Perfekt Balance (The Ære Saga Book 3) (8 page)

I loved my brother, I really did. But for an
immortal war god, he had a dangerously soft spot for the weaker
realms.

I
sighed.
I understand you have to do this. Make the swap,
but do it quickly. You and Brynn are the only ones my unifying
seems to be working on, and I don’t want anyone getting
hurt.

I closed my mind and focused on sending
cooperative energy to the edge of my bubble.

Tyr nodded his thanks, and handed the stone
to Forse. “Forse, make the exchange.”

Forse squeezed my hand before passing me off
to Brynn. With the stone clenched in his palm, he marched toward
Runa. Although both of his guns were holstered, Forse held his free
hand over the non-implosive pistol’s handle. When he reached Tosk,
he exchanged the stone for Runa’s ropes. He pulled handcuffs out of
his back pocket, slapped them around her wrists, and lifted the bag
high enough to catch a glimpse of her angular jaw, full lips, and
strong nose. “It’s her,” he spat, before forcefully lowering the
bag and leading Runa back to our party. Disgust was etched all the
way from his narrowed eyes to his downturned mouth. His expression
mirrored my feelings. Being this close to Runa for the first time
since the incident left an unsettling feeling in my gut. Images
from the last time I’d seen her flooded my brain, and as an acidic
liquid rose against the lump in my throat, I swallowed it back down
and refocused on my grounding. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction
of making me ill.

You’ve got this, Elsa
, I assured myself.
Just keep everyone calm enough to get through this
exchange. You’ve got Brynn and Tyr at manageable anger levels—if
you can just keep Forse from going berserker, and hold Tosk and his
minions at bay for a few more minutes, we’ll be back home and this
will all be over
. I sent
another shot of cooperative energy along the perimeter of my aura,
praying some part of it would be absorbed by the dark elves, but it
all returned to me, untouched.
Dang it
.

“If that’s settled, we’ll be on our way.
Clear out before the Bifrost—”

Tyr’s warning was cut off by a guttural
growl. I froze as Tosk launched the crystal at the cliff directly
behind us. The stone shattered against the black surface, raining
down shards in a gravity-defying arc. Tyr, Forse, and Brynn quickly
closed ranks around me, but their focus was misdirected. As one of
the shards flew over Runa, she leapt off the ground and ripped off
her hood. Red curls tumbled free, cascading down the back of her
leather vest and stopping at her waist. As she leapt, Runa opened
her mouth. The shard landed on her tongue, and when her feet
touched the ground, her skin sparkled for a moment, as if the
crystal had infused her with its brilliance. She pulled her wrists
away from each other, tearing free of her handcuffs and twisting
out of Forse’s grasp in one quick movement.

“
Skit
.”
Forse turned
toward me and dove, his arms outstretched to pull me close. I
released my grounding and leapt toward him. As I did, I sent
another calming pulse through my aura in a futile attempt to soothe
his panic and help him make the most level-headed choices. But
before he could port us out of danger, Runa held up a hand. A beam
of light shot from her palm. It struck me in the chest and wrenched
me away from my protectors.

“Arugh!” I cried out as the beam seared my
flesh, pressed between two rib bones, and squeezed my heart in a
vise-like grip. The organ thudded in protest as the beam drew me
forward, pulling me with unfathomable force. I reached for my
dagger to cut myself loose, but the beam shot through my arms,
immobilizing them, as I was dragged toward the only goddess in the
realms I truly feared.

It must have been my absence of love for Runa
that enabled her to take me. I’d felt that same fear for the only
other creature who’d ever managed to hurt me—Fenrir.

The mortals were right. Hate wasn’t the
enemy—fear was.

“Elsa!” Forse dropped low in a crouch as the
beam ripped me farther from his reach. He launched off his toes at
the same time as my brother ducked his head and barreled toward
Runa. The closer they got to the beam, the faster it vibrated,
sending me flying at Runa. It only took a second to reach her side,
and once I was there she dug into my arms with her awful man-hands.
I was barely able to cry out for Forse before Runa ported us out of
the field, and into an abyss so dark, it looked like a black
hole.

