Page 9

I LINGERED AT the statue of Astrid, wondering how she’d react to me stealing her entire life and if she’ll ever reappear to set the story straight. With luck, I’d be long gone by then, returned to Danmark with no scars to show for it.

This statue must have been an invitation to come speak to me, because within a minute, someone else came to my side. “You must hate your parents,” she said.

I turned to look at her. Silver chains had been braided into her shimmering, blonde hair, which hung down her back like a perfect, thick cord. Golden bracelets adorned her wrists, and she held a glass between her fingers, showing off red painted nails that matched her slender gown.

This was the woman Thor has been speaking to earlier, I noted.

“I do not hate them,”

I replied.

She raised a brow. “No? If you knew the life you could have had in Asgard, you would.”

I pretended to consider it. Actually, I did think about it. I thought about what it would have been like if I was really Astrid and had grown up as Odin’s granddaughter, living in Asgard amongst the other gods instead of farming my faoir’s fields and bowing before the chieftain who only ever saw my sister.

I pushed the image away. “I had a simple life with my clan, but a good one.”

“I find it hard to believe anyone would prefer the harsh life of your people. They are ruthless, every one of them. All bite and no brain. But up here, we would have had fun.”

The way she said fun insinuated she meant trouble. “We are the same age. You and I would have been playmates as children, and become the closest of friends.”

Someone as ordinary as me would look out of place next to someone like her. For the sake of my pride, it would be best if she didn’t stand too close, but my pride would have to survive. “It’s never too late to make a friend.”

Somehow, her smile looked dangerous. “My affection is much harder to win now that I’m older.”

She tapped her fingers to her glass. “Though you’ve had no trouble gaining the approval of your grandfather.”

Her sight locked on Odin, and her tone turned envious.

I glanced at Odin. “He’s different than I expected,”

I confessed. “Warmer? The stories made him sound so cold, but being in his presence is like sitting by a fire.”

Her lips curved up. “For most, that fire burns. But Odin is fiercely protective of his family.”

The opportunity was there, and I seized it. “If he’s so protective, how do mortals manage to steal a child from here?”

I tried not to appear too interested as I asked, instead turning my face toward my drink. “I didn’t realize there was an easy bridge between the two places.”

She chuckled. “They don’t.”

The goddess turned like I’d lost her interest, but she had all of mine. “Mortals can’t enter Asgard. You weren’t stolen from us by a mortal; you were taken by a god. My guess—your parents had something they wanted, and I’m very curious to find out what that is.”

With the most ominous tone I’d ever heard, she lifted her glass to me. “Welcome to Asgard. Let’s see how long you stay this time.”

I didn’t even catch her name, but I’d never forget how she grinned like my being here was a game and she had all the answers. She walked away before I could get any of them.

I put my back to the statue and faced the crowd. Each god towered at least a shield’s length above me, and all except Balder were armed with weapons like they were forever one breath away from a duel. Dueling with a god would be a terrific story to bring home with me, but if I did, I wouldn’t survive to go home.

I pondered the goddess’s words—how a god had stolen Astrid from Asgard, and couldn’t help but wonder which one had taken her, and if that god was here in the room now. If one of them took Astrid away as a child, they very likely knew where she was. One trip to Danmark to see her and they’d know I wasn’t the missing child. They could know already. I had to be quick about my exit.

The lyre changed its tune, from low and melodic to soft and swift. As the higher notes swept from the hall into the room, Balder rounded along the wall to my side.

“I see you are making friends.”

Balder stood beside me. His presence was soothing after being on my guard for so long.

“I don’t know if I’m making friends, but I’m conversing.”

“Svana doesn’t converse with others easily, so you can count that as a victory.”

So that’s who I had spoken to. I tilted my head up to the second floor where Svana had moved, again placing herself at Thor’s side. Her name wasn’t one I recognized, but from the resemblances to Thor with the curve of her eye and way she stood like she owned the room, I guessed this was Thor’s daughter. That made her Balder’s niece and Odin’s granddaughter as well. “It was more threatening than anything.”

