Loki's Wolves (26 page)

“Because it felt like something pressing down on your chest?”

“Yeah,” he said. “How’d you—?”

“Mara.” Astrid yanked the curtain closed. She spun. “I thought I’d gotten rid of them.”

“Gotten rid of what?” Laurie said. “What’s a mara?”

She looked at Matt for the answer, but his brain just
spun, whipping through all the old stories and finding nothing.

Astrid strode into the hall and looked around, tense, as if braced for attack. “Odin warned me, but I thought I’d lost them. I am so sorry. If I knew they’d followed me, I would never have come here.”

“What’s a mara?” Matt asked, as she strode to the window and peered out.

“Mara. Mares,” Astrid muttered.

“Horses?” Baldwin said.

Matt shook his head as he pulled the answer from some half-forgotten saga buried deep in his brain. “Spirits of confusion. That’s where the word
nightmare
comes from.
Mares
, or
mara
.”

“Okay,” Laurie said. “But are they outside?” She cast a slow look around. “Or in here?”

“I-I don’t know,” Matt said. “I don’t know anything about them, really. It’s minor stuff in the stories. Just a mention or two in the sagas. Astrid?”

He glanced toward the front hall, but she was gone. He jogged into the hall and found her at the front door, hand on the knob.

“I need to go,” Astrid said when he walked up to her. “I brought them here. If I leave, they’ll follow me.”

“What are they after?” Matt asked.

She frowned up at him.

“What are the mara after?” He repeated.

“The same thing all the monsters are after. You guys. The descendants of the North.”

“Right. Me, Laurie, Fen, Baldwin, the twins… they followed you here to get to us. Your leaving isn’t going to help,” Matt pointed out.

“Right. Of course. I’m so sorry. This is—” She took a deep breath. “I’ll handle it. Get everyone in the basement.”

“What? No. We’ve fought trolls and Raiders. We can do this. If you want to get in the basement—”

Her chin shot up. “I don’t hide. Especially not when I’m responsible.”

“Okay,” Laurie said, walking into the hall, Baldwin trailing behind. “So how do we fight these things? What exactly are they?”

“Spirits, right?” Matt said. “Like ghosts. That’s what I saw outside.”

Astrid nodded.

“But they’re inside, too,” he said. “Or they can get inside us somehow. In our brains. Mess us up. You said you thought you’d gotten rid of them. What did you do?”

“It won’t work for you,” Astrid said. “That’s why you guys should go down—”

“We’re staying,” Matt interrupted. “Just explain.”

“Quickly, please,” Laurie said, glancing out the side window.

“I’m descended from Queen Gunnhild of Norway, who was believed to be a witch. She was—and I have her powers. Dispelling the mara takes magic. Special magic. I’ll handle that part. You guys just… do what you can.”

“Laurie, can you wake Fen?” Matt said. “I’m liable to get my hand bitten off if I try.”

“Like Tyr,” Astrid said, struggling for a smile.

Something crashed in the living room. They all ran in, Matt pushing into the lead.

It was Fen. He’d fallen off the chair and lay on the floor, still sleeping.

Matt laughed under his breath. “Have fun trying to wake him up, Laurie. He’s dead to—”

Matt saw Fen’s eyes then, wide and staring, and he ran over, dropping beside him. Fen lay there, frozen, eyes filled with terror, mouth open, too, chest heaving as if gasping for breath.

“Sleep paralysis,” Astrid said. “Like you had.”

Matt shook Fen’s shoulder.

“Don’t!” Astrid said, leaping forward. “You’ll only make it worse. You have to let him snap out of it naturally.”

Matt turned to say something to Laurie. But she wasn’t there. He turned and saw her across the room, staring into nothing, and he thought she was frozen, too. Then her lips parted, and she whispered, “Jordie?”

Jordie? Who was—?
Her little brother.

“She’s hallucinating.” Matt leaped up. “Laurie? It’s not—”

“Jordie!” she shouted and ran from the room, as if chasing her invisible brother.

Matt looked back at Fen, still frozen and wide-eyed on the ground.

