Chapter 12 | Grim

Chapter 12

Grim

WE HAD TO WAIT FOR nightfall to make our move. I was champing at the bit to get out of Vikingrune to find my little sneak. Arne had given us the ammunition we needed. Though I didn't trust him—and clearly Sven didn't either—he had proven himself useful enough.

Still, he wouldn't be joining us on our journey.

My rage had gotten the better of me in his longhouse. I'd had no intention of playing good cop, bad cop. Turned out both Sven and I were bad cops, as Sven's sister pointed out, and Arne got the worst of it.

He was lucky we left him in one piece, after telling us what he'd done to Ravinica. How must she feel, lost and trapped by enemies from a different realm. And to know the cause of it was the very first man she met coming here on the Gray Wraith , Arne Gornhodr.

The fucking spineless worm.

Once we returned with Ravinica—and we would return with her, else we'd die trying to retrieve her—I looked forward to seeing what she had in store for the iceshaper.

I hoped she was planning her revenge, even now.

It was surprising she'd left him alive at all, given what I knew about Ravinica. Her background was a history of tribulations—disgraced by her villagers, beaten by her stepfather, rising above it all and still not being enough for her damned people.

Then again, she was not spiteful. That was what Ravinica did: She rose above it all. It was partly what made her so damned attractive and alluring. Besides her beauty and her skill in combat, she let things roll off her back.

I relished the idea of getting deeper into her thoughts, into her psyche, to know what made her tick. To learn what she really felt about these people who had wronged her and her family name.

And it was all because of her fucking ears.

Ridiculous, if you asked me.

"Bear, are you listening to me?" Sven asked, smacking my shoulder.

I grunted and stared down at the smaller man. Not small, by any means—ripped with muscles across his bare chest and arms—but everyone was small compared to me.

"No, wolf, I'm not," I replied.

I was shocked my tenuous alliance with the pack leader was going as well as it was. The fact we hadn't ripped each other's heads off yet was a testament to what we would do for Ravinica Linmyrr.

She was my silver-haired beacon. I would toss aside all grievances and petty squabbles if it meant getting her back. And I couldn't deny Sven's tracking abilities, even better than my own. If anyone was going to find her, it was the wolf shifter, which meant I had to begrudgingly follow his lead. Even if he was an aggravating asshole.

I didn't know Sven's motivations. Did he feel the same draw for Ravinica that Magnus and I seemed to share? If his intent was to bully or torment her once she returned, our alliance would crumble quickly. I would kill him and his kin once and for all. I'd already decided it.

If, by chance, his intentions were good . . . then I would reconsider and gauge my actions based on what he did.

The Torfens had always been enemies of mine. My fathers Koll and Kerr had instilled their fear and hatred of the wolf shifter pack when I was a cub. Even as a child, they held undue power within the paranormal community, and I felt they were partly responsible for the deaths of my fathers. Indirectly, at least, because the terror and hatred they imprinted on the minds of normal humans.

"Stop getting lost in thought and listen to me," Sven growled, more annoyed this time.

"It's difficult," I said. "Your voice is grating."

"Fuck you, bear. My voice is like honey."

"Honey that's soured and turned poisonous, perhaps."

We stood together in the Torfen family longhouse. His three siblings were out, and I sat on the edge of a cot, watching him pace from one side of the room to the other.

"Dammit," he said with a scowl, staring out a window at the sinking sun. "When the hell will it be sundown?"

"I share your impatience," I muttered. It was a stupid question. He knew exactly when it would be sundown, because his powers were strengthened at night, like all shifters. During a full moon most of all.

"You don't look like it, stoic bastard," he seethed.

My big shoulders lifted. "I'm calmer than you are, Sven."

"Lazier, I think."

I stood from the cot. "Are we going to have problems before we even make it outside the academy walls?"

He squared up to me, tilting his chin while thrusting a finger at my chest. "I'm not the one who lost control and slammed our captive against a wall, almost ruining everything."

"You're right," I admitted. "You're just the one who beat him senseless."

Now it was his turn to shrug. "It worked, didn't it?"

We stared at each other for a moment longer, eyes narrowing, and then he turned away.

I, too, felt no desire to battle the wolf shifter. Not now, with so much on the line.

But I did have a desire to know his motives. So, as he turned away to stare incessantly at the sun, I asked, "You still haven't answered why you're doing this, wolf. Why you want to rescue Ravinica."

"Yes I have. I told you, it's because she's the only one keeping me from tearing your throat out."

I snorted. "Not good enough. We've done fine so far, without her. As fine as could be expected between a wolf and bear."

He let out a harrumph, palming strands of hair fallen over his forehead, slicking it back over his scalp. With a dark glare, he said, "My reasons are my own, bear. I like you more when you're silent."

When he turned away this time, I hid a small smile. The man was incorrigible and vexing, yet his barbs had a bit of humor to them—something I never expected a Torfen to have.

