“No one’s questioning you.” Fen’s voice was tight. So many sneaking around missions with no action had to be driving him insane.

  I sank lower in my beanbag chair, hoping it would consume me. “I am.”

  “I have an idea, but no one’s going to like it.” Magnus picked at the loose threads around a thin spot near the knee of her jeans.

  I was up for most anything at this point. “Let’s hear it.”

  “We call Bragi.”

  Except that. At least she didn’t suggest we call Vidar. But Magnus didn’t usually make rash decisions. I trusted her with most everything, though she hadn’t always picked right when it came to the gods who raised us. “Why?” I was sincere.

  “It doesn’t matter why. As you ladies would say, that’s a hard no.” Frey was reclined next to Fen on a new couch.

  They’d tried to tug me over there with them, but I wasn’t exactly feeling worthy of that kind of closeness. I shot him a look to convey he needed to not jump to conclusions. “I want to hear her out. Why Bragi?” I asked.

  Magnus leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. “He knows how their operation works, and the information he’s given us so far has panned out. Besides… I have a feeling we can trust him.”

  I wanted to trust Magnus’s gut. She’d saved my skin more times than I could count over the years.

  “He was clear about not telling us more, the last time he was here. It seems like the perfect setup, to feed us good information, just enough to make us want more, and then drop a bad lead,” Fen said. And he was right.

  I wanted to trust Magnus, but this time the signs weren’t in her favor. “Bragi has also low-key stalked us—you—since we left TOM, and rarely done more than offer vaguely threatening, not quite helpful comments.”

  “He told you who you were.” Magnus scowled.

  I gritted my teeth and stared back. “I know who I am.”

  She sighed. “What are our other options? What we’re doing isn’t working. We can’t sit around and wait for Vidar to come for you. You don’t want to trust Bragi? I’ll go to him myself. I’d rather walk into a stupid trap and take the enemy out then, than wait for him to destroy you.”

  “I vote for that thing she just said.” Fen pointed at Magnus.

  Disbelief spilled through me and I looked at him. “You vote for the let’s get trapped plan?”

  “I vote for the let’s stop sneaking around, and kill something instead plan.”

  Frey shook his head. “No.”

  “Let’s take a vote. Everyone in favor of confronting this head-on, aka, calling Bragi, raise your hand.” Her hand shot into the air and so did Fen’s.

  Frey’s frown was the kind of expressions artists preserved in stone for centuries. “I vote against that option.”

  “There are only four of us,” I said. “If I vote with Frey, we’ll have a tie.”

  Magnus shrugged. “If you vote with Frey, you have to offer an alternative. I think that’s fair.”

  I didn’t have an alternative, and I wanted this done. Besides, I was a fucking dragon, and I could do a lot of things I hadn’t been capable of last time I faced Vidar. “Fine. Let’s call Bragi.”

  Sixteen

  Dahlia

  I was surprised when Magnus called Bragi and he not only picked up, but agreed to meet with us. My shock turned to yeah, that sounds about right, when he showed up and told us he didn’t have any more information to offer.

  I set up a projector in the lounge so we could put up maps or any other information we needed, to talk through locations and next steps.

  Bragi walked back and forth between the light source and the image. “Make this 3D.”

  “This isn’t the movies. I’m not Tony Stark.” I wasn’t giving Bragi any leeway. It already rubbed me wrong that I saw no choice but to agree to his being here.

  He looked me over with a gaze that made my skin crawl, then turned to Magnus. “Genius emo with a cute redhead who does half your thinking for you… You might be.”

  “Goth,” I corrected him. “And she’s not cute, she’s fucking gorgeous.”

  Bragi shrugged. “She is. Try this on.” He snapped his fingers and my projected map became a giant hologram in the middle of the room.

  I refused to be impressed. Partly because he’d shown me up, and just as much because he needed to keep his distance from Magnus.

  “Where have you been so far? Which bases?” Bragi’s light show had pinpoints all over its globe, at least a few of which I knew were TOM facilities.

  I was a little terrified they might all be. “There aren’t enough soldiers to occupy that many spaces,” I said.

