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

curiosity or boredom, but they tend to avoid our kind. You can trust me on this point. I’ve enough experience with it.”
    “Our kind?” she sneered. “You are not my kind. You lost your right to call yourself Vanir centuries ago. And now you ally yourself with them? These half-human wretches that are but shadows of their Æsir ancestors. They’re no better than animals.”
    His smile thinned. “It’s unwise to provoke someone who holds your life in their hands.”
    “The gods hold my life in their hands.”
    “And I’m less inclined to help you by the moment. Lay down your weapon so we can have this done.”
    She refused, and he stood. Drawing no more than a drop of energy from the river running beneath his feet, he sent her sword flying. It landed several feet away in a pile of dead leaves half covered by snow. The honorable thing would be to return it to her once they reached the portal, but he wasn’t feeling particularly honorable just now. Besides, as he bent to heft her into his arms, he felt the hard edges beneath the fabric of her jacket. She had other weapons that would see her through Asgard.
    The echo of the magic he’d used rippled gently down the tether that connected him to Raquel, and Kamis felt her stir from a deep sleep. Absently, ignoring the protests from the woman in his arms, he sent a spell down the link urging Raquel to deeper slumber. The geis was not meant to work that way. The spell she’d used was an old one, meant to protect the caster and leave the slave vulnerable. But Raquel, while powerful, had never cast such a spell before, and at the time she’d placed it, they’d been surrounded by demons. Raquel hadn’t recognized his counter-spell. She didn’t yet realize the small but important ways in which he’d adjusted the binding.
    She still held the leash. She was smart. In time, she would likely be able to figure out how to close the loopholes he’d created, but for now, he had some small measure of freedom from her complete control.
    He walked swiftly in the direction of the portal. It was less than a mile away, but the sooner he had the Vanir warrior away from here the better.
    “You can put me down,” she said. “I can walk on my own.”
    “Save your energy. You’ve miles yet to travel through Asgard to reach the throne room.”
    She stiffened, confirming what he’d suspected all along.
    “Surtr sits on the throne of Asgard now. That portal is no longer accessible to us.”
    “Come,” he said softly. “Don’t lie to me. I am saving your life, after all.”
    “I’m not lying.”
    “You forget that I was trapped there for centuries. If there was another working portal, don’t you think I would have found it in all that time?”
    “You don’t know anything.”
    “I know you were injured by one of your own. Slicing through this particular kind of armor is something only a Skimstrok blade could accomplish. As no one here is about, it stands to reason that you were fleeing one of your own kind.”
    Her scowl was something fierce. It brought a smile to his face.
    “Surtr informed you of my disappearance and you crossed into Asgard to investigate.” They’d come to pillage his library and steal his treasures. He sincerely doubted that they’d succeeded in either of those objectives. His library was very well protected. “Did you bicker over whether to turn back empty-handed or did you actually find something valuable enough to quarrel over?”
    She pressed her lips together and turned her head away. He suspected that they’d found a store of Skimstrok or some other small weapon to salvage. Everything that was truly dangerous he’d managed to hide away where not even Surtr could find it. Still, Skimstrok had always been more plentiful in Asgard than Vanaheimr. Valuable enough to kill for. Brave of her to attempt to escape across Asbrú. Interesting that Asbrú had deposited her on his doorstep. Kamis didn’t believe that was coincidence, but it would take