5. MAGIC HAVOC

5

MAGIC HAVOC

B ebe glared at me from her spot inside Richard's shirt as we dangled from the bare bones of the plane. "I told you this was a terrible idea, but would you listen, no—ooooooooo!"

She screeched as we flowed forward and the Valkyries holding us up dove off the cliff edge, dragging us along behind them. I yanked my knees to my chest and even then, the soles of my feet caught the edge of the cliff. My belly lurched firmly up into the back of my throat, and I held my breath as we free fell toward the bottom of the valley.

If it had been a rollercoaster, or maybe even a zipline, I would have enjoyed it. But as it was neither of those, with no safety checks other than our measly harnesses, terror flooded me, and I grit my teeth against the sounds that worked their way up my throat .

Death itself wasn't the issue. It's what would happen to the world, to everyone left behind if I kicked it. We still didn't know the answer to that little question.

Perhaps what scared me more was what if I fell, and I didn't die? What if I fell and because of whatever glitch I had going on, I just…was aware of every broken bone, every injury that was sure to happen if I smashed to the bottom of some valley?

Not good.

We dipped left and right, suddenly weightless as the Valkyries dropped in a straight dive.

Fuck it. I let out a scream, unable to keep it back. To be fair, we were all howling, but the wind whipped our screams away from us as we fell, the treetops coming closer and closer until I could see individual leaves on branches in stark detail. I yanked my knees up again as the very tops of the trees kissed the soles of my boots.

As fast as we'd dropped, we started to level out and the Valkyries were laughing at us. "Fun, right?"

They were giving us thumbs up as we clutched our straps. I had no idea what my face looked like, but by the continued laughter, I realized that they'd done the whole drop and dive on purpose.

For fun.

To see if we could handle it.

"Don't argue with them," I said as I saw Ship's face turn a distinct shade of swampy green, and his mouth opened. "Great fun, thanks!" I gave them both thumbs up, though that meant letting go of my harness for a moment. I didn't feel bad about grabbing the harness as fast as I had let it go.

My brother shot me a glare. I didn't care. This was our way to avoid Havoc hunting me, to avoid Han hunting me, and a way to get to Alaska quickly without worrying about humans and all their damn rules. The winged ladies were helping us. Eir was helping us.

We were safe, for a little while. That's what I told myself over and over as the wind tore through my hair, as the cold bit at my skin.

The rush of wind around us made talking impossible. From what I could see, Bebe's eyes were closed, and I hoped she was sleeping through this. At least the time would pass quickly for her.

Whatever sleep I might have had, was not going to happen. Which left my mind plenty of time to race along.

What was I supposed to do with the knowledge that the tree goddess had given me? Daughter of Tyr? I couldn't remember what his designation in the Norse pantheon was. I only knew bits and pieces of that mythology. Though I supposed I couldn't call it a myth anymore. Not really. It was a reality that I had found myself in .

This new twist of reality was…unknown to me. But that didn't mean I couldn't figure it out.

I made a list in my head. The first thing I needed to do when we got to my home was to dig out everything I had on the Norse history. Try to see who the major players were, try to see just how I might find a way around the whole needing to die, triggering Ragnar?k business. I mean, a legacy left behind is one thing, but being the person responsible for the destruction of all nine realms? That didn't sound like something I wanted to be known for.

There were several books on Norse mythology—reality, whatever—but I wondered if Grant might not have something in storage that gave more information than the usual run of the mill books. Being not only a vampire, but a collector of sorts, he kept special and rare editions at the back of the bookstore. An area that really was just for Grant. I hadn't bothered with it as most of it was written in other languages that I didn't know. Some of them long dead.

"I wonder if Theodore will talk to him?" I muttered the question to myself, knowing that no one else would hear me.

I ducked my head against the wind, wishing that Jor had stayed with us. He at least had a direct knowledge of the challenges I faced.

Unless I could reach out to someone else and get some direction? I closed my eyes and tried to think about what Tyr had looked like. Short beard, dark eyes and dark hair, shaved side of his head. A few beads woven into the longer strands.

I blew out a breath and searched through the bonds that I had to my few people. I carefully sifted through them until I found the slightest, smallest twinge of something.

The thinnest sliver of a bond was there between Tyr and me. Based solely on blood, and that one interaction, if I hadn't been searching for it, I wouldn't have seen it.

I pushed some of my energy into it, and it responded immediately.

With my eyes closed, I was seeing the underwater cave where I'd first met him.

He was sitting on the stump that Ship and I had dragged in so many years before. "Tyr?"

"That is a good trick." He nodded at me. "How did you do it?"

"Shifter bonds," I said. "I wasn't sure it would do anything but…"

He smiled. "But here we are."

