Dead Embers(24)

"Your magic, Valkyrie. You know, wave your hand, move the sand. That magic." Mika swept her hand in a wide arc, almost a magician's flourish. What the hell was she on about?

My expression must have been all the answer she needed. She scowled. "Well then, I do believe we need to actually dig."

She turned and walked off between the rows of graves, her back held stiff. I blinked in disbelief. She was pissed off? Really? And what about me? Was this just another thing I wasn't taught? Or was this something a real Valkyrie would be able to do naturally?

Mika returned with two spades, almost throwing one at me with a dark scowl. We wasted no time unearthing the grave. A while later we had a hole in the ground, occupied by a single coffin. I felt a little stab of fear as I registered one important fact. No light shone from the coffin. No golden glow screamed, "Here is a Warrior waiting to be retrieved."

No slivers of light seeped through the edges of the lid the way they had the day of Joshua's burial. I looked across the open mouth of the grave to find Mika staring at the coffin, the same expression of worry on her face.

"Be careful, Mika. No touching." The warning came automatically, even though I knew Mika knew as much as I did about the dangers of the gloop. But she didn't react.

We made quick work of removing the lid, and I stood it up against the wall of soil beside me. Inside, the young man's face bore a thin film of the same black stuff we'd seen on so many other Warriors in the last few days. Beneath the blackish goo, the man's skin was pale, a dead grey, devoid of even the faintest glimmer of gold.

Another Warrior was dead.

Defeated, I groaned and scraped my hands through my hair. The heat of tears singed my eyes, but I tamped them down. Not the time. I dreaded returning to Asgard with the news that we'd just lost another valuable addition to Valhalla.

Mika's urgent whisper pulled me out of my sad regret. "Don't look around and don't do anything suspicious. I think we are being watched."

I kept my eyes trained on the ground as I continued to fill the grave back in. "Where?"

"Behind you, somewhere in amongst the trees." Mika shoveled too, and kept going with me until we were done. The last thing we needed was to leave any traces of our failed attempt at grave robbery.

I threw my spade aside and kept my eyes on Mika's face; her eyes transformed. From nice and normal and human they shifted slowly; wider, thinner, the pupils elongating until I stared into a pair of beautiful yellow wolf's eyes.

Her gaze traveled across the tree line until she completed her survey and reverted to her normal state of human facial characteristics.

"I am certain there is someone or something out there. I cannot be entirely sure they are human, though. Their scent is . . . strange."

"Do you want to go check it out?"

"Perhaps." She gestured toward the grave and the proof of our pointless desecration. "Or perhaps we wait. They have not attacked yet. If they mean to talk, they will come forward."

"I'm not about to let some scumbag stalker get away with following me around and giving me the creeps," I replied, annoyed that she was prepared to allow the spy in the trees to get away if he didn't have the guts to attack us.

"Perhaps we should approach him tog—"

I didn't give her a chance to finish.

I turned, drew my sword and ran headlong into the trees.





Chapter 20




Shadows swallowed me as I crashed into grasping branches, heading straight at the area where I assumed the creep was. I swung my sword, ready to slice open my stalker, when something large and hard knocked my feet out from under me. I fell on my back, awash with the strangest feeling of déjà vu.

When I opened my eyes, I was face to snout with an enormous golden dragon. A dragon who stared at me with familiar golden eyes.

Out of the darkness, Mika ran yelling at the top of her voice. Crazy Ulfr. What did she think? That she was strong enough to fight a dragon bigger than your average house?

She came skidding to a halt, her mouth hanging wide open as she stared from me to the dragon and then back to me.

"Bryn, I would stay very still if I were you," she said softly.

"Why is that?" I huffed, wriggling as the snow slowly eked out all the warmth from my butt. "So the nice dragon won't eat me?"

"Something like that. Don't be stupid or heroic. Be still."

The dragon lowered his nose and swiped the side of my face with it. I flinched, but thankfully dragons and dogs weren't alike in the whole wet nose department.

"No sudden moves, Bryn," came Mika's voice.

"Oh, get off!" I shoved the dragon's snout out of the way and struggled to get back to my feet. I seemed to have gotten myself well entangled with wings and sword and a few odd tree branches.

