Perfekt Balance (The Ære Saga Book 3) (3 page)

“I know, but you almost fell back at your
place. You’re pushing yourself too hard.” Forse kept his voice
soft. He tucked his thumbs through the belt loops of his fitted
jeans. Concern emanated from his grass green eyes.

The whole effect kind of made me melt.

“I don’t really have a choice. Asgard needs a
Unifier. Besides”—I turned the tables—“you’ve barely slept since we
got Freya back. Between your regular work as Justice and whatever
it is you and Henrik are doing with that locationizer—”

“The locator. It’s going to be a useful
tracker if, Odin forbid, there’s another abduction. If it had been
operational when Hel took Freya, we could have found her in under a
day.” Forse raked his hand through his light brown waves. They were
streaked with gold highlights that complemented his tanned skin
beautifully.

“Really?” I asked.

“Pretty sure.” Forse raised his voice so he
could be heard in the kitchen. “Mia, you sketched the initial
design. If we’d had the locator in December, it could have tracked
Freya within twenty-four hours, right?”

“
Sure, if
she’d been in one of the light realms. But given her coordinates,
the answer is no.” Mia poked her head around the corner. “The
locator’s infrastructure incorporates
älva
dust, which is a light
magic-based compound. The surplus of dark magic in Hel’s sanctum
would have rendered the dust, and therefore the locator, useless.
The device will perform in dark realms like Jotunheim,
Svartalfheim, and even the outlands of Helheim, but dead spots
neutralize the
älva
dust. And by dead spots, I mean spots heavily riddled with
an excessive dosage of dark magic. Not spots covered in dead
people…like where Hel was keeping Freya.” Mia shuddered before
ducking back into the kitchen.

“That’s a major design flaw,” Forse admitted.
“Henrik and I need to get on that.”

“Maybe you do,” I agreed. “But you don’t have
to do it tonight. Between the locator and catching up on your
sentencings, you’ve been working nonstop lately. You need a
break.”

“Mmm.” Forse’s brow relaxed and one corner of
his mouth turned up just a fraction. “How about we make a deal?
I’ll slow down for a night if you will.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning it’s Friday. After dinner, we go
back to your place, pop in a movie, and forget about our to-do
lists.”

“
Okay,” I
said, my outward calm a stark contrast to the joy pinging around my
heart. I knew Forse well enough to know I needed to let him take
this at his own pace, but the thought of snuggling up against him
in my darkened living room, sharing a bowl of popcorn in front of
the fireplace…well, it made me feel positively euphoric.

Thank Odin I was the only one in the room who
could read energy. Mine was absolutely bouncing off the walls.

“
Say
hei
to Tyr for me,” I said casually.

Forse
nodded, then jogged up the stairs to find his friend. His dark
jeans hugged the
perfekt
muscles of his backside, and when I finally turned around
and walked into the kitchen, Mia gave me a rueful smile.

“Sorry I interrupted you guys back at your
place.” She handed me a cup of tea and tilted her head toward the
hallway. “It looked like I walked in on a moment.”

I took
the mug and crossed to the island countertop. Then I pulled out a
stool and sat down. “You didn’t. Forse is…well, he’s Forse. You
know how guys are.”

“Overprotective? Overbearing? Bossy?
Stubborn? Impossibly concerned with your wellbeing to the point
they assign you a full-time bodyguard?” Mia came to sit beside me,
carrying her own cup of tea.

“
You must
be talking about my brother.” I took a sip.
Mmm.
Spearmint.

“One and the same. I love Brynn, and I love
spending time with her, but you and I both know she’d rather spend
time with Henrik, instead of following me to midterms and hovering
over my shoulder in the library. At some point, Tyr’s going to have
to understand that I can take care of myself.” Mia tapped her
French-tipped fingers against her cup.

“True,” I agreed. “But that ‘some point’
isn’t going to be a few months after a homicidal wolf tried to kill
you.”

Mia let out a delicate harrumph.

“Face it, Mia, when you signed on to date
Tyr, you signed on to a lifetime of weird. And part of that weird
comes with a security detail. If you don’t like it, you can always
get a mortal boyfriend.” I bit back my smile, knowing full well
what was coming next.

