Demons (Eirik Book 1) (14 page)

“Please,” he begged.

“He needs high-energy foods that he can digest fast and easily without irritating his stomach,” I said, speaking in an unsteady voice. “Water for drinking and bathing.” His mother’s blue eyes glowed eerily, and I wondered just how powerful she was and if she could blast me just to shut me up. “Fresh bedding and a decent bed. Light and, uh, fire to warm up the room.”

His mother ignored me and asked, “How long are you planning on staying down here, Son?”

“Until I regain my strength.”

Her lips tightened. “Suit yourself, but you have three days before your next level of training begins.” She glared at me. “And she leaves with the guards.”

Fear slammed into me. I didn’t dare project with her here. She’d know I wasn’t from her realm.

“She stays,” Eirik said.

You tell her!
I liked this guy. He was about to fall on his face, yet he had the balls to stand up to his tyrant mother and protect me. Just like he’d promised.

“Your obsession with this girl is ridiculous. She has manipulated you, taken different forms, and worked with the Norns to hurt you. Maliina belongs on Corpse Strand.”

“She’s not Maliina,” Eirik ground out.

“Of course she is,” the goddess retorted. “She disappeared the night you arrived and has been sighted in different halls, but she always disappears by the time the guards get there. We didn’t know you’ve been hiding her.” The goddess’ eyes narrowed on me. “Seize her.”

My fear became full-blown panic. If they caught me, I was never going home. She tortured souls on her island of horrors, and Maliina was headed there.

“NO!” Eirik snarled. “No one touches her. She’s. Not.” He paused to take a breath. “Maliina.”

“Then who is she?” The goddess extended her hand toward me and the urge to go to her became unbearable. I wiggled out of Eirik’s arm. At least, I tried to, but his grip tightened.

Tendrils of warmth coiled around my energy and it felt amazing, until images flashed through my head and I realized she was probing my memories. I tried to fight her, but she was too powerful. She went through my memories like someone turning the pages of a book. I whimpered and pressed closer to Eirik.

“Stop it, Mother!” he said, squinting at her, his breathing harsh. “Her name is Celestia, and she is under my protection.”

The probing stopped, but I still felt the pull of her powers. “A soul under a god’s protection? That’s ridiculous. I am the only one with the power to offer souls sanctuary.”

“You have countless to do with as you wish. I want one. Her. She is mine, or I’m never going to be what you want.”

Silence followed, but I wanted to applaud and hug him and kiss… No, I didn’t want to kiss him. He smelled like gym socks and he didn’t look like hero material at the moment. I was the one stopping him from crumbling. In fact, I was sure his need to protect me was the only thing keeping him upright. But he sounded and acted like a hero and I loved it.

“Who is she to you? A consort? A servant? Trudy and Litr can see to your every need.”

“She’s my servant,” his words were slurred, his eyes closing. “Leave us. She has things to do.”

His mother studied him, then me. A smile that didn’t reach her eyes lifted the corners of her lips. “Trudy, show
her
where she can get her master’s food. Take care of the rest.” She turned and swept out of the room.

Eirik slumped forward. I barely caught him before we both fell. I braced myself for impact, even twisted my body so my shoulder would hit the ground first, but giant hands stopped our downward journey. The giantess lifted him from my arms like he weighed nothing and placed him gently in the middle of the bed.

“Thank you,” I said, picking up my coat and blanket. I layered them on top of him. He was pale, but color was rushing back to his cheeks. He was truly heroic and I did want to kiss him. On his cheek.

“FYI, I’m not your servant,” I whispered, but I was grinning. “And if I weren’t a nice person, I’d let you rot in here.” When I leaned back, the corners of his mouth twitched. “Was that a smirk? I hope not, because you won’t have anything to smile about when I’m done with you.”

I stepped back, turned, and froze. Something was happening to the giantess. What had the goddess called her? Trudy.

I watched in amazement as she grew smaller and her clothes shrank until she was regular size. Regular meant several inches taller than me, just like everyone in this castle. But her shrinking answered my question about how the gods had sex with giantesses.

She was even more gorgeous at a normal size, and she looked young. Probably about my age. And she was supposed to be Eirik’s servant? He would not be able to resist her. And I’d…

I would be back at home. I glanced at him, but his eyes were closed. He was probably out. I didn’t belong here. My purpose was to help him then leave. He had the girl he was crazy about. Maliina. Who was she and what had she done that was so terrible the goddess wanted her fried? Why was Eirik obsessed with her? And why did I hate the idea?

