Page 10 of Heart of Mischief

Abigail nodded.

Charlie sighed, running a hand through her hair. If not the Fenrir, then who? There were the draugar, of course. But there were countless others, too. Creatures she’d learned about from listening to the Vikings’ stories and poring obsessively over dusty old books.Creatures that frequently appeared in her dreams, if she managed to fall asleep.

Every night since homecoming, she had been plagued with nightmares. With her fears and memories chopped up, distorted, and gnarled at the edges: the Fenrir’s eyes glowing at the bottom of a dark pit; vittra descending upon her before she could make it to the lake, clawing at her arms and legs and drowning her screams; draugar skulking about in the forest, bones clicking and breath heavy, as Charlie hid behind a tree and prayed to every god of Asgard that the beasts wouldn’t find her. The gods never listened, and she always woke up smothering her own screams.

The nightmares were awful. So awful that she sometimes wondered if Elias wasn’t sneaking up from the underworld to give them to her personally.

She knew it was a preposterous idea. If he were torturing her in her sleep, he would stick around afterward to gloat about it, and he was never there when she woke up.

She always woke in a cold sweat, heart pounding furiously, like it had after homecoming when she’d been so certain it was about to stop entirely. The only way to fight it off was with one of her three defenses—most often recitation:

You will make yourself strong.

You will find Elias.

You will kill Elias.

You will never trust a boy with your heart again.

Finally, Charlie voiced the question that had weighed on her mind all morning. “Should we ditch? Go investigate?”

“One hundredpercentwe should go investigate,” Lou said with a little too much excitement, slamming her palms on the table. “I’ll drive.”

“There’s no need for us to beeline toward an active crime scene right now.” Abigail plucked an apple slice from her Tupperware. “Not when we aren’t positive it’s Norse-related.”

“Bullshit,” Lou said. “You just don’t want to miss your French quiz.”

“That’s merely a happy side effect,” Abigail said.

Lou turned to Charlie, widening her eyes hopefully. “Charles?”

“Before you two go making any idiotic, suspension-worthy decisions,” said Abigail, “I want to remind you that we’re due to help with the car wash tomorrow.”

“What car wash?” Charlie and Lou asked at the same time.

Abigail scoffed. “I can’t believe you already forgot. I’m running a car wash to raise money for OET, and I signed both of you up to volunteer. You should have gotten a confirmation email. But in case you didn’t open it…” She picked her phone up, swiping it open and tapping on the screen. She turned it around so they could see for themselves.

Lou and Charlie leaned in, squinting to read the email. There was a short message thanking them for their participation, then a list of names and assignments.

“Abigail Moore,” Lou read aloud. “Welcome Desk.Louise Fisher, Drier. Charlotte Hudson, Washer.And what’s this?” She scrolled a little farther down the email. “Mason Hudson, Drier?” Her eyes ballooned. “You signedMasonup without asking, too?”

“We need as many hands as possible,” Abigail said.

Lou cackled. “Oh, he is going tokillyou.”

As if on cue, Mason’s head appeared between Abigail and Lou. “Who’s killing who?”

Abigail yelped, phone flying out of her hands and landing on her cucumber sandwich. “Oh mygods, Mason.” She snatched her phone up. “You can’t sneak up on us like that.”

Mason threw his arms over Lou’s and Abigail’s shoulders. “Of course I can. It’s my right, as your best friend’s older brother.” His face became very serious. “So, who are we killing? Because I want in. Bjorn basically said I’m a combat protégé.”

“You’re killing Abby,” Lou said to Mason, “because she signed you up for the car wash.”

Mason let his head flop backward, groaning. “You didnot.”

“She did,” said Lou smugly.

“How can you even think about washing cars right now?” Mason asked, dropping his chin back down. “There’s a serial killer on the loose.”