Page 53 of The Fanged One

Linnea pulled back, eyes wide. "She's a seer now?"

"She's a mother," Fenris said, rising and pulling her up with him. "It is worse."

Dinner was lamb stew, fresh bread, butter, and more food than they could finish, though Tor gave it an honest attempt. The eight of them were spread out around the long table, with candles burning down the middle and the fire snapping in the big hearth, and for an hour, no one spoke of Niflheim or Loki at all.

Layla and Ciara got into a debate over whether dragons or wolves made better houseguests, which ended with both insulting Arne's housekeeping instead. Tor told a story about Linnea at nine years old, stealing candy from the other kids who were mean to her. Linnea threw bread at his head and pointed out that those mean kids had it coming.

"You were much nicer than I would have been about it," Von said, and his grin turned vicious. "I would have pissed on their school bags to teach them a lesson they never forgot."

"That is the kind of reasoning my father likes to use best. You're both going to get along well with him," Fenris said with a soft chuckle.

Linnea's hand found his knee under the table and stayed there.

He ate good food in a warm room full of people who looked at him and didn't see a monster at a dinner table. Barely a few days awake, and this world had already given him more than he could have hoped for.

When the plates were cleared and the packs were lined up by the door, Alruna stood.

"Get your things and come with me," she said. "Best that you all leave now before I decide to keep you."

The night air bit hard after the warm kitchen. Alruna led them down to the flat ground by the lake shore, and the family followed in a quiet line with their packs on their backs.

She raised one hand with a pale crystal in it, sang a low phrase in elvish, and tore a doorway open in the dark.

It was not like the portal Tor's crystal made. This one stood tall as a barn door and breathed, a slow exhale of cold, old air rolling out across the snow. Through it, all he could see was a thick branch that was their path, fading into the dark.

He had run the hidden paths of Yggdrasil as a young god, wild and laughing, with Geri and Freki at his heels. These were nothing like the ones of his memories.

"I think my balls just tried to climb into my body in self-defense," Von whispered, eyes huge. "What… What the fuck is that, Runa?"

"These are the dark roads," Alruna said, moving aside for them. "They will carry you down between the worlds to Niflheim's gate. Arne, you remember the way markers? And are you carrying the rune crystal I made for you?"

"I remember, Mama, and yes I have the crystal," he replied and kissed her forehead.

"Good boy." She turned and pressed a small object into Linnea's palm, folding the younger woman's fingers over it. "For when you are ready to come home. Wherever in the Nine Realms you end up, this will bring you back to my hearth."

Linnea opened her hand. A portal crystal sat on her palm, the twin of Tor's except for the mark cut into its face, and Fenris leaned in for a closer look.

He had learned runes when they were young, used them, bled for them, and had them carved into his flesh for a thousand years of binding. None of them was like the rune in the crystal. It curved where the old Futhark cut straight, looping back through itself like a knot of root and branch, and the magic coming off it was deep.

"You made a rune?" he asked, looking up at Alruna.

"I make many things, wolf." Alruna patted his cheek. "Havi gave me the crystal. The rune is mine. Between the two of us, there is enough power to bring you home."

"I want one," Von declared, staring at the crystal.

Linnea pulled her hand back. "Make your own. This one is mine."

Alruna hugged each of them in turn, Arne again last and longest, and stepped back with a worry in her eyes that she couldn't hide.

Fenris nodded to her, trying to assure her that he would try to keep them safe. She smiled a little at him and nodded back.

Tor went through the doorway first, with Ciara at his shoulder. Layla and Arne followed, hand in hand, swallowed whole by the dark. Von blew Alruna a farewell kiss and stepped through without a backward glance.

Linnea slid the crystal into a pouch and put it in the breast pocket of her coat. She held out a hand to Fenris.

"Together?" she said, her voice hitching just a little.

"Together." He laced his scarred fingers through hers, and they stepped through. The cold dark of Yggdrasil closed over them, and they were gone.