Page 18 of Heart of Mischief

Captain. Charlie shook her head in quiet awe. She may not know exactly what one had to do to earn the title of captain of the Valkyrie, but it was probably something ridiculously impressive. The Valkyrie were under Odin’s command; her twin must have impressed the Allfather a great deal in only two years to already be in a position of power.

This is it, Charlie thought, watching Sophie stand comfortably under Lou’s arm. This was the moment for Charlie to finally close the space between her and her twin. To hug her. To tell her how much she’d missed her. How happy she was that Sophie was alive and so obviously thriving.

Charlie took a tentative step forward.

Before she could cross the open space to her sister, Sophie gentlylifted Lou’s arm and stepped backward, putting distance between them. The moment had passed.

Sophie smiled softly, saying, “I missed you, too, Louise.”

Groaning, Lou let her head fall back. “Ohno.” She straightened up, eyeing Sophie warily. “Don’t tell me being a fancy warrior princess captain means you’re required to use my full name now.”

Sophie paused, as if taken aback by Lou’s question. She blinked once, then tilted her head, considering. “It is not… required, no.”

“But?”

“But.” Sophie lifted one leather-clad shoulder. “It is the way of things.”

“The way ofwhatthings?” Lou asked.

“Sophie,” Charlie said, raising her voice a little louder than intended. The others looked over in surprise. “Um.” She cleared her throat, trying to shake herself loose, to appear more confident than she felt. “You said you had a message.”

“Yes,” Sophie said. “I would have come earlier, but I had to wait until I was sure the mare had left the premises.”

“Is it about the note I left?” Charlie asked. “About Loki being our father? Because—”

Sophie scoffed, waving a leather-clad hand. “Of course not. I brought your message to the Allfather, and he dismissed it right away. Loki has been locked in Helheim for millennia, ever since he murdered Odin’s son Balder. He can’t be our father.”

“But he can access Asgard’s connection points to Helheim. For a handful of minutes at a time. Five, at least. That’s long enough to conceive a baby.”

“Five minutes?” Lou frowned. “Your poor mother.”

Charlie ignored her. “I’m just saying. It’s possible.”

“It’s not,” Sophie said. “The gods’ procreation doesn’t work the same as that of a human. That’s why the deities don’t have thousands of offspring running around; creating a god’s baby is a process of advanced magic. It takes far longer than five minutes.”

Something deflated within Charlie that she hadn’t even known was beginning to balloon in the first place.

“Ew,” Lou said excitedly. “More details on god sex, please.”

“That’s not why I’m here.” Sophie looked between them seriously. “I’m here to deliver a warning.”

The words were enough to pull Charlie out of her strange disappointment. “A warning?” she asked. “About what?”

“About the murders that occurred here last night. I’m sure you’ve heard about them.”

“We have.” Maddie and Milo’s cold, fingerless bodies flashed through Charlie’s memory, making her stomach churn. “We’re the ones who found them.”

“Oh.” Sophie blinked. “I am… sorry. It’s not easy seeing a dead body for the first time.”

Another image flashed through Charlie’s memory. This time, of a closed casket at the front of a church. Though Charlie hadn’t actually been able to see Sophie’s body that day, she’d felt that she could feel her twin. Or, more accurately—thelackof her. A hole in the universe where her other half had once been.

And it had all been a lie.

Charlie said none of this. Instead, she asked, “What does Odin know of the murders?”

“He knows who did it.”

This brought Charlie up short. “Seriously?”