Page 31 of Soul of Shadow
“What is what you’re talking about?” Elias peered around, as if he couldn’t see it.
“Thehuge goddamned reindeerstanding behind me,” she hissed loudly, causing a few passersby to stop walking and shoot her confused looks. They looked where she was pointing and no doubt saw nothing but air.
Elias shrugged apologetically and whispered to them, “She’s off her meds this week.”
Charlie advanced on him. “You listen to me, Elias Everhart.”She waved a finger in his face, chasing him backward across the lawn. “I’m not an angry person. I don’t get mad easily. But I have had it up to here with your games. You and I don’t have to be friends, but if you want my help finding the creature carving up those trees, you can’t just hang me out to dry like this.” She advanced even further, putting her face right into his and lowered her voice to a threatening hiss. “If you don’t start explaining all this shit I’m seeing now, I am going to lose mygoddammned mind.”
By the time she finished her lecture, she had stalked Elias right up to the Ledge. His back pressed to the hard bricks, eyes wide as he stared down at her as she blocked him in like a professional hockey goalie. She drew too close, her chest brushing up against his torso, feeling the intense heat radiating from his body, but she refused to back away. She kept her eyes locked on his, face screwed as tight and menacing as possible—no easy feat, when he towered at least a foot over her.
For several seconds, they stared at each other. His eyes searched her face as if shocked, as if genuinely uncertain as to what she might do next.
Then, as if making a decision, he said, “Hel is real, you know.”
This took Charlie aback. Her finger lowered from his face. “What?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t move, didn’t try to slide out from her measly attempt at caging him in. “Helheim, we call it. The realm of the undead. Overseen by Hel, daughter of Loki.”
There.Confirmation of what she’d read online the night before. Now they were getting somewhere. “Does this mean that you’ll—”
“Yes,” said Elias. “I’ll teach you what I know.”
“Is this a trick?”
“No trick. I’ll take you into the forest. Nature is where Asgard’s magic is strongest, which means it’s also where you can learn the most. And”—it looked as if it pained him to say it—“you’re right. I do owe you more information, especially if you’re going to be of any use to me in this investigation. But not here. Not in public.”
“When?”
“After school. Come back to the house where we were last night, and I’ll show you around from there.”
A little squeak sounded behind her, and the gnome emerged from her backpack, having apparently just woken up from a morning nap.
Elias’s eyes lit up. He tilted his head, looking down at the creature on her shoulder. “Well, hello there, little guy.” He reached up, brushing two fingers down the gnome’s beard. “It appears avättehas found you.”
She lowered her arm all the way. “A what?”
“A vätte. Clever little things,” he said. “They’re drawn to power and bravery.”
She snorted. “It must have stumbled into the wrong bedroom, then.”
He tilted his head, dark hair spilling over one eye. He studied Charlie for a long moment, looking at her as if he were able to see into her mind. Charlie squirmed beneath his gaze.
“You underestimate your own abilities,” he said at last.
“Right,” she said. “Because a human can measure up to a night mare.”
“Have you never heard of the Valkyries?”
Charlie considered the question. The termdidsound familiar. It made her think of Wonder Woman–like figures, with statuesque beauty and superhuman strength. “I think I have,” she said at last.
“No doubt a watered-down version of the truth.” Elias glanced over her shoulder, probably checking to ensure no one was within hearing distance. “Valkyries are human women born to human parents, blessed with supernatural gifts by Odin in exchange for their service to him.”
“So, they’re like you?”
Elias laughed harshly. “No. They’re not like me.”
Charlie studied him for a few moments. “Will you teach me how to protect myself, too? Because I am not cool with the giant wolf I saw prowling down my block last night.”
Elias’s gaze sharpened. “What giant wolf?”
