CHAPTER THIRTY
Perched in a tree, Stieg held the map open while Erin’s right hand, raised and covered in flames, gave them a bit of light. “We’re here,” he said, pointing at a spot on the map. “We need to get here.”
Erin shook her head. “No. Here.”
“If we want to get there, we have to get here first.”
“I’m confused. Why go through Dark Elf territory? They hate humans.”
“They all hate humans to some degree. But underneath Svartalfheim is Nidavellir, land of dwarves. If we want to get to Corpse Shore, we have to go into Svartalfheim and down to Nidavellir.”
“That’s very complicated.”
“You’re dealing with Vikings. What did you expect?” Stieg again studied the map. “It looks like there are land connections between each of these worlds. We can fly—”
“No.” Erin shook her head. “We can’t fly.”
“Are you high?”
“Odin warned me. Crows and Ravens are not appreciated this far into the Nine Worlds.”
“Sure he wasn’t fucking with you?”
“Didn’t feel like it. At all. So we’ll need to find another mode of transportation.”
He glanced at the crow perched on the end of the branch. “Any chance our friend here can travel between worlds?”
“With our luck?”
“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking. And how much time do we have here?”
“Two days here for every one back home.”
“And based on what Odin said to me back at the Bird House . . .”
“We have three days tops,” Erin guessed. “So six days to get from here to Nidhogg. That is not a lot of time.”
“No. But there must be other forms of transportation. Horses, maybe.”
“Think anyone has a Ferrari in Alfheim?”
“Probably not.”
“If nothing else . . . we need to get out of Jotunheim. It’s freezing here.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“You’re blue.”
“Stop being so negative. Wow,” he said, gesturing to a branch above them. “Look at the size of that snake.” He frowned. “It moves funny, though.”
Erin glanced over, tightening the fur around her shoulders. She sighed. “That’s because it’s not a snake. It’s an inch worm.”
As if to prove that point, the crow snatched the worm off the branch and gobbled it down, making sounds Erin hoped to never hear again.
Stieg nodded. “Okay. You’re right. We need to get out of fucking Jotunheim.”
* * *
The crow took them as far as it was willing to go, setting them down about midway up a mountainside on a set of rickety-looking stairs that went up and up, circling the entire mountain until it reached the top.
“This is not going to be fun!” Erin yelled over the howling wind.
“I know! Think you can make it?”
“What does that mean?”
“That you look weak and pathetic. Need me to carry you?”
That middle finger slammed into his nose, then he watched Erin stomp up those stairs until the power of the mighty Jotunheim wind nearly knocked her off.
Stieg raced up to meet her, placing himself next to her so she couldn’t flip over the railing and plummet off the mountain, but also keeping her within easy reach if the wind changed course and she went the other way.
They marched up those endless stairs for hours, although it felt like days. And Stieg realized pretty quickly that even unleashing their wings was not an option. They might be torn off if they tried to fly. At the very least, they’d be pushed back into Jotunheim.
So they trudged on, pressed together, heads down. Neither speaking,
It was hell.
Yet he was impressed that Erin never complained. She never stopped. She pushed on. As determined as she ever was.
Finally, they reached the peak but . . . there was nothing. No bridge. No new set of stairs for them to take. Nothing that would lead them out of Jotunheim.
“Fuck!” Erin screamed into the wind. “We’re gonna die up here!”
“Probably.”
Erin faced him. “Didn’t you say we should be positive?”
“No, I said we shouldn’t be negative, but let’s face it. The only reason we’re still alive is because we’ve been blessed by gods. Otherwise, we would have been dead two minutes in. It’s still impressive, though.”
“How? ”
“Everybody else thought you’d be dead by now. Ravens and the Killers had a pool going. The longest time was three hours and I don’t think anyone actually picked that.”
Erin opened her mouth . . . closed it . . . opened it again . . . pointed a finger at him . . . stomped her feet . . . before spinning away from him.
Stieg tapped her on the shoulder.
“What?”
“That icky hand.”
“What about it?”
Stieg grabbed the rope strand Erin had used to secure the Carrion’s hand to a loop on her jeans. It had bounced against the back of her leg every time she took a step. He held the hand up close to her face so she could see it. “The rune . . . it’s glowing.”
Erin grabbed it and turned in a circle, holding the hand palm up. When it glowed at its brightest, she reached her arm out into the empty air in front of her. Stieg grabbed her by the waist so that she didn’t fall to her death. She pressed forward and her hand suddenly disappeared.
A doorway. Into the next world.
Erin leaned back and looked up at him.
Stieg shrugged. “Let’s go for it.”
They took as many steps back as they could on the extremely tiny mountaintop. Not knowing how wide the doorway was, he waited for Erin to start her run, then went after her. She leaped and he had a second to see her disappear before he followed right behind her.
* * *
Erin was falling, spinning until she hit the ground hard; then she was tumbling, down, down, her body rolling, bouncing, slamming, unable to stop herself. Unable to think.
She hit something vertical, bounced high but when she landed, it wasn’t hard ground. It was water.
She didn’t know how far down she was; she just knew she couldn’t figure out which way was up and which was down. She still felt like she was rolling down, down . . .
Something brushed against her shoulder, spinning her again. It wasn’t a giant fish. It was a giant Viking. Blood flowed from the back of his head and he dropped like a stone. Eyes closed, arms and legs loose.
Focusing on Stieg only, Erin chased after him, swimming deeper until she caught his hand. She turned and, moving her grip so she held his forearm, she swam back up, aiming toward the sunlight pouring down.
Erin broke the surface and slid one arm around Stieg’s neck, using the other to swim to shore. She dragged him out of the water and, panting, dropped beside him on the ground.
Knowing she needed to help him, Erin attempted to turn over. A hand on her shoulder pushed her back.
“Shh.”
“Stieg—”
“We’ll take care of him.” Fingers pushed the hair off Erin’s face.
Blinking wide, making sure she saw what she thought she saw, she smiled. “You are as beautiful as the sun.”
Then she passed out.