Secrets of Valhalla by Jasmine Richards Page B

will you?”
    â€œWe’re going through together.” Mary’s expression was stubborn.
    â€œI’m right behind you,” Buzz promised as he pulled himself along the slender limb. He was doing his best to focus on the simple movements of putting one hand in front of the other, but he knew he was making painfully slow progress. “Just go. It’s not going to help either of us if you lose your balance.”
    As if in answer, a gust of wind howled out from the rift and rocked Mary back on her heels once more. Her mouth wasan O of surprise as her toes curled around the branch and her arms shot out to balance herself.
    She took a quick breath. “You’re right, Buzz. See you on the other side.” She edged right up to the rift. “Saturn, here we come!” she yelled. “The Runes of Valhalla will be ours.” And she threw herself into the ripped air.
    There was no noise. No flash of light. Mary was simply not there anymore, and Buzz was all by himself on the silver branch. He got carefully to his feet and stepped toward the rift. The air coming from it smelled damp and dark, but there was another smell as well and it crept toward him from behind. Smoke. So strong now that it made his eyes water.
    â€œWho are you?” A voice that seemed to burn all the oxygen from the air snarled from behind him. “Why do you seek the Runes of Valhalla?”
    Buzz whipped round, instinctively throwing out his arms to keep his balance. A figure who was both solid and not solid had ascended the tree. Loki. His cloak glided over the branches in a billow of smoldering mist.
    Buzz couldn’t really see a face through the smoke, but he glimpsed a slash of a mouth and cayenne-colored eyes that slanted upward like the flame of a candle.
    â€œWho are you?” the voice asked again. “Are you kin of Odin?” The smoky figure seemed to expand his volume and spread toward him. “Answer me.”
    â€œNo, I’m not,” Buzz shouted back. “Where is Ratatosk?” He needed to know.
    The figure crept closer, until the heat coming off him singed Buzz’s eyelashes.
    â€œMy dragon has a new pet to play with. Come down with me and watch. It’s quite a show.”
    A hand shot out at him, the skin pale and scarred. Buzz leaped backward. The wind from the rift tore at his shoulders.
    He stared at Loki, straight into the candle-flame eyes. “We’re going to stop you,” Buzz vowed.
    â€œI look forward to seeing your try.” Loki’s burnished blade of a mouth opened to show sharp teeth, and then he sprung forward.
    Buzz didn’t hesitate. Half falling and half throwing himself backward, he passed through the rip in the air.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Chase
    H e felt himself being torn out of the world and plunged into a void. He was falling . . . upward? He was in complete darkness, and his eyes ached with the strain of searching for any pinprick of light.
    â€œBuzz!” Mary’s voice sounded like it was traveling across centuries, and it was tiny and scared. “Buzz.”
    â€œI’m here,” he called back.
    â€œI thought you weren’t coming.” He could swear that he heard tears in her voice. “I wasn’t scared, you understand. I just hate the dark.”
    â€œI got a little bit held up,” Buzz explained. “By our resident furious trickster god.”
    â€œYou met Loki?” Mary almost sounded jealous. “Did he say anything about the rune—” But she broke off with a gasp.
    â€œMary?”
    Silence.
    â€œMARY?” He screamed her name over and over, his voice filling the void but never receiving an answer.
    Then he felt it. Hands guiding him upward— or was that downward? They reached out from the darkness, covering every inch of his skin, including his mouth. The hands were not gentle. Not rough, either. Just methodical. Hands passing him along the darkness until he was placed