Chapter One
“OH, KRISTIA,” THE HORRIBLE keening voice sneered from the blackness in my head. I stood in a field of ice, surrounded on all sides by tall, dark mountains. The air was a damp-cold that chilled to the bone, and icicles rose from the ground like distorted turrets. The voice was familiar, but my surroundings were completely foreign.
“Where am I, Elf Man?”
“Exactly where I want you to be,” the voice hissed.
“And where is that?”
“Poised to fail. You don’t really think he’s going to marry you, do you?”
“You know entirely too much about my personal life. And hey, didn’t I kill you already? How’d you survive?”
“Sweet Kristia.” His lanky figure emerged from between the ice formations with his hands open in welcome. “It has been too long.”
“Not long enough,” I muttered. “And seriously, I killed you, remember? With this.” I held up my necklace, the silver carving of Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir, which had belonged to my grandmother. “Don’t make me use it again.” I wielded the hammer like a shield but Elf Man just cackled.
“Please.” He waved a hand. “You wouldn’t dare. Because without me, you won’t know how to save her.”
“Save who?” I turned as Elfie made a slow circle around me. I’d never felt more like a caged animal. “Tell me, you creep. Who?”
“Ah-ah-ah.” The demon wagged his finger. “Wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.”
“Fine. What’s going to happen to her, whoever she is?”
“Oh, it will be exquisite.” The man’s glee was sickening. If Webster’s dictionary published photos alongside the definitions, his image would be right next to lunatic.
“You are seriously messed up, you know that?” I pivoted, matching the elf’s pace.
“You have no idea.” He chuckled darkly. “But you will when you lose someone you love.”
“Not Ull.” I squeezed my necklace, and it warmed at my touch.
“No, not Ull. I want him to suffer every bit as much as you.”
“Sif?” I could feel my necklace start to pulse.
“I’m not telling you, poppet.” He spat out the last word. “But I will give you a hint.”
Elfie swirled his hand and mist appeared between us. It acted as a screen, showing a cavernous room I’d never seen. Bars covered the small window of a chipped wooden door. It was some kind of a jail cell. Sparks of light shot from under the door, and I heard a woman shriek. She was in pain—not any pain I’d ever known, but a pain born of torture. She screamed again, her voice frail and hoarse.
“Stop it! What are you doing to her?” I doubled over and shoved my hands against my ears to drown out the sound.
“Oh my pet, this is only the beginning. I will give her an illness that kills her body from the inside. It will eat away her spirit, eroding all goodness within her. When she is nothing but darkness, I will take her body. By then, she will welcome death.”
I looked up from my crouch, squinting through the fog-screen. Elf Man was nowhere to be seen. I jumped to my feet, turning in a slow circle while my eyes scanned the frozen field behind me for a weapon. Unless I was going to kill the creep with an icicle, it looked like I was short-handed. I grabbed a crude weapon anyway, clutching my necklace in the other hand. It had started to glow.
“Come out, coward. I’m going to have to do a better job of killing you this time.”
A ghostly cackle echoed off the mountain ridge, first behind me and then to my right. “But don’t you see, sweet Kristia? You can never be done with me. I will follow you to the ends of this world. And the next. Until I own your soul.” The voice sounded from my left, and I turned abruptly. The deranged creature stood beside me, freakishly long fingers reaching my way. His eyes caressed the contour of my neck, leaving goose bumps in their wake. As his hands twitched in time with my pulse, I narrowed my eyes.
I was not in the mood to be strangled today.
“Oh no you don’t.” I thrust the icicle upwards toward his abdomen, but he chopped it in half with one wiry forearm.
“Is that the best you can do?” His cold hands wrapped around my neck, cutting off the circulation. I waved the broken stump of icicle at his chest, but his arms kept me just out of reach. He lifted me slowly by the neck, my lungs screaming for air as he squeezed. I felt my eyes bulge; whether from shock or pain I wasn’t sure. I wrapped my hands around Elfie’s fingers and tugged. His grip loosened just enough that I could draw one ragged breath.
