The All-Father appeared. Only for a blink of the eye, but long enough to cause me to squint and for Sal to let out a small yip.
The elf standing next to the door leading into his Second’s domain was still Arne Odinsson. Still the khaki-wearing semi-retired husband of Alfheim’s mayor. Still the big but balding glamour he wore when out and about. He was also King Odinsson, the elf with the notched ear and the lynx for a pet. He was all versions of the man who called me “son.”
But he was also Magic. He was the personification of the sacrifice that had driven his god to hang from Yggdrasil in search of wisdom. He gave and he protected and he stood between the worst of the world and his children.
And then, like the flash from the folding magic, it was gone.
“Magnus…” he said.
The other elf stood perfectly still and spoke quietly but with great force. “You promised, Odinsson. You told us when we left our enclaves that this new land would bring us a new way. That we had nothing to fear.”
Arne walked toward Magnus. “I still hold that promise, my brother.” He glanced at me as he moved by and gave my shoulder a quick squeeze.
Ellie stared through the windshield as if the moment’s display had frightened her so much she wanted to hide.
Arne gripped Magnus’s shoulders. “You don’t know what happened during the run.” He glanced back at me. “What was revealed to Dagrun.”
He meant Ellie’s photos. The ones that showed conclusively that St. Martin’s magic was wolf magic.
Magnus did not move. “I drove into Alfheim at the height of the moon last night. I smelled all the magicks on the blizzard winds,” he said. “You said the concealment enchantments would do their job.”
Magnus knew about Ellie’s concealments? I opened my mouth but once again, nothing came out.
Not from me.
Sal burst out with how she thought I was enthralled by a so-called helpful fae magic that had also helped her in Vampland. We all needed to be careful.
The two elves turned toward me. “What did you say, Salvation?” Arne said.
The helpful fae magic was in my truck. She had an artifact. I kept telling Salvation that I was in a relationship with the magic but she was not convinced.
“Is this true, Frank?” Arne asked.
“I…” Nothing would come out.
Sal had noticed my inability to speak the name of the tentatively helpful magic in the presence of elves. Which meant I had to be enthralled.
Magnus stared at Arne again. “The enchantments are in place to protect us.” He said his words slowly and with more than a little threat in them.
Ellie said she thought they knew about her.
No no no, I thought. The elves had always been good about taking in strays. They took me in. But maybe a fae-born seer was too much fae. Or too much witch. And if they learned who her mother was…
I stepped back from the two elves.
They were talking about promises and dangers they’d never deemed worthy of sharing with me. Dangers they considered concealed. A danger behind concealment enchantments.
Was this what Ed felt? Powerless in the face of forces over which he had no control? As sheriff, if anyone was supposed to have a handle on how to figure out and navigate forces, it was Ed. Until they came for his family.
All this damned well better not come for Ellie.
I had no idea at all if she was in harm’s way. No idea if Ed’s kids were truly in harm’s way, either. But the chance was there, and more real than the agitation and anxiety the chaos of this moment generated in my buzzing senses.
Calm was not the way of magic. You could carve out calm moments, but soon enough nature would rail against you again in tooth and claw, blood and bone. The chance it had just come for Ellie was too much.
I dropped Sal onto the cleared walk in front of the barn door. She clanked against the concrete, bounced twice, and landed on her side at Arne’s feet.
Surprise ricocheted from her to Arne, and back, as if she’d figured out what she’d just done.
“That fae magic helped you, Salvation,” I said.
Friend… Sal pushed out as if she was running the numbers and picking pluses and minuses.
Magnus blinked. His lips rounded, then he let out a loud burst of laughter. “Friend? Oh, you sweet axe, you.”
Arne shot him a look that said pure Silence!
Here I was in the middle of a magical storm centered around complicated magic the elves believed was not my business.
My girlfriend was my business.
I looked back at the truck and Ellie waiting in the passenger seat. All the seismic shifting that was happening here wasn’t just the argument between Arne and Magnus. It was also my priorities.
The Elf King of Alfheim leaned closer to Magnus. “We will speak inside.”
“I’m leaving,” I said.
Surprise danced across Arne’s face. It jumped to Magnus, who blinked.
There was no leaving this behind, no matter how my priorities might change. But until then, I saw no real reason to put myself or Ellie in the path of the magic.
But… rolled from Sal.
I ignored her and turned toward the truck.
The wind picked up and a resurgence of winter cold slapped me across the face. Or perhaps it was a different cold I felt. Either way, I’d had enough of it for the morning.
Chapter 11
Ellie stared through Bloodyhood’s windshield, wide-eyed and clutching her camera to her belly, as if she thought Arne and Magnus were going to nuke each other and spread a magical Armageddon across the entire of the state of
