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

  My mother’s eyes widened, as if whatever she had expected me to say, that hadn’t been it. “Tillie—”

  “I can explain everything once I’m finished, but they’re going to have people watching the house. I’ll have to be cautious of how I get back in. But Loki made sure the house was protected against threats. Don’t let anyone inside.”

  “How is it protected?”

  “Alchemy,” Loki supplied helpfully just before I closed the door in her face and called up to the driver to take her home quickly.

  I whirled on Loki, looking up into his eyes. “They can’t see you when we go, or else they’ll attack.”

  “Are you certain you will be safe?”

  Shrugging, I thanked whoever was listening that I had chosen to wear my boots.

  “I heard that,” Loki murmured. He pulled a bottle from his hip, a small one, and took a sip from it. I watched in fascination as he disappeared before my eyes.

  “Loki?” I whispered, reaching out a hand to where he had stood. I felt his warmth immediately, as if he was there but invisible. I felt his lips on the back of my hand and I flushed at the contact. “Now isn’t the time.”

  He hummed against my hand. “No, it’s not.” The heat as he drew closer warmed me in more ways than one, and I absorbed it as best as I could. “Next time you pray, feel free to say my name,” he murmured.

  I laughed at his words, patting his invisible chest, before I turned and searched for the nearest steam car. It just so happened to be Lady Smith’s, the one she used when she wanted to feel like royalty. It was a long, white atrocity, one that she always left the keys in, begging to be borrowed.

  “You ready to go for a ride?” I asked, grinning.

  “Absolutely.”

  I opened the unlocked door and climbed inside, smiling at the keys hanging in the ignition. What a mistake that was Lady Smith, I thought as I stroked the engine.

  “Wait,” Loki mumbled. “This will be more fun if I drive.”

  The Raven Wing Guild was only a ten minute, extremely wild drive from Lady Smith’s home. I had never seen so many shocked faces as we sped passed with seemingly no one driving at all. I waved to a few to really drive the panic home. There would no doubt be a story in the news tomorrow of a runaway steam car driven by a phantom.

  Loki parked the steam car partly on the curb and we both climbed from the vehicle. It unnerved me that I couldn’t see him, but his heat continued to warm me even if the world was starting to turn into a blizzard from hell. The snow was coming down in torrents now, the ground freezing enough that it had been a hazard to drive the steamcar at all. Luckily, Loki seemed perfectly capable of handling it; after all, we made it in record time.

  I strode up to the entrance of the gallery, planning on marching inside and demanded to speak to the Director, but I never got the chance.

  Calvin stepped from the doorway, his expression grim. He still wore the suit he had been attempting to blend in with at Lady Smith’s party, and no coat. Idiotic considering the cold. My eyes flicked to the knife in his hand, the one I could easily knock from his loose grasp if I wanted. His fingers shook, whether from cold or fear, I wasn’t sure.

  “Go home, Tillie,” he said, his voice strained as if it pained him to say that. I knew better though. The thing about spies was, you could never trust them, and Calvin was the biggest manipulator of all, even if he wasn’t always great at it. His subpar skills were what made people underestimate him. After all, you didn’t need to be great to attack someone who wasn’t paying attention.

  “Haven’t you noticed the sky, idiot? I’m here to tell the Director, to let the Guild know that I was right.”

  “Everything is fine,” Calvin cooed. “So it’s an unnaturally dark night? Who cares?”

  “Did you not notice the full moon only an hour ago?” I put my hands on my hips. I felt Loki press closer to my back, watching carefully. “The moon was swallowed, and the stars fell from the sky.”

  “Do you hear yourself?” he laughed, shaking his head, before he started flicking the knife slowly through his fingers. I rolled my eyes, but it only drew his attention to my face. “Your lips look puffy.” I froze, angry at the direction of his thoughts. “Who have you been kissing, Ottilie Kingsford?”

  “None of what I do is your concern, including who I choose to kiss.”