“How do I save her?” I croaked. Assuming I survived the next few minutes, a lot was riding on the demon’s answer.
“You’d have to destroy me,” Elf Man roared. “Like you ever could.” He raised me over his head with one hand, shaking me violently. My head wrenched from side to side.
“Watch. Me,” I panted, using all my strength to grip the silver hammer that rested at my collarbone. I squeezed as tightly as I could, a pathetic grasp, but it would have to be enough. Heat radiated from my hand as the hammer burst to life, beams of light shooting from between my fingers.
“No!” The elf released his painful grip, and I dropped to the ground. My leg exploded with pain. I opened my eyes to glare at the sharp rock that interrupted my fall.
“No!” Elfie shrieked again. I clutched my bleeding calf as I watched the light from my necklace wrap around him, chaining him with its brilliance. The coils circled his legs and wrists like manacles until he was bound to the icy field. “This is not over, poppet,” he hissed before the light sealed his mouth. His muffled laughter echoed throughout the valley as I was shaken out of the horrible scene.
****
“No.” I kicked at the air, earning a sharp pain in my shin. I opened my eyes and realized I’d kicked the dashboard. Wait, dashboard? But I’d just been in a frozen hell. At least, it felt like hell—barren, dark, void of any feeling except desolation. Covered in ice. An icy hell?
“Kristia, darling.” I felt Ull’s cool hand on my forehead as he swiftly steered the Range Rover to the closest exit. “Darling, wake up. You are having a bad dream.”
It was a dream?
“Are you having another wedding nightmare? I will rein Inga back in. I know she has been a bit . . . over-involved in the planning.”
“Wedding nightmare . . .” I rubbed at my leg, trying to remember why I was in my fiancé’s fancy SUV. That’s right, we were headed to his English country house, Ýdalir, so his immortal grandmother could train me to become a goddess of Asgard. Just your typical weekend away from studies at Cardiff University.
Why did my subconscious have to go and ruin everything?
“Kristia.” Ull’s tone dropped, sending a new kind of chill down my spine. “Please tell me you were having a wedding nightmare.”
I sighed. As much as I wanted to let Ull believe I was a stressed-out bride, I knew better than to lie to him. In less than three months, Ull would allow me to give up my human life and join him in an eternal existence. The only thing he asked in return was that I give him complete access to the disturbed inner-workings of my mind.
“I had a vision,” I admitted.
“You saw him again.” It wasn’t a question. Ull’s brow furrowed, and he cut across two lanes of traffic to pull into a half-empty parking lot. “Tell me.”
“It was awful.” I recalled the worst of my dream, narrating to Ull as I went. His hands gripped the steering wheel so hard, his knuckles turned white.
“Is that all?” he asked when I’d finished.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Do you have any idea who the woman was?”
I didn’t want to answer. There was only one person it could be, and Ull wouldn’t be happy when I told him.
“Kristia. Do you know who the woman was?”
“Not exactly. I didn’t see her face, and I don’t know for sure.”
“But you suspect?”
I closed my eyes. “Ull, he plans to destroy someone you love from the inside. And torture her. He couldn’t do that to a god—you guys are too powerful. It has to be a human. And there’s only one human who means enough to you for him to plan something this elaborate.”
“You.” Ull’s voice cracked. “He wants to hurt you.” He exhaled slowly. “He wants to take you away from me.”
“I think so,” I whispered. “But he’s had plenty of chances. He could come and get me any time, in any dream. If he’s so intent on killing me, why hasn’t he done it already?”
“Who is this monster?” Ull frowned. “How is he getting into your head?”
“I have no idea. He looks like an elf—he has pointy ears, but he’s tall and kind of handsome in a twisted way. Elves are ugly, right?”
“Dark elves are.” Ull smoothed his features and reached out to hold my hand. “Please try not to worry, my love. So long as you are with me, I will not let anything happen to you.”
“You can’t save me from my dreams, Ull.”
“I know.” He leaned against the headrest and closed his eyes. “You do not have any idea who he is?”
“No. He’s got brown hair. He’s tall and skinny. Pointy ears. He never says his name.”
