Perfekt Balance (The Ære Saga Book 3) (24 page)

“Let her go, Runa. You’re outnumbered and
frankly, none of us will think twice about killing you.” Forse
raised his sword and stormed toward my captor, his boots making
determined strides in the soot.

“I told you to stay back!” Runa moved her
hand from side to side, sending shots at Forse, Tyr, and Brynn.
Their light magic-charged swords enabled them to deflect her beams,
and my friends circled us, pounding a path only six meters away. If
I could have moved my legs, I’d have kicked Runa and run to them,
but the poison still had me immobilized, and a very bitter goddess
was about to blow somebody’s head off with her magic hand.

This was so not a good week.

“You have until the count of three, Runa.
After that, your death is on you.” Tyr crouched in a fighting
stance, his knees bent and sword held at eye level. Forse took up
the same position, while Brynn angled her rapier. “One. Two.” Tyr
leaned back, preparing to jump.

“Three.” A deep voice boomed from the sky. I
craned my neck to see an enormous figure drop in through a black
portal. He landed with a thud, the weight of his eight-foot-plus,
pale-skinned frame sending a deep vibration throughout the forest.
A flock of birds took flight, screeching as they fled, and a chill
descended over the treetops. Forse leaned into his crouch, Brynn
let out a gasp, and my normally stoic brother turned the color of a
fresh Asgardian snowfall.

Runa kept her hand at my head as she turned
to the monster with a self-satisfied smirk. When she spoke, her
voice rang of victory.

“Welcome back, Hymir.”

HYMIR ROSE SLOWLY, HIS
knees no doubt tender from bearing the impact of his fall.
I’d never seen him in person, but I quickly realized Tyr had
downplayed his biological father’s scary factor. The giant had wild
white hair that stood in unruly waves, as if he’d just stuck his
finger in an electrical socket. Large bulbous knots rose from
pale-grey skin, and his knuckles were bloodied, as if he’d come
fresh from killing something.

In all likelihood, he probably had.

Tyr held up a hand, signaling Forse and Brynn
to stand down. He held his sword at his waist and walked steadily
toward me. Though he was the outward appearance of calm, his voice
shook with barely contained anger. “Hymir, stay out of this. Runa,
give me my sister, and walk away.”

Runa let out a laugh so jubilant I thought
for a moment her spirit had finally broken through the infinite
layers of darkness imprisoning it.

That was me. Always the optimist.

“
Accept
your fate,
war god
,” Runa taunted, debunking my hopeful theory. “The longer
you fight this, the worse
Daddy
will make you hurt.”

Hymir’s barking laugh cut Runa’s words short.
The giant stormed toward us, his massive legs covering the distance
before Tyr could reach out to pull me to safety. Hymir’s thick
hands closed around my neck, blocking the flow of air as he lifted
me from the ground. I couldn’t move my arms to fight him off; I
couldn’t even kick. The poison still rendered me paralyzed, and all
I could do was gasp for air as my brother’s face gradually shifted
from white to pink to red.

Hymir didn’t know who he was messing
with.

“Team,” Tyr commanded. “Let’s kill him.”

My mouth gaped as I sucked what little oxygen
I could through my painfully constricted windpipe. No doubt the
bulge in my eyes alerted Forse to my fear. He shifted his sword to
one hand and drew his pistol. He gave me a small nod as he fisted
both weapons. Relief washed over my air-starved insides as I noted
the confidence in his eyes. Forse had a plan.

“Gladly,” Forse said. He lifted his gun to
eye level. Before he could line up his shot, Hymir’s voice
thundered through the forest.

“That’s enough!” The deep reverberations made
the trees quiver, and needles dropped onto the soot, leaving a
purplish layer of foliage. Hymir kept one hand around my neck as he
stepped to Runa. My vision blurred in and out of focus as Runa
beamed up at him. Her smile disappeared when Hymir wrapped his
other hand around her neck, holding her alongside me as if we were
dispensable.

“What are you doing?” Runa squeaked, her
features turning red as she struggled to breathe. My own face
tingled with the thick haze of oxygen deprivation.

“Shut up.” Hymir shook Runa violently, and
her eyes rolled closed. She’d resigned herself to her fate, as
terrible as it was. Her energy pulsed with sadness.

