Page 6 of Baldr's Secret Mate

“Don’t you remember what happened last time?” I called out into the haze. “If you hurt me, my magic will rebound on you again and you might not survive it this time.”

“I won’t be the one hurting you,” he growled back from somewhere to my left. “But you’re welcome to retaliate against the grenade all you want.”

Another pin struck the floor, and I knew I only had a second to act. Without the time to think about it, I chose to dive to the right. However, no sooner had I hit the ground than Iheard the grenade land only a few feet away. I only had enough time to curl myself into a ball before it went off.

All sound ceased the moment it exploded, replaced by a high-pitched whine that blocked out everything else. The concussive wave hit me first, pushing me across the floor. It wasn’t until it fell away that I realized how much pain I was in. Little pinpricks of heat alit all over my body. I reached back and ran my hand over my side. It came back warm, wet, and covered in blood. And yet, even though Tyr had been the one to throw the grenade, my magic didn’t rebound.

When the high-pitched whine began to ebb, it was replaced by Tyr’s maniacal laughter filling the room.

“That’s what I thought, witch!” he cackled. “Your protection doesn’t extend to inanimate objects. Or maybe it only activates by proximity. Either way, now I know you can be killed.” I could hear the sneer in his voice. “You’ll be the first to go in your traitorous little family.”

He was trying to taunt me, but I wasn’t going to fall for it. The moment I spoke, he’d know where I was. But I didn’t care about his petty threats because his boots were crunching against the debris on the floor as he searched for me and that told me everything I needed to know.

Drawing up my power, I tasted the runes for fire and burning on my tongue, the metallic tang almost like hot iron. Reaching my hand out in the direction of the sound, a tiny red beam shot from the end of my finger. It struck the floor a few feet away, exploding into a ball of flame that filled the room with a sudden flash of heat.

Tyr cried out in pain, his figure silhouetted against the flames. From the looks of it, I’d only caught him on his right side. My aim, unfortunately, was a little off when I had nothing to go on but my ears. Still, it was enough of a distraction to put him onthe defensive for a moment. That gave me time to get back to my feet and scramble away from him.

I’d just made it to the other side of the room, intending to hide just beyond the door, when I ran face first into someone and both of us toppled to the floor. I landed on my ass, a bruise forming the moment I made impact. Pain shot through me, but I had too much adrenaline in my system to pay much attention to it. Before I could comprehend what had happened, a familiar voice spoke.

“B-Baldr?”

I looked up, seeing that long dark hair and those brown eyes I knew so well. “Loki?”

I wanted to ask him what he was doing there and why Heimdall came skidding into the hallway behind him, a look of concern on his face. But I already knew the answer to both. He’d switched sides. Maybe he wasn’t loyal to Tyr, but he had shown him how to get into the building. Of that, my visions were certain.

“Why Loki?” I barked, giving him the most venomous look I could muster. “Why did you let that crazy asshole into the resort?”

But my brother just stared at me, his jaw flexing and his mouth open, by no sound coming out. The look in his eyes was one I’d seen before. In fact it was the same one he wore the day we found out our father had been killed by Tyr. It was fear.

“Tell him Loki,” Tyr laughed from behind me. “Tell him how you sold out your pack and joined me. Tell him how you not only showed me the way into the resort, but how to cripple it so they would never recover. Tell your own brother how you intend to take his pack down so we can finally be reunited as one true pack once more.”

Again, Loki didn’t speak. He didn’t even look up at Tyr. Instead, he just stared at me, his gaze fixed on mine. Powersurged through me as I cast a familiar spell linking Loki’s mind to mine.

“Tell me,” I growled through our connection. “Have you truly betrayed us?”

Loki flinched in front of me, but he made no motion for his head. Instead he narrowed his eyes, fixing them on me.

“Just think and I will hear it,” I said, knowing we were running out of time.

“I left something for you at the hot spring we used to go to as boys,” he said, his thoughts loud and full of fear. “It’s under the big rock by the tree.”

And just like that, our connection broke.

“I have nothing to say to you,” Loki snapped, pushing himself to his feet. The fear in his eyes was gone, replaced by nothing but malice. “You and Thor know what you’ve done and you’ll pay the price for it. Either turn over the Hati pack to us or be destroyed. Those are your choices.”

Behind him Heimdall forced an expression of fury, but it was only half-hearted. I found myself hesitating for what to say. In the past few seconds I’d received so much conflicting information that I wasn’t sure which way to turn. And it was just enough to distract me from another grenade pin hitting the floor. In fact, I didn’t know one had been tossed until it landed against a wall only a few feet away.

“Look out!” Loki shouted.

His hand grabbed mine, yanking me toward him. He wrapped his arms around me and turned his back to the grenade, shielding me with his body just as the explosion rocked the corridor.

Both of us were thrown off our feet. We hit the cold hard ground once more, surrounded by that awful ringing noise that seemed to swallow up the entire world. The force of the blast had stunned me, but only for a second. But when I tried to move, Irealized Loki was still on top of me. Reaching up to move him out of the way, my hands found him warm and slick to the touch. It took me a moment to realize he was covered in blood.

He’d taken the blast to protect me.

“Loki!” Heimdall screamed behind us. It was the first noise I heard after the blast, although my ears were still ringing. “Loki! Wake up!”

Heimdall was already at my side, pulling Loki off of me and into his arms. He stared down at the limp man, his eyes filling with tears in an instant. The moment I saw that, there was no longer any doubt in my mind that they were mates. Heimdall’s gaze snapped up in the direction of his father, but it was too dusty to see much of anything.

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