“We’ve got this,” Astrid said. “Baldwin and I will be here when Fen snaps out of it. You go get her.”

Matt ran after Laurie. He could hear her, her voice choked with sobs, saying, “I’m sorry, Jordie. I had to leave. I had to.”

Matt followed her voice to the kitchen. She was standing in the middle of it, looking toward the counter, tears streaming down her face as she begged her brother for forgiveness.

“I didn’t know,” she said. “I thought I was protecting you. I didn’t know.”

“Laurie?” When she didn’t turn, he said, louder, “Laurie? It’s not him. It’s not Jordie. Whatever he’s saying happened, it didn’t. It’s a mara, remember?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “No!”

Matt thought she was talking to him, until she said, “I would never do that. I was trying to stop Ragnarök. Protect you.”

“Laurie!”

Matt strode over and stood between her and the counter. He was right in front of her, but she couldn’t seem to see him. Trapped in a waking nightmare, like the one he’d had.

“No!” she screamed. “Jordie, no!”

She rushed forward and plowed right into Matt. When he tried to hold her back, she clawed and kicked, and finally, he moved out of her way and she dropped to the floor, sobbing and reaching out, as if there were someone there, lying on the floor.

“Laurie.” Matt took her shoulder and shook her. “Laurie!” When she didn’t respond, he grabbed her under the arms, heaved her to her feet, and said, as sharply as he could, “You’re dreaming. Jordie’s fine. He’s miles away. You know that. You
know
that.”

She started to struggle, but weakly, as if she could hear him. He said it again, even sharper, then he gave her a shake and pulled her away from her brother’s imaginary body.

“Wh-what?” she said, looking up at him. “Where—?” She looked up at him and shoved him away. “Thorsen!”

“You were hallucinating. I think you thought Jordie died and it was your fault.”

“Jordie…?” She swallowed and swayed, as if it was coming back, but when Matt reached for her again, she pushed him away and straightened, then took a deep breath.

“Everything’s fine,” Matt said.

“Is it?” said a voice behind him.

Matt turned slowly. There stood his father, his hair and clothes soaking wet, his face almost… melted.

“Do
I
look fine?” Dad said, stepping forward. “You let
your snake swallow me, Matt. You let it
eat
me, and you did nothing to stop it.”

“I couldn’t. I—”

Matt stopped himself and squeezed his eyes shut. Hallucinating. He was just hallucinating. He knew that, but it felt real. That was the magic, like with Laurie. She knew Jordie couldn’t be there, but it
felt
real.

“Matt?”

He heard Laurie’s voice, but dimly, as if she were across the house.
She’s right there. Focus on her. Pull yourself back.

He kept his eyes shut as he turned back toward Laurie’s voice.

“Keep talking,” he said.

“Talking about what?” It was Jake now. “What’s there to talk about, Matt? You messed up. I knew you would. You always do.”

“Laurie? Talk. Please.”

He could hear her saying something, but her voice was drowned out by another—Josh.

“Why’d you let this happen, Matt?” Josh asked. “I thought you could do it. Even when Jake said you couldn’t. Even when Dad thought you couldn’t. I believed in you.”

“Laurie? Louder.”

He felt her fingers wrap around his arm. “Snap out of it, Thorsen. Get a grip. You know it’s not real. Fight it!”

His eyes snapped open, and he saw her standing there, glowering up at him.

“I’m back,” he said.

“
Stay
back.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He looked around, blinking away the last of the vision. “Okay, we need to get to—”

A scream from upstairs.

“The twins.” Matt pushed Laurie toward the door. “You check on Fen. I’ll go help them.”

As they ran for the door, something hissed to Matt’s left, and he looked to see a serpent’s head coming through the window, red eyes glowing.

“It’s not there,” he muttered under his breath. “Nothing’s there.”

Laurie shrieked, hands flying up to cover her head as she ducked from some unseen monster.

“It’s not—” Matt began.

“I know,” she said, already uncovering her head. She cast an angry look around the room. “Not real. You hear me? You’re not real.”

