Mist

16

Mist’s immediate thought was that he’d been sent by Loki along with the Jotunar to get Ryan. If one method didn’t work, try another.

“What do you want with him?” she asked.

“I’m a lawyer representing his aunt’s estate. He’s the boy in there, isn’t he?”

A lawyer. She wasn’t sure it could get much worse. If he was telling the truth.

“How is it that you happened to come looking for Ryan just in time to witness all this?” she asked, shrugging out of her torn jacket.

“Are you accusing me of something?” Tashiro asked.

“It can work both ways, Mr. Tashiro. I don’t know you, and you’re making pronouncements on things you know nothing about. Why should I trust anything you tell me?”

He began to stand up again, and this time Mist let him. They stared at each other. She noticed that Tashiro was fidgeting, clenching and unclenching his fingers as if he was aware of some danger he hadn’t anticipated. His hand trembled as he lifted it to brush dark, sweaty hair away from his forehead.

It wasn’t fear, at least not of violence. She saw it in his eyes: the awakening of desire, the heat, the sudden awareness that she was not only an antagonist.

She hadn’t even begun to push her “glamour,” but he was beginning to feel it anyway. Even if he was Loki’s agent, he was still susceptible to Freya’s influence.

And she had to take full advantage of his weakness.

She undid the top two buttons of her shirt. “Did someone send you to look for Ryan?” she asked softly.

He blinked. “I told you. His aunt asked me to find him. She left him substantial assets in her will.”

“How did you find him?”

“I have contacts all over the city. I asked around.” He sucked in a sharp breath. “Why does that matter?”

Mist knew she couldn’t put it off any longer. Holding her self- disgust at bay, she remembered again how it had felt to “become” Freya that moment in Asbrew . . . golden honey-mead warmth and the scent of primroses, the peace and love—and naked lust— that had so completely enveloped her and overwhelmed Loki Laufeyson. She began to fashion a new image of herself as she had shaped the Rune-staves in the gym—a figure of surpassing beauty, perfection of skin and hair, full of hip and breast. An illustration drawn solely for the pleasure of men.

She leaned very close and undid the rest of the buttons one by one, pulling the shirt open to reveal the thin T-shirt underneath. “Tell me the truth, Koji.”

His eyes focused just where she wanted them to. “I don’t . . . know what you’re talking about. No one else sent me.”

Mist knew he was telling the truth. She heard it in his voice, saw it in his body, felt it in his soul.

“Whatever business you have with Ryan,” she said, “you’re not going near him until he’s safe in the hospital.” She moved closer still, her chest almost touching his. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

“You . . . have to tell the police everything you know.” He hesitated, swallowing several times. “You must see that your friend needs help.”

“Is that your judgment as a lawyer, Mr. Tashiro?”

“It’s the only choice you have.”

“And what do plan to tell the police?”

“Only . . . what I witnessed.”

She raised her hand to brush his cheek with her fingertips. “Just facts? No speculation?”

His head jerked. “I—”

“Why don’t you remind me exactly what happened?”

Confusion crossed his face. “You know what happened,” he stammered.

“Do I?” She ran one fingernail along his jaw.

His gaze dropped to her parted lips. “I . . . they—”

“It was self- defense, wasn’t it?”

“I . . .” His eyes met hers, and his expression told her he was slipping out of her grasp. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Mist.”

“Ms. Mist, I’ll only report what I saw. The kids can make their statements when they’re able to. There’ll be someone there to—”

“Koji,” she said, stroking his hair. “You don’t have to make this so difficult.”

His eyes began to glaze over again. “I know you’re hiding something,” he said, glancing away.

“Look at me, Koji. What could I be hiding?”

Sweat trickled down his temple. He was still fighting her. “You know . . . who those guys were,” he said, “but you’re afraid to . . . identify them.”

“What would I be afraid of?” Mist purred.

“Like I said,” Koji whispered, gulping audibly, “it’ll be better if you . . .” He drifted into silence and closed his eyes.

Mist dropped her hand from his face and listened. Still no sirens. Gabi must have called off the ambulance.