“You hush your mouth, Elsa Fredriksen. I love
your brother, and that’s that. But sometimes I wonder if he’s ever
going to see me as his teammate, instead of as someone else he has
to protect.”

“He’s Tyr the Protector. It’s literally in
his job description.” I took another sip of tea.

“
I know,
but…”

“Hey.” I reached over to cover Mia’s hand
with mine. “I get it. He treats me the same way, and I’m a Key.”
Keys were gods who played integral functions in the Asgardian
infrastructure—Seers, Procurers, Transporters, and me—the quirky
High Healer/Unifier hybrid. “But you’re a mortal. And he’s in love
with you. It’s going to take him a while to stop helicopter
boyfriending you.”

“Helicopter boyfriending?” Mia giggled.

“
You know
what I mean.” I squeezed her hand. “Someday you’ll stand at Tyr’s
side and protect our realm with a strength that matches his. You’re
just going to do it in your own way. And until then…” I
shrugged.

“Helicopter boyfriend.”

“Exactly.”

We exchanged a smile. Mia brought her mug to
her lips and took a sip. After a minute, she turned back to me. “So
when do I start training?”

“Training?” I tilted my head.

“
To be a
Unifier. The sooner I get up to speed, the sooner I can help you
guys protect Asgard and Earth. And the sooner Tyr will drop the
whole bodyguard thing, right? God knows Brynn needs to be focusing
on her
own
life
right now, not mine.”

Adrenaline surged through me as Mia’s question ran across
my brain.
Train Mia?
I barely understood what unifying was, how was I supposed
to teach the most important person in my brother’s life to use it
to protect the realms…and herself? I stilled an involuntary shiver
and pasted on a smile to deflect the question. “Brynn’s a pretty
formidable valkyrie. She’s got things under control.”

“
Yeah,
but she needs to be spending time with Henrik. They’ve
waited
forever
to
get to be together.” Mia nodded.

“True. But they’re making time for each other
when they can.” I willed my heartbeat to settle. “They’re not here
right now, are they?”

“
No.
They’re out for a run. Wait.” Mia’s brows shot up and I permitted
myself an inward sigh of relief.
Mortal diverted. Mission
accomplished.
She’d dropped
the Unifying question for now, but I knew my reprieve was only
temporary. Mia was as tenacious as she was smart, and she
desperately wanted—and deserved—to use her natural gift of bringing
people together to help our team. My resolve to learn the elusive
unifying skill strengthened
.
Mia needed me. The realms needed both of us. I
wouldn’t let everyone down.
Figure it out, Elsa.
Fast.

“Wait what?” I grounded my energy to the
kitchen and centered myself in present time. I could worry another
day.

“
Wait,
Henrik never runs.” Mia connected the dots. “He lifts weights and
boxes and does that suspension training thing, but he hates
jogging. There’s no way he’d…”

“Exactly.” I nodded. “They’re good. Now how
about you? We haven’t gotten to catch up since you finished
midterms. Are you doing all right?”

I did a quick scan of Mia’s energy. As
always, her love center emitted a radiant, pinkish-gold hue. She
was one of the most refreshingly open mortals I’d met. But her
visualization center was muddied. She was understandably anxious
about the future and what it meant for her, especially since Tyr’s
nightmares kept coming true—the gods close to him were under siege,
and so far we hadn’t done the best job of protecting ourselves.

“I’m a little uncomfortable,” Mia admitted.
“I’ll feel a lot better once I know I can help keep the peace
around here. Maybe then we’ll stop being attacked by people. Or, by
dogs. Or by demons. Or whatever.”

The poor
girl didn’t yet understand that we would
always
be under attack. It was the
nature of being of Asgard. You didn’t get to rule the realms
without making a
lot
of enemies. Loss was just the name of the game.

I miss them so much.

“Elsa? Are you okay? You’re gripping your mug
really hard.” Mia gently pried my fingers away from my cup.

“
Sorry. I
was supposed to be checking in on
you
.” I shook the memories from my head.
There was little point to dwelling on the past. It wouldn’t bring
my parents back, and it sure wouldn’t help Mia’s peace of mind. I
grounded myself in the present. Again. “Okay. What were you
saying?”