Dang it! I was back to thinking about the least important things. I focused on Trudy. I had questions I wanted to ask her, all of them intrusive, yet a sudden urge to push her away from Eirik’s bed washed over me.

I said the first thing that popped in my head. “Is he always this rude and arrogant?” She scowled. “Uh, never mind. Thanks for lifting him. He was really heavy and my back was killing me.” I smiled and rotated my neck for emphasis. She didn’t smile back, hostility written all over her pretty face. Okay. Everyone in this castle had an attitude.

“You cannot threaten the son of the goddess,” Trudy said in a mean voice. “The punishment is the Gjöll.”

Sheesh, even her voice was melodious and I didn’t care to find out what the Gjöll was. “Oh, I didn’t threaten him. That was a promise.” The giantess gawked at me. “Okay, I need to get him soup. Where’s the kitchen?”

“Dimples,” Eirik whispered. “Come here.”

Dimples?
Was that his nickname for me now? No one had ever given me a nickname. Heck, my family had even refused to shorten my name. I’d wanted to be called Tia. I grinned. I liked Dimples better than Kewpie.

“Is the kitchen far? I’m getting him the soup, then leaving.”

“Please,” Eirik added.

“Oh, since you asked nicely. Yes?”

“Closer,” he whispered. I leaned in toward him. He reached out, grabbed my arm, and pulled me closer. I lost my balance and landed on top of him. “Act like a servant or my mother will probe your memories again,” he warned in a hard voice. “If she learns you are a Witch from Earth who has somehow found her way to her realm, she will trap you here and plug the leak.” He let me go.

CELESTIA

Thoroughly annoyed, I peeled myself off him. The man didn’t know his own strength. What the hell did he mean by plug the leak? I wanted to ask him, but Trudy was already gone.

“You will explain that later. But for now, Eirik,” I added in a mean voice, “if you ever grab me like that again, I will hurt you. I might be smaller than you, but my spells pack quite a punch. You’ve been warned.”

He didn’t respond, but then I hadn’t expected him to. I hurried after Trudy and burst into the hallway to see her disappearing around the bend on the stairs to my right. She wasn’t alone.

“Trudy?” I called out, running to catch up with them.

“My name is Trudnir,” she snapped, not slowing down. The two men disappeared through a wall as though swallowed by it.

“Slow down,” I said, winded from the short run. “Please.”

She glanced at me and shook her head, but she slowed down. The stairs curved around upward. There were no windows, just torches along the wall and an eerie silence.

“Where and how did those people disappear?”

“How? Magic. Something a soul from Earth wouldn’t understand. Where? None of your business.”

Okay, so she didn’t like me. I got it. But there was no need to be rude. “How far are we going?”

“Eljudnir Hall.”

Grimnir. Eljudnir. Trudnir. I was seeing a pattern in names around here. “What’s that?”

“The goddess’ Hall.”

“How many halls are there in the castle?”

“Countless.” She continued to stomp upstairs.

“If you are ticked off that I’ve replaced you as Eirik’s whip girl, don’t be. He’ll be all yours soon enough. I’m leaving after this and never coming back.”

She ignored me. We reached the top of the stairs. A hallway stretched ahead of us. No, it looked more like a tunnel. The torches were set wide apart, shadows dancing in areas the light didn’t reach. I shivered and moved closer to Trudy.

“How come you all speak English so well?” I asked, walking beside her.

“Magic.” That seemed to be her answer for everything. “You hear what we want you to hear.” She said a string of words I didn’t understand. “That’s the language of the gods. Midgard languages are easy,” she added with a smirk.

Thank goodness I was leaving soon. The girl’s attitude was beginning to tick me off. After what seemed like forever, I said, “Okay, I get that you don’t want me here and you are probably making me take a longer route, but this is ridiculous. There must be a shortcut to the kitchen around here.” I touched the wall, but it was solid.

“There is, but we are not going to the kitchen.”

“Why not? Eirik needs food.”

“You’ll get it from Grimnirs Hall.”

Getting information from her was like pulling a tooth. There was something I’d missed while trying to keep up with her. Magical crystals had replaced the torches on the walls, and we were entering another building, one with a well-lit hallway.

“Listen, I just want to get Eirik something to eat then go home,” I said.

She stopped. “Home?”

I winced, realizing what I had said. “Yes, home, where my family is.”

“Which hall?”

“Uh, I don’t know. This place is so huge I lost my sense of direction.”

