Page 36 of Baldr's Secret Mate

“Three more questions child.”

The next question was a bit more on the personal side for Baldr, but I was more than happy to give it to him. I could feel his worry percolating in the back of his head and I knew it was important to him. Besides, if I were in his position, I’d want to ask the same thing.

“Is my mate’s brother Loki still alive?”

The spirit looked skyward, the glowing white eyes closing for a few seconds. When it finally returned its gaze to me it uttered a single word.

“Yes.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Baldr would be glad to hear that. And I was too. Now that he was my mate, his family was mine too. I wanted to meet them and spend time with them, not start our relationship with a funeral.

“Fourth question,” I began. “How do we stop Tyr?”

“The god of war has long since ceased to exist as I said, child.”

“No not that Tyr,” I replied. “The one from my home. Tyr of the Skoll pack, the one wreaking havoc in Fenris.”

The spirit paused for a long moment as if thinking. “This Tyr is already on the path to his own destruction. There is no need for you to stop him. He will be his own end. But, the future is unwritten and can still be changed.” The spirit nodded, agreeing with itself. “However, if you wish to stop him before his self-afflicted fate, you are plenty powerful enough to do it yourself.”

I froze in place as the spirit finished speaking. Baldr and I had hoped for a more concrete answer. And we certainly didn’t expect my magic to be the answer. But I still wanted to stop him before he hurt more people. He might destroy himself eventually, but how many innocent lives would be lost before that happened? I thought of how he’d treated me all those years inside the dome and I just couldn’t bear the idea of him doing that to anyone else.

“What is your final question, child?”

With a sigh, I knew I had to abandon our last question. Baldr wanted to know more about his mother and the protection magic she’d cast around him. He wanted to know how he could use it to destroy Tyr. But if I was the key to defeating him, then there was something else I needed to ask. I took a deep breath and hoped he’d forgive me.

“How do I access and control my power?” I asked, hoping the spirit would give me the answer Tyr and I had been searching for all those years.

However, the spirit simply smiled, the white glowing eyes crinkling at the edges.

“Practice,” it said.

I stared up at the creature that wore Baldr’s face. Dumbfounded.

“Is that it? That’s all you’re going to say?”

“No, no,” it replied, waggling a finger at me. “You’ve asked all your questions. Now I have one for you.” Suddenlythe spirit was in my face, its voice a full octave lower and reverberating in the cavern. “Tell me the name of my host!”

With a petty grin I reached out, placing my hand on Baldr’s forehead. “No.”

A quick swipe of my hand smeared the blood rune on Baldr’s forehead and the spirit let out a deep, guttural scream. His eyes flashed and went out, the mist stopped pouring from his mouth, and he fell to the ground in a heap before I could catch him.

And that, it seemed, was the end of Baldr’s spell.

Chapter Twenty: Baldr

Igasped as I came back to consciousness in a rush, my head pounding and my body aching as if I'd been hit by a truck. It took me a moment to get my bearings and realize I was still in the ruins. At first I was worried I was alone, but then with a sigh of relief, I realized Mist was kneeling beside me, his face etched with worry.

“Baldr? Are you okay?” he asked, helping me sit up.

I nodded, wincing at the movement. “Yeah, I think so. Just... disoriented.” I blinked, trying to clear the fog from my mind. “What happened? Did you get the answers we needed?”

Mist nodded, but there was hesitation in his eyes. “Mostly. We're in the ruins of Asgard, apparently. And we need to follow the river to its source to find something called the mouth of Fenrir to get home.”

“The mouth of Fenrir?” I repeated, frowning. “Fenrir has been chained or dead since the beginning of time. He was killed in Ragnarok with the rest of the gods.”

“That’s just what the spirit said,” Mist replied. “But now that you mention it, he also said all the gods ceased to exist long ago.”

“Alright…” I huffed. “What did he say about Loki?”

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