Chapter 25
Fenris heard Tor's car arrive and the door open on the far side of the house. The iron band that had been sitting around his ribs all afternoon loosened, his wolf's ears pricking up again after moping for hours.
She came back.
She said she would.
He stayed in the big chair on the deck overlooking the frozen lake and let her come to him. The sky over the ridge had gone deep blue with the first stars showing.
Inside, Ciara was arguing with Layla about how to load a pack, while Arne told them both they were wrong. Von was perched by the kitchen counter with a glass of wine and was talking animatedly with Alruna.
Linnea slipped out through the sliding door, shutting it behind her, and dropped into the chair beside his with a quiet groan. Her foot hooked casually around his ankle like it had been doing it for years.
"Hey," she said, staring out at the growing darkness.
"Hey." The word still sat strangely in his mouth, modern and small, but he liked that she smiled every time he used it.
"Have Alruna and Von been giving you a hard time?" she asked.
"Only about looking after you." Linnea laughed, and he turned his head to look at her. "Alruna had a long list. There were threats at the end of it that I take seriously, and I have stood against gods. I can see why she is Vili's mate."
"Don't forget she raised Arne, so she's had practice threatening immortals." Linnea tucked her chin into the collar of her jacket, still grinning. "Honestly, having a god along for the extra protection is the best travel insurance a volva could ask for. I should be paying you."
"You feed me, so that makes us even."
"Did Von get any information out of her about Vili?" Linnea asked with a sly grin.
"Apparently, they are 'taking things slow' and 'building trust again.'"
"Oh, they are totally fucking."
Fenris chuckled with her. "Without a doubt."
The kitchen noise swelled and faded as a door opened and closed somewhere. Fenris looked at her profile in the half dark, the smell of her own hearth still caught in her hair. She had a safe place to live in these forests, and he was going to risk that by walking her into the land of the dead.
"You went home today," he said.
Linnea's smile dimmed a little. "I did, but it will be looked after by Gudrun in my absence. Not that any wolf would be stupid enough to try and break in there."
"Has it changed your mind about coming with me?" Fenris kept his eyes on the lake so she could answer without his stare on her. "No one would fault you for staying. Not me. Not even Freya. You have been reminded of what you have here, and the road we take tomorrow is not a road for..."
"Fenris." Linnea reached over and took his big hand in both of hers, turning in her chair to face him.
"I'm not changing my mind, and I'm not planning on leaving you.
Get that through your thick skull now, because I don't want to have this conversation again in Niflheim.
" Her thumbs traced over his scarred knuckles.
"Besides, if we don't find Loki and stop whatever this coming darkness is, there won't be a home to come back to.
You are here too now. I'm protecting all of it by going with you. "
His chest hurt with emotion in a way only she had ever managed to make him feel.
Choose her back, his wolf said. Out loud, idiot.
Fenris couldn't do that yet, so he lifted her hands and pressed his mouth to her cold fingers.
Linnea leaned across the gap between the chairs, and he met her halfway.
The kiss was soft and unhurried, her hand curling into the front of his sweater.
She tasted of the winter air and something sweet she had clearly stolen from the kitchen on her way through.
"You taste like cake," he murmured against her mouth.
"I was making sure they weren't poisoned. Layla said there were three kinds, and..."
"Dinner!" Alruna's voice carried out of the house with the full authority of her crown behind it. "Everyone inside before it goes cold, and yes, Linnea, I know exactly what happened to the corner of the honey cake."
Linnea pulled back, eyes wide. "She's a seer now?"
"She's a mother," Fenris said, rising and pulling her up with him. "It is worse."
Dinner was lamb stew, fresh bread, butter, and more food than they could finish, though Tor gave it an honest attempt.
The eight of them were spread out around the long table, with candles burning down the middle and the fire snapping in the big hearth, and for an hour, no one spoke of Niflheim or Loki at all.
Layla and Ciara got into a debate over whether dragons or wolves made better houseguests, which ended with both insulting Arne's housekeeping instead.
Tor told a story about Linnea at nine years old, stealing candy from the other kids who were mean to her.
Linnea threw bread at his head and pointed out that those mean kids had it coming.
"You were much nicer than I would have been about it," Von said, and his grin turned vicious. "I would have pissed on their school bags to teach them a lesson they never forgot."
"That is the kind of reasoning my father likes to use best. You're both going to get along well with him," Fenris said with a soft chuckle.
Linnea's hand found his knee under the table and stayed there.
He ate good food in a warm room full of people who looked at him and didn't see a monster at a dinner table. Barely a few days awake, and this world had already given him more than he could have hoped for.
When the plates were cleared and the packs were lined up by the door, Alruna stood.
"Get your things and come with me," she said. "Best that you all leave now before I decide to keep you."
The night air bit hard after the warm kitchen. Alruna led them down to the flat ground by the lake shore, and the family followed in a quiet line with their packs on their backs.
She raised one hand with a pale crystal in it, sang a low phrase in elvish, and tore a doorway open in the dark.
It was not like the portal Tor's crystal made. This one stood tall as a barn door and breathed, a slow exhale of cold, old air rolling out across the snow. Through it, all he could see was a thick branch that was their path, fading into the dark.
He had run the hidden paths of Yggdrasil as a young god, wild and laughing, with Geri and Freki at his heels. These were nothing like the ones of his memories.
"I think my balls just tried to climb into my body in self-defense," Von whispered, eyes huge. "What… What the fuck is that, Runa?"
"These are the dark roads," Alruna said, moving aside for them. "They will carry you down between the worlds to Niflheim's gate. Arne, you remember the way markers? And are you carrying the rune crystal I made for you?"
"I remember, Mama, and yes I have the crystal," he replied and kissed her forehead.
"Good boy." She turned and pressed a small object into Linnea's palm, folding the younger woman's fingers over it. "For when you are ready to come home. Wherever in the Nine Realms you end up, this will bring you back to my hearth."
Linnea opened her hand. A portal crystal sat on her palm, the twin of Tor's except for the mark cut into its face, and Fenris leaned in for a closer look.
He had learned runes when they were young, used them, bled for them, and had them carved into his flesh for a thousand years of binding.
None of them was like the rune in the crystal.
It curved where the old Futhark cut straight, looping back through itself like a knot of root and branch, and the magic coming off it was deep.
"You made a rune?" he asked, looking up at Alruna.
"I make many things, wolf." Alruna patted his cheek. "Havi gave me the crystal. The rune is mine. Between the two of us, there is enough power to bring you home."
"I want one," Von declared, staring at the crystal.
Linnea pulled her hand back. "Make your own. This one is mine."
Alruna hugged each of them in turn, Arne again last and longest, and stepped back with a worry in her eyes that she couldn't hide.
Fenris nodded to her, trying to assure her that he would try to keep them safe. She smiled a little at him and nodded back.
Tor went through the doorway first, with Ciara at his shoulder. Layla and Arne followed, hand in hand, swallowed whole by the dark. Von blew Alruna a farewell kiss and stepped through without a backward glance.
Linnea slid the crystal into a pouch and put it in the breast pocket of her coat. She held out a hand to Fenris.
"Together?" she said, her voice hitching just a little.
"Together." He laced his scarred fingers through hers, and they stepped through. The cold dark of Yggdrasil closed over them, and they were gone.