Page 27 of Odin

But if she kept faithfully to the oath he had made, then so must he. He'd vowed to answer the summons, when it came, and lead his men to victory in Erik's name.

Then again, more than a thousand years had passed. Erik could not possibly still live. How, then, was the witch still alive?

He had to answer. He had given his word. Erik might be faithless, but Odin still had some honour, for all his many mistakes.

"Thor, Loki, Odin, rise, for I summon you!"

No. Not yet, Odin thought. He had sworn to answer the summons, but he had never said when. He owed a debt to Freyja, too, who would be accused of theft if his body went missing before the police arrived. Therefore he must stay where he was, and return to his hibernation, until he knew Freyja was safe.

Then he might answer the witch's call. If she still called.

Satisfied, Odin slipped back into slumber.

THIRTY-THREE

Freyja raised her head from the cafeteria table, wishing it wouldn't hurt so much. Had she really drunk the whole bottle of champagne last night? She lifted the bottle and peered blearily inside. Well, someone definitely had, and there was no sign of Olaf.

At least she'd had the sense to have some cheese and crackers with it. But falling asleep on the plate of remaining cracker crumbs had not been part of her plan, because now she had crumbs stuck to her cheek and it was going to take a good scrub in front of a mirror or maybe a shower to get those off.

Not to mention she needed something to sort her headache. Fuck.

She stumbled toward the guest rooms, headed for hers.

Faintly, she heard a rhythmic banging sound. It sounded like it came from behind one of the closed guest room doors. Which made no sense, because there was no one here but her and Olaf.

"Oh my god, Loki!" a female voice cried, faint but clear enough to make out the words.

Maybe someone had left their phone behind, and that was their ringtone. Either that, or Olaf was watching some sort of weird fantasy porn. If he was, she was definitely not walking in on that. Stumbling across her brother's porn collection had been horrifying enough. After all, she and her parents had believed him when he picked dentistry for the money and the hours. If she'd known there was a whole genre of kinky dentist porn out there...Freyja shuddered. She hadn't been able to stomach telling her parents.

She grabbed clean clothes and some paracetamol, and headed for the bathrooms.

Only to see the most perfect arse she'd ever beheld, flexing for all it was worth, as its owner pounded into some dark-haired girl he had pinned to the wall.

"Olaf?" she whispered. Well, it had to be, didn't it? No one else was here.

Except...where had the girl come from?

Fuck, her head hurt more than ever.

She stomped back to the cafeteria for some water to swallow the pills. A sensible person would probably just take her hangover to bed and sleep it off, but Freyja's building fury at Olaf wasn't going to let her rest until she'd kicked his absurdly hot arse.

Had he lied to her? Did he have a way to get out of here, and was he or his new fuck buddy the body thief she'd been searching for all along?

So she marched back to the bathroom, but had to slump down on the floor outside the door, because her head hurt too much. She should have raided the medical supplies for something stronger than paracetamol. She was capable of injecting herself with a safe dose of...something. Anything to make all this go away, at least for a few hours.

The door opened, and a pair of hairy legs that ended in a towel wrapped around his hips swaggered out the door.

Freyja scrambled to her feet. "You lying, cheating, fucking bastard!" she said, giving him a shove. Of course, that only made her lose her balance, so she tumbled into his arms instead. Perfect fucking Olaf caught her before she could fall. Of course he did.

"Sibyl tells me I am a terrible liar, and it would be dishonourable to cheat," the man said, in a voice that definitely wasn't Olaf's.

Freyja squinted up at him. He had long, fair hair like Olaf, and just as many muscles, but he definitely had two eyes, with no eye patch to be seen. He was younger, too, without the faint lines around his eye that Olaf had. He could have been Olaf's younger brother, maybe, but he wasn't Olaf.

He grinned. "But how can any man resist an invitation for fucking when it comes from a woman as enchanting as my wife?"

"Thor, who are you talking to?" The girl appeared at his side, combing her wet hair. She was even smaller than Freyja had thought.

Freyja straightened, wincing as her head gave her a warning twinge. "I'm Doctor Freyja Valdis, the manager of this facility. Who are you and how did you get here? We've been snowed in for a week, nothing in or out. Unless you left a sleigh with reindeer in the courtyard." She just shook her head, then wished she hadn't. She was never drinking champagne again.

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