“Excellent.”
The door closed and opened.
“If you want—” Kera began, which was when Ski flipped over, and Lev fell back on the bed.
Jace reached out for her dog but Ski grabbed him first and holding Lev out in front of him, shoved the puppy at Kera.
“He’s about to pee on me,” Ski lied. “Could you take him outside while we get up?”
“Oh. Uh . . . okay. Sure.”
“Great. Thanks.”
He pushed the pair out of the room and closed the door, then stuck the high back chair from the corner under the knob.
Jace expected that Ski would return to bed, but instead, he opened her closet door and disappeared inside.
She sat up. “What are you doing?”
“I’m throwing some of your clothes into this duffel bag,” he explained, haphazardly grabbing some T-shirts and a couple pairs of her jeans. “And I’m going to take them out of here.” He went to her chest of drawers and pulled out bras and socks and panties, and quickly shoved them into the bag as well. He didn’t even bother properly folding them. That didn’t seem like Ski’s way. She sensed he was all about clothes folding, but not at this minute.
Then again, she could sense his desperation. “I will grab Bear and take him out of here,” he went on. “You will, as soon as you can manage, meet me at my house. You will be moving in.” He stopped and stared at her. “Because I can’t do this.”
“Do what?”
“Bear was just going to stand there. Quietly. And, every fifteen minutes, on the dot, he would ask, ‘Are you up yet?’ He’s very similar to a snooze alarm and, if things aren’t too urgent, I use him in that fashion. But this”—he waved the palm of his hand at the closed door—“this I can’t do. If I hadn’t shoved that animal into Kera’s hands and pushed her out the door, she would have been in here over and over again, every few seconds or minutes, in no real order, with some new thought that had randomly flitted across her mind until—and I hate to say this—I would have been forced to kill her. And I am well aware that such an action would have led to the end of the peace treaty the Protectors have with the Crows and Ravens.”
“Plus there would have been some moral issues surrounding her murder,” Jace teased.
“Exactly, but it would have been necessary. Because I can’t live this way. You can do it and that’s admirable, but I can’t.”
He walked to the door, stopping to yank the high back chair out of the way, and opened it. Erin, who was about to knock from the other side, quickly pulled her fist back.
She smiled in greeting. It was one of her warm, friendly smiles. Not her plotting, evil smile. But the difference didn’t seem to matter to Ski. He simply shook his head and said, “No, no, no, no.” He looked back at Jace.
“I’ll meet you at home,” he told her, then picked Erin up by her shoulders, moved her into the room, and walked out.
Erin pointed at the open and empty doorway. “What just happened?”
Jace grinned. “He loves me and wants me to move in with him!”
“Oh.” Her friend nodded, smiled. “Okay.”
“Erin Amsel!” Chloe screamed from somewhere in the house. “Why is there a goat in my bedroom? Eating my expensive sheets!”
Erin’s lips briefly twisted before she said, “I forgot about that goat.” After a moment, she shrugged. “Still, it was a great party. Totally worth it.”
After helping Bear out of an argument with Rachel and her strike team that he was surely going to lose, Ski quickly deduced that there were not a lot of books that they would need to bring back to the house with them. So they’d taken what looked important and got out.
Carrying two small stacks each—and the duffel bag filled with Jace’s clothes over his shoulder—they walked into the Protector house and Ski happily sighed in relief.
The quiet. The wonderful, blissful quiet.
“I don’t understand why they had so much romantic fiction,” Bear complained as he came in behind Ski. “Who reads that stuff?”
“The Crows, apparently. And I saw just as many murder mystery novels as romances. Although I did see several books on Stalin and Genghis Khan.” He stopped by the stairs and faced Bear. “I don’t know about you, but I found it worrying that the only history books they have in that entire house that didn’t involve Chloe as a writer or editor were books on two brutal dictators.”
Gundo came down the stairs. “So glad you’re back, brother!”
“So am I.” Ski looked around. The whole house was busy with activity. The Protectors were working. Preparing for Gullveig’s return. But they did it all quietly.
“And where’s our beautiful Jace?” Gundo asked.
“With the very chatty Crows. She should be here soon.”
“What does soon mean?”
Ski sighed at his friend. “Don’t you start.”
“Don’t worry,” Bear said, handing the books he held off to one of the younger brothers. “She’ll be here.”
“Are we sure?” Gundo asked. “Crows can get easily distracted.”
Ski, unwilling to have this discussion yet again, began to walk away, until Borgsten came into the house with Jace’s puppy in his hand.
“You had Borgsten steal that animal?” Ski demanded of Bear.
“There’s no guaranty that she’ll follow you here,” Bear patiently explained. “But she will follow that dog.”
“If the Crows find out you stole her dog—”
“Kera gave him to me herself,” Borgsten replied, handing Lev off to Bear, who started to cuddle the little beast, until he realized they were all watching him. “That Marine has a mission now so, yeah—she’s going to get annoying.”
“True.” Ski shrugged. “But she’ll get the job done. That’s what she does. She’ll make a good war general for the Clans.”