Mia squeezed my fingers. “I’m asking you to
train me. I’m tired of feeling like the helpless human—I want to do
something to actually help y’all out. Midterms are over, and I’ve
got two weeks off for spring break. My parents and Jason are coming
out for the first week, but then they’re going back to the East
Coast, so I’ve got free time. If you’re up to it?”

I bit my bottom lip. My reprieve hadn’t
lasted a full two minutes. But how could I train Mia to be a
Unifier when I hadn’t mastered the allegedly inherited skill set
myself? Unifying was supposed to be in my blood. Under my mom’s
dominion, we’d lost fewer lives than at any point in our
history.

And here I couldn’t even break through the
blocker on the crush-of-my-existence’s heart.

“About that,” I hedged. I owed Mia an
explanation for my foot-dragging. “I’m not exactly the best Unifier
just yet.”

“Too bad.” My brother burst into the kitchen
like a bull in a china shop. He stopped in front of the sink,
crossed his arms over his chest, and eyed me levelly. “At the
moment, you’re the only Unifier we’ve got. Time to goddess-up and
get in the field.”

“What are you talking about?” I tucked one
blond wave behind my ear as Forse stalked into the kitchen behind
Tyr. His jaw was clenched, his shoulders pulled back to military
attention, and the wrinkle between his brows was so deep, it could
have held a pencil. “What’s going on?”

“Ask him.” Forse jutted his chin at Tyr and
stood behind me. He put his hands on the back of my chair as he
stared my brother down. “For the record, I do not agree with
this.”

“I know you don’t.” Tyr met his glare. “But
we don’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice.” Forse’s voice was
even, but his hands clenched my chair so hard, I heard a knuckle
crack. The tension in the room was palpable; the kitchen was draped
in the thick, red fog of anger.

The emotions were overwhelming. I shut down
my abilities so I could focus. “What. Is. Going. On?”

Before I got my answer, the front door
slammed and Brynn and Henrik’s footsteps pounded in the hallway.
When they skidded to a stop in the kitchen, I noticed Brynn’s
T-shirt was on backwards. I bit back a smile.

“How was your ‘run?’” Mia teased, using her
fingers to make air quotes.

Brynn flushed before tucking her head into
Henrik’s chest. “Good,” she muttered.

“
We got
your text,
kille
.
Everything okay?” Henrik rested his hand on Brynn’s lower back. She
stuck her tongue out at Mia, who giggled in response.

“Everything is great. We have a twenty on one
of our top-ten fugitives.” Tyr didn’t take his eyes off Forse.

I turned around. “That’s a good thing. Right,
Forse?”

“
That’s
not why I’m upset.” Forse held Tyr’s stare. I’d turned off my extra
sense, but anyone could see the equivalent of energetic fire
shooting from his eyes.
Yikes.

“What’s Forse upset about?” Mia asked.

“
He’s
upset because I’m bringing Elsa into the field with us to retrieve
the perp.” The vein in Tyr’s neck pulsed. Oh, great. He was
really
mad, though
whether it was at Forse, me, or this yet-to-be-identified perp, I
hadn’t yet assessed.

“She’s not ready. And you know it’s probably
a trap.” Forse spoke through gritted teeth.

“Maybe. Which is why Brynn and I are going
with you.” Tyr nodded.

“
What?
Who’s going to watch Mia? Or is she coming with us to…wait, where
are we going?” Brynn asked.

“I can take care of myself,” Mia
objected.

Tyr glanced at Mia out of the corner of his
eye. It didn’t take a High Healer to see how irritated she was, and
my normally thick-headed brother crossed to her side to soothe her
in an uncharacteristic display of sensitivity. He wrapped his arms
around her shoulders and spoke to Brynn. “You and your boyfriend
can swap jobs for a few days. Henrik, I want you to stay here with
Mia. You can call Freya back from Asgard if you need help getting
anything ready for Mia’s family’s visit. Mia, you’ve been adding to
that ‘Must Bake For Jason Cookie List’ in your backpack for weeks,
and Henrik is Asgard’s resident baker’s man. I know he’d love to
help.”

“If this is your way of making me forget how
annoyed I am that you don’t trust me to take care of myself, then
you aren’t as bright as I thought you were, Tyr Fredriksen.” Mia
huffed. Then she turned to Henrik. “But he’s not wrong, I have a
laundry list of things to do to get ready for my family’s visit.
Including bake.”