Tro (Elsker Saga Book 3) (10 page)

Ull shook his head, forcing his features into a neutral position. “I am sure everything is fine, sweetheart. Maybe we ate some bad beef.”

“That’s not true, and you know it.” I blinked back the tears. “What’s happening?”

Ull rubbed his hand along the small of my back. It felt warm against the fabric of my negligee. “I honestly do not know. But I think we need to pack.”

Ull wrapped strong arms around me and kissed the top of my head. My chin quivered. “I guess the honeymoon’s over.”

“Impossible.” Ull stilled my chin with a kiss. “This was only the beginning.”

I nodded, and rolled out of his arms. “I’ll get the suitcases.”

“I will call the Valkyries,” Ull countered. He picked up his phone from the nightstand and dialed. “Give me a status report.” He barked into the device. He listened for half a minute, then shook his head. “There has to be something more. Kristia and I both felt a shift. Have you checked with Tyr? I understand he has returned to Asgard.” After another moment of silence, he nodded. “
Ja
. I understand. Bring the plane around immediately. How quickly can you have it here?” He looked at me and held up two fingers. “Two hours will do. See you then.”

He put down the phone and stood facing the open French doors. He wore only striped pajama pants, and his bare back was tensed against the light morning breeze. Each individual muscle was bunched into a tight knot, matching the fists he held at his sides. With the light reflecting from the ocean outside, and the glow hovering just above his tousled blond strands, he looked more like a god than ever.

“How about I make us breakfast while you throw everything in the trunks?” he offered. “I have a feeling we are in for a long day.”

“Oh, Ull.” I crossed the room in bare feet. The scrap of fabric I’d worn to bed barely covered my bottom, and I snuggled against Ull for warmth. His arms felt so safe; for a moment I felt like if I just stayed here, in his arms, in this room, on this island…then maybe everything would be okay. That whatever monsters were chasing us would go away once and for all. But I knew life wasn’t that simple. Bad things happened. Bad things
were happening
. And we couldn’t just hide away forever, not when everything was on the line.

“Nothing went down.” Ull stared at the ocean.

“Really?” I followed his gaze. “Then how do you explain that feeling right here?” I pressed my palm against the ridges of his abdomen. God, he was strong. I pressed again, running my thumb lightly along the crevices between the muscles. The blood started to drain from my head as I stared at the ripples, and without realizing what I was doing I kissed the bicep pinning me in place.

“I do not know.” Ull was unresponsive to my advances, a sure sign there was something amiss. “But I have a feeling we are going to find out soon enough.” With a sigh he squeezed me to him, then relinquished his hold. “Omelets okay?” he asked as he crossed to the door.

“They’re perfect.” My voice was barely a whisper. Ull was so spectacularly beautiful, both inside and out. It had been such a blessing to watch him let his guard down, to see him truly relax for the first time since we’d met. But now the wall was back up. Duty called, and I had no idea how long it would be before Ull would let his carefree side come out again. “Hey,” I called as Ull stepped out of the bedroom. He turned, a thin T-shirt halfway over his head. “We’ll always have the Cay, right?”

Ull gave me a tight smile, then pulled his T-shirt down as he strode toward the kitchen. I stared at his back as he tore ingredients from the fridge, willing the moisture to stay in my eyes. I couldn’t ignore the pit in my gut that told me things were about to get ugly.

And from the way Ull was butchering onions on the chopping block, I knew his gut told him the same thing.

My sleep on the flight home was disturbed. I drifted off with surprising ease, but my mind immediately filled with dark images—the snake and the wolf that were mainstays of my nightmares; a sea of dark, deserted buildings shrouded by big, black skies. I didn’t have much control over what I saw, and I was glad when the darkness cleared and gave way to a beautiful apple grove filled with laughing friends. Instinctively I knew it was Asgard, and I watched as Thor, Sif, and a group of equally beautiful gods stood in a circle.

“Throw it, Sif, throw it!” A brunette goddess clapped her hands. My sightline came over Sif’s shoulder to see a familiar face standing in the center of the circle with his arms spread open. His kindly facial features were lit up in a huge smile.

“Come now, Sif,” Balder spoke. “You know what my mother said: she had every being in the realm take an oath to protect me. Even the Norns cannot challenge that.”

He motioned for Sif to throw her rock and she did. It hurled at Balder’s chest, veering off course at the last possible moment. The group cheered.

“I told you.” Balder laughed.

“Now me.” A short god holding a bow and arrow stepped forward. “It’s only mistletoe.”

“The most harmless thing in all the realms. Take your best shot, brother!” Balder waved him ahead.

“No! Wait! Do not shoot!” A raven-haired woman dove for the arrow. She was seconds too late.

The scene shifted into slow motion. The shorter god drew his arrow, and the sprig of mistletoe ruffled at its end. Balder put his arms in the air in mock surrender, laughing the whole time. The arrow left the bow, traveling at half-speed toward its target. But at the last moment, where it was supposed to veer off course, it shot straight through Balder’s left wrist. The shorter god’s face dropped in horror. Balder clutched at his arm in confusion. “But Mother said…” He pulled the quiver out with great effort, watching the red liquid drip down his palm.

“Balder! No!” The dark-haired woman ran to her son. “Mistletoe is so small; I didn’t ask it to protect you. And it struck your
hjerte vene—
your heart vein is…is…” Her eyes spilled over as she clutched her son. “This is all my fault!”

