FLOOD

A New Plan

“I don’t think….” My voice broke, and I cleared my throat and tried again. “…I mean, I don’t know him well, but from what I’ve seen of him…I don’t think he would turn you in. What your grandfather is doing to my people—”

“It eats at him too.” Eli nodded. “I know, it’s not just me. It’s just that Cain still has faith in my grandfather. He still thinks that he can find a cure. All that crap our grandfather tells him about all of it being for the greater good. About how many lives they can save. He says it’s like testing to fight cancer…”

“Only instead of rats and guinea pigs, he hurts Jotun. He hurts my people,” I spat, and Eli flinched back.

“Yes. Every day I hope that Cain gets smart enough to pull away from him. I hope that he figures out that these so called sacrifices aren’t worth whatever grandfather is going to achieve. He hasn’t seen any results.”

I hesitated, folding my fingers up into the palms of my hands. How would Eli look at me if he knew what I’d done less than a day ago? If he knew I could rip the water right out of his body. If I told him that his grandfather’s experiments had begun to work, would he turn me over? It didn’t seem likely, but still…

Besides, the experiment hadn’t exactly been a success. My Jotun genes weren’t eradicated, they were mutated. Some weird combination of my genes and Kalda’s had turned my power into something new and terrifying. Something very very strong.

I was a new kind of Jotun.

What would my people say when I came back to them in this condition? What would the queen say? The thought of Queen Megan sent a bolt of excitement and panic through me, and a sense of urgency rose up, enough to make me feel closed in down here. I couldn’t just sit here and wait, I had to get back home and warn the others.

When I looked up, Eli’s dark eyes were fixed on my face, his expression curious. My stomach flipped. Had I been so obvious? Was he about to ask me what was wrong?

A rustling from behind saved me. Fiske came forward to join us, limping very slowly. When he stopped and sat down at my side I ran a hand through the fur on his back. “How are you feeling, my friend?”

“Much improved.” He inclined his head towards Eli. “Thank you. I needed that.”

“You’re welcome.” Eli shifted, eyes darting from the wolf to me, and I realized that he had probably never been in close quarters with a wild animal before. Undoubtedly he was nervous about it.

“How long do you think they’ll be up there looking?” I said impatiently. “I can’t just sit here, I have to take news of this back to my people. I cannot allow more of us to be taken.”

Eli chewed on his bottom lip for a moment before answering. “It could be a while. They know they can’t let you go back there, for that exact reason. They don’t want you warning the others.”

I nodded, curling my knees up to my chest. Anxiously I bit at my thumb, trying to think of a way out of this place. Maybe one of us could cause a distraction.

Fiske met my eyes, and I knew he knew what I was thinking. “You must go now. If I can get them to chase me, can you get back on your own?”

I knew he wasn’t asking if I could find the barrier. Every full-blooded Jotun has a natural instinct calling them back to Jotunheimer somewhere deep in their gut. Instead, he was asking me if I could make it on my own. If I was brave enough to go.

“Of course.” The words came out a little defensively, and I immediately felt bad. “But…will you be okay?”

“Now that I have food in me, I’ll be fine,” Fiske said. He opened his mouth, tongue hanging out to one side, lips curling at the edges in a wolf smile. “They’ll never actually catch me. It will be like chasing a shadow.”

“You always were one for melodramatics. You and Kalda both.” My smile was wobbly, and I was grateful when Fiske leaning into me, nudging my shoulder with his nose.

“We will grieve for her when we get back, my friend.”

“I have no more grief left. Only anger.”

Out of the corner of one eye I could see Eli shift uncomfortably. Let him feel bad. His family was made up of murdering lunatics. He was only starting to atone for that.

“We need to go.” I turned back to him, and was surprised to find Eli climbing to his feet. “What are you doing?”

“I’m coming with you.”

I shot up so fast I nearly banged my head on the low, dirt ceiling. “What? No.”

He looked wounded. “I want to help. And I can’t stay here.”

“Don’t you have somewhere else to go?” I protested. “What about your grandmother?”

“She died.” Eli’s face fell. “A month ago. A heart attack, probably stress, I’m guessing. Either that or my grandfather arranged it to look like a heart attack, when she looked like she might tell someone.”

It was hard not to feel bad for him. “My people may not welcome you with open arms.”

“It doesn't matter. If I can help you on your way to warn them, then I don’t care what happens to me. I owe all of you that much.”

“Regardless,” Fisk rumbled, glancing sideways at me, “he may not make it through the pass at all. It may be a moot point.”

I nodded, and Eli glanced from me to Fisk and back again. “What pass? What does that mean?”

“The barrier between the human world and mine. It may keep you out if your Jotun blood isn’t thick enough. It lets half bloods in, but I doubt you’re even that.”

Eli was chewing his lip again. “Well, it’s worth a try. I want to help.”

Damn it. Clearly he was going to be incredibly stubborn about this, and it wasn’t like I had unlimited time to argue about it. “Fine. But I won’t be responsible for what happens if you do make it through the pass. My people are warriors, and they won’t take kindly to what’s been happening to us. I cannot guarantee your safety.”

“Deal.” Eli beamed at me and I tried not to roll my eyes.

“Are you ready?” Fiske asked both of us.

“Wait.” Eli hurried over to the back of the room, the same corner he’d retrieved the wooden box from. There was a pile of blankets at the back, and he began going through them.

“Let me grab some stuff for us. It’s going to be a long journey, I would estimate, even to the water.”

“Water?” I repeated blankly. It occurred to be that I didn’t even know where we were. I’d been unconscious when they’d taken us there. Fiske too. As much as I wanted to protest the notion, I needed Eli to get out of here.

“Yeah, water.” Eli straightened up. He was holding a battered black knap sack in his hands. “We’re on an island.”

Fiske and I exchanged a glance, and I groaned. “Like, in the middle of the ocean? As in, we’ll need a boat?”

Eli grinned. “That’s what island usually means.”

“And where the hell are we getting a boat?”

“There’s a dock just south of here. If we get to it, I figure we can do what my family has always done.” He shrugged, busy shoveling everything in sight into the bag. “Steal one.”

I groaned again, tilting my head back to rest against the dirt wall. This escape was getting more and more complicated.

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