Sorority Subterfuge, page 2
“Far too many to name.” Professor Geryn’s eyes lit up. “But since you asked, my personal favorites are the Diadem of Latin Luna, the Scepter of Selene, and of course, the Orb of Máni. That last one is a particularly exquisite sample—it was discovered roughly one thousand years ago in western Norway, and it weighs in at more than twenty pounds. It’s one of the most well-preserved pieces of moonstone ever found.”
Goose bumps broke out across my forearms. I knew it!
“That’s the piece.” I leaned closer to Janna and Brigga. “That’s what our dark mage is going after next.”
Brigga flipped a page in her notebook. She tapped her pencil to the list she’d written on the parchment. At the top it read, Spell to Control Mankind and All The Realms—the name of the mage’s intended enchantment. Below, Brigga had listed the ingredients. She’d crossed off those he’d already collected.
“He’s got the meteor rock and illy flower,” Brigga said quietly. “But so far as we know he still needs quanta crystal—whatever that is—balboa bark, and a moonstone.”
“And what better moonstone to collect than one belonging to Máni.” I groaned. “Or any of the other exquisite samples that will be showing up right where we happen to be.”
“We have to keep the target away from that exhibit,” Janna whispered.
“Or . . .” My lips tugged upward.
Janna tilted her head. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that we don’t know how to find him, and the best-preserved sample of one of his three remaining ingredients is going to be right here on campus . . .”
Brigga’s brow quirked. “We know where he’ll be.”
“We don’t know when he’ll make a move for the specimen, but it’s definitely going to happen,” I confirmed. “Which means we can set up a sentry schedule, and—”
“Shh!” Morgan hissed from my right. “Professor Geryn’s explaining the lab.”
“Sorry, Morgan,” I whispered. I turned to Janna and Brigga and mouthed, “Talk later?” They both nodded before returning their attention to the podium.
I shifted my shoulders and feigned focus. But I barely heard a word of the professor’s instructions. For the first time in two weeks, we had a solid lead . . . and a real shot at taking down our target. We were back in the game.
Now all we had to do was win it.
Chapter 2
“HEI, SHIELDMAIDEN. YOU’RE LOOKING . . .” Axel’s eyes moved slowly over my body before settling on the exposed section of skin at my midriff.
“Careful, Andersson,” I warned.
“I was going to say fierce,” he said defensively. “You’re looking particularly fierce today.”
“I look fierce every day.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
Even I was distracted by this absurd training attire. But leggings and a “sports bra” were the preferred gym outfit for females at Southern California State. And I was nothing if not committed to this mission.
“My eyes are up here, Andersson.” I tapped his forehead. The skin above his beard turned a light shade of pink. Snort.
“Right.” Axel raked his fingers through the silky brown waves that fell around his shoulders. “I was just, uh . . .”
“Getting the weapons?” I dropped to a mat and reached for my toes. “What are we sparring with today? Short swords? Daggers?”
“Sticks.” Axel tied his hair in bun. The muscles of his bare arms flexed with the movement.
Gods, he had spectacular arms.
“And my eyes are up here, Shieldmaiden.”
“Shut up. Wait, sticks? What about the blades?”
“They installed a metal detector at the gym entrance.” Axel shrugged. “I can’t sneak the good stuff in anymore.”
“Huh. That makes training more difficult.” I bent one leg behind me and leaned over the other.
“We’ll just have to find another place for blade training. The residences are out, but maybe we can locate an open space somewhere off campus. One of those hiking trails in the hills maybe, or the beach. We’ll figure something out.” Axel crossed to the corner of the room and pulled two thick wooden dowels from the wall. He tossed one onto the ground in front of me and held the other in his right hand. “They use these for something called barre class, but they’ll suit our purposes well enough.”
“If you say so.” I swapped legs and stretched the other one. “Door’s locked, right?”
Axel crossed to the doorway and jiggled the handle. He’d secured us one of the gym’s small workout rooms—one at the back of the building. It lacked the weapons stash of our training rings back home, but it was the only private space we could find. And privacy was key for time-traveling Vikings on an undercover mission.
