Perfekt Order (The Ære Saga Book 1) (34 page)

We stood, locked in an angry stare-down,
neither of us willing to budge. He might have been revered and
honored in Asgard, but right now he was pushing my very last
button.

“Fine. You may go to class.” Tyr finally
surrendered. “But I’m coming with you.”

“You’re not enrolled. What are you going to
do there?”

“I’ll watch you.” He grabbed his keys and his
wallet, pulled his leather jacket out of the closet, and unbolted
the front door. “After you.”

I stared at him as he opened the door, then I
walked onto the porch. “You can’t just go to my classes and stare
at me. That would look really weird.”

“Not my concern, baby.” Tyr closed the door
behind him and strode to the Hummer. He held open my door so I
could climb in. “The only thing I’m worried about is keeping you
safe. If you’re so intent on leaving the protection of this house,
then I’ll have to bring the protection to you.”

“Are you going to put me in a personal
glitter bubble?” I fastened my seatbelt as Tyr started the car.

“Kind of.” He handed me a lighter as he
pulled out of the drive.

“You want me to start a campfire?” I
questioned.

“Henrik built this for you. I may have lied
when I said I used a device to cloak us on the beach, but it was a
pretty genius idea. I had Henrik develop the technology you thought
I used when I cloaked us. That little thing distorts the air around
you, so you appear invisible. Be careful using it, since people
won’t be able to see you, and they’ll run into you if you’re not
careful.”

“Are you serious? He really did that?” I
fingered the lighter. Henrik was even smarter than I’d thought.

“He really did. I’ll shield you manually
today, since I’m with you, but if we get separated, I want you to
flick that thing once. You’ll stay hidden until you flick it again.
Fenrir won’t be able to find you.”

My mouth formed a tiny circle. Freaking
brilliant—that was what Henrik was. Brilliant, and just a tiny bit
scary. If he could build this, who knew what else he could
create?

We drove through the woods in silence for a
few minutes before Tyr pulled onto the main road. He grinned as he
accelerated.

“What?” I asked.

“I’ve never been to a college class.” He
chuckled. “This is going to be a first for me. Those are few and
far between.”

“Yeah, well Art History’s a good place to
start. We’re finishing up paintings of Norse gods. You should feel
right at home.”

Tyr raised an eyebrow. “They’re teaching you
about me?”

“They’re trying to. I’m finding the entire
subject slightly unbelievable.”

“I’ll be sure to set you straight.” Tyr
steered into a parking space and jumped out of the car. He opened
my door and offered his arm as I climbed out. “Don’t be too
offended if your friends ignore you today.”

“Why on earth would they do that?”

Tyr waggled his fingers at me. “We’re
cloaked. Just don’t go talking to anyone, or you’ll freak them out.
Watch.” Tyr took a few steps sideways and stood next to a brunette
getting out of her car. “Hello,” he said quietly. The girl whipped
her head around, then narrowed her eyes and walked toward the
Humanities building. “See?” Tyr asked. “Humans are fun.”

“You’re awful.” I laughed. “Seriously,
uncloak us in class. I sit with Charlotte, and she’d notice if I
was missing.” Or sitting beside her invisible. God, my life had
gotten weird.

“Not my problem baby,” Tyr said again. “My
number one concern is keeping you alive.”

“Thanks for that, but I’m equally concerned
with not losing my entire identity because of all of this.” I waved
my hand in a circle in front of Tyr. “And a huge chunk of that
identity is
not
getting marked absent from class, and
not
making my friends wonder where I am. I didn’t come home
last night, and if I don’t show up to class Charlotte will
worry.”

“Or she’ll think you’re having a really good
time with your incredibly hot boyfriend, and couldn’t be bothered
to get out of bed,” Tyr pointed out.

I tapped my foot. “I’m being serious.”

“Mia,” Tyr moaned. “You’re not working with
me here.”

My fingers rested lightly on Tyr’s forearm.
It was so tense, his veins bulged. “I’m really going to need you to
uncloak us for class.” I squeezed. “And maybe for lunch too. I told
Heather that Charlotte and I would meet her after Art History. I’m
going to tell them I’ll be staying at your place for a few days, so
they don’t worry about my sudden disappearance.” I raised one
eyebrow. “And I’m giving them my Meemaw’s lasagna recipe to master
while I’m gone.”

