Whisper of the Ravens Book 2: Fehu E-Book

Malene Sølvsten

• Herausgeber: Arctis US
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: Whisper of the Ravens
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 871

Beschreibung

Anna reaches Hrafnheim, an unknown parallel world full of gods, demigods, and creatures. There she is picked up by soldiers of the ruler Ragnara, but a renegade officer of the army, Rorik, frees Anna. Together they set off to free her twin sister Serén, who had been captured by Ragnara. The road to the capital city of Sént is full of deadly dangers, and the vision of her own murder plagues Anna incessantly. She begins to realize more and more that Ragnarök, the end of the world, is directly linked to her own fate . . . The second book in an epic and gripping fantasy series where murders and supernatural forces meet in an unprecedented way.

Leseprobe

Malene Solvsten

Whisper of the Ravens – Fehu

Translated from the Danish by Adrienne Alair

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

TRANSLATOR’SNOTE: The quoted passages from Völuspá, Hávamál, and The First Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane are based on the translation of the Poetic Edda by Henry Adams Bellows, which is in the public domain. The passages from Hrafnsmál are from the translation of Heimskringla by Alison Finlay and Anthony Faulkes.

This translation has been published with the financial support of the Danish Arts Foundation.

W1-Media, Inc.

Arctis Books USA

Stamford, CT, USA

Copyright © 2024 by W1-Media Inc. for this edition

Copyright © Malene Sølvsten & Carlsen, Copenhagen 2017. Published by agreement with Gyldendal Group Agency

First hardcover English edition published by W1-Media Inc./Arctis Books USA2024

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

The Library of Congress Control Number: 2024931203

English translation copyright © Adrienne Alair, 2024

This work is protected by copyright, any use requires the authorisation of the publisher.

ISBN978-1-64690-624-6

www.arctis-books.com

For my sister, who, when I finally admitted I was writing a book about witches, demigods, and clairvoyants, didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow but simply asked: How can I help?

Part IMagic Wisdom

Necklaces had she

and rings from Heerfather

Wise was her speech

and her magic wisdom

Widely she saw

over all the worlds

Völuspá

10th century

Prologue

The New Year’s Eve party at The Boatman was spectacular, but my stomach was in knots. All I could see was everyone who was missing. My remaining friends had ominous shadows hanging over them.

It was a good thing I could only see the past.

I looked out over the dance floor one last time before sneaking away.

Od’s office with its many doors looked the same, except there was now a cage inside. Bars and all.

In the cage sat Frank, his hands folded. He raised his head when I came in. I ran a few steps toward him, instinctively happy to see him again, before my brain reminded me that he had tried to kill me on my birthday, just over a week ago.

“Have you come to take revenge?” His voice was placid.

“I had no idea you were here. I’m here for another reason, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone you saw me.”

“I owe you that much.” Frank looked closely at me. “I meant it when I said I wished it weren’t you I had to kill.”

I tried to make my face hard. “I’d just like to know why.”

Frank stared at his hands again. “I can’t tell you that,” he whispered.

I did it without thinking. It was dangerous, and it was stupid. But I reached between the bars and took Frank’s hands. Then I pushed my clairvoyance into him and pulled the past out. My eyes overflowed with tears of empathy. “The boy,” I said. “Ragnara has your . . . is it your grandson? My life for his?”

Frank was still.

“Do you know where he is?”

Frank looked away. No.

I pulled my hands back, and Frank didn’t try to hold on.

“What will happen to you?”

Again, his face was serene. “I expect I’ll be executed.”

Panic shot through my body in a violent surge of adrenaline. All I could think was: No, no more deaths!

“Neither Od nor Niels is executing anyone.” It took all the willpower I had to keep my voice from shaking.

“No, but they’ll deliver me to Ragnara.”

I gathered my courage. “Will you kill me if I let you out?”

“Yes,” Frank said without hesitation, and I immediately took a step back.

Evidently, the deal still stood. The child’s life for mine.

“As far as I can tell, there’s no magic keeping this door locked.” I pointed to the door of the cage. “And if I were to give you, let’s say, a letter opener, you could get the lock open. After a little while. I get a head start.”

Frank sat up a bit straighter. “One hour, max.”

“Until early tomorrow morning,” I negotiated.

He didn’t have to think about it for long.

“Deal.”

I pulled a pair of jeans, my biker boots, a black hoodie, and my mom’s coat out of my bag. My high heels I kicked off and tossed in a corner, but after giving it some thought, I laid the green dress I’d been wearing in the bag with the rest of the items I’d packed, including the last bit of klinte, Mads’s giant crystal, Rebecca’s notebook about Hrafnheim, and Freyja’s tears—which, if nothing else, I could sell. I was dressed in a matter of seconds.

Outside the door, people started counting down.

“Seven—six—five . . .”

I took a letter opener from Od’s desk. “Which door leads to Hrafnheim?”

“It’s too dangerous. They’ll kill you.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Four—three—two . . .”

“Do you want the opener?”

Frank bared his teeth, then pointed at a blue door.

“One—Haaappy New Year!”

I tossed the letter opener to Frank before I flung the door open and threw myself into the dark.

Chapter 1

Two days earlier—Ravensted

The sun reflected off the sand in sharp beams, bright white apart from the wet spots that darkened it here and there.

Dark red spots.

Where was I?

A tattooed hand lay in front of my eyes.

I was lying with one cheek placed directly on the sand. The sun beat down on the exposed side of my face. The bottom part of a pillar stood in the middle of my field of vision. A pillar? This made no sense. Where in the world was I? Confused, I let my gaze glide farther away and saw row after row of spectators stretching up, up, up toward the sky. The wall of people was arranged in a semicircle around me. The crowds filled the stands, but no one made a sound. They just stared breathlessly at something to my right.

A creaking noise from several ropes dangling with something heavy at their ends combined with the stench of blood, sweat, and sheep.

A weak baaaah rang out, but it didn’t sound like any animal I knew.

Footsteps crunched through the sand, and a pair of feet passed my line of sight. Female feet. Small and delicate in gold-ornamented sandals. The gold was shaped into a tangle of snakes, and the ankles were bare. A strange material of interlocking black stones clinked around the woman’s legs like some kind of stone chain mail.

The feet continued moving away from me. Now someone was heaving anguished sobs. For a second, I thought it was me.

No. The sobs weren’t coming from me. Just above me, a girl’s voice begged: “Please, please.”

