Dragonslayer (Twilight of the Gods Book 3) Read Free Page A

heartbeat he thought about turning around. It was a stupid impulse. McGuire’s was closed now, the roads were shit and he couldn’t drive more than an hour from the fault—the thin spot in the wall between Midgard and Asgard—without getting sick. He literally couldn’t run away from his problems. Raking a hand through his wind-blown hair, he stepped through the unlocked door.
    “Honey, I’m home.”
    “In here,” Raquel called out from the family room. “Hope you don’t mind I let myself in.”
    After stripping off his coat and gloves, he hung them up in the mudroom he’d had built to accommodate a family. He’d built the house years ago when he was still engaged to the witch sitting in the next room—before she’d fallen in love with his best friend and called off the wedding.
    He’d told Beth the truth tonight. Despite what some of the people in the clan thought, he wasn’t bitter over it. Not really. It might have bruised his pride, but he was happy for Fen and Raquel. They were happy together. He’d become good friends with Raquel over the past year, but it was strange for her to be here so late without her husband.
    She clicked off the television as he walked in, and something twisted in his chest at the sight of her. She looked right at home—her long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail, a smile in her blue eyes and her legs tucked up beneath her on the couch. It was exactly how he’d always imagined his life would be.
    He went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer. “Want one?”
    She shook her head. “I can’t stay long. You were later than I expected.”
    “Something came up.” He moved around the island to take the seat across from her. “Where’s Fen?”
    “Working a deadline on a design project.” Her lips turned up at the corners. “He knows I’m here, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    That wasn’t what he’d been asking, but it was good to know. The three of them were still working out the finer details of their relationship. He took a pull from his drink and then set it aside on one of the coasters his sister had sent him for Christmas. Pictures of his niece and nephews sealed beneath clear, hard plastic. His sister had married a man in the Ozark clan. Three kids and she was still riding with the hunt. He should ask Raquel about scheduling a portal jump once this thing with Jacey blew over. It would be nice to take a little vacation, and he hadn’t seen Wendy or the kids for months.
    “What’s up?”
    Her smile faded just a bit. “I don’t really want to bother you with this, but Aiden…well, with Grace gone…”
    “Aiden’s prickly as a thorn bush. I know. It’s nothing personal, you know that, right? And he wouldn’t turn you away if you needed help with something.”
    Although Fen would have been able to handle just about anything. Which meant whatever was bothering her wasn’t something she’d shared with her husband. Which meant…
    He sighed. “This is about Kamis, isn’t it?”
    She nodded, and he groaned. Kamis was the Vanir witch Raquel had placed a geis on in order to permit him to live on Midgard. It bound him to her as tightly as the bindings that tied her to her husband. Fen didn’t like that one bit, which would explain why Raquel might not want to discuss the problem with her husband.
    She blushed a little. “It’s probably nothing. He’s new to this world. It only makes sense that he’d want to explore it, don’t you think? He was trapped there for so long.”
    Uh-huh. Centuries trapped on a broken, sunless world where time and space were oddly warped. It was exactly why he, Aiden and most of the town worried that Kamis wasn’t entirely stable. Exactly what they didn’t need right now was a powerful, mentally unstable witch stirring up trouble while an investigator was sniffing around town. He rubbed at his head again. He should’ve grabbed aspirin and water.
    “Did he do something or are you worried he’s going to do