Demons (Eirik Book 1) (33 page)

“You are a brave little thing,” she said.

“And you are an evil soul-napper,” I retorted.

She laughed. “I guess you could call me that. I did kidnap your soul from Earth. Of course, I would not have done that if you weren’t already marked. So many Witches want to come to this realm they’d do anything. They even mark their own so they could follow them.”

Marked? At the back of my mind, I knew I should care about what she was saying, but I didn’t. I was never going back anyway, so why ask about the person who’d marked me. “Why did you bring me here?”

“To help me get back everything taken from me. They took my husband. My children. My home. My dignity. I will have it all and make his children and their wives feel my wrath, and their grandchildren my slaves. That’s the beauty of a dragon’s kiss. You can enslave a whole village. Or in this case, an entire realm. Blood will taint the throne of Asgard.” She smiled maniacally, her eyes a little glazed. “You’ve already played your part splendidly, Mortal Witch. Just like in my vision, all I had to do was keep you in Eljudnir a little longer and he’d become attached to you. Then you’d be the bait. Now, we wait.”

He? Was she talking about Eirik? I wish I’d listened to Hayden’s nonstop stories about Asgard. I’d know who this giant was.

“Wait for what?” I asked.

“For his arrival. I can hear my daughter’s army searching the grounds and the caves, but they won’t find this one. I made sure of that. But
he
will find it. He will find us.”

Her daughter? She was the goddess’ mother?

“Dragons have keen senses,” she continued. “We can see from afar. All we have to do is focus on who or what we want to see. But our most important sense is the sense of smell. We can differentiate the scents of those closest to us from everyone else’s. Follow it, until we find you. He will find us. He will follow your scent.”

“You did this to get the goddess’ dragon?” I asked.

“
My
dragon,” she snarled. “Do you dare call him hers?”

She extended her hand toward me and her nails grew longer and darkened into claws, her fingers fusing until she had three and an opposable thumb. Pink spots appeared on the back of her hand. Something about them teased my memories, yet I’d never seen them before. They lifted and took the shape of shells, more appearing overlapping with each other racing up her arm, until her skin was covered with them. The realization hit me. Her skin was covered with scales. I watched in horror as her claws continued to grow until one was only an inch from my face. I tried to swallow, but my mouth had gone dry like sandpaper.

“He is mine,” she repeated. “Even before he was born, he was mine. Not hers.”

“What are…?” I couldn’t finish the question, my eyes on the talon near my nose. It was still growing—the tip so sharp that one swipe from it and she could carve me up like a turkey.

As though she realized I was petrified enough, she chuckled. The scales disappeared, her hand and nails retracting and shifting back to a human hand. A giant’s hand. I exhaled.

“I am the Ironwood Maiden, dragon shifter, and the only woman Loki ever truly loved,” she bragged. “First, they took him from me and trapped him in a cave, where they continue to torture him. Then they imprisoned my children. One boy bound until Ragnarok, another cast to your world, and my only daughter sent to the coldest realm in the nine worlds. When she heard that I’d lost my home, my baby girl invited me to Eljudnir to run her hall. It was the happiest moment in my life. To be reunited with one of my children.”

She opened the basket and removed two large apples. They were tiny against her hand. She offered me one, but I shook my head. I’d read and watched
Snow White
. Besides, anyone who could turn into a dragon was on the run-from-them list. She took a bite of the first apple and chewed. After three bites, only the core remained. She threw it into the fire and started on apple number two.

“I was happy and content running her household,” she continued, studying me. “Dwarves will rob you blind if you don’t keep an eye on them, and my kind are lazy if you don’t keep them in check. I ran a tight ship. The halls gleamed and the Grimnirs knew what was expected from them. Then Baldur and Nanna arrived.”

So caught up in her story, I forgot this was an elaborate trap for Eirik. “Nanna?”

“Baldur’s Asgardian wife.” She demolished the second apple. “First, I made sure she never asked to be disturbed from her place in the Eternal Hall. Then I told my daughter to make him head of her security. Treat him with decency. Make Odin and Frigg worry and rue the day they crossed me. Before long, Baldur fell madly in love with my baby and she with him.” She threw the second apple core into the fire and watched it with a crazy gleam in her eyes. “Then, they bore me a son.”