  “It’s my concern if it was one of those men that captured you, or the one I saw you dancing with at the party.” He tsked and shook his head. “Stockholm Syndrome is a real phenomenon, Tillie. You should know that.”

  “Piss off, Calvin! Just because we fucked once doesn’t give you a right to question me.”

  He flinched at the course word coming from my mouth, a word a lady most certainly should not say. I was tired of pretending to be the docile woman, was tired of the men around me thinking it made me weak to be a woman. I could curse as much as I wanted and kiss whoever I wanted, and I answered to no one but who I chose to.

  “They’ll label you a rogue,” he growled, flicking the knife faster, clumsily. If he tried to do it any faster, the fool would drop it.

  “I’ve done nothing wrong,” I replied, dropping my own knife into my hand. I was tempted to go for my short sword, the urge to brandish a bigger blade than the idiot in front of me strong, but I didn’t need the weapon to best Calvin. I didn’t truly need a knife at all.

  Calvin took two steps forward and I braced myself, realizing it would turn into a fight I never thought Calvin brave enough to start. I knew I could kick his arse, knew that I could have him on the ground in half a second with my knife at his throat without so much as breaking a sweat. Calvin and I had sparred together, and he knew he couldn’t take me in a fight, but he seemed determined to try.

  The God at my back, however, either didn’t know Calvin’s weakness or preferred to threaten the weasel himself. With a soft pop, the illusion around Loki fell and he stood beside me, his teeth bared. There was fury on his face, and I watched in amazement as flames danced along his shoulders and along the ground, melting the ice they touched.

  “Touch her,” he snarled, “And you’ll wish for the pits of Helheim when I’m done with you.”

  I crossed my arms, raising my brow at the angry God that had Calvin scrambling backwards in surprise and fear. There was a certain sort of satisfaction I felt when he slipped on the ice and landed on his tailbone hard enough to bruise.

  “I had it under control.”

  “I never questioned if you did,” Loki mused, glancing towards me. “Can I dispose of him?”

  Calvin’s face morphed into true fear as he scuttled backwards, just before an alarm went off behind him. It wasn’t like that of a bomb warning, not a long wail. Instead, it was a high-pitched whir, a sound meant for those trained to hear it.

  It was the alarm for a rogue spy.

  My eyes dropped to Calvin as he pulled himself to his feet by the door. Suddenly, it made so much sense why he was willing to attack.

  He had backup coming.

  “You didn’t,” I murmured, shaking my head. The fall had soaked his clothing, the wet cloth already freezing from the frigid air.

  His eyes glanced between us but lingered on my face. “I have to protect my country.”

  “And you’re ruining the one chance we have to do that!” I didn’t hesitate to reach for my short sword. I lifted my skirt and pulled it free, taking a step towards the coward ducking back inside the doorway.

  Loki’s arms wrapped around my waist. “Not now, Tillie.”

  “I’m not going to kill him,” I growled. “I’m just going to hurt him very badly.”

  “And I support your desire to do so, but there are more of your people coming. We have to go.”

  The door burst open and my comrades, people I was supposed to trust, came flooding from the building, their weapons drawn. I watched as the Director lifted a crossbow in our direction and fired it just as a screen of green smoke burst around us and I became weightless.

&n
bsp; The only thing I was certain of was the feel of Loki’s arms locked around me.

  Chapter Twenty

  SKADI

  I glanced up at the ravens sitting in the library with me, their feet clasped around branches set up just for them. Odin’s spies cawed every so often, reminding me they were there, and I hated the little beasts.

  “Go away, Hugin and Munin,” I growled, but the overgrown birds just shuffled their wings and stayed on their perch. Damned birds.

  I had found the book Thor remembered, the single line he mentioned burned in my memory.

  A cup running over will spill mead, but a cup half full will slow the wheels of Ragnarök.

  A cup? What kind of cup? Was it a specific cup? And if so, where was it? Was it literal or was it figurative? The line gave nothing truly away and it infuriated me that such a line could exist in a book with no explanation at all.

