Page 15 of Between Bloode and Death (Between the Shadows #5)
She laughed, unable to help herself. “Sure, fine. If you find Selene and Ambrogio for me, you can have Mormo for one year after this is all done. But you can’t make him do anything he doesn’t want.
I mean it, Morpheus. Mormo isn’t like a son to me.
He is a son to me. You will not harm him.
Or else.” She let him see the danger she often banked behind her kinder personas.
Mother, maiden, and crone had nothing on the badass witch goddess circling in wait to exact vengeance on anyone who threatened anyone she loved.
He swallowed. “Right. Sure. I swear. Mormo likes me, Hecate. He just thinks he doesn’t.”
“You keep telling yourself that.”
The charming god of dreams proceeded to flatter her shamelessly, bent to kiss her on the cheek, then vanished in a puff of smoke.
“Show off.” She waved her hand to dissipate the cloying scent of possibilities and hope and ordered herself a drink. “Make it a good one, Catherine.”
The dead flapper smiled. “Always for you, Hecate. What are you in the mood for? Sweet? Bitter? Deadly?”
“Surprise me.” Before Hecate could accept her beverage, a curious trio approached. A troublesome god, his unfamiliar companion, and She Who Walks Between Worlds—the giant battle cat that seemed to have adopted Onvyr and taken to visiting Hecate’s home whenever she wanted.
The cat pretended not to know her, so Hecate returned the favor. But the god was another matter.
Tall, with flowing flaxen hair, twinkling, mismatched eyes of blue and gold, and a broad, bronzed chest that would do Thor proud, Loki shook his head. “You overstep your bounds, witch. We need to talk.”
The stranger beside him didn’t speak, though she did roll her eyes, schooling her expression when he shot her a quick look. The female felt powerful but not divine. And not mortal either. Odd.
She wore a sword at her hip. Black trousers, a light-colored sleeveless tunic, and black boots finished the outfit. Tribal tattoos encircled her defined arms. Her bruised knuckles and a scar from her collarbone up her neck attested to someone who knew battle firsthand.
But it was her eyes that fascinated Hecate. They turned a white so bright Hecate had to glance away.
Loki muttered something, and the woman apologized and dimmed her eyes until they resumed their pale gray, making her appear even more striking, those irises like ice contrasting against the dark blue-black of her brows and hair. The woman stood only a few inches shorter than Loki, dwarfing Hecate.
Something about her felt important.
Loki, unfortunately, refused to let Hecate study her further. He flicked his hand at the warrior woman, who sighed and rolled her eyes again, this time in front of the god.
“Fine. We’ll be waiting. Come on, Frey-Frey.” She and the cat walked away, disappearing down a corridor until they vanished from sight.
Loki stared at Hecate, his fury on display for all to see. Suddenly, the area around the speakeasy emptied of everyone but the two of them. “What did you to with my son?”
“I’m afraid I don’t follow.” Too bad Hecate hadn’t gotten her drink before Loki had scared everyone away. Even Catherine had departed. Damn it.
“Let’s not play games. You’ve been telling everyone for years that some great catastrophe is coming to end our worlds.
You’ve meddled with the vampires—for which I highly congratulate you.
Even I wouldn’t stoop so low to create chaos.
But you managed it. I silently applauded.
But getting my son to go along with you is a step too far. ”
“Again, I don’t follow. What are you talking about?”
He studied her. “You’re telling me you have no idea where Jormungandr is?”
Hecate froze. “He’s dead and sitting in some Norse afterlife, or so Hel once mentioned when I asked.”
“Well, not exactly.” Loki’s pleased smile alarmed her. “He was almost dead after his skirmish with Thor during that time people thought the world might end.”
“So the first Ragnarok was just a test drive?” she snapped.
“Exactly. Thor isn’t dead, and neither is my son. But letting the gods know that wouldn’t help anyone. They get so testy about my boy’s bad behavior. But don’t worry. My wife has been working with him about his behavior.”
In Hecate’s opinion, Angrboda was just as bad.
Loki continued, “Jormy’s been hanging out in Niflheim with his sister, working on his anger issues.”
“Loki, he nearly ended the world once.” Of Loki’s three well-known monstrous children, the giant serpent had nearly conquered the world.
He’d lived under the waters of the earth’s grand oceans, so large that he fit around the entire world.
He slept with his tail in his mouth—the original ouroboros—a circle with no beginning or end.
Prophecy said that Jormungandr would kill Thor with his venom and nearly poison the world, falling prey to Thor in their final battle. Did the Norse gods know the great serpent lived? Studying Loki, she thought not.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because if you don’t have him, someone else does. And that someone is hiding him, because even the Norns can’t find him.”
The fates couldn’t find him? A great foreboding made the back of her neck tingle in a very bad way.
“I swear I don’t have him.” Her Night Bloode was powerful, and she was pretty sure she could stir most of the gods and magir into joining her crew to battle an entity that wanted nothing but disorder and death to them all. But not if she couldn’t gather the Bloode Stones in time.
Now to learn that one of the most destructive forces in the world wasn’t dead? Was in fact missing?
Loki sighed and shrugged, a gleam of mirth in his eyes. “I have a feeling we’re in for a wild time. You know, Hecate? Maybe all your ranting about chaos and demons and the Darkness That Comes might have some teeth after all.”