Are you okay?
I
reached out to Runa’s spirit, to no avail.

“You know what I’m here for, Tyr,” Hymir
declared. “I hoped you’d return to me on your own. But since you’re
so determined to waste your abilities for Asgard, I’ve had to
resort to Plan B.”

“What is he doing?” Brynn hissed at
Forse.

“No idea.” Forse raised his sword again. He
still held the pistol in one hand and his blade in the other, but
from the look in his eyes, whatever plan he’d come up with had
changed.

“
Drop
your weapons,” Hymir commanded. “All of you.” He pulled his arms
apart so his body formed a cross, me dangling from one hand and
Runa from the other. “If you don’t comply, Son,
both
of your sisters will
die.”

My mouth
fell open and Forse’s eyebrows shot practically to his
hairline.
What did he just say?

“What did you just say?” Tyr echoed my
thought.

“Oh, Tyr.” Hymir clucked his tongue in a very
unconvincing demonstration of sympathy. “Didn’t Odin tell you about
your sister?”

“Elsa’s my sister,” Tyr growled.

“
Elsa is
your
adopted
sister,” Hymir corrected. “But biologically
speaking…”

No. Freaking. Way.

“No,” Brynn gaped.

Tyr
narrowed his eyes. He glanced at me and pressed a thought into my
head.
His aura’s too clouded. I can’t tell if he’s lying.
I don’t remember having siblings, but our parents adopted me when I
was young, and I wouldn’t put it past Odin to have wiped my
pre-Asgard memories under the name of “realm security”
…

I closed
my eyes and scanned Hymir’s energy. Sure enough, it was mottled
with dark clouds and black holes. If I lingered too long, he’d suck
me in, and I might never break free. Pulling back, I strengthened
my protection and reached out to Hymir’s spirit.
Is Runa
really your daughter?

Yesssss.
Hymir’s spirit spoke in a hiss, and I immediately shut down
our communication. His soul was black.
Truly
black. And
not
to be messed with.

Tyr
. I struggled
to retain consciousness as I pressed my thought into his
head.
He’s
not lying. But you need to get out of here. Take Forse and Brynn
and port or fly or Bifrost or
whatever,
as far as away you can. Hymir’s homicidal.

I’m not leaving you
. Tyr sounded insulted.
And I’m sure you realize a herd of
Helbeasts couldn’t make Forse port us out of here without
you
.

I smiled,
even as I rasped for breath.
Then hurry up and kick some
giant butt
.

The
corner of Tyr’s mouth curled up in a smirk.
Gladly.
He held up two fingers to
signal Brynn and Forse. “Now!”

And then all Hel broke loose.

Forse
holstered his pistol and charged at Hymir with all the fury of a
raging bull. He leapt into the air, sword drawn, on a trajectory to
strike the giant’s chest with his blade. But Hymir swung the arm
restraining me, using my body to swat Forse out of the air. Since
the paralysis hadn’t worn off, my stiff body vibrated like a
baseball bat, waves of agony piercing my already screaming
nerves.
Gods, that hurts!

Forse hit the ground with a sickening thud,
skidding across the soot toward a thick boulder. Brynn leapt in his
path, pushing him to the side so his head missed the rock by
inches. At the same time, Tyr leapt at Hymir, his arms flexed and
his sword held high. Hymir’s grip loosened enough that I was able
to draw a ragged breath. As my focus sharpened, I made out the
pulsing vein in my brother’s neck, the clenched muscles of his jaw,
and the way his normally steady hands shook with anger as he flew
through the air and sliced his sword through the leathery skin of
his biological father’s right arm.

Air flooded my lungs and I fell to the ground
in a heap, Hymir’s now severed limb releasing its death grip on my
neck.

“Arugh!” Hymir let out a guttural cry. He
released Runa and brought his remaining hand to his shoulder, which
spewed blood everywhere. A thick stream of the sticky liquid struck
my back and I rolled to the side. It took me a moment before I
realized what my rolling meant. The venom had worked its way
through my bloodstream—I could move!

I didn’t get to celebrate for long. With a
fierce battle cry, Tyr charged at Hymir, and Forse and Brynn pushed
themselves up from the ground. As they moved, Runa found her
footing. She held out her hand and shot a beam at my kneecap,
sending an intense wave of pain coursing through me.

