The narrowness of the crack between the containers meant my brawny babysitters would never fit if they tried to follow me. Perhaps, just that once, luck had taken some pity on me after all. The wolf howled again, and his eerie song chilled my blood. Go, go, go.

The sprinklers cut off the same moment I reached the warehouse’s rear wall. Dead end. I stumbled to a stop and held my breath, and for a single heartbeat, the world went utterly silent. But then the wolf barked, and I whirled around. Skoll, the ruddy beast of my nightmares, crouched at the far end of an alley between containers. He spotted me and lunged forward, throwing an extra dash of speed into his step. I ran and turned into another impassable cul-de-sac.

If I climbed, the wolf couldn’t follow, right? Operating under that belief, I leaped toward one of the container’s front doors. Using the hinges and the locking mechanism for footholds, I worked my way up high enough to scramble onto the box’s flat top. I rolled to my feet, stumbled, cursed, and tried again to stand, but fatigue weighed against me. I panted like Darth Vader suffering a two-pack-a-day habit.

From the higher vantage point, I could see the exit, half a room away. Hopping from box to box, I skipped across the warehouse, aiming for escape, but I pulled up short when I saw two guards standing before the warehouse doors.

A thump behind me turned my attention away from the guards. Skoll, naked and in human form, had climbed to the top of a nearby container. He leapt to the box beside him, leaving two containers between us.

I threw up my hands and fell to my knees. “Okay, I surrender.”

Skoll stopped and cocked his head like a dog hearing a funny noise.

“I can’t believe you fell for that.” I dropped to my belly, rolled over the side, caught the edge, and hung there long enough to heave a breath before I dropped to the floor. The instant my feet hit the ground, I took off running again, heading toward the exit.

My lungs burned, my legs screamed, and fear sat on my shoulders like a crazy monkey riding piggyback. How long can I keep this up? Not much longer, and the wolf’s endurance surely eclipsed my own. I dodged around another container and another as desperate tears burned in my eyes. Dear God, I prayed, don’t let it end like this.

Gunshots rang out, deafening as sound waves rebounded against walls and containers. Not knowing what that meant, I slid to a halt and listened.

“Mundy!” Skyla’s voice echoed through the room.

Relief brought hot tears to my eyes.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough. Whaddaya say we blow this popsicle stand?”

Chapter Ten

I ran toward Skyla’s voice and rounded the corner of a big blue box. If only it were the TARDIS instead of a mundane shipping crate… The exit loomed before me, and Skyla stood in the doorway, gun in hand, two human guards at her feet, blood pooling around their bodies. I had almost closed the remaining distance when a golem leaped from a nearby crate and landed on the floor between Skyla and me, blocking my way. Skyla didn’t hesitate. She leveled her gun and pulled the trigger twice. The stone man’s head exploded, providing the opportunity I needed to scoot by.

Skyla threw a hand out, urging me forward. She kept the gun aimed somewhere behind me, and when she fired again, the bullet whizzed past my head close enough to stir my hair.

When I stumbled, Skyla lurched forward, grabbed me, and said, “Let’s go, girlfriend.”

We staggered through the big doors, turned, and ran down an alley between two buildings.

“The hell was that thing?” Skyla asked. “Looked like a skinny version of Thing from the Fantastic Four. And where are your clothes?”

“Tell you later.” I huffed as we ran. “Where are you taking us?”

“We’ve got to get the guys. I found them before I found you.” She paused quickly for breath. “Baldur’s tied up in mistletoe. Thorin’s knocked out on something.”

“Wh-what about Val? We split up right before I found you.”

“Haven’t seen him.”

Skyla hugged a sharp turn and wheeled us around the back of a warehouse parallel to the one we had escaped. As soon as I cleared the corner, she leaned around me and fired a few shots. Someone barked a sound of pain, but I didn’t turn around to look. Skyla is so freaking awesome. I vowed to worship her at an appropriate opportunity.

