Dead Silence (22 page)

"What I want is for you to butt out of my business." His cold tone didn't match his cheerful smile.

I raised an eyebrow and folded my arms, my fingers still holding the steel container carefully tucked away so he wouldn't see it. "Why? Am I making things difficult for you?"

"Yes. And it's time you stopped."

"And what if I don't?" I asked, watching him closely as he strode toward me.

"Well, then. If you don't there are two people that wouldn't be very . . . alive." Now his eyes matched his grin, cheerfully happy, but not.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked, my voice rising. Loki seemed to be implying that he'd hurt the people I cared about, and right now that implication was making me feel a little lightheaded.

"It means this," said the god as he reached out and grasped my upper arm, his fingers far from gentle on my flesh.

Immediately, the air around us began to shimmer and the snow-covered valley disappeared, quickly replaced with the image of a small weather-board house, with rose bushes around the front porch and a bicycle abandoned on the lawn.

Ms Custer's house in Craven.

I gasped, my eyes fixed on my surroundings, my chest tightening so much I found it hard to breathe. "No," I whispered.

"Sorry about that, Bryn. It's just that you're becoming a bit of a thorn in my side. Every plan I make, you end up spoiling it in some way. So, it's time for you to stop. If you want those women to live then I suggest you back off."

"Those women?" I frowned. "What women?"

Loki sighed, as if just talking to me tired him too much. Then zoomed us forward until we floated through the front door and into the kitchen. The sensation of passing through walls made me feel slightly sick and mostly disoriented, but I forced myself to shrug off the discomfort.

"I thought it best to have them both in one place. Easier to guard, you understand." I barely heard Loki as I stared at the two woman who sat at the wooden kitchen table, moonlight bathing them as they stared silently into their cups. One dark-skinned and plump, the other thin and pale. Ms Custer and a woman I barely recognized.

I knew her, of course. But age had sagged the lines of her face, eaten away at the fullness of her figure.

The woman was my mother.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

My chest hurt as I watched the pair of women who sat silently sipping at their cups. The cookies in their saucers remained untouched and it seemed even conversation no longer occupied their time. It occurred to me that they would have talked a lot, considering who they both were to me, and a large part of me wanted to know what she'd had to say, what she thought of me now, the freak she'd abandoned, not once, but twice.

Once when she'd left me at the age of five, to be brought up by an older man who had mastered the art of eccentric forgetfulness. The second when he'd died and the trust had asked if she'd take me in instead of allowing me to end up in the foster system. Her critical choice had given me that unstable, unhealthy environment, and for years I'd longed for some semblance of the family I'd had with my father. Now, seeing her right there, in front of me, I wasn't sure how I felt about her anymore.

And yet, the knowledge that Loki held her hostage made my fingers ball into fists of fury. "What are you going to do to them?" I asked, my voice ice cold.

"Well, nothing. If you cooperate." He still wore that annoyingly cheery smile, and I was convinced he was insane.

"What is it you expect me to do?" I asked watching his face, wary of what he might do now that he had me in this weird limbo world.

"Leave matters alone. This isn't your fight, Bryn. You belong in Midgard, not fighting for the Aesir."

"Have you seen Midgard lately?" I snapped, raising an eyebrow.

Loki didn't reply, just shook his head sadly.

I glared at him. "By the way. How did you get into Asgard?" I was curious and hoped he'd tell me his secret. He'd managed to gain entry to Asgard even when Thor and Fen had conjured magic to keep him out. "How did you get past the wards?"

Loki grinned, then waved away my question. "Those wards are nothing to me. Do you have any idea how long I've had Vanya by my side? That elf has power beyond belief. She's helped me all this time."

Although shocked to know who had been helping Loki, I wasn't surprised since we'd save Vanya from Loki not long ago. Looks like we'd walked right into the Trickster's trap by saving the elf ancient from his clutches. It now made a little bit of sense. Except for one thing.

I shook my head. "I don't understand why Vanya and Nita didn't just leave. What else did you have against them?"

Loki laughed and the sound echoed around us so loudly I wondered how the two women remained oblivious of us. "I did what I'm doing now. Hostages are powerful things. People will do anything for those they love."

"Who do you have?" I asked. If he still held this hostage, Vanya and Nita in Asgard were a bomb waiting to detonate.

Loki pursed his lips. "Nita has a half-human child. Unfortunately, the poor thing has no power or he would have gotten away by now." Loki looked very happy with himself and right now, despite the almost overwhelming urge to punch him, I could understand his satisfaction.

"Why are you doing this Loki? What do you expect to gain from all the havoc you're creating?"

Loki shrugged. "It's just a game, really. And a way to ensure that the forces of the Aesir fail in Ragnarok."

"You've done pretty well to achieve that goal," I said, folding my arms. I was still waiting to figure out what Loki wanted from me in exchange for the safety of both my mothers.

He tugged my arm and took a few steps, and we were back on the clifftop. Loki let go of my arm and began to pace back and forth in front of me.

After a few tense moments, the god cleared his throat. "I don't think I have. You see, I succeeded in getting Odin out of the way but you, Bryn, are causing me too many problems. You need to be removed from the equation."

"Why don't you just kill me, then? Instead of wasting time blackmailing me?" I snapped, glaring at him. At that moment I wished for telepathy so I could tell the warriors back in the palace that I needed their help. If I spent too long out here then Fen would come looking, but there was no way to tell anyone that Loki was here in Asgard right now. "How did you bypass the wards?"

He lifted his face to me, and his expression one of unadulterated excitement. "It was a brilliant thing. Vanya taught me how to manipulate water. To use it as a conduit to project myself."