Forse let out a roar, and I looked up in time
to see him charge Runa, using his sword to deflect her shots. She
kept her hand high and alternated beams at him and Brynn, bending
down to wrap her free hand through the chains that still bound my
hands. As she yanked me to my feet I screamed, my injured knee
buckling in protest. I dropped to the ground and flung my head
back, ignoring the pain as my skull made contact with her shin.

“You little—”

Runa dropped the chain and wrapped her hands
around my hair. She pulled me to a seated position then slammed my
head into the ground. I ignored the sticky gush of blood through
what felt like a broken nose, and threw my head back again, this
time earning the crack of what sounded like a broken kneecap.

An eye for an eye
…Sis.

Runa screeched and fell to the ground, giving
Forse the window he needed to come to my rescue. He closed the
distance between us in the amount of time it took for Runa to
cradle her shattered bone. Forse lifted me into his arms and
sprinted to the thick trunk of a nearby tree. My hands were still
bound in front of me, but I used my fingertips to trace the firm
planes of his chest as he ran, closing my eyes and inhaling the
familiar scent that enveloped me like a warm blanket. I knew in
that moment that everything would be okay.

“Gods, Elsa, you’re a mess. Screw orders, I’m
porting you out of here,” Forse declared. “Tyr and Brynn can handle
Hym—”

But before he could finish his sentence, a
tiny black hole appeared behind him. The circle grew at an alarming
speed, opening to a door-sized portal in the time it took me to
gasp. “Forse! Look out!” I cried, as the hooded figure of a dark
elf stepped through the blackness and back into our lives.

“Well, well, well.” Tosk’s voice brought our
exit plan to an abrupt halt. “You couldn’t just hand over the dog
like we asked, could you? Maybe a gift will motivate you.”

As he
opened his hand and threw a bird drone at the god I’d have given my
life for, I arched my back and flung my body to the side. The
motion pushed Forse off-balance, pulling him out of the path of the
poisoned feathers. As we landed, I rolled on top of him, covering
his body with my own and bearing the fallout of Tosk’s
gift
. Forse looked up in
horror as my face scrunched in pain.

“Elsa, what did you do?” Moisture filled his
eyes. As pain wracked my body, an uprooted tree soared through the
sky behind Forse’s shoulder. It landed with a thud, and Tyr emitted
an enraged roar. Hymir cackled in response before launching another
tree. Tyr ducked out of my frame of vision and I held my breath,
praying he’d avoided the projectile. I exhaled when I heard the
vicious swiping of my brother’s sword—the welcome sound meant he
was still alive. As he flung himself at his birth father, I turned
my attention to my legs.

“I can’t move. Again,” I said unnecessarily,
as the drone poison overtook me for the second time that day. If
history was any indication it would only take a few minutes for the
drug to wear off, but in the meantime I was in a world of hurt. “Go
take care of business for us, okay?”

Forse brushed my forehead with his lips
before he lifted me off him. “With pleasure.”

As Forse leapt to his feet and reached for
his implosion gun, Brynn jumped on Tosk from behind. “Nobody
fake-bird poisons my friends!” she screamed, wrapping her legs
around Tosk’s waist and pounding his temples with her fists.

“Brynn, get off him! I can’t take the shot
with you there!” Forse yelled.

But Brynn continued to pummel the dark elf as
if she hadn’t heard Forse. If the bulging vein in her otherwise
delicate forehead was any indication, she was in another zone.

“Brynn! Clear out. That’s an order,” Forse
repeated himself. My heart thumped at his command. Sometimes I
forgot he was a high-ranking titled god, and a member of Odin’s
cabinet.

Bossy Forse was ridiculously hot.

Brynn continued her attack as if she hadn’t
heard Forse.

“Brynn Aksel,” Forse growled. But Brynn
continued to beat Tosk. Her punches clearly annoyed him, but the
weaponless assault wasn’t likely to do much damage. If she’d had
command of her reason, she’d have followed Forse’s order and let
the senior officer remove the threat, but thick pulses of anger
leapt off her skin, showing me Brynn wasn’t acting with her mind.
She was acting with her heart.