Read Online Loki's Wolves by K. L. Armstrong, M. A. Marr - Free Book Online Page B

champion-worthy behavior, isn’t it?
    “… no need to tell the others yet. What I told them at the
Thing
is enough for now,” his grandfather was saying. “Those who need to know the truth already do. For the rest, it will come as a shock, and we must ease them into it.”
    Was he talking about Matt being chosen as champion? That they had to tell the Thorsens who didn’t live in Blackwell? In Matt’s opinion, it was the ones who did live there—and
knew
him—who’d be the most shocked, and they’d already heard.
    “We must begin a quiet campaign to convince them that Ragnarök is not the end of the world. It is a change. Acleansing. Ultimately, it is an event that will benefit our people, present and future.”
    He leaned closer.
    “Ragnarök, as it is foretold in the myths, will not end the world. We must remind them of that. It will be a time of great turmoil and upheaval and a tragic loss of life, but the world will emerge the better for it. America is corrupt, from Wall Street to Washington, and it is the same in every country around the world. No politician or advocacy group can change that. Our world needs cleansing. Our world needs Ragnarök.”
    The other Elders chimed in their agreement.
    What? No. I’m hearing wrong. The champion is supposed to
stop
Ragnarök.
    “We know how this must work. Matt must fight the serpent. Matt must defeat the serpent… but he must be defeated in turn. The champions of the gods must die, and the monsters must die, as the prophecy says, so the world can be reborn.”
    Matt had stopped breathing.
    They don’t want me to win.
    His grandfather continued. “I do not take this lightly. I will be honest in saying that when I first realized Matt was the champion, I prayed that the runes would tell me I was mistaken. But I have come to realize that this is right. The boy is strong and he is good, and he is deserving of thishonor. That is how I must see this. My grandson is being honored in the highest fashion, and he will do us proud, and he will take his place in the halls of Valhalla as a champion with the long-dead gods. As a hero. Our hero.”
    Matt stumbled away from the door.
    They expect me to die. They want the ice age to come, the world to end. I’m not their champion. I’m their sacrifice.
    Of course I am. That’s why they chose me. Because I’m guaranteed to screw this up.
    He’d been planning to tell Granddad exactly that:
You made a mistake.
But there’d been a little bit of him that hoped he really was the champion, that he’d finally show his family and everyone else—
    The little girl took his hand and tugged him across the room, and he was so dazed, he just followed. When they were at the door, she whispered, “You seek Odin.”
    Odin? Why would I…?
    Because Odin was the leader of the gods. The most powerful of them all. The father of Thor.
    He stared at the little girl. Who was she?
What
was she? Not just a little girl—he was sure of that now.
    “Odin will tell me how to fix this, right?” Matt said. “He’ll tell me how to defeat the Midgard Serpent and survive.”
    Again, she looked confused. “I do not know. That is to come. That is not now. I know only—”
    “You only know what is now. Yeah, I got that the first…” His gaze shifted to the mosaic on his left. A scene of Thor asking the Norns for advice.
    The Norns. Three women who knew the destiny of gods and humans. In a lot of the old stories, Future was the youngest. But their tradition—and the mosaic—followed one from the old sagas. The oldest was Past. Then came Future. And finally, the youngest Norn—Present.
    He turned to the little girl, and his heart started thumping again. By this point, he was pretty sure it was never going to beat at a normal rate again.
    “Who are you?” he asked as the hairs on his neck prickled.
    “You know.”
    “One of the Norns. Present.”
    She nodded. “I said you know.”
    “And
you
don’t know anything except what’s happening now.