Chapter 37 #2
A dark outline materialized on the white screen. Gradually, the outline took on detail, revealing a man with a pitch-black face, brown eyes, skin made of flickering shadows …
A mare, Charlie realized. It’s another mare.
“You are living creatures intruding on the land of the dead,” said the mare.
Though it was difficult to distinguish anything specific about him, Charlie got the sense that he was older than Elias.
He had broad shoulders and long hair that swept the tops of them.
“You must return to your realm immediately or face the consequences.”
“What kind of consequences?” Mason asked.
As if in response to his question, low growling rose from inside the cacti. Charlie tensed, glancing around at the maze that she’d mistakenly presumed to be empty. The growling grew louder, closer, until finally a set of bony, purplish snouts emerged from the cacti.
Charlie stifled a gasp. The creatures that stepped out onto the path were horrific.
They resembled wolves, but only insomuch as a corpse resembles a human.
They were purplish in color, with no fur save a long, patchy black stretch that ran down their spine.
Their eyes glowed neon blue. Their skin was sunken, rotting, and so thin that it was slightly transparent.
Beneath, the gray white of their bones and a dark blue network of veins shined through.
Their jaws hung open, revealing razor-sharp teeth, and there was only a hole where their noses should have been.
Worst of all … they looked hungry.
“The consequences are guaranteed entry to Helheim,” said the mare, “but not in the manner that you hope.”
Mason swallowed loudly. “Not alive, you mean.”
“Not alive,” the mare agreed.
Henry squeaked again, climbing the rest of Charlie’s leg and diving into her back pocket.
“Hey,” she hissed over her shoulder, looking down at where his little body was shaking in her pocket. “What happened to the badass v?tte who could transform into a bloodthirsty gremlin at will?”
NOT NOW
DOGS SCARY
DOGS LIKE HIM
Henry sent Charlie an image of the Fenrir: huge, with yellow eyes and a mouth full of the fangs that almost ended her v?tte’s life.
Charlie’s heart twisted in her chest. “Listen,” she said, turning back to face the mare on the screen and holding her hands up in front of herself. “We mean no one in Helheim any harm. We’re here to see Loki. We need his help.”
The mare made a noise that sounded like a mix between a laugh and a hacking cough. “Sure you do. You and every other human who has somehow wormed their way into our realm, looking for a god’s blessing.”
“We don’t need his blessing,” she said, pointing at Elias’s body floating down by her waist. “We need his blood.”
As soon as the mare spotted Elias, his eyes sharpened. Responding to some unheard command, the hounds growled, advancing on Charlie and Mason.
“We need his blood,” she repeated quickly, heart thundering in her chest as the creatures’ jaws flashed at the corners of her vision. “Elias was attacked by Rattatosk. He’ll die if he doesn’t get it.”
The hounds paused in their advance. For several excruciating seconds, the mare on the screen just stared down at Elias.
Charlie prayed that whatever device or magic he was using to speak with them had high enough resolution that he could see the sweat on Elias’s skin, the clammy-white tint of his face …
“You could be lying,” the mare said at last. “How do I know that you didn’t set Rattatosk on Elias as an excuse to get close to Loki? You could be here to infiltrate Helheim. I can’t risk—”
“We’re Loki’s children,” Mason interrupted.
Charlie inhaled sharply, head whipping around to look at her brother. It was the first time he’d ever said those words out loud—and with such resolution. As if he truly believed them.
The mare paused.
“Mason and Charlotte Hudson. We live in Silver Shores, Michigan. Loki sent Elias there to protect us from Rattatosk.” He stared the mare on the screen down, as if in challenge. “We’re his children.”
“How can—”
“Ask him yourself,” said Mason.
This drew the mare up short. Charlie knew that he was hearing what she did: the confidence in Mason’s voice.
The surety. Her brother always spoke this way.
It was how he’d become the most popular senior at their high school, how he’d become captain of the baseball team when he wasn’t even the most talented player on it.
Mason radiated self-confidence. It was something she’d always admired about him.
In that moment, she felt immense (and immensely selfish) gratitude that he’d come with her to Helheim.
The mare turned his head and began speaking a language they couldn’t understand. It sounded like … Swedish? Icelandic? Russian? Charlie had no idea. She was woefully bad at languages; she barely spoke Spanish, and she’d been taking classes since freshman year.
The mare’s voice didn’t sound angry, but it didn’t sound particularly friendly, either. When he finished speaking, he paused, listening to the response of whoever had been listening.
Charlie’s heart thundered in her chest. Is it Loki? Could her father be on the other side of that screen?
The Swedish/Icelandic/Russian back-and-forth continued for over a minute.
Charlie and Mason exchanged panicked glances but said nothing, both clearly thinking the same thing: What is the mare saying?
Is he going to let us through? Are we going to be torn limb from limb by hounds?
Charlie didn’t know that she could stop them if they tried.
There were so many, and they looked fast—and potentially already dead, which, you know …
how does one kill something already dead?
She’d have to use her magic to protect not only herself but Mason and Elias.
Henry, too. Could she conjure a shield, maybe? A really, really, really big shield?
A really, really, really big shield, she thought to herself. Great idea, Charlie. You’re definitely getting everyone killed today.
After an excruciatingly long and unintelligible conversation, the mare on the screen turned to them at last. The hounds tensed, preparing to leap. Charlie sucked in a breath and held it. Beside her, she heard Mason do the same.
“You may enter,” the mare said.
Breath rushed out of Charlie’s and Mason’s lungs in unison.
“However,” he went on, “the garmur will be with you the entire way to the palace. You are to take two of the helhest tied up outside the cacti forest and ride them straight here. The garmur will show you the way. If either of you tries to pull anything—if you so much as stop to tie your shoelaces—the garmur will attack without hesitation. You’ll be dead before you have time to explain what you were doing.
” He paused, his brown eyes moving between Charlie and Mason. “Understood?”
“Understood,” they said together.
“Good. We’ll be waiting.”
With that ominous farewell, the screen vanished, and the way forward was finally clear.