  I groaned, closing the heavy tomb in front of me, the one that supposedly spoke of Ragnarök, but instead it was simply a recording of history. It was as if the library books were mislabeled, and I was starting to think that was on purpose.

  I felt the shadows kiss the back of my neck before he appeared. Hodor had left to fetch something to eat. He had showed up and realized quickly it had been at least a day since I had eaten anything, so lost in my search, I didn’t even realize I hungered until my stomach grumbled at his mention of food.

  “Any luck?” he murmured, setting a plate of fruit on the table in front of me.

  My eyes went to the plate as the smell assaulted my senses. It must have done the same to Ulf and Tove. Their whines beneath the table let me know something was wrong, that something was off. Not that I needed their warnings to realize exactly what was going on.

  My eyes flicked to the ravens again, but they just watched with their beady intelligent eyes. I really, really hated those birds.

  “Hod,” I murmured, pushing the book aside. “Are you feeling okay?”

  “Of course, lover,” he murmured, leaning forward to press a kiss against the side of my neck.

  “The fruit has turned.” I shrugged away from his kisses, staring at him in confusion. “Can’t you smell it?”

  Though Hod was blind, his other senses were so strong, there was no way he could have missed the rotting fruit he had placed on the plate. In the mix of strange fruits, sat a golden apple, the fruit shriveled and misshapen, black creeping along its skin. It was as if the rot of the single fruit had spread to the others, poisoning them with decay.

  Not answering my question, Hod continued to press kisses against my skin, his hands roaming along my waist.

  “Stop!” I growled, pushing him away again. “Now is not the time.”

  “Didn’t you miss me?” His strong hands grabbed a hold of mine, and his true strength came out, his shadows swirling around me, growing physical.

  “Hodor!” I growled, using my own ice to push back. Ulf and Tove came from beneath the table, their growls echoing in the empty library. The ravens cawed but did not offer their help. They were nothing more than watchers, meant as spies, not fighters. They would likely never warn anyone if something happened to me, if somehow, I needed help.

  “What has gotten into you?” I snarled, freezing the air with my powers, keeping his shadows at bay, spreading blue up from where his hands held me. He seemed unconcerned with the frostbite, and he would heal from it anyways, but I stared at my lover closely.

  Tove whined at my side, sneezing. I looked closer, saw the shimmer that suddenly danced along Hod’s skin and disappeared.

  “Good job, Tove,” I praised.

  Someone had enchanted Hodor, had done something to him to make him act so. I thought back to my readings, searching for a cure to such an enchantment in my memories.

  “I thought you hated Loki,” Hod snarled, his face changing from the sweet, good-natured man to something other.

  “I do,” I growled back. “I did. But now is no time for grudges. The world is ending, and you must break this enchantment!”

  I leaned forward and did the only thing I could think of. A hair breath away from his snarling mouth, I blew ice into his throat, coating his face, freezing him over for a split second before his body warmed back up naturally, chasing away whatever enchantment was there. I wasn’t sure if it would work, my ice powers not exactly the opposite of shadows, but still, I was relieved to see the shimmer disappear.

  “Hod?” I murmured, cupping his face between my hands.

  “Skadi.” He blinked cloudy eyes at me, and then his face scrunched up, the smell in the room assaulting him all at once. “What is that aroma?”

  “You brought me a plate of rotten fruit.”

  “I. . .what?”

  I took his hands in my own, holding them, and asked him the question I hoped he had an answer to.

  “Hodor,” I whispered, flicking my eyes towards Hugin and Munin. Both leaned in but I knew they couldn’t hear, knew I spoke as softly as a falling snowflake and knew that Hodor would hear me. “Who do you remember meeting when you left the library last?”

  He blinked, clearly searching his memory. “I—”

  “Think, Hod.”

  “I don’t remember,” he whispered. He touched his hand to his forehead. “Skadi, I don’t remember.”

