Page 40 of Soul of Shadow #1

This bit lined up with what Charlie already knew. Carefully, without revealing anything, she asked, “What does Elias have to do with this?”

“Did he tell you how he became a night mare?” Sophie asked, taking a step closer to her sister.

Her leather boots were eerily silent atop the carpet, as if she weren’t there at all.

“Did he tell you what he had to bargain to go from human to creature of the night? Or how you were able to see him without the assistance of the eyaerberry?”

Charlie’s eyes widened. She hadn’t considered that. How had she overlooked it? Before she ate the eyaerberry, the world was entirely normal. No magic, no monsters… except for Elias. She saw him shift into his mare form with only her raw human eyes.

“I suppose…” Charlie sifted through her swirling thoughts. “I suppose I chalked it up to how he had once been human. That the human part of him allowed me to see him?”

“That much is accurate,” Sophie said. “Mares and Valkyries are the only two creatures that can be made from humans, which puts us in a unique position: neither fully human, nor fully Asgardian. Able to interact with both.”

“How did he become a mare, then? Did he have to ask for Odin’s blessing, too? ”

Sophie’s lips curled back. “Odin would never create such a disgusting creature. No—to become a mare, a human must travel to the underworld and speak to Loki personally. Most often, they trade their service—and a portion of their soul—for something they want desperately.”

The cold premonition dripping down Charlie’s spine increased in power, turning from a trickle to an outright flood. “And what did Elias want?”

“We don’t know,” said Sophie. “But we do know what Loki asked him to do in return.”

“What’s that?”

“The mare told you of the Seal, yes?”

“He did.” Charlie thought back to earlier that evening, to the draugar that chased them through the parking lot. The scars on her back and side burned dully.

“Well. The gods did their best to make the Seal strong, a formidable wall between Asgardian creatures and humans… but no magic is absolute. A spell spread out over such a wide stretch of space—over an entire planet—is bound to have a few cracks.”

“Cracks,” Charlie repeated, blinking at her twin.

“Loopholes. Openings. Weak spots that Loki can exploit from Helheim in the hopes that, one day, he can destroy the Seal altogether. Unleash his beasts onto your people. Kill however many it takes to bully Odin off his throne.”

Cracks. Charlie thought of the little girl with the cotton candy.

The one who had so clearly been able to see the draugar.

Was that what had happened? Had the monster slipped through a crack in the Seal?

Was it still out in the woods, wandering around, perfectly able to touch or steal or kill whatever human it pleased? The thought made her sick .

“In the past, we Valkyries have had little problem getting to these cracks in a timely manner. A few beasts might make their way out, which often leaves a permanent scar on the community—no doubt you’ve heard of Area 51 or the various Bigfoot sightings up north—but generally speaking, life carries on as usual.

The problem is—” Her hand balled into a fist, the leather of her fingerless gloves squeezing tight over her knuckles. “The cracks are multiplying.”

Charlie’s heart picked up speed. She thought of the great wolf prowling down the street, a beast that looked as if it could rip the hearts out of an entire crowd of people without breaking a sweat. “What do you mean, multiplying?”

Sophie gazed out the window. “I mean just that: cracks are opening all across this world. Too many at once for us to handle alone. Not to mention the half dozen other wicked schemes that Loki has up his sleeve at any given time. This realm—” She looked back at Charlie. “It’s in grave danger.”

“So, Loki is the one opening the cracks in the Seal?”

“Of course he is,” said Sophie, the distaste in her tone obvious. “He hates the Seal with every fiber of his immortal being. The night mares were his own invention, a loophole he exploited to act out his will outside the Seal.”

“So Elias is…” Charlie felt her heart starting to cleave in two, to split open and drip out all the foolish hope that had begun to gather there. “He’s working for Loki.”

He’s working for Loki.

All this time, Elias pretended to care about the safety of the humans. Pretended to be on her side. But it was all a lie.

But… did he really pretend to care about humans?

Did he ever once say that he was carrying out this investigation on b ehalf of the boys who were taken?

No. He didn’t. He explicitly said he wasn’t doing this because he cared about humans; he was doing it on behalf of his own interests.

Charlie had just started to convince herself otherwise.

She had started to believe, like a fool, that she was breaking through his hardened exterior. That he was starting to care.

How pathetic.

