Mist

Mist stared at Vali. “Did you just say—”

“He did it,” Vali said, pointing his chin toward the corner of the room. Dainn stood there very quietly, his face as expressionless as ever but haggard and shadowed with exhaustion.

“How?” she asked.

“Magic,” Vali said. “Not sure exactly what . . . like a combination of Galdr and elf-magic. Pretty impressive, too. Got them all fighting each other and hardly had to lift a finger.”

Impressive was scarcely the word for it. Mist had barely managed to hold off a dozen Jotunar out for blood, and then only for a few minutes when she’d tried shaping the Battle-Runes in her mind.

Even Vidarr might have found himself hard-pressed to fight them all at once. But Dainn—

“I think he was trying to get through to you when the Jotunar attacked him,” Vali said, “but they were Hell- bent on killing him.” Mist felt her face go hot. She’d branded Dainn a coward without bothering to learn the whole truth.

But he’d lied to her and withheld a couple of pretty vital facts that changed the meaning of everything he’d ever told her. He’d walked into her mind and said that Freya was her mother, right in the middle of a battle for her life.

She still couldn’t believe it. During her earliest childhood years in Asgard, believing that her late father was a prince of Midgard, she’d had only the vaguest memories of the woman who had given her birth. Memories that had quickly faded once her destiny had been made clear to her. She had stopped wondering about her parents long before she had been given the gift of immortality and made a Chooser of the Slain.

A Valkyrie who had never really been mortal at all. Half- goddess, half-Jotunn. Dainn had said he’d come to San Francisco because Freya had sensed Gungnir. Mist no longer believed that was the whole story. For a few moments, she had felt Freya, and Freya’s power, as if she had become the goddess herself.

Had she? Had Freya somehow entered her mind the way Dainn had done? How had the Lady come to her from the Aesir’s Shadow- Realm now, when, according to Dainn, Mist wasn’t capable of hearing her?

Because that was also a lie. Mist had been played like a puppet by three immortals in less than half a day, and she didn’t like it. Not one little bit.

She walked slowly over to Dainn. “Why?” she asked. “Why did you keep it from me?”

He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “I did not think it would be advisable to tell you so soon. Not until you were prepared to trust me.”

“Trust? That’s a good one.” She pulled her hand over her hair.

“Loki seems to be the only one who knows anything around here.

He knew about you, or at least that the Aesir had sent an elf to cause trouble for him, but until we showed up in Asbrew he thought Hrimgrimir had killed the gods’ agent. He didn’t seem too concerned that the ’elf ’ was still alive, since you’d apparently abandoned me.”

Dainn flicked a glance at her face. “He did not know my name?”

“Not until you . . . did whatever you did in my mind. I think he heard you then.” She brushed her temple with her fingertips, still feeling Dainn’s voice echoing inside her skull. “How did you do it?

You said you could only touch the surface.”

“It did not involve anything more than that,” he said. “I was not certain I would succeed, but it had to be attempted.”

“It didn’t exactly succeed. I’m alive, but he took Gungnir.” She tried to shake off a sudden wave of despair. “Why did you ask if Loki knew your name?”

He looked away again. “We met in Asgard,” he said. “When?”

“It is scarcely uncommon for elves and Aesir to meet there, and Loki always made free of Valhalla.”

“Did you have some kind of quarrel?”

“As a rule, Alfar prefer to avoid quarrels.”

You’ve got to be kidding, she thought. She and Dainn had been at daggers drawn ever since they’d met.

“He was more than just surprised when he found out you were here,” she said. She jerked her head toward the pile of Jotunar. “I wondered before if you’re a lot more dangerous than you look. Loki seemed to think so, too.”

Dainn’s expression shifted, twisting out of its usual handsome lines. There was no mistaking the hatred in it. “What I can do is nothing to his magic,” he said.

“Well, I think it’s pretty clear that whatever happened between the two of you, it ended badly,” she said, watching him carefully.

“And no matter what you elves claim, you can still feel anger and hatred. I’ve seen it in your eyes before. You’re no different from the rest of us.”

“I am different,” he said, looking away, “but not in the manner you suppose. Once I could have done him harm. I am no longer capable of it.”

“Apparently he doesn’t know that.” Mist narrowed her eyes. “By the way, where were you when I was fighting the Jotunar? I went into this blind because you didn’t get around to telling me some thing that could have made all the difference.”

“I was attempting to contact Freya,” he said.

“Did you succeed? Did she find a way to act in this world after all?”

“I don’t understand what you—”

“Was that me in there fighting Loki, or was it my mother?” Genuine shock froze his face. “What are you saying?” She rapped her knuckles against her skull. “Didn’t you stick around to see how things were going to come out after you shared the big secret? Didn’t you hear Loki call Freya’s name at the end?

Who was he talking to?”

“I was not able to reach Freya. You were there. She was not.”

“ ‘Loki fears you because he fears the Lady,’ ” she said, quoting him. “ ’Freya is the key.’ And then I wasn’t myself anymore.”

“You are more yourself now than you have ever been.”

“Do you think this is funny?” she demanded. “First I find out a goddess who never so much as spoke to me in Asgard is my mother, you tell me I can’t talk to her myself, and then suddenly I’ve got some kind of connection with her I can’t control.” She felt her chest tighten and took in a quick, sharp breath. “What did you do?”

“I did nothing. You drew upon the power that was already hidden within you.”

“By fighting Loki in a way I never even would have considered before?” Killing him with love, she thought, with a shudder of disgust. “You saw it, didn’t you? Why did just knowing who I was change me so much?”

“Your instinct for survival is powerful,” he said, still looking more than a little shaken. “You found a part of Freya within yourself and made it real.”

“Completely unconscious of what I was doing?”

“Were you ever truly unconscious?”

Once again he was evading her real question, but since she hardly knew how to ask it, she couldn’t blame anyone but herself. “You’re a real bastard, you know that?”

“Is it another apology you seek?”

“I don’t want your apology. I want you to stop lying to me.” His gaze, deeply shadowed, met hers again. “Since you don’t trust me, how can you be sure I will tell you the truth now?” Mist grabbed the front of Dainn’s barely recognizable shirt and pulled it close around his neck.

“I’ll know,” she said.

She was bluffing, but she sensed that Dainn took her threat seriously. Maybe he believed her relationship with Freya, whatever the Hel it was, gave her the ability to sift truth from deception. Maybe it was even true.

“What do you wish to know?” he asked softly.

She let him go. “The giants knew I was half Jotunn, and Hrimgrimir called me ‘Sow’s bitch,’ even though I served Odin. Loki must have known I was Freya’s daughter all this time, just like you did.”

“He clearly had no idea of your abilities.”

“Obviously, since he didn’t seem to worry about my finding out who he was when he lived with me. But why should he wait until we were facing each other here in Asbrew before he tried to get me on his side? If he