Page 56 of Heart of Mischief

But she knew that Lou was right. When they were kids, the two had been mischiefs-in-arms, dragging Sophie into ploys that her shy twin wanted nothing to do with. But on the night that she lost Sophie—or, at least,thoughtshe lost her—Charlie had shrunk into herself. Lost the playful, adventurous side of her personality. Had become, if she were being honest, something of a zombie.

Numb. Barely able to speak.

Last month, Charlie had finally tasted the adventurous side of herself again. She’d begun to blossom, to fill with hope and an almost painful desire for thrills. In her mind, it was Asgard that had awakened that part of her again. It was the forest, and Henry, and the will-o’-the-wisps, and the ash wives. Not to mention learning that her twin sister wasn’tactuallydead. No—she was alive and had transformed into a badass winged warrior princess. While things between them weren’t the same as they once were, and while Charlie might now be experiencing an entirelydifferentform of pain (one that had to do with the fact that her twin had revealed she was still alive but had only come to see her twice, and for brief, terse, visits at that), merely knowing that Sophie wasn’t dead had certainly eased some of Charlie’s grief.

But it had nothing to do with the dark-haired boy who had handed her the eyaerberry that started it all.

Nothing.

“All I’m saying,” Lou went on, “is that we don’t really know Elias. We don’t know his past. We don’t know his motivations. We don’t know what made him the way he is.”

I do, Charlie thought.I know. Or, at least, I know a small part.

She could have shared what she knew. Lou had given her the perfect segue. But part of her… well, frankly, part of her felt too guilty to disclose his secrets. Even after everything he’d done. Even when he claimed not to care anymore.

“Oh, I see,” said Mason. “This is a delusional offshoot of yourobsession with serial killers. You’ve always been the type to look at Jeffrey Dahmer and see someone who just needed to be loved.”

“That’s because hedidneed to be loved,” she snapped. “Just like everyone else in this world.”

Mason rolled his eyes. “Okay, Mother Teresa.”

“Plus,” Lou added, “now that Elias is back and everyone thinks he and Charlie are still together, he’stotallygoing to get us into the senior section at the camp-out this weekend.”

Charlie and Mason groaned in unison.

“Thereit is,” said Mason. “Now you’re starting to sound like Louise Fisher again.”

“Hey, I meant everything else I said, too.” She grinned. “I’m a multifaceted girl. The chance to party is an added benefit. Speaking of…” She pulled out her phone, clicking the side to turn on the screen. “Shouldn’t you and the other boys be hitting the road? All the money is collected, and it’s a long drive up to…”

Her voice trailed off.

“What?” Charlie asked. “What is it?”

“It’s…” Lou swallowed thickly. Her face had drained of its color. “You two should…” She shook her head, turning the screen around to show them.

That was when they saw the photograph.

It was a close-up of two dead bodies. Something taken on a cell phone and leaked from the crime scene, no doubt. Far too graphic to be listed on any respectable news site. It showed a boy and a girl lying on the pavement of a thin alleyway, right in front of a garage door. Faces pale. Eyes open and unseeing. Clothes splattered with blood. Slash marks on their chests.

No fingers on their hands.

A third killing. Six dead in under thirty-six hours.

Charlie didn’t recognize them, a fact for which she was briefly grateful—then immediately felt awful for feeling any relief at all when two innocent kids were dead.

But the thing that scared Charlie the most had nothing to do with the bodies, nothing to do with blood stains or missing fingers. What scared Charlie the most was the message carved into the garage door behind them, letters jagged as if scratched with a long, sharp claw:

CHILDREN OF LOKI…

COME OUT, COME OUT,

WHEREVER YOU ARE.

19

“Can’t thiswait?” Abigail snappedasCharlie and Lou dragged her under the bleachers, Mason close behind. “I have money to count, and I can’t afford to waste time on—”

“No one cares about accounting right now,” Lou said, holding up her phone screen. “Look.”