Eir´s POV. “He is hiding something.” Drifta muttered in my head, and I agreed. Something was off about Toke; he didn’t seem like himself. Hearing my mother’s story was heartbreaking and admirable at the same time. A part of me that died long ago, that voice inside my head that made up excuses for her to make myself feel better, stirred in the back of my mind. It told me she had a valid reason for trying to avoid reality, that it could be understood that she drowned herself in liquor and eventually became unable to stop. But her story also made me angry. I wanted to shake my mom and yell at her. I demand she get a grip. How could she go through so much to save me and still treat me like I meant nothing more than the dog shit she stepped in? She left her friends, her new family, and my family and chose a life all alone. She decided for me to be all alone. I would have been okay with that; I would have no problem with that whatsoever. I would have accepted having only one parent, a ti
The last thing I wanted was to go to sleep. Like I didn’t feel vulnerable enough already, but I was exhausted, and my eyes betrayed me quicker than I liked to admit. I was drifting into a deep sleep, revisiting the memories of where I first met Drifta: the beautiful northern light and Selene. Only in this dream, I sat next to Drifta after Selene left; together, we watched the magical scenery before she turned to me; “Wake up. I’m almost ready.” In the blink of an eye, the dream was gone. My eyes fluttered, and bright light burned my eyes when I tried opening them. About to rub the sleep out of my confused face, I heard the door slide open slowly, and my body froze. I could feel him there, lingering in the doorway, watching me, so I didn’t move a muscle. Then I remembered he expected me to be able to sit up by now, so I needed some progress. I huffed and groaned as I lifted my head; I could feel my muscles working, aching but responding, so I stopped myself. Better I have some progre
I didn’t know what to say if I was supposed to say anything at all. But there was no doubt in my mind that this was real; this was not Toke. I saw it, felt it, and smelled it. Loki, what a strange name. Suddenly, my eyes widened; Loki! Like the freaking trickster god Loki? He chuckled, leaned back, and started dragging his fingers through his hair. Looking down at himself, he wrinkled his nose while trying to adjust the collar of his shirt—or rather, the missing collar of his shirt. “The god, like the trickster god?” “Ah, please! Don’t use that degrading profanity! It was all a joke from Thor, and of course, his words are etched with gold, so that is the name that stuck in the books! Ridiculous if you ask me! But yes, I am a god!” Pride was not enough to cover this man's sense of self-love, even when he was so obviously uncomfortable with Toke’s choice of clothes. “Why are you here? Don’t you have better things to do?” Even the way he arched his brow was different, even when usi
I scrambled to get to my feet just to hunch forward and empty my stomach all over the floor. All that tossing and turning, all the while, everything around me spun like a raging hurricane. Every muscle in my lower abdomen tightened again, and the rest of my dinner decorated the dark and lifeless floors. First, Loke’s laughter taunted me as I fell to my knees, but as I continued, hunching over and clenching my stomach, he stopped. Mumbling something I didn’t even bother to hear as his steps walked away behind me. Eventually, there was nothing left, and I managed to get myself up again on shaking legs and look around. We arrived in what looked to be a massive cave, and from the amount of water dripping from the ceiling and trickling down along the walls, I would say we were currently beneath the sea or something. That, though on its own, made my stomach jerk, but I held that burning stomach fluids down. Swallowing and swallowing while I studied the cave. With small steps, slowly walkin
The pain was immense, not only because rows of teeth flared up my skin and flesh but also because of the burning sensation. Hidden beneath the pain was my conscious being, unable to scream or object; I just was. I expected her to drain me, like a vampire from the movies I’ve seen, sucking me dry. But instead, a burning liqueur surged through my veins, tearing through every inch of my body, boiling me from the inside, and for a second, I panicked; what if she was killing Drifta? I didn’t know how this wolf thing worked, and I was unsure if she could be found inside me, like any other organ. My fingers were trembling, and a spasm-like sensation attacked my muscles. I felt that I was losing control of myself bit by bit. But despite all the pain, despite that Nida was the one to inflict all this on me, her arms reached around me and carefully helped me down when my knees gave in. Kneeling on the wet and dark floor, all that kept me up now was her tight embrace. The tunnel vision shrank
I had no time to object or second-guess what he said. I blinked, and when I opened my eyes again, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me along, “Don’t be sick on the dragon king’s carpet!” Then we were right back into that raging, dark hurricane place again. It only took seconds this time before my feet touched the ground. It was a hard landing, and I fell straight to my knee with a pained grunt. Holding myself up with my palms flat on the stone floors, I just waited. My body swayed this way and that, and my stomach twisted together franticly, but I kept it down. Strong hands lifted me to my feet and held my shoulders to steady me. But he stepped back before I could lift my gaze to see who it was close up. Not just one step, but two and then a third step. “Loki! Where are your manners? “ A deep voice rumbled, and even at this distance, I had to look up to see his face. He wore black pants, a loose white shirt in some thick, stiff fabric without buttons, and a V-shaped neck. A short, st
“What do you think you’re doing? Stop!” Both my feet were already strapped to the chair, and now he reached for my arm. Loki watched the spectacle like it was a new and intriguing show never shown before, but I didn’t care about him or his amused face. He could rot in hell for all I care. No, actually, I hope Thor shoots a massive thunderbolt up his ass! My focus was on that so-called king! I’d long forgotten about his alluring appearance; all I saw now was a wicked man hiding behind a title to do whatever he pleased! A loud screech cut through the room when the chair scraped against the hard floors, and his jaws tightened as my hand slipped out of his grasp. But despite the fighting, despite adrenaline rushing through my body, I knew deep down I had no chance. My feet were stuck, the chair was massive, and I only managed to push it half a centimeter. To top it all off, I’m currently about to be strapped down, by a dragon, in a god damned caste far above the freaking clouds! After a
Maya´s POV. I didn’t know what to think or even what to feel. When I woke up, everyone seemed to have passed out on the grass, and the fire had died long ago. I had to shake them, really hard to get anyone to react. With groans and grunts, they slowly returned to the world of the living, but then everything changed into chaos. Eir was gone. At first, I panicked, thinking this had to mean that whatever they were doing to her last night had gone wrong. But Tew swears she came back, that she was fine, and fell asleep afterward. And now everything was just wrong. Chaos and desperation. Eir was nowhere, and Toke was gone. “He can’t just leave here! Not having to drag her after him!” I couldn't help it, but the anxiety raging inside my body vibrated with each word as I almost shouted in Tew´s face. “Maya, breathe. We will find her, believe me! We will get her back. He can’t just vanish into thin air!” “NO? Then where are they? Don’t you remember what he tried to do to her? What if he