Thor's Serpents (28 page)

M
att lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to his alarm blaring. His door opened. Jake pushed his head in. “Hey, you going to turn that off, kid? Or wait until you wake the whole neighborhood?”

Josh pushed in behind Jake. “Wakey-wakey, Matt. Mom made you something special for the first day back at school. Rakfisk and whey. Breakfast of champions.”

Matt groaned.

Josh laughed. “Just kidding. She made waffles. You can stay in bed for a few more minutes, okay? Give us time to eat them all.”

Matt shook his head as they retreated, closing the door. He yawned, stretched, and rolled out of bed.

It was good to be home.

In a home in Blackwell, Laurie curled up in bed, not quite ready to get out of the soft, warm cocoon of blankets. After so many nights in a sleeping bag on the cold ground, it felt incredible to be in her bed. There were no monsters coming in the door, no mara with their nightmares, no trolls shaking the floor, no jötnar. What
was
there was the smell of breakfast cooking and a bark of her father’s laughter.

“Get up, sleepy bones,” her mother said as she sat down beside Laurie. “Your dad, Jordie, and Fen are driving me crazy.”

“Glare at them; it works.”

“Nope. I’m outnumbered,” her mother added. “Come to the kitchen and help me.”

Fen couldn’t smother his grin as he watched his cousin come into the kitchen. A few days ago, he was afraid that neither of them would survive. The odds of stopping the end of the world had been… bad. Every adult he knew—except the villainous ones—thought that kids had no business running around fighting monsters, and while Fen wouldn’t have admitted it out loud, he had sort of agreed with them.

Fate—or the Norns, actually—hadn’t cared one bit about his opinion, though. Honestly, for most of his life, no one had.
Now he was the alpha of a pack of
wulfenkind
, ones he was going to try to convince to go to school and try to plan better futures. Maybe then, if some other lunatic came along talking about ending the world, they might not be so quick to listen.

“Fen? Laurie?” Laurie’s father looked at them both. “I have a proposal for you. The three of us were talking while you were away… fighting. I’m not going to roam anymore. I have permission to stay in Blackwell because of what you kids did.”

Fen and Laurie exchanged tense looks, but he noticed her little brother grinning widely.

“I talked to Eddy,” Laurie’s father continued. “He’s willing to terminate his parental rights if you agree to let us adopt you, Fen. Would that be okay?”

“Say yes, so you get to be my brother,” Jordie blurted.

Laurie reached out and squeezed his hand. “You’re already my brother. Always have been.”

Then Fen looked at Laurie’s mother. His aunt had never really liked him, and although he’d stayed with plenty of relatives who didn’t like him, this felt different. She’d be his
mom
if he said yes.

“Give me a chance?” she asked. “I misjudged you.”

Fen nodded. “Okay.”

Both Laurie and Jordie launched themselves at him, and his new parents smiled and joined the giant group hug. He wasn’t usually a hugger, but this was sort of an exceptional
moment. He had a family, a real family who
wanted
him. He could hug them.

Laurie and Fen walked to school in a sort of comfortable silence that meant even more to her after everything that had happened. They were almost there when he glanced at her and asked, “Do you think your mom minds?”

“No.” She bumped him with her shoulder. “She’d have stopped him before we knew about it if she disagreed.”

Fen nodded, and they walked a little farther before he said, “Baldwin sent me a message. He’s trying to convince his parents to move here.”

Laurie laughed. “If anyone can do it, it’d be him.” She looked at her feet, not really wanting to tell Fen that she’d heard from Owen, but not seeing any way to avoid it. They’d learn to get along, or they wouldn’t. There was no way she was choosing between them—but if she did, they all knew Fen would win.

“So did Cyclops boy call yet?”

“Fen!” She blushed and looked away. She’d never had a boy like her before. “Don’t call him that.”

“I could call him other things,” Fen growled.

Laurie met his eyes. “You might be an alpha now, but you’re not the boss of me. You don’t have any more right to pick my… friends than before.”

“Oh come on, Laurie, he was willing to let Matt die and didn’t tell you I was going to end up with the Raiders.” Fen’s voice was growly like the wolf he was sometimes. “I don’t like him.”

She sighed and admitted, “But I do.”

Fen bumped her with his whole side. “Yeah, well, I’m
really
your brother now, and it’s not just me he’ll need to prove himself to. I’ll be telling Unc—I mean,
Dad
and our little brother all about your
boyfriend
.”

“Of course you will,” Laurie muttered. They might have saved the world together, but Fen was still Fen—overprotective and surly. “Well, maybe I should tell them about the crazy stunts you pulled when we were fighting.”

Fen laughed. “Like you sending flaming arrows at a frost giant? Or opening a portal to Hel?”

Laurie sighed. “How about we don’t tell them any of it,
including
anything about Owen.”

For a moment, Fen said nothing. “Fine, but you tell the Cyclops that I’ll be keeping both my eyes on him, and I have a pack of wolves ready to release if he even makes you think about being sad.”

She hugged him. “I love you, too.”

Then she made a note to try to get Matt or Baldwin to talk some sense into Fen. It felt kind of wonderful to only have to think about her small problems instead of the world ending or monsters attacking. Of course, there was no
guarantee that the monsters wouldn’t come again, but right now, the only crises she was expecting were Fen’s attitude and the upcoming math test she was woefully unprepared to take.

Even the pending apocalypse couldn’t keep school closed for long. Nor, apparently, did saving the world from that apocalypse earn him a few extra days off.

Matt’s phone buzzed as he walked. It was a new phone, courtesy of his parents, who had also bought him the iPad he’d been putting aside money for. Apparently, saving the world did come with a few perks, though he still hadn’t been able to talk Mom into the dirt bike. Defeating an eighty-foot dragon was all well and good, but it didn’t compare to the dangers of off-road biking. He’d keep working on it. He’d learned a few things about strategy over the last couple of weeks.

He’d also learned a few things about his family, and the mistakes they’d all made. He wasn’t going to dwell on that—he just wanted to move on—but they’d talked a lot, him and his parents. They’d talked about Granddad, too, and Matt was still working through that, how he felt. There was grief and there was anger and there was confusion, and maybe someday he’d figure it all out, but that wasn’t happening anytime soon.

He’d gotten an e-mail from Astrid that morning, letting
him know she was fine. He wasn’t sure how to respond to that. That was another thing Matt was still working out. Astrid had ultimately done the right thing, but he couldn’t forget that she’d killed Baldwin.

Luckily, the text was from someone he could easily respond to. Reyna was reminding him that Ray had invited him to Deadwood for a historical festival next month. Matt had a feeling the invitation didn’t really come from Ray, but he wasn’t questioning it. It was easier to explain to his parents that Ray invited him, and they’d agreed that a weekend away with his new friend seemed like a fine idea. They wanted to meet the twins’ parents. Not exactly what Matt had in mind, but how bad could it be? Maybe he shouldn’t ask that. The last time he did, his “serpent” turned out to be a fire-breathing, poison-spitting dragon.

Matt chuckled to himself and texted Reyna back, telling her what his parents had said. They were still texting as Matt stopped on the corner. Kids passed and waved and called hello. A couple of his distant cousins stopped, as if wanting to walk to school with the “champion,” and Matt chatted, but he stayed where he was. Then he saw who he was waiting for. Laurie and Fen. Laurie was weighed down by her book bag, and Fen was trudging along, trying to look as if he was being dragged every step of the way.

Matt sent a final text to Reyna, called “Hey!” and ran to catch up with Laurie and Fen.