Gears of Mischief (The Valhalla Mechanism Book 1) Read online

  “When will the next stage hit?” she asked, turning expectantly.

  I glanced up at the sky, to where the sun was fading behind the clouds and the horizon. Soon, the moon would take its place. “It’s hard to say. We know the legends, but we don’t know much else.”

  Tillie hummed. “The same could be said about you and Thor.”

  A smile curled my lips. The fact that she wanted to know anything at all was a positive note. “Is there something you would like to know about me?” I couldn’t help the purr that slipped out.

  Tillie’s face grew thoughtful, and I saw the same arousal from before flash in her eyes. If she invited me in, I would go, gladly, but I would not do so unless invited. I knew all too well the value of consent. Even if her eyes said she liked me, that meant nothing.

  “Another time, perhaps.” Her eyes glanced towards the house, where a curtain dropped back over a window, hiding whoever had been looking out at us. “You said you can protect the house?”

  I nodded and unhooked the glass vial from my belt, the one with the pink liquid I had mixed before escorting Tillie home. I moved forward to the edge of the steps, up it, and poured some of the pink liquid along the doorway. “I have to create a circle around the house.” When she nodded and folded her hands, I stared at her for a moment. Even in a too large shirt and boots, she was a sight to see. Her throat clearing broke me from the trance, and I moved to go around the house, letting a small trail of the liquid tip out until I made it full circle, sealing everything inside.

  I stopped at Tillie’s side again, hooking the now empty bottle back to my belt, and looked down at her. “Now, no magical being except for me or Thor can get in while the barrier is in place. The illusion on you will drop the moment you cross the line, so don’t linger in the doorway unless you want your neighbors to see you in your outfit.”

  “That’s good to know,” she murmured, her eyes on the house.

  “What will you do now?”

  “First, a bath is in order. But I’m going to warn my people of an impending threat.” She took a step forward, away from me, before she turned again. “You’re not going to disappear completely, are you?”

  “You mean from this spot?”

  “I mean from my world.” Her lips thinned. “You’re not going to leave and return to Asgard, or wherever?”

  I stared at her, at the sudden earnestness in her eyes. “We have no plans to return to Asgard.”

  She nodded and turned, but before she could cross the line, she turned once more, just as I was about to turn away. “Loki?” I paused and looked up at her, the height of the stairs making her a hand taller than me.

  “Yes?”

  “They’re wrong.”

  I furrowed my brows. “Who?”

  “The ones that are afraid of you, or think you lower.” She smiled. “I think you’re hands above them, and that’s why they treat you that way. People act that way to someone they feel threatened by. That’s all.” Her eyes crinkled. “I’m not afraid of you.” Then she opened the door and stepped inside. I watched the shimmer fall, the illusion dropping free, before she closed the door behind her.

  She didn’t even realize the weight of what she had just said, didn’t realize that there was nothing that could make me leave Midgard, not while she was still in it.

  The Lady Spy with the soul of a Valkyrie.

  Chapter Sixteen

  My mother stared at the dress I pulled from the bag in dismay, her face scrunched up in what I knew would be a good lecture on taking care of our clothing.

  “This dress cost a fortune, Tillie!” There it was.

  “I ran into some trouble,” I cringed, staring at the near black blood splattered across the pale pink dress. “I apologize. I will replace it myself.”

  “First you lose your clothing to the science department, and now this. What do they have you running these days?”

  I paused in my plans to steal a biscuit off the tray and frowned. “There are some bad things that will be happening soon,” I admitted. “I’m taking precautions as best as I can, but if I don’t stop it, the results could be. . . world ending.”

  Her mouth dropped open in shock. “Tillie—”

  “I’ll be able to tell you more after I give my report to the Guild. I have to somehow convince them of what is going to happen, all without sounding like a raving lunatic.”

  “You will convince them. If it’s as bad as you say it is, they have to listen.”

  I didn’t correct her or say that I already knew they wouldn’t believe me. I was going to try, but I suspected I would have to go above their heads in order to warn who needed to be warned. They had already seemed to think I was drugged rather than saw what I did during the battle in the square. Telling them that the end of days was coming? They would never believe me. But the Queen might take me seriously if I could show enough proof.

  “I have to go change and head in,” I murmured, moving towards the stairs.

  “Who does the shirt you’re wearing belong to?” she asked behind me suddenly. “Is it from the man who escorted you home?”

  I sighed. “I knew you were watching out the curtain.”

  “Who is he?” Mother’s grin pulled at her cheeks as I turned to fully face her. She wouldn’t let it go until I answered her questions. I owed her that, at least. And it made me happy to see her excited about something for once, even if it wasn’t necessarily true.

  “His name is Loki.”

  “I see why you are drawn to him.”

  I wrinkled my brow. “And why is that?”

  “You tend to like those of an unusual nature. That man was dressed like an aristocrat, but he felt different, almost powerful, just in the way he stood near you. Is he from here? Does he hold a seat of power?”