“Ja, it’s locked,” he confirmed. “Now, if you’re finished stretching, can we get started already?”
“Impatient today?” I raised one arm above my head and gently pulled on my elbow.
“I’ve just been waiting around for you to show.” Axel twirled his stick with one hand. “I warmed up twenty minutes ago.”
“Sorry about that.” I switched arms, tugging lightly on my left tricep. “We had to talk to our professor about the exhibit he’s curating.”
“What’s he curing?”
“Cur-ating,” I corrected. I quickly filled him in on the moonstones, Máni’s orb, and the likelihood that our dark mage would be back on site in the next few weeks.
“So, you’re saying we have another shot at trapping our target?” Axel moved into a two-handed spin. “Nice.”
“It’s more than nice.” I picked up my own stick and pushed myself to my feet. “It could be our endgame. We catch him now, we can bring him home to Freia and Halvar before he gets any farther. Nobody hurts Valkyris. We continue to exist. We get out of here before somebody blows our cover . . .”
“Don’t look at me.” Axel dropped into a fighting pose. “I have more than adapted to twenty-first century college life.”
“No kidding,” I muttered. “You don’t have to flirt with every girl who throws herself at you. I saw you walking those blondes back to their house last night.”
“I can’t help it if the Deltas have a thing for Norsemen.” Axel tapped his stick lightly against mine. “Besides, you know I prefer redheads.”
“Mmm-hmm.” I leaned on my right leg and held my weapon parallel to the ground. Then I lunged forward. I brought my stick onto Axel’s and swatted it down.
“Aw, don’t be like that.” Axel picked up his dowel and resumed his stance. “Nothing happened.”
“I never said it did.” I struck a second time, felling Axel’s stick again.
“Why, Ingrid Tirsdatter.” Axel retrieved his fallen weapon. He leapt forward, striking my stick with a force that left my hands vibrating. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous.”
“Of some dim-witted Deltas?” I hit back, forcing Axel to duck. “I hardly think so.”
“If it looks like a reindeer and walks like a reindeer . . .” Axel swung overhead. I wove to my right.
“Please.” I drove low, and Axel tucked his knees to his chest. “If that’s what you’re into, then clearly I overestimated the number of brain cells you have left in that thick, warrior head of yours.”
“Thick, Airborne Assassin head,” Axel corrected. He quick-stepped forward, alternating slices to either shoulder so that I was forced to retreat. “I’m captain of the Airborne Assassins. Warriors can’t fly dragons. Have I taught you nothing?”
“Ah, there it is.” I rolled to my right before leaping to my feet and striking Axel in the back. “The old Axel ego.”
“Ouch.” He spun around and jabbed at my stomach. I jumped backward, narrowly avoiding his attack.
“My words hurt? Assassin?” I swung in a low arc. Axel let out a groan as I connected with his calf.
“No.” He batted my weapon to the ground with a swift strike. “But your stick did. You’ve got more force since we changed our training routine.”
“The weights help.” I scrambled backward, picking up my dowel and deflecting Axel’s blow. “But I still prefer our boulder throws back home.”
“Who doesn’t?” Axel came at me again, but I parried each of his attacks before executing a sequence Janna and I had perfected at the shieldmaiden compound. I shuffled forward as I struck alternating blows to either side of his rib cage. Axel deflected admirably, rotating his hands in a quick series of parries. But I shifted my strategy just as he fell into a rhythm. With a fierce grunt, I drove my knuckles forward to deliver a swift punch to his gut. He exhaled heavily; the wind momentarily knocked out of him. As he sucked in a breath, I angled my fists upward and drove his hands higher. He pushed back. My heels dug into the ground as I launched us toward the edge of the room. Axel quickly stepped backward, but I matched his pace, driving forward and closing the distance between Axel and the wall. I kept the pressure on his forearms until they slammed against the padded surface. When I’d pinned them over his head, I pressed my stick firmly to his wrists, pushing against the pulse points as I drove my knee into his thigh.