The enormous crowd drew in a collective breath.

“That’s her,” they whispered. “That’s Thora Baneblood’s daughter.”

I tried with everything in my power to turn my head, but I couldn’t budge.

“Thorasdatter has engaged in conspiracy, and she supports the resistance against us.” The voice was high-pitched and almost childlike.

A few faint booos sounded from the stands.

“It is our gift to the people that we rid you of her scheming, and of her,” a brief pause, “her lifestyle.” This last bit was added with chilling acidity.

A sharp creeeak indicated that someone or something was being hoisted up. The sound of strangulation made the hairs on my arms stand up.

The spectators roared with excitement.

“Watch her hang,” someone shouted. “Out with her tongue. Out with her tongue . . .”

I turned my head to see where I was, but the sun shone in my eyes and blinded me.

Before I could see again, I heard the squeal of metal being pulled from a sheath. This was followed by a sound like a shovel being plunged into sand.

Again, the spectators gasped.

Blood sloshed down over me, and I gagged, nearly choking on the warm liquid. Then I regained enough control over myself to realize I didn’t even need to breathe.

A lock of fiery-red hair fell quietly and came to rest in a little curl on the sand in front of me.

I woke with a gasp and raised my hands to protect my mouth from the warm blood, but I ended up flailing aimlessly in the air.

Luna put an arm around me. “Is something wrong?”

We were lying close together on the mattress in the small green room in Luna’s parents’ house. The room that my best friend had declared mine. The colorful blankets and pillows certainly hadn’t been my idea, but Luna insisted that their color energy protected me.

“I’m okay,” I lied.

“You do know that whatever you dream at Christmas will come true, right?”

“What?” I turned my face to her in horror at the thought of the blood-spattered sand and the stench of animals.

“I think it’s just a superstition.” She yawned and rolled onto her back. “Can’t we sleep a little longer? I’m still stuffed from yesterday.” She patted her stomach. “I don’t know if I’ll even fit into my dress for the New Year’s Eve party in two days.”

I sat up and tossed aside a neon-yellow cushion. My movement caused the comforter to slide down.

“Aah, it’s cold,” she whined.

“It’s my blanket,” I said and yanked it off her completely. “What are you even doing in here?”

She rubbed her eyes, which were slightly puffy from sleep. “You were shouting in your sleep. First you called out for Arthur. Then Monster.”

“Neither of them is coming, no matter how much I shout.”

My father was still resting by his body, and Monster was back in Hrafnheim, so he was no help. Luna brushed away a few tangled curls that had strayed across her eyes. Her hair was ash gray at the moment.

“We came in when you called for me.”

I looked down and picked at an orange thread. “Thanks,” I mumbled, but with a jerk of my head, I looked up again. “Wait. What do you mean by we?”

The pillows and blankets on Luna’s other side moved, and Mathias stuck his gorgeous face up between a pair of blue Indian bolster pillows.

“You guys do know this is a single mattress?” I said.

Mathias reached across the comforter and took my hand, so his strength seeped into me. His divine power—or whatever it was he had—was growing day by day.

I pulled back my hand in mock anger. “What part of ‘I struggle with intimacy’ don’t you understand?”

“It’s just the effect of my dad’s spells.” Luna pulled the comforter back. “You’re actually highly receptive to human contact—and color magic.” She patted the saffron-yellow sheet.

I imitated my social worker’s tight facial expression and smacked the garish comforter. “Would you at least respect my intimacy issues?”

Mathias scoffed. “You don’t have intimacy issues. Maybe people have issues being intimate with you, but not the other way around.”

I flung myself backward. “You guys are impossible.”

Luna pulled down the neck of my T-shirt and traced the thick scar on my chest, where Ragnara had stabbed me as a baby. Inexplicably, I had been healed in Ragnara’s hands.

“You look tough,” she said, using her other hand to lift a lock of my bright red hair.

Mathias nodded behind her. “But we know you’re a total softie.”

I pulled up my camisole and pounded on my sculpted abs. “Hey. I’m not soft.”

“Wanna bet?” Luna lay on top of me and jabbed her fingers in my sides.

I groaned, smiling but slightly panicked, and tried to get away, but Mathias, laughing, followed Luna’s lead and tickled me until I could barely breathe.

Downstairs, Ben and Rebecca were up. I went to join them so my smitten friends could finish kissing.

The Christmas celebrations were still going strong, even though I was ready to puke at the thought of more duck fat and alcohol.

Rebecca was humming in the open kitchen, and Ben was busy arranging some feathers and a cat skull on the shelf next to a figurine that bore an uncanny resemblance to him. With great concentration, he used a yellow, grainy substance to draw a rune on the skull’s forehead. “Jólnir, Thor, Heimdall,” he chanted, quietly at first, then louder and louder with each word. “Færa,” he concluded, and the word was drawn out until it faded into breath.

“Doesn’t færa mean ‘to prevent’ in Old Norse?” I asked.

Ben didn’t answer. The grainy substance dried and flaked off the skull. He exposed his white teeth and tried again. “Jólnir, Thor, Heimdall, Færaaaaaahhh.” This time he hissed the final word in an elongated, insistent manner, but the substance once again sprinkled down onto the shelf like yellow dust. “Gnit,” he exclaimed, and although I didn’t understand a whole lot of Old Norse, it was clear he was cursing. “Louse,” he translated, followed by a couple of French words that required no explanation.

“They won’t take the offering,” he said to Rebecca.

Next to the decorated Christmas tree, Ben and his setup looked bizarre. I tried to ignore his outfit consisting of fuzzy pants and a he-goat mask pushed up on his forehead.

Rebecca set a steaming bowl on the table that smelled sweetly of apples. “Dearest Anna Stella. Come and eat.”

“Oh goody, even more food.” I looked out the window at Odinmont, which sat on the other side of the field, half-hidden in a bank of fog. I had on several occasions tried to fight my way up to the house, which I still regarded as my home, but the hill was magically sealed off, and no one could penetrate the spells. We had no idea why.

Luna came dancing in with Mathias at her heels. She gave her mom a kiss on the cheek.

Rebecca patted her daughter’s head absent-mindedly.

“After we eat, we’ll place sheaves of grain in the field,” she called after Luna, who had already made her way over to the table.

“Didn’t you also put sheaves out yesterday?” Mathias asked.