  I smiled at the questions, and I knew, even if I was never able to be more than friends with Loki or Thor, I would fan the excitement my mother held. She deserved to be happy, deserved something to tell all the other ladies about. I knew it was a constant sense of annoyance when the ladies in the neighborhood talked about their daughters or sons marrying other people of status, knew my mother wanted to say the same for me, because she couldn’t say how proud she was of my work. She could only hold the façade that I was a lady of twenty-five with no husband and no children.

  “He’s not from here,” I admitted. “And I suppose he does hold a seat of power.” After all, a God was certainly a new level.

  Clapping her hands together, she practically bounced on her feet. “When will you see him again?”

  “Tomorrow, most likely.” When she opened her mouth to give a little shriek of excitement, I felt bad about letting her think such things. Sure, there was interest between Loki and I, but it was the worst time. “Now is hardly the time to be distracted by men—”

  “Nonsense! It’s the perfect cover for you. Invite the man in for tea next time, would you? I would like to meet the man that finally caught your attention.”

  I pursed my lips, but knew it was pointless to argue. I would be spending a lot of time with Loki and Thor, and my mother would inevitably catch glimpses of them. I didn’t want to ruin her excitement, and if the world ended, she needed it more than ever.

  Still, it would be difficult to explain that I was interested in two men, and both were not only not from here, but from another world entirely.

  It was hard to explain how a God had walked me to my door.

  Walking into the Raven Wing Guild felt different than normal. My immediate thought was to make a report. Most of the time, without a report, there was no chance of getting an appointment with the Director, let alone someone higher. I needed to leave a paper trail easy to follow so if I had to go above the Director, I would be able to point to proof that I had followed protocol. I meant to go in, take a seat at my desk, and fill out the forms, but no sooner had I stepped inside the main hub when Calvin latched onto my wrist and started dragging me towards the Director’s office.

  “G
et your hand off of me before I chop it off and beat you with it,” I growled, the sound savage even to my own ears.

  Calvin released my wrist quickly, but he didn’t drop the serious expression. “The Director wants to see you.”

  “Then bloody say that, you twit. Don’t just grab me. I’m not just some item to manhandle.”

  Calvin did not argue, and I took it to mean he saw me as nothing more than a woman beneath him. How had I ever seen him as attractive? I certainly hadn’t realized how much of an arsehole he was before the promotion. Maybe he had done me a service in getting the promotion, in throwing me under the bus.

  I stepped inside the Director’s office before Calvin, my chin up as I waited for him to finish whatever he was writing. He didn’t seem to worry about my eyes on it so it must not have been anything important, only a letter to some high society member I assumed.

  “You wanted to see me, sir?” I murmured, folding my hands behind my back. I wore my preferred trousers and corset this evening, since it was late enough that I could go between the office and my home without worry over being sighted.

  His eyes flicked up to me. “Kingsford, yes. Take a seat.”

  “I would rather stand. I have a report to write.”

  “Is it the same topic you reported on two days prior?”

  I hesitated. His tone did not seem amused. In fact, he seemed relatively annoyed. Was it at me? Or was it at my insistence that I saw something not from our world?

  “I see,” he murmured, at my silence. “That’s what I wanted to speak to you about. The results came back from the test on your clothing.”

  “And what did it say?” I glanced over at Calvin’s smug smile and already knew the answer. I knew I couldn’t tell them exactly what to expect with Ragnarök, knew they would never believe me, but I had hoped that the results would come back inconclusive at least.

  “There were traces of some ingredients that could not be placed, but there was one that the science department said could have hallucinogenic properties.” He leaned his elbows on the desk and steepled his fingers.

  I stayed silent. They meant they did not believe me about the battle between the dark elves and the others. They thought I had hallucinated it all, even though the powder had been blown into my face after witnessing it. It had put me to sleep sure, but there had been no other hallucinations, no feeling of being somewhere preposterous. They would never believe me or anything I said, however, even with proof of ingredients they did not recognize. Imbeciles!

  But I nodded my head at his words, keeping my mask in place as I pursed my lips. “The more I think about it, I believe that’s correct. I must have been hallucinating.”

  “Is that so?” The director’s dark eyes watched me carefully, but I was a master spy, trained by Thodeous Hedgecock himself, and I was the best at what I did, the brightest spy he had ever trained. Even the Director couldn’t hope to match my skill at illusion. They wanted to believe me as nothing more than an incapable woman, that was what I would give them.

  “I think what I saw was a new gang emergence, a territory battle. It is most definitely a threat to London when it comes to turf wars, but it makes so much more sense.”

  “And the details of the creatures you saw?”

  “Nothing but stage props and black clothing. Magicians. Nothing would scare another gang more than thinking they were battling supernatural creatures.”

  “That is an excellent theory,” the Director murmured. “It makes sense.”

  “It does. I believe we should search for the base of this new gang, but as for anything else,” I shrugged. “I must have been hallucinating.”

  “We will be on our toes for this new gang then,” he murmured, flicking his eyes to Calvin who immediately sat and began to write down the meeting information. Calvin’s eyes had been lingering on me instead of doing his job, a job I realized I didn’t want anymore. What a blessing being a woman had been when I got passed for the opportunity. What a blessing that Calvin had betrayed my trust.

  I turned to leave, assuming I was dismissed when the Director didn’t immediately add anything else.