  “Not all TOM, and not all facilities. FU safehouses here, here, here”—as he talked, he pointed—“TOM ones here and here. FU bases. TOM allies.” He clicked one spot in Australia and zoomed in tighter, right on Perth. One dot became three dozen.

  Holy shit, they were everywhere.

  “I only know what some of these are. I can tell you who they’re affiliated with, but not what they’re used for. I don’t know if any one person has all of that information. But if you tell me where you’ve been, I can help you narrow things down,” Bragi said.

  Fen’s hmm was as much growl as anything. “No. Tell us why Dahlia thinks she’s found Vidar when she hasn’t.”

  Bragi hesitated a heartbeat before saying, “I don’t know.” There was no way his poker face was that bad.

  “Liar.” I was happy to call him on it.

  Bragi stepped closer to Magnus. “When you walk through a room, that faint perfume you’re wearing leaves hints of you behind. It’s you mingled with someone else.” He leaned his head in close enough to inhale.

  Magnus bit her bottom lip. “I’m not wearing perfume.”

  Was this what it was like watching me with Fen and Frey? No, because there was no threat of them betraying us.

  “You are,” Fen said. “Just a hint, freshened up about half an hour ago. Except the scent you leave behind—that anyone leaves behind—is more of a shadow than the same smell. Even potent perfume doesn’t smell the same on a person as it does once they leave a room, so if Bragi is saying a magic signature is the same…”

  “What I’m sensing is strong when we look for Vidar. My magic is working fine.” I didn’t like the implication to the contrary. Besides, I’d already considered what Bragi was proposing, and been doing quiet tests with the people around here, to see if I could tell the difference between how they felt in a room and how a room felt once they left.

  I could.

  “Dahlia, close your eyes,” Bragi said.

  As if. “No.” My answer came out on a laugh of disbelief.

  “Magnus?” he asked.

  She complied without question.

  I didn’t care for any of this. Especially when Bragi brushed his fingers along her neck, and lingered. I’d ruin him if he hurt her.

  “Do you feel that?” Bragi’s voice was low. Seductive.

  Magnus nodded.

  Bragi dropped his hand away and took a few steps to the side. “How about now?” His voice still sounded like it came from next to Magnus.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Vidar is doing the magical equivalent of throwing his voice.” This time Bragi’s voice came from Bragi’s mouth.

  Magnus’s eyes flew open and she whirled toward him.

  Pieces clicked in my mind. Vidar was playing with me. “He can tell when I’m in one of those places, even if I’m hiding.”

  “Likely, yes.”

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “So every time Fen and I go somewhere, it’s because he wants me there, and he’s just sitting back and laughing?” I hated this. All the mind games. All the complications. All the twisty, turny, movie-level stupidity just to… what? “Is he testing me?”

  “Only Vidar knows why he does what he does,” Bragi said. “I assume some of it has to do with destroying you before you take him down. Some of it is probably vengeance against Fen. Presumably Vidar’s a little bored as well.”

  Everybody at TOM had learned the story of how the Big Bad Wolf Fenrir Slayed the Mighty and Righteous Odin.

  The story we’d been taught in school was nothing like the one Fen told—go figure—but he had dealt the killing blow to Odin in both tales.

  “We need to force this confrontation,” Fen said. “Do we pick one of these locations, go stand in the middle of the building, and shout for his attention? We’re not going to sit here waiting for him to decide it’s time to come after Dahlia.”

  “Or you,” Frey added.

  Fen shrugged. “At least then I’d know where to find him.”

  “That exactly.” Magnus pointed at Fen. “Wait.” She frowned and squeezed her eyes shut. “Pull up a flat globe and plot out all the places we’ve been so far.”

  I was already working before she finished talking, because I knew exactly where she was going. “Holy shit, you’re right.”

  “Care to fill us in?” Frey asked.

  Gods were as superstitious as anyone. They liked their symbols, especially those that gave them power or took it away from someone else. For instance, the original TOM campus had been laid out like a sacrifice circle, because a sacrifice was needed to free the god locked beneath.