Axel winced. With a groan, he opened his palms. His weapon fell to the ground. “You win.”
“Obviously.” I lowered my knee, but didn’t let up the pressure on his arms.
“You’re getting better,” he panted.
“And you’re getting worse.” I raised my shoulder to my cheek, and wiped an errant trickle of sweat on the strap of my not-a-shirt. “Or are you going easy on me?”
“I would never,” Axel vowed. “That wouldn’t serve either of us. Or Valkyris.”
“Valkyris.” With a sigh, I transferred my stick to one hand and let my arms drop to my sides. Gods, I missed our home. The rolling greens. The Cliffs of Conquest. Helheim, I even missed those nightmare dragons Axel was so fond of flying. The Airborne Assassins’ transports lived in the Dragehus—Valkyris’ big, beachside barn. “Do you think we’ll go home anytime soon?”
“We will.” Axel reached out to tuck a loose curl behind my ear. “At some point in the next two weeks, we’ll apprehend our target at the moonstone exhibit. We’ll bring him back to Freia and Halvar, and life as we know it will return to normal.”
“Easy as that, huh?” I leaned into the fingertip he ran along my cheek.
“Ja,” Axel confirmed. He lowered his lips to my ear and exhaled gently. A wave of goose bumps broke out along my neck, and I inched a step closer.
“Good.”
“Now,” he whispered. “I’m well aware that I am completely and totally irresistible. But if you can rein yourself in long enough to finish this training session, I know you’ll thank me come battle time.”
I pushed away with a groan. “Is your ego your biggest feature, Andersson?”
“Oh, not by a long shot.” Axel winked as he retrieved his weapon. “But we’re taking things slow, Shieldmaiden. I’m not ready to show you my—whoa!”
Axel brought his knees to his chest as I swung low to the ground. He landed stealthily on his toes while I shifted my weight and attacked from the right. Then the left. Then the front. I kept moving, adjusting my angles until I’d driven him back to the wall. But he dropped onto the mat just as I lunged forward to pin his arms. Axel rolled swiftly to my right, leaping to his feet and pushing me into the wall from behind.
Dang it.
“Never repeat a pattern,” he admonished. He ripped my stick from my hands and pinned my arms to the wall with his forearm. “You’re better than that.”
I really was. “Let’s go again.”
“It’s cute that you think you can beat me,” Axel taunted.
I narrowed my eyes as I flipped around to face him. “Just watch.”
“Oh.” He released my arms with a rakish grin. “I will.”
For the next hour, we sparred with all the vigor of two warriors who knew full well that they were up against a magic-wielding enemy. The next time we had a chance to capture our perp, we had to bring him in.
Our world literally depended on it.
Chapter 3
THE NEXT AFTERNOON, JANNA, Brigga, and I hunkered down in a corner of the Kappa Mu house library. We’d fallen behind on our mandatory study hours, and we didn’t want to give the sorority’s ethics chair/resident mean girl another reason to torture us. Lexi had most definitely had it in for us since our first day here. And while part of her ire may have come from her disappointment that Axel just wasn’t that into her, it was equally possible she was just really, really mean.
Some apples were simply rotten.
The “library” was actually a room in the downstairs portion of the Kappa Mu castle. There weren’t any books here—it was strictly a bring-your-own-study-materials kind of place. Three long tables stretched across its length, and two big windows framed the outward-facing wall. They provided an excellent view of the Alpha fraternity’s backyard, where what looked to be a glorious pool party was currently in full swing. Shirtless guys drank from red cups, occasionally abandoning their beverages to execute sloppy front flips into the water. They were surrounded by a bevy of girls wearing tiny triangles of material that barely covered their ample chests. Water-wear was definitely different in twenty-first century Los Angeles.
I was so never swimming here.
“Earth to Ingrid. You in there?” Brigga waved a delicate hand in front of my eyes.
“Huh? Sorry. I was just . . . uh . . .”
