by C. Gockel
Sigyn steps over to Steve. Clapping her hands with the music, she stares out at the crowd. “He dances just like ...” She doesn’t finish. Steve follows her gaze and doesn’t need to ask who. Bohdi and Lewis are dancing together, doing what looks like the Swing. They look like kids in high school, smiling, happy, and a little awkward. Once, Bohdi had confessed to Steve that he knew how to dance. It had depressed the kid because he didn’t have any memories of learning. He doesn’t look depressed now, their steps are getting more sure with each beat, and some of the Frost Giants are beginning to imitate them.
Steve glances at Sigyn to gauge her reaction. She doesn’t look sad or jealous, only thoughtful.
“Did he teach you?” Steve asks. What would it be like to dance with Victory?
Sigyn smiles and answers, “Yes.” Steve can’t help himself, he holds out his hand. He can hold his own on a dance floor—his ex-wife made sure of that. Sigyn puts her hand in his, and he almost smiles, when a flash of blue at the corner of his eye makes him turn his head. He sees Lewis and Loki, full blue with black hair … and … Steve blinks. No, it’s just Bohdi, and Steve’s just staring at the edge of his cheek. He takes a deep breath and holds it for ten. It was just an attack of PTSD. But his eyes don’t leave Lewis and Bohdi. They’re not smiling anymore, their faces are turned toward each other, but their eyes are not meeting. They’re wearing the bulky cold weather military “bunny boots,” and all of their winter gear except their parkas—even with the bulky clothing they’re too graceful, their steps are too smooth. Bohdi spins Lewis out, and then pulls her in so they’re walking side by side, then he lifts her up and balances her on a hip and turns, still holding her aloft. Steve looks up and his heart stops. The branches above their heads are alive, unhinged from the rafters, curling and uncurling like they’re licking the air. “Sigyn, what is happening?”
Her hand tightens in his. “I don’t know.”
Steve releases her fingers. “I have to stop them,” he says. Without turning back, he crashes into the crowd, but Lewis and Bohdi are gone. He spins in place and sees them across the room … and he sees Loki again, dancing in the interrogation room. He swears the ground rolls beneath his feet. He holds up his hands … braces his legs … but no, the ground isn’t moving. It’s just the music and Bohdi is not blue.
The music reaches a crescendo right before the end of the song. Bohdi picks Lewis up and spins her around. Her arms are around his neck, and he’s pressing his forehead to hers, oblivious to the world. The music stops—but Lewis and Bohdi don’t. Steve doesn’t panic as a rule, but this time he does. “Bohdi!” he shouts. His voice rises above the crowd, and everyone goes silent … the only sound is the snapping of the branches as they curl and uncurl. Frost Giants, humans, and Asgardians crane their necks to look at the ceiling where the branches seem to have gone mad. One of the vines licks down to the floor. Someone screams. But Lewis and the kid still spin. “Bohdi!” Steve shouts.
Bohdi slows. Lewis slides down his body until her feet are on the floor. Steve barrels his way over to them, the branches still snapping above their heads. Bohdi doesn’t look up. Steve charges forward, and he’s a halfstep away but Bohdi’s oblivious. “Bohdi,” Steve says. The kid finally looks up, wide-eyed and confused looking. “Steve?” he says, like he doesn’t recognize him. “What’s wrong?”
Steve opens his mouth. Lewis turns around, looking equally blurry-eyed. And Steve has no idea what to say … maybe it is all in his head? The branches are still going crazy, but they’re not attacking Bohdi—not everything is the kid’s fault.
He hears a noise like far-off thunder. Before his brain can digest it, what’s left of the flatware begins to rattle on the tables, and then the ground beneath his feet rolls. Around the room people sway and brace themselves. But the earthquake is over before anyone can even run for cover. The thundering noise rumbles away. The branches’ wild frenzy draws to a stop. Was it the earthquake making them crazy?
“Oh,” says Lewis, looking up at the ceiling, holding one of Bohdi’s hands to her chest. Is Steve being crazy? Loki danced with Beatrice and didn’t bring about the apocalypse, and Bohdi’s danced around Steve before without earthquakes or Armageddon.
