A Midwinter Fantasy - Leanna Renee Hieber [102]
He had saved Sonja’s life once before, but at a terrible cost to her. This time he would not compromise. He would not allow any harm to come to her. The day had come for him to stand against his father. Unfortunately, he doubted he would survive.
Sonja and Troy materialized in the entrance hall outside Odin’s throne room after walking unseen from Vidar’s retreat. Troy wriggled his fingers out of the death grip Sonja had on his hand. “Breathe, my child.”
She gasped in a breath, her lungs aching. It would take her a long time to get used to the strange nothingness as her body faded into the air. During their journey, she’d smelled the cold clean scent of ice but didn’t know how her father had navigated to Valhalla.
Two of Odin’s female Valkyrie guards stepped forward to intercept them. “We’re here at Odin’s invitation,” Troy said in his silky musical voice. “Step aside.”
The two guards resumed their positions, allowing them to pass. Troy pulled Sonja’s hand through the crook of his elbow and led her into the throne room.
She leaned in to him and whispered, “How come they believed you without question?”
“I have an honest face.” When she laughed in disbelief, her father smiled. “The skill is called silver tongue.”
Sonja squeezed Troy’s arm, the first traces of affection blossoming. “I want to know everything about you.”
He cast her a startled glance. “Everything? What a horrifying prospect.”
Their voices echoed around the empty chamber. The dirty throne sat at the far end of the room like a malignant growth on the shiny white ice. She had expected to be scared, but her father’s presence gave her strength. She was even looking forward to seeing Vidar’s father get his comeuppance.
“How will we find Odin?” she asked.
“He knows we’re here,” Troy said, setting a leisurely pace down the room while his gaze flicked between the various entries and exits. “By the time we reach the throne, he will have arrived.”
When they had twenty feet left to walk, the door on the back wall opened. Huginn and Muninn emerged before standing aside to flank the door. Odin stepped out. He glared at Troy and Sonja, then scurried toward his throne, his uneven gait revealing a limp as his staff clacked on the ice.
He dropped onto the throne and heaved himself back with a grunt. His single golden eye gleamed malevolently beneath a bushy gray eyebrow. He rapped his staff on the ground. Huginn and Muninn dashed forward to take up positions on either side of the dais.
Both henchmen wore gold rings. Did Odin control everyone who served him with magic?
Vidar’s brother Thor lumbered through the door, clutching a gleaming blue crystal pod beneath his meaty arm. He deposited it on the ground at Odin’s feet and stepped back. Sonja squinted at it, trying to make out what the blue crystal thing was. Realization hit and she froze. A baby’s crib.
Her fingers dug into the silky fabric of her father’s sleeve. “Is that what I think it is?”
Troy covered her tense hand with his own. “Don’t let him play on your fears.” Halting ten feet in front of the throne, he gently disengaged Sonja’s hand from his arm. She expected her father to explain why they’d come and make demands. Instead, he became inhumanly still, an aura of menace filling the silence.
Odin pulled a leather bag from inside his coat. He dug in a hand and scattered wooden pieces across the ice beside the crib. Leaning forward, he scanned the runes. “Threaten me all you will, Troy. I have you trumped,” he announced.
A searing spike of pain shot up Sonja’s arm from the ring. She yelped. Her father curled his fingers around her hand, enclosing the ring. The pain ceased abruptly, and heat flowed up her arm, washing away the ache and easing her fear.
“Hurt my daughter again, and I will destroy Valhalla and all within.”
“Even you can’t remove the ring from her hand,” Odin crowed. With a defiant glance,