FROST- Jotun Chronicles #1

Hidden Talents

            “I am sorry.” Loki reached out a hand and his fingers brushed mine, surprising me. “I really am.” He withdrew, and I found myself a bit disappointed. I’d had the crazy impulse to grab his hand and hold on. He was somehow both strange and comforting.

            “Look,” he said. “I’ll take you there, to California. It will take a few days, but this van should get us there.”

            “Is that part of your job too,” I asked, “driving me to California?”

            “Sure it is.” He grinned. “Why not?”

            Loki punched the buttons on the radio, tuning into a rock station, and I lay back and shut my eyes for awhile, listening to him sing along. He had a nice voice actually, a little bit raspy now and then, but nice. My mind wandered, I tried to picture myself running away to California without telling Dave, but I just couldn’t do it. Charlotte’s face suddenly swam before me, giving me a guilty start. I hadn’t even really considered the girls at school. I was almost positive that Amy and her friends had been taken, the same way I had, but what about Charlotte? Was she one of us? Or was Amy right in thinking she’d missed the cut? I remembered what Loki had said about the experiments with mixing blood not working sometimes. Was Charlotte a cast off? I hoped so, it made me break out in a cold sweat thinking about someone clonking little Charlotte over the head and dragging her off to some ice palace.

 I suddenly remembered what the weight in my pocket was, and pulled out my cell phone. I didn’t have to worry if she was okay, I could text her and make sure. My fingers hovered over the buttons for a second. What should I write? Pretty sure I shouldn’t say, “Hey, been kidnapped yet?”

I settled for a simple, “hey” and obviously if she texted me back, she wouldn’t be doing so while kidnapped.

            I noticed Loki staring at me.

            “Don’t worry, I’m just texting one of the girls at school. She looks like me, but she isn’t tall. Do you think the Queen would want her too?”

            “I’m not sure, it depends what she wants them-you guys, for. It sounds like her blood didn’t mix well though, so probably not.”

            I heaved a sigh of relief and returned my phone to my pocket, telling myself she was fine, that she would text back in a minute; she was just busy reading a teen magazine or something. That seemed like something she’d read.

            We drove on for an hour longer, and Loki took the opportunity to describe his home, the city of Muspelheim.

            “You should see it, Megan, it amazing. The palace is all done in oak, with the most beautifully crafted urns and jars you’ve ever seen, all fired in the royal kilns and there are giant feasts in the great hall, where the fire roars eternally in the hearth. Wine flows endlessly, and there is no end to the merriment. “ Loki’s face was glowing as he spoke, and I wished I could see what he was seeing in his memories.

            “And what’s the palace of the Frost Giants look like?” I asked eagerly. 

            His smile slipped a little. “Ah, cold. It’s all made of solid ice.”

            My mouth dropped open. “Get real!”

            Loki glanced over at me and laughed. “You should see your face! I am real. The whole damn thing is made of chunks of ice.”

            I shivered. “Sounds unpleasant.”

            “Oh, it is. Horrible place, so cold.”