Eleri Stone - Witch Bound

Beside her, Grace made a choking noise.

“Are you okay?” Raquel asked absently, forcing herself to turn her head.

“No,” Grace said in strained voice. “I really don’t think that I am.”

But she looked fine, a little flushed and bright-eyed but not in need of a Heimlich maneuver or anything. Frowning, Grace glanced at Fen and back at Raquel.

Before Raquel could ask her what was wrong, Aiden entered the room. Christian took the seat beside her and the hunt quieted. Everyone turned their attention to focus on the Odin.

“First, for any of you who haven’t met her, this is Raquel.” Aiden pointed in her direction and Raquel straightened in her chair. “She’ll be our clan witch when Lois retires. And she’ll be riding with us.”

“She’s crossing?” Rane glanced her way and, when Aiden nodded, said, “Good. We’ll need a witch to get him out. He did have a message for you though.”

The wry smile on Rane’s face told her it wasn’t a good one. “How does he even know who I am?”

“He felt you blow through the wards and said to...be careful with the portal magic. He seems to think the bridge is more fragile than we suspect.”

Raquel turned cold. She hadn’t done anything to hurt Asbrú, had she?

Rane read her expression and shrugged. “Not because of our wards failing. I told him we meant to get him out and he didn’t think that was a good idea.” Hands clasped in front of her as she leaned forward, she returned her gaze to Aiden. “He asked me to kill him again.”

“Again?” Aiden’s voice was lethal as Skimstrok.

“I didn’t—”

“You were warned.” Rane opened her mouth again, and he waved his hand in a cutting motion. “We’ll discuss that later. Raquel is coming to see if we can get him out. Grace was able to contact him without placing herself in danger and from what she learned, he knows more about the bridges than we do.”

“He’s not the most reliable source,” Christian pointed out.

“In this, we listen to him, especially when he advises caution. Especially after Julian’s vision.”

Someone muttered something about Norns, but Aiden continued as if he hadn’t heard. “Julian saw the bridge fall and in the vision, the Vanir witch was dead. Until we understand exactly how those two things are connected, we do our best to keep the Vanir alive. If he’s well enough to avoid Surtr on his own, we simply set him free. If we can get him across, then we do that. We have to act as if it’s a true vision and preserve the witch’s life until we’ve no other choice.”

There was some grumbling but most accepted the unwelcome news in silence. Raquel turned her head to find Fen watching her. It was news to him. She saw a flash of surprise in his eyes along with worry and regret and grief before he looked away.

“Julian won’t be reliable until he’s matured and had some training,” Elin said. “Skuld visions are notoriously difficult to interpret. It could be that the bridge falls because of something we do to protect the witch.”

“Very true. It’s a complication and another reason why we need to bring Raquel with us. She’s our insurance plan.” Aiden glanced at Fen as if braced for an argument. When Fen didn’t object, he said, “Aside from Raquel, who I’ll brief separately, you all know what to expect when we cross. We follow Rane. Raquel will pull the witch from the ice as quickly as possible. And—yes, Michael?”

“What’s keeping the witch from escaping now?”

Rane answered, “Surtr found a binding charm. I think—Kamis thinks—it’s what they’re using to drain him too. I’ve seen it through the ice, but it’s wrapped around his ankles. Probably why they froze him into the ice in the first place. They’re not manacles. It’s a black chain that doesn’t appear to be attached to any kind of lock.”

“Was it rune-marked?” Raquel asked.

Rane grimaced. “I imagine that it is, but between the color and the distortion of the ice, I couldn’t tell.”

Raquel leaned forward to see past Grace. “I have a file of pictures on my laptop of all the magical artifacts retained by the clans. There are a few that might be similar to what you’ve described. Would you mind stopping by later to take a look?”

“Not at all. I can drive back into town with you after we’re done.”

“Did he say anything else we need to know about?”

Rane shook her head, black hair stark against her pale skin.

“Grace?” Aiden looked at his wife and for an instant, Raquel saw it again—a softening in his eyes, a warmth in his voice. The Odin was a real man after all. It was almost eerie, like seeing a granite statue coming to life.

“He didn’t say much. He pushed a barrage of impressions down the link. Mostly, his acceptance of his own death, his concern for us and the bridge. There’s an image of earth and Asgard and Vanheimr connected by...threads of light. You know the one in Hallie’s textbook?”

Aiden walked over to the bookshelf and picked up a thick book wrapped in a hot-pink-butterfly-print book cover. He flipped through until he found what he was looking for and brought it to her.

Grace nodded. “That’s the one.”

Raquel recognized it. She still had the same book in her bedroom at home. She’d left it behind with her collection of dragon figurines and that well-worn picture of Christian. Grace hadn’t been raised clan, and she seemed to be searching for the right words to explain what the Vanir had tried to communicate.

Raquel reached for the book. “May I?”

Aiden released it into her hands. She scooted closer to Grace and traced the threads with her fingertip. “This, we think, is the reason why Asgard didn’t fall completely. The bridge from Muspelheim was severed, which is why the demons can’t return to their home world without help from the Vanir.”

“Which they won’t give until we’re all dead,” Grace said.

Raquel nodded. “But Asgard is still connected to both Midgard and Vanheimr. This is Asbrú, the bridge we use to cross into Asgard. It’s one bridge formed of many threads. The colors in the picture are just to differentiate between the threads, but that’s why they call it the rainbow bridge. The threads split off from the bridge to wrap our planet and anchor the bridge. They do the same to Asgard. When we open a portal to make a jump between clans, we follow one of the individual threads, not the bridge itself.”

Understanding brightened Grace’s eyes followed by a shadow of uneasiness. To Aiden, she said, “He showed the bridge unraveling, but it started with one thread and there were far fewer threads binding it to the Asgard side than ours. Can it be so weak?”

Aiden looked to Raquel for an answer, but she had none to give. She hoped that wasn’t true, hoped the Vanir witch was only trying to scare them off. She was powerful, but no Æsir living or dead was powerful enough to fix Asbrú.

Fen watched Raquel leave with Rane. He didn’t even have to push aside the lacy curtains Grace had hung in the front window to do it. He wondered if that’s why she’d picked the lace. Grace liked to know what was going on around her at all times. It had something to do with the things she’d seen in her job as a private investigator but more to do with the way she’d grown up, he thought.

She came to stand next to him now and wrapped her arm around his waist. There was a time not long ago when Grace had flinched every time someone touched her. Aiden seemed to have cured her of that. Fen resisted the urge to curl into her for comfort. He wasn’t a little boy, and there were still a few of his men wandering around the house. And Aiden...well, he was already pissed off that Fen had challenged his decision.