Valkyrie

Chapter 16

I felt like I'd been mule kicked in the solar plexus. I stood for a few moments, staring at Loki like I didn't understand what he'd just said. Maybe I didn't. Because he couldn't have just said that Sterling Matthews, the insane wolf shifter that cut me open with a silver blade and tried to eat me alive when I was only twenty, had a sliver of Yggdrasil, the world tree that held up the universe, the ginormous ash that merged multiple realms, even other worlds, with this one. That tree. A small piece of it that would allow him to travel between the realms and come and go wherever he wanted with a simple thought and who the fuck knew what else it would allow him to do. That blasted, gods-cursed mother fucking tree.

"How?" I asked when I was finally able to pull in enough oxygen to form words.

Loki reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes shifting away to the side before they came back to mine. He moved a little before he stilled. He was fidgeting. "I may have lost it on a bet."

"Not my problem," I said, crossing my arms again. I didn't drop them this time when their eyes fell to my chest. Let them stare. I was too tired to care.

"I disagree. If you weren't so good at riding that death trap on two wheels, I would have won. So, therefore, it is your problem."

"Wait," I said, closing my eyes and shaking my head. "Did you actually bet against me?" I opened my eyes and looked at Loki. He dropped his eyes and fiddled with the end of one of his braids. I hadn't noticed the small, silver bead threaded over the end of it until he was rolling it around between his fingers. "You should know better than that. I mean, everyone knows that you are a colossal fucking idiot but I didn't think you were that stupid."

"The mortal child was supposed to win," he snapped. "You were winning. I had to do something." He stomped a foot. Actually stomped a foot like a child having a tantrum. That was basically Loki in a nutshell. A child in a man's body with the temper and lack of self-control to match.

"The mortal child?" A flare of white in my eyes and my bike wobbling beneath me as I remembered the incident from the track that I had completely forgotten about. I'd thought someone was taking pictures with a flash camera. "That was you? You purposely tried to make me wreck just so Sanders could beat me and you could win a bet?" Outrage colored my words. A faint growl came from Trey but a cold glance from me cut it off. I could fight my own battles, thank you very much. I didn't need his help.

"Maybe a little," Loki said, holding his finger and thumb about an inch apart, his face scrunched up.

I snorted. "You forgot something, dumb ass. I'm not susceptible to magic of any kind. Not yours. Not your families. Not any divine power." Which was something not ture of all Valkyrie. I'm special. I don't know why. Not being susceptible to his magic also meant I had no excuse for the ten years I'd spent with him but whatever. It was what it was, a mistake never to be repeated.

"Huh," Loki said, rubbing his smooth chin. "I had forgotten about that. It was so very long ago that we spent any time together." Loki looked over at Trey, a slow, cold-edged smile spreading over his lips. "Did she tell you about me? About the years we spent together?"

"No," Trey said.

"Drop it," I said, stepping closer and calling the slender blade to my hand again. I pointed it at Loki, the tip of it steady in the middle of his chest. "Now." There was no way I was going to explain my past relationship with the god to Trey. Ever. The less he knew the better. "I'm tired and not in the mood for your games. Tell me who hurt Mischa and I won't stab you."

"I don't actually know who it was," Loki said. I pressed harder with the blade, the tip cutting through his shirt and putting another hole in it next to the one I'd already made. Loki put his hands up again, sucking in a breath. "Please stop poking holes in my shirt. I like this one." I stepped back again and let the blade go. Keeping it out was taking way more energy than I realized. He ran his fingers over the material and the holes disappeared. "I don't know their name but they were there at the track the night you made me lose the sliver. They seemed very friendly with the mortal child and the one that I'm tracking. They were all huddled together after you left, talking."