  I pointed to the dots on the map, and connected them as I did. “Do you see it?”

  Bragi sang something softly that sounded distinctly like, and Bingo was his name.

  Fen glared at him, then turned back to the computer. “The sigil on Vidar’s churches.”

  “Arrogant fucker.” The only thing that surprised me about the discovery was that I was related to the arrogant fucker. “We’ve basically been hitting each mark in order, based on how the sigil is drawn.”

  “What if we skipped ahead one?” Magnus finished my thought.

  I lit up the TOM facilities Bragi had given us, and used the type of facility to narrow down our options. We were left with two choices for a destination, based on our logic. “If we do this and anyone sees us besides Vidar, we’ll need a new angle,” I said.

  Fen squeezed my shoulder. “Does it feel right to you?”

  “You’re not hesitating now, after all this, are you?” Bragi’s tone was taunting. “Is this why you were doing recon before you made each play? Did you want to ensure Vidar knew you were looking for him?

  If he was trying to get under my skin, or get me to decide with some sort of reverse psychology, I was perfectly capable of thinking myself out of the situation without his help. But I felt something. It was time to decide. “He’s there,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  “Great. See y’all ‘round.” Bragi’s hologram disappeared.

  Frey grabbed his wrist before he could do the same. “How about you stick around,” Frey said. “You’ve been pushing a confrontation like this for a while. Now’s your chance to see how it turns out.”

  “And your chance to kill me if it doesn’t go well. I get it. But you have a point—I would like to see Magnus and Dahlia win this one.” Bragi settled into a nearby chair.

  I felt like an afterthought in his statement, but he hadn’t even mentioned Fen or Frey. Why was he here? I still didn’t understand or believe the motivations he’d given us, but asking him hadn’t offered any additional insight so far.

  Planning didn’t take long. We’d been ready for this fight for days, and I knew how to work side-by-side with Magnus and Fen.

  I took their hands, followed my senses, and teleported us to the room I sensed Vidar in. When we appeared in an office, he was sitting at his desk. He looked up, shocked.

  I hesitated, and Fen rushed past me, already in wolf form. He lunged across the desk, a glorious beast too big to be as graceful as he was.

  Behind us, a door slammed open, the crack of a gunshot deafened us, and Fen stumbled in mid-air with a whimper.

  He landed on one knee, in human form.

  “I didn’t expect to see you here, Dahlia.” Vidar focused on me. “You found me more quickly than I thought you would.”

  Why were we standing here? Why wasn’t Fen attacking? I tried to summon fire, but it didn’t work. Or to port us out of here, that wasn’t happening either.

  Panic welled inside. Fen pushed to his feet, but as he stood, black tendrils of death crept up his neck and down his arm. The wound was in a place meant to hurt like hell, but not pierce anything vital.

  Magnus was keeping us shielded, protecting us though everything in the room had come to a painful stop while Vidar stared us down. But that one lapse on my part… My inability to fight the way my team needed me to, was about to cost us dearly.

  And no matter how hard I focused, I couldn’t get us the fuck out of here. Why did I think I could do this? Why did I trap them here?

  “Dahlia.” Magnus was shouting my name. “Do something.”

  I was trying. Panic in battle wasn’t my thing, no matter how much I hated the situation, but watching Fen in agony, knowing I was letting the people closest to me down—

  Bragi appeared in the middle of the three of us. “To me. Now,” he barked, and grabbed Fen’s good arm.

  Magnus and I made contact with them, too. This wasn’t the time to argue.

  Then we were back in NEON, in the lounge, with Fen in agony and me being fully responsible for the entire mess.

  Seventeen

  Freyr

  When Bragi vanished without a word, I’d been furious he was leaving before his betrayal was exposed.

  When he reappeared seconds later with Dahlia, Magnus, and Fen in tow my relief was short lived. I recognized Fen’s wound immediately—I’d seen something similar on Starkad, and I knew how difficult it was to cure.

  I shoved panic and a dozen questions aside, scooped Fen in my arms, and carried him upstairs. He was too weak to do more than protest.

