Chapter 28
28
Magnus went to bed after finishing Freya’s necklace and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. At some point in the night, he woke up from another nightmare. The images were scrambled visions of his parents driving through the mountains, snow blowing the windows white. Since he wasn’t in the car before the accident, he didn’t know what his parents said or how they looked. They had evolved into faceless ghosts who didn’t speak. He managed to wake up before the inevitable happened.
Even after yesterday’s exploration, being back in his home city just did not feel good. The last time he’d been to Stockholm, it was disastrous. Before that, he’d visited occasionally to get through the airport and straight on a train to see his uncle Anders in ?rebro. Today, as he moved through Gamla Stan with Celeste, he felt like a ghost in a place that had moved on without him. The buildings and cobblestone streets were the same, with the exception of a few new businesses, but he was the interloper who didn’t belong.
Celeste, a tourist in her own right, didn’t appear to fare any better. She was mostly silent when she came downstairs from her bedroom. He’d stayed downstairs on a pullout couch, wishing he had taken his Ambien on the trip. They were pleasant to one another, reviewed where they would meet the princess and got prepared separately. He also wished that he had joined her the night before. Magnus had an unreasonable desire to be held that he kept to himself because that was what this place did to him. Stockholm closed him off from the others in a way he couldn’t explain.
As beautiful and stately as the city appeared, old ghosts still lay just beneath its surface. The same feeling of dread he had, remembering how his parents never returned from their sky trip, weighed him down as they walked past the families and lovers flocking around them.
“You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind,” Celeste said, interrupting his thoughts.
“I’m good,” he lied.
Celeste cast a scrutinizing eye at him before speaking. “How do you feel about this meeting?”
Magnus shrugged. “Pretty good,” he lied again.
She scoffed. “Bullshit.”
It wouldn’t do any good to make her shoulder his anxieties. This was his city. He knew the layout, the language and the customs. Magnus needed to project the confidence that he didn’t quite have, and if it meant lying his way to success, he’d have to keep it up.
“We’re going to meet them, get some information and make a plan,” he said. “Same with Sebastian. It’s not that hard.”
She raised a sharp eyebrow and shook her head but fell silent as they approached the meeting place. A little unassuming mead bar where the lights were low and the space was cramped. At 9:00 a.m., there were no patrons sitting at the tables or bar. It felt like the perfect place to meet a princess in disguise.
Magnus opened the door for Celeste, and they were immediately greeted by a giant barrel-chested man at the bar. The man had the look of a real Viking with the sides of his head shaved and tattooed. The rest of his red hair was elaborately braided down his back. His red bushy beard was also parted and plaited down his chest. Magnus cautiously stepped in front of Celeste and reached the bar first.
“Hello. Hur m?r du?”
The man remained in the same stance, large, beefy, tattooed arms crossed over his round belly, as he stared between Magnus and Celeste. He gave a slight nod and deep grunt.
Okay...he’d try a different approach. “Vi ?r h?r f?r att tr?ffa en kvinna.”
One of his piercing green eyes crinkled at the corner as he cracked a lopsided smile. “You can just speak English,” he finally said in a gravelly voice.
The request immediately put Magnus on his back foot. Had his Swedish truly suffered after all these years? “Fine. We’re here to meet a woman,” he repeated in English. “It appears we might be early.”
“Friends of Doris, then?” the giant asked.
“We are,” Magnus replied cautiously.
“I’m Aksel,” he said, extending a meaty hand toward him. “I’m sorry to hear of her passing, but delighted to hear from her in such an...unorthodox manner.”
“Thank you.”
Aksel turned to Celeste and greeted her with the same hefty shake. Her hand completely disappeared into his as she held on. “Nice to meet you,” she breathed, tipping her head back just to look up at him. “How did you know Dr. Grant?”
“We met in a bar I owned in Copenhagen. I’m Danish, by the way,” he said to Magnus. “I’m sure your Swedish is fine. I just get tired of speaking it sometimes.”
“Gotcha,” Magnus said, feeling strangely relieved.
“Anyway, I came recommended to Doris for a job she was seeing after in the early 2000s. I had only worked with her a couple times, but I quite liked her. I was sad to get a letter from her last year, but I understood she had a plan and that I needed to deliver it to your guest.”