"Just know," I said, "if you try to harm—"

"A silver hair on her body, you'll stomp my heart through the back of my chest and blood eagle me. Yeah, yeah, I know. You've said it all before." He rolled his wrist at me, annoyed.

I let out a sound of acknowledgement. "Good. So long as we're on the same page." I crossed my arms over my chest. "Now, did you want to go over the plan again?"

"Not without the tattooed asshole. We need his abilities. Where is—"

A knock came at the door.

I waltzed over and opened it before Sven could. We were in his house, so it was disrespectful to allow guests into his abode, but my respect wasn't very high for the wolf shifter.

Magnus stood in the doorway, breathing heavily. He looked winded, pale, like shit.

"Speak of the devil," Sven grunted behind me. "Literally."

"Gods," I said, "you look worse than when you left us, Feldraug. What happened?"

He flapped a hand at me and pushed off the frame of the door to stand straight. "Forget about it. I'm here, aren't I?"

I frowned at him, examining his face, the swirl of tattoos along his neck poking up from his longcoat.

"I went to Arne's quarters," Magnus said, pushing past me into the longhouse. "He was gone." Throwing up his arms, he said, "Did neither of you think to tail him after interrogating him?"

"We left him in a heap, broken and battered," Sven said. "What more do you want from us? To kill him? We decided that's Ravinica's job."

Magnus raised a brow, hearing this for the first time. "He iced his bindings and got out. He's in the wind now."

Sven snorted. "Who cares? He's useless."

"Shit," I muttered, realizing what Magnus was saying. "He could raise alarms. Magnus is right. We fucked up."

"Exactly." Magnus nodded firmly.

Sven snarled and headed for a table to pick up a sword and shield. "Then we'd better get moving. No time to wait for sundown." He wagged his fingers at Magnus. "You look like ass, dead man. Can you still make yourself useful and cast your little shadows?"

Magnus tensed at the condescending way he spoke about the draug, waggling his fingers before strapping on his sword and shield. "Don't worry about me, Torfen. I'll be expecting an apology when those little shadows save your sorry ass."

Security at Vikingrune Academy had gotten tighter over the past weeks. There were more Huscarls marching around campus since the deaths of Astrid Dahlmyrr and Corta Gamdeen.

The south and western gates had been closed off for exiting and entering.

Sven was offended by it, saying, "How in Hel are they going to keep shifters from coming and going? Do they expect us to fuck everything that moves on campus during full moons?"

I chuckled. Sven was offended by everything, though he made a good point. It was not a great idea to approach a shifter in heat during the full moon . . . and with so many warm bodies around? It could spell disaster.

Still, we had to work with what we had. Campus closing up, essentially enacting martial law, meant Arne was telling the truth about the elves being on Midgard. At least in my mind it did.

Gothi Sigmund would not show weakness and fear over two student deaths by locking the place down, though that was the excuse he used as a mask. No, he was scared of something else, outside the walls. I was sure of it.

Thanks to Magnus, we didn't need to scale the walls or divert the guards' attention at the gates with shadow apparitions. Instead, we just followed him to Mimir Tomes, of all places.

There, we watched for an hour to measure the guards' routes. When we were in the clear, we staked out and climbed the pillars to the second level.

Sven and I struggled to follow the quicker draug who, despite being in sorry condition, outpaced us while climbing.

Almost like he'd done this before, many times.

I found that curious. Perhaps I need to learn more about this man. The tattoos, the scars, the secrets. What do they mean?

Ravinica would know. If she had gotten closer with anyone than me during her time at Vikingrune, it was arguably with Magnus Feldraug. Surprising, that, considering everyone else in the academy thinks he's a damn sociopath.

I was starting to have second opinions on that.

Once we smashed in a window and stole into the library, Magnus brought us from the second level down the stairs to the first.

When we reached the base of the stairs, a circle of yellow lantern light shone around the corner of a hallway.

We skittered to the side, hiding in shadows. When the guard holding the lantern passed, we crept in the opposite direction.

All three of us were worthy sneakers. It wasn't because of Hersir Kelvar's Stealth & Interrogation class. For Sven and I, skulking came by necessity for hunting. For Magnus, well, he was generally a quiet man, and I suspected he had a rune casting that muffled his footfalls.

We came to a closet and Magnus said, "Don't tell anyone I showed you this."

Busting the door open with his shoulder—making way too much noise and making me reconsider everything I had just thought about the man—we hurried inside the supply room before Huscarls could storm after us.

He lifted a grate inside, gesturing Sven and I with a sweeping hand, and said, "Hurry up, assholes."

The three of us descended into darkness. Sven and I had no idea where Magnus was leading us, but as long as it was closer to Ravinica, we didn't care.

We would put our trust in the dead man. For now.

