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

  Tillie never tried to lift the hammer—I wasn’t sure if it would allow her to do so—but she kept her fingers on it, prodding at different parts, at the mechanisms inside.

  I knew then that I would have to talk to Thor, to discuss the woman in front of me. I knew we both liked her, knew we both held interest, and though Tillie seemed keen to encourage both of us, I didn’t want her to be hurt if we descended into our own battle.

  Tillie was a woman worth fighting for, and her penchant for illusions drew me even closer. Her joke about my horns had hit me right in the chest, accepting them even though she couldn’t have fully understood what it was, without a second thought. Thor always bedded women, but for me, a woman that saw who I was, saw what I was, and didn’t seem to care was everything. After all that I had suffered for being the God of Mischief, the silver-tongue with a mastery over magic, I wanted to tangle with a woman who didn’t care for such titles and would sooner gut me than allow me to call her little.

  As Tillie grinned at me, I knew I would have to talk to Thor about the Valkyrie dressed in the clothing of a lady soon. Even at the beginning of the End of Days, I wanted a shot to find light in my darkness.

  Chapter Fourteen

  SKADI

  I stepped from the branch of Yggdrasil into Asgard, the familiar sweet, frozen air tickling my lungs after being in the smog-ridden Midgard. The Hall of Slain Warriors was empty, an oddity even for Odin but I supposed over the years, fewer and fewer warriors made it to Valhalla that believed in such a thing.

  There was no time to ponder the diminishing Midgardian army that Odin always seemed to care more for than anything else. I had to find the Allfather and explain what had happened, and why I did not have Thor and Loki with me. The two were fearful that returning to Asgard would have set the End of Days in motion in this realm, too. They didn’t know if returning would quicken the stages of Ragnarök, and I hadn’t argued. We all felt it in our bones that it would be all nine realms that fell, but because it originated in Midgard now instead of Asgard, I wasn’t sure what Odin would think of it. He’d been wrong, after all, though he had also been correct. Thor and Loki had been instrumental in setting the gears in motion, and so had I. How convenient that it was me that went after the two Gods.

  I found the Allfather standing on the hill, overlooking the garden of Idunn, his eyes on one of the trees that seemed to be rotting. The rot had started a year before, a slow eating away of a fruit tree that should have been frozen in health forever. We had once worried it would spread to the other trees, but so far, it was only the single tree bowing beneath the power of whatever it had attracted.

  “Allfather,” I murmured softly, standing back until he acknowledged me. The time didn’t call for such measures. It called for urgency, but the Allfather was strict about the customs, and we were not to speak unless spoken to, first.

  Slowly, Odin turned, the eye patch softly clicking with the gears that did who knew what. The staff, the one Loki had procured for him, clicked by his side. Another of his possessions he cared more for than his own children, but I didn’t dare ever speak that particular knowledge I had gleaned.

  “I see no Thor and Loki with you.”

  Those were the only words he spoke, and I frowned. The Allfather should have seen what transpired in Midgard, would know that Ragnarök had begun.

  “We ran into some trouble with the dark elves. In fact, that’s why—”

  “So, you failed,” Odin interrupted, and I clamped my mouth shut. “You were sent on a task, and you failed to complete it.”

  “We were attacked—”

  “Do you think I care for such excuses!?” He roared the words, the sky rolling with his anger. I didn’t take a step back, only because I didn’t want to show weakness that he would take advantage of, so I held my ground. The Allfather was powerful enough to sentence me for punishment. My mind wandered to the punishment of Loki, the one I had been ordered to help with. The cruelty behind that punishment, the agony of having venom drip onto Loki’s face for a hundred years, I couldn’t imagine how he came out of it completely himself. And perhaps, that was why it scared me. Somehow, Loki had survived it, could walk freely and still smile, but the darkness in his eyes, the invisible scars, had to still be there.

  I waited for Odin to gather his calm, for his face to morph back into some semblance of normal before I spoke again.