“Where’d you get the gun?” I leaned over, braced my hands on my knees, and wheezed. “How did you get free?”

“You know I’m part ninja, right? Also I’m a chick, and men so frequently underestimate me. Now, come on.” Skyla grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her as she took off again. “We’re almost there.”

Skyla and I turned another corner and threw our weight against a metal door. She yanked me through the opening and shoved the doors closed behind us.

“Help me,” she said, going to a big metal cabinet sitting nearby. “Turn it over against the door.”

We heaved, and the big box teetered on one edge. We pushed again, and the cabinet fell over, barring the door. Skyla turned and studied me, taking in my naked, bedraggled appearance. She tugged off her T-shirt, revealing her cascade of colorful tattoos, sports bra, and black leggings.

She threw the shirt at me and said, “Come on. The guys are just down this hallway. That cabinet won’t hold anyone out for long.”

While I shrugged on her shirt, Skyla led us to another heavy door, halfway down the passage. She pushed the door open, and I followed her into another large storage space. Row after row of plastic-wrapped, pallet-stacked boxes filled the room’s interior. Skyla turned to the nearest heap, braced her sneaker against it, and shoved. The bundle shifted and fell against the door, raising a deafening clatter.

“What are you—” I began, but a guard rounded the corner.

Skyla fired her gun, and he fell to the floor. I turned away from the horrible blood spurt. My stomach rolled over, and bile climbed up my throat. Another sentry came fast behind his partner, but Skyla swung the grip of her gun and whacked him in the temple. Stunned, he stumbled forward, and Skyla struck him again. She jabbed her knee into the delicate area between his legs. The guard hunched over, fell to his knees, and moaned.

“Thorin and Baldur are at the front of this room,” Skyla said as she disarmed the dazed guard. “I think Thorin’s out cold, but Baldur’s up. See if you can get them out of here while I deal with this guy.”

I sucked a deep breath, pushed down my qualms about blood and violence, and ran for the front of the warehouse, expecting the bite of a bullet to tear through my chest any moment.

Baldur heard me coming and looked up. His blue eyes widened, and his mouth parted. “Solina? What are you doing here?”

“Trying to save your dumb asses.” I knelt beside Thorin, who lay on the floor, unconscious and still as death. “How long has he been out?”

“He burns through the drugs quickly, so they keep remedicating him.” Baldur sat on the floor, wearing shackles composed of a strange wooden substance woven into thick, ropy braids.

A mistletoe arrow had caused Baldur’s original death, eons before. Now, apparently, it acted as kryptonite or an Achilles’s heel, weakening him to less than mortal standards. Helen’s guards had bound Thorin in more traditional metal handcuffs, which seemed pointless, considering his strength.

Baldur’s next statement reiterated my own conclusions. “Those restraints would never hold him otherwise.”

“It would be handy if those drugs would burn off again right now.”

In sleep, Thorin looked no less menacing, as if somewhere under the surface he was waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

A shot was fired in the rear of the warehouse. Baldur and I jumped and looked over our shoulders. More gunfire. Voices shouted, several more besides Skyla and the other guard. Either our pursuers had found us, or Skyla had found more guards. The crack of gunfire was echoed by a grunt, another shot, and a horrible screech.

I jumped to my feet. “Skyla!” I yelled. “Skyla!”

She didn’t answer. I started forward, meaning to go after her, but caught myself and stopped. I shoved her out of my thoughts and returned to the task before me. If Skyla was hurt, I would need Baldur’s help getting her out of there. If she was dead… No. Don’t think about it. I hadn’t gone all that way to lose her again so soon.

Once I untied Baldur’s bindings and unwrapped the mistletoe twine from his hands and legs, the Allfather stood, but he swayed on his feet. “Let’s get you out of here, Solina.” His voice was weak and unsteady.

“What about Thorin?” I motioned to the sleeping man at my feet.

“He can take care of himself.”

“But he’s vulnerable.”

Baldur shook his head. “Not for long. We both know he’d want me to protect you first and foremost.”