Perfekt Control (The Ære Saga Book 2) (22 page)

I’d seen weird in my day, but coming
face-to-face with that might just land me in one of the healers’
padded rooms for a little vacation.

“Dang it!” I hissed. My boots skidded across
bulletproof ice as I struggled to find my footing. I placed one
heel carefully on the slippery surface, and immediately found
myself on my backside.
Ouch
. There would be a fat bruise on
my butt in the morning. I looked to Henrik for help, but he was
flailing around like a cartoon character. Tyr fared no better,
lying flat on his back and swearing at the guardian of the Bifrost
after taking his own tumble. This was bizarre.

Being Asgardians, cold weather elements
weren’t usually a problem for us. Our people did snow and ice like
nobody’s business. But things here were different. Everything in
this realm felt completely foreign, from the abysmal aura and
discolored flora, to the oppressive feeling of despair settling on
my heart like a lead blanket, to the discombobulating ice.

I tucked my feet beneath me and pressed both
palms to the frozen surface to push myself up. In seconds, I was
right back on my bottom. I couldn’t stand up to save my life.

“Tyr!” I shouted as a dense black shadow
leapt from the branch of an eggplant-colored pine tree. “Encase
us!”

“
Skit
,” Henrik muttered. From his
prone position, he had the perfect vantage point of the specter’s
descent. “Not those things again.”

Tyr acted fast, wrangling himself to an
unsteady crouch and aiming his palm at the sky. A silvery haze flew
from his fingertips, but the motion threw him off balance, and he
fell back on his butt before the magic could form a full protective
dome. Instead the haze flickered, and struck the shadow, grazing
its wing-shaped shoulder. The impact altered the specter’s
trajectory. Now it spiraled to the left, heading toward the pine
tree with ever-increasing speed. On impact, the shadow shattered
into shards of ash, slicing the top third of the tree clean
off.

“Henrik!” I bellowed. The treetop was
falling, and if it stayed its course, it would land on top of my
partner. Henrik looked up from dragging his body across the ice by
his fingertips—we’d all figured out there was no point in trying to
walk. As he raised his arms to absorb the tree’s impact, Tyr
narrowed his eyes and held up his palm.

“On it,” Tyr muttered, throwing up a
protection. This time, the silvery dome formed just before the tree
could pin the legs of the god I’d loved for centuries.

“Well, thanks for that,” Henrik said, as he
clawed his way to my side. Tyr bum-scooted over, so the three of us
were huddled close together under the dome’s safety. “I’d hate to
design Fred 2.0: The Leg Version.”

“Ha ha ha.” Tyr waggled the fingers of his
prosthetic arm. “Now put your strangely advanced brains to work and
tell me why we can’t walk on this ice.”

I swiped the ground and held my hand up to my
face. Tiny granules of ice stuck to my fingers, but they didn’t
feel cold. In fact… I wiggled experimentally on my bottom.
No
freaking way
. “Henrik, look at this.” I held my hand out, and
he took it in both of his. I half-expected the slow heat radiating
from his touch to melt the crystals.

“What exactly am I looking at?” he
questioned.

“Irid crystals.” I waited for his
reaction.

“No. They don’t exist.” Henrik shook his
head. Then he inched closer, staring at my fingertips in awe. “They
don’t exist?” This time it was a question.

“Then you tell me what I’m looking at.
Because unless you can think of another molecule that’s
shatter-proof, temperature-proof, and by all accounts,
Asgardian-proof, I’m all ears.” I waited.

Henrik delivered.

“Holy Mother Frigga, they do exist.” He
dropped my hand and ran his fingers through his hair. It got wilder
with every leg of our Find Freya tour. “Why didn’t either of us
ever think to check Helheim?”

“Um, because neither of us are stupid enough
to go to Helheim
on purpose
?” I pointed out. “Henrik, do you
realize what this means?”

“Hel,
ja
. If we collect sufficient
samples we can complete production on the freezing beam, melting
bow, and the climate suit. We can finally initiate research on the
volcanoes of Muspelheim because we’ll be insulated against the
heat, and we can determine the elemental properties that make irid
crystals impervious to Asgardian magic. Gods, Brynnie. There are so
many possibilities.”