I didn't wait for pleasantries. "I don't know what the fuck is happening. Or what I'm doing. Or…or anything! You said you could help me, so help me."

He leaned his elbows on his knees. "Eir has helped you. She pointed out that the vampire's hold on his area will help hide you? "

"Yes, she told me that."

"Good." He smiled and leaned back. And said nothing more.

"You're shitting me. That's it?"

He laughed and stood. "You…you don't have a place in our prophecies, Sunshine. Everything you've done is seemingly impossible. Guiding you is not something I can do. I can offer support, like giving you the spear. Making sure Eir told you what you needed to know about the vampire."

I refused to take that ‘sorry that's all I can do' bullshit. "Tell me about Sven. Tell me why the fuck you'd let Juniper tie herself to the tree of life."

He grimaced and paced in front of me. "Sven…I don't know why he wants you dead, I don't know how that benefits him. But it is obvious that he sees something in you that he fears. And he has put all of his power into compelling Havoc."

I frowned. "Han is no longer spelled to kill me?"

"As far as I know, he is free of the spell."

My frown deepened and I fought the urge to pace with him. "Why wouldn't Sven send them both after me?"

"Maybe he thinks that Han will still want to kill you without the spell," Tyr said. "It wouldn't surprise me."

I grimaced. "One spelled, one not. Both hunting me. Maybe. "

"Maybe."

Not a lot of help there. "Tell me about Juniper."

"That is more complicated." He sat back down.

"Try me."

"I…I read a very old prophecy. A single line on a page that had been torn out of a book and hidden in another. It led me to your mother. I believed that she would be the answer to stopping Ragnar?k."

I snorted. "How's that prediction feeling now?"

He smiled. "I believe that the prophecy was about you. No one else agrees with me, but I…I know I am right."

"Tell me the prophecy."

The bond between me and Havoc twanged, like someone had plucked at a guitar string attached to me. My eyes flew open, the scene with my father gone.

Fuck, what was Havoc up to? Was he trying to find me?

A shiver ran through my body, from the nape of my neck to my tailbone, and I gasped as he tugged on the bond to me, harder, insistent.

Demanding.

Mine.

I wanted to be able to deny him. Oh, how I wanted to deny him. But he was difficult to ignore with my body already singing his damn praises.

And my heart whispering that he'd said that one word. Even if it was just in his head, he'd said it. Our minds lie far less than our lips.

I swallowed hard as Havoc's demand came at me again. Not once, not twice. Over and over, as he dragged his power over my body the same way he'd slid his hands and mouth over my skin.

It was a good thing Bebe had abandoned me for Richard because I wasn't sure I wasn't going to have an issue here with what Havoc was doing to me.

By issue, I clearly mean having an orgasm mid-flight.

"Fuck me." I lolled my head forward, struggling to breathe through the feel of him against me. What was he doing this for? I didn't understand why he would play with me this way. Was it just to show me he could? It flickered through my mind that it might be as simple as making me hold still while he hunted for me. Because this…thing…that he was doing to me, it was wrecking my ability to do anything but feel.

My heart beat in time with the thrum that was a steady beat between my legs, washing over me in waves, pushing and tugging me toward an orgasm. If I hadn't been strapped into the mock airplane, I would not have been walking. I'd have been flat on my back, waiting for him in real time, writhing under this phantom touch.

That was it. He was using our connection, his ability to make me lose my mind, to hold me still. I groaned, wanting to find a release, knowing that I could do no such thing, strung up as I was.

My legs went tight, muscles spasming, with each trail of his invisible touch.

Worse or maybe better? I felt his mouth travelling up my inner thigh, lazy, moving in circles, all the way to my core where he latched his mouth and sucked at me so hard, that I opened my eyes fully expecting to see him there, his mouth on my skin, dark eyes locked on mine. But the space between my legs was empty, no matter what I was feeling.

"Havoc." I groaned his name, the sound whipped away by the wind and the whoosh of wings above us. I should have told him to stop, because this couldn't be. None of it could be between us. And I knew that no matter how far gone he was in the throes of whatever spell had him, that he would stop if I told him to stop.

But I didn't.

Nope, I wasn't that much of a saint and if this was going the way I thought it was going, I was not going to miss out. I gripped the harness, digging my nails into the material, as I tried to get my breathing under control. Not that anyone else was going to notice me—everyone else was hanging on for dear life too.

Havoc's invisible hands gripped at me, invisible and yet there as surely as I clung to the harness, his fingers against my thighs, his mouth against my clit, tongue laying into me with a slow, definitive pressure that had me struggling to breathe.

"You are mine, Goldie. There is nowhere you can run that I can't find you."

