Page 51 of The Fanged One

"Hel's trials," she said, rubbing her temples. "The Norns don't do anything by halves, do they? Dark gods, what a mess. What is Fenris like? Clearly not as mean as they say if you've been carting him around Norway like a rescue dog."

Linnea rolled her eyes. "He's not a rescue dog, and there would be no carting him anywhere he didn't wish to go."

"That's not an answer. I want details, Lin! Is he hot? Oh, look at your face. He must be," Gudrun teased.

"He's..." Linnea looked into her tea, trying to find the right words. Quiet. Grumpy. Funny. Gentle in a way that made her chest hurt. The heat climbed up her neck and bloomed across her face before she could stop it.

Gudrun's eyebrow went up like a raised flag. "Oh. Like that, is it?"

"Don't start," Linnea begged.

"I said nothing."

"Your eyebrow said it."

"My eyebrow is its own woman. I can't control her." Gudrun sipped her tea, eyes glittering, and let the silence do her interrogating for her.

Linnea cracked in under ten seconds, which was about standard. "It's so strange, Gudrun. My wolf has lost its mind over him. I've never shifted once in my life, and the moment he walked out of that forest, the thing started acting like her favorite person in the Nine Worlds came home. It howls when he leaves a room. It hates that we are apart from him right now. I don't get it. It's never been like this about anyone."

Gudrun set her cup down. The teasing dropped away, and what was left was her teacher, the woman who had rebuilt Linnea out of salvage and stubbornness.

"Listen to me because I'm only going to be profound once today." She leaned forward, elbows on the wooden counter. "Your wolf has never once been wrong about a person. Not when you were a girl, not in that cult's cage, not now. It can't speak through a shift, so it speaks the only way it can, and you should trust its instincts, especially where you are going. The dead lie. Our wolves don't."

"It's a wolf that doesn't exist, according to the whole village," Linnea replied, the old wound stinging.

"The village has its own set of fools who act like dogs instead of wolves," Gudrun snorted.

Linnea crossed her arms. "We aren't mates, if that's what your wolf side is thinking. He had a wife and kids, and there's no way he would have agreed to be bound if it wasn't to protect a mate."

"You are assuming that," Gudrun pointed out. "Fenris isn't a wolf like us, Lin. He's a god who just so happens to turn into one. You just told me that we were made by the magic of the All-Father."

"But Alruna and Vili…" Linnea began.

"Vili is Alruna's mate because she is álfr! Vili is a god like Fenris."

The realization was like a bucket of water had been dumped over Linnea's head. Gudrun was right; she had been thinking of Fenris as a wolf and not a god.

"It still doesn't matter," she said at last. "I have no idea why I was chosen by Freya for this or why I feel about him the way I do."

"It doesn't matter why, only that you do." Gudrun shook her head at her like she always did when she thought Linnea was being too stubborn. "I always knew you were marked for something greater. The old prophecy to awaken Fenris asked for the blood of an unshifted female wolf, the rarest blood there is, and your veins were the ones carrying it. Freya looked across every völva in the north and set you to sing and soothe the Great Wolf. Twice now, fate has reached past everyone else in the room to put its hand on you. That isn't chance or convenience. You've been tied to that wolf since before you drew breath, girl, and I would bet my best runes the Norns..."

She stopped. The air in the cabin changed, a pressure against Linnea's ears like plunging into deep water. The herbs hanging from the beam swayed, and the back of her skull lit up with the warning prickle of magic arriving.

"Gudrun?"

Gudrun's eyes had gone pale, fixed on something a thousand miles past the cabin wall. When she spoke, her voice was distant and echoing.

"The Norns are weaving again. I see you and the Great Wolf's threads twisted into one cord. It's the next length of your wyrd, measured and strung. Remember your magic. It was made for the dark roads, and it won't fail you among the dead."

Her white eyes turned and found Linnea without seeing her. "Keep your head clear in the underworld. It's a realm of mirrors and pits. Don't be fooled by anything you see. Look for the truth under the lies. Listen to your gut and your heart before your eyes. Remember, when the dark rises, you are the light."

Gudrun blinked, and her eyes were normal again. "I went somewhere…"

"You did." Linnea's hands shook so hard she tightened them into fists.

"Whatever it was, I hope it was useful. We are out of time." Gudrun hopped off the kitchen stool and pointed to the window where headlights were swinging up through the blue dusk of the track. "Your brother drives like the Wild Hunt is chasing him. Come on, get your pack."

Linnea recited the words Gudrun had said back to her while they put their coats and boots back on. Linnea made sure the heating in the cabin was off, and the door was locked behind them.