“Odin rides with his ghostly entourage during the nights around jól. His savage, undead oskorei can be appeased if we leave out food for their horses.”

My eyes grew wide. “Odin? You mean Svidur? He comes here?”

“He goes everywhere,” Ben growled and nudged me onto a chair. When his large hands touched my arm, I felt his humming magic.

At the table, Rebecca said a blessing in which she gave thanks for nature’s gifts. The rest of the Sekibo family joined in with hands folded, eyes closed, and heads bowed. Mathias and I looked down awkwardly at our plates, until we could finally turn our attention to the meal. I stared out into space as we ate and chatted—admittedly, the others ate and chatted, while I silently poked at my food.

“. . .  in turns. That way she can’t get close. Right, Anna?” Luna waved a hand in front of my face.

I focused on her. “Yeah, yeah, of course.”

Four pairs of eyes looked in my direction, and I looked down at my breakfast, which consisted of chicken thigh, apple compote, and hot mead. When the silence began to hang heavy over the table, I gave in and looked up again.

“I wasn’t listening. I’m not used to people talking about me. Not to my face, anyway.”

“We were saying we need to take turns being with you. Ragnara will certainly come after you again,” Mathias said.

Panic spread through me as I looked at Ben’s sparkling gold teeth in the middle of his dark face and Rebecca’s nearly phosphorescent, cornflower-blue eyes. Luna sang a couple of verses in Old Norse, and Mathias looked at her with pride. I didn’t dare think about what could happen to them if they came between Ragnara and me.

After the meal, we went to place sheaves in the fields surrounding Ben and Rebecca’s house. Luna’s bongo drums were strung on a strap she wore slung across her shoulder. Behind the steady thump-thump, her parents chimed in with vocals. They stopped when they saw the previous day’s sheaf still sitting there, slumped over. Not so much as a single grain had been eaten. Even the birds kept their distance.

Rebecca looked desperately at her husband. “Maybe they didn’t come this way.”

“Oskorei always pass through.” Ben squatted down and picked up a limp ear of wheat. “They rejected our offering.”

Rebecca looked toward the misty sky. Her eternally bare feet tapped nervously on the frozen ground. Large flakes fell down to meet us. “We’ll put this here, too,” she said and lifted a bundle. “Maybe when they see the extra . . .”

But Ben had already stormed off to the barn.

Inside, I sat by the living room window and looked out into the snowy weather.

Once again, my gaze had come to rest on Odinmont without my even noticing. It was so recently that I had lived up there with Monster. My throat constricted. It was just a few weeks ago that Varnar had been there with me.

“What are you thinking about?” I hadn’t even heard Rebecca approach me. She laid a cool hand on my cheek. “You’re miles away.”

Actually just a couple of hundred yards.

I didn’t respond.

“He left to protect you,” Rebecca said gently. She continued boldly, even though my face must have been more than enough warning. “Varnar knew that you would risk your life for his if he stayed. That’s why he went back to Hrafnheim.”

My eyes stung, so I clung to my anger. “He left. I don’t care about the reason. He left. Monster left. My parents left. That’s all anyone’s done my whole life.”

She looked at me with one of her unreadable smiles. “We’re happy that you’re here now,” she said and walked back to the kitchen.

At the dinner table that evening, Rebecca passed around a small pouch.

“The runes tell us about the year to come,” she said.

Everyone pulled out a piece of bone. A symbol had been carved onto each one. Mathias held his up, and Rebecca examined it.

“Sol,” she said contentedly. She gave the l an elongated, flat pronunciation. “The symbol of heaven. Divine.” She stretched her neck to see Luna’s. “Reid.” She smiled once again. “You will go on a journey both internally and externally. Ben?”

He opened his hand. His palm was lighter than the rest of his skin, and the tattooed symbols stood out beneath the piece of bone. “Tyr,” he said.

“Ahh . . . the god Tyr. Protector, just and victorious.” I caught a glimpse of a love so strong, it was as if they had just met.

He returned her gaze, and suddenly I found myself liking him a little better.

Rebecca looked down into her own hand. “Bjarka.” She inhaled through her nose. “Birch. The mother of all runes. Nature, creation, and equilibrium.” Her eyes moved to me. “Anna?”

I fingered my piece of bone and turned it over a couple of times. “It’s blank.”

“What?” Rebecca took the piece from me. “How did that get in there? It’s an extra, in case one gets lost. Pull a new one.”

I obeyed.

Blank.

“Again.” Rebecca’s blue eyes shone.

Same result. I held a blank piece of bone in my hand.

She overturned the bag, and rune after rune tumbled down into her hand. “Take one of these,” she told me.

“But then it won’t count,” I protested. “And I don’t believe in it anyway.”

“It seems more like the future doesn’t believe in you,” Ben grumbled.

The words hung over the table, and I impulsively pushed back my chair, stood, and ran.

Outside, it was unusually still. The frost that had lain like a silvery shroud over the landscape on my birthday had been driven away by pouring rain, and an endless drip-drip-drip could be heard everywhere. In the spot where the moon was hidden behind a tufted layer of cloud, it was a bit brighter. Everything else was packed in surreal, filtered light, and I was staring out into a wall of dark gray. A short distance up the field sat the sheaves—both old and new—still untouched. It smelled like damp soil. My breath hung around me like a cloud, and I leaned my head back as I got control of my emotions.

A flash of light shot across the sky in the one little peephole through the clouds to the heavens above, and I smiled. Ben would surely say it was Thor, riding across the sky in his goat-pulled chariot, but I held that it was just a shooting star.

I allowed myself one wish. “I hope we meet, Serén,” I said silently to my sister, somewhere out there. Maybe she could hear it. Maybe she had already heard it a long time ago. I breathed in deeply and let the chilly night air calm me.

I stiffened when I heard a sound.

It was a raspy breath coming from Ostergaard’s field, which was right in front of Ben and Rebecca’s house. Right now, I could barely see more than a couple of yards into the field, let alone the imposing mansion down there. I backed toward the door and was about to flee inside when a rough voice called out.

“Anna, are you there?”

I stopped with my hand on the ice-cold doorknob.

“Monster?” I shouted. “Monster . . .”

Chapter 2

I leapt out into the field, and even though it was pitch dark, I ran as fast as I could in the direction of Monster’s voice. My ankle twisted several times in the soft dirt, but I quickly got to my feet and pushed on. It was now raining hard, and large drops struck me like icy pinpricks.

