Safe. She glanced at Val, saw him wink at her, and knew Morgan told the truth. Whatever else was going on in her life, while she was here, with these people, she was as safe as she could possibly be.
She yawned again. You’d think she’d be raring to go after all of the revelations, but she was exhausted, physically and mentally. “I should leave, go back to my place.”
“No!”
Skye jumped. Wow. When they all yelled at once, the condo’s windows shook. “Okay. Sit, Skye. Stay.”
Kir chuckled. “Woof.”
Even Logan, heartbroken though he seemed, laughed at that.
Chapter Six
“Stable him.” Grimm handed the reins to his groom, studying his loyal steed with suspicion. The horse had been acting strange ever since they left the Bifrost Bridge. No, before then. When he’d returned from his meeting with the Norns, Sleipnir had been shying away from him, only standing still when Grimm barked out his name. Rina had noticed as well, and stood off to the side, glaring at the white horse. She’d been whispering in Grimm’s ear the entire ride home about the warning of the Norns.
Something had spooked the horse, something that frightened him almost as much as Grimm did.
Either that, or the Norns had told him the truth. Somehow, Sleipnir would betray him, and that was something Grimm would not tolerate.
Still, Sleipnir had been useful in the past. He was still faster than almost anything the mortals had come up with, and he could bridge the gap between the worlds without the flash-bang tactics that had taken down Logan’s wards around the condominium complex he currently lived in. Even better, none could sense Sleipnir’s passage except for Heimdall, but that was the man’s job. If Grimm could get his hands back on Idunn’s apples, Sleipnir would once again be his. He’d use the magic apples to influence the beast, making him pliant to Grimm’s commands.
To kill, or to wait? That was, indeed, the question. He eyed Sleipnir and noted how the horse’s trembling had increased.
Would he need the horse any time soon?
“Wait.” He took the reins back and took a step closer to the pale horse, watching Sleipnir’s every move for signs that something more than exhaustion was going on with the horse. He had run him hard, after all, refusing him sleep until they’d returned home.
Sleipnir froze, only his tail swishing. His dark eyes rolled, but he stood stock-still, held tightly in Grimm’s grasp.
“Sir?”
“Yes?” he answered the groom, but kept his eye on Sleipnir.
“Are you angry? Sleipnir’s reacting as if he senses that you’re upset.”
Could that be it? Sleipnir hadn’t tried to rear, but the horse had always been intelligent. The one time he’d done so, Grimm had beaten him bloody for being defiant. The young horse had naturally reacted with fear, desperately trying to get away, but Grimm had kept him chained and helpless for hours, wielding the crop with a ruthlessness that had lost him a favored groom when the man had tried to step between him and the horse. But Grimm had known Sleipnir would survive the beating.
He had his father’s ability to heal, after all, something that Grimm had utilized more than once over centuries of battle.
The beating had been lengthy and brutal, but in the end, Grimm had won. The young horse never defied him again, no matter what Grimm asked of him. He’d broken him, made him obedient in every way.
Still, it was better to be safe than sorry. “I think we’ll be cutting back on his feed for a bit.” Let Sleipnir go hungry. Grimm would feed him before the next time he needed him, and in the meantime the hunger would weaken him, keep him pliant. It was a tactic he’d used multiple times to keep the creature in line.
Of course, he’d had the apples to add to what little feed he did give the horse. Now, he’d have to rely solely on his own power to keep the creature in line. With that thought in mind, he yanked viciously on the reins, dragging Sleipnir’s head down until they were eye to eye. “Listen, and listen well. If I find out that you’ve done anything to aid your father, I will strip the hide from your bones and hang you from the Bifrost Bridge.”
Sleipnir’s eyes went so wide Grimm could see the whites.
“I know you understand me at least a little bit.” Grimm had never been certain, but he feared the horse understood him far too well. If so, he might be forced to take more drastic measures. For all the creature couldn’t speak, he could still find ways to ruin Grimm’s plans. All it would take was one act of free will, and all that Grimm was trying to build would come tumbling down. “Defy me, and I will kill you. I don’t need you that badly, and the pain it would cause your father would be more than sufficient payment for your loss.”
Grimm handed the reins back to the groom and took a step back. “Stable him, but keep an eye on him. Quarter rations until I say otherwise.”
“Aye, sir.”
Grimm turned his back on them and winked at Rina. “Oh, and Sleipnir?”
The horse snorted.
“I’ll be watching you.”
The caw of his ravens, Hugin and Munin, sounded from the rafters. Thought and Memory would watch Sleipnir closely. If he set a hoof out of line, Grimm would know it in a heartbeat.
“Have a good night.” He stepped out of the stable and wrapped his arm around Rina’s waist. “It’s a beautiful evening, isn’t it? Loki will be dead soon, and Heimdall will be the one to do it. I’m not sure it gets any better than this.”
She snuggled close, and he could feel the hilt of her favorite dagger against his hip. As always, she was careful not to cling too closely without an invitation. “It does. Eventually you’ll kill Baldur as well.”
“I know.” Her faith in him was admirable.
She sighed deeply as she glanced back toward the stable. “As much as I hate to waste an asset, it might be better just to kill him.”
Grimm nodded. “I’ll think about it.”
“If you wish, I will do it for you.” Rina stroked his chest, her fingers sliding under the buttons of his shirt. Her nails scratched lightly in a pattern she’d learned would set his body on fire. “I would destroy the world to keep you safe.”
He took a deep breath at the seriousness of her tone. Of all the people who’d been with him for all those centuries, only Rina had stood by him. Therefore, only she had earned his loyalty…and, surprisingly, his love. He snuggled her close, grinning at the thought of what he had planned for them once they were snug in their bed. “I know, my love. And when we win this war, you’ll be at my side for eternity.”
She stopped and glided in front of him, smiling when he wrapped his arms around her waist. “Queen or concubine, I am yours.”
He gripped her hair and pulled back until she arched under his hand. The moan she gave him had his cock rock hard within seconds. Oh, he’d never had anyone as willing to play with him as Rina. “Yes, you are.”
He was, as always, trapped in hell with no way out. His only hope lay with the father who’d abandoned him and a brother who’d never looked at him twice. A father who would soon die. He snorted, ignoring the meager feed the groom placed in his bucket. His only hope lay in warning his father to beware of Heimdall. He’d have to trust that Skuld would warn him, keep him away from the Guardian. It had taken him weeks to get her number. The others were far too well guarded for him to find anything that he could use to contact them.
If his father died before he rescued Sleipnir…
Sleipnir eyed the ravens above him and shivered. They would sit, watching him, until Odin called them back.
I’m so screwed.