"So this is just a projection?" I asked dryly, pointing a finger at his chest.

"Nope. Well . . . yes. Kind of. It's a physical projection. It's alive though so you can hurt it if you try, but it won't kill me."

"So all this time you've been wreaking havoc in Midgard while walking the halls of Asgard, listening to everything we said?"

"Sort of. I can only do one thing at a time so when I project I have to concentrate really hard. So it's not entirely like being in two places at once."

This was interesting. Filing that bit of information away, I asked, "So, I'll ask again. What do you want from me?"

"I want you to back off. Stay away from my fight with the Aesir. I have plans for the final showdown. It will happen my way, in a place of my own choosing."

"What do you mean?" I frowned. "The battle was always meant to be held on the Vigrid Plains."

Loki shook his head, a sneaky smirk playing at his lips. "Nothing is cast in stone my dear. Surely you, of all people, can understand that. It will come to pass only as I have planned it. So I really need you to stop messing with my plans." He tilted his head and gave me a sneaky smile. "And maybe after it's all over, you and I can do some business together."

Snowball's chance in hell of that happening, but I didn't let my feelings filter through to my expression.

Instead, I gave a short nod. "And my family?"

"I'll keep them safe until this is all over. They are important to me, so rest assured nobody will harm them." Then he smiled, his lips lifting to reveal his teeth in a slight smirk. "Unless, of course, you decide to play hero."

"Fine," I said, keeping my spine straight.

Loki held out his hand, his eyes bright with glee. "What do you Midgardians say? Shake on it?" He nodded at his hand and I knew I had little choice but to take it. Any refusal could be seen to imply I wasn't in agreement and would endanger my family. The god was mercurial enough to decide to harm them if I refused one of his requests.

Taking a step toward him, I grasped his outstretched palm. He shook my hand, his grip hard and almost threatening.

When he finally released my hand I let out my breath, loosened tight muscles. I hadn't even realized I'd been holding my breath all this while, nor had I registered how tense I'd become in his presence.

And then the snow began to spin and Loki's form began to disintegrate. He lifted his forefinger to his temple in a mock salute then vanished in the flurry of spinning white snowflakes.

A second later, the snow simply sank, floating to the ground slowly, as if nothing untoward had happened in the preceding seconds.

And then I was alone with the snow, disappointed that this place of peace had been poisoned by Loki's intrusion. It was no longer a place I'd come to for solitude and reflection.

Loki had destroyed that too.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

I flew back to the palace, my heart a jagged rock in my chest. I kept seeing Ms Custer's face floating in front of me. But what felt even more strange was the appearance of my mother's face, overlapping my foster mom's. What would she be thinking, being taken to Ms Custer's house? What would she have thought when she'd been introduced to my foster mother, when she'd known Ms Custer had cared for me, had mothered me where she'd refused to.

And I knew my foster mother enough to know she'd had given my mother a piece of her mind in her own unique way. Ms Custer wasn't a vindictive person but she had an unfailing sense of right and wrong, something she was both passionate and vocal about.

I couldn't summon even an ounce of pity for her.

A bubble of laughter rose to the surface of the polluted pool that was my emotional state, and I tamped it down, wondering if Loki's insanity was rubbing off on me. I landed before the palace, trying not to see too much of the destruction as I entered the building and hurried along the corridors until I reached Frigga's chambers.

Her door was open and Thor and his brother Vidarr were seated on the sofa, heads together as they remained in deep discussion. Frigga sat quietly, barely paying attention to the brothers as she stared off into nothing.

The room looked a little better, the broken column and puddle of curtains removed, and all the rubble and dust having been swept away.

Still, it looked damaged enough to be a reminder that our world was in total upheaval.

They all looked up as I entered the room and headed for the sofas.

"We have a problem," I said finding my voice sounded a little stilted and strange.

"What's wrong Brynhildr?" asked Frigga, shifting in her seat to face me.

"I just had some face-time with Loki. I went up to the Hollow and he appeared in front of me."

"What do mean 'appeared'?" asked Vidarr, his critical tone confirming I was again making a bad impression on him. I let it slide, having known since I'd first met him that he wasn't one of my admirers. He wasn't someone I cared to waste time convincing of my worth either.

I forced my tight shoulders to relax as I answered. "He explained how he'd been able to enter Asgard. The wards have worked to keep him out, but whatever spells were said, they didn't cover projection."

"So he's not really here?" asked Frigga, a frown twisting her smooth brow. Today her pale skin seemed starker than usual against the frame of her black hair, a touch of fatigue and weariness showing through her regal, motherly exterior.

"Not physically. He's learned how to control the elements and he uses water to travel to Asgard, and project a form of himself that is solid enough to kill someone, but magical enough that his real self isn't harmed even if his projected self is injured."

"But Loki has never been able to do this. What makes you think he is able to perform such magic now?" asked Vidarr, a cynical bite to the doubt in his tone.

"Because he told me that's what he's been doing. And he told me who taught him to perform such magic," I answered, for the first time allowing my voice to reveal my irritation with Vidarr. He may be Odin's son but he was not embracing me as his sister. And nothing in his behavior implied that he ever would. I moved my gaze from the annoying Vidarr and looked at Frigga. "Loki said that Vanya has been teaching him the magic."

"Vanya?" asked Thor, rising to his feet. "But she's been helping us for almost every moment since she arrived."

"Whatever she's doing here in Asgard, we need to be aware that both Vanya and Nita are being blackmailed. Loki has abducted Nita's son and is keeping him hostage, ensuring that both Nita and her mother will do whatever Loki tells them to. Nita helped me escape because Loki wanted her to. And I am beginning to wonder if coming across those plans was just another one of Loki's little games."