“You think it’ll come to war?” Gundo asked.
“I don’t know,” Ski answered honestly. “But no matter what happens, our job is to make sure we’re all ready. And we will be.”
He turned toward the stairs, placed his hand on the banister. “Until then, though, you’d better secure that animal, Bear. Before Salka sees it.”
“Too late.” Bear walked off, Salka hanging from his ass, her claws dug in deep.
Ski’s vindictive cat was not happy about the new presence in her house and she seemed to know exactly whose fault it was.
After a quick shower, Jace changed into jeans and a T-shirt, stuffed her feet into her black Converse sneakers, and ran down the stairs.
She knew she had to get to the Protector house before Bear made Ski’s life hell.
She called out to Lev a few times, determined to feed him before she left.
“Borgsten has him and he’s gone back to the Protectors’ house,” Kera said from the kitchen.
Jace met her in the hallway. “Why does Borgsten have my dog?”
“He said Bear knows you’ll follow Lev.”
“Your working with the Protectors is going to drive me crazy, isn’t it?”
“Probably, but it won’t last forever. Just until we get the answers we need.” Kera took a step back. “What? What’s wrong?”
“What if I can’t find the answer?” Jace asked. She’d been thinking about that the entire time she was in the shower, panic beginning to sink into her bones. “What if I fail you? What if I fail everybody?”
“You’re not in this alone,” Kera reminded her. “You’ve got us. You’ve got the Protectors who, from what I’ve seen, adore you. You’ve got the Ravens. And the Maids are doing their own research. This is a group effort. So you can’t fail anyone. Just do your best. I trust you.”
Jace glanced down the hall when she heard knocking at the front door, but she knew one of her sisters would get it, so she stayed with the current conversation.
“You’re going to make a really good war general, Kera.” Her friend cringed and Jace quickly asked, “You’re not going to vomit, are you?”
“Everyone needs to stop asking me that,” Kera snapped. “I’m not running around, vomiting everywhere.”
“Are you sure?”
Kera’s eyes narrowed but at least she no longer appeared nauseated. Just then, arguing from the front door caught their attention.
Together they headed down the hall, and that’s when Jace saw her, trying to push her way in, and screaming.
Screaming for Jace.
Kera immediately grabbed her arm to hold her back, but Jace shook her friend off and walked up to her mother, catching hold of the sweatshirt she wore and shoving her back out the front door.
“Jace—”
“Leave us!” she ordered her friends.
It took a moment, but they finally closed the door and Jace pushed her mother away from her.
“Go!”
“What did you do to him? What did you do?” her mother screamed.
“Your false prophet is no longer here.”
“You killed him,” she gasped.
“I thought he couldn’t die.”
Her mother swung at her face with an open hand but Jace easily caught it, held it. Bent the wrist just enough to cause her mother to wince.
“Now listen to me,” Jace said softly, but firmly. “Your false prophet is no longer my problem. He’s no longer your problem. He’s now the government’s problem. He’s in a facility where he can no longer cause anyone any harm, including himself. You should be grateful. They’ll take such good care of him.”
“Where are the others?”
Jace gazed at her mother for a long moment before she asked, “What others?”
Her mother shook her head, lips a thin angry line. “You evil, evil child.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. He was found on the street last night. Alone. Crazed and out of control. Talking about insane, unfathomable things. He was immediately taken into custody and he’s safer now. He won’t be hurting anyone ever again.” Jace shrugged. “But if the rest of his congregation is missing, I really don’t know what to tell you. I have no idea where they could be.”
“You’ll burn in hell for this. I’ll tell—”
“You’ll tell who what?” Jace asked. “That they came here to kill me last night? To kill my friends?”
Her mother’s mouth slowly closed and she looked down at the ground, proving to Jace that her mother had known all along what Braddock and the others had come to do. To not only kill a group of strangers, but her own daughter.
She’d known, and she’d done absolutely nothing to stop it.
“You should go now,” Jace told her, no longer feeling anything for this woman. “My friends don’t like you being here. Bothering me.”
Her mother lifted her gaze. First to Jace’s face and then above her.
Her eyes widened and Jace knew her sister-Crows were perched on the roof, watching out for Jace. Protecting her.
“Go,” Jace told her mother again. “And don’t come back. I don’t ever want to see you again.”
Jace turned and walked to the door, but she stopped, and added because she felt she had to, “And just a last word of warning—if my grandmother suddenly comes looking for you, or one of my uncles . . . you better run.”
Ski waited on the stairs until Jace came into the Protector house. She took one look at him and sighed.
“Kera called you, didn’t she?”
“She was worried. Your mother came to the Bird House and she said you calmly handled it. No red eyes. No berserker rage. The Crows don’t know how to deal with the calm you.”
“What was there to get angry over?” She stepped in front of him, dropping her backpack at the base of the banister. “She can’t touch me anymore. Not emotionally. Besides, she’s lost without him. I almost feel bad for her. Almost.”
Ski wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her in close. He pressed his head against her belly and just held her. He felt her body unwind, her fingers stroking his hair.