A Frost Giant laughs. “Earthquakes, happens all the time.” A few more chuckles rise up around the room. Steve feels like an idiot. He closes his eyes, dreading trying to explain why he was an idiot.
“Do you hear them? Do you hear them?” Harding’s shout makes his eyes snap open. Frost Giants murmur, and Steve sees movement in the rafters again. The crowd parts and Harding comes charging through, her dog tags and blonde ponytail swinging. “They’re here! They’re here!”
“Who?” says Steve, following the tiny Marine.
“Brett and Bryant McDowell,” says Harding, racing toward the comm equipment. “They’re here!”
Chapter 13
Back pressed to Bohdi’s chest, Amy gasps. “Brett and Bryant? Here? How?”
Bohdi shakes his head, his chin brushing the top of her head. “I don’t know.” He guides her through the crowd, following Harding. Or maybe Amy guides him. For a few minutes, he’d forgotten where they were and coming back to reality is painful.
Ahead, he sees Harding bent over her equipment. Branches in the rafters wave in her direction. He feels Amy’s hand tighten around his.
“Marine,” Steve says, standing by Harding’s shoulder, trying to hold back a creeping vine. “You have to stay calm.”
“Don’t you hear them? You have to hear them!” she says. “They’re here …”
She flips a switch, and turns a nob, and suddenly Bryant’s voice crackles in the speakers. “I don’t think they can hear us, Brett. There’s no reason they’d have their comm equipment on.”
Frost Giants and Asgardians back away fast from the speakers.
“We can hear you!” Harding shouts, one hand on a knob, the other pulling out a little microphone. Tiny branches from the ceiling wave in her direction. Steve swipes them away and hands them to Rush and Cruz. Their delicate tips still wave in Harding’s direction.
“Bryant!” shouts Steve.
“You hear us?” Bryant says.
Steve takes the microphone. “Loud and clear. How did you get to Jotunheim?”
“We’re not in Jotunheim,” Bryant says, his voice fast and clipped. “We’re in Chicago. We sent a ‘bot beneath the rubble and opened the World Gate just enough to send a signal.”
Bohdi gapes. He has enough of a comm education to know that the distance between the World Gate in Lake Balstead and the Iron Wood is too far for a signal to broadcast clearly without multiple relay stations. Even if the balloon is still aloft, the signal shouldn’t be reaching them.
Harding pulls her hand away, her jaw slack. The signal goes to static, and the branches in Rush’s and Cruz’s hands stop their dance. “Marine! Hand on the knob,” Steve says, eyes glancing at the sagging branches. Harding does, and suddenly, Bryant’s voice comes on. “I think we lost them. Director—Captain—do you hear us?”
Amy whispers, “Her talent, it’s hearing radio signals … of course, it’s her specialty.”
“Where did you get a magical object strong enough to open a World Gate?” asks Steve.
There is a moment of silence. And then Brett’s West Virginia twang cracks over the speakers. “Well, now there’s the weird thing.” He clears his throat.
“Brett made it,” says Bryant. “He can funnel electricity into magical objects … it’s his gift. We’re both magic. Don’t know why.”
Bohdi feels a flutter in his stomach. He looks over at Harding. Brett and Bryant had a thing with Harding and Mills before they left Chicago, and the serum is contagious.
For a moment Steve is silent, but Bohdi can see him cataloging that data. Instead of asking how Brett has a magical gift, Steve says, “You would need a lot of electricity to make a magical object strong enough to open a World Gate.”
Bryant coughs. “There have been a few blackout
s in Chicago lately.”
Bohdi’s brain spins. How much electricity would you have to drain from the electrical grid to cause a blackout—and just how much magic would that make?
Brett’s voice cracks. “We have to leave soon. Keep it short.”
“Where are you? Are you safe?” Bryant asks.
Steve’s eyes flick up to the Asgardians. “We’re at Gullveig’s Keep in the Iron Wood—Thor and some friends are here—but the place is neutral. Like Switzerland. We’re safe for now.”