“That sounds more like her.”

I took a long sip, working through the conversation in my mind to string together a path home. “Svana said I wasn’t taken by mortals, but by a god.”

Balder sighed, and ran his hand through the length of his white beard. “That’s most likely the case, or at least, a god allowed a mortal into Asgard. We can’t know their intent was for the child to be taken.”

“But you think it was.”

“I’m certain of it. Whoever took you, they hid you well.”

See, that was the thing bothering me most. I wasn’t hiding at all. I was in a prominent clan, going to the altars to worship, spending most of my hours outside of my home as I worked the fields and trained with the other children; I wasn’t hidden from anyone. If this scar on my arm proved who I was, it was easily seen my entire life. For the gods to have missed me was unlikely.

Unless a god was keeping me from their sight.

I stopped that line of thinking before my imagination could run too wild. More likely, the gods had seen me as they came through our clan, but there hadn’t been anything special about me to hold their attention, and they didn’t even remember me.

But what if…

Svana had said my parents must have had something to offer the god in exchange for me. I thought through all of our possessions: the three silver goblets that only my parents and Tova were allowed to drink from, the gold armband Móoir wore, and several glass beads. That was all the treasure we had to our name, paired with a humble number of coins. As far as I knew, we’d never been wealthy. And they had no great skills to boast of. Faoir was the fourth best blacksmith in the clan, only truly gifted in his farming skills which the gods would have no need of. And my parents didn’t struggle for children. They had Tova shortly after marrying, and didn’t struggle to conceive the rest of my sisters. They always wanted a son, but not enough to make a deal with a god. Certainly not seventeen years ago, before they knew they wouldn’t get one.

They had nothing to ask for, and nothing to offer a god, and if I was their reward, they never acted blessed to have me. Again, I determined there was no chance they got me from the gods. As extra proof, I was one of the weakest children in the clan. It was more likely any other person was the missing goddess than me.

“I’ll forever be amazed you were hidden for so long. I watched my altars on Earth carefully, but your parents never brought you to them. Nor to the other gods.”

I stilled. It wasn’t my parents who did that. It was me. Balder didn’t recognize me from Earth because I’d chosen to only go to Aegir’s altar.

An icy feeling washed over me. My throat dried. “Where is Aegir?”

Balder frowned at the name. “He lost Odin’s favor years ago and has been scarce since. Why? Do you suspect he had a hand in your kidnapping?”

Aegir would see through the guise. I’d poured out my heart to him over the years—every insufficient, mortal part of my heart. He would know I was a mortal and not a god.

My resolution multiplied. I had to get out of Asgard soon.

“Balder, I must know. How did I get out of Asgard? Is there a bridge between the realms you are using?”

His body stiffened and his voice went dry. “I will not tell you.”

“Why?”

I pressed, struggling to keep desperation from my tone.

Balder’s gave a sad smile. “Because you are too close to those who raised you, and if you knew how to return to them, I know you would try. I will not lose you again so soon. Stay, and let us become your family. Let this”—he swung an arm over the room—“become your world.”

I tried to answer quick enough to not incriminate myself. “I only wish to know they are well.”

“They are well. Their life goes on. But for you, there is a pleasant incentive to remain here.”

His eye twinkled. “Did Frigg tell you you’re engaged?”

Every thought of escape flew from my mind as my focus latched onto those words. “Engaged?”

He laughed at my surprise. “Yes. Since you were in your móoir’s womb, you have been engaged, and your fiancé waited for you.”

The glass became heavy in my hand and my stomach weak. Balder went on, unaware of how my head spun.

“Your móoir and his were good friends, and each conceived a child within a week of each other. They took it as a sign you were meant to walk in this life together, and the union was planned. Of course, no one expects you to bond yourself to him if it is not your desire, but you should at least meet.”

At my hesitation, he added in a softer voice, “It would please your móoir.”

