Heir to Jotunheim | ✔

Chapter One

"Need I remind you I looked after the twins for three months before you came home." Mum hollered from down the hall, where I could see her handing Maya her missing school cardigan.

Dad stared at the ceiling, clearly unimpressed, "you weren't six months pregnant and fighting a teenager to school." He muttered, before sighing and straightening up. "Freya, you can take Charlie."

"But it's on the other side of town to my college!" She kicked at the ground in a huff, but silenced as Dad directed his glare on her. "Fine." She grumbled, storming back into the house to do battle with the 13 year old.

"Maya! I swear I will leave you here!" I yelled a warning, staring at my watch. I didn't exactly want to make more of a big deal about my first day by being late and getting stuck in a detention.

"I'm here!" Maya skipped towards me, her bright pink bag pulled high up onto her shoulders. "Let's go." She grabbed my hand in hers, and I let her lead me the twenty minutes down the road to the village primary school. She was insanely cute for an eight year old, and looked almost identical to Mum, unlike the rest of us.

I waved goodbye beside the other parents, watching as her ponytail disappeared into the throng of other children, before darting back across the playground and running towards the bus stop.

I watched in despair as it rounded the corner as I reached it. I groaned, pulling my phone from my pocket and dialled home quickly, already dreading the conversation I was about to have.

"Hey honey, sorry for shouting at you this morning." Mum yawned. I didn't need her apology; her hormones were wild and it didn't help that I kept being thrown out of schools. It was taking a toll on her, and Brooke's bad cough wasn't helping the situation. Her and Dad were up all night with her, so she wasn't exactly getting a lot of sleep.

"It's okay. Can you give me a lift? I'm late and I missed the bus." I cut to the chase, knowing if I waited any longer I would definitely miss form time.

She sighed, "where are you?" I heard her moving around, and Brooke's small cries of protest as Mum started looking for her keys.

"Outside Maya's school." I glanced back, hearing the shouts of the primary school children playing with each other.

"Give me two minutes."

Two minutes would have let me be at school with five minutes to spare. But seemingly the entire country was running two minutes late, as we immediately joined a queue of traffic.

I was itching in my seat, but I covered it well enough so Mum wouldn't notice. She barely fit comfortably behind the wheel, and I felt a wave of guilt hit me as she squirmed a little as we hit another red light. "We're nearly there." She smiled, rubbing her belly, "if you get in trouble blame it on me and we'll sort it out."

It was a sweet gesture, but she didn't realise that that was the problem. Kids knew who Mum was, as their parents were a little older than she was when Grandad killed Grandma. The story had flown around for years, and when his case was taken back to court a few years ago in order to reduce his sentence, he had become famous again.

That was how I was kicked out of my first school. I was taunted by a group of older kids, and told I was nothing more than a murderers grandson. I'd punched the cocky teenager so hard his nose cracked and he was sent to the hospital with two black eyes and a broken nose.