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Quickly looking over her shoulder, the Empress turned to the side.Pointing with the tip of her silver staff, she breathed, “Then that appeared.”

Eyes following where the glistening, silver tip pointed, Hope’s breath caught in his throat, his heart beat with such fury that he feared his ribs would break, and a bead of sweat rolled down his spine.The words, floating in midair just outside the border of the Magical Bubble that he and Pat had created all those years ago struck fear in the depths of his soul.

Unable to speak.Hardly able to breathe.It took three tries, but on the last he was able to whisper the words, “Hel hath no fury.

ChapterTwelve

“What the hell were you thinking?Oh, Einn!You’ve ruined everything!”It was the most emotion she’d seen her twin display in at least a century and of course, it was rage and disappointment, and it was pointed at her.

Sadly, and as usual, she couldn’t get a word in edgewise.Tveir was losing her mind at a high rate of speed with no end in sight.

“Why did you do that?How did you do that?Have you lost your mind?You’ve ruined everything!”

“You already said that,” Einn sighed, but her sister wasn’t listening.

“The one time!The one and only time I don’t watch you like a hawk, and you do this!”

Her left arm, knobby elbow and all, flew out to the side with incredible speed and precision.Not only did it form a perfect right angle, by her index, middle, and ring finger extended the straight line and formed an arrow pointing directly at Einn’s work of masterful art.She was proud of what she’d done.She’d shown initiative and ingenuity and that was what pissed off Tveir the most.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Einn leaned her right hip against the edge of the countertop of her workstation.Catching about every third word that her twin was shrieking, Tveir had one hundred percent of her attention when she ground out through gritted teeth, “Now, they’re going to…”

“Now, they are going to run to that blasted Island like the Hounds of Hell are after them and we will be waiting.”

“We will be what?!We can’t…”

“Oh, yes, we can go there.Of course, we can go there.There is literally nothing stopping us from going there except for your insane need to be in control of absolutely everything.”

“Why I…”

“Oh, please, you do it all the time, and usually I just let it roll like water off a duck’s back,” Einn snapped, taking a confident stride toward her sister.“But not today.”Pointing her curved finger at the tip of her sister’s nose, she kept right on going.“Now, riddle me this, Sister Dear, where is the one place we can go?”

“Earth, but…”

“And where is that blasted Island with all those Dragon… no, wait, Amazon, no, wait again… Amazonian Dragon freaks?”

“Earth…” Tveir’s response trailed off into a split second of silence.Then she picked up where she’d left off and started fuming all over again.“But that isn’t…”

Swinging her crooked, gnarl-knuckled index finger upward, Einn stopped when it was as straight as it could get and pointing toward the ceiling.Slowly shaking her head, she plastered on the smuggest smile she could muster and stood utterly still.After three full seconds of silence, she met her twin’s eyes with a confidence and superiority she’d waited centuries to feel.Einn was coming out as the Number One twin, the leader, the head bitch in charge, and she wanted the world to know.

But until she was out in the world, she would start with her twin.

“But that isn’t Asgard?Hmmm, is that what you were going to say?”

“Why, yes, yes it was, but only because…”

“Yeah, I know it was what you were going to say because I am the twin that can look into anyone’s mind anytime I want–especially yours because we share the sacred bond of twins.”

In the blink of an eye, she opened her puffy, purple lips as wide as they would go and let the tangerine-colored tongue roll out.Pointing her finger toward her throat, she made the gut-wrenching gagging sounds for precisely half a second, then added, “And that’s how I feel about the sacred bond of twins, in case you were wondering.”

“Yeah, well, you used to like it.”

“That was then.This is now.Things change.”

“Whatever.”Tveir rolled her eyes and huffed like a toddler.Then added in a sullen tone, “And yippee for your mind reading skills, Einn.To date you’ve had about five beings, besides me, to practice on, unless you count the insects, lizards, and other creepy crawlies that live here in our Realm.”

“They count.You’d be surprised how complex their minds are.And how kind and giving they are, and willing to work with one another to achieve their goals.You could learn a thing or two from all of them.They.Have.Hearts.”

“I don’t think…”