The woman was crazy. She actually thought Eirik was her son?

“A beautiful, golden boy, just like his father. But I knew. One look at him, and I knew he was mine. My son.”

“Your grandson,” I corrected.

“No. My son. He replaced the ones taken from me. Hel might have carried him and nursed him, but Eirik got the pure dragon strain from me. That made him mine. Watching him soar these past few days filled me with the greatest joy.”

My stomach hollowed out.
Soar
? “Dragon?”

“My older son only got some of the strain and crawls the waters of Midgard. A dragon with no wings is just a serpent. But Eirik…” She smiled. “He got the full strain, and he makes a beautiful, tawny dragon.”

The goddess’s dragon was tawny. Surely, she didn’t mean that Eirik was the dragon? My mind raced back to every time I’d seen the dragon this past week. The first time it had appeared, the entire hall had gathered to watch and cheer. Everyone had been there, except Eirik. And since then, he was never around whenever the dragon appeared. And I’d thought he was a lamb. No wonder he’d been reluctant to learn how to create fire. He could wing it, he’d said. He breathed fire.

“Eirik is a dragon-shifter,” I murmured. Even saying it out loud made it sound surreal.

“Just like me,” the woman said. “I was going to take care of him and teach him the dragon’s way. By now, he’d be the most powerful dragon in all the realms. He was all I cared about. But Baldur saw how much he loved me and not his mother, so he made up a story to drive a wedge between us. He told Hel that I was trying to steal her baby. Steal him and take him where? I didn’t have a home. Eljudnir was my home, but Hel believed him.” She shook her head. “They posted guards in the baby’s room, had more watching my every movement, day and night. I couldn’t take a step without one crossing my path. They decided I could not spend private time with him. My son. They were taking him away from me.”

She reached inside the basket, pulled out a leather water satchel, removed the cork, and guzzled some, water dripping down the corner of her mouth. She swiped the wetness with the back of her hand, her grip tight on the satchel. She looked at me, her eyes filled with hatred. “They came between me and my child. No one comes between me and my son, I told Baldur.”

As entertaining as the woman was, I knew I had to go back to Hel’s Hall and warn them. She was nuts and I refused to be the bait for Eirik. As long as she kept talking, she wouldn’t know what I was doing.

“What did you do?” I asked while trying to astral project.

“I was going to give him the dragon’s kiss. They pushed me to it. I’d never considered it, but they were pushing me out.” Her eyes shimmered with tears. “Then he disappeared,” she whispered in a shaky voice. “My baby was gone. Taken by the Norns. Hel blamed me, said I’d plotted with the Norns to punish her, and kicked me out. My own flesh and blood didn’t believe me.” She closed her eyes and exhaled. When she opened them, the tears had stopped. She smirked and sneered. “That’s when I showed her.”

“Showed her what?”

“Never to mess with me. I move around a lot, but I always come back to this cave. It has quick access to her hall. I know places where her magic is weakest.”

Just how close were we to Hel’s Hall? She’d mentioned seeing Eirik soar, so I’d say not far.

“So when I heard she had another baby, I made it inside the hall and grabbed her.” She laughed gleefully when my jaw dropped. Poor Eirik’s baby sister.

“What did you do to her?” My voice rose, but she only laughed harder, the sound echoing eerily around the cave.

“Left her in the Ironwood Forest. She was useless to me. No dragon strain. But Baldur and my daughter felt the pain of losing a child. Oh, how I laughed watching her suffer. But the pain is going to be even worse this time, because Eirik holds a special place in her heart.”

“Eirik thinks I’ve gone home.”

She chuckled. “No, my dear.
He
knows I have you, and he will find us. Once he gets here, you can go home because your job will be done. Eirik and I will start our journey to Asgard. Odin has made him his heir, the future leader of Asgard and the gods. We’re not waiting for Ragnarok. My revenge starts as soon as we get out of here. One dragon’s kiss and he’ll follow me anywhere.”

I could only stare at her in shock, my mind going in circles. Eirik was a dragon-shifter and the future leader of Asgard. He never said anything. Most guys would brag. No, he’d asked me to meet his dragon, and I’d flat out said no and showed him how repulsive the idea was. No wonder he’d pulled away from me. He must have felt rejected. And now his grandmother was using me to lure him away.