  And that was dangerous. Somewhere in Asgard, we had an enemy, and I hoped it was a lesser God and not the Golden man I had once thought I loved.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The smoke cleared just enough to see members of the Guild watching the home Loki and Thor had called theirs. They stood on rooftops, hid in the shadows, and the moment we appeared on the sidewalk—a side effect of a protection ring not allowing magic through—they all turned and started for us.

  “Hel,” Loki growled, and his smoke engulfed us again before I could say a word.

  I held my tongue until the smoke spit us out in another part of the city, in the warehouse district. It was late, the factories all shut down for the evening. Not even one had smoke billowing from its stack, the workers all sent home for the night.

  “Why are we here?” I searched the street for a sign of familiarity but found nothing but shut down steel buildings and silence.

  “We have more than one home for instances like this.”

  I raised my brow before he started to pull me across the street. “Does this happen often?”

  “Do we get chased by spies often?” He glanced back at me. “Yes, but ours usually come in bird form.”

  Okay, I thought, that was new information.

  The moment we stepped across a shimmering yellow line, the house came into view, a cozy house roughly the same size as my own house. The paint was slightly chipped in places, revealing the wood beneath, but it was far tidier looking than the other house.

  “It’s about time,” Thor boomed as we stepped inside. “Do you know how long those bastards were surrounding the house before I managed to slip out?”

  “Did you leave undetected?” I tilted my head at him. If Thor had gotten past them as big as he was, then he was far stealthier than I gave him credit for.

  “I took out two or three with my hammer as I left. Gone before they knew what happened.” He grinned and I shook my head in amusement.

  “I am officially a rogue spy. Getting close to the Queen will be near impossible now,” I grumbled, taking a seat on a pink settee, and plucking at my dress. “And I need clothing.”

  “I thought ahead this time,” Loki reassured me, pointing towards a parcel sitting on the couch I had barely noticed.

  “You had clothing made for me?”

  I was just smiling wide at Loki when Thor plopped down on the small couch in front of me. The wood groaned under his weight, but it held. However, my focus was less on the sturdiness of the furniture and more on the way that Thor suddenly narrowed his eyes.

  “Your lips. . .”

  I nearly swore. Was it that obvious I had been kissing someone? Could everyone tell?

 
; “It’s fine,” I started to say, but Loki’s voice rang out before I could do so.

  “What’s the matter, God of Thunder? Are you jealous?”

  I tensed at the same time as Thor did, a crash accompanying his hammer flying into his hand. It had broken something in the house, flying from another area, but neither seemed concerned with what.

  “Don’t speak of her as if she isn’t here, you snake!”

  Something on Loki’s face shifted, something more akin to the serpent Thor accused him of, a mask I had yet to see.

  “Just because I make her scream out my name—”

  “Stop!” I growled, standing from my seat. Both of their eyes snapped to me even though they were in each other’s faces. “Are you fighting over me while I’m right here?”

  “He spoke of you as if—”

  “He always belittles—”

  I held up my hand in annoyance and they both trailed off.

  “First,” I said, “I’m not an object to be fought over. I will kick both of your arses for thinking that way, so help me whomever. I am a strong woman, and I will make my own choices.” They straightened, staring at me expectantly. “Which brings me to my second point.” I braced my hands on my hips. “I have not chosen anyone, so why are you fighting over it?”

  “We kissed,” Loki pointed out, making sure to add enough of a purr into his tone to make Thor tense.

  I shrugged. “A kiss is not a proposal. I would think a God knew that.”

  Loki clenched his jaw and flicked angry eyes to Thor. “You couldn’t even let me have one chance,” he snarled at Thor before he disappeared in his smoke, the green haze clearing quickly as if he had never been there.

  I blinked at the spot where he disappeared, confused at the outburst. Since I’d known Loki, he had been level-headed, calm even, but it seemed, even the God had his limits. And I was not sure exactly which limit had been reached.