For all I knew, it was.

“
HEI
?” THE DARKNESS SWALLOWED
my voice, before shooting it
back. From the amount of time it took to echo around, I deduced I
was in a small room—maybe three-by-three meters, if it was square.
I was curled in a ball on a hard floor, my arms cradling my torso.
My ribs were still tender from Runa’s blue beam assault.

Tyr! Can you hear me?
I shouted for my brother inside my head, and waited.
Tyr!
After a beat, I pushed myself
to a seated position, ignoring the residual pain in my
chest.
Tyr?
My spirits
sank as I realized he wasn’t going to answer. Wherever I was, the
location must have held enough dark magic to block his telepathy…or
maybe he was busy dealing with the evil elves Runa left behind.
Either way, things were not looking good.

“
Hello?”
I called out loud, this time paying attention to the way the sound
traveled above me. The ceiling was high. Six meters? More? It was
impossible to tell when it was pitch black. I opened my palm and
held it face up at chest level. Calling on one of my more
mundane—albeit practical—abilities, I closed my eyes and summoned a
glowing orb of light. My hand began to heat, and a faint vibration
ran along my fingers. Any moment now, I’d hear the
pop
, and the room would
be bathed in a faint white glow.

My brother got to fly, and I was an immortal
flashlight. Odin’s sense of equity was questionable.

“
That’s
odd,” I murmured as I opened my eyes. The room was still black as
night. Where was my orb? I furrowed my brow and focused on my
fingertips. The tingling sensation confirmed my magic was still
within me, so why couldn’t it summon the light? Maybe…

A chill
ran up my arm and wrapped around my heart.
No
. It would take
a
lot
of darkness
to mute my magic. Did Runa take me to Helheim? Or did she find a
way to summon enough darkness to cloak a building in Svartalfheim?
It was a dark realm, sure, but nowhere near dark enough to cancel
out my magic.
Oh gods, could it mute my abilities
too
? I pushed my energy
outside my cell, scanning the area for other signatures. My bubble
recoiled as it bumped against a being a floor beneath me, emitting
a pulse of malice.
Thank Odin
. I might have encountered a hostile element, but
at least my magic was the only thing that was muted…my energy-based
abilities remained intact. I supposed it made sense. Summoning my
orb required I access light magic, which could be muted by a
surplus of dark magic. But energy was a universal truth, not
governed by the laws of magic or affected by anything beyond the
user’s will. Energy followed intention, and so long as I remembered
that, my energetic abilities would be strong enough to manifest my
desired outcome.

And right then, I intended to manifest that
we all find our way safely back to Arcata. Fast.

After I
pulled my energy back, I continued my assessment. My cell was so
dark I’d have thought my eyes were sealed. I blinked against the
cold air, willing my body to fight off the chill coming from my
right.
Hold on
. I
inched across the rough, uneven floor. It felt as if it was made of
stone, and if the smattering of pebbles beneath my fingers was any
indicator, the construction job had been a hasty one. My hands
pressed on until I came to a wall. I moved up the rocky surface,
and followed the curvature of the room in a careful
exploration.
Interesting. The room is round.
I paused when the stone turned
to wood, and knocked quietly on the surface of what I assumed to be
the door to determine its density. My knuckles made a low thud, and
I knew the barrier was too strong to break through without a heavy
tool. My palms lightly traced the door’s surface, and I made a note
of the metal rectangle at face level. It must have opened from the
other side—maybe it was some kind of a window so my captors could
look in. For now, it was sealed shut, and I took advantage of the
alone time to complete my evaluation.

The stone
picked up where the door ended, and as I circled back to where I’d
started, the draft grew stronger. I moved my hands upward until I
felt the square-shaped break.
Thank Odin.
The room had a small window, sealed with
thin metal bars. I didn’t know how this would figure into my escape
plan, but it sure as snow didn’t hurt things.

