drake told Troy.
“Who?”
“Our bosses,” Drake said. “They’ll want to interview you and get your information. At least this way you’ll be able to get an ID and you will be able to work if you want to.”
At least there was one plus to all of this craziness.
“Maybe they’ll even offer you a job there,” Drake suggested. “We have lots of openings and you seem smart.”
I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not.
“I’ll take her in when I go back,” Troy said.
“Will they lock me up?” I asked nervously. Some of those TV shows and movies I had watched portrayed humans as terrified of anything not like them and more apt to kill it or experiment on it than let it go free.
“No, they’ll just talk with you and once they determine that you’re not a threat to humanity, they will record your identity and give you ID and all of the documentation you need to live on Earth. They might even offer you a job, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up about that. They will also take a piece of hair and some blood from you.”
“Blood! Hair?” I asked in shock. “Why?”
“They keep records of all of us so that if we do commit a crime, they can figure out which one of us did it faster.”
“How soon will I be able to meet my uncle?” I asked.
“It depends on if he is still on Earth or not. He visits the others on Mount Olympus from time to time. If he is there, then we will have to contact one of the others and I’m not really sure who I would contact.”
“What about Artemis?” Drake suggested. “She’s Apollo’s twin sister.”
“I haven’t talked to her before,” Troy said. “I don’t know how she would react.”
“Do you think they’ll kill me?” I asked him.
“No. I’m more worried that they’ll try to kidnap you,” Troy admitted.
“That would go over well with the Norse,” Drake said sarcastically.
“That could start a war,” Troy said, “and that is not something that we want to happen. If Earth was caught in the crossfire of two groups of gods battling, it would mean a lot of human deaths and a lot of destruction.”
“Has that happened before?” I asked curiously.
“Once and it destroyed a huge chunk of land and an entire civilization of people.”
“Wow.” That must have been some fight.
“From what I’ve heard, it was an incredible fight.”
I realized something else and felt more sorrow filling me up. “Loki is not going to like that you’re Odin’s son,” I whispered. I could already see the fury that knowledge would cause. For him to discover that I was allowing an Aesir to court me, whether he was half or not, would be a blow to him after the way I left. It wouldn’t matter to him that Troy lived on Midgard. He would see it as me choosing Odin’s son over him. It would be even worse than choosing Thor over him. Was there any way that I could explain it to him that would not cause him to freak out? Would he try to hurt Troy? Would Thor try to hurt him? Even though they were brothers, I was sure it would upset Thor. I had no idea how Thor would react to me courting his half-brother. I had a feeling that he would be about the same as Loki. I had to make sure that neither of them harmed Troy. The easiest way was to end our courting now.
“I was already thinking about that,” Troy admitted. “Do you think they’ll challenge me for you?” he asked. Strangely he didn’t sound scared, only curious.
I sighed loudly. “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. They’re going to be upset with me and think that I chose you over them already knowing that you were Odin’s son. To them, it won’t matter that you live on Midgard or that you’re only half. To them, you will just be a Son of Odin. I wish I had some mead.”
“Mead?” Troy asked in shock.
I nodded my head. “Mead calms me and allows me to forget about my worries.”
“That’s because it’s alcohol and you get drunk on it,” Drake said with a laugh.
“Well, apparently Asgard doesn’t have drinking limits like we do,” Troy said with a frown.
“We can’t drink it until we turn twelve,” I clarified, “and after that it is monitored. I’m not allowed to drink a lot of it without supervision. They also did that because I’m not a god.” I laughed and said, “I wonder how Sif will take finding out that I’m half god.”
“Do you think Jord will try to kill me?” Troy asked me.
I shook my head. “No, but she’s going to be pissed at Odin. She might go on a hundred-year silent treatment again. Loki’s father Laufey was joking about that one day and said the tension was so high around Asgard that people began begging her to talk to Odin just to ease the tension. She refused and wouldn’t even stay in the same room with him for more than a few minutes. She still didn’t completely forgive him and this may make it even worse. I wonder if we had married, if she would still have wanted to come. She said I had to invite her, but if I’m marrying her husband’s son from another woman, I’m not sure she will actually come.”
Troy looked sick.
I said, “I’m not putting a ring on your finger. I was just thinking about her request to be present at my wedding to whoever I marry and how that might change if it’s Odin’s son. Calm down. Our relationship is far from marriage.” Even further once I let him down fully when we were alone.
