Escaping Asgard

This flash piece is a rough draft of a scene from the prequel novel of The Prophecies of Ragnarok, a Norse mythology-based new adult series I'm currently writing with Marie Sinadjan. It may or may not end up in the final version of the novel.

Here are the shorts we've written so far for the prequel, in chronological order:

• Birthright
• Ice Queen
• Prison Break
• Escaping Asgard (This story)
• Brother's Keeper
• Final Hour
• Resistance and Steps
• Forsaken
• Revenge Served with Rage
• Goodbye, Good Friend
• Inheritance
• A Winter's Bargain
• Death Finds All
• Homecoming
• Reconnection
• The Hour of the Wolf

Hotel Fen, the first published book of the series, follows after this point.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Hodr’s cheek rested against the pillow so his head was tilted to look out the large window at the moon in the sky. All he could see, even though she wasn’t there anymore, was the giant hunting bird as she’d flown from Asgard back home across the moon. Leaving Asgard. Leaving him.

His eyes closed and he swallowed the wince as a servant tended to the broken skin on his back with salves and bandages to help it heal faster without magic. His father had forbidden magic to help him heal, part of the punishment for helping her escape. Used as an example to his brothers, what happens when you let your heart interfere with your duty to Asgard, to their father, and to the realm.

Hodr had refused to cry out after the first couple strikes from Tyr, cuffed so his ice power wouldn’t interrupt the punishment, of course. He’d refused to speak to his brothers, even his twin after. After his mother had come in to collect him, crying enough to Odin and stopping him from taking it too far. Hodr’s actually positive that his father decreed no magic to help him heal because he was stubborn enough to not show remorse for helping her escape and his mother interfering.

With his eyes closed, everything shifted back to that night in the courtyard. Her cry of anguish when Vali had thrown the spear to stop her, his concern at her pain and his desperate need to keep her safe as his magic had crafted a large wall so they couldn’t reach her. She had escaped because of it, but he’d not created it to let her escape, but more because he didn’t want anyone else to hurt her.

Everything had happened so fast. He’d barely had time to wrap his head around what she was asking him before she was being dragged away and he’d created the wall to stop her from getting hurt again. His father would have been more than furious if he’d disappeared into the night with her, marching on Jotunheim almost immediately. But he hadn’t really been given an option. The strange woman who’d come to collect her forced her to leave so fast, and the look something had squeezed his heart at the look she’d given him. Like somehow he’d betrayed her, broken something between them when he didn’t know what it could have been.

There was no surprise that he hadn’t heard from her through. Even if a message got through between the realms, he was pretty sure one of his brothers or father would burn it before it ever reached him. But it still hurt that he hadn’t heard a word, a peep, even a hiccup of a message trying to get through.

“Are you done moping over her?”

Baldr’s voice grated on Hodr’s nerves and frost laced its way across the window he’d just been looking out as the servant finished the last wound and slipped out of the room quickly. “Are you done being an ass?” He didn’t raise his head to even look over at his brother. But before Baldr could answer him, Hodr followed with the answer himself. “Nope, looks like you’re still being one. Please come back when you can get your head on straight and be my brother.”

“Hodr.” Baldr sighed as he stood by the door.

Hodr held up his hand and ice weaved its way across the floor before blooming into a large flower that blocked Baldr’s view of him on the bed. That it was a silverfrost flower, well, what could he say. They had an emotional tie, even if that hurt right now. “I don’t want to hear it. Just go.”

The door slammed after a moment and Hodr relaxed into the bed as he sighed. He didn’t want to be here, didn’t want the last memory she had of him be of him trying to work out what the best move was. Of course, he would have gone with her if he could have really thought about the question. If there’d even been a way for him to follow.

It hadn’t also been lost on him that there had only been one cloak, for one person to leave. Her rescuer never had any intention of him following them. Even if he had been able to answer more quickly.

Dinner’s a quiet affair because he gets dressed and heads down to the Great Hall to join his family, but he’s silent and ignores everyone but his mother. He’s also out of the hall as soon as he’s finished eating. Balder starts to question him, but he makes an excuse that his back hurts and he’s tired. Which granted him an early dismissal from his father.

While everyone parties, he packs a small bag with some clothes. It’s a decision he’d made while sitting and eating dinner. He was done waiting to hear from her. There were a couple portals just outside of the palace grounds that should get him to Jotunheim. Once there, he’d be able to just find her, talk to her, really clear the air and prove to her that his heart was here with her.

He paused for a moment in front of the mirror, tunic off, he used his frost to knit his wounds closed with the ice. It hurt. A lot. But it’d be easier to move if he didn’t have to worry about them opening up again and bleeding this way. A shaky breath left him before he tugged his tunic back on and grabbed his bag.

Silent feet moved down the hallway, keeping to the shadows and making sure to avoid everyone as he headed to a side door. It let him out almost opposite the great hall and he moved quickly down a dark path.

The soft caw of a raven pulled his eyes up and he held a finger to his lips and shushed the bird. “Quiet. No one can know.”

Without another word, he hastened his steps out of the palace grounds, slipping past the large courtyard wall and toward the forest. A few more ravens cawed from trees, but this time he paid no mind, not wanting to risk someone deciding to check on him and finding him gone. The last thing he needed was to get caught.

The portal in sight, he actually started to breathe easy. He’d get there, see her again.

A strangled cry left him as a hand caught the back of his tunic and pulled him up short. “Get your hands off me! Do you know who I am?”

“A spoiled princeling who’s not got permission to visit another realm. Let alone one of our enemies? All for a girl!” Tyr’s voice caught Hodr by surprise before his brother jerked him hard backward from the portal.

Hodr stumbled back and fell onto his butt as he growled up at Tyr. “No one asked you! Get out of my way!” He pushed himself up, trying not to wince at the way all of this pulled at his back.

Tyr caught Hodr’s collar again when Hodr tried to move past his brother. “Father has demanded you back in your room. You’re going to be lucky if you’re not shackled to your room after this.”

Frost started to pull at some of the tree branches at Hodr growled at his brother. “I’m not staying here!”

A shackle settled over Hodr’s wrist and the connection with his magic evaporated under the rune-carved metal. “Good luck with that.” Without giving him a chance, Tyr dragged Hodr back to the palace and to his room.

The second his brother left the room Hodr rushed to the door and opened it. He pulled up short though, when he found two guards waiting for him outside. He didn’t need to even speak to them to know they wouldn’t be letting him go anywhere. With a snarl, he slammed the door closed before collapsing onto the bed.

It took another three days before his mother finally came by to take the runed cuff off him and frost covered his windows almost immediately. Frustration and anger fueled his magic, but he was pretty sure some of it was also just flexing it again now that he could feel it again. And a few days after that Tyr came to collect him for sparring. One month of sparring with his brother, that was his punishment for trying to leave Asgard without permission, but the guards at his door, following him around, those never let up until he got a mission to another realm from his father.