“We should’ve nailed that bastard,” Dag said, dropping down onto the couch.
“And found out nothing about his release. Nothing about his presence here.” Val said.
I walked to the closet to hang Val’s jacket. He nodded his thanks when I returned.
“We can’t just let him roam around here loose.” Frieda said. “It’s not safe.” She turned to me. “Why the heck didn’t you text one of us that you were coming?”
Bren glared at me and waited for an answer.
I closed my eyes. I had been so busy sneaking out and thinking up excuses for Sydney that I’d forgotten to let them know I was leaving.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I forgot.”
Bren opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again and shook his head. After a long pause, he pressed his hands into his hips. “Where’s Skye?” He glanced at the sliders.
“Here.” Skye stepped into the apartment and closed the door behind her. Her cheeks were rosy against her pale skin.
Bren spun on her. “Where have you been? I told you I don’t want you…”
“And I told you,” she broke in, “that I will not be ordered around like some minion. It’s bad enough to have to work wherever we go…”
“This is not about authority. You’re putting everyone in jeopardy.”
“I knew the second he was here.”
“And arrived too late.”
She did not answer back. Instead, she threw herself down on the couch, crossed her legs and folded her arms over her chest.
Frey dragged a chair out from under the kitchen table and sat down, slumping, his legs stretched out wide in front of him. “Hell, why don’t we just go get him? Make him tell us what’s up?”
“If we give it some thought,” Val said, pulling out a second chair and leaning on the back of it, “we may be able to find a way to do that without tearing up the place.”
“There’s six of us and one of him.”
“That’s not the point,” Val said. “He’ll know we’re coming. And he’ll be prepared. He doesn't care for this place as we do, and we know what he's capable of.”
Bren nodded. “We’ll wait.”
He put his hand on the small of my back and motioned toward the hallway. I stared up at him, my stomach clenching. At first I thought it was embarrassment at the thought of everyone watching us walk up to his bedroom together, but when they started to talk to each other, speculating, ignoring us completely, I realized that I was seeing him differently. I had felt his overwhelming anger at Loki, watched everyone in his family defer to him instantly, heard him threaten to destroy a dangerous criminal with no hesitation. I could not imagine being alone with him. He would fill the room, crush me.
His expression softened and in that moment, I was sure he knew my thoughts. He let his hand drop and motioned up the hall again. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s talk.”
I kept my breath even as I made my way up toward his room and cleared the threshold. He closed the door behind us. The window was open, the icy breeze rattling the blinds. Bren quickly stepped around me to close it.
“Frey's big on fresh air,” he said. “Your coat is still here if you need it.” He motioned to my coat, hanging on the corner of the closet door. I shook my head. He took a step toward me and stopped at arm’s length.
“I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”
“I didn’t say I was…” But when he smiled, I let my words go.
“I know none of this has been easy for you. I’m sorry if I scared you. There’s no other way to deal with Loki.”
“He just didn’t seem that…threatening. He seemed so…”
“Charming? Polite?”
“Sad.”
“What?”
“When I looked at him. Into his eyes. I felt …sad.”
Bren sighed. “It’s a trick. He’ll manipulate you if you let him.” He took a step closer and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “What did he say to you?”
I tried to remember. Somehow, my whole experience of Loki seemed foggy. “I think we just talked about the dog, mostly. And then you came.”
“That’s no dog.”
“What do you mean?”
“Fenrir is an Asgardian wolf.”
“A wolf? But he was so sweet.”
“Fenrir is a monster. He mauls and maims and kills. During Ragnarok, he attacks one of the most powerful gods in Asgard and swallows him like a scrap of meat.”
I felt the blood drain from my face as I thought of Fenrir's muzzle against me, my hands in his fur.
“Why didn’t he hurt me?”
Bren shook his head.
We stood like that for a moment, the silence filling in around us. I stared at the black fleece of his sweatshirt, letting its soft comfort envelop my imagination and blur the events of the evening in my mind. Finally, he stepped close to me and grasped my shoulders. His hands were warm, and warmer still as they slipped down the bare skin of my arms.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” he said again. “When I saw him so close to you, looking at you like that, like he…” he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before returning his gaze to mine.
I touched his hair, then pressed my palms into his chest. He peeled his sweatshirt off, letting it fall to the floor as he pulled me against him.
“You have to stay. I can’t let you go back. Not after this.”
“You know I have to be back before my mother wakes up,” I said, and part of me wished that I was like the rest of them, so that he could order me to stay and I could plop down on the bed and pout.
“Jenna this is serious.”
“I know it is.” I let my hands move up over his collarbone, traced the lines of muscle in his shoulders. “But you have to understand that I live in a world outside of all this. I can’t just decide what I think is best and then do it. My mother doesn’t know - and wouldn’t understand - what’s going on here, and I still have to follow her rules. If I don’t, things will get so much worse.”
“We can take care of all that. Skye can…”
“No.” I said. “I won’t let her be manipulated like that.”
He stared down at me for a long time and I wondered if he was angry.
Finally, he said, “It’s too soon. Isn’t it?”
“Too soon for what?” My imagination ran to the worst. Too soon to have a fight. Too soon to break up. Too soon to realize he’d made a mistake with a stupid girl.
“Too soon to say I love you.”
I stared back at him, sure he must be joking, and when I saw the honesty in his face I let out a long sigh that was part relief, part amazement at my own luck.
"I've lived with myself a long time," he went on. "So I don't have to contemplate much. But if it's too soon…"
“No." I said, not knowing if it was or not, and not caring. "Not if I say it, too.”
He grinned. “So, now do I have the right to tell you that you aren’t going anywhere?”
“No. Do you want to take it back?”
“No. I want to hold you while you go to sleep, and figure out how I am going to protect you while you’re at school and when I’m at work.”
“I could say I’m sick and stay home,” I suggested.
“No. He’s staying here. You’re probably safer off the property. And I’ll know if he leaves.”
“Aren’t you usually on shift when I get home from school?”
Instead of answering, he broke away from me, strode over to the door, opened it and stuck his head out.
“Skye.” He called. The talking in the living room stopped.
“Yes.” She said.
“Please let us know about half an hour before Jenna’s mother wakes up.”
“Whatever.”
He came back and threw himself onto his bed, flicking his fingers for me to follow. I sat on the edge and looked down at him.
“Yeah, but we won’t all be on s
hift at once.” He finally said in answer to my last question.
“I’m not getting babysat every free minute of my day.”
“Jenna, I’m not playing around here.” He sat up again.
“I’m not going to let this guy rule my life.”
He raked his fingers through his hair. “I know you’re a smart girl. But you aren’t grasping this situation.”
I stared at him. He stared back for a moment, then let himself fall onto the pillow and flung his gaze to the ceiling. “Just make sure to stay around people when you get home,” he said. “I don’t think he’ll try anything in a public place. There’s a reason he’s here, and he won’t want to screw things up by making a freak of himself. Stick to the lodge or the deck, anyplace busy. Wait for one of us if you need to go up to your place. And for gods’ sake...” he stretched his hand toward me. “Come here.”
I grinned through my irritation and let myself fall into him. He wrapped his arms around me and sighed.
Chapter 22