“Fascinating,” Celeste intoned. “So, she’s already aware of what Doris wanted?”
“Yes, and she is waiting on you downstairs,” he said, hitching his thumb behind the bar.
They followed him down a narrow wooden stairwell into a darkened basement. Aksel crouched his impossibly large body to fit, but he moved faster than they did. Midway down the stairs, Celeste’s hand reached for his shoulder to guide her. “It looks like everyone does their dirty business in bar basements these days,” she murmured.
“It’s the only way that she felt safe talking to you,” Aksel replied. “The Swedish paparazzi aren’t as rabid as the ones in Britain or the US, but they like to keep an eye on her.”
Magnus felt guilty about that but decided to make his apologies to the princess herself.
When they arrived in a spacious cellar where casks of mead were stored, Aksel straightened up and gestured to the lone woman sitting at the head of an eight-person table. “Did anyone follow you?” she asked immediately upon seeing them.
“No,” they answered in unison.
Princess Astrid was dressed in a simple white T-shirt, but a blond wig, baseball cap and sunglasses sat on the table before her. Her dark hair was wound tightly into a bun at the base of her neck and her brown eyes narrowed in annoyance as she stared at them.
“Take a seat,” she said in a terse tone.
They did as they were told, with Aksel sitting directly to her right. Magnus and Celeste sat beside one another to her left. “Thank you for meeting us like this—” Magnus started.
“Stop there,” she said, cutting him off. “We don’t need to go through pleasantries. Let’s just get to business so that you may finally leave me alone.”
Magnus was stunned silent.
Princess Astrid slapped a red envelope on the table and sat back in her chair. “Not too long after my jewels were found, it was big enough news for Aksel to deliver that to me. Someone named Doris Grant apologized to me on your behalf. I don’t know the woman outside of this letter. I have never met her, but I hear she’s dead now?”
Magnus almost didn’t know how to respond. This was the first person they’d run up against who didn’t sound saddened by Dr. Grant’s passing, and he didn’t like the young woman’s tone at all.
“She is.”
“Fine,” the princess said, crossing her arms over her chest. “She expressed remorse for your little group’s actions, and while I appreciate her words, the damage has already been done.”
“What exactly does the letter say?” Magnus tried.
“It says that she is sorry, and she is about to die. Apparently, she had read about the scandal surrounding the jewels after they were lost and wanted to make things right.”
“Make things right?” Celeste asked with a frown. “What exactly does that entail?”
The princess glared at them. “She wanted me to help you steal Freya’s jewels again.”
Magnus breathed through his nose as he listened. They had expected as much, but upon meeting Princess Astrid, he could see that the task was easier said than done. “I assume you have some apprehensions about the request?”
Her scowl intensified as she narrowed her eyes on Magnus. “I admit that I have not always been the best member of the Swedish royal family. Princess Clara of Spain and I have been known for our wild days in Majorca. I’ve spent my family’s money in excess. I’ve gotten into a number of car accidents. And then there’s the drunken parties in Gothenburg... But I tried very hard to take care of the jewels my mother lent me because they meant so much to her.
“But you took them, and were apparently not smart enough to keep them. My problems didn’t stop with my parents finding out about the robbery, though. Interpol got involved with royal officials trying to collect insurance from what was assumed long gone. I was investigated for two years by this nasty little Belgian inspector before a payout could be confirmed. During that time, paparazzi followed me everywhere, my parents cut off my royal engagements and forced me into hiding. Our prime minister and the parliament also investigated me. You made me look like a fool. The shame of a nation.”
Magnus cast an uncomfortable glance at Celeste. “We’re sorry,” he said, weakly.
Celeste didn’t appear as guilty as he felt. “Why the hell would you want to work with us? Him—” she pointed to Aksel “—I get. He’s Danish and probably couldn’t give a fuck about the Swedish royal family. You’d probably want to help steal some jewels, right?”
To his amazement, Aksel’s giant shoulder shook as deep laughter rumbled in his chest. He shook his head while covering his face. “I should not laugh, but—” a braying guffaw escaped him “—but, she’s right, Princess... I don’t care for your family at all.”
“Once we leave here, will Interpol be waiting for us?” Celeste demanded. “What’s your deal?”