“Where are you?” I called and fumbled around. My hands glided over the cold, wet earth.

“Anna.” The voice was closer, but it was strangely faint. It sounded nothing like Monster’s powerful voice.

“I’m coming.” Crawling on all fours, I patted the mucky ground, unable to see my hands in front of me. Finally I detected an enormous outline, and my fingers found fur.

“Monster,” I panted. “Why are you lying down?”

His fur was crusty and covered in warm, wet blotches that I could tell hadn’t come from the rain.

I slid all the way down onto my stomach, and the chill from the earth sent a shock through my body, but I didn’t care. I snaked my arms under Monster and tried to lift his large wolflike body.

“Anna,” he moaned again. “Stop.”

“What happened?” I tried again to lift him and felt wounds and more warm liquid on his fur. So much . . .

“Listen, Anna,” he thundered, sounding almost like his old self. The illusion was shattered when he let out a very doglike yelp. “We were overrun in the Iron Forest, and your sister was taken by Ragnara’s people. I tried . . .” he made a gurgling, disturbing hacking noise, and I didn’t grasp exactly what he had tried to do, but judging from his injuries, it hadn’t ended well.

“Serén?” I breathed. “Is she dead?”

But twins could sense if the other died. Couldn’t they?

“No,” Monster said flatly. “She’s not dead. Yet.”

“Yet?”

“Serén said . . .” He yelped again. “She saw that Ragnara’s coming for you. Ragnara wants you two together. She no longer wants to simply kill you; she wants to capture you.” His raspy voice ended in a dull bark, but he forced the words out.

“Monster,” I cried. “What happened to you?”

“We were captured,” he said. “Serén told me what she had seen. She helped me break free, but I didn’t have the strength to bring her with me.” He moaned again. “I had to warn you.”

“What did they do to you?”

He didn’t answer my question. “You need to get away from here, Anna. Ragnara is coming, but you can change fate. You have to find Serén before . . .” He stopped to gasp for air. “You have to find Serén.”

“What did they do to you?” I asked again.

“I’m irrelevant.”

My hands hovered over his body in the dark. “Irrelevant!” I inhaled tremulously. “You’re anything but irrelevant.”

“You and Serén are all that matter.” His voice was paper-thin.

I couldn’t bear the thought that he had run through Hrafnheim in this condition. I forced myself to focus.

“Where is Serén now?”

“She’s . . .” his voice trailed off.

“Monster,” I begged, crying. “Where is she?”

There was no response.

“Monster?” I pulled at his limp body, and I managed to drag him a good distance toward Ben and Rebecca’s house through the muddy field. I shouted over my shoulder. “Help me! Luna! Mathias! Help!”

At that moment, the clouds moved away from the moon, and what I saw was so terrifying, I screamed.

“Monster,” I sobbed. “You can’t. No! No!”

He was my best friend. He was one of my first friends. He couldn’t . . .

“Monster!” I was now shouting so loudly, it resounded across the fields. So loudly, it was like I was trying to wake the gods themselves. But there was no help to be had. “No.” I shook him. “Come back.”

A green flash told me Mathias was at my side, and that he had gone into demigod mode. Luna chanted spells, and, unbothered by Monster’s colossal weight, Mathias took him in his giant green arms and picked him up. Ben and Rebecca were there now, too, and they chanted around us, but I was aware of nothing but Monster’s glassy eyes, the tongue hanging out of his mouth, and the dark, wet trail we left behind on the pale gravel of the driveway, up the stairs, and on the floor. It smelled salty, sweet, and iron-rich. We entered the living room, and there the light revealed more.

I should have turned my face away, but I stared at him, frozen. I saw every one of his wounds.

“Save him!” I commanded. “Do something.”

The witches exchanged a look without speaking.

Mathias tried to press his godliness into Monster, shouting in frustration.

“He’s a giant,” Rebecca said quietly to Mathias. “You can’t use your powers on him.”

“Do something.” I stroked Monster’s snout and ears. “Do something,” I repeated, louder.

Ben’s buzzing magic shot into me, and a moment passed before I realized that he had grabbed my arm.

“Anna, there’s nothing we can do. Witches and gods have no effect on giant wolves.”

I shrugged his hand away. “I don’t care about your stupid rules.” I looked around with teary eyes. “Elias. I’ll call Elias for help.”

“His medicines don’t work on giant wolves, either,” Rebecca said.

Even though I was gasping for air, I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath. “What the hell are all your powers good for if you can’t save the most important things?”

Mathias, who was on his knees, had let go of Monster, and his arms hung at his sides. His hands lay on Ben and Rebecca’s tile floor. He had returned to human size, and his neon-green glow was gone. He didn’t speak, but his expression said it all.

On the floor, Monster lay completely still. His sharp teeth were bloody, and the huge paw I discovered I was holding had started to grow cold.

I stroked my hand across his forehead, which had always made him lift his head up to me. Then I shook his paw, but his leg flopped heavily.

“He’s gone, Anna.” Someone grabbed me by the shoulders.

I raised my hand from Monster’s paw, ready to attack, but when I realized it was Luna, I lowered my arm, and she wrapped herself around me and held me tight.

At first, I could do nothing but breathe shakily. I slid down over Monster’s motionless body. Even though I can’t see giant wolves’ auras, I had no doubt that he was no longer here. I hugged him close.

No one tried to pull me back.

Mathias and Luna sat at my side and rubbed my back while I cried and screamed, not that it made any difference. I barely noticed when someone, probably Mathias, carried me up to bed. Suddenly, my surroundings were just moving past me, and I landed on the mattress. I lay there between my two friends and clung to Luna while Mathias held me, and the few times I was somewhat conscious, I whimpered helplessly.

I allowed myself this one night of despair. This one night, I could grieve.

But in a corner of my consciousness I knew, when morning came, I had to do something.

Monster’s body was gone when I came downstairs on trembling legs. A dark spot on the tile floor marked where he had lain.

Rebecca looked at me with concern from where she stood among dried herbs and decoctions in the kitchen. Ben took a half step toward me but stopped when his dark gaze met mine.

“He was an excellent leader to his people, a valuable ally to us, and the most loyal friend you could have wished for,” Ben said ceremoniously. “He was able to see beyond conflicts between men and giant wolves.” He was silent as he drew some symbols in the air. A couple of weak sparks around his tattooed hands told me he had cast a spell, but I didn’t care.

