Thorin’s head tilted, and his eyes narrowed as though studying a curious specimen. “Are you sure you’re ready?”
“Ready for what?” I turned on my heel and hurried from the kitchen, heading to my bedroom to pack my few belongings and get dressed. If I had to face Nate again, I meant to do it in something other than pajama pants and a T-shirt.
He trailed me to my room but grabbed my shoulder and stopped me before I crossed the threshold. He spun me around to face him. “You may be one of the strongest and bravest people I’ve ever met, Solina. You’re also stubborn and reckless.”
I gritted my teeth and composed a rebuttal in my head, but Thorin continued before I could say anything. “Wait. I’m not trying to start a fight.”
I sniffed. “Coulda fooled me.”
His jaw worked, and I imagined his brain spinning like an old reel-to-reel computer calculating the right thing to say. “I know you, and I know what you’re going through. You know I do. I’ve felt everything you’re feeling right now, and that’s how I know you won’t hide from your demons. You’ll face them and fight them no matter the danger or cost. You’re in pain, and you’ll do anything to make it stop—anything to pay back those who made you feel this way.”
Thorin’s grip on my arm softened. The severe angles in his expression and posture eased. “You’ll take risks you don’t need to take. You’ll fight battles that don’t belong to you. You do that enough times, and eventually, you’ll lose. But your losses aren’t just your own anymore. The things you do... they affect everyone. They affect me, Skyla, your parents, and millions of people who don’t even know you.”
He leaned in. His dark eyes bored into mine, emphasizing the imperative in his words. “I’ll follow you out there, back into the world, back to the wolves and Helen and all the horrors she’s surely waiting to unleash on us. Be sure about where you’re going and what you’re doing. Don’t go jumping off any cliffs, because if you do, know that you’ll be taking me over the edge with you.”
Nobody asked you, I wanted to say as my heart thudded a slow, heavy beat. But, yes, I had asked him. I had asked him to be the wall everyone had to go through to get to me. I swallowed and bobbed my head. “No jumping off cliffs. Got it.”
Thorin nodded and backed away. “I’ll be in the living room. Come find me when you’re ready to go.”
Chapter 2
Baldur had refused Thorin’s invitation to come with us to Vegas, using Nina’s fragility as an excuse to stay at New Breidablick. His newfound issues with Skyla might have also explained his reluctance to leave home. I’d let him drag his feet for a little while, work up the courage to confess, but I wouldn’t let him put it off forever. I owed Skyla that much, and she deserved to know the truth of her history.
After collecting Skyla and Embla from the Bellestrella, Thorin drove us to the office complex where Baldur’s men held Nate McNarry, Helen Locke’s nephew and right-hand man. Thorin had arranged for another rental, a new 4Runner painted in flat black, insinuating aggression and fierceness. The SUV clearly stated: Don’t mess with me. Skyla sat in the back with Embla, but we left the remaining Valkyries at the hotel on high alert, ready to come in an instant if we needed a show of brute force.
Half of me hoped Nate was on his own, and this wasn’t another trick. The other half hoped Helen showed up with Skoll. Monsters were much scarier when they hid in the shadows. For the past few weeks, I’d held my breath, and I was suffocating. Confronting Skoll might mean my death, but it also might mean a chance to breathe again.
The tension of the pending confrontation kept us all quiet. Outside the 4Runner’s tinted windows, the first hesitant rays of sunlight breached the horizon. A drowsy quiet had fallen over Vegas. Dawn was probably the only time in the day when noise and traffic gave the city a reprieve, and we travelled across town in half the time it would have taken at midday.
Thorin wheeled into the office complex’s drive, pulled around to the front of a big building, and parked beneath its portico. The four of us exited and stalked toward the entrance, everyone grim and silent. Naomi stood on guard at the front door, posture rigid. The Valkyrie was petite, dark skinned, and solidly built. Curls haloed her head in a dark poof, pulled back from her face by an elastic band. She wore combat boots and black cargo pants. Her whole attitude said: I might be little and cute, but I will grind you in the dirt if I have to.
Naomi waved, a salute, acknowledging our arrival. “Nate’s inside. Amala and a couple of Baldur’s men have him under watch.”
Naomi led us up a flight of stairs to the third floor, down an empty hallway, and into a corner office framed by two massive windows facing downtown Las Vegas. Plastic sheeting covered the view and protected the room from the elements. The space smelled of sawdust and the earthy, mineral scent of fresh drywall mud.
Nate sat bound to a metal folding chair. Behind him stood a tall woman with glossy black hair and warm brown skin. Amala. I recognized her from visits to the Aerie. Despite Amala holding a knife to his neck, Nate smiled at me. He was as charming as usual, even in a rumpled suit and disheveled hair. I sneered at him as heat coursed through my veins, bringing my blood to a low simmer.
“Ladies and gents,” said a man who I assumed was Baldur’s contact. He stood by the door, his frame locked in a rigid stance. “If you have it under control, we’d like to move along.” He nodded to another man in the corner, also militarily severe and blank faced.
Embla waved them out. “We can take it from here.”
“Tell Baldur to keep an eye out for our bill.” The spokesman for the two flashed a gesture, something like a salute. Then he and his partner withdrew from the room as quietly as a pair of ghosts.
Thorin stepped forward and addressed Nate. “I’ll be up front with you. You’re not leaving this place alive. But you can have a choice in how much pain you suffer before you die.” He pulled something from his pocket and twisted his wrist. Mjölnir appeared in his fist. “We can make it quick and easy... or not.”
Nate chuckled and shook his head. “Kill me if you will, but I have nothing to say. Make it as painful as you like. I won’t give anything away. I’m not the betrayer. I’ll die with honor on my side.”
“You killed my brother.” I spat. “He was an innocent. How was that honorable?”
“His death was a necessary sacrifice, the first step on the path of reparation.”
“You’re talking about some ancient vendetta,” Naomi said. “We’re here for justice today. You killed an innocent man and two Valkyries.”
“They were not so innocent.” Nate turned glittering green eyes on me. “The girl sold you out, Solina.”
“She was naïve.” I didn’t hate Inyoni for her role in my betrayal at Oneida Lake. She was young, and the Valkyries lacked strong leadership. Anyone wanting to take advantage of them couldn’t have picked a better time.
“And you aren’t?” Nate asked.
“I know what I’m mixed up in. I know whose side I’m on and why.”
“The Aesir will betray you, too.”
I folded my arms over my chest and jutted a hip. “Then it’s a good thing I’m not on their side.” Thorin arched a questioning eyebrow at me. I ignored him. “I’m on my side. I’m on the side of humanity and life and survival. Ancient wars and prehistoric grudges mean nothing to me. I want my brother back, you bastard. I can’t have him, so I want vengeance.”
Nate sneered. “At least one of us is honest.”
“No more games.” Embla stepped in. “Amala, open his shirt.”
Amala nodded and turned Nate’s tie around, nearly strangling him in the process. She grasped his shirt plackets and ripped them apart, popping buttons and revealing his white undershirt. Her blade slit the thin cotton, exposing Nate’s pale chest. She positioned the knife tip at Nate’s breast, over his heart.
I lurched forward—to do what? Stop Amala? Help her? Before I could voice a question or protest, Embla issued another order, a single, harsh word. “Ansuz.”
Amala’s blade flashed. A symbol, akin to a tilting capital F, appeared in the flesh of Nate’s chest. Blood oozed from the wound and dribbled over his pale stomach.
Thorin stepped closer and crouched before Nate, meeting him eye to eye. He seemed to understand what Embla and Amala had done. “Tell me where to find the wolf.”
Nate shook his head and looked down. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since that night at the warehouses.”
