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“After you.”

Two more incredibly sharp turns and a perilous trip across a rope bridge that only stayed hanging with the help of a quick pop of Hopper’s Magic, and the Cousins were on the homestretch.With every step, the hair on the back of his neck stood a little taller and dread climbing his spine dug its sharp, barbed claws into his flesh.

Turning to tell Pat to wait and let him go out first, Hopper got as far as, “Hey, Dude, I think…” Before a roar that reminded him of a 747 trying to land on his head rattled his entire being from the inside out.

Head falling back as the whoosh and rush of a high velocity blast of air almost pushed him off the side of the mountain, his hands instinctually slapped over his ears as a high-pitched whine tried burrowing its way into his brain.A loud, cacophonous pop that shook the ground beneath his feet announced the appearance of a swirling, twirling ring of icy blue and midnight black Enchantment a second before a Magical portal burst to life and out flew none other than his Mate and the Valkyrie known as Liv.

Hopper couldn’t move.He couldn’t think.His heart skipped a beat.His joy at seeing Hel in all her glory was instantly doused with a tsunami of fear for her safety and the overwhelming need to protect her at all costs.

Feet moving before he completely facing forward, Hopper sprinted to the mountaintop as fast as his feet and his Magic could carry him.With the last little bit of the rocky mountainside right before him, the ball of Hopper’s right foot hit the trail as his left foot pushed off and the Omnipotent Being catapulted himself into the air.

Landing with a thud a second before Pat followed suit, Hopper had just stood to his full height when a shrill, nasally shout slashed through the air like a weedwhacker through a flower garden.“Stop right there, you bitch, or I’ll blast you to pieces and your little Valkyrie too.”

“YOU?”Hopper heard Hel hiss, her confusion an afterthought to her outrage.

Not stopping, even as he realized that his Mate knew the person who’d lured him there, Hopper leapt over rocks, hurdled three separate rows of wild bushes and damn near ran right into the massive trunk of a massive mahogany tree, before Pat’s voice sounded in his mind.

“Slow down, Cuz.You need to get a lay of the land, find out what you’re up against.You will be no good to Hel if you charge in there like a bull in a china shop.Sounds like she knows this person.You need to…”

Stopping behind the last, crooked row of wild bushes, Hopper mentally whispered, “Thanks,” knowing Pat understood that it was all he could get out while his Mate was in danger and he was so close.

Peering through the brambles, Hopper shook his head, blinked his eyes, and finally mentally asked Pat,“Is that the weirdest shaped being you’ve ever seen, or am I losing my mind?”

“Nope, I am happy to say that you are perfectly sane and that is a… well… umm… That is… Let’s just say, that is the most unique physique I have ever seen.”

Nowhere near identical to, she, and he used the term loosely at that point, resembled a taller, not quite as humpbacked but more egg-shaped, Quasimodo with hair the texture of dried out hay, the color of an old pumpkin that stuck out in every direction from her overly oval head.Long, gangly arms with knobby elbows were longer than entirely necessary and the fingers flipping and flitting in every direction as she screeched at Hel were gnarled with dimply, swollen knuckles that looked like small golf balls were way too big for the rest.Her skin was so thin that he could see each and every artery, vein, capillary, and muscle fiber the strange lifeform possessed, but it was the gray, mottled color that made him wonder if she was from a different planet.

“What the hell are you doing here?”Hel demanded.“Does Father know…?”

But that was as far as his Mate got before the odd-shaped being hissed, “Isn’t it obvious, my dear big sister?”Taking a threatening step forward, she added with a menacing cackle, “I’m here to put you in the ground, bitch!”

ChapterEighteen

She couldn’t believe her eyes or her ears.One of ‘the Twins’, another of her siblings, was standing before her.She’d thought, well, she’d been told, that they were living in a far off Realm with their mother, an unknown female their father had briefly ‘entertained’.Since the information had come from the horse’s mouth, aka Loki, she’d taken at face value and moved on.

After all, Hel and her brothers only saw each other once a decade if they were forced–or more to the point, ordered by the All Father because some great evil was about to befall Asgard.To say they weren’t a close family was an understatement, and one that she’d dealt with long ago.Besides, between her mother and father, therehadto be a plethora of brothers, sisters, and everything in between out in the universe that she’d yet to meet.

But none of that mattered in that moment.Nope, not even a little bit.Apparently, she’d been forcibly summoned to Shit’s Gonna Hit the Fan Party and not told to bring a fan.

Talk about a kick in the unpadded knee of her dead side…

Einn, the firstborn of the twins, was standing right before her, acting as if she was the Queen of the Universe, and issuing threats like one of the Ladies of GLOW, an insane and totally over-the-top theatrical eighties wrestling show Garmr loved to watch.Talk about balls.Einn certainly had a brass pair along with gumption, tenacity, and more than her share of ego and bravado.

She truly was Loki’s kid.Only the Trickster god could have a child who had enough audacity and an ego big enough to every corner of the Earth and then some.

Add to it that she was not only threatening Hel, a goddess and her sister, but Einn had the utter gall to attempt to intimidate Liv… A Valkyrie… And one of Hel’s closest friends.Talk about stupid.The goddess’s mind was as close to being blown as she could ever remember–and that was saying something since two of her best friends were Fate and Destiny.

Did the oldest of the pair that her father had called half-blooded miscalculations think she could take on a goddess and a Valkyrie… At the same time?Did she… and this was the kicker… truly believe she could prevail?

Sure seemed that way.

“I must ask,”Carys chimed in.“Will you be able to control Einn without hurting and/or killing her?”

“I’m sure gonna try.”

And she was.At least until she could contact their father and get the whole sordid tale.However, nothing that was happening, not even the chance that she would have to fight a family member, stopped her from being madder than a wet hen and ready to show her sister who was boss.Oh, but first, she needed to know if twin number two was also on the scene.

Better to be safe than sorry… She’d hadn’t had contact with either of the twins in centuries and had no clue if they had strong enough Magic to do more than issue threats, if they knew how to use it, or if they had ever had even been in a battle of any kind.