“Where is he?” I rasped. I had cried so much my voice wasn’t working properly.

“In the barn,” Rebecca said.

“He’s in the barn?” This came out like a squawk.

“He must be returned to his people so they can lay him to rest, but right now there is no passage to Hrafnheim.”

I tried to think clearly. “So how do you get to Hrafnheim?”

Her voice was thin. “You can’t go there right now.”

“At all?”

Ben rumbled. “There’s a portal in The Boatman, but only Elias is allowed to travel through it. Not even Od can go to Hrafnheim. There’s also a passage down at Ostergaard, but Paul doesn’t let a lot of people pass. I don’t know how Etunaz got through, but we can’t go the other way unless the mission is pressing.”

“Pressing?” The word came out like a shout. “But this is pretty damn pressing. He can’t just sit out in the barn and . . .” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

“We put a stasis spell on him, so he won’t decay.” Rebecca said quickly. Then she hesitated. “Do you want to see him?”

My hand flew to my mouth.

“He’s laid out like a king with grave goods and offerings to the goddess of death. Hel must be appeased, since she can’t have him right away.”

“Hel?” I asked, disoriented.

“She’s the sister of Etunaz’s ancestor Fenrir, so she has the right to him.”

Something turned in me. “I don’t want to see him.” Slowly and deeply, I filled my lungs with air. “Where is his . . .” I searched for the word, “. . .  soul?” Maybe I could talk to him, like I did with my dead dad.

Now Ben stood right next to me. “Giants have no soul.”

I wanted to protest, but Rebecca interjected. “Not like humans, anyway.” She gave her husband a long look, and for once, Benedict obeyed and kept his mouth shut.

I tried to stay calm. “Monster was able to tell me something, before he . . .”

Ben rolled his hand for me to continue.

“Ragnara has my sister,” I whispered.

Ben let out a violent exclamation I was glad not to understand, and Rebecca gasped.

“Ragnara is coming here to get me, because she wants to have us both.”

Rebecca clutched the edge of the table. “We’ll send a message to Thora and Varnar. Everyone from the resistance movement is gathered at Haraldsborg in Hrafnheim. Maybe they can come here and protect you.”

I jutted my chin out. “It’s not enough. Monster said I need to find Serén. I have to go to Hrafnheim myself.”

“You’d be heading straight into Ragnara’s arms. It must be a trap,” growled Ben.

Even though I was hoarse from crying all night, I was shouting now. “Would Monster give his life for a trap? I trust him more than anyone else.”

Ben’s shoulders grew wider as he stood up even straighter. He wasn’t even listening. “You have to stay here where it’s safe.”

I threw up my arms. “I’m anything but safe here.”

Ben was still talking to himself. “I’ll have to put more spells on her.”

“Her? You mean me?” I backed up as he aimed his palms at me. They began to crackle and glow as the tattooed symbols stood out starkly.

“Dad!” Suddenly, Luna stood between us. I hadn’t even heard her enter the room. She went up to Ben, and he bared his white teeth but held his magic back. Luna took another step forward, so her nose nearly touched his electric hands.

“Do not put any more magic on Anna.”

Now Mathias was there, too. He stepped in front of me, so my two friends functioned as a shield.

“Thanks,” I mumbled to them. “Thank you.”

Ben grumbled but lowered his hands.

I quickly turned and ran up to my small, green room, where I locked the door and, for good measure, placed a chair in front of the handle—not that it would help if Ben changed his mind. Exhausted, I sank onto the bed. I closed my eyes and slipped immediately into a gray whirlwind of snowflakes and branches.

I looked around and needed only a couple of seconds to figure out where I was.

Kraghede Forest?

I turned around in a circle and determined I was in the forest, and that it resembled the many visions I had had since last summer. The visions that had always ended with Frank strangling me and running off across the field to Odinmont.

“Anna,” came a voice. “Anna, are you there?”

Again, I spun around and gave a little shout when I was looking into my sister’s face. “Serén?” I exhaled slowly. “Why are we here?” I pointed at the dreamlike surroundings of the deep-frozen Kraghede Forest.

She looked around as well. “This place is important.”

The forest was still, with only the sporadic sound of leaves rustling.

I looked intensely at Serén. “Are you okay?”

Her fiery-red hair was messy. “I am for now.”

“Where are you?”

“I don’t know. There are stone walls and tapestries, but no windows. And something is blocking my power. It only works once in a while.”

“Monster didn’t manage to say where you are.” The words felt like sharp knives.

She lit up. “He got to Midgard. He made it. The future was so uncertain, and . . .” She stopped when she saw my expression. Then she laid her hand on her heart. “He didn’t make it.”

Suddenly my vision blurred, but I blinked the tears away.

Serén looked down. “I sent him to you because I hoped—believed—that it was his only chance.”

I inhaled shakily and took control of my voice. “He was able to tell me that I need to find you before Ragnara comes after me.”

She looked up and nodded. “She will. I’m sure of it. I saw her in Ravensted. She’ll come after you in the new year.”

An ice-cold sensation snaked down my back. “What about the witches? If I leave, won’t it put them at risk?”

“She squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her head to listen to something I couldn’t hear. “If you leave before the end of the year, everyone’s safe, I think.”

“You think?” I repeated, but I quickly realized that Serén’s guess was probably the closest I could get to a sure thing. “Did you send me a vision in some kind of arena last night?”

She squinted. “An arena? No. What happened in the vision?”

Serén had enough to worry about, and I wasn’t even certain it was a warning. Maybe it was just my overactive subconscious at work. “Nothing,” I replied and changed the subject. “How do I get to Hrafnheim?”

She bit her lip. “I don’t know. You’ll need help.”

I scoffed. “Either people can’t help, or they don’t want to.” I thought bitterly of the witches and Od.

“I’ve seen you in Hrafnheim, so there must be a way.” Her eyes grew distant. “And the prophecy does say that Thora’s blood can lead to Ragnara’s death. You must have the power to kill her. It’s somewhere in the future, and she knows it.”

“It could also be you who kills her. You’re just as much Thora’s blood as I am.”

Serén laughed, and I saw how pretty she was. Incredible to think she was identical to me. “I don’t think it’s me. You’re the past. You’re the destructive one.”

I wanted to protest, but ended up just shrugging. She was right, after all.

“But how do I get out of here? None of the people I trust are willing to help me.”

