Thor's Serpents (27 page)

Fen didn’t know what to say to that. Loki, their long-dead ancestor, was just a name and stories to them, but to Helen he had been a person, a parent, someone real. Before he could figure out what to say, Helen turned away and was gone.

“We need to get to Matt,” Fen said. “The wolves are helping… Aunt Helen.” He paused briefly, newly comfortable with calling her his aunt.

“Let’s go,” Laurie said.

Fen was ready to crawl into bed and sleep for days. First things first, though: they needed to go check on Thorsen. He’d obviously beaten the dragon, but in the myths, he died because of that fight.

As if she could read his mind, Laurie said, “He’ll be fine. He has to be.”

All Fen could do was nod. He wasn’t as optimistic as her.

“Matt? Matt?”

Someone was shaking him. He opened his eyes and saw…

Sunshine.

A cat jumped on his chest and peered down at him. Then a face blocked the sun. Reyna, grinning.

“Hey, champion, you done napping yet? I’m sure your fight took a lot more out of you than mine did, but I think you’ve had enough rest.”

Matt lifted his head. Ray stood behind Reyna. On his other side, Hildar was swinging off her horse.

“You’ve slain the serpent,” Hildar said.

“Dragon,” Matt croaked. “It was a dragon.”

“Of course it was,” Reyna said.

She grinned again, a huge one, as bright as the sun, and he stared at her a moment before pushing up, blinking. He lay on the battlefield with the Midgard Serpent in a heap twenty feet away. The beast’s mouth was open, fangs jutting. Seeing those fangs, Matt pulled up his pant leg. The mark was still there, red and swollen, but nothing more.

“You fell into the river,” Hildar explained.

“River?”

“In Hel.”

“Um, sure, but…”

“You swallowed the poison there. Do you remember what I said when you told me?”

He struggled to recall. “You said that was as it should be. So it inoculated me?”

She frowned at the unfamiliar word.

“The poison I swallowed built up a tolerance for this one,” he said.

“Yes. Everything was as it should be.”

He blinked harder and as he did, he realized there were others there—Laurie and Fen, along with Baldwin and Owen. Behind them were Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr.

“Everyone’s… okay?” he said.

Laurie smiled. “Seems that way.”

“We did it.”

Laurie hugged him. She was filthy and smelled like wet dog and smoke, but she was alive. “Yes, apparently we did.”

“So what happened?” Matt asked. “How did you guys—?”

“Later,” Hildar cut in. “Come now. Others wait.”

There were a million and twelve things they would all have to talk about. Some were simply tales of the fights they’d had, but some were questions. They could talk later. Right now, well… right now, they could go home. They’d all survived. They’d stopped the end of the world, and they’d actually
survived
it.

“Are you okay?” she asked Matt.

He nodded. “You?”

“We’re alive, and Fen’s not a traitor.” Laurie bumped his shoulder like she did with Fen.

Matt gave her a small smile. “We did it.”

“Of course we did,” Fen said. “Never a doubt.”

Laurie rolled her eyes, and Matt shook his head. It felt good to be back to normal… or as close to normal as possible surrounded by Valkyries, magic goats, and descendants of dead gods.

“Are we ready to go home?” she asked.

Hildar spoke up. “I’ll see Freya’s daughter home.”

“
And
my brother,” Reyna interjected.

“Later,” Baldwin said. He looked at Owen and asked, “Can I travel with you guys?”

Owen nodded and hesitantly said, “The threat is over, though, so you don’t have to—”

“Friends, dude. We’re friends now, right?”

At that, Owen looked a little stunned. “I suppose we are.”

Laurie grinned at the boys. Somehow it had been easier with monsters than with everyday things. “We’re
all
friends,” she told them, her voice making it very clear that it was an order. “And we will keep in touch,
right
?”

Fen slung an arm around her. “Whatever you want, Laurie.”

“It’s like she’s become even scarier,” Baldwin said in what he might’ve thought was a whisper.

“I like it,” Owen said quietly, earning warning looks from both Matt and Fen.

“I expect e-mail!” Laurie told them all, and then she opened the portal to Blackwell and told her
two
pseudo-brothers, “Let’s go home.”

Matt stepped through the portal. His uncle stood there, holding a bottle of water and a sandwich.

“Alan insisted I bring this,” Uncle Pete said, handing them over.

Matt laughed. He uncapped the water and took a deep drink before saying, “Where is he?”

“Home. This next part’s just for family.”

“He is family.”

Uncle Pete smiled. “Thank you. Next time, though. Eat your sandwich and come on. We don’t want an audience for this.”