Norns will she knows what she’s doing, Mist thought. Pushing that worry out of her mind, she leaned so close that her lips nearly touched Tashiro’s. “I’m sorry we had to meet under such unfortunate circumstances,” she said. “But everything will be all right now, won’t it?”

He opened his eyes. “I’m sorry, too, but—”

“Look at me, Koji.”

He obeyed her, though his head jerked in a last- ditch attempt to resist. In his brown eyes she saw the reflection of the beast she had created. A beast of beauty, as hungry as any wolf.

“What . . . what do you want?” Koji asked, his breath coming faster.

What did she want? Mist thought with amusement. Everything, of course.

“Let’s go over what happened one more time,” she said, “just so there isn’t any misunderstanding. You wouldn’t want to get anyone into trouble, would you? That would make me so unhappy.”

“Yes,” he murmured.

She told him what she wanted to say. His lips parted, revealing even white teeth. “I— Yes. That’s how it happened.”

“Wonderful.” She took his hand in hers. “Now I want you to go into the kitchen and sit quietly for a little while. I promise I’ll be back very soon.”

“No,” he said, clasping her hand more tightly. There was strength in those hands. She liked that. She liked the way he gazed at her like a puppy hoping that a delicious scrap would fall from the table.

Vaguely she remembered there was something else she needed to be doing. Something she should be worried about. But she couldn’t quite remember what it was, and it didn’t really matter. She wondered why she’d bothered to go through this ridiculous business at all.

She worked her hand free of Koji’s and strolled into the kitchen. What in the world had she been thinking? This was no fit hall for Freya’s daughter. She opened the refrigerator and wrinkled her nose in disgust. Nothing worth so much as tasting. And her clothes . . . It would not do. She would go shopping as soon as possible and find suitable garments to adorn her body.

“Mist?”

She turned to Koji. The skin around his eyes was turning dark with bruises, and dried blood caked the bottom of his nose. He smiled, hopeful and pathetic.

“Tell me what I can do for you,” he said, pulling a chair out from the table. “Do you want something to eat?”

She sighed. How could she have thought, even for a moment, that he was worthy of her interest? He was going to become very annoying soon. Perhaps if she sent him out for a suitable meal, she could get rid of him for a while. But that wouldn’t take care of him for good.

There was only one way to make sure he stayed away. She would have to become plain, ordinary, boring Mist again just long enough to break the spell.

“Come here, Koji,” she said, taking the offered chair. He knelt before the chair, his eyes fixed on her face. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured.

She wondered vaguely if he would suffer any damage from being abruptly separated from the object of his affection.

That really wasn’t her concern. He was only a mortal. There were many more where he came from. Perhaps she would let him kiss her, just once.

Freya’s daughter smiled and held out her arms. Koji rose and leaned over her, bracing one hand on the tabletop. She tilted her face up, and his lips touched hers. She permitted the slightest pressure and then began to undo the spell, deconstructing the image she had made in her mind, erasing the glamour. Koji put his arms around her, deepening the kiss. She banished the primroses and the honey and the joy that had borne her up since the seduction began.

“Mist,” he murmured.

She bounced back, nearly upsetting her chair, and pushed Koji away. Her heart slammed under her ribs, resisting the pull of the vast, black emptiness yawning beneath.

Mist. That was her name. She looked down at her unbuttoned shirt and pulled it closed with a shaking hand.

“Mist?” Koji said, turning his head this way and that as if he couldn’t see her. “Where are you?”

She stared at him in horror. He was looking for the other. The one she had become in her need to protect Dainn and the children from the consequences of the Jotunar’s attack.

Her spell of seduction had worked perfectly. She had deceived not only Koji, but herself.

What in Odin’s name had she done? If she let go now, would Tashiro remember?

Gods curse her, she couldn’t let him.

“She’s not here,” Mist said, easing out of her chair. “But she’ll be back soon. She wants you to wait right here until she returns.”

His gaze met hers, and there was something like panic in his eyes.

“Are you sure she’s coming back?”

“Yes. Very soon.”