  “Oh, and agent,” the Director called, and I looked at him over my shoulder. “Stay away from the gang and the other two you mentioned escaping from before. We would not want you to suffer more of the hallucinogens and we have reason to believe that they’re a threat to the Queen.”

  I couldn’t ask why they would suspect such a thing or what secret they were keeping without giving myself away, so I nodded like the good little woman they expected of me and continued out the door.

  The Raven Wings would do nothing to stop Ragnarök, wouldn’t believe it until the end was already here, so I dismissed them entirely. There were some things risking my position for and saving London and the world was one of them.

  It would be considered treason to disobey a direct order, to approach the Queen alone, but it had to be done. I believed Loki and Thor, had seen it with my own eyes, and I could feel it on the air.

  Ragnarök was coming, whether the world believed it or not.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I returned to Thor and Loki’s home the next day just after noon. This time, I took a hired steam car to conceal my identity as I left my home. I didn’t want those of the neighborhood to recognize I was coming to the same house in the wrong neighborhood more than once. It would draw attention and place the memory easier in their minds. A small steam car was less likely to call attention. I told the driver that I would send a telegraph if I needed him again and he drove away without a care in the world except for the new coin he had in his pocket.

  The moment that Thor opened the door and I stepped inside, I placed my hands on my hips and stared between the two men. Loki was sitting on the couch, and though some of the other furniture that had been broken the day before was missing, it still seemed like the room was full with Thor and Loki inside of it.

  “I have been instructed to stay away from you two and to rest because of the hallucinogen you sprayed me with the first time we met,” I grumbled.

  Loki set his book aside. He’d looked away from it the first moment I stepped inside but he gave me his full attention when I spoke. “That was nothing more than a sleeping powder,” he pointed out. “There were no hallucinogenic properties in it.”

  “Well, they claim to have found one.”

  Loki frowned. “Do you believe that?”

  “That I hallucinated you two and the battle in the square? No. Besides, I’ve watched the tinkers working on Big Ben since then and it won’t tick no matter what they do to it.” I moved to take a seat on the opposite couch. “I did however lose my favorite corset to the science department because of that powder, and now they’re looking at me as if I’m a hysterical woman and not the best bloody spy they have. All because you just had to use your alchemy on me.”

  “You were trying to attack us,” Thor argued.

  “And you were trying to capture me. I had just witnessed a battle between elves and Gods. Can you blame me for thinking the worst?” I crossed my arms and slumped in my seat, sighing at the feeling of relaxing my spine after sitting straight and proper. The corset beneath my dress only allowed me to relax so much but still it was better than sitting like a phallus all day.

  “Are you okay?” Thor asked, taking a seat beside me. I could feel his warmth, could feel his urge to reach out and touch me in reassurance, but he held himself back. I turned my head to look at him.

  “I work for spies who keep their own secrets so I can’t do my job properly. And I’m wearing a horrid dress when I’d much rather be in trousers. What do you think?” When his eyes glanced away, I felt bad, and easily switched to tease him. I hadn’t meant to snap. “If you removed your shirt, it would make me feel better.”

  The glimmer returned in his eyes and he smiled. “A worthy attempt.”

  “One day, I’ll convince you to do so.” I winked. I had a feeling it would not take much convincing on my part, but
then again, there was still Ragnarök to think about.

  “You know,” Loki murmured. “I spent a lot of time in a similar situation to you.”

  I turned my gaze to him, took in his stiff posture, and knew whatever he would speak of held bad memories. “How so?”

  “I’m Odin’s blood brother, and at one point, he decided that meant I shouldn’t just reap the benefits of being made a permanent part of Asgard without being his advisor and lackey.”

  Thor tensed at his words. It seemed they both had bad memories of whatever Loki spoke of.

  “What does being an advisor to Odin mean?” I really needed to send a letter to Thod to ask for help with the mythology surrounding these two men.

  “It meant that he kept his own secrets and expected me to keep the ones he told me. It meant I became his lackey. Fetch the spear. Stop Hrimthurs. Don’t let anyone hurt Baldur.” He scowled. “I despised it, and much of that caused Asgard to look at me as nothing more than a trickster with a silver-tongue, causing trouble again.”

  “What does a silver-tongue do?” I purred, bringing him out of his memories. “Does it do anything fancy?”

  Thor snorted before descending into loud laughter and even Loki grinned at me.

  “It simply means I can talk my way out of almost any situation.”

  “Or into any woman’s bed,” Thor added, “including my wife’s apparently.”

  “You’re married?” My heart sunk, but then confusion took hold. Loki had slept with Thor’s wife? Were they both married? I had never even asked if they were attached. My face tightened.

  “Not anymore,” Thor hurried to rush out. “Both of us had wives before. A long life makes for loneliness.”

  “What happened to them?”

  “They’re fine.” Loki shook his head. “No doubt, they are both attempting to suck up to the Allfather or sleeping with another poor sod and convincing him to give them everything.”

  “Ah.” I flicked eyes between them. “So you are both unattached then. That is good information to have.” Before they could speak on my words, I launched into more questions. “So what happened? How did you escape being Odin’s advisor?”