I tried to astral project back to the hall, but the Ironwood Maiden must have increased the magical field. I tried focusing on Trudy, but then I remembered what they’d told me when I first arrived in Hel. A portal outside Hel’s Hall could open anywhere. I had probably made it back to the dungeons from the cave because the Ironwood Maiden had allowed it. The only escape route was through the tunnel. But I could die out there No, I wasn’t about to let fear get in my way. I had to attempt it.

“Can I have something to eat, please?” I asked.

“Of course, little Witch.” She opened the basket and I jumped up. I only took a few steps before a giant hand wrapped around my ankle and yanked. The last thing I saw was the cave floor rushing up to meet my face.

EIRIK

I flew for hours, moving past valleys and over mountains, getting bruises from brushes with outcrops appearing out of nowhere. My vision was usually great, but the mist and snow royally screwed with it. My back hurt and my wings became bloodied, but I couldn’t stop. Celestia was out there with my crazy grandmother and I couldn’t find her scent.

The air was still. The sun hid behind the clouds and the winds died, trapping everything in place. It was as though magic had stopped and every creature held its breath. Without the wind, her scent couldn’t diffuse away from the cave where she was being held hostage.

I didn’t want to think about what she was going through, yet my mind kept imagining the worst. Not going home and worrying about her father had been tough on her this past week, but I had a feeling it had been more than that. She’d become moody and jumpy. Her snarky tongue, one of the things I loved about her, had disappeared overnight. She was the type of girl who didn’t take crap from anyone. If you pushed her, she pushed right back. Back her into a corner, and she came up at you swinging. She’d stopped pushing these last few days. Just clammed up and shut off the laughter. Even the light that had shone in her eyes had disappeared. Before, I’d put my arms around her and she’d nestle there, not knowing how much the feel of her body and her scent screwed with my head. Lately, she’d tense and pull away. Jump at every touch or brush. Clam up at the oddest times, or I’d look up to find her staring at me. Yet at night, she’d seek the comfort of my arms.

My experience with girls was limited to Cora and Raine, but I couldn’t remember them being so mercurial. Cora was straightforward. She was sexy and used it to get her way. It had driven me crazy because she’d let it define her. And to be quite honest, I’d hoped to be the focus of her attention. Now I wondered if we would have been compatible.

Raine and I would have been great together because she didn’t take crap from anyone, including me, but my feelings for her had been puppy love. Throughout elementary school, Raine had been the focus of my fantasies. I’d imagined marrying her and living with her forever. Then Cora joined our junior high school and I discovered I loved boobs too much, especially when they belonged to a girl most guys fantasized about. Now, I had Celestia, and my interest in her went beyond her looks. I wanted her, yet I was scared of hurting her. It didn’t help matters that my dragon often grew restless whenever I was around her, wanting to connect with her.

I reached the settlements of the workers from Hel’s Hall. They were far from Eljudnir, separated by mountains and valleys. Dwarf and
Jötun
children ran out and pointed as I flew by. They were getting used to me, some even waving. One day, I’d stop by. Today, Celestia was my focus. Not being able to find her scent was driving me crazy. Hunger and fatigue drove me back home.

My mother was at her usual place by the weapons room, but left as soon as I drew closer. She’d left clothes in the room. I shifted and changed, then went to my parents’ quarters, where food waited.

I wolfed down platter after platter without tasting it. Mother watched me from her favorite chair, her face expressionless. The empty spot beside her said Father was still out there. Her fear had only grown.

“Are you going to rest?” she asked.

“No.” I glanced at Trudy. She hadn’t bothered to leave the room. I had a feeling she and my mother had been keeping vigil together. “Leave bathrobes in the weapons room.”

Trudy nodded. She seemed ready to say something, but one look at my mother and she clammed up. I went to my room and came back with the sketch Celestia had made.

I handed it to my mother. “Does this look familiar?”

She and Trudy studied the sketch.

“No,” my mother said, frowning. “Where is it from?”

“Celestia drew it. That’s what she sees when she stands at the entrance of the cave. You may want to pass it on to Dad and the troops. Trudy, come with me.”

