Struck: (Phoebe Meadows Book 1) (33 page)

“Because he is the strongest, most capable demigod I’ve ever met. Plus, the serpent is his brother. Neither will kill the other.”

“But what if the serpent gets the upper hand and something happens out of their control?”

“It won’t.”

At that moment, the boat blinked in and out of existence for a full two seconds. I yelped, grabbing on to Tyr’s arm. “We can’t leave without him!” I was trying to keep it together, but losing Fen now wasn’t an option.

“He will be back,” Tyr said in a confident tone. “If the boat leaves, we will find him another way.”

“No!” I cried. “That could take too long. If he’s on his own, he could get captured and sent away again. He needs our help. We can’t abandon him!” He’d saved my life no less than three times. I wasn’t leaving him alone.

“He is a demigod. And a powerful one at that. He will endure, as he always has.”

“How can you be so calm?” This conversation was infuriating me. “You said you left Asgard to make amends. In order to do that, you have to be helpful and kind, and right now Fen needs your help. We have to wait for him!”

“The boat is spelled. It’s out of my control. It will leave when it decides to leave. The spell is set up for my protection above all else.”

I left his side and wrung my hands, beginning to pace. “Come on, Fen,” I murmured.

A loud splash came from the bow.

I rushed along the side of the boat to the front. There was a small platform to stand on. I grabbed on to the rail and leaned over, spotting movement below, but I couldn’t tell what was happening. It was too dark.

The boat blinked again. I could feel it trying to gather energy. Maybe my body was more attuned to such things now? It was fueling up for the journey, getting ready to leave, to take us somewhere safer.

“Fen!” I shouted. “You have to come up! The boat is leaving.”

Something was rising to the surface quickly.

I stepped back, realizing that maybe it wasn’t too smart to be dangling off the edge while a leviathan that wanted to kill me lurked below.

The serpent’s head broke through the water.

It was the size of an SUV.

I gasped, tumbling backward, as it arched up in front of me. Its eyes were dark as coal, its scales jet-black and as big as manhole covers. It was focused on me. I’d never seen anything living that huge before. Water rushed off its long, sleek body in rivers, waves crashing around its body and the boat.

It lunged toward me, and I stumbled, my back hitting the wheelhouse of the houseboat.

There was another splash as Fen leaped from the water smoothly, right onto the bow in front of me. His jaws were open and snapping, his growls low and furious. His fur was drenched, but otherwise he looked no worse for wear.

“Halt.” Tyr came around the corner. He held a huge harpoon gun, his muscles tense but steady. The loaded spear was bright gold and looked sharp enough to tear through a bank vault. “This arrow will fell even you,” he called to the serpent. “I know you seek the freedom we all crave, but it’s not going to happen this way. Go back to the deep. Your day will come soon enough.”

The serpent narrowed its eyes on Tyr as it rose farther out of the water.

It wasn’t interested in hearing Tyr’s sound logic.

Cackling came from the dock. The dark elves had front-row seats for the show. The only thing missing was popcorn, or grubs, or whatever they ate. Once I was gone, swallowed by the leviathan, they could happily report back to Verdandi that my death had been gruesome, no doubt exaggerating their role in my demise.

I cringed back as the serpent began to sway its huge column of a body back and forth. It was readying itself to land like a wrecking ball, effectively smashing the boat to smithereens.

“You give me no choice, serpent!” Tyr yelled. “This will cause you great pain. Just be thankful Thor is not here. If he was, you’d have three of these in you by now.”

As the beast came down, Tyr shot the spear.

Fen backed into me, pressing me against the wood, trying to protect my body as best he could.

The serpent let out a noise of distress that sounded like something in slow motion. It was a low eerie sound. But its body was already moving. It was coming down, no matter what. I wrapped my arms in Fen’s fur, Sam the only thing on my mind. Even if the rest of us managed to survive this, she would not. I cursed myself for bringing her along and putting her in the kind of danger that would get her killed.

