Page 32 of Heart of Mischief

“What are you—” she started, turning.

But he was already gone.

She groaned, rolling her eyes.Classic Elias.Disappearing before conversations were over was one of his favorite mare tricks.

But not for long.

She smiled to herself, thinking of the new plan she’d formulated while they’d talked. She didn’t yet know how to pull it off. She didn’t even know if it waspossible. But it was her new guiding light, the promise to herself that would propel her forward even as she fulfilled her vow to Sophie.

She would take away Elias’s greatest advantage, and his greatest threat.

She would make him human again.

10

Later that evening, Charlie satcross-legged on her bed, Henry stretched out on the comforter in front of her. Her schoolbooks were closed, her laptop shut off. She needed total concentration for what they were about to attempt.

After leaving the forest, Charlie had spent the rest of the afternoon driving aimlessly through the back streets of Silver Shores, worrying about her conversation with Elias and glaring suspiciously at every squirrel that ran across the road, praying she didn’t see a red swirl on its forehead. The events of the day churned in her head like a smoothie on blend, a sickening one: a skewered vittra, two dead bodies with no fingers, Elias walking into the cafeteria, Mason smashing Elias’s face, Sophie flying in through the skylight, Elias in mare form, leaning in until he was so close that Charlie could feel his shadows… On and on the memories churned. Eventually, their edges started to blur.

She spent so long trapped inside her own mind that, when she finally looked back down at the clock, she realized school was over. Lou had swim team, Mason baseball practice, and Abigail whichever of the twenty-seven activities that occupied her afternoons, which meant no one needed a ride. She turned the Bronco around and headed home, where she said a quick hello to her mother, grabbed granola bars for herself and Henry, and ran upto her bedroom. She moved like a woman on a mission, because she was.

She was going to learn how to talk to her vätte.

Just as she reached over to silence her phone, it buzzed on the comforter, lighting up with a message in her group chat with Lou and Abigail, which Lou had renamed: Bad Bitches of Asgard.

ABIGAIL:Did you guys know that the Valkyrie are the ones who get to choose which male heroes get to reside in Valhalla and which have to go to Hel?

LOU:We certainly do

LOU:That’s the whole reason Bjorn and Vidar helped us out with the Fenrir, remember? They thought Sophie might be able to regain them access to Valhalla.

ABIGAIL:It’s so badass. They get to choose which men are worthy of heaven and which deserve eternal suffering.

ABIGAIL:That’s my idea of a perfect job.

LOU:HAHAHA

LOU:Same tbh

LOU:There are a few choice men I would send straight to the deep fryer

ABIGAIL:Me, too. Starting with those assholes who commented on your boobs at the swim meet last year.

LOU:Idk they were pretty well cooked by your verbal assault immediately after

LOU:I still owe you a bottle of wine for that btw

ABIGAIL:You don’t owe me anything. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

ABIGAIL:I’ve been reading a lot about the Valkyrie and their culture is fascinating. The accounts online differ widely, of course, since they’re all written by humans, but overall the Valkyrie really do seem like the best of the best.

LOU:Tell me u want to bang Linnea without telling me u want to bang Linnea

ABIGAIL:Louise!!!

ABIGAIL:This has nothing to do with her. I’m merely intrigued by them. Any culture that hypes up women is worthy of further study imho.

LOU:Whatever u say, horndog