Plus, it meant I had fresh air. Even if that
air was freezing.

I ran my
fingers across the metal bars. They were close enough together that
I’d be able to fit my forearm through, but not much more. Climbing
out wasn’t going to be an option. Besides, I didn’t know where the
window led. Svartalfheim had one sun that only shone on the realm a
few hours a day during the winter, and no moons. This meant the
realm was blanketed in blackness most of the time. My friends would
be able to use technology or their extra abilities to create light,
but so long as I couldn’t summon my orb, I was literally in the
dark.
Fabulous
.

I shoved
my forearm through the bars in case the block only worked
inside
this cell, and
made one more attempt to produce light from my palm. When my orb
refused to appear, I accepted my temporary fate.
Darkness
it is. Move on to assessing an escape route.
I dropped to the ground and patted the stone
surface until I found a pebble. Picking it up, I moved carefully
back to the window, and felt the walls until I found the opening. I
pressed my cheek to the metal bars so my ear settled between them,
and dropped the pebble out of the window, listening carefully as it
fell. My heart plunged as the silence stretched on. When I finally
heard the faint plunk of the rock hitting water, I pressed my back
to the wall and slid down.

Mom had
read me plenty of Midgardian fairy tales in my childhood—the
mortals’ tales were much more lighthearted than our own, and Mom
chose to infuse our lives with joy over fear, whenever possible.
But for all the times I’d asked for the story about the princess
locked in a tower
…well…I
suddenly wished I’d been more partial to the one about the Snow
Queen. Or the one where the servant girl falls in love with the
handsome prince, and lives happily ever after with a closet full of
fabulous shoes.

But there was no sense in dwelling, when I
needed to ascertain exactly whose not-so-ivory tower I was locked
in. Then I could call my friends, enlist their help to break me out
of here, and put this whole ordeal behind me.

I folded my hands in my lap and closed my
eyes, preparing to push my energy outward until it came into
contact with the malicious being I’d felt earlier.

But before I’d finished grounding myself, a
sing-song voice came from the other side of the door. “Well, don’t
you look relaxed.”

The creak of metal let me know the viewing
square in the wooden door was opening. I stayed where I was, only
moving enough to open my eyes. When I did, candlelight illuminated
Runa’s angular face through the window. The light cast an orange
hue on her skin, and made her crimson hair look like it glowed.

Sure, she was pretty. But what had Forse ever
seen in her?

“You might as well release me now. My friends
will be coming for me.” I spoke matter-of-factly.

“Oh, I’m counting on it.” Runa’s mouth turned
up in a cruel grin.

“
You
want
them to come here? If you wanted a fight, you could have
just had it back at the mountain. Why drag everyone all the way out
to…where are we, exactly?”

“Nice try, but I wasn’t born yesterday. Tosk
and Bagatha are having a little fun with your friends as we speak.
If they survive what the dark elves have planned for them, I’ve got
a few games of my own I’m going to play while they hunt for you.”
The candle flickered, and Runa’s mud-colored eyes reflected the
flame. Hate shot at me, the emotion so strong it nearly broke
through my protective bubble.

“Why are you doing this?” I kept my voice
even.

“Because you’re hiding my dog.”

“
Fenrir?”
My pitch shot up, betraying my surprise. “He’s
my
dog, or he used to be. Now he’s
a prisoner of Asgard. And if you want him so much, why did you
trade him for the stone?”

“
We knew
you’d never hand him over willingly, so we asked for the stone in
his place. That crystal gave me the powers I needed to capture you,
and now you’re going to take me to Fenrir. The effects of this
crystal will wear off, but the dog…” Runa chuckled. “His effects
last forever. Don’t they,
Elsa
?”

Rage
bubbled inside me like a hot spring, and it took every bit of
willpower I had to
not
react. I drew a cleansing breath, inhaling more forcefully
than I would have liked, before exhaling. When I was positive I was
in control of my faculties, I allowed myself to speak.