Demons (Eirik Book 1) (34 page)

She was here. Her scent was strong. Thankfully, the tunnel was wide, so I charged forward, adjusting my sight when it grew dark. The longer I walked the more I imagined Celestia walking in this dark tunnel alone and scared, and the angrier I got.

I turned a corner and saw her, a giantess with white hair sitting in front of the fire. She looked nothing like my mother. The corners of her mouth curved up, and I wanted to wipe the smile off her face.

My eyes found Celestia. She sat to the left of the giantess by an entrance of some kind, her eyes wide with fear as she stared at me. Was she scared of my grandmother or me? She’d confessed her fear of scaly animals, including dragons. But from the way the giantess angled her body, she could push her into the crevice if I made one false move.

“Well, well, we finally meet, Son,” she said.

“I’m not your son. My name is Eirik Baldurson, son of Baldur and Hel, grandson of Loki and Odin. I don’t know who you are, lady. But you have someone that belongs to me. Let her go,” I said, the sound of my voice bouncing off the cave walls.

“You can talk already,” she said. “Good. I am your grandmother. You and I have much to discuss. Change into your human form so we can talk.”

“Whoa, what do you mean someone that belongs to you?” Celestia asked, her voice shaking. I couldn’t tell whether it shook in fear or anger. “I don’t belong to you, you liar. I’ve been miserable these past few days while you’ve been having fun at my expense. Yeah, let’s fool the stupid Mortal Witch. I hope you enjoyed yourself because I’ll never forgive you, Eirik Baldurson. When I leave here, I’ll never talk to you again.” She inched away from the door as she talked.

What the hell was wrong with her? “What are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about? Like you don’t know. Can you believe him?” she asked and moved forward so she could look at my grandmother’s face, who was following our argument with glee. Celestia picked up a stick from the ground and shook it in my direction. “I ought to blast you to smithereens for making a fool out of me. All this time I thought the dragon was your mother’s pet and you never corrected me. Why didn’t you tell me you are a dragon-shifter?”

Then I realized what she was doing. She was berating me to distract my grandmother and keep her from noticing that she was moving away from danger. She’d left the dark doorway and even picked up my grandmother’s staff.

“Don’t give me that look,” Celestia continued, moving closer to the fire and extending a hand toward it. “Not once did you try to tell me you’re a dragon or that you’re Odin’s heir. I had to hear it from your grandmother.” She glanced at the giantess and bowed. “Thank you for telling me. Thank you for being honest, unlike some people.”

My grandmother grinned. “You are welcome.”

“You see what I have to deal with?” Celestia continued. “Secrets and lies. I burned my arm trying to teach him how to create fire using a spell.”

“Teach a dragon to create fire?” My grandmother laughed so hard she almost fell from her stool.

“I must have looked like an idiot,” Celestia said. This time, I wondered whether she meant it.

“I told you I could wing it,” I retorted, joining in the charade.

“Winging it is an expression people use when they don’t want to humiliate themselves, Eirik. You should have just confessed you were a dragon.”

“I was going to, but you told me how much you hate things with scales. Do you know what she compared me to?” I directed the question at my grandmother.

“What?” she asked, wiping her eyes.

“An alligator.”

The roar of her laughter echoed around the room. Celestia turned to face me, but I kept an eye on my grandmother. If she realized what we were doing, she could still stop Celestia.

“Not my fault. If you”—Celestia pointed the stick at me—“had told me the truth, I would not have tried to teach you to create a fire spell. I should have known something was afoot when you didn’t put much effort into it. Worse, you kept smirking.” She kept moving toward me, the staff, which I now believed was my grandmother’s wand, still leveled at me. “I should have turned you into a toad,” she added.

“Then what happened?” my grandmother asked, thoroughly enjoying our fake fight.

“She yelled at me,” I said.

“No, I didn’t,” Celestia retorted and glared at me, then winked. “How could you not remember such a simple spell?”

“There was nothing simple about it,” I shot back.