She grasped my hand, and it felt so real, I could almost forget we were in a dream. “Then get help from someone you don’t trust. I know you can do it. You just have to make the right choices.”

“Because I’m known for always making the right choices.”

“Just get help.” Serén’s voice was tense. “From anyone.”

The words were still reverberating when I woke up in my colorful bed. I stared up at the ceiling, where Luna had painted a rainbow connecting two worlds together. Tiny people walked along it.

“Get help from someone I don’t trust,” I repeated.

I knew exactly who that was.

Chapter 3

“Pick up, pick up,” I begged silently as I pressed the phone against my ear. Elias didn’t normally take this long to answer.

“I’m already looking forward to hearing your voice.” Elias sounded frazzled despite the smooth words. “You are the only . . .”

“Shut up,” I snapped. “I don’t have long.”

With just one day until New Year’s Eve, I was more than a little pressed for time.

“Is something wrong?” His voice was strangely brittle.

“Yes.” I did not elaborate.

Elias sounded frustrated. “Are you already in danger again?”

“I need to see you,” I said in lieu of answering his question.

A deep sigh was all I heard.

“Elias!”

“Sorry. I just closed my eyes and enjoyed the fact that you said that.” Though the words were his normal flirty style, he was short of breath.

“Monster is dead.” This was the first time I had said it outright.

“Etunaz . . . but . . . how?”

I clenched my teeth so hard it hurt. “Where can we meet?”

I heard Luna’s footsteps on the stairs.

“I’m currently studying at the monastery in Jagd.”

“You just up and joined a monastery?”

He stifled a sound with a cough, and I couldn’t make out if it was a laugh or an offended sniff. “Meet me in the church.”

I didn’t answer, but hung up and threw the phone on the bed as the door handle turned.

We sat at the back of the bus. Me in the middle, with Une and Aella on either side. We swayed every time the large vehicle took a turn into the small towns, where no one was waiting at the stops. When the door slid aside with a metallic groan and a hissing noise, we were struck by a cold wind. Une’s graying hair was gathered at the nape of his neck, and he looked uncomfortable in the blue nylon jacket Ben had loaned him. Under the jacket, he was armed to the teeth.

“How far is it?” Aella spoke in a monotone. Monster’s fate and my sister’s capture had shocked her.

“Shouldn’t we go together?” I tried.

“My orders are to look after you here in Midgard. We have to stay here!”

“But Serén said I should go to Hrafnheim,” I pressed.

She turned away from me and looked out over the slushy, gray Jutland landscape. “My orders,” she repeated.

“What happened to you deciding whether you obeyed orders or not?”

Aella whipped her head back toward me. “I refuse orders if I think they’re stupid, but I promised your sister I would look after you. I swore,” her voice faltered, and Aella quickly composed herself before continuing. “I promised Serén,” she said slowly, “that I would stay here, no matter how much trouble she’s in. Don’t you think I’m fighting every second not to rush back there and help her?” Aella ran a hand over her short hair. “But a promise is a promise, and there’s always a deeper meaning behind what Serén requests.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What exactly did you swear? That you would stay here, or that you would stay here with me?”

“Same difference.”

I suddenly grew very focused on looking down at the bus’s worn linoleum floor. “I agree with Serén,” I said. “You should stay here in Midgard.”

My biker boots crunched through the gravel of the parking lot as my protectors turned in circles. The wind tore at us, tasting of salt and sandblasting my cheeks. With my eyes upturned, it struck me that this was another of the region’s few buildings above sea level. This hill, however, was significantly larger than Odinmont. I studied the monastery, which had no ornamentation or frills. Just high, smooth, chalk-white walls with elegantly shaped windows. Although my power could clearly sense the activity here, the place instilled a deep calm in me.

“I’m going into the church,” I said and walked determinedly across the courtyard. Latin song reached me from inside the building, and I was unsure of whether it was the past I was hearing or the present.

A young monk in a pale robe stepped in front of me. “Welcome,” he said with a wry smile. “You must pay to enter the church.”

My eyes widened. A ghost?

“When the church your money reaps, your soul from purgatory leaps.” He clasped his hands and shook them toward the snow-heavy sky.

I squinted at him. “Are you haunting me right now?”

“Uh . . .” he said.

I stepped closer. Poltergeist? “What will you do if I go in without paying?”

“I’ll call the people in the kiosk.” He pointed to the gift shop. “The concert is part of the Christmas market.” He straightened his glasses.

Glasses, Anna. He’s wearing glasses!

“One, please.” Cringing, I paid and was on my way through the low wooden door.

Une grabbed my arm, stopping me with a jerk. “You’re not going anywhere alone.”

I laid a flat hand on his chest. “Yes, I am.”

Une didn’t move, but I pushed harder against his torso while looking him right in the eyes. “Look. I can’t go anywhere, and I’ll shout if I run into any problems.” When Une still didn’t back off, I added, “You can’t do anything violent in a church. That’s a rule here in Midgard.”

Even though I knew perfectly well that that rule was frequently broken, Une grudgingly relented and took a step back. He walked up to the robed monk.

“Is there another exit?”

The young man touched his glasses again, confused. “On the other side, there’s a small blue door.”

Une walked off with a serious look as the monk watched him. Aella positioned herself in front of the entrance with a wide stance and a vigilant gaze as I went in.

I crept through the church without seeing Elias. At the altar stood a choir dressed in robes, and the harmonious voices rang out through the interior of the old church, which smelled of wood and candle wax. No one in the mostly elderly audience noticed me.

I looked down at the gravestones in the floor, following the years backward in time until I reached the early 1600s. I had ended up in the little baptistery in the lower corner of the church, and an army of half-naked baby statues stared at me from all sides. I felt a warm hand stroke the back of my neck, and I jumped. Elias removed his hand and prepared to say something, but the words remained on his soft lips.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. Despite his smooth skin, he suddenly appeared ancient.

I knew I’d start sobbing if I said anything, so I kept my mouth shut. For a second, we held each other’s gaze, and Elias clenched his fists as if to keep them at his sides.

I finally found my voice. “I have to . . .”

“Shhh.” Elias looked around at the little statues. “Not here.”

“They’re made of wood.” I furrowed my brows.

