“Great. Just great. Now Logan’s gonna get on my case too.” Magnus ran his hands through his hair. “Shit.”
Morgan sighed. “Brother, it’s not that bad.”
Magnus snarled again and began pacing. “If we can’t make it work, we can’t protect anyone, especially her.” He waved his hand at Skye. “You know that.”
“I do, but flinging Mjolnir around and yelling isn’t going to solve the problem.”
Magnus threw his arms up in the air. “It worked for Dad!”
Morgan was silent for a moment. “We’re not Dad.”
Skye cleared her throat. That was the whole point, the one both men were missing. “I think you should—”
“I know that.” Skye flinched as lightning flashed across the sky once more, but Magnus was on a tear now and there would be no stopping him. “I know! But you finally got—” His gaze darted to Skye, and with that single worried glance she understood just how long Morgan had wanted her and how far Magnus was willing to go in order for his brother to keep her. “And now she’s in danger and the fucking thing is nothing more than a trinket.”
As flattering as that was, without Morgan’s help Magnus would never get Mjolnir to work.
“In the gods’ home Vithar
and Vali shall dwell,
When the fires of Surt have sunk;
Modi and Magni
shall Mjolnir have
When Vingnir falls in fight.”
“She’s right. Modi and Magni, brother. Both of us are necessary to make it work.”
Magnus rolled his eyes and began pacing again. “Wonderful. We’re joined at the hammer.” Morgan snorted out a laugh, but Magnus ignored him. “And when it comes time to fight, Morgan? What then? Let’s say we finally figure out how to get Mjolnir from limp to legendary.” Skye giggled, cutting it off when Magnus glared at her. He really needed to calm down before Morgan smacked him one. “What then? We play monkey in the middle?”
Skye held up her hand. “I vote for Grimm as the monkey.”
Magnus just stared at her for a moment. “Can’t you go make sandwiches or something?”
“Magnus.”
Morgan’s low, warning tone should have clued his brother in on how upset he was getting, but Magnus seemed to ignore the tone. “No offense, but unless you can tell me how to make Mjolnir work I think you should stay out of this.”
Skye shrugged. “I just did.”
“Ugh!” Magnus threw his hands in the air. “The only thing you told us was that we’d get Mjolnir when Dad died.”
“You have to work together to get it to work properly.” She took a step toward Magnus, despite Morgan’s scowl. Magnus wouldn’t hurt her no matter how angry he got. “You and your brother are needed. It won’t work with just one of you.”
“Great. Wonderful. So without Morgan I can’t make the hammer big.”
She tried so hard not to laugh. “Um…ew.”
Just for a moment, Magnus’s natural sense of humor almost broke through his anger and frustration. She could see him biting back his laughter, but then Morgan picked Mjolnir up and tossed it at Magnus. “Here, bro.”
Whatever Morgan had planned on wasn’t what happened. Mjolnir hit Magnus with all the force of the hammer of the gods, knocking him off his feet and into the wall.
“Shit, Magnus.” Morgan rushed to his brother’s side, his expression horrified. “I just thought if I tossed it at you that maybe it would work.”
Magnus grunted, the wind obviously knocked out of him.
“I’m sorry.”
Magnus lifted the silver pendant off his chest and dropped it to the floor beside him. He took a deep breath and groaned. “I’m really getting tired of that shit.”
Morgan placed his hand over the place where Mjolnir had struck Magnus and grimaced. “We can make this work, Magnus. Give it time.”
Skye nodded, even though neither brother was paying any attention to her. “Both you of you, put your hands on Mjolnir.”
The brothers looked over at her. Morgan was still crouched by his brother’s side, his hand still on Magnus’s chest. Morgan turned back to his brother, and Magnus cocked an eyebrow at him. “It’s worth a shot.”
“What’s the worst that could happen, right?”
Magnus rolled his eyes. “I get tossed across the room again, that’s what.”
“Better you than me.” Morgan laughed as he ducked his brother’s swipe. “Let’s make this thing work.”
Magnus nodded and put his hand on top of the pendant.
Morgan’s hand joined his brother’s.
Nothing happened.
They both turned to Skye once more, Magnus looking annoyed and Morgan looking puzzled. “Now what?”
She shrugged. “Wonder Twin powers, activate?”
Morgan lost it, falling on the floor as he laughed his ass off.
Magnus banged his head repeatedly against the wall. “I hate you all.”
Skye rolled her eyes. “It’s your hammer now. Yours. Stop thinking of it as Thor’s.” She believed that was at least half the problem, the other half being neither of them were listening to their guts. “What are your instincts telling you to do with it?”
Magnus was back to glowering at her. “Shove it up—”
“Magnus.” And Morgan was back to growling at his twin. This was great. At this rate Mjolnir would never respond to them.
“Fine.” Skye headed for the front door. “Refuse to work with one another and the stupid thing will just stay a pretty piece of silver. Grimm wins, the end.”
She was in the air, held in Morgan’s arm, before her hand touched the doorknob. “You’re not going anywhere.”
She blew her hair out of her eyes. “Are you two going to play nice with each other? Or am I going home?”
Morgan freaking growled, and thunder rattled the building.
“Okay then.” She cleared her throat. “Put me down, please?”
“Are you going to leave?”
She stared at him.
“Skye.”
“I’m thinking.”
“Not now, Morgan.” Skye was startled when Magnus put his hand on Morgan’s shoulder. “Kiss the girl later.” Magnus’s expression was apologetic. “She’s right, and I’m sorry I snapped at both of you. The only way we’re going to figure this out and keep Skye safe is if we work together.”
Morgan slowly lowered Skye to her feet. He wasn’t even strained from holding her. It was as if she’d weighed less than nothing to him.
She forgot, looking at him, that he was strength embodied. If he wanted, he could probably take even Jörmungandr, the World Serpent, and tie him in a knot.
Morgan pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
She bit her lip. He was so affectionate toward her. It had been years since someone had just been casually affectionate. None of her boyfriends had absently loved on her the way Morgan did, and it made him all the more attractive. And when they made love, they both knew in their hearts what they’d been unwilling to say.
“Morgan?”
Morgan took a reluctant step away from her, and her skin actually hurt for wanting his touch. He stroked her cheek softly. “Soon.”
Her breath hitched. They’d made love again since that day in the kitchen, but they’d confined themselves to Morgan’s bedroom. “Soon.”
Morgan turned from her back to his brother. “Let’s do this.”
Yes, please. She licked her lips as Morgan walked away from her, his gait strong, sensuous. She was such a goner.