Matt said his good-byes to Laurie and Fen. Temporary
good-byes. This wasn’t like an out-of-town championship match where you say you’ll keep in touch and never do. They would. Always. There was no question of that.

After the farewells, Matt walked with his uncle. A figure came running toward him. For a split second, Matt froze, his fingers wrapping around Mjölnir. Then he looked up at the sky. The sunlit sky. No more battles. No more enemies. And with that, he saw who was coming—a teenage boy with red hair and a wide grin.

“Hey, kiddo,” Josh said, racing up to him. “You did it, huh?”

Matt didn’t get a chance to answer before Josh’s arms grabbed him, lifting him in a hug so suddenly that Matt dropped Mjölnir. Onto Josh’s foot.

“Ow!” Josh said, releasing Matt and hopping away, holding his foot. “Big hammer. Heavy hammer.”

Jake strolled over, chuckling. “Doofus.” He reached down for Mjölnir. His fingers wrapped around the handle sticking up. He had to heave to get it off the ground, the tendons in his neck straining as he handed it back. Matt took it easily and Jake smiled. “And that proves who it belongs to, doesn’t it?” He reached out and clapped Matt on the back, leaning in to keep his toes out of hammer range.

“Matt?”

Another voice. A soft one, choked with tears. Matt looked up to see his mother. Her eyes were red, and she looked like
she hadn’t slept in a week. When she saw him, she stopped and teetered, as if she wasn’t sure it was really him.

“Hey, Mom.”

She ran forward then. Ran and threw her arms around him. Jake said, “Watch the hammer!” and she only hugged Matt tighter, saying, “I don’t care. I don’t care at all.”

Matt felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see his father. His mother let go and his father gave him a fierce hug. Then he pulled back and said, “You did it, Matt.”

Matt nodded, mute.

“You did it,” his dad said again. “We knew you would, and if you thought, for one second, we doubted that, then we have a few things to work on.” Another hug. “Now, let’s get you home.”

Laurie stepped through the portal, last as she had to be. She’d had a moment of fear that the portal wouldn’t open, that her god-gifts would vanish with the monsters. She’d had a fear that her mom would be furious, that Fen would be rejected, that Matt’s family wouldn’t want him home, but as she looked around, her fears vanished.

Her father was hugging Fen tightly, and her mother and Jordie were already wrapped around her so tightly that she thought she might wince in pain. Of course, that would mean admitting that she was beaten up a bit.

“You did it,” Dad said, pulling Fen toward them so there was a giant Brekke hug. “I’m so proud of you two!”

“How did you stop the world from ending?” Jordie asked.

Laurie and Fen exchanged a glance.

“There was a battle. We won,” Fen offered after a moment. He was doing his normal Fen-softens-details thing that he’d always done around her mom.

No one spoke, and Laurie realized that she and Fen were both a bit bruised and bleeding in several places.

“We’re okay,” she blurted out as she saw her mom cataloging her injuries. “Aunt Helen was there. We couldn’t have done it without her and the Raiders and the other descendants. Matt fought the serpent. Oh, and the Valkyries and some of the descendants were with him.”

“Yeah, without help, I’m not sure what we would’ve done when the jötnar… I mean…” Fen looked at Laurie and gulped.

Laurie reached and squeezed Fen’s hand, silently telling him that she was okay with his slipup. “There were some monsters, but we won. The world is safe, and we’re home. We’re not injured, just a little scratched up.”

Her parents still said nothing. It was an odd, tense silence,
and her mom looked like she might cry. Then Jordie asked, “Who’s Aunt Helen?”

“Um, Loki’s daughter. She rules Hel, the um, afterworld,” Laurie said quietly.

“Oh.” Her mom blinked. “Right… as in
really
his daughter? How did you even—do I want to know?”

“Probably not,” Fen answered.

Laurie smiled at her mom and added, “We did it, Mom. Everything’s okay now.”

“And I’m so proud of you,” her mother said. “
Both
of you.”

“Let’s go home,” Dad added.

Although Laurie knew he meant all of them, Fen obviously didn’t. He nodded and looked away. “See you later, then,” he said quietly.

“You too, Fen,” Mom said. “You could both use something to eat, and a shower, and a good night’s rest.”

“Shower first. You both stink,” Jordie piped in.

Fen stared at them, surprised that Laurie’s mom and brother seemed happy to see
him
, too. No one but Laurie had ever been proud of him before Ragnarök. He stared at them, half expecting a laugh at his gullibility in believing them. They didn’t laugh, though. They smiled at him.