Elias didn’t respond but pushed on the baptismal font, which slid aside to reveal a staircase. He began the descent, and I reluctantly followed, knowing Une and Aella would be furious if they knew I was willingly allowing myself to be shut in an enclosed space with a four-hundred-year-old mad scientist. Above us, I heard the baptismal font slide back into place as we stepped into a small room outfitted as a study.

“Aah!” I stifled a scream and took a step back. I was alone with a four-hundred-year-old mad scientist and a brain.

The beige lump sat in a bowl on the table.

“What the hell are you up to down here?” I panted.

Elias knelt and looked intently into the bowl. “Like I said, I’m studying here. You know of my wish to make divinity, magic, and science work together to reanimate the dead.”

I forced the Christmas food back down into my stomach. “Why are you studying that?”

Elias was still staring at the brain. “It’s gone now.”

I took a large gulp of air. “What do you mean?”

“The demiblood that was in Naut Kafnar’s veins is gone now.” He pointed to the lump. “That confirms my theory that gods’ blood is ephemeral. The effect diminishes over time.”

I shivered. “Is that the Savage’s brain?”

“Of course.” Elias didn’t even turn to face me.

“That’s grotesque.”

He shrugged and stood up. “It’s a fact.”

“Can we talk about what I came here for?” With exaggerated patience I looked at the wall, which was covered in drawings, photos, and formulas. I got the feeling of being in a serial killer’s basement. I was also highly aware that Elias had positioned himself in front of the staircase, which was my only way out.

“Shoot.” He stood with his legs apart and arms crossed.

I inhaled again. “I need your help.”

“Do you have something specific in mind?” His gray-blue eyes traced over me. “Or do I get to choose the manner in which I contribute?”

“I need to get to Hrafnheim.”

His arms slid from their pose. He took a step toward me and ran a hand through his unruly curls. I resisted the urge to take a step back. Elias grabbed me by the shoulders. His spicy scent reached my nostrils, and the heat of his hands shot into my arms. “Are you insane?”

“Yeah, probably.”

Almost reflexively, Elias cracked a smile, but he quickly grew serious again. “Where did you get the idea that you should go to Hrafnheim?”

“Monster told me so, right before he . . .” I looked down to avoid Elias’s eyes, which widened briefly. “I’m certain it’s the only choice.”

Elias released his grip, but his palms remained resting on my arms. “If there’s anything my long life has taught me, it’s that nothing is certain.”

“Ragnara has my sister, and she’s coming after me.” I paused briefly. “She wants to have us together.”

“She’s not the only one.” Elias’s voice was so brazen that I started to laugh, even though the pain was tearing me up. I’d thought I would never smile again. I looked up at him with glassy eyes.

Elias looked mortified. He let go of me and took a step back.

I regained control of my mouth. “Could you please be serious.”

“Sorry. It’s automatic.” He clenched his fists again. “What’s my role?”

“You’re gonna help me get there.”

I thought Elias would protest, but he was entirely calm. “What’s in it for me?”

With a groan, I threw my hands in the air. “How about avoiding the end of the world?”

“According to the myth, the world begins anew after Ragnarök. Maybe I’ll be the ruler of this new world.”

“Serén has seen that we’ll both die if I stay in Midgard.” The words came out sounding desperate, and I grasped his warm hand. “She can’t die. I can’t let anyone else die because of me.”

Elias stood completely still and looked at me. The hand that lay in mine was also motionless. “Of all the girls in the world, I meet the one with a death sentence.” He said meet as if it really meant something else.

“What do you want in exchange for helping me?” I asked.

“You think I’m for sale?” I couldn’t tell if he was angry or flattered at the thought.

“I know you’re for sale. What do you want?” I repeated, unblinking.

He cocked his head and his eyes narrowed. “Let me see,” he thought aloud. “What do I want?” Finally, he decided. “I think that if you and your sister are able to find each other, you’ll have power over time. I want part of that power.”

My brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

His rough fingertips stroked my knuckles, and I pulled my hand back.

“Past and future meet in the present. I think that if you’re together, you can influence events. You have access to the past, and ideally, you’ll be able to change it. Promise me you’ll change one past event of my choosing, if it’s in your power.” His soft lips pulled back into a calculating smile. “Then I’ll help you get to Hrafnheim. At the New Year’s Eve party tomorrow. I can help you through the portal.”

I swallowed. “Deal,” I said.

“We were about to tear the monastery apart to find you,” Aella hissed when Elias and I stepped out of the church. “You were gone.”

“I wasn’t gone. I was just . . .” Elias sent me a sharp look. “I was hidden.”

“Hidden?” Aella scoffed. “Could you give us a heads-up next time you plan to hide?”

“You’re utterly impossible to look after,” Une growled. “It’s like you don’t want to be protected.”

I wanted to object, but my phone rang. I fished it out of my pocket and fumbled with the cold glass screen. “It’s not a number I recognize.”

Elias looked over my shoulder. He was so close, his curls tickled my cheek. “It’s Od.”

I stepped away from Elias and glared at the ringing phone without picking up. “Can’t he just teleport up here?” It was hard to imagine the ancient demigod making use of something so banal as a cell phone. With a sigh, I swiped my finger across the screen and placed the cold surface against my ear. “Hello.”

A dry, warm voice came from the other end. “Took you a while.”

“Why are you calling?” Okay, not particularly elegant.

He laughed dryly. It was strange to hear his voice distorted through the phone.

“Meet me at the museum by the fjord. Elias knows where it is.”

“Why do you think I’m with Elias? And what are we going to do?” My questions fell over each other, and I wasn’t rewarded with an answer before the call was disconnected.

I lowered the phone. “Elias, did you blab?”

“No, but Od tends to know where people are and who they’re with.”

“Comforting.” I stuffed the phone into the pocket of my mother’s coat. “Do I have a choice?”

“As to whether you meet with Od?” Elias laughed. “You always have a choice—or that’s what he would say, anyway—but funnily enough, he always gets his way.”

I looked to the sky, which was already shifting to dark blue.

“Come.” Elias pointed to the parking lot. “I’ll drive you.”

Une and Aella looked uneasy as they crawled into the back seat of Elias’s car. Une’s broad shoulders brushed against Aella’s, even though he rounded his back and looked out the window.

As we drove, all we could see in the dusk was lyme grass, windblown fields, and the silhouette of an old, black windmill. My bodyguards jerked back in their seats when Elias gunned the car down the now-dark country road. None of us said anything on the drive, and when I stole a glance at Elias, he looked stiffly ahead and sped up more than necessary.