He relaxed a bit and Drake said, “We’ve learned quite a few new things tonight. This has been enlightening.”
“What did your grandfather want?” Troy asked him.
“He came to warn me about some impending war. He didn’t really go into specifics, but he said it was going to be bad and I needed to watch out for it and protect myself.”
“Odin and the Norse were talking about a war too,” I told them. “I wonder if it’
s related.”
Troy and Drake looked at each other in shock. “We’ll have to let headquarters know,” Troy said with worry.
Drake nodded his head.
After Drake left, I sat with Troy a moment in silence before I finally worked up my nerve. “Troy, I need to tell you something.”
“Okay,” he replied and faced me.
“I don’t want to move too fast and I’m not certain what’s going to happen now that I’m going to meet my blood family. I really do value your friendship, but…”
“But you don’t want to be more than friends,” he finished for me. “I figured this was going to happen.”
“Are you mad?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “It hurts a bit, but I’ll get over it.”
“Still friends?” I asked.
He smiled and nodded. “Still friends.”
10
As Troy drove, I felt my nerves growing more and more. I felt more nervous than I had the day I jumped from the top of the falls in Asgard, a jump that had nearly killed me. What was this place going to be like? What were the people there like? Would they hurt me even if Troy was there? Maybe they were going to lock me up and try to use me against the Norse.
Troy patted my leg reassuringly and said, “It’ll be alright, Alys. I promise that they won’t hurt you or try to hold you prisoner at headquarters.”
Humans were so unpredictable, though. How could he possibly know that for certain?
We drove out of the city and out into the fields that stretched as far as I could see. Troy made a sudden left turn and I would have thought he had fallen asleep or gone crazy had we not turned onto a path that was already worn down by other vehicles driving this way. The grass grew tall enough that we couldn’t see around us and anyone else wouldn’t be able to see us driving through the field. We drove for several minutes and then in the distance I could see a fence with a man standing in front of it.
“Secret facility,” I whispered in shock.
“This is headquarters. We have another facility in town that is out in plain sight. The humans just think that we’re cops. Even the cops think we’re cops from another branch.”
He stopped at the fence and the man walked around to the driver’s side window and asked, “How are you today, Agent Stevens?”
“Doing good. I’m bringing in a new face,” Troy said and leaned back so the man could see me.
“Alright, head straight to check in.”
Troy nodded his head and somehow the fence began opening. I didn’t see anyone pushing it open, though. It had to be some type of electric power.
“So, how often to you bring in new people?” I asked him to try to take my mind off of the fear.
“Not that often. We’re actually a rare breed, despite you stumbling into two of us.”
That was actually reassuring. I didn’t think I could handle a swarm of partial gods. We drove through the fence still through the tall grass and then a hundred feet later, the grass ended and a huge base stood. It looked like a military base with jets, helicopters, hummers, and all kinds of people running around. Troy drove up to the closest building and parked the car. I climbed out and followed him into the plain grey building. Inside was a long desk with a man sitting behind it and behind him was a single door.
“Agent Stevens reporting in,” Troy said sternly to the man who looked half asleep.
The man stood up and smiled. “Stevens! It’s been a while since I have seen you.”
Troy tilted his head towards me. “Brought a new one in.”
The man looked at me and his smile wilted. “A new one? I thought we had found them all.”
“She just arrived a week ago,” Troy explained.
The man had light skin, bright red hair and freckles all over. He seemed old, but his eyes were young and he moved with a lot of energy. “What’s your name?” he asked me.
“Alys.”
“Do you have a surname?” he asked.
I looked at Troy and he shook his head. “No.”
“Alright. Do you know your birth date?”
“No, but I’m eighteen.”
“Sex?”
I looked at Troy with wide eyes and he laughed softly. “He means what gender are you?”
“Female.” Wasn’t that obvious?
“Sometimes beings choose to look like a different gender on this planet,” Troy explained.
“And what are you?” he asked me.
“Um, half Midgard…I mean half human and half god.”
“She’s from the Greeks,” Troy added.
“The Greeks! Oh boy. That’s going to be fun,” he said with sarcasm.
“Is the Chief in?” Troy asked.
The man nodded his head. “I’ll enter her information in while you head back. Welcome to Earth, Alys.”
“Thanks,” I muttered and followed Troy towards the door. There was a loud buzz and then the door opened. It must have been electronically activated too.