  “Don’t you feel it?” I murmured, keeping my voice low as if I were talking to a vicious animal. At any moment, Odin could kill me if he chose to. We were immortal, but it was the power of the Allfather to steal that immortality from me. It took much of his energy and would cause a part of Asgard to wither away, but he would deem it necessary. “Ragnarök has begun.”

  For the past six years, Odin had been preaching about Ragnarök on the horizon, about it coming. I had listened to every lecture, every speech, about how Asgard would fall, and at one point, he had claimed that Thor and Loki would be the accelerators of it. We hadn’t known how true that would be then.

  “Ragnarök has originated in Midgard and in Midgard it will stay. I care not for their demise.”

  “But all nine realms will fall to Ragnarök! I can feel it in my bones.” Why can’t you? I didn’t understand how I could sense the impending doom but the Allfather, who saw all, didn’t seem to, or he didn’t care.

  Odin turned away and began to make his way down the hill, towards the garden, dismissing me as if I hadn’t just said such horrible words. I watched him go, watched him enter the garden and stride up the rotting apple tree, watched as he stroked a hand along the trunk and the scent of rot reached my nose.

  I felt his darkness before I saw him, felt him behind me.

  “Everything will be fine,” Hodor murmured, slipping his arms around my waist. “If the Allfather is unconcerned, then so should we be.”

  “You don’t understand.” I whirled in his arms and looked into his face, into the cloudy eyes that sensed more than saw. “I was there. It was my blood that was used to start Ragnarök. I can feel it. All realms will fall. All will perish.”

  He frowned, his arms tightening around me. “What do you mean, your blood was used?”

  “The Dark Elves pricked Thor, Loki, and I in battle. A Bloodletter held up the three drops of blood and I watched them swirl together and then the wolf ran across the sky.”

  “Why you three?”

  “He said he needed a minor God or Goddess, a member of the royal family, and someone who didn’t belong, in order to set everything in motion.” I shook my head. “Even if it’s only Midgard that falls, that’s still too much. They are not a bad realm, not like Svartálfheim.” My brain stuck on the image of the woman who had fought her hardest to get away, the spy that had nearly incapacitated Thor. “They are weaker because of their mortality but stronger in other ways. There’s no reason for them to die because the Allfather cares little for anything except for his sta—”

  Hod’s hand clamped over my mouth suddenly, stopping the words from spilling out, the accusation that Odin would hear. When we were in my mountains, the large stone kept Odin from seeing there, something about the granite stopping him, but here, right in the middle of Asgard, all words would get back to him. My eyes flicked to the raven sitting in a tree barely three lengths away, Hugin if I went from the odd spot of white in the black feathers. If I would have finished the thought, that raven would have flown right to Odin and told him. Asgard was a dangerous place to speak truths.

  “Why did you come back,” Hod murmured, “if you were so adamant about saving Midgard?”

  “All nine realms,” I corrected. “Thor remembered reading a book at some point, one that mentioned an item that could help slow the stages, but I can’t remember anything of its mention. Thor gave me a description. I came back to search the library and see if there was anything to be done.” I turned to look down the hill again but the Allfather was gone, as if he had vanished into thin air. “And to warn Asgard.” The warning had falle
n on deaf ears. “Will you help me?”

  Hod hesitated and I understood his precarious situation. As one of Odin’s sons, he would be watched closely, expected to behave a certain way. Though Hodor had rebelled against much else after he went blind, there were still things that tethered him to the Allfather. Baldur was the golden child, Thor was respected in war, but though Hod was an amazing weapons maker, he held no respect from his father simply for being blind. But that was the Allfather’s downfall. What Hod lacked in vision, he made up for in other senses. For him to be able to build weapons while blind, it took a host of other skills, and not once had I ever seen Hod run into something. He once told me it was because once he learned the vibrations of something, he could pick it out of all others. He said he liked the way my vibrations moved, as if I was nothing more than fallen snow, a footprint left in a fresh layer. It had endeared him to me, and years later, we had become lovers. Still, asking him to help me search could get him in trouble, could bring punishments down on both of us, if Odin decided it went against his wishes.