“I heard from that Claw,” he said, talking about Bystrom, the ATF agent and Claw of Ran member who’d been involved in the prosecution of Jace’s ex.
“What did he want?”
“That Federal Prosecutor went to the hospital to see Braddock. After that, he wanted to come talk to you. Bystrom said he managed to put him off. I didn’t ask how. I didn’t care.”
“That was very nice of Bystrom.”
“Well, it was either that or Bystrom would have had to put the poor guy down if he found out too much. It’s better he tells him whatever lie will keep him away.”
“Agreed. Jennings is a really nice guy. He simply never understood what he was dealing with.”
“Well, none of that matters now.”
Ski turned his head, looked up at Jace. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me, too.”
“And you’ll stay?”
“Of course. You told me you loved me and you asked me to move in with you.”
“Well, actually what I said was—”
Ski had to stop talking, completely distracted by a silent Bear suddenly walking around Jace, with Lev in his hands. He held the puppy out in front of him and, after moving the dog around Jace’s head and face a few times, he began to slowly walk backward, the dog still held out in front of him.
“What . . . what’s Bear doing?” Jace asked softly
Ski blew out a breath. “Luring you with your puppy.”
“Why?”
“He wants you to get to work.”
Jace opened her mouth a few times until she finally shrugged and stated, “Okay.”
They walked toward the library together. Her arm around his waist, his around her shoulders.
“Will your brothers mind me living here now?”
“You? Not at all. Kera will also be welcome. Actually, everyone in your strike team will be welcome . . . except Erin. They will not be happy if Erin comes here.”
“Oh, come on. Erin’s not that bad.”
“Erin’s personal weapon is fire. There is no way that Marbjörn Ingolfsson, who comes from a very long line of Viking book lovers, is ever going to willingly allow that woman into our library around our precious books. Just not going to happen.”
Jace suddenly slowed down, her gaze locked on a spot across the hall.
“What?” Ski asked. “What is it?”
She cringed. “I think I might have an idea. I’ll need to research it first. Heavily. But . . . yeah. I might have an idea how we can end Gullveig for good.”
“Please tell me it has nothing to do with Erin ‘I live to be difficult’ Amsel. Please. If you love me . . . please.”
“I do love you,” Jace said sweetly. “But, sadly, I cannot make that promise.”
“Yeah,” Ski said as he kissed her on the forehead. “I was afraid of that.”
EPILOGUE
The passenger door opened and Jace took Ski’s hand. He helped her out of the car and she immediately smoothed down the skirt of her dress. It was a cute dress she’d borrowed from a sister-Crow, but she didn’t usually wear clothes like this. But she knew tonight was special, and if she didn’t want to get yelled at for “not even trying!” she had to put on the damn dress.
“Breathe,” Ski told her.
“I’m breathing.”
“Actually, you’re growling. And your eyes are getting that red tinge.”
He was right, of course, which was why he’d had to drag her here. She’d give anything to be in the Protector library doing her research. That’s where she’d been for the last two weeks and she’d been loving it. Every day, she went to the library and immersed herself in books, looking to see if her still shaky—and possibly ridiculous—plan could possibly work to kill Gullveig. And every night she went to Danski Eriksen’s bed.
It would all be perfect if she had any clue that she was on the right track. But Kera had been right. Jace wasn’t in this alone. She had the Protectors and the Maids working right along with her and none of them were
about to give up. They wouldn’t.
“It’ll be fine,” Ski promised. “We brought baklava.”
Jace laughed and leaned in, kissing him.
“Thank you for coming with me.”
“Did you think I would miss this for the world?” He picked up the big box of baklava and headed to the small house.
Seeing it again, after all this time, nearly had Jace exploding into one of her panic attacks, but she fought it. Everything was going to be fine.
“There is one thing,” Ski said, stopping in front of her.
“What?”
He winced a little, making Jace think something was horribly wrong until he said, “I love you.”
“Oh.” Jace nodded. “I know. You told me.”
“Actually . . . I didn’t.”
“You did. I clearly remember you telling me you loved me.”
“No. I said you drove me crazy. I meant, at the time, literally that you were driving me crazy.”
“Whatever,” she said, walking around him, “but that’s not how I remember it.”
She heard him laugh behind her and knew her face was bright red from embarrassment, but she ignored it and went to the door, ringing the bell.
A few seconds later, the door opened and Jace blinked, looked at a startled Ski, then back at the door.
“Bear? What are you doing here?”
“Your grandmother invited us. She said she wanted to get to know the men who are going to be around her granddaughter. Then she called me annoying and hung up the phone while I was still talking.”
Ski sized up his brother Protector. “Did you ask her a lot of questions, Bear?”
“I guess some might say, but I thought they were very pertinent.”
“Of course you did.”
“She invited you guys,” Jace asked, “but not my sister-Crows?”
“She called them whores she didn’t want around her other grandchildren.”
Jace turned to leave but Ski blocked her with his body.
“Anyway,” Bear went on, clueless, “she has Norwegian beer.” He held up the bottle, gazed at them both a moment more, then walked away.