As the giant head of the serpent was about to crush us to pieces, the boat blinked out of existence.

When we popped back, it was dark, and we were on a small river, with high fjords running on either side.

I was screaming.

I hadn’t realized I’d been screaming.

It took me a moment to get a hold of myself, my breath coming quickly, hyperventilation a real possibility. Fen, in the meantime, shifted back to his human form smoothly. He appeared normal, like nothing had changed. Except his hair was wet.

He gathered me in his arms, and I went willingly, locking my hands around his neck, choking back sniffles from the ordeal, pressing my face into his shoulder.

Tyr cleared his throat from beside us. “I’m going to go figure out where we are and see about the human.”

As he turned to leave, Fen said, “We are in Jotunheim.”

“How do you know that?” I said, my face muffled in his jacket, my body sagging with relief. I was tired. I could sleep for a week.

“The air here has a particular scent, as do all the realms. But we can’t linger. The giants who live in these lands are dangerous.”

“More dangerous than the gigantic sea serpent hell-bent on killing us with its tractor-sized head?”

“Everything is gigantic here, even the rodents.”

I shivered. He rubbed my back, leaning down to kiss my neck. “We must get you to Yggdrasil soon,” he whispered. “You must feed from the tree. You are depleting too quickly.”

“I need to see about Sam first,” I told him. “I can’t believe we put her in that much danger. She could’ve died.” I pulled back to see Fen smiling. “What are you smiling about? This is not funny.”

“Your friend is stronger than you think.”

32

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“A
re you kidding me?” Sam’s face could not have been more incredulous if we’d told her she was going to sprout wings and become a fairy. “I have Asgard blood running through my veins? How do you know for sure? That’s freakin’ awesome!”

“When I was in my wolf form, I scented you,” Fen replied. “There’s not really anything that can be kept from me when I’m in that state.”

We all sat on ledges and crates on the back of the boat, discussing our next plan of attack, the moonlight bright enough to see. In fact, it was so bright it was almost like the sun. Sam sat up straighter, the bag of ice she’d been holding to her head falling to her lap. She ignored it. “I’ve never known my father. He skipped out before I was born. It’s kind of weird that I met Phoebe pretty much on her first day in New York. What are the odds two gals with Asgard blood would meet up in the shoe department at Macy’s?”

Fen shook his head. My head rested on his shoulder, his hand on my thigh. Energy leaped between us, helping me cope with everything that had happened. “There are no chances. You were sent to interact with Phoebe in some way. The reason why is just not clear to us yet. Your blood is diluted. If your father left before you were born, it is he who likely hails from Asgard, but he is no god.”

“Oh well. You win some, you lose some,” Sam countered, still seemingly happy with the news. “This is mind-blowing. So, I’m someone’s pawn? How did they control me and make me work at Macy’s? Mind games? Weird Asgardian sorcery?”

“No, nothing like that,” Tyr answered, his mouth quirking slightly. The boat was in desperate need of repair, and since we had arrived in Jotunheim, he’d been back and forth trying to put things back to rights. It was a losing battle. At this point, the boat was being held together by a few nails and sheer determination. “Who got you the job?”

“Um”—Sam bit her lip—“it was my uncle Marty. He’s not really my uncle by blood, he’s just a good friend of my mom’s. He’s an ad exec who did some work for Macy’s. He called me and said he heard Macy’s was hiring. I didn’t even have to interview. The money was better than what I was making before at a small boutique, so I took it.”

“Was Phoebe already working there?” Tyr asked, picking up a hammer.

We glanced at each other. “We started the same day,” I said. “But I got the job while I was still in Wisconsin. I applied over the internet a few months before I moved to New York.”

“So, my pseudo-uncle Marty is from Asgard?” Sam asked. “Wow. He seems so ridiculously…normal.”

“Not necessarily,” Fen said. “He could’ve been influenced by another. Gods do their work subtly. There are enough agents of Asgard in Midgard at any given time to get most any job done. Someone could’ve planted information for your uncle Marty to find, then pass on to you.”

