Matt stood beside the empty chair and looked at all of them. “We have our team, so now we need our stuff.”
“What stuff?” Reyna asked.
“Feathers, Hammer, shield,” Matt recited. He turned to Astrid. “Can you reach Odin?”
“I wish,” she said with a sigh. “He’s wandering around as usual. That’s why he sent me here. He’ll show up eventually, but until then you’re stuck with me. But I do know where we should start. Mjölnir. Our champion needs his Hammer.”
Matt blushed and shook his head. “We’re a team, Astrid.”
“Oh, I know. But the serpent is the big baddie in this fight, and you need to defeat it alone.” She gave a little laugh. “You’re the lead singer in this band, Matt. We’re the backup. Hopefully, really good backup, but still backup.”
Matt looked uncomfortable and opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything, Fen spoke up, “Pinkie here has a point. Might as well get Thorsen’s Hammer next.” He slouched back into the sofa then and folded his arms. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Excuse me?” Reyna said. “If this is your idea of planning, it’s a wonder you survived a minute.”
“What?” Fen drawled. “You and Ken have a better plan?”
“Who’s Ken?” Baldwin whispered.
“Hold on,” Matt said. “Reyna, are you objecting to going after the Hammer? Or are you objecting to focusing on me? Because I never said I was special or—”
“Chill, Thorsen.” Fen shook his head. “I was serious. You need the real Hammer. Your little whatsit is only good so long.”
“But do we know where Mjölnir is?” Laurie asked. “We do know where the shield is, so I say we get that first.” She looked at Astrid. “Unless you know where the Hammer is, since you suggested getting it…”
“I was hoping you guys did.” Astrid looked at Matt. “Did the Valkyries give you any clues? The Norns maybe?”
He shook his head.
“Can you contact them? Ask?”
“I can ask if and when they show up. Until then, we’re stuck….” Matt straightened. “No, we aren’t stuck. Laurie’s right. We know where the shield is.”
“Great, but we need the Hammer more,” Astrid said.
Fen growled loudly enough that Reyna and Ray exchanged a look, and Laurie hoped that she wasn’t going to have to step between them. His temper was never good, but today it was worse than usual because he was worried about her.
“Being Odin’s girlfriend doesn’t make you a part of this,” Fen said.
Astrid jumped up, glared at him, and ran out of the room.
Casually, Fen looked at Matt. “So how do we find the Hammer?”
No one said a word. Matt glared at Fen, and then he walked out. Laurie wasn’t sure what to do. The twins fled back upstairs, and Baldwin looked from the doorway to Fen to her. He didn’t say anything or follow Matt and Astrid.
“Fen…” Laurie started, but she wasn’t sure what to say.
Fen stood. “Tell me when there’s a plan,” he called as he left the room.
He was being a jerk, but Astrid was going to need to be less sensitive if she was going to be around them. If she was going to run away every time Fen said something rude, she might as well never sit down. Laurie liked her, and she liked the idea of having another girl around in addition to Reyna—who hadn’t warmed up to Laurie… or anyone else, either. However, Laurie was going to have to talk to her. No one had run away when Astrid pointed out that Laurie and Fen were descendants of the god who fought on the other side—or when trolls, Norns, Valkyries, or mara appeared.
TWENTY-ONE
MATT
“RAIDING THE RAIDERS”
Matt needed to make Astrid feel better. It was like being on the boxing or wrestling team. You might fight the other guys at practice, but at a tournament, you had to support each other. Help each other. Cheer each other on. Whenever there was a problem—like one guy razzing another—Coach Forde would send Matt in to cool them down. He supposed that meant he was good at it. Now it was up to him to make things right. Bring the team back together.
But what if Astrid took it the wrong way? What if she thought he liked her? He did like her, as a person. But the way she kept looking at him and talking about him… his cheeks heated just thinking about it. She probably didn’t mean it like that. She had a boyfriend. She was just being super-nice to him because he was being nice to her. Like at school sometimes, when he was nice to new kids and all of a sudden they were sitting beside him at lunch and walking home from school with him.
But what if, by chasing her, she thought he meant something else. He’d have to tell her it wasn’t like that. Or, worse, she’d tell himit wasn’t like that for her— You’re a great guy, Matt, but I have a boyfriend. He’d probably burn up with embarrassment.
So he followed her for a bit. Then he imagined her looking back and seeing him followingher and how much worse that would be.
“Hey, Astrid,” he called, as calmly as he could. “Wait up.”
She turned and when she saw him, her whole face lit up in this smile that made him stumble over his feet.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said, pointing to the house. “Fen didn’t mean to snap at you. Everyone’s just really tired and freaked out. You’re right about Mjölnir.”
She walked toward him. “Thank you. You’re the brains andthe brawn of this operation, aren’t you?”
“No, we all are. It’s a team effort. Fen has a point. We don’t know where Mjölnir is. But we do know where to find the shield.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she let out a deep sigh.
“Sure, I can’t wait to get Mjölnir,” he said. “But the Valkyries say the shield is just as important.”
“But if you know where it is, you can get it anytime.” Her fingers touched his arm. “You need Mjölnir.”
He brushed back his hair, “accidentally” dropping her fingers from his arm.
“There must be someone you can ask,” she continued. “The Norns. The Valkyries. I bet you could call them. Ask them for help finding Mjölnir.”
Matt shook his head. “I need to find it myself. It’s part of the test.”
“Test?” She gave a scornful laugh. “If they’re testing you, they don’t know you very well. Anyone can see that you’re ready. And who are they to test the mighty Thor? You’re the important one. You always have been. Even these days, everyone knows the name of Thor. Can they name a Norn? A Valkyrie? Most don’t even know what they are.”
Except he wasn’t Thor. He was only the god’s representative, which meant he had to prove himself worthy of the honor. He wasn’t ready to meet the serpent. It was nice that Astrid thought so, but she was wrong.
She moved closer again, lowering her voice as if they might be overheard. “I suppose you’ve heard that Odin was king of the gods.”
“He was.”
“True… but he wasn’t the most popular one. He wasn’t the most-worshipped one. Look it up. Odin was the god of the nobility. Thor was the god of the common man. He was the most popular. The most worshipped. The most beloved. It’s not Odin who got to be a comic-book hero, is it? There’s a reason for that. It’s all about Thor. It’s always been Thor.” She met his gaze again. “And that’s you. You are Thor and you need Mjölnir, and if your friends are saying you don’t, it’s because they’re jealous. You’re Thor. They’re… someone else.”
“If you’re upset about what Fen said, that you’re not really a part—”
“I don’t care about that. I care about getting that Hammer for you, Matt.”
That seemed a weird thing to be concerned about, and Matt suspected she really was hurt over what Fen had said, but he decided not to push it.