Tyr took a slow breath through his teeth, the
kind one takes when trying not to make the noise one
really
wants to make. “Fine,” he hissed. “But the
second
I sense
something off, I’m flying you straight out of there. I don’t care
who sees it.”

“See?” I hid the tremble from my voice. “I
knew we’d find a compromise.”

Tyr glared at me and marched toward campus.
“You’re going to be the end of me, you know that?”

I hurried to keep up with him. When I tucked
my hand through the crook of his elbow, I glanced up at him with a
wink. “Or maybe I’m just the beginning.”

****

Tyr was gone all day on Tuesday. He jetted
into the woods in the morning, and took the magic rainbow bridge
back to Asgard to talk to Odin about the dwarf situation.
Apparently they couldn’t fit him in for another few days, and if
the clicking in Tyr’s jaw while he slept was any indication, he was
massively stressed about it. While he was away, he left me under
the overly watchful eyes of Brynn and Henrik. They followed me to
class, to lunch, and Brynn even followed me into the bathroom. When
I told her to leave, she pushed out her bottom lip.

“I told you I wouldn’t
watch
,” she
complained. “But if Tyr finds out we let you out of our sight for
one minute… I told you he had a temper, didn’t I?”

“You also told me you weren’t afraid of him.
That it’s Henrik you really have to watch out for,” I reminded her.
“And I swear, nothing’s going to happen if you give me one minute
to tinkle. Honest.”

Brynn covered her mouth. “You said
tinkle.”

“Get out.” I shoved her through the door.

Tyr should have been home by dinnertime
Tuesday night, but at five-thirty there was still no sign of him. I
picked up my phone and dialed, not expecting an answer. Even with
Henrik’s miraculous apps, the probability of my wireless provider
reaching Asgard was slim.

“
Ja
?” Tyr picked up on the second
ring.

“Hi. Um. Wow. I didn’t think you’d answer,” I
stammered. He must have been back on Earth. Back on Earth… jeez, my
life was weird. “You almost home?”

“Sorry baby. I’m going to have to stay in
Asgard overnight. Hreidmar is being a total pain, and Odin’s ready
to wage a war over it.”

“Hold on, you’re talking to me from Asgard?
How is that even possible?” I balked.

“Brynn implanted a chip on your mobile.”

“She whaty-what now? Did I sign off on
that?”

“No.” Tyr sounded sheepish. “It’s one of
Henrik’s transistors. You’ve got reception, and a GPS tracker, that
will work in all nine realms.” Tyr sounded distracted. I could
almost picture him running his hand through his unkempt hair.

“Okay, first of all, let’s ask people before
installing things on their phones from now on. And second of all,
you’re
tracking
me? And you have been since when? Seriously,
when you get home we have
got
to talk about boundaries.”

“Whatever you say,
prinsessa.
Listen,
I have to run. Henrik and Brynn are both staying at the house
tonight. Do you want me to send Freya back too?”

“No.” My answer came too quickly. While I
appreciated everything Freya had done to bring Tyr and me together,
I still hadn’t totally forgiven her for locking me in the house
when I should have been out helping my boyfriend fight. Ahlström
women did not play the damsel in distress. “Are you okay up there?
You’re not in any danger or anything, are you?”

Tyr sighed. “Fenrir’s on the warpath, and
you’re worried about me? You’re something else.”

“You didn’t answer the question,” I pointed
out.

“I’m fine.” Tyr’s smile sounded in his tone.
“We’ve got the Elite Team surrounding the cabinet room.”

“The who?”

“Odin’s top assassin team. Don’t worry,
prinsessa
. I’m in the safest place I could be. And you are,
too. Nothing’s gotten past Henrik yet.”

“Great.” I forced a smile. “So I’ll see you
in the morning?”

“Here’s hoping. Take care of yourself,
prinsessa
. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to
you.” Tyr’s voice caught. “We can go over some weapons training
when I get home, if you still want to.”

“It’s a date. And Tyr?”

“Mmm?”

“Please be careful,” I begged.

I could practically see the twinkle in Tyr’s
eye. Even though he was trying to talk the lord of the realms out
of going to war, he lived for a challenge. He let out a light laugh
as he signed off. “I always am.”

