Arctic Dawn (The Norse Chronicles Book 2) (9 page)

Nate laughed, a hard sound like shattering ice. “She won’t go down without a fight. How admirable.”

I shoved Nate and the other stone figures out of my thoughts and concentrated on the problem before me.
Get free from this trap, and then you can work on getting free from the next one.

After pushing my shoulder up and out, I pounded a fist into his jaw, to the regret of my poor knuckles.
Less punching, more squirming
. I braced my forearm against the creature’s neck and used my arm as a lever, creating enough space to finally wriggle free. He lunged for me, but I danced aside, refusing that beckoning, stony embrace.

“Sorry, buddy,” I said. “I like my men warm-blooded.”

“Stop her,” Nate ordered in a bored tone. He must have been so confident in the certainty of my capture.
I’ll teach you not to underestimate me.
The other stone guards shuffled closer, but their movements were indecisive and slow. Nate’s directive not to kill me must have confounded their thought processes, or whatever passed for thought in their stony heads.

I willed the remains of my fire into a burst of flames, and heat left my body in a momentary but massive energy discharge. I turned myself into the equivalent of a temporary, industrial blast furnace. I released all my inhibitions and gave myself over to the fire. Flames engulfed me, burning away not just my clothes, but the rage and the pain and the fear. The effect lasted a fraction of a second and left me empty, bankrupt, and impotent, and I’d probably stay that way until I got a full night of sleep and a few thousand calories inside me. But the fire bomb had done its job.

The sprinklers kicked on as promised, but Nate lay senseless and crumpled on the floor, his face red and blistered, the edges of his suit charred. The closest two golems also showed blackened and well-cooked exteriors, but they remained on their feet, animate and threatening. They held their place, their expressions stoic, and their posture suggested uncertainty. Without their master’s directions, they posed no more threat than statuary in a museum. Was Nate dead or just temporarily out of commission? I placed my bet on the latter.
No time to waste, then.

My small victory was tempered when a sudden and unmistakable howl pierced the air. The wolf had arrived, and probably Helen, too.
Oh good, because this wouldn’t be any fun if it were
easy.

I looked behind me, desperate for an escape route. On one side of my cul-de-sac, the industrial containers were wedged in a perpendicular configuration that formed an impenetrable wall. On the other side, the gap between the corners of two containers offered a tiny sliver of space, maybe just enough for an exit. I sucked in everything, making myself as skinny as possible, and thrust my hip and shoulder into the gap. With another desperate shove, I squeaked through, scoring and scraping the skin over my ribs in the process.
A small price. I would have paid more.

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.”

Skyla stumbled around the corner of a nearby crate and sank to one knee. She clutched her shoulder, and blood seeped between her fingers. “Helen’s here,” she said through gritted teeth. “Nate and the wolf too.”

I went to her and grabbed her good shoulder. She sagged against me.

“Are you shot?” I asked. “I mean, I know you are, but are you gonna be okay?”

“Bastard clipped my shoulder.” Skyla’s pupils were huge, her eyes glassy, and her brown skin had gone frighteningly pale.

Baldur held out a hand toward me and hissed in a low voice. “We’ve got to get going, Solina.”

Before I could reply, a new voice echoed through the room. “Where are they, damn it? Where the
hell
are they?”

Helen Locke.
Her voice was unmistakable, and her tone sent ice prickles down my spine. Baldur, Skyla, and I ducked and wedged between a stack of crates. “Could any of you people
be
more incompetent?”

“Skoll says the girl is here,” said Nate, who had obviously recovered from my attack. But his voice sounded rough and pained. “Her scent is very fresh.”

I pointed at Skyla and hissed at Baldur, trying to keep my voice low. “Take her. Hurry. She’s bleeding.”

Skyla opened her mouth, presumably to argue, but I shot her a steely look, urging her not to argue. I loved her, and she was the best friend I’d ever had, other than my brother. No matter the cost, I had to choose her life over my own.
One of these days, that’s probably going to get me killed.

Baldur reached for Skyla but paused. He put his hand to his chest in a strange gesture. A shiver rolled across his shoulders, and paleness washed over his face. He shook it off and presented his clenched fist to me, like a child offering some secret, wriggling gift to his friend.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

As if we have time for doubt.
“Yes. I do.”

Baldur leaned forward, pressed his fist against my chest, and spoke a strange word. The place where he touched me, over my sternum, burned as though he had struck me with a brand. I gasped and clenched my teeth to keep from crying out. When he moved his hand away, a pattern, pink and raw like a fresh burn, appeared on my skin.

“A rune?” I asked.

It resembled the marks I had seen on Thorin’s iron cuffs and on the Valkyries’ weapons.

“I don’t have the time or energy for better,” Baldur said. “This will be enough to make Helen and the others tend to overlook you. They won’t be fooled for long, but it’s the best I can do.”

Baldur’s superpowers were his godly mojo and general charm and charisma. I hadn’t known he possessed runic powers too.
That could come in handy.

Baldur squeezed my shoulder and whispered something that sounded like
“dagaz.”
Then he pulled Skyla into his arms, and they both disappeared.

A couple of sharp barks exploded across the room, announcing Skoll had returned to wolf form and was on the hunt for me. Could Baldur hear my prayers?
Oh please, Baldur. Please, please hurry.