Balder dropped to his knees and his mother fell with him. Blood covered them both, flowing more freely as Balder pulled his hand from the wound.

“Brother.” The shorter god stepped forward. “I am sorry. I had no idea. He gave me the arrow.” He gestured toward the forest, where I saw a cloaked figure lurking in the shadows. When I squinted, I was pretty sure I could see Elf Man hiding under that hood.

“Who?”

But Elf Man was gone. The gods gathered around Balder in horror. He had grown unnaturally pale.

“My son. No!” The woman sobbed in earnest. Sif sniffed delicately, turning into Thor for comfort. All of the gods began to weep as Balder dropped fully to the ground, and took his last breath
.

Ragnarok had begun.

“ULL, WAKE UP.
Wake up!” I shook my husband, who had fallen asleep holding me on one of the jet’s extra-wide lounges. He rolled his head to the side but he was out like a hibernating bear. “Wake up! Now!” I thumped his chest with my palms until he opened one eye.

“What is it?” He tried to pull me closer, but for once I wasn’t in the mood.

“Balder is dead.”

That did it. Ull sat up so fast he nearly threw me off the chair.

“What? When? Did you have a vision?” He reached out to grab me just in time, catching my waist before I could topple over.

“I don’t know when it happened, but in my vision everyone was standing around, throwing things at him because he thought he was invincible. I guess his mom did something?”

“She made everything in Asgard take an oath not to hurt him,” Ull murmured. “What did she miss?”

“Mistletoe. And the elf who has been coming after me in my dreams gave this shorter god an arrow laced with mistletoe and he shot it and…” I didn’t want to say any more.

“And Balder is gone.” Ull finished for me. He closed his eyes. “Oh, Kristia. Do you realize what this means?”

I nodded. “Ragnarok has started. It’s inevitable now, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Ull kept his eyes closed. He pulled me to him and buried his face in my hair. “Darling, are you certain you want to go through with this? I can take you to one of the safe houses until all of this is over. We can go back to Asgard Cay, or to the house in Alfheim, or—”

“Ull Myhr, how dare you think so little of me? Our family is not going to face this without me. I’m the only one the Norns haven’t seen coming, remember? I’m the only shot we have at surviving this thing. And I was
not
raised to turn my back on the people I love when they need me.”

“But your bodyguard is not scheduled to begin until next week. You cannot put yourself at risk until I know I can protect you. I shall contact Thor at once to arrange—”

“We have bigger problems. I’m going to do what I can to help.”

“I am still not comfortable with this.”

“Neither am I,” I answered honestly. “Not entirely. But it has to happen. Otherwise we both lose the people we care about. And I can’t allow that—not when there’s something I can do.”

Ull grabbed my hand. His trembling fingers betrayed the fear he held back from his voice. “We will call Olaug when we land. I am certain Odin has sent instructions for us.”

Odin did have instructions: we were to spend the night in London, get as much rest as we could, and head to Ýdalir first thing in the morning. Olaug would brief us from there.

It wasn’t the best night’s sleep I’d ever had. As I tossed and turned, my too-familiar nightmare visited me again. Now my images were much more vivid.

Ull and I stood in the field of lavender, hands clasped to meet our destiny. This time we were surrounded by our family: Sif, fierce in her armor; Thor, Mjölnir clasped firmly in hand; Odin, his great robes billowing in the howling wind; Gunnar and Inga, battle swords drawn at the ready; and Olaug, heartbreakingly frail yet resolute in her desire to protect our home. The wolf and the snake stalked toward us, angry beams shooting from their eyes. As we stood together, awaiting the approaching onslaught, the angry beams turned to sparks and the field burst into flames. The animals pulled back, their mission accomplished. Closer and closer the fire lapped toward us, determined to envelope us in its angry death. But just as it reached the spot where we stood the sky opened up, a great dark hole taking its place. The hole grew larger and larger, opening like a vortex and bearing down on us with the ferocity of a tornado, plunging my nightmare to blackness.

Strong arms held me tight as I bucked against the vision. My shoulders wrenched back and forth as I fought to pull myself out of the dream. I kicked my legs, and let out a shriek so loud a dog on the street began to bark. Only when I realized I was safely ensconced in Ull’s arms, lying in the king-sized bed of our Kensington row house, did the terror start to subside. It gave way to heartbreak as Ull whispered into my ear.

“Shh. Darling, it will be okay.”

“Maybe,” I whispered back.

“Why do you say that? I vowed to protect you, and I have never broken a promise.”

My fingers stroked the stubble along Ull’s jaw. “I know you’ll do everything you can. But I don’t know if I’ll be strong enough to fight this. It’s too powerful.”

“Do you want me to take you back to the Cay? It is protected. Nobody will be able to find us there.”

“You know I can’t do that.” My eyes pleaded with Ull. “I’m not walking away from our family. Ever.”

One corner of Ull’s mouth turned in a sad smile. “How can the thing I love most about you be the very thing that drives me mad?”

I let out a sound that was half laugh, half sob. “I just feel like I haven’t prepared enough. I’m afraid that when it’s time for me to see whatever it is I’m supposed to see, I’m going to let you all down.”

Ull’s eyes softened. His lips brushed my forehead, and he squeezed me against his bare chest. “You could never let me down. How about I tell you another story?”