Page 10 of Odin

Snow had piled up on the roof as well, which was topped by strange black glass tiles, each one as big as a bed. The tiles were pitched at a sharp enough angle that the snow slid right off, but it was coming down thick and fast now, so it was only a matter of time before the piles rose high enough to topple over onto the tiles, and cover those as well.

An angry squawk made him peer under the nearest tile...and almost lose his good eye to a well-aimed beak.

Odin backed away from the raven and its nest. No, two ravens...with nestlings beneath them. He'd always had a soft spot for ravens, so he took a moment to shape the snow into a barrier that blocked the nest from the worst of the storm. "I'll bring you some food later. The gods know we have enough to spare," he promised the birds.

He scanned the roof again. There was no sign of any threat, or anything else he could do, so he grabbed the side rails of the ladder and began to descend.

"Good work! The lights are back on, so get in here now and help me shut this door!" he heard her say faintly over the wind.

Odin grinned and obeyed.

TWELVE

She did her best to avoid him for the rest of the evening. When he entered the cafeteria, she grabbed her things and left, making sure to keep her bedroom door closed so she definitely didn't know which of the guest rooms he'd chosen, which meant she couldn't possibly knock on his door in the middle of the night, no matter how tempting that might be.

She even went to bed early, in the hope that she could fall asleep and not think about him for a few hours, but sleep refused to come.

Instead, all she could think about was the previous night. How amazing he'd looked naked. How his hot hard length had driven her to undreamt-of peaks of pleasure and how she'd wanted to do it all again when she woke up this morning. No, afternoon.

The one-eyed monster of a maintenance man. No, his eye, not his monstrous...

Fuck. She'd never been this needy in her life, but if there was one thing she knew well, it was anatomy, so she pleasured herself as best she could (trying not to think about how much better it would be if it were his huge hands doing this and not her own) before she finally dropped off to sleep.

Only to wake in the dark, absolutely fucking freezing. She reached for the light, but that wasn't working either.

She swore. The power had gone out again. Which meant she had to do the one thing she'd sworn she wouldn't – go and tell Olaf the maintenance man that she needed him.

She fumbled for the torch she'd left on her bedside table, as insurance against another blackout.

It had to be Olaf's fault, she fumed as she pulled on a coat over her pyjamas. He hadn't fixed the power properly, which was why it had gone out again.

She headed up the corridor, checking every guest room, before sweeping her torch beam around the bunkroom. No Olaf.

Maybe she'd underestimated him, and he was already working on the problem.

Freyja found him in the cafeteria, reading a book. Under cafeteria lights that worked just fine.

She blew out a frustrated breath that no longer misted the air. The heating was working in here, too. It wasn't all that warm, but it was better than nothing.

"The power's out in the accommodation block. Can you fix it?" she asked.

He glanced up. "I am not sure. I am not familiar with these...electrical systems. I am trying to learn about them. Do you know much about this back up system?"

The hospitals back home had backup generators, to keep the power on in a blackout. Only the backup generator didn't power the entire building, just the essential systems, including life support, which was why you had to check what you plugged the machines into, to make sure the socket was connected to the backup system. If things worked the same way here...

"Backup systems are usually only connected to the most essential things," she said slowly. But what were the most essential things here? Keeping the artefacts safe, or stopping the staff from freezing to death? A little bit of cold air wouldn't hurt the artefacts, which had all survived centuries buried in ice, but humans were a whole lot more fragile. Surely the university hadn't... "Let me see that," she ordered, grabbing the book from Olaf.

She flipped to the pages on the backup system. Luckily, this was the English manual and not the Norwegian one, so she could mostly make sense of it. Essential systems were...oh. Everything in the main lab building, but not the accommodation annexe. So the cafeteria had heat, light and an operational kitchen, and the ice mummy in the basement got to continue defrosting at a nice, constant temperature, but unless she wanted to freeze to death like he had, she'd have to find somewhere else to sleep. In a lab or the cafeteria or...the library.

The labs were out because the doors all had electronic locks, which might not be working properly after the power outage, and no way did she want to get trapped in one of those, without food or a bathroom.

The cafeteria could work, for there was plenty of space, easy access to food and water, with bathrooms right outside. The only problem was that she'd have to wrestle a mattress up two flights of narrow stairs before she could sleep there, and her arms still ached from dragging the scooter back.

But the library was on the same level as the guest rooms, plus it was a whole lot more private than the cafeteria...

He might not be responsible for her frigid room, but he could have at least warned her that it might happen when he'd turned the backup system on. So it was still partially his problem, and he could bloody well help her fix it, at least for tonight.

She handed the book back to Olaf. "It looks like we're on backup power, which only works in this part of the building. Until mains power is restored, we'll have to sleep here in the lab building instead of the guest rooms. Can you help me drag a mattress into the library?"

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