The door opened to a long hallway with lots of doors and not a single window in sight. Troy knocked on the fourth door on the left, one that looked like every other door there and all without markings.
“Enter,” a man’s deep voice said from inside.
Troy opened the door and nudged me forward with a hand on my lower back. “Sir, I’ve brought in Alys.”
The man was a giant. He barely fit in the office and the desk he sat behind looked like it should belong to a child. Had they made a chair to fit him? He had a long beard and his eyes held age within them like Odin’s.
“You’re a Vanir,” I realized in shock.
He smiled and Troy looked at me in shock. “You’re the first person to know that with just a look,” the Vanir said.
“I can sense it. I’m not exactly sure how, but the Vanir are slightly different than the Aesir and they’re both much different than the Giants or Elves,” I said as I tried my best to explain. Truthfully, I didn’t understand it myself.
“Alys is from…”
“She’s Odin’s step-daughter,” the Chief said with a smirk. “Alys, the mortal Daughter of Asgard.”
“How’d you know that?” I asked him in disbelief. Even if he was Vanir, they didn’t know everything that happened on Asgard.
“I visited Asgard after you were brought there,” he explained.
“He real father was Apollo,” Troy informed him.
The Chief’s eyes widened and he exhaled loudly. “Well, that’s interesting and possibly disastrous. How did you end up here?”
“I came to Midgard because this is where I belong, not on Asgard,” I told him truthfully.
“Except that you might actually belong on Mount Olympus,” the Chief said and stroked his long beard as he looked off in thought.
I looked at Troy and said, “I don’t want to leave Midgard.”
“We will discuss it with the Greeks,” Troy assured me. “They let Hercules live here so I don’t see why they wouldn’t let you.”
“Except for the fact that she’s living with the son of the man who killed her father,” Chief said sadly.
“But he isn’t even associated with Asgard right now,” I defended.
“It’s just something we have to consider that they will be upset about,” Troy said softly.
I didn’t like where this was going. Not one bit!
“Take her down to get sorted out and send them contact,” Chief ordered Troy. “Let’s hope they’re in a good mood.”
“There’s something else,” Troy said.
“Oh?” Chief asked.
“Several of the groups are reporting an impending war,” Troy informed him, “It worries me that the different factions would report the same thing.”
“An impending war? With whom?”
“No one has said who the war will be between; just that it was going to happen and soon.”
Chief leaned back in his chair, the springs groaning from his massive size, and sighed. “Every group has their apocal
ypse stories. I hope this isn’t those.”
“You mean like Ragnarok?” I asked with a lump in my throat.
He looked at me in shock. “You know about it?”
“Loki and Thor used to sneak me into the meetings without Odin knowing. Odin didn’t want me to know because he thought my mortal mind wouldn’t be able to handle it, but I wanted to know in case there was some way that I could help.”
He smiled and said, “You are quite the woman, Alys.”
“I doubt that it’s Ragnarok,” I told him. “All of the signs haven’t happened.”
“True,” he mumbled. “There are so many other stories and none of them point to anything good, especially not for Earth.”
“Could it be a battle between them?” I asked softly. Could I be the cause? Could it happen because the Greeks would want vengeance from the Norse?
“I don’t think that’s it,” Chief said and shrugged, “but who knows. Every possibility must be discussed and a plan must be ready just in case.”
“I’ll put together a team,” Troy said.
“Go get her set up and contact her lineage. We’ll have a meeting soon to discuss this news.”
Troy nodded his head once and led me out into the hallway. “You okay?” he asked me softly.
I nodded my head and explained, “I’m just worried about my family.”
“The Norse or the Greeks?” he asked.
I sighed heavily. “This is going to get so confusing. I wish there was an easier way to discuss all of this.”
He slipped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed. “It’ll be alright. I’m here for you and so is Drake.”
But would the Greeks let me stay by their sides? What if they demanded I come to their mountain? I was an adult, but I couldn’t fight a god and I didn’t have magical powers to keep myself here.
Troy opened the door at the end of the hallway and I stared in shock at the massive open building in front of us. The first half was made up of cubicles with low walls, while the second half had what looked like scientists in a lab. The right side had weird circular openings with markings around them and the left had a doorway that looked like an entrance to a prison with iron bars.
Magic and Shadows: A Collection of YA Fantasy and Paranormal Romances Page 143