As soon as we left my mother’s presence, I gave Trudy instructions, then left. I went back to my search, flying for hours and stopping on top of highest peaks to rest and open all my senses to sniff out Celestia.

When I first met her, she’d smelled of wild flowers. Possibly from the shampoo, soap, or lotion she’d used back home. But those weren’t the scent I sought now. The scent I knew and searched for was a part of her, like her essence. It had only grown stronger as her external scents disappeared. I knew it so well I could tell the moment she entered a room, or follow her scent to wherever she was in Eljudnir. In fact, I often gravitated toward it without realizing it. Yet now when I desperately needed to find her, it eluded me.

Bellowing in frustration, I took off, going farther than I’d gone before starting home. I usually gave myself enough time to come home before sundown. My scales might protect me against physical harm and I could withstand extreme temperatures, but I couldn’t fight exhaustion. I’d been flying on strength and endurance runes, and my dragon exhausted them faster than if I were in my human form.

I was furious by the time I got home. Father and his people must have just arrived, too, because he was still in uniform. Trudy signaled me after dinner that she’d followed my instructions to the letter.

I headed for the front hall. If my mother knew what I was up to, she’d lose it again. I’d complained about having indifferent parents while growing up. Now I had a doting father and a mother that could easily smother me if I let her. I wasn’t complaining, but I wasn’t enabling her either.

The guards were conspicuously absent, but Rhys was waiting outside.

“Are you seriously considering leaving the realm?” he asked.

His incredulous voice annoyed me. “I have to see her. She told me that whatever happens to her here affects her body back home.”

“She was okay when I checked on her earlier.”

Good. He’d followed all the instructions I’d left with Trudy. “
I
need to know she’s okay.”

“But if your parents find out…?” Something in my eyes stopped him. “Fine. Just a sec.” He went back inside the castle and came back with a duster and gloves. He tossed them to me.

“Whose?” I asked.

“Echo’s.” He smirked.

On a different day, I would have found it funny. I hadn’t seen Echo since I saw him with an Idun-Grimnir earlier in the week. He was either keeping a low profile, or he was spending more time on Earth with Cora. The thought didn’t fill me with rage like before. I had a more important person to worry about. I shrugged on the duster and slipped on the gloves. My mace was once again bonded with me. I liked having it close.

“Do you share what happens here with people back on Earth?” I asked.

“No,” Rhys answered. “It’s in the Grimnirs bylaws. We only share information with a girlfriend, spouse, or partner who is also a Grimnir.” He glanced back as though expecting the guards.

I didn’t care if the guards saw us. No one was stopping me from going to see Celestia. While Rhys talked with Modgud, I scratched Garm behind the ear. Lying down, the hound was nearly my height. He swished his tail on the ground. My dragon had raced him while in the air and on land the last few days. He recognized me and didn’t whine in fear like he’d done the first time we’d met.

“Stay,” I ordered him before following Rhys. Her whining followed us. “Is she going to report us?”

“Modgie?” Rhys shook his head. “Nah. She understood that the orders came from you. That way your mother won’t hold her or me accountable if she finds us gone.”

Rhys grinned, but I knew they’d be blamed if something happened to me, which was why I’d left a message with Trudy. We reached the bridge and the overhanging ridges and cliffs bordering it. I hadn’t searched along the Gjöll yet. Tomorrow, I’d follow it.

“Engage your invisibility runes,” Rhys warned when we got to the cave before opening the portal.

The difference in temperature was jarring when we stepped through the portal and into a well-lit parking lot. Even though it was almost nine at night, Windfall was warm, radiating the heat it had absorbed during the day. A hulking building with the words Windfall Medical Center on the side stood directly ahead of us. There were no high rises and the few buildings nearby didn’t go beyond three stories. Cars zipped by on the streets, but only a few were in the parking lots. Celestia’s town had the same feel as Kayville—a small town not too far from a major metropolis.

We engaged speed runes and made it past the atrium to the intensive care unit on the second floor without any problems. Visiting hours were posted everywhere and one board even had listed rules. Celestia might not be alone.