From the hope in his eye, it would please him as well. “I can meet him,”

I said weakly. I can promise that much, especially if it took Balder’s mind off my desire to see my family again. But with each question dodged and each answer left unsaid, Asgard was slowly becoming a cage around me, and that brought dread like a strong cord over my heart, warning me I might not leave this place alive. I took a sip to hide the nerves.

But Balder’s mood remained unchanged. “Finish your drink then, because he is here.”

I almost choked. “I’m to meet him now?”

His grin was mischievous. “That’s the whole point of this party.”

I downed my drink. “And here I was thinking it was to celebrate me.”

Balder was already forging ahead, using his broad shoulder to drive a path through the thick of the crowd to bring me to the cusp of the balcony. He showed me a place to stand, squared my shoulders toward the other gods, and stepped back. From here, the night breeze came from behind, catching the plumes of smoke from the fire and tracing a path down my back. Once more, the entirety of the room stood before me, from both floors of the home, one by one turning to watch what I would do.

Balder held his head high like a proud Faoir might, and cleared his throat.

“We have waited seventeen years for this moment when the daughter of Rava and son of Ase meet.”

That name shouldn’t mean anything to me—she wasn’t my móoir —but I let the name Rava sink into me all the same. From the back of the room, Astrid’s statue stared back at me as I stole another sliver of the life that should have been hers.

I looked away, back to the crowds, where I searched for the face of the man I’d need to fool before I slipped out of Asgard.

I wasn’t the only one planning to slip away. In the back of the room, a figure cloaked in a black hood treaded along the shadows of the wall between sconces, before they ducked from the room. Lucky. It was too late for me to escape the same way, and with each word from Balder’s lips, my chest tightened further.

This was different than meeting Frigg or even Odin. This was someone who’d been waiting his whole life to meet me, and his expectations had to be built unbelievably high.

Balder went on. “Their union was written in the stars since the day of their conception, and today their paths cross for the first time.”

The crowds cheered with glasses raised. “Send him up!”

they cried. “Where is the boy?”

The gods looked amongst themselves, as Balder peered over the room. They didn’t search long before it became apparent he was not here.

I thought back to the cloaked figure who’d escaped moments before, and my chest sank. This stung worse than meeting him and finding disappointment in his eyes. He’d already seen me, and he didn’t care to meet.

“Perhaps another time.”

I stepped away from the open balcony where I felt too exposed. “I’ve waited this long to meet him. I can wait a little longer.”

“That boy is never where he’s meant to be,”

Balder said under his breath. “Very well. Another day. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go track him down and hang him by the feet.”

With a start, I realized the night was coming to an end, and I’d yet to figure out how to escape this world. With Svana staring at me like she was already plotting my demise and the possibility of Aegir appearing to unveil the truth, or any of the gods putting it together that I was merely mortal, my chances of survival were dwindling. I had to escape within a few days.

With no leads, I’d be forced to scour Asgard for an exit and hope I survived the trip home. Balder’s words had confirmed the existence of a path, I just had to find it.

Across the room, Odin raised his voice. “Before you all go, I have a message for you.”

He left Frigg’s side to stand like a bear behind me with both hands on my shoulders. “My granddaughter has been returned to me—healthy and alive. As she comes into her own as a young goddess, some may think of deceiving her, exploiting her, or harming her to feed your own power.”

The deep set of his voice rolled like thunder over the room, and I shivered. Cold swept into the hall, and every person shifted. “There will not be a power grab over my granddaughter. I am placing my protection over her, so if a single hair on her head is harmed, you will be cast from Asgard and spend a century scouring the Earth. You have my word I will not lose this child again.”

The fear flashed in every eye, but none could feel it as much as I did. It sat like a stone in my stomach, twisting my insides with a cold hand and sending my mind whirling. I had to do more than merely escape Asgard.

I had to escape Odin.

The terrible truth hit me like the head of an axe, and my knees weakened. If it took a god to get Astrid out of Asgard as a toddler, it would take a god to get me out now.