Dana Bell - Morgan's Fate

“As if a shape shifter could fool me.” Heimdall pointed toward the body on his right. “Look.”

Morgan cursed under his breath. There, lying in a pool of blood, was the frost Jotun Rina Sutherland.

Val turned his back to them all. The Avenger sighed deeply. “Shit.”

Skye ran to Val, hugging him from behind. “I’m so sorry.”

Val shook his head, and Morgan would have given quite a lot to see his expression. “No, Skye. I knew something like this would eventually happen.”

“Still. She was your mother.”

“She gave birth to me. She was never my mother.” Val turned back around, his expression grim. “She chose her path, and she died on it. C’mon. We still need to get to Sleipnir.”

“You were the one we saw on the bridge, the one that passed us?”

Logan nodded as he pulled Kir into his arms. “Sorry, but the phone call I received, supposedly from Jordan? It wasn’t her. I figured it out pretty quickly. When I realized I was dealing with someone pretending to be her, I tried to get out of them what they really wanted. Rina taunted me, said she was going to make sure none of you lived long enough to get past Heimdall. I ran as fast as I could, hoping I could keep Heimdall from attacking you.”

“How’d you make it through the portal so quickly?”

He shrugged. “Sleipnir isn’t the only one who can move really quickly when motivated.” He laughed softy. “Someone pretending to be my wife, hoping to hurt Kir? That’s serious motivation.”

Kir smacked him in the arm. “They weren’t after me, blockhead.”

“No. Turns out she was after me.” Logan glanced back at Rina and shuddered. “I hid and listened to her egging Heimdall on. She wanted him to attack me.”

“It would have fulfilled the prophecy, and in turn devastated Kir.” Skye shook her head. “Grimm put her up to this. The man’s a weasel.”

Heimdall shrugged. “I doubt it. Rina was vicious before she met Odin.” His expression turned smug. “I knew who she was before she even started. I don’t think she ever fully understood the differences between a frost Jotun and the Guardian.”

Logan nodded. “He saw right through her.”

Travis, the glow in his eyes dimming, patted Kir’s back. “If you have the vision, it’s easy to see if someone is pretending to be someone else.”

Heimdall’s expression chilled once more as he stared at Logan. “How do you think I tracked you down that time when you stole Freya’s necklace? Seal or no, I knew immediately that it was you.”

Logan rolled his eyes. When he tried to pull free of Kir to face Heimdall, Kir growled again in that utterly inhuman tone. Logan shushed Kir softly before answering Heimdall. “I was young and foolish.”

Heimdall cocked an eyebrow at Logan. “And now you are old and foolish.”

Logan stuck his tongue out at Heimdall.

Heimdall ignored him. “You’re going to Valhalla.”

Before anyone else could respond, Skye stepped forward, making her way gracefully to stand before the Guardian. “We are. We need to save Sleipnir from Odin.”

Heimdall stared at her for so long Morgan began to fear for her safety. He still held the bloody sword in his hand, the tip resting against the bridge. Sparks flew from where the blade met the fire of the bridge. “Sleipnir was gifted to the All-Father.”

She nodded. “But that was done under duress. Logan was under the influence of Idunn’s apples and labored under the belief that Sleipnir was nothing more than a beast.”

Was that surprise that flashed momentarily in Heimdall’s eyes? “And he is not.” Perhaps the Guardian did not know everything.

She shook her head. “No. He is not. He called us twice, both times to warn his father that Odin had something planned for me.”

Again, some emotion, there and gone in an instant, flashed across Heimdall’s face. “You are no longer truly Skuld.” Morgan saw her shoulders stiffen. “You are Skye, simply another Norn.”

“A Norn who knows when prophecy has been fulfilled.” She gestured toward Rina’s body. “As it has been here.”

Kir gasped, lifting his head to stare into Logan’s eyes. “You’re not going to die.”

Logan held him close. “No, Blondie. I’m safe.”

“For now.” Heimdall eyed them all coldly, but his expression when he turned back to Skye changed drastically. He warmed, his smile gentle as he took Skye’s hand.

Morgan wanted to rip it off and beat him over the head with it.

“In honor of your service and devotion to the Well and Yggdrasil, you may pass.”

Skye smiled sweetly. “Thank you, Guardian.”

“You are welcome.” Heimdall raked his gaze over the rest of them, only nodding to Travis. “You may all pass.”

Travis returned Heimdall’s nod regally. “Thank you.”

Morgan sometimes forgot that Travis, aka Tyr, had himself been the leader of a pantheon. It had, in fact, been the pantheon Heimdall belonged to. Did the Guardian still see himself as one of Tyr’s?

“Go. What is happening in Valhalla is…” Heimdall grimaced. “If I could interfere, I would.”

Logan swayed. “Shit. The Old Man really does know we’re coming.”

“Yes.”

“Kir?” Logan’s tone was uncertain, afraid.

“Let’s go.” The dark storms still dashed across Kir’s eyes. The clouds had lightened, but not by much.

Morgan wasn’t looking forward to what they would find when they entered Valhalla. If the Guardian felt the need to warn them, it was going to be very, very bad.

She’d forgotten exactly how large Valhalla was. The principle seat of the former king of the gods, it was imposing and intimidating. Valhalla stood before them, the enormous hall guarded by the golden tree Glasir. The hall’s roof, thatched with the golden shields of fallen heroes, glittered under Asgard’s sun. Mingling on the grass were the spirits of those the Valkyries had called home, heroes and kings who’d fallen in battle and been taken under Odin’s banner. The spirits stared at them curiously, but upon seeing Gungnir clasped in Kir’s hand drifted away.

The doors of the ancient gate Valgrind guarded the entrance. They would have to pass through Valgrind in order to reach Valhalla. If they’d been going for the front door they would have had to deal with the wolf Grimm had hung in front of its west doors. It struggled against its bonds, but instead of whimpering and crying it howled and snarled, snapping at any who were foolish enough to approach it. Who that wolf was, she did not know, but it was vicious.

She glanced up, not surprised to see an eagle hovering above the hall. That eagle had been there before Valhalla was even built. She sometimes thought it had been there long before, when Yggdrassil was nothing more than a sapling and the only worlds were Muspelheim and Nifleheim.

“We need to make our way to the stables. That’s where Sleipnir will be.” Val loosened his sword, making sure he could draw it easily. It was a familiar gesture, one she’d seen countless warriors perform over centuries of watching them.

“I can sniff him out, I think. I still remember his scent. If he’s not in the stables, we’ll need that to find him.” Logan shifted into a bloodhound and began scenting the air. He quivered once, then looked up at Kir and woofed softly.

Kir waved his hand, and Valgrind opened for them. “Lead the way.”

Morgan’s eyes were so wide she was surprised they didn’t roll out of his head. “Whoa.”

She grinned. “The gates are responding to Gungnir , much like the warriors did.”

Logan took off, his nose to the ground as he led them toward Valhalla and, hopefully, Sleipnir. Before too long he shifted back to human. “I smell blood.”