“I know! We can isolate the source of the
frost giants’ power. We’ve never been able to pass through the gate
to Jotunheim’s treasure vault, because any warrior that enters goes
into hypothermic shock on entry. Seriously ingenious system.” I
shivered.

“Don’t remind me,” Henrik muttered. I knew
he’d been that frozen soldier on at least one mission, maybe
more.

“Hey,
Brynnrik
. Would you two geniuses
care to fill the halfling in on what’s going on?” Tyr tapped his
finger on his temple. We must have been quite the trio—Asgard’s
largest protector glaring in frustration while Henrik and I babbled
excitedly, heads together, about the scientific advancements
discovery of the irid crystals would bring to Asgard.

“Oh! Sorry! This is jus—”

“Huge.” Henrik finished my sentence. “This is
just huge. Possibly the hugest discovery in Asgardian science this
century.”

“Century?” I balked. “Millennia! This opens
us up to endless possibilities for inter-realm exploration. Think
of all the planets circling Muspelheim, Jotunheim, even
Svartalfheim that have been off-limits before now due to climatic
issues. We can send in teams to neutralize the outposts the giants
think we don’t know about.”

Tyr held up a hand. “Never mind. I trust you
will brief me on whatever has you so enthused later,
ja
?
Because right now we’ve got another problem.”

Tyr pointed one finger at a purple pine. My
gaze shifted away from Henrik’s shining eyes to the legion of dark
shapes circling the top of the tree. The shadows were back.

And they seemed to have doubled in
number.

“I don’t suppose we’re invisible under this
dome?” I asked hopefully.

“
Skit.
I only threw up a shield. I
should have thought about cloaking us.” Tyr eyed the whirling
circle. The shadows circled faster, moving closer to us with each
turn.

“Want me to take care of it?” Henrik asked.
His magic wasn’t as strong as Tyr’s, but it was good enough to get
the job done. At least, it was strong enough in Asgard and Midgard.
Hopefully the irid crystals wouldn’t affect Henrik’s abilities the
way they seemed to affect our walking.

“I’m on it.” Tyr held out his palm half a
second too late. As if sensing his intention, the circle whirled
with dizzying speed, creating a funnel. It bore down on us like an
incensed tornado. My ears thrummed; the swirl gave off a deafening
roar. And whether because of its force or the incapacitating
effects of the irid crystals, the dome started to quiver.

“What is happening?” I watched in horror.
“Tyr, things can’t break your defenses. Even dark things.”

“Yeah, well.” Tyr held up both hands and
Henrik followed suit. Their magic came together, holding a steady
stream of silver at the dome. The tornado pulled back and jabbed,
poking golf ball-sized holes in the surface of the sphere. Tyr and
Henrik separated their streams, redirecting their magic so it
patched each new hole as it appeared.

“Maybe we need to move to offensive.” I
nodded at the tornado, which peppered the dome like a jackhammer.
It was punching holes into a large shape. “It’s going to bust right
through the hole like a perforated paper once it completes that
circle.”

“
Skit
,” Henrik swore. “She’s right.
But letting it in might be the only way to defeat it.”

Tyr nodded. He aimed a stream at me, trapping
me in a thick silvery bubble. “We can’t let this thing take all
three of us out. Brynn, you’re shielded and cloaked. We’ll hold the
specters off while you make a run for it. Crawl due south until you
reach the cliffs behind the navy forest. Jump off the cliff, and
aim straight for the blackest hole. The thickest part of the
darkness is Hel’s gate. We’ll meet you there as soon as we
neutralize the threat, but if we fail I need you to go after Freya
on your own. Think you can handle that?”

He had to be kidding me. “I’m not going to
Hel unless you’re coming with me. Wait. That sounds bad. I
mean—”

“I know what you mean.” Tyr eyed me steadily.
“And it’s not a request. It’s an order, Aksel. Our mission is to
reclaim Freya. The realms are halfway to darkness, and if they
descend fully, Hel claims them anyway. I won’t have that for Mia.
Now, on three, Henrik, pull your stream back and add it to mine.
I’ll release the dome, and hopefully our combined power will be
enough to detonate those specters.”

“What if—”

“Stop stalling, Brynn.” Tyr shook his head.
“Henrik, on my count.”

“
Ja
.” Henrik squared his shoulders
from his still-seated position. He shifted his stream to meet
Tyr’s.