And just like we’d hope, my grandmother asked, “What was the spell?”

“All he had to do was point at the fire”—she pointed at the fire with the wand—“and yell…
magical flame in this mountain ditch, spread through space and stop the giantess Witch
!”

The fire exploded and shot to the ceiling of the cave, creating a barrier between us and my grandmother.

“Astral project now,” I yelled.

~*~

CELESTIA

Still holding the giantess’ wand, which was so big it felt more like a staff, I turned toward Eirik. He was nuts if he thought I was going anywhere.

“I’m not leaving,” I yelled, but I doubted he heard me. The giantess roared with rage. I ran toward Eirik, my fear of scaly creatures forgotten.

“Grab something and don’t let go,” he roared.

The next second, I was airborne as he grabbed me with a row of the scariest teeth I’d ever faced and threw me onto his back. My heart hurtled to my throat. I grabbed the first pointy part of him I could reach and stopped myself from sliding off his back. It was one of the appendages sticking out along his spine. More ran down his back to his tail, toward his head, and around his two main horns, where they were concentrated like a mane. The ones on his head were thinner, almost hair-like. I expected them to be hard and uncomfortable, but they were floppy like ears and covered with skin, not scales.

I grabbed one and sat between two at the base of his neck. I’d ridden horses, yet I never felt secure like I did on Eirik’s back. The two spine discs cradled me perfectly like a saddle. Better than a saddle. He was huge and scaly, and his muscles shifted as he turned. I felt puny, like a mouse on the back of a thoroughbred, yet I was scared
for
him, not
of
him.

“Go,” I yelled, my grip tight on his mane and the wand, my legs squeezing his neck. A Witch without a wand was a lot less powerful, and taking his grandmother’s could even the power.

I glanced over my shoulder and gulped. His grandmother was shifting, her body creating dark shadows behind the raging fire. He wasn’t going to make it. The cave might be big, but he was humongous. His wings closed tight against his body and covered me, protecting me. Then he took off at a run. I crouched low like I’d learned during my horse-riding lessons. I’d sucked at it, yet here I was on the back of a dragon. My thighs tightened around his massive neck and squeezed.

His grandmother walked right through the flame, her shift completed. Her horns were long and gnarled, her eyes glowing red. The fire didn’t seem to bother her. Worse, she was larger than Eirik. And just like that, the odds shifted because I wasn’t sure I knew how to stop her now.

Eirik engaged his runes, which were visible under his scales, and picked up speed with his grandmother in hot pursuit. Damn it! She had runes, too. When he hit the ice, he tucked his legs under and slid, but so did she. She knew the tunnel and had built it to fit her. Now I knew why the tunnel had seemed perfect and the snow compacted just right. She did this often.

My heart flew to my mouth when Eirik took a corner and we rolled sideways. I nearly fell off, but those wings were not letting me go and my grip wasn’t loosening. I was on a roller coaster from hell. There was still the drop outside the entrance, but that was the least of my worries. He had wings. Unfortunately, so did she. Why couldn’t she be wingless?

A glance over my shoulder found her massive jaws open.

“Move your tail, Eirik. Don’t let her bite you.”

Eirik switched his tail and slammed it against the wall. Chunks of snow flew behind us, but it wasn’t enough to slow her down. Her massive jaws were still open, and I expected flames to shoot out. Instead, she bellowed.

“He is mine.” Those sharp teeth moved closer to Eirik’s tail.

I shifted.

“What are you doing?” Eirik yelled.

“Turning to face her.”

“Don’t,” he bellowed.

Too late. It was worse than riding a horse backward. I still gripped his mane and the spine disc cradled my butt, but I wasn’t as secure. Tightening my thighs, I pointed the wand.

“Bolts,” I yelled, and lightning shot from the crystal at the top of her wand. She ducked and I missed her head. I caught her on the shoulder and left charred scales.

“My wand, you puny Mortal Witch,” she roared.

This time, flames shot from her mouth and I fell backward on Eirik’s back. He wasn’t so lucky. Part of his wings got singed. But runes appeared, as though they had a mind of their own, and healed him.

