“Yes.”
Jeff growled and turned. He grabbed Jamie’s hand and pulled her from the couch, ignoring her painful moan. “That’s it. I’m done. We’re leaving.”
A deep, multi-choral voice sounded from behind them. It was Travis, but echoed and magnified to be nearly unbearable. “Let her go, Jeff.”
Jamie looked back and gasped. Travis was glowing. Not turn-the-lights-out-and-you-can-barely-see-by-it type glowing, either. She could hardly make out his features in the painfully blinding light he exuded.
She pulled free of Jeff’s hold and waved her hands in front of her in an instinctive pattern, willing the light to die down a little. To her utter shock Travis’s glow dimmed.
“Holy fuck. Where’d you learn to do that?” The stunned look on Logan’s face would have been priceless at any other time.
“Learn what?”
Travis smiled and opened his eyes. They were completely white, the blue she’d come to know and love completely covered over. They glowed with the same intensity as his body had earlier, making it nearly impossible to stare into them. “It is instinctive to you. You are your father’s daughter.”
“Her father isn’t Jotun.”
Travis smiled enigmatically. “Ask your questions, Jamie.”
Where do I start? “What’s a Jotun?”
“Mistakenly called giants by humans, they are a race of elementals that existed in this world long before humans walked it. Fire, Ice, Light and Dark, they assisted in the creation of mankind and crafted some of the greatest artifacts ever wielded by the gods.”
“Light and Dark?”
Travis ignored Logan’s question. It was as if… “Light and Dark?”
“The Jotuns of Light and Dark you know as Alfar and Dvergar, or Lios Alfar and Dökk Alfar.”
“Light elves and dark elves?”
He ignored Jordan’s question, his unseeing gaze focused on Jamie.
She stepped closer to him, fascinated now that her eyes weren’t watering. It was as if he couldn’t even hear anyone other than her and Jeff. “Light elves and dark elves?”
“That is one way they are described.” His hand reached out and cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking the cheekbone in a soft caress. His gaze was still directed over her head, but the expression on his face was one of fierce tenderness.
He can’t really see me. “Are you really Tyr?”
Travis nodded once. “Yes.”
She went with her gut. “You’re Lios Alfar, aren’t you?”
He closed his eyes briefly. “Yes, and no.”
“What does that mean?”
“I was the leader of the Vanir, who were once the gods of the Jotun.”
“Whoa.” Magnus was watching them with a dazed expression. Morgan didn’t look much better.
Logan looked positively sick. “Guess he’s not related to the Old Man, then.”
“Jamie.” Travis’s hand moved and buried itself in her hair, his voice still otherworldly but full of yearning. His head tilted down, his broad, powerful shoulders moving over her protectively. The stroke of his fingers against her scalp was intoxicating. She closed her eyes, unconsciously leaning into him, jumping slightly when their bodies touched.
“Is Ragnarrok coming?”
Ragnarrok was the end of the world and the beginning of paradise, at least in Norse mythology. Jamie didn’t know much about it other than most of the gods died and Baldur wound up ruling paradise, something that would please her sister but scared Jamie to death. Jamie started as Jeff asked his question, the seriousness of his voice registering. Travis stiffened against her.
“Yes, and no.”
“Explain it.” Jeff’s voice was hard.
Travis tilted his head, frowning.
Jamie pulled back slightly, surprised when Travis’s hand tightened in her hair. She eased back into his hold and his fingers relaxed. “What did you mean when you said yes and no?”
“The Ragnarrok you’ve heard of is part fiction, part fact. This is the prophecy most people know:
“High blows Heimdallr, the horn is aloft.
Odin communes with Mimir’s head.
Trembles Yggdrasill’s towering Ash.
The old tree wails when the Ettin is loosed.
“What of the Aesir? What of the Elf-folk?
All Jötunheim echoes, the Aesir are at council.
The dwarves are groaning before their stone doors, Wise in rock-walls; wit ye yet, or what?
“Hrymr sails from the east, the sea floods onward.
The monstrous Beast twists in mighty wrath.
The Snake beats the waves, the Eagle is screaming.
The gold-neb tears corpses, Naglfar is loosed.
“From the east sails the keel; come now Múspell’s folk
Over the sea-waves, and Loki steereth.
There are the warlocks all with the Wolf, With them is the brother of Býleistr faring.
“Surtr fares from southward with switch-eating flame.
On his sword shimmers the sun of the war-gods.
The rocks are falling, and fiends are reeling, Heroes tread Hel-way, heaven is cloven.
“Then to the Goddess a second grief cometh, When Odin fares to fight with the Wolf, And Beli’s slayer, the bright god, with Surtr.
There must fall Frigg’s beloved.
“Odin’s son goeth to strife with the Wolf, Vídarr, speeding to meet the slaughter-beast.
The sword in his hand to the heart he thrusteth
Of the fiend’s offspring; avenged is his Father.
“Now goeth Hlödyn’s glorious son
Not in flight from the Serpent, of fear unheeding.
All the earth's offspring must empty the homesteads, When furiously smiteth Midgard’s defender.
“The sun shall be darkened, earth sinks in the sea,—
Glide from the heaven the glittering stars.
Smoke-reek rages and reddening fire:
The high heat licks against heaven itself.”
“Or so says the Poetic Edda. I’m not certain how much is fact, and how much fiction. What I do know is, Odin was terrified enough to have Fenris and Loki chained, Hel banished, Jörmungandr tossed into the sea, and Baldur killed. None of the living Vanir or Aesir know the truth of the prophecy, as it was Odin who delivered it to us.”
“Wait a minute.” Jeff stepped up next to Travis, his gaze locked on the man’s face. “Wouldn’t killing Baldur be like one of those self-fulfilling prophecies? If one of the signs of Ragnarrok is Baldur’s death, what does killing him accomplish other than to start the whole thing?”
“Baldur and Hodr are meant to rule, with Baldur ascendant, over the remaining Aesir. If Baldur is to rule, that means that Odin is dead. All of the gods loved Baldur, much more so than Odin. So he came up with a plan whereby Baldur would die. How he planned on keeping him from returning, I do not know. It is possible part of the true prophecy was Baldur’s death, but with a different ending.”
“So you think he was motivated by fear and jealousy?”
“I believe so. He might have thought he could stop Ragnarrok and maintain his place.”
“Wait.” Jeff shook his head quickly, like he was shaking something off. “Weren’t you there when Loki supposedly killed Baldur? I mean, you’re the God of Justice, right? If everything you’re telling us is true, then isn’t that the ultimate injustice?”