Chapter 7
In the lounge, Fenris was in his wolf form again on the rug by the wood stove, his great black head on his paws and his eyes open.
His coat was glossy from the shower he had taken, and the long hair Linnea had cut was gone from the kitchen floor.
His eyes fixed on her, tracking every movement she made.
"They are coming," she told him with a smile. "Both Freya and Havi. They shouldn't be long, and you'll be able to sort out everything you need to."
Fenris's ears lifted, and he padded into the kitchen behind her, almost like he was a guard dog that didn't want her out of her sight.
Linnea ignored his strange behavior, filled the coffee maker, and flicked the switch. She stilled as magic rolled through the cottage and sizzled against hers.
Linnea walked back through the cottage, still holding a cup, and stopped in the lounge room as the air folded in on itself and a portal opened.
Havi stepped out first, in dark boots, jeans, and a cream-and-gray knit jumper. His black and silver braid lay over one shoulder, his eye patch plain black leather. The other eye took in the room in a sweep and stopped on the wolf by the kitchen archway.
"Hello, little wolf," he greeted with a crooked grin.
Freya came through behind him in a cream wool tunic sweater, black tights, and reindeer leather boots laced to the knee.
The wolf in front of Linnea stepped forward before he shifted into a very naked Fenris. Linnea kept her eyes firmly on Freya and not on the perfect ass that was just there. Freya's eyes twinkled with mischief, and Linnea's face went hot.
"You seem to have forgotten something, nephew." Havi made a small gesture, and a long-sleeved black shirt, jeans, and boots suddenly appeared on Fenris.
"Hello, uncle," he said and inclined his head. "Lady Freya."
Havi crossed the room in two strides and took Fenris's face in both his enormous hands. He bent his forehead to Fenris's and held it there. Linnea took a quiet step back against the kitchen archway, feeling like she was an intruder all of a sudden.
"I'm sorry," Havi said, his voice soft. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't tell them the whole truth. You will find they have made up their own nonsense stories about you."
"Humans have always had a bad habit of that," Fenris replied.
A breath of laughter went out of Havi, helpless and surprised, and his hands tightened briefly on either side of Fenris's face before he let him go.
Freya came across the room and took Fenris's scarred wrist. She turned the inside of it up to the firelight, bent her head, and pressed her lips to the silvered ribbon of scar that wrapped his pulse.
"Forgive me, fanged one," she said against his skin. "There was no other path I could see, and that is no excuse. I'm sorry for this pain."
"Aunt Freya, I knew what I agreed to. You owe me nothing."
"I owe you thousands of years," Freya said and let him go. Her gold eyes turned on Linnea, who had been doing her best to be invisible, and she smiled. "Ah, coffee is ready, is it?"
"Right," Linnea said and hurried back into the kitchen.
She returned with four mugs, a small jug of milk, and a sugar bowl, and set them on the low table by the woodstove. The coffee was strong, and Linnea noticed Havi took at least three sugars. Freya had it black. Fenris took a moment to inhale its steam before drinking.
Linnea fixed her own cup and sat on the arm of the couch because she wasn't sure she was invited.
That didn't stop her from asking, "So, what do we do now? I take it Fenris goes with you back to Asgard, and you all do Ragnarok things?"
Her wolf, who had been quiet through the seidr and the gods' arrival, made a low mutinous sound.
No.
Hush. We can't get in the way of Ragnarok.
"No," Fenris echoed her wolf before either god could answer. He set his cup down on the floor by his foot. "We need to find my father. Tell me where he is so I can release him. We can't stop the devouring dark without him."
"We can't tell you," Havi said with a tired sigh.
Fenris went still, and the wolf rose behind his eyes. "Why?"
"The Norns," Freya said simply. "When they let us spin the plan with Loki, they said we were forbidden to tell anyone his location. The work of finding him isn't ours to do."
Freya opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue, and Linnea almost dropped her cup in shock.