“Then I’ll wait.”

“That’s right,” Mist said. “Don’t move until she comes. In fact, maybe you should rest. You’ve had a rough day.”

“Rest,” he echoed. He crossed his arms on the table and laid his cheek on his wrists. In a matter of seconds he was asleep.

Mist backed away and stumbled against the stove, jarring her arm. The glamour was still working. Even though she knew who she was now, who she really was, she could still make him do what she wanted.

That was terrifying enough. But now a flood of memory returned, and with it the realization that there were still no sirens, no urgent voices to suggest the EMTs had arrived.

She turned and ran back into the hall. The gym was still empty except for the kids and the Jotunar corpses. Ryan was on his feet, leaning on Gabi’s shoulder.

Mist barely hesitated. She ran to join them.

“I did it,” Gabi said shakily. “Ryan’s okay.”

And Ryan did look okay. More than okay. He seemed bewildered, but the blood had been wiped from his face, and Mist knew the wound was gone.

Still, she had to be sure. “Turn around, Ryan.”

He obeyed her, with Gabi’s support. She parted his matted hair and found the place where the wound had been. It was still a little raised and rough, but it was otherwise completely healed.

“I got hit,” Ryan said slowly, turning around again. “Gabi healed me.” He raised his fingers to his head, and Gabi slapped his hand away.

“Leave that alone,” she said. She met Mist’s gaze. “I did it, Mist. I really did.”

“That’s good, Gabi,” Mist said, genuinely impressed. And more than a little worried. “You were right.”

Gabi flexed her fingers, and for the first time Mist noticed that they were red, as if she’d been badly burned.

“Are you all right?” Mist asked.

Suddenly the girl seemed embarrassed, as if she’d been caught doing something shameful. She touched the silver cross hanging from the chain around her neck.

“Sí,” she said. “I didn’t really know what would happen, but it’s okay.”

Mist wondered. But Gabi had proven herself beyond any doubt, and she had to be taken at her world.

“You called the ambulance service?” she asked.

“I told them it was all a mistake.”

But that, Mist thought, only solved half the problem. The mess left in the wake of the fight was still untouched. She hadn’t expected she’d even get the chance to address that situation before the authorities showed up.

Now she had an opportunity, but she might as well try cleaning every street in the city with a paper towel. If she didn’t find a way to take care of it, the small advantage she’d gained from Gabi’s actions would be undone as soon as someone in the neighborhood called the cops to investigate suspicious noises or strangers in the area. The police could still be on their way.

But she had an idea. A crazy one that hadn’t a chance of succeeding. She didn’t have the control. She hadn’t been able to sustain that strange new magic during the fight with the Jotunar or call up any other kind to help Dainn and protect the kids.

But she hadn’t been sure about using Freya’s glamour, either, and it had been more effective than she could have imagined.

“I want you to go upstairs, and stay there this time,” Mist said to the kids. “Both of you need rest, or you’re going to keel over any minute. Ryan, you may be healed, but that doesn’t mean you’re completely well. And I want you to take care of those hands, Gabi. You’ll find disinfectants and gauze in the bathroom.”

“You got important things to do again?” Gabi asked with a belligerent tilt of her head.

“Look around you. I can’t leave things this way. I may be able to do something about it.”

“More magic?”

“If I can. But you’re not going to be here to see it. I want you out of the way, and safe.”

“What if the giants come back?” Gabi asked. “Who’s going to protect us?”

Mist shook her head. These crazy kids actually wanted to stay and watch, after everything they’d been through and the horrors they’d witnessed.

“They won’t come back,” Mist said, “at least, not right away. Go upstairs. If you distract me again, I could fail. And I need to make this work.”

Ryan shivered, and Gabi took his hand. “Where’s Dainn?” he asked. “Is he okay?”

How could Mist answer that? “You saw—” she began.

“Yeah.” Ryan swallowed. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Is he coming back?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

Ryan closed his eyes. “It was our fault,” he moaned.

“Then make up for it by doing what I tell you. Do you want me to walk you up?”

