Free Dragonslayer (Twilight of the Gods Book 3) by Eleri Stone

half an ear as he rattled off stuff about toothbrushes and bath towels. She’d figure it all out later. Right now, she could barely keep her eyes open enough to see right in front of her.
    He stopped at an open doorway, reached in to turn on the lights and then stepped back into the hallway. “If you need anything else, let me know. We’ll get your things from the motel in the morning.”
    She barely managed to strip out of her jeans before crawling into bed, and she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. At some point during the night, she woke up from a nightmare and panicked when she didn’t recognize her surroundings. Then she remembered where she was. She could hear Christian in the next room, talking to someone on the phone. She couldn’t make out the words, but she liked the sound of his voice, deep and calm. It acted on her like a lullaby.
    She rolled over, pulled the quilt up to her neck and fell asleep to more peaceful dreams.
     

Chapter Seven
     
    Kamis walked swiftly through the young forest, the chill air stinging his cheeks. The earth beneath his feet was nearly frozen solid. Still, dark and very cold, it reminded him of Asgard, where he’d made his home these past several thousand years. But even now, in the grip of deep winter, he could sense the dormant life around him, waiting for a spring that would come again, stirring all to rebirth. That was the difference. Asgard was dead. Midgard merely asleep. He should be sleeping now too. The dark moon had long since set, and the portal was tightly closed. Fen and Raquel had returned to the house hours ago, but something had pulled him awake, drawn him from bed and forced him outside into the cold night.
    Nearly to the lake, he paused to look around. Something… Something was out here that shouldn’t be. He snorted, causing a young raccoon to startle and scurry in the opposite direction. Something other than himself. He’d been here long enough that the rhythm of this world had become familiar. It surprised him that the Æsir didn’t feel it—the subtle change to the magic in the land. True, their blood was weaker than his. True, too, that none of them possessed his years of experience. But this was their adopted home. He’d have thought they would be more sensitive to it.
    Unless… No. Foolish to entertain such hopes. It was not a possibility.
    The portal connecting them to Asgard was sealed. The wards protecting the town were strong. The ley lines running through the earth beneath his feet were…not quite right, and that was the mystery he’d come to solve.
    The wind shifted and he stopped walking. He inhaled deeply, released his breath on a sigh and changed direction, stepping off the crude deer path and moving toward the source of that smell. Blood. There was blood in the air, which was unfortunate, but what pulled him closer was the faint trace of a perfume so familiar he felt it like a knife in his side.
    The ground grew more uneven the further from the path he walked. Tangles of weeds and vines threatened to trip him in the darkness, but he kept moving forward. This place wasn’t nearly as treacherous as the one from which he’d escaped. What was the worst that could happen to him here? The only predators were the ones that chased the Æsir to this world. Other than that, there was nothing but deer and cattle, small scavengers and the birds of the air. A soft world, Midgard, and a vulnerable one.
    Twigs snapped beneath his boots, and he drew the short sword from the scabbard at his hip. He was not permitted his own blade, and he’d had to steal this one from the training structure on the Odin’s land before walking into the woods. The Odin…the title was such a conceit, and the man who held it here seemed to realize that. Kamis enjoyed calling Aiden by his title because it made him wince every time. Smiling, he slowed his pace as the rune-marked blade began to glow with a soft blue light.
    That shouldn’t be. Shouldn’t be, but