“That could be anyone.”
“I know.”
“Do you have any idea where you were this time?” Ull rubbed at his forehead.
“I’d never seen anything like it. It was cold. Dark. I was in an isolated valley—big, black mountains and a field of ice.”
Ull’s eyes flew open. “You were in Jotunheim?”
“I don’t know. Is that what it looks like?”
“Did you feel empty? Hollow?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Unbelievably lonely?”
“Yes.”
“Jotunheim.” Ull clenched his jaw. “Evil.”
“Frost giants, right?” I tried to remember what little Ull had told me about this other realm. Most of what I knew came from Professor Carnicke’s mythology class.
“Yes. Dark elves are granted entry, too. And other . . . hostile elements are admitted. I spent a lot of time there when I was an assass—when I was working as a warrior.”
That made sense. Ull had spent the majority of his existence as a warrior of Asgard, eliminating threats to the realm. If Jotunheim was as bad as he’d said, he’d probably racked up a whole heap of kills there. He wasn’t proud he’d taken so many lives, so Odin had granted his request for a career change. Now, Ull protected all the realms as God of Winter.
“So this elf creep is evil. We knew that. We still don’t know who he is.”
“But we know who he is not. He is not a light elf; he is obviously not a Norn. He is not an Asgardian—not that I really thought one of us would be capable of hurting you. Except . . .” Ull drummed his fingers on his lap.
“Except?”
“Well, Loki has done some pretty terrible things in his time.”
“Loki? Odin’s half-brother?”
“Blood brother. He kidnapped Idunn, which nearly killed us all. He chopped off my mother’s hair as a joke—had to bribe the dwarves to develop gold hair to replace it, and nearly got himself killed in the process. It would not be the first time he did something to hurt the realm. But I do not believe even he could do something this terrible. He is inherently selfish; he always gets something out of his treachery. And he stands to gain nothing by hurting you. Or me.”
“Besides, he isn’t an elf, is he?”
“No.”
“Well, this guy has pointy ears.”
A look of horror crossed Ull’s perfect features. “Wait! Did he have any idea what you are going to do?”
“You mean marry you, become a goddess, and spy on Asgard’s enemies?”
“Does he know that you are the Seer?” Ull whispered the last words with reverence, and I sighed. I understood it was a big deal to be some all-knowing visionary that was prophesied way back at the beginning of time. I did. But Ull was as worrisome as he was bossy, and this whole Seer thing was starting to occupy a disproportionate amount of his stress-about-Kristia time.
And honestly. I was still just me.
“He knew you and I were engaged. But I don’t think he knew about the other stuff.”
“I do not like this. How did he know about us?”
“He’s known about us from the beginning. The first time I saw him he was freaking out about what I was going to do to his plan, and after that, he was all fixated on whether you were going to stay with me. It’s like he’s obsessed with you.”
“I wish I knew what all of this means. I do not like feeling like I have no control.” He shook his head. “The only thing I know I can do is take you to Olaug.”
Even though our impending visit had a purpose, I didn’t need a reason visit Ull’s grandma. I loved spending time with her.
“We have to get you up to speed so you can help me figure out what we are dealing with. I have to know you are safe—that Ragnarok is over and this monster, whoever he is, is locked away. If he thinks he can mess with my bride, he has another thing coming.” Ull emitted fury and I waited for the wave to pass. His anger should have been terrifying, but the way this trained killer fretted over me was downright adorable.
After a minute, he wiped his palms on his jeans. “We will figure it out, darling. Maybe Olaug’s instruction will trigger something for you. If you recognize anyone when she talks you through the realms, please tell me.”
“I will, Ull.” I leaned over to kiss his cheek. “I tell you everything.”
“You had better,” Ull growled. “You gave your word.”
“Small price to pay for an eternity with you.” I kissed him again and his face softened.
“Please do not worry about this creature, Kristia. I will take care of you.”
“I could say the same to you.” I squeezed his hand while he pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the highway. But how could I protect us from Elf Man when I didn’t even know who he was?