“Axel’s not out there, if that’s who you’re looking for.” A corner of Janna’s lips shifted up. “I asked him and Raynor to do some recon on the geological museum—locate the loading dock, assess the layout to determine the likely location of Máni’s orb, identify potential travel routes from the previous exhibit site.”
“I wasn’t looking for Axel.” My words came out too quickly.
Janna shook her head. “Mmm-hmm.”
“I wasn’t! I was just . . . never mind.” I picked up my pencil and tapped it to the parchment in my notebook. “Astronomy homework. That’s where my focus is. On this group project—a four-page essay on the possible recurrence of an astrological alignment that hasn’t been seen in centuries.”
“A definite recurrence,” Brigga corrected. “And one that more than likely accounts for the reason our dark mage showed up here and now—one thousand years in our future, and five thousand miles from his last known location.”
“Read us what we have so far.” Janna leaned back in her chair.
I framed my notebook with my forearms and read aloud. “During the Viking era, eight planets appeared in the same region of the sky. By all outward appearances, these planets were in alignment—an astronomical anomaly we now know to be impossible on account of the varied tilts of orbits and orientations. As the study of astronomy was less precise at that time, mankind believed this anomaly to be a magical channel from the heavens—a conduit by which energy could be funneled into objects and beings. Although such claims are scientifically unfounded, they have nonetheless resurfaced as the recurrence of the present-day alignment draws near. Next month, all eight planets will again appear to line up. And while it is unlikely that this phenomenon will lead to the lifting of the veil between the human and spirit worlds, the end of the world, or the creation of a super-weapon, as many now claim, the fact remains that such an event has been met with tremendous interest within the scientific and popular communities.”
I turned the page.
“It sounds good so far,” Janna praised.
“I’ll give it another edit before we turn it in.” Brigga frowned. “Keep reading.”
“Okay.” I looked back down. “New age healers are eager to see whether this year’s alignment creates a cluster of super-crystals, similar to those allegedly formed during the previous occurrence. Folklore tells us that during the initial alignment, a group of minerals were struck by an energetic charge. These hyper-charged stones were imbued with traces of power that gave them the ability not only to heal, but to perform highly improbable tasks—what today would be called magic. While the existence of these ‘magic rocks’ has never been confirmed, they are nonetheless the subject of great geological and astronomical curiosity.”
“How many pages is that?” Brigga asked.
“Just two.” I sighed. “We could go deeper into orbital paths or planetary tilts. Though Professor Stinoa’s really into the cultural stuff, so maybe we should stick with the crystal angle instead.”
“We could tie in what we read about the war between the mages,” Janna offered. “I know it wasn’t covered in class, but I bet she’d give us good marks if we were able to include cross-cultural references. Do we still have that library book on the mage war?”
“I think Raynor returned all the books last week. But I took notes. Hold on . . .” Brigga flipped through her parchment. “Ah, there it is. The war between the mages occurred during an astronomical anomaly—check—that created a surge of power—double check. The light mages wanted to harness the energy to protect the Earth, while the dark ones wanted to use it to open portals to dark realms. When the energy surged, it struck a massive crystal, imbuing it with mystical powers. The entire group promptly cast spells, destroying each other in their attempt to gain control of the crystal. One of the survivors shattered the crystal into a dozen pieces and scattered them across the land. He retreated into obscurity and was never heard from again.”
I tapped my pencil to the desktop. “If that’s true, it not only makes for a fascinating addendum to this paper, but it would explain our dark ma—”
“Hi, girls.”
My spine stiffened as Kenzi walked through the doorway. How much did she hear?
“Hei, Kenzi.” Janna smiled easily. “Are you here to log study hours, too?”
“I met my weekly quota yesterday.” Kenzi pulled out a chair and joined us at our table. My nose twitched at the smell of whatever green liquid wafted from her travel cup. “I was just on my way out to pick up some sunscreen for tomorrow’s beach exchange, and I wanted to see if you guys needed anything.”