Rhys led the way past the nurses’ station to where the private rooms were, then created a portal through a door. Celestia lay on the bed, wires connecting her with machines monitoring her vitals. Her chest rose and fell, her expression peaceful. She looked like she was sleeping. From the number of chairs by her bed and a blanket draped over two of them, her family must be camping in her room.

“I’ll keep watch in case…” Rhys said.

I didn’t hear the rest of his words as I entered the room, my heart pounding with dread, my temple throbbing with tension. She had a fresh bruise on her cheek. My hand fisted. My grandmother must have hurt her. Before sitting down, I searched her face and arms, but there were no more bruises. Sighing with relief, I sat and took her hand. It was warm, thank goodness. She’d left her coat in my bedroom, so she was either by the fire or covered.

“I’m so sorry for not finding you, Dimples. I won’t give up. I’ll search every day and be here every night to make sure you’re okay. You are strong and smart, so don’t let her play you.”

“Time to go,” Rhys said. “Her dad and a nurse are here.”

I wasn’t done. “I wish you could hear me or feel me. Wish there was a way to tell you I won’t give up no matter how long it takes. Hang in there until I come for you, Dimples.”

“Any second now!”

I glared at Rhys. He pulled out his artavus and stepped away from the door. A man entered the room. A nurse followed him. Both looked like they hadn’t slept in days, but I recognized the man from Celestia’s drawings as her father. The nurse with him was her aunt Genevieve.

I pressed a kiss on Celestia’s temple, moved away from the chair, and pressed against the wall to let her father pass. He sat and took her hand.

“These bruises bother me,” he said, anguish in his voice.

“They’ll go away just like the burn wounds did,” her aunt said in a matter-of-fact voice.

“What are they doing to my girl, Genevieve? Why can’t they let her go?”

I wanted to smash my fist through the wall. I didn’t hear the aunt’s answer. I couldn’t bear to listen to the pain in his voice anymore. Celestia was lying in that bed because of me.

I left the room and started to follow Rhys through a portal. My eyes met with those of a girl walking toward us. The runes on her body said she was invisible. Something about her was familiar. Was it her walk? The way she carried herself. She looked up and our eyes met. I recognized her as Hayden, the Immortal from Celestia’s drawings. From the way she froze and stared at us with round eyes, she’d seen us too.

“Hey,” she called. “Stop!” She was running and yelling at us when the portal closed.

“If anything happens to me, Rhys, make sure Celestia makes it home to her family,” I said.

~*~

EIRIK

I couldn’t sleep. The bed seemed cold and empty. I was used to having Celestia sprawled all over me. The room seemed too quiet. I missed listening to her breathing before I fell asleep. I missed her. After tossing and turning, I fell into a fitful sleep.

I woke up early and wolfed down eggs and pastries while on the go. My father was still eating when I left. He’d cautioned me to give the weather a couple of hours to clear. Instead of the usual mist, the snow was coming down hard like the heavens themselves wept. It suited my mood perfectly.

I shoved the cup and empty plate in Litr’s hands when we reached the door of the weapons room and disappeared inside. Her scent hit me the moment I stepped outside. The wind howled in sharp-contrast to yesterday’s calm, but it carried her scent.

I took off, heading for the Gjöll Valley. Could my grandmother be cocky enough to hide this close to the hall? I started from the northern part of the river and followed it south. Her scent was weak, but I refused to be discouraged. I got close to Gjöll Pass—two high peaks separated by a gorge connecting Eljudnir valley and Corpse Strand. The rock formation from either side gave the pass a shape like an hourglass. For once I could see the roaring river rushing at the bottom of the gorge. Usually a thick mist covered it.

Celestia’s scent waned before I reached the narrowest section of the pass. I did a U-turn, flying higher. Then I saw the southern tower of Hel’s Hall. If the hall was covered by mist, it could pass for a mountain peak. The scent grew stronger. I veered left and looked over my shoulder. Excitement rushed through me.

This was the scene Celestia had drawn.

The mountain was all white with no breaks on the surface, yet I was sure the cave was hidden somewhere on the face. Her scent grew. I gunned for the steep wall and clawed it. Snow tumbled down. Guided by Celestia’s scent, I shot up, turned, and went for the same wall. I clawed until the snow gave away and I tumbled forward, landing in an icy tunnel. The triumphant bellow escaped before I could stop it.