Bohdi looks across the room at their Asgardian guests. He snorts. It is exactly like being in Switzerland with Germans at a remote ski resort, right before WWII. Just to be cheeky, he smiles and waves at them. Ullr takes a step forward, but he is abruptly yanked back when a branch whips out and wraps around his hand where it’s reaching for his sword. Face going red, Ullr glares at him—the others look about as happy. But Thor gives a crooked half-smile and waves back, and it frightens Bohdi more than the bluster of the others.
Bohdi hears Brett mutter, “Well, that’s awkward.”
His voice going faint, like he’s not speaking into the microphone, Bryant says, “Daevas, do you know where that is?”
“I know where the Iron Wood is, yes,” says an unfamiliar man, who must be Daevas. “The cold won’t bother me, but bad weather could slow me, and the trees could be problematic. Perhaps if your friends can create a landing pad?”
“We have a plan to bring you home,” says Bryant. “I don’t want to go into it now … for obvious reasons, but what do you need? What can Daevas bring you that can keep you alive for a few more months?”
Daevas? Bohdi searches his memory for anyone by that name in any mythology and draws a blank. “Do you know who he is?” he whispers to Amy.
“No,” she says.
“Ammunition,” says Steve, looking straight at the Asgardians as he says it. “Promethean wire. Food.”
“I can carry some,” says Daevas.
There is the sound of static. And then Brett says, “We have to move. Ginnie Santos has control of the city. But she’s not Santos anymore, she’s Innana … I mean Freyja. Daevas calls her Innana, but she’s the same person. The place is a ghost town—they’re rounding up Dark Elves and people are scared and leaving the city. We’re on forced leave from the FBI, so is Laura Stodgill, and Dr. Ogawa, and anyone who knew about what happened. We may not be able to get back in touch for a while.”
“Do you know what happened to Keyif?” says Larson, stepping closer to the mic. Bohdi swallows. Keyif was one of the SEALs guarding the bridge in Chicago before Freyja called in an airstrike. In the confusion, no one had been able to see what happened to him.
“Unknown,” says Bryant.
“Dale?” says Steve.
Bryant starts talking very fast. “He’s okay, we took him to the trauma center at headquarters, because we were worried …” There is the sound of static. Then Bryant says, “He has a rare blood type, we used Steve’s and now he ... like us. They took him down to D.C. ...” There is more static. “Melinda … where is Karen?” It takes Bohdi a moment to piece the question together. Melinda is Harding’s first name. Karen is Mills’s first name—was her first name. Bryant’s voice cracks like he already knows the answer. Bohdi swallows.
“I’m sorry, Hon,” says Harding, her own voice cracking.
Bohdi’s eyes flit from the speakers to Steve’s face. Steve looks hard at Harding, and Bohdi can see him taking in the familiarity in Bryant’s voice and hers. He watches Steve’s jaw get tight and his eyes slide toward Amy. Bohdi knows he’s pieced it all together. Dale got his magic from Steve’s blood. Harding and Mills were more than friends with Brett and Bryant, and that’s how the two brothers got magic.
Sounding distant, Daevas says, “We have to leave. But I am coming.”
“Wait!” says Larson. “Daevas … who are you? How can we trust you?”
There is a pause. “I am myself. I was Vanir. I need to speak with Dr. Lewis … Laura … Ms. Stodgill says she is with you.”
Stepping out of Bohdi’s arms, Amy says, “I’m sorry, I don’t remember you?”
The speakers buzz with interference, and Brett shouting, “Move! Move! Move!” and then there is only silence … on the comm and in the room. The wind whistles through the vents in the roof.
The Frost Giants begin to murmur. Bohdi sees two Asgardian warriors bolt for the door. No doubt Odin will know about Brett and Bryant’s message—and Daevas. Hell, maybe Odin will even know who, or what, Daevas is.
Heiðr, flanked by several Frost Giants, steps up to the comm. She lifts an eyebrow at it and smiles. Steve answers with a smile of his own. “We’re being so rude.” Holding up his arms, he says to the room at large, “Who would like some more music?” There is a moment of silence, but then the Frost Giants start laughing and shouting, “More, more, more!”
Steve turns to Harding. “Put some music on. Play it nice and loud.”