Again, I felt his mouth against my core, lapping at my center, hot and wet. I jerked under his touch, gasped as he drew his tongue over me, again and again, circling around my core.

Whatever magic it was, I didn't want it to stop.

I might have moaned his name again, probably said something like ‘don't stop' but I could barely think past the rippling of sensations. The draw toward a crest of pleasure that I'd never found with anyone else.

Nothing compared to him.

Mine.

And I hated myself more than a little for it. Because right now, he was the bad guy, no matter that there had been moments of light, where I trusted him. No matter what I saw in his head when he looked at me.

He ordered me to run—he knew what he was capable of and at least a portion of him understood that he had been spelled to hunt me. Sven had laid a spell on him, to force him to kill me, and I had no doubt he'd do just that if he caught me.

A tiny voice circled around my heart and tried to point out that he wouldn't have told me to run if he didn't want me to live. I knew that. It didn't change the truth .

If he caught me, I was dead.

He sucked hard on my clit, his magic plucking at every sensitive part of my body and it took all I had to clamp down on the scream that built up inside of me alongside the orgasm.

I couldn't stop the way my body bucked as release rocketed through me, jerking on the straps. Did I make the plane tilt? No fucking idea. My world imploded, the weight of his body on mine, his skin pressed hard to my own.

Impossible? Sure. But I still felt it. Still felt Havoc's tongue doing lazy circles, a growl slipping through him and into me. A demand inside of it. A command of obedience.

Stay. Stay where you are, Goldie.

I didn't know how long it took for me to come down from the aftershocks of the orgasm. I stared into nothing as I tried to get my breathing under control, his alpha command so strong that if I'd been on my feet somewhere I wouldn't have moved. I wouldn't have so much as budged an inch.

But I wasn't on the ground. I was flying through the air with someone else moving me along.

By the time I was able to throw off the compulsion, at least an hour had passed. Sweat had dried down the sides of my face, and the sweat on my back had cooled, leaving me chilly in the high air currents.

Gods above .

I pressed a shaking hand to the side of my face.

What if he pulled that shit when I was on foot? I was absolutely screwed.

Sure, I'd die with a smile on my face but…I wasn't ready to die. Not even like that.

The plane seemed to shift to the left, and then our flight was dropping lower. A soft lethargy flowed over me, and I tried to fight it. I really did, because it wasn't just the after effect of an orgasm. It was the command that he'd sent into me. Stay .

With a growl I fought my way from the sleep that tugged at me. He'd mouth fucked me into oblivion, using it to make me stay so he could find me, making sure I didn't go too far.

The more the lethargy tugged at me, the more I was sure of it.

"Fucker." I sat up straight and forced myself to take long deep breaths of the crisp air. I would not go to sleep. Even here, where in theory, I could just go to sleep and still be safe.

He wouldn't find me here. But it was the principle. I was a damn alpha female, I did not bow to him, I did not bow to anyone.

An hour slid by, and then another. I didn't know how fast we were going, or how far we'd come, but the ground below us was starting to look familiar. The trees thinner, the terrain harder. Alaska was not for pussies, it chewed them up and spit them the fuck out .

This place was strong and wild, full of beauty and danger that you would find nowhere else in the world. I loved it.

I was home.

On a quick glance upward, the Valkyries didn't seem to be showing any sign of pooping out. Every time I looked up at them, they were flying in the same formation, facing forward, not an ounce of fatigue showing.

Shipley, Berek and Claire were all asleep as far as I could see. Richard was awake, and at this distance I could see his mouth moving as he talked to Bebe.

I sighed and set to lifting my knees to my chest, then lowering them slowly. The burn of my muscles was something to take my mind off the heat that had been between my legs. Even hours later, just thinking about it made me tingle all over and tugged on that bond between us.

"Fucker," I grumbled, yes, for the second time. Havoc was a fucker, and he'd…he'd fucked me in more ways than one. I could feel the connection to him, stronger than the one I had to Han, and it was humming along, as if I wanted it there.

I didn't. Of course I didn't.

Yet, my weak words were just that—as weak as my desire to get rid of him.

Because somewhere in the moments between fighting and fucking, and trying to survive, escaping him and being caught…something had happened between us.

Something more than possession. More than lust.

I ran a hand over my face, wishing for a distraction.

I didn't want to acknowledge that Havoc meant more to me than just a tumble in the sack now…now that he was bound to kill me.

"Fuck my life," I whispered.

A Valkyrie's voice echoed through the air, as if coming over an intercom speaker in an airplane.

"Passengers, please be advised we will need to take evasive maneuvers. Make sure your tray tables and seats are in an upright position, and your seatbelts are tight. We are expecting excessive turbulence."

Well. There was my distraction I was so desperate for.