A gold bind rune was carved into Freya's tongue, drawn sharp and clean.
Havi opened his mouth, and the same rune sat on his. It had a crack across the top and looked redrawn. Linnea suspected that he had tried to break it at some point and had paid for it.
"Well, shit," Linnea whispered. "How is Fenris supposed to find him alone? Loki was bound by you two and the Norns. He's not going to be in any place a normal person can just walk into."
Freya stood and came around the low table without taking her eyes off Linnea. She went down on one knee in front of the couch arm where Linnea was sitting, which was the wrong way around for a goddess and a volva.
Freya took Linnea's face in both of her hands the way Havi had taken Fenris's. The gold of her power moved at the edges of Linnea's vision like firelight dancing on a wall.
"Fenris can't do this without you. He'll need your help and your contacts.
Think, my little volva." Freya's thumb stroked Linnea's cheekbones gently.
"Who knows more about the gods than anyone you know?
More than any volva, more than any king, more than any old woman by her fire?
Who has been collecting our stories like a magpie and refuses to let any of them go?
That is the person you need to talk to."
Linnea blinked, and she knew the answer before Freya let her go.
She had elves, wolves, gods, and high fae in her extended family, but only one man on Midgard was more obsessed with the Norse pantheon than any of them.
He had hoarded enough scraps of old manuscripts and random relics that if anyone had information on Loki's location, he would.
"Oh, no, Von is going to lose his mind over this," Linnea groaned.
Freya's smile widened, and then she rose back to her feet. She pressed a warm kiss to Linnea's left cheek, and another to her right, and her power went through Linnea in a small, bright shimmer.
"Be brave, my little volva. You were born for this task. Do not be afraid of your wyrd."
Freya crossed back to Havi, who had bent and pressed his forehead briefly to Fenris's again in a private farewell. He turned to Linnea and inclined his head the way a king inclined to his messenger, which was somehow more intimidating than the goodbye Freya had given her.
"Mind my cottage," Havi rumbled. "Eat as much as you wish. I kept it stocked, just in case."
"I will," Linnea promised. "Thank you, All-Father."
"And well done on the door," he said and shot her a wink.
Linnea blushed all the way to her toes.
The portal opened again, and both gods disappeared through it without a backward glance.
"Fuck," Linnea said with feeling.
Fenris watched her over the top of his coffee cup, the almost-smile back at the corner of his mouth.
"I have to call Tor," she muttered and drained her coffee. Fenris frowned. "It's okay. He's my brother. We are going to need his help when we go to Oslo and see Von."
Fenris's eyebrow lifted, very slightly, at the name.
"You will like Tor, and you'll either love or hate Von. There is not really a middle option with him."
"And which do you?" Fenris asked, the wolf in his eyes again.
"What do you mean?"
"Von. Do you love him or hate him?"
Linnea tried not to feel like a cornered rabbit. "I love Von. He's not a shifter, but he is pack. My family."
Fenris nodded, and the wolf glow simmered down.
What the hell was that? Linnea didn't want to know.
She went to get her phone, and the screen was full of messages again.
Eleven new messages and three missed calls from Tor, Ciara, Alruna, Gudrun, and Layla.
Arne was smart enough to stay out of it, and that was why he was currently her favorite big brother.
Just great.
Linnea surrendered herself to her fate and dialed Tor. He answered before the first ring finished.
"Linnea," he growled. "Where the fuck are you? I have been trying to..."
"I'm still with Fenris," she replied, cutting him off. "I'm safe. He and the gods need my help. Yours too, but I need to know you're going to be cool about it because if you touch him, I'll kick your ass so damn hard."
There was a silence on the other end of the line that was as warm as Ulfheim winter, and Tor began swearing in a long way that was kind of famous among the úlfheenar.
Linnea inspected her nails and waited for him to get it out of his system.
When he was done, Linnea heard Ciara laughing in the background.
"Okay, little sister," Tor said in a gruff rumble. "You had best start from the beginning."