Page 27 of Soul of Shadow
At first, she didn’t see anything amiss. Her street corner was still her street corner. Yes, the moonlight was extra bright, as if it had passed through an amplifier. Yes, the tree outside her window now held fruits of every color, orange and red and blue and purple, when she was fairly certain it had been a plain old oak tree when she woke up that morning. Yes, exotic flowers now sprouted from the boxes under her windowsill. But at least there was no sword fight happening on the street corner. At least—
Something flickered at the edge of her vision.
She pulled the drapes back even farther, only to find a wolf the size of a minivan prowling down the street. Pitch-black, glowing red eyes, fangs the size of forearms and dripping with saliva.
Just… walking down her block.
Gasping, she yanked the drapes shut and sat back down.What the hellwasthat thing? Was that a normal occurrence for Elias? To see a car-size beast strolling around the street?
Her head fell into her hands. She clutched at her hair.Is this really happening? Is Elias telling the truth? That Norse mythology is real? That he’s a human turned demon? That Earth is Asgard, whatever the hell that means?It all felt like too much, too fanciful to be true, and yet what other explanation did she have for what was happening around her?
None. She had no other.
“This is real,” she whispered. “I haven’t lost my mind. This is really happening.”
She had to believe that. She had to believe what she was seeing, because the only other option was to check herself into the hospital for testing. And Lou wouldnotstand for her missing homecoming.
She exhaled and lifted her head. Right. So. If she was going to accept that Elias Everhart trulywasa mare, and that he had some devious plan involving her, then it would probably be prudent to do as much research on Norse mythology as possible. Figure out exactly what she was up against. Right?
She opened a new Google search and typed:
Mare, Nordic mythology
She clicked the top result, which led to a blog on different cultures’ mythology:
The mare (or mara) is a creature appearing in old European mythologies (Dutch, German, Scandinavian, and Polish, to name a few) that is believed to be the bringer of nightmares and sleep terrors. The mare takes various forms depending on the culture of origin, but it is almost universally depicted as a terrifying creature that sits on a sleeping person’s chest and gives them bad dreams.
The article featured pictures with artists’ renditions of the mare: a green, goblin-like creature; a pale, beautiful woman; an old woman with sunken eyes and white hair. No depiction looked anything like the shadow creature that Elias had become, but what did these artists know?
Charlie glanced at her phone, which she had set beside her laptop. Its screen was blank, free from any texts or missed calls, but she wouldn’t be surprised if it lit up any minute with a message from her group chat with Lou and Abigail. They were always talking—arguing, really—and the chat had been especially active in the last few days with the disappearances and discussion of their other, more pressing mission: finding dates to homecoming.
Charlie couldn’t help but roll her eyes when she thought about stressing over who to ask to homecoming. How ridiculous. How trivial, in the light of everything she could now see.
She longed to pick up the phone and call Lou. To tell her about what she had witnessed and ask for advice on what to do, what to believe. But she knew the deal she’d made with Elias. And more than anything else—more than homecoming, more than demons, more than myths and gods and devious plans—that deal was what mattered. Keeping her loved ones safe was what mattered.
She couldn’t lose anyone else.
15
Charlie woke before the sun. She went into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face, hoping to shock away the exhaustion that would surely settle there. She was running on about two hours of sleep, having spent the night alternating between reading up on Norse mythology and peeking outside her window to see if that beast had decided to turn back around and make her his midnight snack.
She had learned a lot, though. After scouring a dozen different websites, she could now name the seven principal Nordic gods by heart:
Odin: the god of all gods. Like Zeus, only Nordic.
Frigg: Odin’s wife and the queen of Asgard.
Thor: Charlie had thought this was just a character in the Marvel franchise. Tall, hot, held a big hammer? Apparently, the inspiration for the superhero had actually come from Norse folklore. Thor was Odin’s son, the protector of humanity, and the god of thunder.
Loki: another Marvel character pulled from Norse legend. This Loki had nothing to do with Tom Hiddleston and everything to do with wreaking havoc on the rest of the gods. Amischievous god who could shape-shift and turn into animals. Responsible for the death of Balder.
Balder: Odin’s lesser-known son. The paragon of beauty, kindness, and fairness. Somehow murdered with mistletoe.
Heimdall: keeper of the Bifrost bridge that connected the nine realms.
And last but not least, Hel: goddess of the underworld.
There was still so much to learn. And she had a plan for how to learn the rest—a plan that involved Elias Everhart.