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “How did you get out?”

“Magic.” It was her answer to everything. She continued to scowl. “Souls can still practice magic if they were Witches. I was one. Yeah, we have Witches on Earth,” I added when she harrumphed. “We were just operating underground.” Her eyes stayed steady on me. “This place is huge, Trudy. You said so yourself, but I will find my way to my family.”

“Trudnir,” she corrected me. “My name is Trudnir. Your family is okay with you working for Baldurson instead of resting and reliving happy memories in your hall? Most souls just want to rest and replay the past. No souls ever want to leave.” Her eyes roamed my face, my clothes. “How did you die? Were you ill? Was it an accident? How long have you been roaming these halls?”

Sheesh. I preferred the quiet, morose Trudnir. “How did I die? Sword fight in Minecraft,” I said with a deadpan expression. I loved the game. Where else could I build a perfect world? “So, no illness or accidents and, uh, that happened about a week ago.”

“Minecraft? Don’t you mean mine shaft?”

“No, Minecraft. A very dangerous game we play on Earth. A guy with a big sword and a bad attitude attacked me while I was on my way to meet a friend. Herobrine was his name.”

She frowned. “I keep forgetting people on Earth still mine coal and jewels. If only you respected magic, your lives would be simpler. Is this Herobrine person dead, too?”

I frowned at her. “No. Can we go now?”

“I thought you might be looking for him.” Her curiosity was really bugging me now. “You are a strange one. Most souls don’t talk. They are confused, sad, or scared. They arrive here and just want to rest and relive their happy memories, so we send them to Eternal Halls.”

“Not me. I’m too curious. I guess I’m part of the few that talk. And I don’t have a lot of happy memories to relive,” I fibbed.

A weird expression crossed her face. “Hmm-mmm.”

“Shouldn’t we be going?”

She didn’t move. “We are giving Vestri and Nodd time to fix the young god’s room. Maybe bathe him.”

For a moment, I wasn’t sure what she was talking about. Then realization hit me. Someone was going to bathe Eirik?

“No, no, no. They can’t give him a bath until his body temperature is back to normal. My aunt is, uh, was a nurse, and she told me you don’t do that to someone suffering from hypothermia.” I turned and stared at the endless spooky tunnel. The thought of going back creeped me out. “I shouldn’t have left him.”

Trudnir gripped my arm. “Stay here. I’ll warn them.”

She touched the wall and the stones grew hazy and transparent, then turned into a doorway. Voices spilled out and reached us before I saw men and women hurrying past what appeared to be a bedroom. They were all Dwarves. The room was richly decorated with a thick tawny carpet and a huge canopied bed done in gold. Nice. The white walls had colorful paintings with gilded frames, and I spied a part of a mural on the ceilings. The effect was cheerful and airy. Before I could see more, Trudnir disappeared inside it and the doorway closed.

How the heck did she do that? Magic, of course. I waited for a few seconds and debated whether to continue without her. She should be able to find me as long as I stayed in the hallway.

Curiosity got the best of me and I continued forward. The hallway was wide with an arched ceiling with gorgeous paintings. More hallways branched from it. Like the bedroom, the paintings on walls were colorful and the frames gilded. The marble tiles on the floor gleamed and the light crystals had gorgeous sconces. The hallway ended in a front room with large windows.

I glanced back at where Trudnir had vanished, shrugged, and headed forward. The first thing I noticed when I entered the long curved room was the lack of color. Slate marble floors. Floor-to-ceiling mirrors with paintings were on one side and large windows on the other, but the frames were black. The stained glass on windows depicted battle scenes with giants, wolves, snakes, and dragons, men and women in armor, some with scepters—probably Witches. Must be the end-of-the-world battle I’d read about. Rag-something. The scenes were all done in black and shades of gray. Even the benches scattered around the room had gray cushions and gray embroidered frills. Through some of the window panes, I could see the snowy land covered with mist. The arched ceiling had gray murals, too.

“Odd, yet fascinating,” I said, turning around.

Trudy appeared beside me. “You haven’t visited here yet?”

“I reached Eirik’s room and kind of got distracted.” The lies were slipping out too easily.

Trudy threw me a look I couldn’t read. “Visitors wait here and state their case before they see the goddess. The important ones go directly to the Throne Hall. They come from all the realms. Even Alfadir has visited us several times to see the Golden One. None comes from Earth anymore. Very little magic left. Underground magic, you said.”