  “I’ll help you,” Hod whispered, “but no more talking on the streets. Come, I’ll make tea before we begin the long search.” I pressed my lips to his, absorbing the darkness that always traveled around him, letting them tickle my senses.

  “How I’ve missed you,” I murmured against his lips, my fingers going into his hair.

  “Perhaps,” he groaned, his fingers splaying on my backside, “we should skip the tea altogether for something more—”

  “Yes.” His shadows wrapped around us like a cool blanket and we disappeared from on top of the hill.

  But the scent of rot lingered.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Neither Thor nor Loki found any clothing I could wear to walk back to my home in. Thor’s clothing had practically swamped me, all so large that I might as well have been wearing sheets. Loki’s clothing had been too long. Sure, his shirts had gone down to midthigh on me, but I couldn’t very well walk the streets wearing nothing but a shirt. In the end, I had chosen to wear Loki’s shirt, but he had promised to spin an illusion on me so it would appear as if I was still wearing the finery I’d come in. I wasn’t sure how much I trusted it, however.

  “You’ll have to trust me,” Loki murmured before blowing a glittering dust over me. He moved around me, making sure the dust was coating all it needed to. “As long as you walk like a lady, that’s what they’ll see.”

  “Walk like a lady,” I murmured. “Got it.”

  Thor stood off to the side, watching closely, his eyes lingering on my exposed legs every so often. When I caught him for the third time, I winked over my shoulder. “If you’re going to keep staring at my legs, at least make it interesting and take off your shirt.”

  Thor’s eyes danced up to mine, the corners crinkling. “I suppose it would only be fair, would it not?”

  “Exactly.” I pursed my lips. “Though I’m not opposed to the trousers following suit.”

  Loki ran his hand up my calf and I peered down at him, realizing it for the distraction it was. His eyes glittered up at me, whether in warning or chiding me, I wasn’t sure. “You can take off your clothes, too,” I reassured him. “I’m very much not opposed.”

  “If we were both suddenly naked, wouldn’t it be unfair that you were still wearing clothing?” Thor asked, a grin on his face.

  I didn’t answer. Instead, I reached for the hem of the shirt, intending to pull it over my head and shock them, but Loki’s hand latched onto my wrist, keeping the hem at my thighs.

  “None of that,” he groaned. “Now isn’t the time.”

  “You don’t want to see me without clothing?” I tilted my head, looking between where his fingers held my wrist and his eyes that glowed far too brightly to be normal.

  He stood from where he kneeled, towering over me, before he leaned down and brushed his lips along the shell of my ear. “I want nothing more than to see your face etched in ecstasy while I pleasure you, Tillie,” he whispered. “You think it doesn’t arouse me to see you wearing my shirt and nothing else?”

  My fingers clenched into his coat. I was tempted to thread my fingers into his hair and jerk him to me. Normally, I wouldn’t be so forward. Hell, I had danced around Calvin for a year, but I hated following social demands, and besides, if the world was ending, what better time to throw inhibitions to the wind.

  “Why don’t you do something about that?” I asked on a breathy moan as he leaned back to meet my eyes.

  “Because Thor is standing there, thinking the same thing.”

  “What?” I turned and looked over my shoulder, saw the frown on his face even with the obvious arousal in his eyes. “Well, I’m not opposed—”

  “Tillie,” Loki interrupted, and I looked back at him. “Be very careful of the words you speak.”

  I scrunched up my nose and stepped back, annoyed. I had thought it safe in their home to throw away my mask, but Loki’s chiding only reminded me that I shouldn’t be so open, shouldn’t give them ammo to use against me. I tilted my chin up, let the emotions slip from my face, and clasped my hands in front of me. “If you’re ready to go then, we should leave.”

