“I thought that was a myth?”
“Are you willing to risk it?”
One of the brothers sighed roughly.
“Look, you two. If we could really damage her by telling her everything at once, then I say we hold back.” Skye stiffened as Jordan talked about keeping Skye ignorant about…whatever they were discussing. So much for trusting the Tate-Saeters. “If we tell her who she really is, I’m afraid she won’t take it well.”
“That’s an understatement.” Morgan’s voice was full of regret. At least one of them didn’t want to keep her in the dark. “We need to fill her in gently, coax her into remembering. The last thing we want to do is cause her any more pain.”
Aw, how sweet. But if he didn’t fill her in, she’d show him what real pain was.
“I agree with Morgan. Whatever caused her to forget who she is couldn’t be good. It would take one hell of a trauma to make one of them lose themselves. Besides, we’ve got more important things to worry about.”
“Like?”
“Like, where’s Mjolnir? It should have come to either Morgan or me.”
“You mean the movies are true?” Jordan’s voice squeaked at the end. “Oh, man, that’s so cool.”
There was silence, and for a second Skye wondered if they’d moved past her door. Then Morgan spoke once more. “We’re not sure how it’s supposed to work. We might have to go to Dad’s and look for it.”
“We could try calling for it.” She could almost hear the shrug in Magnus’s voice. If she were a little bit braver she’d sneak to the door and open it, see if she could watch them. But with her luck she’d be caught, and they’d stop talking. She was still hoping one of them would say something more about her. Why did they think she had amnesia? She remembered her childhood perfectly. Hell, she even had a few childhood scars she could show them.
Something wasn’t adding up. How could she have had a perfectly normal life, yet have a bunch of living myths saying she wasn’t remembering who she was?
“We could, but if it works do you want to explain to Kir why his window is broken? Or to Logan how his protection wards got taken down? Mjolnir may be one of the few things that could punch right through them without even slowing down.” Morgan sounded frustrated. “Logan’s fire magic is pretty damn strong, but not as strong as Mjolnir.”
Magnus, his voice just a hair lighter than his twin’s, sounded more amused than annoyed. “We could blame Jordan. She’s pregnant. She could get away with it.”
There was the twin sounds of flesh on flesh and two masculine voices saying “Ow.” Jordan must have smacked her brothers. “You two should go to Dad’s to look for Mjolnir.”
“No.” Morgan’s instant disagreement was firm. “I won’t leave Skye unprotected.”
The warm fuzzies that filled her at the sound of his determination scared her almost as much as the fact that they were discussing mythology like it was the real deal.
“You seriously think Kir and Logan couldn’t keep her safe?”
The silence that answered was thick with tension. “I know they can, but…” Morgan’s sigh could be heard through the door. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to be close to her. Now that she’s here, I don’t want her out of my sight. Not even for a moment. The danger she’s in just makes the need to keep her near worse.”
They kept saying that she was in danger, but so far Skye hadn’t seen a hint of it.
“Okay, Morgan.” Magnus was taking his brother’s side. “Then we wait and see if Kir can’t unlock some of Skye’s memories. Maybe if she remembers who she is we’ll finally get some answers about the prophecy.”
What prophecy? Skye shivered again, frightened beyond anything since she’d watched her parents take off in their car for a day trip to the shore. That sixth sense that gave her visions told her exactly what they were speaking about.
They were speaking about Ragnarrok. The end of the world. Suddenly, the danger they were discussing made a macabre sort of sense. If the Old Man she’d seen killing that family thought she could somehow answer the questions of the Tates and Grimms, he’d stop at nothing to kill her.
Skye huddled under her blanket and prayed to whatever god was listening that she was wrong. Because if she wasn’t, things were far more fucked up than she’d ever thought possible.
“I heard you guys last night.”
Morgan, Magnus and Jordan winced. Perhaps she could have been more diplomatic, but damn it, she was tired of being treated like a mushroom. She was stepping out of the dark and demanding they stop feeding her bullshit. “You keep telling me it will all make sense, that you’ll explain everything.” She pinned Morgan down with a glare when he started toward her. “So. Explain. Why is the Old Man coming for me, and why won’t you let me go home?”
Kir and Logan exchanged a grim look before Kir smiled at Skye. “I think we need to sit and talk privately. It will be less confusing than if we try and have everyone explaining everything at once.”
“He’s right. And he’s probably the best one to explain all of this. There were things Magnus and I didn’t see, things only Logan and Kir know that might help with all of this.” Morgan’s expression was full of concern, and something else. Something that sent a wave of heat through her. It wasn’t the first time a man had wanted her, but it felt like no other had ever wanted her quite so badly. “Go with Kir. He’ll answer everything for you.”
“But—”
He placed his finger on her lips, silencing her. “No buts.”
“Not yet, anyway.”
She heard someone smack whoever had spoken, but at this point she didn’t care who it was. She couldn’t take her eyes off of Morgan Grimm. He was giving her a faint, sardonic smile, one that said he knew full well how everything seemed but was going to drag her further into it anyway. “Trust me.”
She blew her bangs out of her eyes. Damn it, she did trust him deep in her gut, but she couldn’t let him know that. It would give him far too much power over her. “I don’t know you.”
“You do. You just don’t remember it.”
She tilted her head and frowned. “I’m pretty sure I would have remembered meeting you.” As hot as he was, she would have more than remembered. She would have had wicked, dirty fantasies for months.
His smile turned sultry, as if he knew exactly what was going through her mind. “Go with Kir. We’ll discuss how memorable I am later.” He helped her to her feet, frowning at her hands and grimacing. She hadn’t realized how badly she was shaking until he brought her attention to them. “It’s all right, Skye. You don’t need to be afraid. No one here will ever harm a hair on your head.”
She looked down, trying to regain control. It was as if she were on the brink of something momentous, but she couldn’t stop. Like being at the top of the roller coaster and just waiting for that long, sharp drop into oblivion. “Everything’s been so strange. First I have one of my visions, one of a man killing an innocent family. Next thing I know, I’ve got tons of new babysitters and I’m not allowed to go to work anymore.”
Morgan held up his hand toward the people at the table. “The same thing happened to Jordan unexpectedly. She didn’t take it all that well, but she understood the need to be safe. You know now what we are, who we are. What Kir will do is help you understand who you are.” He lifted her hand and kissed her fingers.
She rolled her eyes. “I know exactly who I am. I’m Skylar Kincade.” But…not. She blinked as a vision flashed before her eyes.