“You got it.” Matt put his hands on her shoulders and steered her, in front of him, toward the doorway.

When a puff of smoke appeared in the doorway, swirling, he instinctively stopped and pulled Laurie back. The smoke took the shape of a woman—so thin she looked like a skeleton with skin stretched over her bones. Long white hair
swirled around her. Her eyes were empty pits. When she opened her mouth, it was filled with rotting stumps of teeth.

“You’re not there,” Matt said, pushing Laurie forward. “You’re a figment of my imagination.”

The apparition hissed and reached out a long, bony finger.

Laurie dug in her heels. “Uh, Matt? Are you seeing a really ugly woman pointing at us?”

“Yeah…”

“Then she’s actually there, because I see her, too.”

“A mara,” he said. “That must be what they look like.” He stepped in front of Laurie and squared his shoulders. “But it’s still just a spirit. It can’t hurt you. Remember that. Close your eyes and hold my shirt, and we’ll walk right through—”

Something shot from the hag’s finger and hit Matt like a jolt of electricity, knocking him to the floor and stunning him.

Laurie pulled him up. “Your theory is wrong.”

“No kidding.”

The mara pointed again, this time at Laurie. Matt pushed Laurie to the side and dove after her. The bolt hit the wall, leaving a sizzling hole in the plaster.

“Other door!” Matt shouted.

He pushed Laurie and ran behind her. When he heard a sizzle, he shouted a warning and dodged. The bolt whizzed past into the wall again. They raced out the other door and found themselves at the foot of the stairs.

From above, they could hear Reyna shouting and Ray gibbering.

“Guess I’m going up with you,” Laurie said.

They raced up the stairs, the mara in pursuit, seeming in no hurry, as if just herding them along, cackling and throwing her bolts. When a figure appeared on the steps, Matt almost fell backward. It was his mother—her face gray and dead, like it’d been in his dream.

“I believed in you,” his mother said. “I told them you could save us.”

His father appeared at the top of the stairs. “You let her down, Matt. You let us all down.”

“Not real,” Matt whispered. “Not real.”

Laurie shrieked, seeing some apparition of her own, and she turned as if to run back down the stairs, but Matt pushed her up, his voice getting louder as he chanted, “Not real. Not real!”

The more he fought the nightmares, the harder the mara tried. His parents came first, then his brother, then his grandfather, then friends at school. All dead. Devoured by serpents and rotting in graves. All dead. All blaming him.

But Laurie was getting it just as bad. He could tell by her yells and cries, but all he could do was keep pushing her forward and deal with banishing his own nightmares. When they finally reached the top, the apparitions fell in behind with the mara chasing them.

Laurie ran to a closed door and yanked it open. Inside,
Matt saw Baldwin’s parents’ room, and he almost stopped her, ready to say they shouldn’t go in there. But now wasn’t really the time to worry about being rude. So when she pulled him in and slammed the door, he let her.

On the other side, he could hear his family, shouting at him. A bolt from the mara went right through the wood and burned his shoulder. As he stumbled back, Laurie spun and raced into the room. She ran to the balcony door and yanked it open.

“Wait!” Matt yelled.

“We have to get outside. They won’t follow us there.”

She raced through. Matt ran after her. The balcony was long and narrow, with a wooden railing that overlooked the backyard. Laurie climbed onto the railing.

“No!” Matt shouted, lurching forward.

“We need to get over the fence,” she said. Her eyes were blank again, and he knew she was dreaming.

He ran for her. “That’s not a—!”

She dropped over the side. Matt let out a cry and raced for the railing. He looked down to see Laurie lying on the ground. He scrambled over the railing, stood on the edge of the balcony, crouched, grabbing the edge, then dropped.

He hit the ground hard enough to let out a gasp, pain shooting through his legs. Then he scrambled over to Laurie. She was sitting now, cradling her arm. It was bent at a weird angle. Broken.

“Are you okay?” he said. “Other than your arm, are you—?”

“There you are,” said a voice from the house.

They both looked up as Fen barreled out the patio door, his face twisted with rage. “Did you really think I’d let you take my cousin away?”