I didn’t understand the Alfadir reference until I remembered that in the gods’ realm, Odin was referred to as Allfather or Alfadir. Hayden had mentioned one of Odin’s sons coming up to Hel to beg the goddess to let go of his brother Baldur’s soul. Instead, she’d had told him that if everyone wept, she would release his soul. But Loki, Goddess Hel’s father, had tricked everyone by shifting into a giantess and refusing to cry. So Baldur’s soul now resided in Hel. I wondered if he was reliving happy memories in a resting hall.

Trudy continued to be Chatty Cathy. “Asgardians love to ask for all sorts of favors without offering anything in return. The Dwarves at least bring their magical weapons and creations, and their women are amazing cooks. My people have a special bond with the goddess, so she’ll always need us, and of course, Vanaheim often sends their Volür.”

I followed her across the Waiting Hall, trying to absorb everything she said. “Volür?”

“Seeresses from Vanaheim, the land of Vanir gods. They wander from village to village offering their services. Centuries ago, Volür also came from your realm, but that was before your people destroyed magic.” She smirked. I wondered if the smirk fest would stop if she knew what I was. “We even had Immortals from your realm living here in Hel’s Hall and with my people. They visited the major gods in Asgard and Vanaheim, and the minor ones of Alfheim. But that was a long time ago. Magic was wasted on Midgard.” She grinned. She seemed to get a kick out of reminding me that humans were idiots for not using magic. I agreed, but I’d never admit it to her.

I ignored the dig. “So when you say your people, do you mean you are not from Hel’s Hall?”

“Of course not. I’m a
Jötun
from
Jötun
heim. The gods and the Mortals came from a
Jötun
. Alfadir and some of the major gods have mothers and grandmothers who are
Jötnar.
We are more magical and powerful than the gods.” She smirked again. “That’s why I can change my size. This is Goddess Hel’s Throne Hall,” Trudy added.

We’d crossed the waiting area and entered a second room twice its size. This one had pillars strategically placed around the room and a vaulted, arched ceiling. Etchings depicting battle scenes covered the surfaces and the walls, but the black throne in front of the room dominated everything. Giant snakes coiled around the arms and the back, their white eyes gleaming. A black cushion wide and long enough to sleep on was on the seat, and to the right and left were two smaller seats, each with snake reliefs and etchings on the arms and back.

“Why are the Waiting Hall and the Throne Hall so dark and…?” I wanted to say depressing, but that wouldn’t be right. “And have no color.”

“She likes it that way, so visitors and souls don’t linger in her hall.”

The look she gave me said she considered me one of the lingering souls. I imagined the goddess sitting on her throne, looking down her nose at the people at the foot of the steps. Did she pass judgment in here and choose those who went to the torture chambers? I gasped and took a step back. I could have sworn the head of one of the snakes moved.

I raced after Trudy. A hallway led to our right, but to the left was an arched doorway leading to a room packed with old and sickly-looking people. They all looked kind of gray. A few looked at us angrily, but the majority just sat there with their heads down or stared into space with blank expressions.

“Souls. That is the Sorting Hall,” Trudy said quickly. “This way.” She hurried to the right, heading down a curving hallway. Voices came from ahead.

“Sorting Hall?” I asked, hurrying to keep up with her.

“Where the souls stay until they are assigned to an Eternal Hall. Most of them are tired after long illnesses and just want to rest, or are sad because their lives were cut short. I’ve never met a happy, curious one.” She shot me another pointed look, but I pretended not to notice.

“Are the souls of evil people in there, too?” I asked.

Trudy shuddered. “No. They are not allowed inside the halls. The Grimnirs hand them over to my father or my sister for the boat. Father takes them straight to Corpse Strand.”

The Torture Island Eirik had mentioned. We passed several empty rooms with tables and chairs. They were colorful like the hallway I’d passed through before entering the Waiting Hall. We were getting closer to the room where the voices were originating, yet I still had so many questions.

“Some of the souls looked angry,” I said. “I guess those are the ones whose lives were cut short.”

Trudy shrugged. “I guess so. My father says that when people are not ready to die, their souls run away and try to find other bodies to possess. Like Maliina. Everyone thinks she’s still here, but Dad thinks she slipped through the portal and went back to Earth to find a body.”

Maliina. That was the girl Eirik was crazy about. “Did you know her?”

“No. I don’t associate with Mortals or their souls.” Trudy smirked. “But I saw her from afar when she visited. She was pretty. She was the only Immortal Witch to visit Hel’s Hall from Earth.”