“We’re not afraid,” Gabi said. She pulled Ryan away from the wall and led him toward the hall door, carefully skirting the bodies without looking at them.

Mist watched them go. She hadn’t wanted them here, but it seemed Dainn had been right. They’d come for a reason, and now they were her responsibility. Norns save her.

Grabbing Kettlingr, which she’d laid on the floor near the wall after she’d removed it from her belt, she went straight to the closest Jotunn body. Bakrauf. The blood-filled, empty socket of his right eye stared up at her with seething hatred, even in death.

Willing herself to remember what she’d done before, she raised the sword. There’d been something about the Rune- staves coming alive. Uruz and Kenaz, the Ox and the Beacon. And the elements, the Vanir magic. No logic, no careful spells, just emotion, and need, and power.

But try as she might, she couldn’t make that strange new magic return. Maybe she’d exhausted her energy, the way Dainn had said happened to anyone who used their abilities to their full capacity for an extended time. In spite of what he had implied, she must have the same limits he did. Or like Loki or Freya or other gods, for that matter.

Or maybe it was just because she wasn’t being directly threatened. Dainn’s beast seemed to be provoked by physical or mental threats, and she couldn’t forget what she’d done to him in the living room with those same elemental powers.

There had to be another way. She decided to start from the beginning, the very first things Dainn had taught her. She concentrated on what she wanted to accomplish and drew the Rune-staves in her mind. They hovered before her inner eye, deep gray and seemingly solid, until she began to chant the Runes aloud. Then, all at once, they broke apart as if struck by Mjollnir itself, brittle as glass, shattering into a million pieces.

She tried again. This time the Runes held steady halfway through her chant before the centermost, Raiho, snapped in two. The others quickly followed, each portion vanishing in an explosion of miniscule particles like spores from a mushroom.

After two more tries, Mist knew it wasn’t going to work. Her Runes were fragile constructs, flawed by her inexperience and not nearly strong enough for what she had to accomplish. Holding them in her mind wasn’t enough.

Curse it. It was almost as if her Rune-staves had nothing to cling to, nothing to support them. But she knew instinctively that finding a piece of wood or paper and inscribing the staves wouldn’t help in the slightest.

Something to cling to. Something solid, but not physical. Something as real to her as her own body. If she could find that something, she could make it work. Just the way she could make a steel billet into a sword.

Steel. An image sprang into her mind, as natural as sunrise, and she let it take her. She envisioned her workshop, the glowing coals, the rush of hot air, the clang of metal on metal. She imagined herself picking the first Rune-stave up in her tongs and setting it on the anvil, striking it with her hammer, but not merely to reshape or refine it; with every blow it grew thicker and darker, layer upon layer, until it became heavy as the anvil itself, gleaming black and red.

She set down the tongs and gestured upward with one hand. The stave flew back into its place, suspended in midair, still radiating heat Mist could feel through her whole body. She chose the second stave and repeated the process twice more until the Bind-Rune was complete. She began to chant as she spread her hands, palms down, over the body on the floor in front of her.

Nothing happened. But the tattoo around her wrist began to throb, and she remembered the essential step she had forgotten.

Drawing her knife, she sliced her palm. Again, nothing happened . . . until her blood dripped onto Bakrauf ’s corpse. The Bind- Rune began to glow with its own internal flame, flushing scarlet, blackening around the edges. She “dropped” it onto the 09Jotunn’s chest. One by one the fingers and toes shriveled and burned away to ash. The fire moved rapidly inward, up the legs and arms, down from the head as the hair sizzled and the face melted into slag.

Mist watched intently, tempering relief with caution, half afraid the magic would stop before the work was complete. But in a minute even the ashes had consumed themselves, and nothing was left of Bakrauf. Even the blood surrounding the place where he had lain disintegrated and vanished as if it had never existed.

Without hesitation she moved to the next corpse, Hrimgrimir’s, and forged the staves again. The process was slower this time, and Mist began to sweat. Two full minutes passed before the deed was done.

