Witches of East End - By Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,91

night in the forest. She had known who he was, truly; part of her had always known.

"When I arrived he told me his sentence had ended, that he'd been freed by Helda. But I began to be suspicious. Here, open the closet door, there's a bag on the floor."

Freya did as told and brought out a brown paper bag. Inside was a wool hat, flecked and crusted with blood. "This is Bill Thatcher's," she said.

"I found it in the basement when I first arrived and I hid it away until I could find out whose it was and where it was from."

"He was the one who killed Bill. Bill and Maura always walked that ridge, across from Fair Haven."

Killian nodded. "Bran came to Fair Haven in the middle of January, on the eve of the full moon. He must have worried that they had seen him in his true form when he first came to the house, so he attacked them."

Now she understood why she could not see who had murdered Bill; Loki's magic had prevented her from doing so. "He disguised himself as my mother." Freya told Killian what had happened - that Maura Thatcher had woken from her coma and fingered Joanna as Bill's murderer.

"I stayed so that I could figure out what he was planning, and because I could not keep away from you, of course. I suspected he was lying, that he had not been released and instead had broken out of his prison, and in so doing let darkness into this world. I still do not know how he did it - he must have a powerful weapon at his disposal, something that has allowed him to travel between the realms."

"His ring. He carries a ring on him," Freya said. It is my father's, Bran had told her. It is dear to me; it is all I have left of him. "Odin's ring." Made of dragon bone, it could take its bearer through the Nine Worlds, she told Killian.

"So that is how he broke out of his confinement. I thought it might have something to do with Fair Haven, where he was living, and on a hunch I sent Ingrid the plans, thinking she might be able to unlock the code."

"She did. She knows what's in Fair Haven. It holds a branch of Yggdrasil."

"So that was his secret," Killian said. "He had used the path through the tree to arrive in Fair Haven, for he knew the legend of the Guardians, and as one of us the house would accept him."

"I told him that you had given the plans to Ingrid and that she was close to figuring it out - he must have stolen them back, and that was why he attacked her, using your form. Oh, Killian, I've been so - "

"Stop. He has always played us false. It is his way. He knew what he was doing when he breached the tree and released the poisoned sap into Midgard."

"Then we are lost," Freya whispered. Her happiness at finding her true love was tempered by knowledge of the darkness that Loki had unleashed upon the world.

Ingrid appeared at the door. "I'm sorry to interrupt. But, Freya . . ."

"What's wrong?" Her sister looked fraught.

"It's Tyler. He passed away a few minutes ago."
Chapter forty-four
The Labyrinth

Then we don't have much time," Killian said. "It's the poison. It's stronger now. The children are the most vulnerable, but there will be more victims, more deaths, if we do not stop this."

"Ingrid . . . Killian is - "

"I know," Ingrid said with a brief nod. "I figured it out as well. Remember what I told you about Ragnarok? First the oceans will die? And how the toxin that's in North Hampton is similar to ones found near Sydney, Greenland, and Reykjavik? They just found one near Vietnam. Bran has been spreading it around the world since he arrived in Fair Haven in January." She explained how at first she had attempted to trace it to Killian's travels, but she could not find the Alaskan freighter where he was supposed to have served, nor the Sydney resort where he was supposed to have worked as a scuba instructor. As far as she could see, Killian had never been to any of those places, and with a start she'd realized that the person who had told them that Killian had traveled the world was Bran.

She began to investigate Bran's background and travels, and she realized her mistake in identifying