Shalendra’s steady gaze met Freyja’s. “While I should be furious with you, I am intelligent enough to realize why you did it. You may need counseling to help with your excessive snooping and meddling though,” she said with a smirk, blowing Fenrir a small kiss, and returned to her chair.
“Now,” she continued, “how do we figure out who’s stealing the spirits and, while you all have probably forgotten, and I have not, we still need to find Emil—” She threw a quick glance at her father. “Sorry—father’s brother and his wife.”
“There’s nowe, Shalendra,” Hel said in a tight voice. “I will not risk your life for anything. This is too dangerous.”
“But—”
Hel raised her hand to stop whatever her daughter was about to say. “No.” She shook her head, the perpetual cold surrounding her body and filling her mind. “No.”
Staring at Hel, Émilien laid his paw on their daughter’s forearm with a gentle squeeze. “There may be another way you can help, Shalendra. A way even your mother can’t refuse.”
“And what would that be?” Shalendra asked.
“As my little sister, you gathered a vast number of friends throughout Asgard, Midgard, and now Alfheimr. You have met many gods and goddesses from all pantheons during your young life. All I’m suggesting is that you continue the guise of my sister and talk to people. Learn whatever you can about anything pertaining to your mother, me, and the death realms. Someone somewhere knows something. I can guarantee that.”
He gently placed his long claw under her chin and lifted her sad face. “Do what you do best, my petite, and be a friend. Listen to their problems or whatever is going on. I promise you will discover what we need to know, so we can rescue the spirits, as well as my brother and his wife.”
“Émilien...” Hel’s voice trailed away, her expression a mixture of worry and irritation.
“She will be fine and is not without her own powers. Our girl is the best of us both. Thank the gods it wasn’t the other way around, or we would be in trouble. She can get even the most tight-lipped person to open up. I’ve never seen the like, Hel. She is also pretty good with disguises too. During the war—”
Hel’s heart stuttered “What war? You let her go into awar?”
“The war here on Midgard,” Shalendra said. “The same one Freyja created her army of Night Witches for. I was able to do a little spy work in the south of Spain. My contact was a double agent known as NAG and another known as the Queen of Hearts. Passing along information to them proved essential in stopping the attacks near Gibraltar, which controlled the Mediterranean and was the only shipping route to southern and Eastern Europe. By early 1944, this route was imperative for the Allied armies supply chain as they pushed the Nazis back toward Germany.”
Shalendra leaned forward, her elbows perched on her knees. “I amverygood at my job, and when my friend Soliana is with me, we are...formidable. I can do this—I can help you.Letme help you.”
Hel felt as if she had been backed into a corner with no escape in any direction. She hated being the center of attention, yet here she was, sitting here with three sets of eyes, four if she counted Fenrir’s heavy gaze boring into the back of her head. Her body flashed cold then hot and almost instantly back to freezing again. Her skin and head hurt as she rubbed her aching eyes with the heels of her hands before dropping them back to her lap.
Exhaling a long, drawn-out breath, she stared at Émilien, willing him to say something. Anything. He didn’t. Her ex-husband, who, on most days, she wanted to strangle, sat in front of her in silence. For the first time it seemed, he had nothing to say, and it was driving her crazy. She turned her gaze to her lovely daughter and swallowed. “Fine.” She exhaled. “I don’t have a right to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do.”
Fenrir growled. “Pity is unbecoming, Hel. A wise person once told me to stand tall and hold up my head. Show all who attack me that I am stronger than they are. It was the best advice I could have gotten because it saved me.Yousaved me, so stop feeling sorry for yourself and leave the past where it belongs. That’s not who you are today.”
All she could do was nod in silence, needing her brother’s strength more than she ever had. Worse, though, she wanted Émilien to enfold her into his embrace and never let her go. She was so very tired of being alone, and now, spending time with him again, even a short time, brought back all the anger and pain from their last days together. Even more importantly, she was rediscovering the love she had for him so long ago. Was it sustainable? Not likely.
Without thought, her gaze turned to him. Even as a wolf, he was a beautiful creature. As an elf lord, he had been exquisite. Her heart knew, though, once his brother was found and the death realms put back to rights, Émilien would not stick around. Not even for her, and it broke her heart.
No one but Fenrir, and maybe Baldr, knew her true self and not as others throughout her own pantheon called her behind her back. There were many names, but ice queen was the first and the worst. The first time she had heard it, she had been crushed. So, what did she do? She hardened the traitorous organ, and the names worsened.
This time, she decided to exploit that hard-earned ability, so she sat up a bit straighter. She had never had a parent who cared enough to guide her, so right here, right now, she was going to be that for her daughter.
“So, what should we do first?” Shalendra asked.
“What have you learned about your abilities? Has your...Émilien taught you to fight? Spells? Basic magic?” Hel asked, her eyes holding Shalendra’s.
“Living on Midgard has had its difficulties since humans aren’t supposed to know magic exists, but I’ve learned basic spells and have decent fighting skills, if I say so myself. I am very good at glamour and, like I said before, disguises are my specialty, although I’m still working on the male glamours. Those are harder because men are so different. I’m not normally a crude person, but human men take that to the extreme.”
“I agree,” Hel said, throwing a quick glance at Émilien, who sat quietly with a loud scowl on his face. “What else have you noticed you can do?” A flare of her daughter’s nostrils told her whatever the ability, she was reluctant to speak about it.
“Shalendra, you may not know me well, but I have thought about you every hour of every day of your life. I know I have not been there for you when you needed me to be, and I wouldn’t blame you if you resented me. I probably would if the tables were turned. For me to let you go and still be able to do my own job in all this, Ineedto know you can take care of yourself.”
Shalendra exhaled. “I’ve never said anything, but I can speak to most anything dead. It doesn’t matter the species. A few times, I even summoned a couple of demons, which was unnerving. Thankfully, I also returned them from wherever they’d been.” She faced her father. “That’s why the draugar unnerved me so much. For a moment, I thought they were here because of something I’d done.”
She raised her father’s paw and held it between her hands. “When I was much younger, I was curious about where you would disappear to—before you told me about the Shadow Lands, so, I hid in your office and when you transported, I tagged along. As far as I know, you never knew I was with you. At first, I was terrified, but I met several spirits who helped me return home. I’ve been able to transport there for some time now. The Phoenix taught me how to focus my magic, and the Sphinx pulled some of the best warriors throughout the Nine Worlds, living and dead, who gave me instruction on battle strategy and fighting techniques, so I think I have a solid base to stand on.”
“I’ll say,” Émilien mumbled. “Why did you never tell me? Better yet, why didn’t the Sphinx or the Phoenix? You were my responsibility, not theirs.”
“Would you deny others their ability to help when you have done that very thing for them?”