“One. Two.” Tyr counted.

“Be careful,” I pleaded. My fingertips grazed
Henrik’s shoulder and he nodded.

“Always am,
sötnos
.”

“Three.” Tyr dropped the dome, and he and
Henrik aimed their stream at the tornado of specters. It quaked
violently, then dove for the ground. It struck the ice like a
cannonball, sending a quake across the impenetrable surface. I
found myself splayed on my back, and scrambled quickly to my
stomach so I could crawl my way toward the forest. The navy pines
were a few hundred meters behind the purple pines, though from what
I’d heard, a literal minefield separated the two species. No
Asgardian had ever survived the crossing.

Not that it’d matter if I didn’t get out of
this clearing.

I snuck a glance over my shoulder as I
shimmied across the crystallized ground. My stomach lurched as the
tornado barreled down on Henrik and Tyr. They redirected their
stream, silver light blasting the bottom of the funnel before it
could strike. The blast flung the tornado due east, and it sucked
up five of the pines in its path. It collected itself, and bore
down again. This time it came so close to my friends that my eyes
squeezed shut. When I managed to pry them open, the tornado quaked,
and Tyr looked madder than a hot jotun. Henrik appeared calm as
always, though I could sense his tension bubbling. Gods, I hoped we
made it out of here. Even if I had to spend eternity in the friend
zone, I couldn’t imagine my life without Henrik in it.

The tornado dove again, and Tyr’s voice
rumbled across the tundra. “You sure as Helheim better be doing
what I told you, Aksel!”

With a shaky breath, I turned my head and
focused on the purple pines. I inched my way across the tundra
without looking back. When I reached the dirt-strewn ground of the
forest, I made my way to my feet with caution. When I was certain
the dirt was void of irid crystals, I put one foot in front of the
other and broke into a run. I didn’t stop until I reached the
border of the forests—the one that separated purple from navy. A
field carpeted in thick, black grass served as the delineation
between the two spaces. I knew it sheathed horrors beyond anything
my mind could conceive.

I plopped myself onto the dirt and waited.
What in Helheim was I supposed to do now?

“
BRYNN!”

OH THANK ODIN.
I’d know
that panicked voice anywhere.

“Henrik!” I shouted. “I’m in here! At the
southern edge of the, uh, purple forest.”

We seriously should have worked out the
proper names for these places before we took this little pleasure
cruise.

“We can’t find you!” Henrik’s panic
increased.

“Maybe Tyr needs to drop the invisibility
shield,” I offered helpfully.

There was a pause before Henrik yelled again.
“Okay, it’s dropped. We still don’t see you!”

“Follow the pinecone trail through the darker
part of the purple trees,” I called out. “I figured I might need to
find my way back to you guys at some point, so I Hansel and
Gretel-ed my way through the—”

My words were cut off with the crush of thick
arms around my shoulders. Henrik scooped me into a desperate hug,
burying his face in my unruly curls.

“We thought you were dead.” Henrik inhaled
deeply.

“Nope. Not dead.” My lips brushed against
Henrik’s neck as I spoke. It wasn’t intentional or anything; he was
holding me so close my lips didn’t have anywhere else to go.

It was
so
not my fault I now knew what
he tasted like. If sunshine counted as a taste.

“Gods, Brynn. When we couldn’t find you, I
thought, well.” Henrik released his hold and let his arms slide
around my waist. I reluctantly pulled my lips away from his neck,
and studied his face. He looked harrowed, like he’d just seen a
ghost… or a specter. But I got the feeling it wasn’t the dark
masses that caused the circles under his eyes, or the beads of
sweat lining his forehead.

“Hey.” I reached up to place my palm on his
cheek. He leaned into my hand. “Are
you
okay?”

Henrik exhaled slowly, his cool breath
brushing my face and sending an irritatingly familiar shiver down
my spine. “Let’s just stick together from now on,
ja
?”

“That’s what I wanted in the first place,
thank you very much
.”

“Great. Now that that’s settled, do you two
think we could carry on?” Tyr stood behind Henrik with his arms
crossed.

“What happened to the specters?” I asked.

“We took care of the problem. Let’s just say
the dragon king is going to need a new regime to protect him from
now on.” Tyr tilted his head toward the field. “By my calculations,
Freya should be that way.”