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For a split second, time stood still.Then Hel’s lips opened in the most glorious gasp.Her cheek flushed to a bright pink and her hair spun behind her like the wings of an Angel.

Smiling, his heart filled with anticipation and adoration.Then Hope reached for her as the last word slipped from his lips, “…Hopper.”

And just like that, both Hel and Loki were gone.

Disappearing into a cloud of Enchantment and Mysticism just as deep and mysterious as his Mate, the Trickster god and the goddess of Helheim were gone, but Hopper had learned something very important… Hel’s Magic was not only stronger, more powerful, and more complete than her father’s, but it had the feel of something all-too familiar.

But what was it?Definitely not Giant like her deplorable mother.Hopper had firsthand knowledge of that specific brand of black Magic–and that was not what he felt coming from his Mate.No.No way.What he’d felt had been pure, white, and good in every way.

It was… It was… Why couldn’t he put a name to what he felt?It was right there.Right on the tip of his tongue.Just on the edge of his mind.It was there, he could literally see its shadow, feel it’s presence.

It was…

Damn!Why couldn’t he reach it?It was right there–an outline of the information he needed in the plethora of memories he’d stored over the centuries.

It was…

Could it be?Was she…?

Bam!Crash!“Son of a…!”

Jerked from his lovely dream by an uproar that quite literally shook the floor under his head, Hopper’s only thought was…

“Well, shit, another great day in paradise…”

ChapterSix

“Did you see it?Did you smell it?Did you hear…?”

“Yes, E,” Tveir sighed, literally biting the tip of her tongue to keep from screaming at her twin.“There was a pleasant aroma.I could hear their conversation.I also saw two Omnipotent Beings getting drunk off their collective asses on that horrible hooch Dionysus makes for the second time in as many human months.”

“Yes!Yes!Yes!”Jumping up and down, clapping and wiggling her hips, Einn cheered.“That’s what I mean.We saw it all.We heard it all!Not to mention the way the scent of the fruity tang of the Greek god of Wine and Ecstasy’s favorite brew made my mouth water, or how the spicy burn of the peppers in that cheesy dip Hopper whipped up made my eyes water.Oh!And I really wanted to taste the salty bite of those wonderfully crispy chips.It was all there!It was fantastic!It was wonderful!It was…”

“It was not enough!We had all that precisely twenty-hours, twenty-four minutes and forty-eight seconds ago!”Tveir’s roar bounced off the walls, rebounded off the ceiling and reverberated through the airwaves with the fiery heat of her growing impatience and frustration.“It is taking too long!This is about more than spying on them, more than watching them make fools of themselves, more than…”

“I know,” Einn scowled.“I know what you want.”

“What I want?What I want?!”Tveir stalked forward.Slowly closing the distance, her right hand clenched at her side while the index finger of the other poked her own chest with every syllable that she seethed.“This is not only whatIwant, Einn.”She added an extra punch of harsh Sorcery to the name and was rewarded when her sister flinched.“This is whatwehave been dreaming of and working for.Dammit!We have bled for this project.Not to mention, we have literally killed for it since the day we were banished to this God with a capital G forsaken Rift in Time and Space.It is…”

“You know I prefer to call it Twinlandia.”

Ignoring her sister, refusing to get pulled off track, needing to let out at least a small bit of the rage before she throttled her twin and wanting the person with whom she shared everything, even the exact same DNA and toe prints, to understand how very much she needed to escape the living hell her existence had always been, Tveir stopped when she was eye-to-eye and toe-to-toe with her twin.Waiting for precisely two beats of their syncopated hearts, and for the tremors in Einn’s hand to grow to a visible shake, she slowly and precisely enunciated every word.“I.Don’t.Care.If.We.Call.It.Motherfucking.Ditzneyland.”

“Oh, I like that.I really….”

Turning the tip of her index finger toward her twin, she poked the very center of Einn’s chest with every word she pushed through her gritted teeth.“I.Want.Out.”Holding the digit still, she pushed harder, not to hurt her sister, because that would be hurting herself since she would also feel it, but to make sure she had E’s full and undivided attention.“And by the clock on the wall, you have precisely twenty-five hours, thirty-six minutes, and twenty-nine seconds.”

Stepping back, completely unfazed and just as happy-go-lucky as always, Einn shrugged, made one of her trademark goofy faces, stuck out her lavender tongue and spun back toward her workstation.Over her shoulder, she explained, “It’s all part of the process, T.Come on, get with the program.You know we have to experience all five senses through the Twinometer before we can even attempt to send something…”

“Someone.”

“Noooooooo,” Einn objected, drawing out the word as she slowly turned.“Something.I may be a mad scientist, but even I will not…”

“Okay, okay, okay,” Tveir agreed.“We’ll do it your way.We’ll do all the proper testing.”Reaching out, she held Einn’s upturned and pointed chin between her twisted fingers with her thick, knobby knuckles, and sternly reminded, “But only if you get it done in time.If you are so much as two seconds late, we will throw all caution to the wind, and I will shove you into wherever opens up and hope for the best.”

Shaking her head, Einn dislodged her chin and turned back around.“Fine.Then go away and let me work.But you know…”

“I know that if in twenty-two hours twenty-four minutes and seventeen seconds the device…”