  “Tillie—”

  I turned and moved towards the door, picking up the bag that held my dress and weapons and kept moving. I didn’t turn to look for the other two before I threw open the door and stepped outside in nothing more than a long shirt and boots.

  LOKI

  “What did you do?” Thor hissed as Tillie stepped from the door.

  “I have to put the enchantment on her home,” I replied instead of answering what he asked. I couldn’t bear to have the conversation of why Tillie had suddenly slammed the mask back into place. She had been teasing, probably meant part of it seriously, but my words, in an attempt to stop the direction the conversation was going for pure selfish reasons, had shut her down. She was a master, just as I was, and even the sparkle had disappeared from her eyes.

  “When you get back, we need to have a talk.” Thor crossed his arms, and I growled.

  “Fine.” I moved to follow Tillie, jogging to catch up to her as she moved along the sidewalk.

  It took me only a few seconds to do so, and then without waiting for her to look at me, I hooked her arm around my elbow.

  “What are you doing?” she asked. It should have been a growl, should have held emotion, but instead, it was a cold, flat question, asked by a woman who had sealed herself away.

  “Escorting you back to your home.”

  “I don’t need an escort.”

  “Excuse me, miss.” The man that stepped in front of us wore dirty clothing, coal dust along his skin as if he had just finished working in the coal factory. His eyes, a pure blue color, seemed to smile on their own. He was so full of life, even resigned to work himself to an early grave. “I would enjoy the pleasure of escorting you wherever it is you would like to go. This neighborhood isn’t safe for a lady such as yourself.”

  Tillie’s mask slipped just a bit, enough that I caught the confusion in her eyes. “Oh, um, I already have an escort, but I thank you for the offer.”

  We continued walking, but suddenly all eyes were on her, and men started coming up to offer to escort her, offer flowers, whatever they could offer, they did so. I watched in amusement as Tillie lost her mask completely to turn to me and hiss, “what did you do?”

  I stared into her angry eyes, angry at the men coming to proposition her, and still angry at my words in the house.

  “I simply made sure the dress was fit for a princess. I can’t help it if you draw their eyes.”

  “I shouldn’t be drawing any eyes. My job is to be inconspicuous.”

  I paused on the street and looked down at her. “Don’t worry,” I murmured. “No one really sees you, Tillie. They see the jewels at your throat,” I touched a finger to her bare throat, and she swallowed. “They see the dress that bares just a hint of the tops of your breasts.” My finger trailed just a little lower, but not too low,
not while we were on the street. “You can slide your mask back into place, little spy, and they will see nothing but a lady being escorted home, and they’ll wish they were the ones doing so.”

  “You somehow both infuriate me and excite me,” she admitted with a grumble.

  Her words caught me by surprise and a smile curled my lips. “If I’m being honest, I seem to inspire those emotions in most people.”

  “Do most of them want to have their wicked way with you?” It was a curious question, one she couldn’t possibly know the importance of.

  I frowned and if I focused enough, I could feel the snake inked in my skin move, could feel the venom drip onto my flesh, could feel the pull of the string in my lips. Over the years, I had been punished for something or other, not for things always my fault, but the punishments, they stayed with me like phantoms. “No,” I admitted. “Most are either afraid of me or think me lower than them.”

  Her honey colored eyes lingered and took in the look on my face. Then, dismissing everything entirely, she hooked her arm around my elbow again, and we started walking in silence. My chest fell a little at her non-response, but I earned it after acting like a fool earlier. She had been playful, had been teasing, and I had chided her like she no doubt heard from so many others, all because I had not wanted to hear that she favored Thor more than she favored me.

  It made sense for her to be drawn to the God of War, but it still chafed. For once, I wanted something Thor didn’t have, wanted to win the favor of the beautiful woman with her hand curled over my arm.

  We stopped just outside her home, the house large in the nicer part of London. The gardens were well tended here, the lights inside the window offering a soft glow in the spreading twilight.

  We paused there on the sidewalk, staring up at her door, both silent and lost in our own thoughts.