Free Oathbreaker by Amy Sumida Page B

in the bathroom mirror, someone knocked on the bedroom door. I took one last look at my hair, which I’d left in loose waves to hang down around my hips, and then ran to the door. I opened it to find Odin standing there in an outfit that almost exactly matched mine.
    “ What the hell?” I looked him up and down, black pants and blue silk shirt, just in a masculine style.
    “ I guess great minds think alike,” he laughed.
    “ Yeah,” I smirked, “and so do ours.” He laughed harder. “Maybe I should change; I don’t think it’s a good idea to look like the Bobbsey Twins tonight. People might think we're trying to make a statement.”
    I turned and went to root through the cabinet at the foot of the bed. I heard him shut the bedroom door as I walked into the bathroom to change.
    “If it makes you feel better, Vervain.” He called out, “but I think the verbal statement I make tonight will surpass anything a set of matching clothing could say.”
    “ It does make me feel better,” I called back to him as I slipped the blue silk off and replaced it with a long sleeved, black sweater with a plunging V neckline.
    When I came out of the bathroom, Odin turned to me with a smile. It froze on his face. He looked over the expanse of cleavage the top revealed and swallowed hard. Anyone else and I would have laughed, I would have teased, but with Odin, I could only stand there and feel the blush steal over my face, my knees suddenly filled with water and my heart running for the hills.
    He cleared his throat, “Uh, you look beautiful.”
    “ Thank you,” I brought up Trevor’s face in my mind and concentrated on it as I let Odin lead me out of the room and down to the dining hall.
    The dining hall of Valaskjάlf wasn’t as big as Valhalla’s by any means but there was still more than enough room for all the gods Odin had invited. They filled the tables about halfway, staring up at me intensely as we took our places at the table on the dais. I don’t know why I’d assumed that all the gods there would be Norse, after all Blue was previously in league with Odin and he was the Aztec God of the Sun, but I was a little surprised to see the mix of ethnicity.
    When I thought about it, I realized how silly I really was to be surprised over it. I mean originally they had all come from Atlantis. Brahma once told me that he hadn't started out looking Indian, it was human ego that altered him to look like his people. I needed to keep in mind the fact that they hadn’t started out that way. It was much easier to deal with gods when you realized they weren’t really gods at all, just an advanced civilization with powerful magic and great toys. Hmph, I wonder what the Atlantean race really looked like.
    There actually were a lot of Nordic gods there but there were also some more exotic looking ones. It was the We Are the World god assortment. Middle Easterners sat next to Asians, a Greek spoke rapidly to a Indian(dot not feather) as an Egyptian listened in, and I even saw what appeared to be a Pacific Islander. I felt a little shiver when I looked at him; there was no mistaking the pure hatred he was shooting my way.
    I briefly wondered if he was related to Ku. I hadn’t met another god in the Hawaiian pantheon since I’d killed Ku but I was pretty sure they knew I did it and even more sure that they were all pissed. Hawaiians were very into ohana, it's always family first. Ku had also been acquainted with Odin, he'd had the chant to get into Valhalla in his book. It was how I'd been able to get in the first time I'd come to Asgard. So it made sense that one of his brothers in his pantheon would be there.
    Odin seated me next to him and I heard a whispering start to flow among the gods. I looked at Odin expectantly and he took a deep breath before standing to address them. Everyone quieted and gave him their full attention.
    “ My friends,” Odin looked out at each of the men and women. “I’ve invited you all here to