The wolf yapped again and sneezed once, twice, a third time.

“Can you find their trail?” Helen asked from somewhere in the back of the room.

The tip-tap of canine claws approached my hiding place behind a stack of pallets. I clamped my lips together and held my breath, as if that would help. Skoll didn’t need to hear me when he could simply snuffle me out. I probably smelled like fear and adrenaline and a bunch of other tasty things wolves loved to eat. Had Baldur’s rune disguised my smell, too?

“There’s something over here,” Nate said, much closer to my hiding spot than he’d been moments before. “The girl, the other one—her blood is all over the place.”

“She’s been wounded,” said Helen. “Good.”

Snap, crackle, pop
, and Baldur was back, somewhere close by, but not in my sight line. Behind me, a wolf howled.

Nate translated. “She’s here. Now.”

Helen screeched. “Then
find
her.”

We played a second game of cat-and-mouse through the pallets, me searching for Baldur while Skoll, Nate, and Helen hunted for me. Baldur found me first and grabbed my arm, ready to pull me through his magical portal, but Helen came instantaneously after him and latched onto my free arm. I tugged against her, but she had inhuman strength.
I’m like the baby King Solomon threatened to cut in half.

“Nice try, Allfather,” Helen said. She was as immaculate as the last time I’d seen her, in fitted skirt and elegant silk blouse. Malice glinted in her eyes, the ice-blue one
and
the black one. “But your rune work is weak.” A triumphant smile spread across her lips as Nate and Skoll arrived—Helen’s horrific reinforcements. “The girl is mine.”

Baldur tightened his hold, his arms twined around my waist. My joints and muscles strained from the tension. “You’ve taken everything from me. You won’t get her, too.”

“I’ll rip her in half. Skoll can finish her before she bleeds out.”

Helen had demonstrated uncanny strength. I believed her capable of fulfilling her threat.

Baldur let out a war cry and tugged me with a tremendous heave. Helen held on like an overzealous leech. Skoll lunged for me.

In the freeze-frame moment in which I was certain I was about to die, I noticed the most ridiculous details: the color of Skoll’s eyes, citrine flecked by peridot; the delicate weave of Helen’s ivory blouse; the familiar gold charm, nestled in the cleft of her breasts. Rather than defend myself from the wolf or fight to push Helen away, I lunged for her necklace and wrapped my fingers around the heavy gold charm.

That might have been the move that saved me.

Out of reflex, Helen’s grasp relaxed, and she reached for the necklace. My ears popped once, twice, like the pressure shift from a change of altitude. After an instant of dizzying blackness, Baldur lowered me to my feet in a dark, dusty field beyond the compound’s fence line.

“This is as far as I can go,” Baldur said, panting. “It should be far enough to avoid Helen’s immediate detection, but we should get moving.”

“Why doesn’t she pop through space like you and come after us?”

“She is Jötunn,” Baldur said as if that were a sufficient answer. When I gave him a questioning look, he said, “They don’t have the runes for it. I only gave that ability to the Aesir who survived Ragnarok.”

“If you could always move around like that, why bother with cars and airplanes? We’ve been wasting a lot of time.”

Baldur patted his chest. “I’m the only one strong enough to take on a passenger.”

Before I could ask for a better explanation, my ears popped again. A shadow lunged toward me, and someone dragged me off my feet. I fought my captor, certain Helen had managed to follow us despite Baldur’s assurances, but I caught a familiar scent of rain and musk and a glint of blond hair in the ambient light. Thorin pinned me in his arms and buried his face in my neck. He said nothing but held me so ferociously tight that my ribs creaked.

“Almighty gods,” he said in his rumbling baritone. “Tell me you’re all right. Then tell me what the hell you’re doing here.”

For a moment, I sagged against him, relishing the relief of having most of my team back together—except for Val. In all that had happened, I’d had no time to worry about him. Nothing had given me reason to believe he’d been caught, and I was operating under the assumption he’d made it out. Thinking of Val sobered me. I stiffened and pushed Thorin away. His nearness did funny things to my thought processes.

“I’m fine,” I said. “And I totally rescued you, by the way. You’re welcome.”

Thorin peered into my face and shook his head. “Swear to me you’ll never do anything that stupid again.”

“I won’t swear any such thing. If I want to save you, then I will.”

Skyla lay on the ground, nearly unconscious. Baldur squatted beside her, pressing his hands against her wound. A faint glow radiated from his fingers, and he was muttering a steady litany under his breath, but his eyes followed my every move.

I flung my hand around, gesturing at the others. “All of you,” I clarified. “I can’t do this on my own. If I ran away and left you all, how long do you think I would last? It’s take a risk and maybe die now, or run and certainly die later.” I inhaled and let my breath out in a gust. “It was a good choice, Thorin. Don’t be a jerk about it, okay? I’m sorry for the cheap shot, but it’s not like you’ve been king of wise decision-making lately. I told you going after Nina on that crappy lead was a trap.”

Baldur interrupted my rant. “And it’s all my fault. My shortsightedness and impulsivity put us all in danger. It’s been so long since I’ve had to think about the consequences of my actions that I’ve lost my good judgment.” He raised a bloody hand toward Thorin. “I release you from your vows, cousin. You are no longer obligated to risk yourself or anyone else to uphold your loyalty to me.”