Magnus was just as curious. He just wished she had used more tact in the moment.
Astrid sighed dramatically. “I’m not going to be the one who turns you in,” she replied. “In fact, I might even help you.”
“Why?” Magnus asked.
“Because now that the jewels have been found, our family is once again under legal scrutiny. The Belgian inspector is an art theft claims adjuster. Since the jewels were retrieved, he has made it known that the Crown must repay millions of kroner, which is technically taxpayer money.” She waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t understand all of the finances of it, but he still believes I have something to do with the disappearance of the jewels and now he thinks the entire royal family is involved in some kind of fraud scheme.”
While he didn’t follow the royals, he could easily understand how Swedish citizens might find the whole affair off-putting, as it ran opposed to their idea of Lagom. Neither the jewels nor the exorbitant amount of money were meant to be openly discussed and could call into question the necessity of a monarchy these days.
“How would helping us help you?” Celeste pressed.
Princess Astrid raised a perfect brow and smiled for the first time. “If you must know, I have a plan of my own. I’m ready to leave Sweden to be with my longtime boyfriend in America. But my parents, the press, these people ...are so fucking critical of every minor detail in my life. Living abroad, getting married to a commoner, will just be more parts of my life to be dissected. Your theft would be a nice distraction from my problems. If the world finds out Freya’s jewels can go missing under the tight security of the Nationalmuseum, maybe I’m not the fuckup. Maybe everyone will finally leave me alone.”
Magnus scrubbed his hands down his face as he listened to the girl’s royal decree. “We’re supposed to trust you because you want to get back at your parents and a relentless inspector? If we’re going to work together, we need something better than revenge.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what else I can tell you. Revenge feels like a good enough reason for me. If you want to steal the jewels on your own, you are more than welcome to try.”
“Hold on now,” Celeste said. “We’re not about turning away free help. Did you have anything in mind?”
The princess waited a beat before pointing a carefully manicured nail at Celeste. “I like you. No one talks to me like you do. It’s like you don’t care about protocol.”
Magnus pursed his lips to keep from smiling. What the princess didn’t realize was that Celeste could out-act all of them. She just didn’t feel like the princess was worth the charm.
“You’re sitting with a couple of thieves in a bar basement,” Celeste said with a sweet smile. “I’m not sure how much protocol is needed.”
“Please explain how we’re going to pull this off,” Magnus said.
“The royal family is working with the government and Nationalmuseum to hold a special gala. Some kind of nationalistic gift to the citizens to celebrate Sweden or something,” she said with a scoff. “Scholars, museum donors and wealthy Swedes will be in attendance. I will be there, too, against my parents’ wishes. They don’t want my name or face to be associated with such a joyous occasion, but that will be the only way to get you two in as my guests.”
“That takes care of our entrance,” Magnus said. “Anything else?”
“Once you get in, you’re on your own. I plan on giving a speech before a historian talks about Freya’s jewels. If you can work around that...”
“Give us the exact itinerary as soon as you have it.”
“I can send that in an encrypted message,” Aksel volunteered.
Magnus’s mind immediately went into planning mode even while sitting with the princess. Depending on their timing, she could make an excellent diversion.
“If you want to reach me, go through Aksel,” Princess Astrid said, tucking her own hair beneath the blond wig. “I’m afraid I cannot have any more direct contact with you after today. I only did this so you could see the fallout of five years ago.”
“To be fair, we only steal from people who aren’t hurting financially,” Celeste said. “But...after speaking to you, I now see that we’ve hurt you in other ways. Doris isn’t the only person who owes you an apology, Astrid. I’m sorry as well.”
“Thank you. My driver is coming in a few minutes,” she said, standing from the table. “I’ll send the invitations and information to Aksel this evening. I expect to see you three days from now.”
“That’s not a lot of time,” Magnus said.
“And yet you’re just in time,” Astrid said, walking toward the stairwell. “Just be ready for gala night.”
She disappeared before either of them could ask another question, leaving Magnus in a surreal state of trying to understand what had just occurred.
“This is really happening?” he asked the table.
“Is she always like that?” Celeste asked.
Aksel gave a hearty laugh. “Yes and yes. You had better get ready because she’s hell on wheels.”