She ran to the third Jotunn, whose head was detached from his body, and started again, stumbling over the words of the chant. She spilled her blood as she had done before, but the body remained unaffected, and Mist’s time had nearly run out.

Acting purely on instinct, Mist imagined catching one of the smoking Rune- staves in her bare hands. Into it she poured the heat of her emotions: her concern for the kids, her fear for Dainn, her rage at Loki and her own helplessness. She screamed as the red-hot metal burned the stave’s angular shape into her flesh and turned the tattoo around her wrist to a ring of flame.

She chanted through the pain as she dropped the stave onto the body at her feet. It sank through the rough clothing into the lifeless flesh and disappeared. She called up the second and third staves again, letting them sear her palms, charging them with her deepest passions until they, too, fell.

When she looked down, the third corpse was gone, head and all, and so were all traces that it had ever been there. Not so much as a scuff or burn mark streaked the rubber tiles. The burns on her palm were already fading.

But one final task remained. She tried to raise the fire in her mind once more, but it barely sparked before it went out. There had to be some other imagery she could use, something she had lived.

The forest on the border of Norway and Switzerland. The driving snow, the frigid winds, the weather almost as dangerous as the Nazis themselves.

This wasn’t just the elemental magic that still hovered somewhere just out of her reach, or even a Jotunn’s inborn control over the very essence of winter. It was built of her own experiences, and when she chose the Runes she created a template constructed of frost and bitter cold, the legacy of that day when she had parted from Rebekka and Geir.

With the images came the rage and guilt she had never been able to root out from the depths of her heart. She envisioned a brutal North Wind, carrying with it tiny slivers of ice that scoured everything they touched. The wind filled her with such a bitter chill that she thought it would congeal the air in her lungs, but she didn’t stop until every blood vessel and organ in her body was nearly frozen.

Then, with a low cry, she released the gale. The Rune- staves were torn apart as the blizzard roared through the gym, sweeping over the floor, the walls, every corner of the room. It devoured every particle of dirt, hair, or dried liquid, scrubbing away any biological residue Dainn, the stranger, or the Jotunar might have left behind, all without damaging anything else in the room.

The wind died abruptly, and the air turned still and heavy as stone. Mist collapsed to the floor, holding herself up on her hands and knees.

She’d done it. She’d made it work. She’d controlled her magic.

Mist pushed herself to her feet again, lost her balance, and focused on the simple goal of getting to the hallway door. Koji was no longer at the kitchen table. He wasn’t in the kitchen at all.

A card lay face down on the counter. Mist stiffened, remembering the last time someone had left her a note.

The writing was neat and precise. I have to go, the note read, but I’ll call you later today. We have a lot to discuss. – K.

Mist turned the card over to a simple name and address printed in an elegantly minimal typeface. He was who he’d claimed. Koji Tashiro, attorney-at-law.

Had he broken the spell she’d laid on him earlier? And if he had, was he going to the police?

No. He wouldn’t have left Ryan or Gabi here if he’d remembered the slaughter in the gym. And he still had business with Ryan.

An aunt with an estate, Mist thought. That suggested some kind of inheritance. Mist knew nothing about Ryan’s background, except that it had probably been rough. Where was his family? What of Gabi’s?

And how was she going to protect the kids? A Healer and a spamadr would be valuable allies until Mist found her Sisters, but they were still only teenagers.

Dainn couldn’t help her now. Obviously Freya couldn’t, either. If Mist sent the teenagers away from the loft, she couldn’t guarantee that Loki wouldn’t find them.

But Tashiro . . . maybe he could get them away. Until she knew what he wanted with Ryan, she couldn’t be sure if that was even a possibility.

She clenched her fists on the tabletop. There were only two things she wanted now. One was to look for Dainn, and the other was to find Loki and beat him to a pulp.

But she couldn’t do what she wanted, even if she’d had the strength to try. She needed to deal with the teenagers, explain what had happened and was likely to happen— in short, all the things she hadn’t told Ryan already. She had to call Vali. And she needed to figure out how she was going to carry on this fight alone for as long as she had to.

Forcing herself out of the chair, she started for the stairs.