I raised an eyebrow, waiting for a further explanation. Tore shook the dice, then threw them onto the packed dirt floor. They landed on two different symbols, and he swore. “Skit!”
Mack pick up the dice and breathed over them, shaking them up before throwing them down. They landed with both sides on the same infinity symbol.
“WAR!” Mack yelled. Johann scrambled to pick up the dice. He shook them quickly, before throwing them down. They landed on opposite shapes, and Johann swore.
Bodie quickly grabbed the dice and threw them down. Same shapes.
“Argh!” Mack yelled as Bodie pumped his fist in the air.
“I win!”
I laughed along with Tore. Somewhere along the nightmare that had been the past few months, these guys had carved out a special place in my heart. All of them—even the ornery one.
Tore’s eyes met mine over the fire. I gave him a tight smile, then snuggled into my faux-fur hood. The boys continued to play their game as darkness descended on Jotunheim. When the last bit of light outside the cave faded to black, the guys put down their dice and snuffed out the fire. They said it would draw too much attention to our hiding spot. That sucked. I didn’t want to be hunted down and crushed by jotuns, but I also didn’t want to freeze to death.
While Tore situated himself near the mouth of the cave, I ducked lower into my coat and settled in for a long night. He turned to look back at me. “Do you sense anything, Allie? Any energy from Gud Morder?”
I took a breath, allowing my awareness to travel out and up. There was a lightness somewhere that nudged at my armor. When my energy reached the top of the mountain it recoiled, pinging back to me as if it had been shocked.
“The top of the mountain . . . it’s dark . . . like, surrounded-by-demons, dark. Something’s definitely up there. Maybe whatever it is, is guarding the weapon.”
Tore nodded. “Okay then, tomorrow we climb a mountain and investigate. Try to get some sleep. I’ll keep first watch.”
Mack and Johann each snuggled to my left, as Bodie lay on my right. It would take all of us working together to keep warm. Falling asleep would be impossible—my teeth chattered as icy snot dripped from my nose, and I could barely feel my legs.
Sometime in the middle of the night, I croaked a pathetic plea. “Light a fire? Please?”
Tore looked over his shoulder with a frown. “Can’t, or we’ll be crushed by frost giants. Sorry, Allie. Bodie?”
“On it.” Tore’s bestie snuggled closer, throwing his coat over me for additional warmth.
“Thanks,” I muttered, not ungrateful, but not much warmer, either. Sunrise couldn’t come fast enough.
Sometime in the early hours of the morning, Tore’s body replaced Bodie’s behind me. His arms circled around my torso, and he pulled me close enough that I could feel his erratic heartbeat against my back. His palm spread possessively across my belly, and he held me tight against his body, offering what little heat he had left.
That was when sleep finally took me.
****
When I awoke, Tore still held me, but something even more miraculous had happened. I could feel my toes! I bolted upright, and thank the maker, a fire roared at my feet.
Mack glanced up from stoking the flames with a stick to shoot me a grin. “Morning, Allie.”
I looked outside, where the weather had calmed considerably. The sun was out, which explained the gift of fire at my feet. Bodie and Johann were passed out, holding each other like two long lost lovers. I couldn’t help but snicker as Mack wagged his eyebrows at the two intertwined buddies.
“I love fire.” I put my hands out. “I want to marry fire.”
Tore sat up next to me, looking unfairly sexy with ruffled, morning hair. He rubbed the fresh layer of stubble that lined his jaw and shot me a sly grin. So yummy. “We’ll see if you feel that way about fire when we get to Muspelheim.”
I covered my eyes and groaned. That one was the home of the fire giants—I remembered that much from my Mythology class. I was majorly not looking forward to that stop. Maybe we could save it for last. I pulled my hand away from my face and tried to shift my attention around the cave, since ogling the sexy demi at my side didn’t seem like the most professional way to kick off the day. But Lord, Tore was insanely hot in the morning. Why didn’t he drool and have eye crusties like the rest of us? The boy looked like he’d just boarded down a mountain, with his wind ruffled hair and self-satisfied smirk. Did I seriously sleep in his arms last night? No big deal. No. Big. Deal. I forced my hormones to calm themselves. I needed a female friend stat. I had no idea what all of this meant, and I desperately needed to debrief with someone who was not one of my protectors. Also, not male.
“Let’s wake up the snuggle twins over there and start hiking.” Tore nudged Bodie and Johann with his foot. “I want to summit this mountain before sundown.”
Right. Summit the huge, snowy mountain, avoid the frost giants, and steal my weapon back from the dark elves. Nothing out of the ordinary.
I took one last look at stubbly, morning-haired Tore and committed the vision to memory. Something told me a heat-inducing visual would be just what I needed scaling that enormous, frostbite-friendly mountain.
****
“You want us to climb that?” I blinked at the wall of ice that marked the base of Iskandar Mountain. It appeared to be a frozen waterfall—two hundred feet of sheer ice that hung at a barely discernible angle from the hill. “Why can’t we just take the trail behind it that tracks up the hill? It’s climbable. Also, it’s not made of bulletproof ice.”
“Can’t.” Tore pulled one gloved hand out of his pocket and pointed at a flicker of green that circled the bottom of the mountain. “See that wavy reflection? It’s a trigger. The mountain’s rigged with an alarm, or possibly an explosive. If you look close, it goes all the way around the base, but it tucks behind the ice wall. Which means there’s only one way up.”
“If it helps, Allie, we don’t expect you to climb the ice.” Mack tossed his pack on the ground and rifled through his gear. He pulled out five sets of spiked shoe covers. “We’ve trained for this, but you haven’t. You just climb on one of our backs and get ready for a wild ride.”
My mind went straight to the gutter, and I took care to avoid looking at Tore. Never one to miss an opportunity, Bodie snickered. “That’s what she said.”
Mack frowned at his friend. “Please try to be an adult, Bodie.”
Heat climbed my neck and settled into my cheeks. Ah, heat. I missed you. “You sure you want me to hitch a ride?” I hedged. “It looks like it’s going to be hard enough to get up that thing without a person on your back.”
“You’re a demigod, remember?” Johann shot me a grin. “No more of this ‘person’ skit.”