Page 37 of Baldr's Secret Mate

Mist smiled at that. “He’s alive.”

I felt my heart leap, a lightness coming back to me for a moment. It didn’t fix everything, but it was good to know my brother was still alive. That meant the Hati pack had someone on the inside looking out for us. His actions would save many lives, I was sure of it.

“And what about Tyr? Did he tell you how to stop him?”

That’s when Mist suddenly clammed up. Not only that, but he started glancing side to side. I felt a rush of nervous energy pulse through our bond and I had to grab his hand to steady myself. His emotions were so intense still thanks to the bond being so fresh. Not only that, but the turmoil bubbling inside him threatened those delicate walls around his magic.

“It’s alright,” I said, trying to calm him down. “Whatever the spirit said is fine. We can figure it out.”

“It said…” Mist paused, forcing himself to draw a shuddering breath. “He said Tyr would bring about his own destruction.”

I sighed. “Fuck. I already knew that.”

“You did?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I have visions, remember?”

“Oh. I didn’t realize you’d had one about him.”

“Several over the years, actually.” We were treading into dangerous territory, so I shifted the conversation back to the spirit. “Did it say anything else about Tyr?”

“Well… it said that there might be another way to stop him.”

“Which is?”

Mist took a long moment before speaking the words, his intense anxiety filtering through the bond. “He said I could stop him. With… With my magic.”

I stared at Mist for a long moment, trying to process what he had just said. The spirit had told him he could stop Tyr with his magic? That seemed like an impossibly dangerous suggestion. Mist's power was volatile and uncontrolled. Using it against Tyr could be catastrophic. Not to mention if he were to lose control, everyone within a mile radius or more could be affected. Asking him to use his magic against Tyr was like asking someone to drop an atomic bomb on Fenris.

“Mist,” I said carefully, “I don't think that's a good idea. Your magic is-”

“Dangerous, I know,” he cut me off, frustration evident in his voice. “But what if it's the only way? You saw what Tyr is capable of. He'll hurt more people if we don't stop him. I can’t let him hurt people like he hurt me…”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “I understand why you want to use your power against him. But you don't have control over it yet. It could backfire horribly.”

“The spirit said I just need to practice.”

That caught my attention. “It offered that information freely?”

Mist shifted nervously, his gaze dropping to the floor. “N-No. I had to use the last question for it. I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t think it wasn’t important… but that meant I couldn’t ask about your mother’s protection spell.”

I nodded slowly, doing everything I could to stay calm. I wasn’t mad at him for asking. In fact, if I had been in his shoes, I would’ve done the same thing. However, without that last question, it was impossible to know how far I could push the spell protecting me. My thought had been to use it against Tyr,but I wanted some sort of guarantee that my plan would work. But now I’d never know.

“I understand,” I said carefully. “Did the spirit tell you how to practice your magic?”

He shook his head. “No. Just that I should.”

“Did it do anything else?”

“It asked for your name,” he replied. “Twice actually.”

I let out a long sigh. “That confirms my suspicions then. We definitely got some sort of trickster spirit. They’re fairly common, but I’d hoped we would get lucky. Whatever it was, it gave you as little information as possible on purpose to waste our time.” I shrugged, getting back to my feet and dusting the dirt off my blanket I’d fashioned into a sort of toga. “But at least we know it was telling the truth about Fenrir. That will be the way home.”

“It also said the portal is only for wolfkin,” Mist added. “And their mates. So I guess it’s a good thing we did… you know… what we did.”

I had to nod because he was right. At least that rash action on my part had an upside.

“Well,” I said, placing my hands on my hips. “We better find a way out of here and back to the river then. Unless the spirit told you a quicker way out.”

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