“
HEI,
BABY.” TYR
RAN
into the kitchen late Wednesday afternoon, and swept me up
in a hug. Thick arms crushed me from behind as I was enveloped in
the comforting smell of spruce, pine, and man.

“Hi,” I murmured, reaching up to wrap my
fingers through his hair. Tyr lowered his mouth to my neck and
traced a warm path to my ear, before turning me around to plant a
languid kiss on my mouth. When he pulled away, his eyes were
hooded. “Mmm, I missed that.”

“Me too.” Tyr stroked his thumb against my
cheek. “I don’t like leaving you.”

My heart soared at the words, and I couldn’t
stop the smile that stretched across my face. “I’m glad you’re
home,” I said simply.

“Me too. Now let’s get out of here.”

Wait. What?

Tyr grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the
hallway. He walked to the closet and entered a code in the keypad.
The door opened, and Tyr pulled out two space guns, two crossbows,
and a sword.

Seriously. What?

“What are you doing? I was just about to
start dinner. Should I turn off the oven?”

“Turn it off. We’re going outside. I promised
I’d teach you to defend yourself.” Tyr closed the door with his
foot and headed down the hall, laden with weaponry. I hurried to
the kitchen and turned off the stove.

“Can it wait until after dinner?” I returned
to the hallway. “You just got home. You have to be hungry.”

“No time,
prinsessa
. Thar be monsters
in them woods.”

“Okay, Davey Jones, stop moving and talk to
me right now. What is going on?” I untied my apron and folded it in
my hands.

“Walk and talk, Mia.” Tyr shifted the weapons
to one hand and opened the front door. I tossed my apron on the
entry table and hurried after him. “I learned two things while I
was away. One, Fenrir’s working with one of the biggest monsters of
all time. He’s using him to get to me, and he seems to think it’s
going to work. His thought is if he can take away enough of the
good things in my life, I’ll go back to the darkness and fight with
him at Ragnarok.”

“That’s the end of the world, right? Is it
coming?” I bit down on my bottom lip.

“It’s still looking like it’ll be a long way
off. Like, centuries away.”

Well, that was good news.

“So who is the monster Fenrir’s working
with?”

“Hymir.”

The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t
place it. “Who?”

Tyr continued walking off the porch, and into
the clearing. He stopped when he was about a hundred feet from the
house, and turned to look at me. “Hymir,” he spoke quietly. “My
birth father.”

“Your birth father is trying to make you turn
evil? That is seriously messed up.”

“I told you I came from darkness.” Tyr
grimaced. “So that’s number one. Number two: this is yours now.
Take care of it.” He held up a space gun. “And number three: Odin’s
this close
to opening a full war on the fire giants, who
seem happy to both harbor
and
lend their full support to
Hymir. So they could show up in Arcata to come after you, me, Elsa,
or just cause chaos because they can, at any moment. Weapon up.
It’s time to train.” He tossed my space gun at me, and I plucked it
out of the air with one hand.

Crumbs on a cracker, he wasn’t kidding.

“Nice catch.”

“I can’t believe you threw a space gun at me.
Usually you treat me like some delicate little flower.” I gripped
the firearm. It was lighter than it looked.

“I don’t really have a choice anymore. Things
could get ugly fast, and I need to know you can take care of
yourself. Besides, you’re still my delicate little flower. The
safety’s set.”

Of course it was.

“This model has two settings—stun and
implode. I keep them set on stun, because Odin’s current order is
to capture Fenrir, not kill him. But if you ever find yourself in a
position where you don’t think stun is going to keep you safe, then
push this switch.” Tyr pointed.

“But then I’d kill him.” I hesitated. I knew
what Fenrir had meant to Tyr at one time. “Are you okay with
that?”

“I’m a lot more okay with that than with him
killing you.”

“Oh.”

“Hopefully, you’ll never have to use this
thing. But if you do, and if you’re in danger, you do what you have
to do to protect my girl. Now, the first thing you do with this one
is release the safety.” Tyr stood behind me and turned the gun over
in my hands. He activated the weapon, then placed both of my hands
around the cool metal. His chest pressed against my back as he
positioned my arms, and my skin tingled where we made contact.