16. DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

16

DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

A s soon as I lost the fight to the drug, herb, or spell that had been in our most delicious food, the dream came on hard and fast. Dream, but maybe a nightmare. I wasn't sure.

I stood between the two brothers, Havoc on my right, Han on my left. Bebe clung to my shoulders, her belly pressed against the back of my neck, her tail wrapped all the way around.

"Is this…is this real? Are you really with me, or is it just my dream?" I whispered.

We stood on the edge of a grand palace with tall spires that spiked impossibly high into a brilliant blue and white sky. Not white with clouds, white as in streaks of white rippled through the blue, almost like it was an ocean, and not a sky at all .

"Yes," Havoc said. "This is real. Our spirits are here. The question is why are we here?"

"Where is here?" I asked.

"How about why did you go fucking my mate when I was a hundred feet away?" Han snarled.

"What?" Bebe yelped. "I was sleeping by the fire, and you fucked Havoc?"

"We didn't!" I threw my hands in the air.

Han gave me a dirty look. "Oh, you're telling me that was a spontaneous orgasm?"

Bebe sniffed. "If that was a thing, I'd know about it."

"We didn't fuck. And this is Asgard. Home of Odin and the Norse pantheon," Havoc said, tugging me to his side and away from Han. "Someone wants us to see something that is happening here. That would be my guess. Let's leave the rest for now."

As soon as he finished speaking, we moved. No, that wasn't quite right. We didn't move, the world whipped around us like we were strapped to a rollercoaster we couldn't get off.

Up and down, we were yanked forward, over a rainbow bridge that spanned a huge empty space, and then we were slammed to a stop in front of what looked like a business meeting.

The long table was made of a brilliant white stone, and there were chairs all around the edges of it. The people in the chairs were dressed in business attire: suits for the men, business dresses for the women, although they were all different colors.

But despite the high-end clothing, I was not fooled. I mean…the men had beards decked out with beads and bones, half of them wore helmets of some variation, and every person at the table held a weapon.

The women were fierce, their faces painted as if they were going to war.

The man at the head of the table had only one eye, and two ravens sat on the table in front of him, pecking at the bagels and donuts that were spread out. "This is a mess." He slammed the flat of his hand on the table, shaking the entire thing. No one flinched.

"Odin, you aren't telling us anything we don't know," Freya said. She wore her white and blue business suit well; it looked good on her curvy frame.

"Well apparently, I need to say it again! We have no way to know what will happen next! All the prophecies, out the window! All because Tyr couldn't keep it in his pants!"

"I think I've managed to help the situation." Every eye turned to Loki who strolled into the room. "They are on their way to Europe right now. They think that the entrance to the Norns is deep in the old homeland. Which will keep them busy while you figure out said mess. "

A sigh rippled through the crowd of what could only be…relief?

"We can't let Tyr's daughter get to the Norns," Freya said. "We've done what we can to slow her down, that was well done, Loki."

He smiled and bowed at the waist. "I mean, why would you want her to get to the Norns? They only have the answers to what is going on, they could help her heal the tree of life. Suvenia is dying, you all know this."

Odin growled, "You are oversimplifying things. You know what could happen if she gets to the Norns. Do you really want that? She and those two boys of Fenrir's…they are twisting fate itself!"

I stared, my heart and mind racing. Want what? What were we wanting? Or not wanting? Why wouldn't they just spit it the fuck out? Was it not what the journal had in it? Maybe I wouldn't die?

"I don't want Ragnar?k, I've changed my stance on that, as you know," Loki said. "But that isn't what?—"

"It is," Odin snapped. "Stop twisting words, you slimy little shit. You want my throne, that is nothing new. You think I don't know that?"

Loki grinned. "I'll take my leave then, my king. Good luck with…all the things coming."

And just like that, he disappeared.

A man in a suit with a deep green shirt stood up, and at first, I didn't recognize him. He looked so different than the last time I'd seen him. "Cin is a chance for us…a better chance than we've ever had to live without the fear of Ragnar?k hanging over us?—"

"No." Odin seemed to like cutting people off. "She was never seen in the Norns' prophecies, she was never meant to be born, which makes her a danger to us all," he spread his hand wide. "Until she swallowed the sun, her abilities were dulled. But taking on that power opened her up. The further into our world she goes, the more she will gain her own abilities—we are seeing that already. Fate is moving with her. She is changing everyone's destiny! She could end up killing us all. It is better that she dies now. The Woodland King was right about that."

And then, like things couldn't get worse…Sven stepped out from a doorway. He bowed deeply to the table, his bark skin crackling, pieces of it falling to the floor.

"Her death…it will ensure the end of Ragnar?k. It will ensure the safety of all of the realms, and it will heal my mother."

Lies! He lies! Suvenia's voice whispered through me. I didn't doubt her. Sven was a lying sack of wood chips.

Sven spread his hands. "I have set the brothers to hunting her together, to save us all. I thought Havoc could do it on his own, but his bond to her is too strong. He is fighting me far too much. Han was always more eager to kill. Together, they will be able to catch her and end her."

His lies spewed out of him like leaking sap. Because that is not what the tree spirit at the tree of life had said and I knew in my gut that she'd been speaking the truth.

Although the brothers in question were with me, I suppressed a shiver of fear that I was standing in the middle of a giant fucking trap.

Lies and half-truths swirled around me, but I would figure this out. There was no other choice.

What I didn't understand was why Sven wanted me dead. Something had changed from when I'd first met him. Either it was the fact that I carried the sun, or it was the fact that I was now related to the Norse pantheon. It was possible that he hadn't realized my connection at first.

That felt like the truth. I hadn't been a player, not even on his board when he'd first met me. I bet I'd really fucked up whatever plans he'd had.

"What does he gain, if I die?" I said quietly.

Sven tipped his head, as if he'd heard me. Slowly, he turned to face me, and the sorrow I'd seen in his eyes when he'd sent me running was no longer there.

"I do believe…she is here, watching us. Learning of our plans like the spy she is. She is not one of us."

Havoc and Han grabbed me at the same time, their fingers digging in hard to my upper arms, and they yanked the three of us away from the scene. We ran, side by side, as the realm seemed to come apart behind us. Chunks of earth flew, as if bombs had been set off at our feet, spears and arrows shot toward us, a boom of thunder shook the air.

There was a tug on the center of my body, right at my belly button, and then I was alone, hurtling through what could only be a dream state by the way I floated, and I finally jerked awake.

I gasped as I sat up, the gurgle of the river and the echo of footsteps were what I locked on. We weren't alone. My leg was three-quarters healed, but I barely gave the pain a thought as I shot to my feet and yanked on my remaining clothes.

Havoc was sound asleep at my feet, and Han…where was Han? Still in the forest? Bebe was curled by the fire, passed out.

"What the hell kind of fucked up is that?" I whispered the question, not sure if I was hearing the footsteps, or not. Maybe it was Han?

"That, Young one, is the power of a liar. A liar with magic is perhaps the most dangerous creature that our world has ever seen."

I spun, stumbled, and found myself staring up into the face of a man who carried both Han and Havoc's features. The jaw line of Han, the eyes of Havoc, a body that leaned more toward Havoc with the breadth of his shoulders .

All that was fine and dandy, but it was the axe he held at his side that had my attention. It was black and rusted and looked like it had pitting from all the blood it had seen.

"You're here to kill me, aren't you?"