The dragon obliged and gripped the back of my coat, lifting me off the ground and giving me a good shake. Clouds of snow sprayed from my head and shoulders, where steady snowfall had gathered in soft little piles. Even my eyelashes were now flake-free.

"Bryn, please do not make any sudden moves. That thing is going to eat you," begged Mika. Fear made her almond eyes rounder than I thought was possible.

"For god's sake, let me down," I shouted, kicking my feet and twisting about to shake my fist at the dragon. All he did was blink those damn eyes at me, as if he were amused. What was he playing at? I wanted to laugh at Mika's unwarranted fear, but I was also annoyed at being manhandled.

The dragon dropped me onto my feet, and I barely had time to dust myself off before Mika tugged me backward. The bones in her face rippled, her fear threatening to bring out her inner wolf.

"Run. We have to get out of here."

"Mika!" I yelled at her, trying to get her to let go of me. It took a rough tug to free myself. I rounded on her. "What is your problem?"

"The dragon! He's—" She stopped in mid-speech, and her shocked mouth formed a little 'o' as she gaped over my shoulder. I struggled to hold back my laughter. Even with my back to the dragon, I knew what held her in her trance. I hoped she wasn't about to faint. Not that I could blame her though. The transformation could do that to a girl.

I turned and grinned as my old friend Steinn, King of the Dragons and ruler of the Muspell realm, walked toward me in human guise and enveloped me in a huge bear hug—or, rather, a huge dragon hug.

As a dragon, Steinn the Nidhogg was an impressive sight. As a human, he was even more impressive. Way more. So different from Thor's blond good looks and yet just as hot.

Thankfully my blush was hidden against his chest as he crushed me to him. Mika choked on a gasp as she watched me return the hug, all smiles.

"Mika, this is Steinn, the Nidhogg. Steinn, Mika." I introduced them, much to Mika's embarrassment. Her eyes widened in shock, cheeks reddening as she returned her sword to its scabbard at her waist. Stein inclined his dark head.

She cleared her throat, glared at me and said, "Greetings, Nidhogg."

"Greetings, Ulfr," he answered with a twist to his lips that was a mere shadow of his usual charming grin.

I asked, "So why the whole stalking thing? If you wanted to talk, you should have just told me."

He shook his head. "I wanted to be very certain that you were alone and that your companion is trustworthy." He threw a glance at Mika. "I am still not sure she is trustworthy. Although I have to admit she will defend you well enough in a fight."

Mika growled, the feral sound lifting the hairs on the back of my neck. Steinn appeared unfazed, flicking snow off his golden coat with a look akin to disgust at the white fluffy stuff. The wind surged, and snow swirled around us. The weather wasn't conducive to a good, long chat. And especially not to a dragon whose home world ran with rivers of molten lava and walls just as hot.

"Do you want to speak in private, then?" I asked, ignoring Mika's second lupine rumble. Concerned for my safety? Or was she just feeling left out? Either way, too bad. Steinn had saved my life, and I owed him. Especially when something seemed to be troubling him.

He narrowed his eyes at Mika, then shook his head. "Do you trust this Ulfr?"

"Of course I do. She is not only trustworthy, she—"

Steinn cut me off with a sweep of his hand, and I grew worried. He wasn't usually given to bouts of such rudeness. "I apologize, Brynhildr. I do not have much time, and this . . . snow disagrees with me." He spoke the word snow as if it were no better than dog-poop. "Something terrible has happened, and it has to do with the Mead you gave me."

"The Mead?" I knew I sounded dumb, but I didn't understand how the Mead I'd given him could be a problem. We'd made a fair exchange; the remainder of the Mead that I had for the last pieces of Freya's necklace. At the time, I'd felt it was a trade way more beneficial to me than to the ruler of the dragon realm, but hey, it had been his choice.

Steinn shivered. "Yes, Brynhildr. The Mead. I fear it was poisoned."

"Poisoned?" Part of me didn't want to believe it, but the funny thing was, as I spoke the word so many things fell smoothly into place.

It all came back so clearly. Aidan's health failing after Freya had cursed him. The way the Mead only seemed to help him for such a short time before he needed another dose. Even the fact that the Mead hadn't seemed to help me at all when I'd drunk it after I'd been shot.

Steinn's news made far more sense than it should have, and from the expression on his face he could see I'd put all the pieces together.