“What does having Asgard blood mean,
exactly
?” Sam asked. “I’m thinking superhero with a side of badass.”

Tyr paced over to a broken board, the boat rocking as he shifted his weight. “It means you’re stronger than a human, more resilient, and you may possess some hidden talents depending on who your parents are.” He nailed it back up.

“
Hm
,” Sam said. “I’ll take it. Maybe my hidden talent is dancing. I can rock out some mean moves.”

“No.” I chuckled. “Your talent is your huge, gigantic brain. You can remember anything. You’re like a human dictionary. It’s amazing.”

“Ah-ah.” Sam stuck her finger in the air. “You mean an Asgardian dictionary. You know, because if my brain is half Asgardian, then it’s not totally human. Maybe that makes me a Humgard? Or an Asgan?”

“Stop,” I laughed, “I can’t take your unbridled happiness any longer.”

She wasn’t daunted. “I’m going to start working on my brain-to-brain communication capacity. BBCC for short. If my brain is big and magical, I should be able to figure out how to do it.”

“Is that a real thing?” I asked.

“Nope, I just made it up.” She giggled while pushing her fingers against her temples and closing her eyes. “But I’m planning on perfecting it nonetheless.”

Tyr picked up some errant pieces of wood off the floor. “Our father was likely involved with making sure you met Phoebe. He wants to keep her safe at all costs. He will have the answers you’re searching for.”

Sam’s eyes flew open, and her mouth fell into a perfect O. “Odin? He knows I exist? Whoa. I don’t even know how to handle that news.”

“Not freakier than finding out he might be your father,” I commented, yawning. I was so sleepy. Fen was right. I needed food. My energy level was sapped.

“You’re right,” Sam said, “you win. That’s the ultimate mind-freak.”

Fen shifted in his seat so I had more room, and I snuggled in. He addressed Tyr. “We need to get this boat to New Mexico as soon as possible. That’s where the Valkyrie stronghold is located and where we’ll find Yggdrasil.”

Tyr scratched under his collar. He’d donned a blue plaid shirt, but at least this one was clean. “New Mexico is arid, if I recall correctly. There are no large bodies of water there. We might have to dock somewhere and arrive another way.”

“The San Juan River runs through a big portion of the state,” Sam piped in. “That’s big enough for a boat this size.” She looked ridiculously cute with her tousled hair and sailboat jammies, which were a little torn from all the activity, but still holding up. We were lucky to have her smarts with us. Now we possibly knew the reason why. It was a crushing relief to know she was tougher than any human and couldn’t be hurt as easily.

Tyr nodded, his mouth going up in a thoughtful expression. “We can try to land there, but it will be hard to pick the right place, since, as you say, the river traverses a big expanse. Valkyries have always had a stronghold on Midgard, but they keep the location secret. We might end up too far away, and it’s harder to do small jumps if we don’t get the location right the first time.” He glanced around him, his face pensive as he assessed the vessel that was his home. “This boat only has one or two more jumps in her before she dies completely. We’ll be lucky to get back to Midgard in one piece. I called her back before she was ready.” He stroked the wood frame next to him with genuine caring in his voice. “She’s been my steady rock for a long time. It will be hard to let her go.”

I glanced around at the rotting wood and damaged hull, the holes, and the rust. I didn’t feel quite so attached, but I did feel thankful the boat had done its job delivering us from harm. “Can’t you have her repaired?” I asked. “Take her someplace to have someone rebuild the entire thing?”

He shook his head. “No can do. Her magic resides in the very boards that house her. She’s one of a kind, a brilliantly cobbled together piece of magic from various different elements. She’s been running hard for a thousand years. Unfortunately, time takes its toll on most things, even magical ones.”

“A thousand years?” I gasped, glancing around again, this time making it a point to be more appreciative of what the poor boat had gone through. No wonder it looked so dated. “Well, I hope she can get us back to Midgard. How soon can we leave?”