  Everyone followed. “Call Min,” I told Magnus. “Get him here now. However it needs to happen. Dahlia, ice from downstairs. Start with a large bag. We’ll get more soon.” I laid Fen in bed.

  “How can I—”

  I whirled on Bragi, grabbed his shirt, and slammed him into the wall. All of my rage was focused into my grip. “You set us up.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I’ve been completely honest with you.”

  My laugh was tight and threatening. “You haven’t been. You’ve been lying about at least one thing, your motives for being here, because I feel it. Every time you look at Magnus, I feel it. What else are you hiding?”

  “I thought I was hiding that better. I can help you with Fen, or you can punch me, knowing when it doesn’t hurt, you won’t feel better.”

  I knew better than to hit most gods, but I also knew Bragi’s weakness, and it played to my strengths. “No hitting.” Letting go of his shirt, I moved my hand to his throat. There was no squeezing or choking. The skin-on-skin contact, the emotion flowing through me, would be impossible for him to ignore.

  His pained gasp made me grin, but joy was one of the things I didn’t currently feel.

  “He saved us.” Magnus was back, and her plea was timidly unlike her.

  “He sent you in there. Is Min coming?” I asked.

  “I can’t get a hold of him. Of any of them. I’ll keep trying, but please stop.”

  Dahlia stopped next to me and rested her hand on my arm. “Let Fen have him, once Fen’s healed.” Her tone was ice compared to Magnus’s pleading.

  And I much preferred Dahlia’s logic. “Don’t go anywhere.” As I let go of Bragi, I intensified the barrier I kept in place to separate NEON from the rest of the world, and made sure he couldn’t leave without a great deal of effort.

  Dahlia sat on the edge of the bed and pressed a bag of ice to Fen’s wound. I had no idea if it would help, but it didn’t seem to be making things worse, so there was that.

  Fen was conscious, but his face was contorted in pain.

  “The bullets are made for creatures who represent death.” Bragi must have a distinct wish to be fed to one, given he was still talking. “They’re most effective on those who refuse to embrace their true nature. It’s why they nearly killed Kirby.”

  I didn’t want to be listening, but I couldn’t help it.

  “They didn’t impact Dahlia at all,” Magnus said.

  “In some ways a dragon is the opposite of a Valkyrie—dragons are life where Valkyries are death. I don’t know why Vidar thought Dahlia would be a viable target when he shot at her—maybe he hoped she had more of his blood in her,” Bragi said.

  Dahlia snorted. “Something to be grateful for, I suppose?”

  “I’m sorry this happened to Fen. I would heal him if I could.” Bragi sounded sincere.

  I didn’t want his apologies or sympathy or bullshit. I wanted my wolf to be all right. If Fenrir didn’t make it through the next twenty-four hours, neither would Bragi.

  Magnus had her phone to her ear. She would frown, pull it away long enough to jab the screen, then shove the device near her head again.

  Dahlia looked like she was on the verge of tears.

  Fen… it hurt to see him. The pain etched into his features ripped my heart to shreds. Had I ever felt this helpless? I needed to do something, anything to make sure he survived.

  I pointed at Bragi. “Don’t move. Don’t talk. Or I will bind and gag you, and not in a fun way.”

  “Fuck that. You brought me here. You asked me for information, and I provided. I hope Fen lives, but you all can go fuck yourselves.” Bragi vanished from the room.

  I bit back a roar of frustration, but I’d hunt him down if I needed.

  “Call me. Please. Please, please, please answer your phones.” Magnus left the same message she’d already left several times.

  I crouched next to the bed, next to Dahlia and Frey, and studied his drawn face. His eyelids fluttered, but he wasn’t conscious. What could I do?

  Fuck. Min and I were the same kind of god. Sex. Fertility. Life. He didn’t have healing power either, but when Kirby was shot with these same bullets he’d… what? Loaned Kirby some of his life? I must be able to do the same. Focusing on that part of me was more difficult than I thought, especially with thoughts of murdering Bragi having taken up residence in my head.

 

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