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“Yeah, well, I already love you and I’m sure your gravy’s great, but…”

“But you want to know exactly what Destiny is up to?”

Snapping the fingers on his right hand, Hopper pointed at his Cousin.“See there?You are the smart one.”Grabbing another biscuit, he held it between his thumb and index finger and shook it to emphasize every word.“So, humor me, Einstein.I’m gonna ask the question even though we already know the answer.Why is our Desi having a ‘Spring into Love’ Party this weekend?And how the hell do I get out of it?”

ChapterNine

“Time is running out,” she mumbled under her breath.“And that blasted clock just keeps tick-tick-ticking.It won’t stop.It just keeps going and going and going–like that petulant pink bunny with the bass drum!Just another nightmare I blame humans for.I often wonder why we ever got a TV and all those crazy streaming services.What was the Universe thinking?”Shaking her head, she frantically grunted and groaned.“Now, where was I?Oh, yeah?That right.I was talking about that infernal timeclock!It’s making me so nervous.Distracting me.Driving me outta my mind.”Huffing and puffing, she pushed stray strands of sweaty hair off her damp brow, grabbed the micro dog bone wrench her dad had given her for her thousandth birthday and started tightening the connections she’d just replaced.

Her mind was reeling.Her heart was pounding.Her palms were sweaty, making her work infinitely more tedious, but she couldn’t give up.She had to hold onto that wrench and keep going, going, going.She refused to stop.She would do what she set out to do and no one, not even her twin, would get in her way.

But…

“T will be back any minute.”Another sharp huff then she wiped her brow with the back of her free hand then wiped the resulting perspiration on the side of her thigh without missing a beat.“She’s gonna bitch and moan and complain because I canstillonly see, hear, and smell in any Realm but Earth.She is such a pain in the ass.She’s never happy.It’s not like she can do the things I do.She thinks it’s all so easy.She thinks I can just snap my fingers and make all these amazing machines appear out of thin air.She thinks because we’re Magic, Mythical, and the daughters of the one and only Norse Trickster god, the legend that is Loki that the things I do, my beautiful, wonderful, and fantastical inventions can be sped up with a snap of my fingers.Like I just know what technology will work with what Enchantment to get the results we want.For the sake of Grandma Freja, there’s no frikkin’ manual for this crap!As if!That would be wonderful if it really existed–but… It.Does.Not.What I do isrealwork.It’s blood, sweat, and tears.I have to use my brain.I have to draw upon all the knowledge given to me by… by… Well, by whoever our mother is because dad does not have a technical, logical bone in his body.My work, my inventions, mybabies…are the culmination of a spark that becomes an idea that becomes a plan that after many, many,manyhours of labor with my own two hands becomes something tangible, something real, something more wonderful than even I imagined.”

The words came faster and faster.They flew out of her mouth along with drops of spittle and bits of leftover sponge cake that the Gremlin two Realms over and one down made with her own two claws whipped in every direction and covered most available surfaces.“Is this what it feels like to lose your mind?Is this what the humans feel like when they say they are out of control?”Slowing shaking her head while her eyes remained focused on her work, Einn lamented, “Damn!I feel so sorry for them.They are so much weaker than we are.They have to feel like it’s the end of the world.Do they think they’re dying?I bet they think they’re dying.Oh, those poor, fragile, frail humans and their little human brains.Somebody really needs to drop some Magic on their heads and stop that shit.It’s a wonder it’s not raining freakin’ out people all over the world.

Inhaling deeply, she exhaled slowly.“If I feel this bad then it has to be absolutely excruciating for them because it is agonizing for me because… Make no mistake about it… I amlosingit.”Chuckling, the sound maniacal even to her own ears, she kept going, “And that is one helluva feat since everyone, including me, is pretty sure that I was born a few bats short of a full belfry, my elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top, and my ugly ducklings refuse to waddle in a row.”

It was sad.Really it was.Maybe even sadder than the plight of the poor humans she loved so very much.No one saw Einn for what she truly was, which at least in her own mind, was a genius.Ahead of her time with ideas no one had even fathomed, she sought to marry the Everlasting Magical that had always been there with the Practical with the Past to make a better Future for those shoved aside by others.

“Wow!”She mused aloud.“That is really good!Now, I have a tagline for the business I can’t start until I bust outta here kick a whole lotta ass and make my way in that big, beautiful world out there without dear old dad or grumpy even older grandpa getting in my way!”Shaking her head so furiously that the hair that wasn’t plastered to her head went flying in every direction with some of the frizzy strands falling out and covering the cake crumbs she’d spat in every direction a few seconds before, she softly gloated, “I keep telling Tveir that I.Am.A.Genius!I got all the technical know-how from whoever gave birth to us but never rocked up a day in her miserable life was while T got all the analytical, drive-your-twin-crazy skills.What a happy mess we are…”

And they were.But in the grand scheme of things, Einn always came back to a few simple, yet unanswered, questions… Did she–or Tveir–have a choice in their parentage?Did they get to choose whose DNA mixed together to get the fantastic Awesome Duo that was Einn and Tveir?