A couple hours later, we were outside at the base of Academy Hill. The path Magnus had shown us through the underground tunnels had carved straight through the mountain.

I was surprised Magnus knew his way around the tunnels. Again, like he'd been here before. A couple times he got turned around and lost, but quickly recovered.

When we stepped out of the cave mouth, it was nighttime. The air was brisk, cold, even in the valley beneath Academy Hill. Beyond, in Helgas Wood, I could make out the fires and lights of Isleton.

Our trio made our way into town, heads on a swivel.

"Where to?" Sven asked. "I don't like it here."

People moseyed all around, closing up their shops, while the pubs were starting to get busy. I agreed with Sven—it was uncomfortable being in town as students, getting leery eyes thrown our way, when everyone here knew students were not allowed to leave the academy right now.

Usually, townsfolk here would never think twice about cadets coming into Isleton. The academy's student body helped the town run by purchasing all their booze, weapons, armor, and tools. Locking down the academy must have squeezed Isleton's commerce.

"Liv's Libations or Trond's Pub," Magnus said. "That's where the gossips go."

At the end of a muddy road, we walked into a place smelling of sweat, stale alcohol, and piss. I didn't know or care what it was called.

Frowning, I flared my nostrils. "You expect to find someone useful in—"

"You've got to be shitting me," Magnus cut in.

Sitting in a booth, staring straight at us through the crowded pub, was a head of golden-blond hair and a bruised face.

Arne Gornhodr looked more pissed than scared.

We approached his table, where he sat across from two people I'd never seen—a yellow-haired girl who looked strikingly similar to him, and a middle-aged fellow with an unremarkable face.

"Beat you to it, I see," Arne said.

Magnus crossed his arms. "How did you—"

"Don't recite the ancient recipe to me, dear Magnus," Arne said in a playful voice. "I was there when it was written. I showed you the underground tunnels, remember?"

Magnus grumbled to himself and scratched the back of his neck.

Sven sneered at Arne. "You look more chipper than when we left you."

Arne lifted a mug and toasted the air. "Nothing a bit of mead can't fix." He motioned with the mug to the people sitting across from him. "These are friends, Frida and Dieter. Friends, these are asshats, Sven and Grim. You already know Magnus."

Magnus said, "What are you doing with the Lepers?"

My eyebrows rose. "The Lepers Who Leapt?" I'd heard of them—every second-year cadet had. But to see them? And for them to look so . . . normal?

Frida was a pretty lass. Dieter wore a cloak and had his salt-and-pepper hair cut short on the sides. They didn't look like legendary rebels or "lepers."

It was their eyes that told the story, however. Both Frida and Dieter had seen some shit. They had sadness in their gazes.

"My friends have kept me abreast to the goings-on outside Vikingrune while the academy's been closed for business," Arne said.

"A proper fuck-you it is having the academy closed," Dieter grumbled. "Can't make a living without you shit-eating students to buy our wares."

I didn't know what to say to that. Sorry?

Sven said, "Why did you come here, iceshaper? Looking for another beating?"

Arne smiled up at him, a sickly expression on his yellowish-purple face. "Because I'm joining you. I'm stubborn like a pest."

I shook my head. "Why should we allow you to accompany us? I managed to control my rage earlier. I'm not sure I can do it twice. You won't be safe."

Admittedly, he had some grit coming here to confront us. He showed proper foresight by assuming we'd stop off at Isleton before blindly going looking for Ravinica. Or, he was simply lucky, and was ready to go looking for her on his own before we showed up.

Either way, it turned out he hadn't gone and tattled to our superiors at the academy. Once escaping his bindings, he simply took the underground tunnels like we did, but faster.

Arne nudged his chin across the table. "I'm joining you, Kollbjorn, because I have something you don't have. Directions." He quirked a sly smile. "I can lead you to the elves. You need me."

Sven said, "We could also just beat the directions out of you again."

Arne snorted. "Is this really the time for such violence? Ravinica's been missing three weeks."

"There's always time for violence," Sven pointed out.

I nodded. "I agree with the dog. For once."

Arne rolled his eyes.

Magnus put his arm out. "Let's hear him out."

"At least one of you is smart," Arne said, standing from the booth. He finished his ale then clapped Sven hard on the shoulder. "I have more information you'll want to hear. My friends spotted a company of Huscarls going through Isleton, headed north. All we needs do is follow them, and I imagine they'll lead us to Ravinica."

My heart slammed in my chest, adrenaline abruptly exploding inside me. "Huscarls? Out here? Why?"

The glint returned to Arne's eyes, mischievous as ever, though it only shone in his left. The other eye was bruised shut.

"Well, my dear teddy, it appears the academy has sent an entourage to find our missing little fox after all, unbeknownst to anyone. An underhanded play like that . . . I'd say it means we need to fucking hurry. Wouldn't you agree?"