I aimed for the cracks in the ceiling and yelled a curse. Lightning shot from the wand and the cave exploded behind us. Chunks of ice and rocks rained down on her head.

“I stopped her,” I yelled.

“Knew you would,” Eirik threw over his shoulder.

Then I remembered something. “Your sister is alive,” I yelled. “She bragged about kidnapping her. She’s alive.”

He cursed. “Brace yourself.”

I couldn’t, not while lying on my back. He pressed his arms and legs against the tunnel walls. I tried to hold on, but the sudden change in momentum was too much for me. I lost my grip. The wand went flying as did I, right over his head, and landed on the hard floor of the tunnel. Pain racked my body. Worse, I kept sliding. Eirik roared my name and tried to catch me. His grandmother’s answering cries filled the icy tunnel. I hit something hard and stopped. Disoriented, it took me a moment to realize why we had stopped.

His grandmother must have used a portal because she was at the entrance of the cave, blocking it. Unfortunately, the only thing stopping me from going over the edge was a dragon leg. Hers.

“You dare use my wand against me, Mortal Witch?” she snarled, heated breath fanning my face. “Do you know how insulting that is?”

“Let her go and I’ll come with you,” Eirik said.

“No, Eirik. You don’t know what she’s planned,” I said, shuffling slowly away from her claws.

“Oh, I know all about her plans,” Eirik said. “You were going to bite me and make me your errand boy forever, right, Granny?”

“A son must avenge his mother, and you are my son. Odin deserves what he’ll get for destroying my family.”

“What do you get for destroying mine? You took my sister and made my parents suffer?” Eirik bellowed.

“Their suffering hasn’t begun yet. A daughter is supposed to honor her mother.”

I crept away from the Ironwood Maiden’s leg. As long as Eirik kept her occupied, I could crawl out of her reach. I might even give Eirik the space he needed to push her off the ledge.

“How is my sister honoring
my
mother? She doesn’t even know she’s alive.”

His grandmother laughed. “But I know exactly where the Norns took my little Einmyria. When the time’s right, I’ll call her and she’ll come to me.” One claw lifted and grabbed the edge of my sweatshirt, effectively pinning me to the ground. The tip scraped along my stomach, and pain seared my side. “Mortal, you move again and I’ll finish you off.”

Eirik roared and body-slammed her. The momentum of his attack pushed her backward and off the cave’s entrance. She didn’t let go of my sweatshirt, and I was jerked forward and flung into the air. I screamed and tried to grab onto something. There was nothing but air.

For the first time since I came to Hel, the air was clear. There was no mist, and even the sun was peaking behind the mountains. It was an odd thing to observe while plunging to my death. I could see Hel’s Hall and its snow-covered towers, the mountains and the roaring river racing through its valleys. It was sterile, yet beautiful. I wasn’t sure which was worse, seeing exactly how far I had to go before I hit the ground or not knowing.

Jaws clasped me from shoulder to thighs. I stared into a slitted amber eye. Eirik. Had I really said I hated slitted eyes? I loved them and scales that sparkled, and teeth that could crush every bone in my body in one bite. Funny I hadn’t noticed that he had more than two horns. The smaller ones grew beside the two main ones like a crown. He was magnificent, and he’d saved me.

Before I could celebrate, something hit him and we tumbled through the air. He tightened his jaw so I wouldn’t fall off, then veered sideways to avoid another attack, but she kept coming. For hair-raising moments, he dodged and swerved to avoid his grandmother’s sharp claws and teeth, then dove downwards. He was moving so fast I knew he was hurt and free-falling.

I must have passed out because when I came to, he was lowering me on the freshly fallen snow. The castle loomed to my right. Thank goodness, we were near the hall. The goddess and her people could help Eirik now. Then he took off, his massive wings churning up freshly fallen snow. A dog howled from somewhere, and the ground shook as though thousands of horses were racing toward us. I felt numb.