In no time, we reached the destination, which overlooked the Limfjord.

Next to the museum was a circle of standing stones, but it was now completely dark, so there was nothing to see but the black outlines of the gigantic boulders. The lights from the town formed the backdrop. My power tingled from the activity that had once been here, and I saw people walking past, heard voices, and breathed in a strong fragrance of burnt wood and meat. Trees lined the small gravel path that led from the parking lot to the museum.

“Do you want some klinte?” Elias asked. “Many things have happened here.”

I looked at the entrance of the modern building with its posters, copies of Viking jewelry, and a single brightly colored wooden shield. At the same time, I heard an echo of Old Norse and blasts from a hornlike instrument. A parade of slightly transparent torches wound its way down from the burial site, which was on a hill at least as high as Odinmont. The procession was accompanied by a humming song and the sound of weeping.

Elias looked at me with a creased forehead when I nodded.

When he unbuttoned his shirt, I caught a glimpse of his smooth chest. He rooted around in the leather pouch that always hung around his neck, which appeared to contain a broad selection of substances, and I shivered in the stiff breeze. Elias held out a finger with a drop of liquid balanced on its tip, and I avoided his gaze when I accepted it. I had to hold on to his warm hand so I could suck it up. When I did look up, I expected a flirty wink, but he just looked at me with concern. I let the klinte work with a deep breath. The voices disappeared, the flames died out, and the smell faded.

A flash of silver flickered at my side when I lifted my head again. Od’s warm presence surrounded me, making me dizzy.

Od leaned toward Une and Aella. “Elias will drive you home. Anna will stay here.”

Both smiled placidly and got into the car.

I rolled my eyes as I recalled the demagogues of history. Could there have been supernatural factors at play?

Od straightened.

“Elias.” He said nothing more, but Elias understood and did an old-fashioned little half bow that betrayed his true age. He got back in with a single glance in my direction before steering the car and my two bodyguards away from us.

I stood alone in the empty parking lot with the demigod. The only source of light, aside from a couple of streetlights down the road, was the silver glow of Od’s body.

“What now?” I tried not to look at his face, but I was captivated by his beauty. The high cheekbones, the curved lips, and the dark, shiny hair.

Od pulled on the door, which opened with a little sigh. “Let’s go in where it’s warm.”

“Isn’t it wrong to break in?”

“Yeah.” Od laughed over his shoulder and suddenly looked very human.

The shadows dissolved the walls, obscured the tiles, and darkened the glass of the art cases, while the carved stones stood out clearly along with the axes, coins, and rusty iron swords.

“Why here?” I asked as Od led me down the stairs to the lower level, where the marsh had been reconstructed with reeds, water, and narrow paths. Down here, Od was the only source of light, and his silver glow rendered the space even more surreal. Where most people cast a shadow in sunlight, he cast a light in the darkness.

Od looked at a thick, light-brown braid that appeared to be submerged in sparkling water, though in reality it sat in a plexiglass case. “I lived here.”

I looked around. “You lived in the museum?”

His deep-set eyes met mine. “Back when these hills were a town and a burial site. I was a young man of ninety when this was my home.” He squatted down, opened the case, and carefully lifted the braid.

“I don’t think you’re allowed to touch that. You know, historical artifact and all that.”

Od’s thumb stroked the strands of hair before he laid it back in its glass case. Then he walked to the other end of the basement level. Tentatively, I followed him, mostly because it gave me goose bumps to stand alone in a dark museum basement surrounded by severed braids and broken weapons.

We stopped in front of some glass coffins, and Od’s light fell inside. It was a series of skeletons. The skulls’ empty eye sockets faced us as though they were looking at us, just as we were looking at them.

I looked at the dead, and the distant past stared right back.

Od’s eyes were a little shiny amid all that metallic glow, and I understood that these were people just like me, even though they had passed away many years ago. They once had hopes, dreams, and secrets.

Od stared at the smallest skeleton. A girl, it seemed, judging from the beads and the woolen dress.

“She was six years old when she died. Back then, I didn’t know my blood could have saved her.” Od’s elegant hand rested on the glass. From his hand, a beam of light hit the skull and made the teeth look like a smile. He shifted his gaze to the girl’s reconstructed wax head, which was displayed on a pedestal above the coffins. The glass eyes looked straight past him.

“It’s a good likeness, but she had fair hair.” He let his palm rest on the head’s wax cheek. “Time’s arrow carries us all in one direction. Even me.”

“Okey dokey.” I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry. I feel bad that your friends are dead.”

Od finally looked at me, as if he only now realized I was there. “There’s nothing wrong with death. That’s why I brought you here. To show you where we all end up.”

“Well, it is cool to be led down into a basement full of dead people. I’m hard-core. I usually live on top of a crypt that holds my father’s corpse, so you don’t have to worry about that.” I waved a hand. “But you could have just as easily told me this at Ben and Rebecca’s over a cup of tea.”

Od smiled the smile that always made my willpower falter.

I did everything in my power to stare back angrily. “Why am I here?”

“You need to understand where, under all circumstances, you are headed—where we’re all headed—regardless of your choice.”

“What do you know about my choice?”

He came up close to me, and his breath was intoxicating. His green eyes pulled me in like a dangerous undercurrent in the ocean, and an invisible wind threatened to pick me up and carry me away. I blinked my eyes, bewildered.

“My father believes you and your sister are essential for us. We need you.”

“Who’s we?” I had trouble speaking clearly.

“The gods.”

“All the gods?”

“You’re essential. For some, you’re salvation. For others, doom.”

Hmmm—I couldn’t put together a lucid thought.

“Odin asked me to tell you,” Od whispered in my ear, “that all you have to do is say All-Father if you wish to summon him.” The words swirled around me like a plume of smoke.

“Summon.” Feeling slightly drunk from Od’s presence, I giggled when I repeated the ceremonious-sounding word. “Summon,” I said again, but it was swallowed up by the darkness. With his back turned to me and the skeletons, Od walked toward the exit.

Instantly sober, I jogged after him with the hairs on the back of my neck standing up and my heart pounding.

Suddenly, Od turned around, and his silvery face was right in front of mine. I didn’t have my guard up, so I was overtaken by his divine hypnosis. A trapdoor opened beneath me, and I slid down on a beautiful, golden cloud.

The next morning, I woke up in bed in my colorful little room with no memory of how I had gotten home.