No!Hell, they didn’t even get a choice where they lived.That was decided for them before the moment they’d been born and, in essence, wasbecausethey were born.Talk about the black sheep of the family.They were the ebony shadows…not seen, not heard, notanything.

But it wasn’t so bad.At least from her point of view.After the first few centuries of feeling rejected and having hourly pity parties, she and Tveir had made a pact.They decided to do everything in their Power to get out of the Rift, get to Asgard, and confront Dear Old Dad on his own turf, in front of Grandpa Odin and Uncle Thor.

It only stood to reason that two was stronger than one, right?Although that remained to be seen, Einn was not a quitter.She would figure it out and get them there–if it was the last thing she did.

“Floating and/or flying should be easy,” Einn babbled.“A damn balloon does one and even the smallest bird does the other, and neither one of them has a dad who is the biological son of the Frost Giant Laufey who was adopted by Odin and Frigga.It doesn’t even matter who Mommy Dearest is or was or whatever.The part of us that is Loki should be able to get up to the Heavenly Realms of Asgard and kick some godly ass!But no!NO!We’re stuck here!”Throwing her hands in the air with such fervor that her wrench almost flew through her fingers, she ground out through gritted teeth, “Well, not quite stuck.More like temporarily parked.Wehavebeen to Earth.We’ve been to Earth hundreds of times.And still…”

Her rambling turned to ranting.“Seriously, we’ve seen green grass, butterflies, daffodils, and all the other happy horse shit people have written poetry about more times than I care to remember, and it’s still not good enough forher.Why?Why isn’t it enough?Why isn’tanythingI do ever good enough?Yes, I want to confront Dad, but shouldn’t we be grateful for what we’ve accomplished?Why doesshethink I can perform miracles?Why can’t she just…?”

“Hello, dear Twin,” Tveir’s nasally, off-key yet lyrical attempt at a greeting flipped the off switch in Einn’s brain.

She went blank–completely blank, not even bats flying around up there in the belfry of her mind.Then came the shivers.They shot down her crooked and bowed spine like icy fingers on a chalkboard forcing her to clench her jaw as tight as possible to keep her teeth from chattering.

T had snuck up on her and that hadn’t happened since they were children.And she was still talking…

“How are you doing this fine day?”

“I-I…ahem…I’m good,” Einn replied, trying really hard to sound confident while refusing to turn around and look her sister in the eye.

“Oh, dear,” Tveir obnoxiously tutted.“You’re positively rattled.Did you work all night?”

“Y-yes, Yes, I did.”Nodding frantically but still not turning around, Einn’s mind raced.Then her pulse kicked up to one-hundred-and-ten when her twin’s hand landed on her shoulder.

Tveir never touched another, not even her twin, without being forced.She hated physical contact no matter the situation.Einn hadn’t even gotten a hug from her sister when they were a few weeks old and thrown into the blasted Rift in Time they called home.Sure, when they were ‘birthed’ into existence by their mother and father the twins were the size of teenagers, they looked ready to walk the campus of any university on Earth, but they were emotionally, mentally, and developmentally as immature as a newborn.

To say the day they were ripped from everything and everyone they’d ever known was tragic was an epic understatement.It didn’t matter that they were just a little more than a week old, Einn’s heart was broken.She couldn’t stop crying.She needed someone to give her a hug and tell her everything would be okay.Sadly, all she got to do was watch T have a complete and total meltdown.It was the most emotion and affection she had ever shown–and both happened at the same time.

She actually reached out and squeezed Einn’s hand.Not a hug, not a reassurance of any kind, just a quick, unprecedented touch.That was all.Nothing more.

So, why was Tveir being so nice at this point in time?Her hand was on E’s shoulder, and she was actually giving a reassuring pat.It made no sense.Well, none that Einn’s poor, tired, strung-out brain could conjure.It had to be an act, a manipulation of some sort.There was no other explanation.T was demanding, exacting, and an absolute tyrant when it came to their work.Well, when it came to anything and everything, but especially any and every project, game, or experiment Einn was bringing to life.She’d even set up parameters, time tables, and pie charts for their games of hide and seek as children.

It was maddening, but Einn couldn’t waste any brain power on it.She had to focus.She had to think of something to say.She had to deflect from her lack of progress and get her twin talking about something other than the ticking of the timeclock and the lack of forward progress on the experiment.