“I didn’t think you did anything wrong,” she swore. “I just… I didn’t have time to tell you. I would’ve. It was just that Baldwin was just here, and then he was…” Her words trailed off, and she swatted at the tears that were on her face again.
“Dead,” Fen finished.
He grabbed the jar of red-pepper flakes and unscrewed the top. Silently, he poured it into one hand and poked at the flakes with his finger.
“It’s not all pepper,” Fen said flatly.
Her gaze flickered between his upraised hand and his red, swollen eyes. He might not be crying right now, but she could tell that he had been.
“Mistletoe?” she asked.
“It has to be. Someone put mistletoe in there and left it on the counter for him to… Astrid.” Fen looked at Laurie with fury in his expression. “She said it was easy. She thankedme. She thanked him.”
He slammed his hand down.
“She poisoned him, and she knew I couldn’t stop it.” Fen looked like he was going to snap, and his voice sounded increasingly like an animal’s growls were twisted around his words. “She watched him die. She killedhim.”
Laurie could hear the anger seething in Fen’s voice, but she couldn’t bring herself to speak. Astrid had poisoned Baldwin. She’d put mistletoe in the pepper shaker, and Fen had put the poison on Baldwin’s pizza without knowing he was killing him.
“I couldn’t save him,” Fen whispered.
Laurie grabbed Fen and pulled him to her. “It’s not your fault.”
Although Fen didn’t pull away, he didn’t hug her back, either. “It’s just like the myth. I had a part in killing him.”
Laurie squeezed her cousin, as much to let her buy time as to let him calm down. She wasn’t entirely convinced that Fen could contain himself if he saw Astrid. What if she comes back?The reality of it was that one of their group had been murdered by another. She didn’t know if she could handle Fen doing the same thing—or if Fencould.
They were still standing there when Matt walked into the room. He looked as devastated as Laurie felt. Fen pulled away from her and squared his shoulders, bracing himself for a fight.
“Astrid’s gone,” Matt said.
At the same time, Fen said, “Astrid poisoned Baldwin.”
There was a long moment of silence as the boys looked at one another. Then Matt took a deep breath. “You were right,” he said. “About not trusting her. I should have listened.”
Fen shrugged. “I didn’t have any proof.”
Matt met Fen’s gaze. “I still should have listened.”
Fen nodded and shifted uncomfortably. Laurie cleared her throat and rescued him by asking Matt, “What happens in the myth? After Balder died, what did the gods do?”
Matt paused, and then, slowly, he smiled. “They went after him.”
“Went where?”
“To Hel, the land of the dead.” Matt looked from Laurie to Fen and back again. “Do you think you can open a doorway there?”
Laurie took a deep breath before she could answer. This wasn’t some little thing they were considering. Go to Hel? Could they even do that? What kind of monsters were there? All sorts of fears swirled through her, but in the middle of the fear was hope. If they could do this, they could bring Baldwin back. She nodded. “I dofind descendants of the North.”
The horrible look of sadness slipped from the boys’ faces, and Laurie felt herself smiling, too. They didn’t need to discuss what would happen next. They knewwhat to do.
The twins walked into the kitchen. “We should probably take off before Baldwin’s parents get home,” Ray suggested.
“We are,” Laurie said, and then she turned to Matt. “Did the gods succeed?”
“No,” Matt said slowly. “The myth says Hel wouldn’t give him up because Loki didn’t mourn.” He clapped Fen on the shoulder. “But you aremourning.”
Fen grinned. “Well, then it looks like we need to go to Hel.”
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We want to thank the following people for making this book possible:
Sarah Rees Brennan, for suggesting one sleepy morning over an airport breakfast of donuts that we needed to write a “Kellissa book”;
Meghan Lewis, Breanna Lewis, and Dylan Marr, for coming up with titles for the books;
our agents, Sarah Heller and Merrilee Heifetz, for believing in the project (and us);
film agent Sally Wilcox, and foreign rights agent Cecilia de la Campa, for enthusiastic support;
Megan Tingley, Kate Sullivan, Samantha Smith, and the rest of the team at Little, Brown and Atom, for taking a chance on us;
Xaviere Daumarie, for creating gorgeous art; Deena Warner, for building a great website; and Azoulas Yurashunas, for constructing traditional Viking shields;
and our kids (Marcus, Alex, Julia, Dylan, and Asia), Kelley’s assistant (Alison Armstrong), and our friends (Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Ally Condie, and Margaret Stohl), for feedback on the book at various stages.
CONTENTS
WELCOME
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE: MATT
CHAPTER TWO: LAURIE
CHAPTER THREE: FEN
CHAPTER FOUR: MATT
CHAPTER FIVE: MATT
CHAPTER SIX: LAURIE
CHAPTER SEVEN: MATT
CHAPTER EIGHT: MATT
CHAPTER NINE: LAURIE
CHAPTER TEN: MATT
CHAPTER ELEVEN: FEN
CHAPTER TWELVE: MATT
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: LAURIE
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: MATT
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: LAURIE
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: MATT
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: LAURIE
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: MATT
CHAPTER NINETEEN: FEN
CHAPTER TWENTY: LAURIE
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: MATT
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: MATT
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: FEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: MATT
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: LAURIE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
COPYRIGHT
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Text Copyright © 2013 by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr
Interior illustrations © 2013 by Vivienne To Shield and logo by Eamon O’Donoghue based on the work of Lisseth Key
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com.
Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Hachette Book Group
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www.lb-kids.com
First ebook edition: May 2013
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ISBN 978-0-316-23110-7