Weaving Fate - Nora Ash Page 0,1
blood in their veins, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that even gods were affected by how much love they’d known.
I thought about what Bjarni had said on our trip to Udgaard—how Magni’d betrayed his mother’s kin to gain access to Asgard, only to be seen as a second-class citizen due to his Jotunn lineage. Had he ever known love?
“We won’t let anything happen to your mate,” Modi rumbled, the way he glanced at my face making me aware my emotions were showing in my features. “Either of them,” he reluctantly added.
“I don’t understand why they were taken in the first place,” I said, grateful for the distraction. “Even if Loki betrayed Asgard, why take it out on his sons?”
Modi snorted, placing a hand on my spine as he led me out the door of Trudheim. The once-busy yard seemed devoid of life now.
“Has Magni truly allowed that scum to twist your mind, omega? They’re not innocents, whatever they may have tried to portray to make you agree to this insane arrangement.”
“Wasn’t a whole lot of agreement from my side,” I muttered. “What do you mean, they’re not innocent?”
Modi sighed, free hand twitching on the pommel of his sword as if the mere mention of the Lokissons made him itch for battle. “I mean that they’ve taken up swords against the gods more than once. They align with the Jotunn whores who birthed them, not the Aesir. I myself have met them in battle. They’d see Asgard burned to the ground, if they had their way.”
“Seems to me they’d rather hide out in the human world and wait for Ragnarök to do its thing than fight gods—or Jotunns,” I said, reminded of how they’d tried to squirrel me away on their farm in Iceland.
“Perhaps—it’s not a shock that Loki’s spawn would turn cowards in the end,” Modi said. “But cowardice does not absolve them of the crimes of their past.”
“I mean…” The rush of offense his words stirred in me surprised me. The Lokissons were definitely still on my shit-list for how they’d gone about kidnapping me, but… “Is what you’re doing so much better?”
“Beg your pardon?” Modi turned to face me, both russet eyebrows meeting his hairline.
“You’re, what, planning to go off and fight that prick Surtr and his army? What good’s that going to do? As far as I understand from all the prophecies floating around these days, the gods are destined to die. You’re literally just going off to fight for no reason when you could be trying to save not only your own family, but the humans too. I don’t think what the Lokisson brothers are doing is any less noble.”
Heat colored Modi’s cheeks in bright red splotches, his eyes narrowing as he glared down at me. Grabbing my shoulder, he pulled me to a hard stop.
“You dare question my honor because I refuse to lower myself to this… this arrangement between you, my brother, and the three trolls? You, who spread your legs for the betrayer’s son? You know nothing of honor, omega, and you will not speak again on matters you don’t understand.”
Great. It seemed Magni didn’t get his haughty views on an omega’s place from strangers. I twisted my shoulder out of Modi's grip and gave him what I hoped was a withering stare.
“I don’t care about your honor, Thorsson; I care about my parents surviving. My entire species. You’re a freaking god, and you’d rather fight an unwinnable battle than even consider that Magni might be right. He took me to Verdandi, and she showed me the consequences of ignoring Mimir’s prophecy.
“Do you think I wanted any part of this? That Saga or Magni wanted to share a mate with each other? We’re doing what we have to to save the world. You don’t want to be a part of that? Fine. We don’t need you. But you don’t get to play high and mighty when you don’t have the balls to do what your brother or the trolls are trying to do.”
I wasn’t entirely sure where my anger came from. It wasn’t like any of the four men who’d brought me here had set out with noble intentions—they’d all wanted to claim me for selfish reasons. But after everything—after Verdandi’s warnings, after the trials to pass through to Asgard, and rescuing Magni in Freya’s hall—I knew both Saga and Magni would help me save the world from destruction, and that Grim and Bjarni would follow where their brother led.
That this stranger,