Page 42 of Heart of Mischief

These six items proved the most important that the gods would ever own, and it was thanks to Loki’s shrewdness that they came into existence. That was the way of the god of mischief, as Twelve Essential Tales often stated: as much as he caused havoc for the other gods, he also used his shrewdness to their benefit.

“You know of them?” Elias asked.

“Of course I do,” said Charlie. “They’re central to one of the most important stories in all of Norse mythology.”

He glanced over, raising an eyebrow. “Someone’s been doing her research.”

“Obviously.” She rolled her eyes. “So, what do the Sons know about Rattatosk?”

“Well, the Sons died ages ago. They now reside in Helheim with the rest of the dead, in a smithy they built for themselves. Even in death, dwarves have to keep their hands busy. Before I left for Silver Shores, I paid them a visit. I thought they might be able to fashion an object that could track the location of Rattatosk’s leash.”

“And did they?” Charlie yelled over the wind.

“They did,” he yelled back. “Sort of. They couldn’t track the exact location of the leash—not without a piece of Rattatosk himself. A hair, a claw, a prick of blood. Something like that. But theywereable to create a set of bowls that, when filled with a certain elixir, revealed which realm the leash is in.”

For several seconds, Charlie just stared at Elias, saying nothing.

Eventually, Elias glanced over. “What?”

“The realm,” she repeated, disbelief making her face a blank sheet. “The only information you have is whatrealmthe leash is in.”

“Not quite.” He turned off Birch and onto Holland, the main drag that led in and out of town. They were heading north—away from Silver Shores. “They created eight bowls, one for each realm. Then they brewed a clear elixir infused with the essence of the binding magic that was used to create the leash. They poured a small measure of the elixir into each bowl, then mumbled a bunch of mumbo jumbo in dwarvish. According to the Sons, whichever bowl’s liquid turned gold was where the leash was at that moment.”

“I still don’t see how this ridiculous invention is supposed to help our search. Every one of the realms is as big as aplanet, Elias. We’d never find it.”

“That would probably be true,” he admitted, “if only one of the bowl’s elixirs had turned gold.”

“Wait. More than one turned gold?”

“Two did.” He paused, flipping on his blinker.

“So there are two separate leashes?”

Elias shook his head, pressing on the gas to speed past the Volvo in front of them. “No. There is only one Rattatosk, and only one leash to control him. The Sons never made a second.”

“So their bowls didn’t work.”

He shook his head again. “No. The Sons’ creations always work. Plus, they repeated the entire process, like, four times. It always gave us the same result.”

“I don’t understand,” said Charlie. “If there’s only one leash—and if you’re absolutely positive the bowls aren’t wrong—then how the Hel can it be in two places at once?”

“That,” he said, “is what brings us to the Saugatuck dunes. There’s only one type of creature that can exist in two places at once. They’re called joturri. They come from Jotunheim, the land of the giants, and their consciousness exists between two forms:one that looks mostly like any old giant you would come across, and another of their choosing. It could be a person, land animal, sea creature—you name it. But there are always two of them, and they act as one being.”

“I’ve never even heard of them.”

“That’s because joturri are rare. Long ago, the giants turned against their two-bodied cousins. There was a war between the two species, and the giants won. The joturri are practically extinct now. Only a rare few remain, and they keep themselves so well hidden they’re almost impossible to find.”

“Let me guess.” Charlie was already mentally rolling her eyes. “They’re almost impossible to find, but becauseyouare an all-knowing, genius wizard-shadow-sex god, you know exactly where to find one.”

A lopsided grin spread across Elias’s face. “Couldn’t have put it better myself.”

“Of course.” She stuck her hand out the side of the car, opening her fingers to feel the wind rushing through them. The distraction was working; the panic was almost completely gone. “Which bowls’ elixirs turned gold? You didn’t say.”

The smile fell from Elias’s face. They were coming up on a cement mixer, so he flicked his blinker and changed to the left lane. He cleared his throat. “The bowl for Asgard,” he said, urging the car faster, flying past with only a few feet of space between the convertible’s open window and the truck’s rotating tank. Charlie held her breath until they burst out in front, claiming the open road once more. Elias flicked his blinker on again, shifting into the right lane. “And the bowl for Muspelheim.”

A hole opened under Charlie. A well of panic and terror into which her entire body dropped, swallowing her before she could even begin to swim.

“The leash is…” She blinked at Elias. “The leash is inMuspelheim?”