Weaving Fate - Nora Ash Page 0,85

don’t let us know the second you need to be carried tomorrow, I’ll show you exactly how much strength I have left. Fimbulwinter or no.”

I had a pretty good idea of how he was planning on showing me his strength, and I couldn’t hold back an amused snort even as my eyelids slid closed, my body more than prepared to obey his command to sleep. “Why is it always about fucking with alphas?”

“Sleep,” he growled.

I did.

The rest of the journey was still exhausting on a level I hadn’t experienced before, but true to his promise, Modi and Bjarni carried me whenever my body refused to continue another step. I knew it slowed the pace they could have set on their own, but I soon realized that it was faster for us all than if I tried to force my legs forward after I’d run out of steam.

It was midday on the fifth day when we, deep into Mount Rainier National park, finally located the portal.

We found it deep between a forest of huge pines and thick undergrowth that ripped at our clothes, its dark expanse a sharp contrast to the blanket of white covering everything else.

“Finally,” Bjarni sighed at the sight of it. He hadn’t said anything, but I knew both my alphas were stressing at our tight timeline. “Let’s not waste any time—come on.”

“I really think you should reconsider,” Loki said. He’d kept mostly quiet for the entirety of our journey, probably keeping Bjarni’s threat of getting silenced with a dirty sock in fresh recollection. “Niflheim is no place for a human. You know this.”

“I’m sure you are just dying with concern for our mate, and not in the least motivated by desire not to face Odin’s wrath,” Modi said, not bothering to look at him as he eyed the portal.

“Yes, well, be that as it may, my survival is also relying on the human girl surviving,” Loki said. “That part of the prophecy was clear. And if you get her killed in Niflheim, we’re all screwed.”

Bjarni spun toward him, eyes narrowed. “You do understand that if Saga or Magni dies, so does she, right? You do know how fundamental and inescapable the bond you were so keen on your sons to enter into is? Or was this grand plan of yours less contingent of the nitty-gritty details of how our lives would be forever altered, and more focused on how to save your own skin?”

Loki rolled his eyes. “Please, I have enough faith in Grim to know he’ll find a way out, even if Saga and Thor’s oaf of a bastard fail. If there’d been any real danger to them, of course I would have come to their aid.”

“Of course,” Bjarni bit.

“Ignore him,” I murmured, placing a hand on Bjarni’s bicep. “He’s just trying to distract us. Let’s go.”

“I will go through first with Loki,” Modi said. He was standing in front of the portal, letting his fingers skim over the void as he inspected it. “Make sure it is safe before you bring her through.”

“No!” My shout rushed out of my throat before I could stop it. I lunged the few yards from Bjarni to Modi, my heart hammering in my throat. I grasped on to his coat with both hands.

Modi stared down at where I had a hold of him, one eyebrow arched in clear bemusement at my reaction. “No?”

“I…” How did I explain to him how it’d felt like when Magni abducted me to Jotunheim through a portal and I’d thought I would die until Saga followed, gluing my soul back together? “We… We need to go together. At the same time.”

“It’s safer—” he started, but I cut him off before he had a chance to continue.

“No. If anything, it’s safer if all three of us are there, should something dangerous be waiting for us. It took the three of us to catch him, remember?” I said, jerking my head toward Loki without releasing my grip on Modi’s coat.

Modi sighed, an exasperated look passing over his handsome features, but he didn’t pry my hands off him. “Annabel—"

“Girl has a point,” Bjarni rumbled, his amusement obvious even without looking at him. “And if you make her use her magic to stay attached to you like a barnacle, she’s gonna need a fuck the moment we hit Niflheim. Dunno about you, but it’s almost been a week since I got off, and there’s no chance in Hel I’m keeping watch while you top off her magic.”

It was