As if she sensed the deflation in her twin, Sophie’s eyes softened for the first time since she’d appeared on her rooftop.

She lifted one gloved hand and set it on Charlie’s shoulder.

It was the first contact they had made in over two years, and although it was through the fabric of the gloves that her sister wore, the touch still sent warmth through Charlie, seeping into her chest like a comforting sip of tea.

“Where are the missing kids?” Charlie whispered, knowing that she wouldn’t want to hear the answer. “Were they taken by the draugar?”

“They were not taken by the draugar,” said Sophie softly, dropping her hand. “We have a theory as to what took the high schoolers. But Charlie, you must know… the draugar are servants of Loki. Just as Elias is. He’s been lying to you this whole time.”

Her heart, which had begun to crack open, froze over with a thick layer of ice.

A low roar began in her ears as rage bloomed in her stomach, flaring hot and cold at the same time, an unfamiliar feeling that terrified her, confused her, left her completely uncertain of what to do with her body.

Elias was a liar. A filthy liar, a cheat, a deceiver who would go so far as to kiss her passionately, desperately, as if he actually wanted her.

And Charlie, pathetic sap that she was, had fallen right into his trap .

She wouldn’t cry. She wouldn’t even show her rage. She merely rolled her shoulders back, looked her sister in the eyes, and asked, “What can I do?”

At the steel in Charlie’s voice, Sophie’s lips curled into a half smile, and Charlie saw a hint of her old sister—the girl who loved to play games, soft-spoken but imaginative, who could pretend a chair and some sheets into an entire castle.

And that hint was enough. Enough to make this feel real.

To make her realize that Sophie was back .

She was alive. Miraculously, wonderfully, genuinely alive.

She wasn’t alone anymore. She’d never really been alone.

It made her want to weep. To close the distance between them and wrap her sister in a bone-crushing hug.

Yet she held herself in place. Despite her little smile, this Sophie was not the Sophie she had once been. That much was overwhelmingly obvious. She was hardened, sharp as the blade strapped to her hip. Her arms and shoulders were rippled with muscle. She had wings , for God’s sake.

A light sparkled in Sophie’s eyes, as if she knew what her twin was thinking.

Still, she didn’t step forward, either. Instead, she said, “Odin has a strong hypothesis about what made the markings on those trees.” She turned and paced over to the open window, peering outside.

“It’s an ancient beast. One that hasn’t been seen in many millennia. ”

“Something dangerous?”

“More dangerous than you could know,” Sophie said. “They call it the Fenrir. A wolflike creature, one of Loki’s many ghastly creations, born from a union between the trickster god and a giantess. ”

Nerves pinched in Charlie’s belly. A wolflike creature. Exactly like the one she saw prowling down that very street outside.

“I’ve seen it,” she blurted before she could decide not to.

“You’ve…” Sophie turned away from the window, walking back to stand in front of Charlie. “You what?”

“Out there.” Charlie pointed over her shoulder at the street below. “Earlier this week. I saw it walking down the road.”

“Charlie.” Sophie closed the distance between them, grabbing her sister’s shoulders.

“You must listen to me very closely. The Fenrir is bloodthirsty and impossibly strong. Above all else, he desires the destruction of the gods. When the gods got wind of what Loki had created, they acted quickly, binding the wolf to a rock with magical chains and gagging it with a sword. It was fated that the Fenrir would remain bound to that rock until the arrival of Ragnarok—the long-foreseen destruction of Asgard.”

“But how—”

“Exactly. If he was chained to a rock, how was he out on the street? How did he make the markings on those trees? How did he steal those children?” Sophie spoke low and fast, the urgency in her voice making Charlie’s heart pound.

“If the Fenrir has escaped, it means that Ragnarok has already begun. The end of Asgard draws near.”

“ What? ” Charlie shook her head, trying so hard to keep up with her sister’s words. “ The end of Asgard? Meaning… the end of the entire world? How is a wolf going to destroy the planet?”

“He isn’t.” Sophie dropped her hands, using one to scrub at her forehead. “He is only a pawn in a much larger plan, with a much worse monster—one capable of destroying entire planets. But, if we work fast, there’s a chance we can stop this. ”

“How?” Charlie tried to puff herself up, to make herself look as formidable as her sister did. “Tell me what to do.”