I waited while the signatures moved apart and together, their brightness ebbing and flowing as they clashed. “Four. No, three?” I held my breath as the remaining signatures flickered in and out of focus, then finally disappeared. “One.” The word came on a whisper. What had happened to the others?
“Mack, come with me to finish the last one off. I’m afraid I know what happened. Bodie, Johann, guard our girl.” Tore opened the complex door and glanced around it as Mack crossed to his side, and I tried not to love the way Tore had just said ‘our girl.’
“It’s clear. Now.” Tore and Mack ran outside, leaving me too shocked to move.
“You okay, Allie?” Bodie asked.
“No,” I whispered. This was all kinds of messed up and scary. I wasn’t even one day into my training, and night elves were gunning for us.
A warm hand covered mine and gave a light squeeze. I looked over and met Bodie’s reassuring eyes. “Trust me,” he said. “The guys will be fine. We’ve taken on way more than one night elf before. The rest of the hunting party is dead.”
“Dead?” Was that what happened to their energy signatures? Had they disappeared because they . . . died?
“Johann, get out here.” Tore’s voice came from outside. Air whooshed from my lungs—Tore was okay. The lone night elf hadn’t killed him. “Hurry up, Johann. I need you to dispose of these bodies.”
“On it.” Johann jogged outside to trade spots with Tore. Anger radiated across Tore’s perfect features as he stormed into the complex and shoved a piece of paper at Bodie. “Read this,” he barked.
Bodie’s torso stiffened as his eyes scanned the paper. “Who sent this?” he asked.
“One of the Alf?dr’s ravens dropped in with it while we were finishing off the last elf.” Tore growled. “This changes things.”
“What changes things? What’s on that paper?” I grabbed it from Bodie’s hands and tried to read the scribbled markings. “Okay, this isn’t English. Or any alphabet I’ve seen before. What does it say?”
Fury raged across Tore’s face, darkening the grey-blue of his eyes to an inky shade. “It says there’s a bounty on you, Allie. Now that your general location is known, Nott put a price on your head. Those elves just killed each other trying to get the prize for themselves.”
I swallowed. “What’s the prize?”
Tore narrowed his eyes. “Whoever recovers you gets something night elves want more than anything. They get possession of your soul.”
“My what?” I shrieked.
Tore chucked his weapon across the room in anger. It expertly stuck into the wall like it was a three-inch throwing star and not a two-foot sword. Then he turned his focus on me. “You’re a demigod, so you’re not going to die of natural causes. You’re immortal, which by Asgardian standards, means you live until someone takes you out. And if that day comes, your physical body will perish, but your soul never dies. It returns to Asgard and rests in Valhalla for eternity.”
Mack looked over at Tore. “Unless . . .”
Tore’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Unless a dark god like Nott can trap your soul in a weapon. In that case, whoever holds the weapon also possesses your soul and channels the power of a demigod to use however they want. Including for destruction.”
“A weapon!” I gasped. “My soul could be turned into a . . .” Hyperventilate in three . . . two . . . one.
Tore put his hands up. “I won’t let that happen, Allie.”
Wouldn’t he? His words from the other night suddenly blasted through my brain. Tore had said he didn’t want me around—that he had better things to do than look out for me. All of a sudden he was acting all protective? Had something really changed, or was he just putting on a show for his roommates’ benefit? I blew out a stream of air and purged my frustration onto its source. “What do you care, Tore? You already said you don’t think I need four babysitters. You’re just dying to be done with this and get home, aren’t you?”
Mack and Bodie winced beside me.
Tore’s jaw clenched, and he ground out two words. “It’s complicated.” Then he stormed out of the complex. Great.
Mack and Bodie looked around the room. They appeared to be examining the fine grain of the wood beams on the walls. I sighed. I already knew they wouldn’t explain Tore’s hot and cold moods. Their world—and the apparent inter-planetary guy-code—required they observe a high degree of secrecy. But I wasn’t a guy, and I wasn’t from their world—or I hadn’t been, for a long time, anyway. For a newcomer, dealing with all of this was really hard. I felt out of my element in every possible way.
And despite the protective vibes coming from the immortals in the room, I felt inconceivably alone.
“Did you have a chance to look at these weapons, Allie?” Mack’s gentle voice pulled me from my pity-party.
“No, why? Is Tore going to beat me up with them in training tonight?” My attempt at humor fell flat.
“Tore doesn’t want to hurt you,” Mack corrected. “He wants to prepare you. And these weapons will give you an edge over even the darkest souls.”
Bodie crossed to stand beneath the two-dozen different blades, maces, and throwing stars that hung on the wall. “These are the Asgardian weapons. They’re infused with the spirits of the gods.”
What the actual hell? “Those things have souls trapped inside of them?” Good God, I was never touching one again.
Mack chuckled. “Not really. The warrior souls that rest in Valhalla make up a collective energy that feeds the swords.”
That was only slightly less creepy.
“Right. Dead warrior souls channel their energy into weapons.” Could my life get any weirder?
“It’s pretty powerful stuff,” Mack said. “The strength contained in these weapons, combined with what you’ll be able to channel through your armor and necklace, will be very difficult to overcome. Even by a dark elf.”
It was a very sweet pep talk, but nothing could alleviate my anxiety. I had a bounty on my head, and the very real threat of being turned into a deadly weapon for eternity. And not one of the good ones hanging on the complex wall—the bad ones. The ones wielded by night elves. I shuddered. “So, what do we do now?”
Bodie stepped closer to my side. “We’re going to have to train day and night. We also need to move; head to the safe house we have set up a couple of hours north in Canada. You need to start working with Tore to learn how to turn off your energy signature.”
My eyes widened. “How am I going to do all of that and go to classes?”