Perfekt Balance (The Ære Saga Book 3) by S.T. Bende Page A

pay.
    You do that, big brother. Just make sure you don’t give her
Fenrir. She wants him too badly . I flinched as my energy went on lockdown. My ears picked
up on something clanging outside the door. Sorry, I’ve got to get back to my
body. You know it’s hard on it when I send my energy out for this
long, and I think someone’s coming. I’ll gather intel on this end.
If I break myself out of here before the locator finds me, I’ll let
you know where to come pick me up.
    Take care of yourself , Tyr thought softly.
    You do the same. And take care of Forse,
okay? I kind of need him around.
    Will do , Tyr
vowed.
    Secure in his promise, I withdrew my energy
from his head, pulling it at breakneck speed across the black space
until I was once again back in my body.
    It was the last place I wanted to be.

CHAPTER
SEVEN
     
     
    “ GET UP. YOU’RE GOING to show me where they’re keeping Fenrir.” Runa stormed into
the cell, her stiletto boots clacking on the stones. A glow bathed
the room as Runa lit a wall sconce I hadn’t noticed in my
inventory. Interesting. I filed its presence away and pushed myself to my feet. I
pressed my back to the wall and kept my arms flexed in the
defensive stance Forse had drilled into me before we
left.
    Runa
laughed, the barking sound echoing off the walls. “You think you’re
going to fight me, ko ?”
    Well that was just rude. I was many things,
but I was definitely not a cow.
    “I think you’re going to be angry when I tell
you I don’t know where Fenrir is. So I’m prepared to defend myself,
yes.” I held my breath as Runa stood directly in front of me. Even
without the stilettos she would have towered over my five and a
half feet. She was easily as tall as my brother, and her shoulders
were practically as broad as his. I swallowed my anxiety and pushed
out calming energy. Bullies preyed on fear, and I wasn’t about to
give this one any reason to strike.
    “ What are
you going to do, meditate your way out of this?” Runa crossed her
arms. “Don’t forget, I lived in Asgard once too. I know you went
through high school in the protected gods program. Those weaklings
didn’t get nearly enough fight training to take me on. Your
little gift meant
you never had to learn to fight for yourself—the rest of the gods
trained hard to be able to protect sweet little Elsa.” She snorted.
“I remember all about your freaky mind powers. Now they’re going to
take me straight to Fenrir, so show me what you know and I won’t
kill you.”
    What I
knew was that the cell door was open, and with my magic on
lockdown, I might not have another window to get out of there. The
situation wasn’t ideal—a beast of a woman stood between me and
freedom, and I was hardly athletic enough to overpower her. But I
did have a modicum of Brynn’s Asgardian super-speed, and one Hel of
a lot of motivation to remove myself from my current situation. If
I faked left and dove right like Forse had shown me back in the
forest, I might be able to throw Runa off long enough to get to the
door. And from there …well, there was a reason even gods in the protected
program went through so many improvisational drills in
school.
    Here goes nothing.
    I didn’t allow myself to think about the
risk, the odds, or the likelihood that I was about to incur severe
injury. I simply shifted my weight to my toes and bolted.
    I launched myself through the door and
barreled down the narrow hallway. The grey stones were hard beneath
the thin soles of my shoes, and I stumbled across the uneven
surface before slamming into the thick slabs of a dark wood door. A
high-pitched laugh pealed behind me.
    “Just where do you think you’re going?” Runa
called.
    “Home,” I muttered, pulling on the heavy iron
handle of the door. It took all of my strength to wedge it open
enough to squeeze through, and I didn’t bother pulling it shut
behind me before I sprung into motion again. My arms pumped and my
flats clacked as I raced down