Dead Silence Read Free

A glance at the bags confirmed they were empty. The first frost giant stepped toward the bags, swiftly swapping them out with fresh ones. Thor's blood now ran within Loki's veins, mixed into a potent soup with my own blood. My stomach tightened. I was not looking forward to watching Loki succeed when he tried his hand at using the spear.
    My eyelids drooped and I must have slipped into unconsciousness because when I opened my eyes again the bags were empty. Loki tugged the needle from his arm and dropped it on the straw covered floor. Then he pressed the opening in his flesh a few times until it closed. Even if Loki was not a real god of the Aesir, he did possess the power to self-heal.
    Then he dusted his hands together and smiled. "Well, my dear sister. The moment of truth has arrived. Gungnir will be the proof to my claim."
    "What claim?" I asked, my tone too sharp but I didn't care too much now. I'd already accepted I'd get little more from Loki now that he thought he had the means to use the spear. There was only one thing that I could think of that Loki would want to claim.
    Odin's seat as the God of Gods, the All-Father.
    Loki hooked his thumbs into his belt and laughed, the sound echoing around us. "Wait and see, dear sister." Loki looked over my head, his attention falling on someone beside me. He gave a nod, and the ice in his eyes made my stomach harden.
    Although I twisted in my seat, trying to look over my shoulder, I didn't get to see who stood behind me.
    Something hard connected with my skull, the blow so powerful I passed out almost instantly. In the brief moment before the darkness claimed me, I swore to punch Loki in the face the first chance I got.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    The first thought in my mind when I came to was how furious Joshua would be with me if he only knew what I'd gotten myself into. It was totally my own fault because I shouldn't have come alone, shouldn't have left without telling someone besides the potentially traitorous Derek where I was headed.
    Blinking slowly, I could feeling every pain-filled movement of the muscles in my eyes. I tried to turn my head but a blinding pain flared in the right side of my skull. I sucked in a breath then gasped at the hot moistness of blood as it trickled back into my hair.
    I was lying flat on my back, and could feel nausea well in my throat. Stiffening, I knew it was in my best interests to sit up, or at least move onto my side, or I'd puke all over myself.
    As much as I hated puking, and it was very much not an option when my head pounded like someone was taking a jackhammer to it. I groaned and turned onto my side, feeling the agony in my scalp reverberate into my skull, beating incessantly until my ears rang like a dozen church bells.
    Despite the pain, I had to get myself upright. I tensed, hundreds of small muscles in my wings tensing with me. I expected to feel the thin golden rope holding me in its tight embrace but there were no bindings. I was free to move about, free to stand up.
    If I could do either without passing out again.
    I inhaled slowly and smelled dirt, and mustiness. No straw and rotting onions. Shadows veiled the room from my pained eyes, steeping the place in a murky darkness. Tightening the muscles in my arms, I lifted myself up into a sitting position.
    And for the first time noticed I wasn't alone.
    A young woman, slim, tall and platinum blond, sat on a pile of blankets beside me, her back to the dirt wall. Her long gray-brown skirts were dotted with hundreds of stains, and her unshod feet lay curled up beside her. Around our pallets of old blankets, the floor of the room was made up of fine dry sand. The walls surrounding us were marked by snaking roots, some hanging into the room near the ceiling and the outer walls.
    The girl's large gray eyes widened when she saw I was awake. She scrambled forward lightning fast, to steady me. "Be careful. They hit you very hard." She remained beside me, as if afraid I'd