Free Thor's Serpents by K.L. Armstrong, M.A. Marr

family—are on your grandfather’s side.”
    “What?” Jake’s eyes went wide. He wheeled on Matt. “You didn’t seriously think I’d do that.”
    “Not you or Josh. But maybe Mom and Dad—”
    “—would be okay with you dying? Really?”
    “If Granddad’s fine with it…” He shrugged. “I couldn’t rule out the possibility, could I? It’s not like I thought Mom and Dad
wanted
me dead. But if it had to happen… well, at least it wasn’t you or Josh.”
    Jake stared at him, mouth open. “You actually
did
think they’d be okay with you dying.”
    “That came out wrong. I’m not feeling sorry for myself. I’m just saying that it was a possibility. It had to be. It still is.”
    “No, it isn’t.”
    Matt looked up, meeting his brother’s gaze. “Yes. It is.”
    “Matt’s right,” Reyna said. “Sure, the chance your parents are involved seems tiny, but it’s
still
a chance. Maybe they wouldn’t be okay with it, but it’s possible they know and they’re trying to figure a way out of it, like Matt thought your grandfather was doing.”
    “I really,
really
don’t think they know,” Jake said. “They’re a mess, Matt, and not because their champion has disappeared—because their
kid
is gone.”
    “But we have to—”
    “Okay, I get it. We have to consider all the possibilities.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe my little brother is the one telling
me
to be careful. But I get it. Still, you need to let Mom and Dad know—”
    “Are you even listening?” Reyna said.
    Jake turned on her. “Look, you may be the descendant of Freya, but I don’t know you, and you don’t know my family.”
    “I know Matt. Not like you do, obviously, though I’m not sure how well you know him if you thought—”
    Matt cut her short with a look. Then he turned to Jake.“I came back because I need information. Something the Norns say my family knows.”
    “Norns? You’ve met…” Jake trailed off, shaking his head. “Sorry. Go on.”
    “They said someone in my family knows where the battleground is. For Ragnarök. I would have guessed Granddad, but obviously I can’t ask him now, and anyway, the Norns say he doesn’t—Never mind. That’s just confusing. Typical Norns. Anyway, they say someone in my family knows, other than Granddad. I’m guessing Dad, but he’s never exactly been into that stuff.…”
    “It’s Uncle Pete.”
    “What?”
    “You need to talk to Uncle Pete. In Mitchell.”
    Matt went quiet. “Uncle Pete? I haven’t seen—”
    “—him since you were practically in diapers. I know. He had a huge falling-out with Granddad. I was old enough to remember it. Not that it made much sense at the time—I was just a kid. But you’ve heard Dad say how much you remind him of his brother.”
    “Um, yeah, the screwup uncle that Granddad won’t talk about and who we haven’t seen in ten years.”
    Jake made a face. “Okay, I can see where that probably made things worse, but Dad didn’t mean it like that. Uncle Pete didn’t screw up. He disagreed with Granddad on some things and got kicked out of Blackwell. Dad isn’t supposedto talk to him, but he sees him whenever he has an excuse to go out that way. When he says you’re like his brother, yeah, he means you’re different, that you don’t see things the way the other Thorsens do, but Uncle Pete is smart—super-smart. And no one knows the old stories like him. That’s what Dad means. And that’s why you need to go talk to him. The problem is getting to Mitchell.”
    “We have portals,” Ray said.
    “Por…? I won’t ask. But if it means we can get there easily, that works.” He took out his cell phone. “I’ll text Mom, saying I’ll be back late tonight and—”
    “You can’t come with me,” Matt said.
    “Why not?”
    Because I’d rather you didn’t. Because I’m finally feeling like a champion, and I can’t have my big brother treating me like a kid. It’s not about making me feel bad—it’s