“Yes, Sir,” Harding says. The music begins to play, and as it does, Steve walks toward Amy and Bohdi, very slowly and deliberately. Larson falls into step beside him, Gerðr trails after him. A flash of pink at the edge of his vision makes Bohdi turn his eyes. Beatrice is approaching, umbrella upraised. She’s flanked by Nari and Sigyn.
Amy takes a half-step back and bumps into Bohdi just as Steve gets close enough to be heard over the rapidly escalating din. “Doctor Lewis,” he says, lowering his chin, “we need to talk. Outside, now.”
Chapter 14
Steve won’t confront her in front of Asgard’s spies, and Amy wants to turn up her nose and say, “Why not talk here, Steve?” but that would only be putting off the inevitable.
“Sure,” she says, trying to keep her voice level. She spins on her heels and heads for the door. Bohdi slinks his arm around her shoulders as she does. She looks at him in alarm. A few minutes ago Bohdi’s forehead had been against hers, and until Steve yelled she’d been sure he was going to kiss her. But this hand feels more intimate for some reason, and she’s not sure why.
“Patel, are you a part of this?” Steve says, his voice practically a hiss.
“Yes,” says Bohdi.
“No,” says Amy at the same time, her heart racing. Stopping in her tracks, she glares up at Bohdi. Is he trying to get himself into trouble?
Looking down at her, he gives her an insufferable smirk. “Forget it, I’m coming.”
Before Amy can protest, Steve says, “Both of you, out the door!”
Lifting her chin, Amy exits the building. She’s not wearing her parka, and the cold makes her teeth chatter instantly.
“Back to mission control,” Steve says, and Amy heads through the dark alleyways of dirty snow to the team’s lean-to, Bohdi beside her. She hears lots of footsteps behind them but she doesn’t turn around. Park and Valli are on guard outside the building—Fenrir is gnawing on a bone nearby. The two men step aside without comment. Fenrir wags her tail, but she seems more interested in her bone.
Just before Amy and Bohdi reach the door, Steve says, “I need to talk to Lewis and Patel, alone.”
Amy hears her grandmother harrumph. “Just try making me not follow her.”
Amy looks back, and beyond Steve she sees Beatrice, Larson, Gerðr, Sigyn and Nari.
Park reaches for Beatrice’s arm. “Ma’am, the Captain says—”
Beatrice twists her wrist and spins out of his grip, and Fenrir is up and growling an instant later. Amy can see the gears in Park’s brain working. Beatrice has the strength and speed of a young woman, and she spent a good deal of time in the glove perfecting her hand-to-hand combat techniques from the SEALs. Park can still take her down, easily. But that doesn’t mean he wants to—and he’d have to take down Fenrir first—and the only way he could do that would be with a bullet. He looks frantically to Steve. “Sir?”
“With respect, Sir,” says Larson, “I need to be in on this conversation, too.”
“Personally, I find myself very interested in
the outcome of this discussion,” says Sigyn.
“Me, too,” says Nari, standing by his mother’s shoulder.
Valli grins and shows all of his teeth. “If my mother and brother find it important, so do I.”
“Sir?” says Park.
Gerðr reaches for the magic-blocking cap on her head. “I want to be there.” If she takes off the cap, Steve will obey her commands like a lovesick puppy. Bohdi’s arm tightens on Amy’s shoulder, she feels his breath on her neck, and she knows he’s laughing.
Amy sees the muscles in Steve’s back bunch. She can feel the rage rolling off him— probably partly at himself. He’s backed himself into a corner. If he’d approached Amy privately, he wouldn’t have to deal with mutiny in his ranks. “Fine,” he grinds out. Turning to Amy and Bohdi, he snaps, “Get in there.”
Bohdi slips away from Amy and opens the door for her, which she is ridiculously grateful for—she’s starting to shake. She steps inside to find the fire is out, and it’s not much warmer than outside. She walks over to the little hearth to catch as much heat as she can. Steve must have turned on the gravity-powered light, because she’s suddenly in a bright spotlight. She turns around and has to hold up her hand to shield her eyes. Bohdi tsks, goes over and lowers the lamp so it’s not pointing at Amy.
She blinks and sees Larson at the tail end of the retinue closing the door. As soon as it’s shut he walks over to Amy. “Who is this Daevas guy?”