Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) Gwen Rivers (sneezy the snowman read aloud .TXT) 📖

The thunderous boom accompanies an explosion of earth. Flying dirt pelts the side of the van. Another massive reverberation knocks us all to the right. Then the van is rolling, rolling, down an incline of some sort.

My head hits the side and blackness consumes me.

“Nic,” Aiden shoots up in bed, sweat soaking the twisted sheets. His heartrate thunders and her winter apple scent is stuck in his nose as though her head had been on the pillow beside him.

So real. It had been a dream. He knows it had. Her bound and gagged in the back of a mortal vehicle. But it had felt real. Felt as though she were hurt, bleeding.

Their bond, their connection, couldn’t cross the Veil. He knew this and yet…

“Help,” he calls out, not sure who he’s summoning. No one living in Asgard would help him, not the cursed son of the trickster, and yet he feels as though someone is nearby.

“I need to get to her. Please,” he implores.

“Then do as Freya wishes,” a sibilant voice hisses.

Aiden jerks his head to the side. “Who are you?”

The creature, for it is no god, smiles. “A serpent in the garden.”

“Wrong pantheon.” Aiden tosses the covers off and climbs out of bed. “How did you get in here?”

“The same way you did, I imagine. Your friends are looking for you, wondering what happened.”

“You crossed from Underhill?”

His companion bobs its head in what Aiden assumes is a nod.

“A dwarf.” He sits back and studies the being anew. Dwarves are typically considered separate from the fey. Their bodies twisted from the dark magic they practice to create their great weapons and impressive gifts. This being has some snakelike features but it also had hands, with fingers like thick sausages. It wears garments that are mostly rags.

“My name is Grendel,” the creature shuffles to the right. “I am her magnanimous supreme delightfulness’s appointed jeweler. And it would serve your interests if you would sire a child on the goddess of love and beauty.”

“And create another monster?” Aiden shakes his head. “Think I’ll pass.”

“What’s one more?” Grendel’s long face contorts. “The world is full of monsters, Váli Sigynjarson.”

He goes still at that. “You know my true name?”

“I know many things about you.” Its thin-lipped smile causes all the wolf’s hackles to rise.

“You won’t help me escape? Even though you know of my mate’s need?”

It tilts its serpentine head to the side. “I might be persuaded…for a price.”

And this is what the fey and the dwarves have in common. Their penchant for bargains and love of getting one over on a being in need.

He’d be a fool to trust this dwarf.

But Harmony refuses to help. Freya’s price is too high. What other option does he have?

“Can you get me across the Veil? Not to Underhill but to Midgard directly?”

“I can, but it will cost even more.”

“Cost what?” Aiden asks. “And don’t say my firstborn.”

“What use would I have with a wolf pup?” The dwarf scoffs. It twists, showing its gnarled back beneath its baggy clothing. “No wolf. If you won’t give the goddess what she wants, then allow me to do it.”

Aiden’s lips part. “Excuse me?”

“Give me three drops of your blood. One for transformation, one for the sight and one for the fire of your heart. I will go to her supreme excellence in your stead and impregnate her. It’s the only way.”

Aiden hesitates. “How long will this transformation last?”

Again with the thin-lipped smile. “Long enough for my purposes.”

There’s an idea. Allow the great goddess to bed down with a lowly dwarf. When the scandal of her heir’s parentage is known, the gods would make her the laughingstock of Asgard. The shame would never diminish.

“Only if you promise me one thing.” He hesitates. “Any product of your union will not be harmed. Not by the dwarves or the goddess.”

Animals learned to eat their young from the dwarves. And much like the American Indians, the small subset of mythical beings frugally uses every bit of their prey. Bones, skin, hair… Aiden doubts he’d be able to live with himself if he imposed that sort of hell on an innocent being.

“I cannot attest to what the goddess will do when she learns she’s been deceived, but I vow to all the golden riches in Midgard that no dwarf will ever harm my son.”

“Agreed.” Aiden holds out his hand.

The creature immediately sinks one of its dirty nails into Aiden’s palm. He hisses but the pain is rapidly replaced by a burning sensation. The forked tongue slips from the creature’s mouth. Aiden balls his hand into a fist and squeezes. One two and on the third drop, the dwarf begins to shimmer.

Just then the door swings in. “Aiden? I saw the light.”

Fast as he can manage, Aiden sprints to cover Harmony’s mouth. To stifle her scream. She thrashes in his grip but he doesn’t relent.

When he looks over, the dwarf has turned into an exact replica of him. It isn’t the first time Aiden has beheld his double, but the experience is as uncanny as ever.

The dwarf waves his hand and the air shimmers. Once more the tang of magic burns his nose.

“Will you leave her here?” The dwarf tips his head to study Harmony.

Aiden doesn’t like the way the creature eyes the seer. It’s one thing to trick Freya, who demands the impossible. But he can’t leave Harmony unconscious at the creature’s mercy.

“She comes with me.”

Grendel dips his head. “Looking out for family at last.”

“Family?” Aiden starts.

The creature blinks at him. “Why your sister, of course.”

Aiden shakes his head. “I don’t have a sister.”

The dwarf tilts his head. “Are you sure of that, Váli Sigynjarson? You’re sure your mother was not expecting another child at the time of the trickster’s capture?”

Aiden’s chest seizes up. “A baby?” His mother had been pregnant? “That can’t be. She’s fey.”

“Her most exalted beauty hid the girl under the hill to keep her safe from the gods who were still wrathful against