Would he?
“We knew what would?” Jeff stood off and faced his uncle and friend, his hands clenched at his sides.
He’d angled his body between hers and theirs, protecting her, his expression fierce.
Travis held up his hand. “Down, boy.”
Jeff held up his hands, but she could tell her twin had hit the limit of his patience by the way his whole body tensed up. He was about two seconds away from losing it. “Look, nice as it is to know, you didn’t call a family meeting to tell us my sister is pregnant. So what’s up, and how does it affect Jamie?”
“The last person on the face of the earth I would ever hurt is your sister, and you know that.” Travis gestured back towards the sofa. “Sit down, Jeff. I promise, we’ll explain everything.”
“Wait. Jordan’s pregnant?” Uncle Val turned with a happy smile to hug Jordan, ignoring the way Logan scowled at him. She knew the two of them had some issues with each other in the past, but she thought they’d been resolved.
Jeff ignored Val, his focus on Travis. “Everything?”
Travis nodded. “I give you my solemn oath that any question you or Jamie asks me within the next hour I will do my best to answer honestly.”
Logan gasped. Kir looked shocked. Magnus and Morgan winced.
And Jordan nodded.
That was the reaction Jamie was most interested in. Jordan was calm, her hand firmly clasped in Logan’s, Kir scooting back to rest his head against Logan’s knee. Whatever it was, Jordan wasn’t concerned at all.
Logan snorted and looked down at Kir. “Think they’re done enough for plan A-1?”
“What the fuck is going on? ” Jeff’s roar got everyone’s attention. “My grandfather is suddenly a psychopath, my uncle, who used to kiss said psychopath’s ass, is now my co-worker, my sister has gotten knocked up by two guys, my other sister got nearly beat to death, my boss is acting…okay, he’s the only one of you freaks acting normal.” Jeff huffed out a breath and glared at them all before wearily rubbing his eyes. “He’s always been a secretive son of a bitch. My big brothers are not beating the shit out of the pervs for knocking up Jordan.” He scrubbed his hand through his hair, frustration practically vibrating off of him.
“When did I ride the Wacky train to Dysfunction Junction?”
She couldn’t help it. She started giggling. She’d watched the frustration ratcheting up inside her twin with each day she spent in the hospital and knew it was only a matter of time before that hidden temper of his flared up. Jeff hated being kept in the dark more than anything. It was why he’d decided to become a PI like Jordan and Travis.
“You haven’t.” There was a strange timbre to Travis’s voice, a deep, almost echoing quality that stopped her giggles. Travis had his eyes closed, his head tilted back, as if he was listening to something that only he could hear. “You’ve asked me what the fuck is going on. Old Man Grimm will stop at nothing to kill Kir and Logan, including harming you, your sisters, your brothers and anyone else who stands in his way.”
“Why?”
“For rule of the Aesir and the Vanir, and for prophecy.”
Jamie blinked. “Wait. Aren’t the Aesir the Norse gods?” She was half-Norwegian. Her father had practically spoon-fed her stories of the might of Thor, Odin and the Aesir.
“Yes.”
That deep timbre to his voice was beginning to send shivers down her spine. She leaned forward.
“Okay, why would my crazy grandfather think he needs to rule a bunch of myths?”
“They aren’t myth, and he was their ruler, up until recently.”
“So, basically, you’re telling me that Odin tried to kill me.”
“No.”
She sagged in relief.
“His plan was to torture you in order to lure Logan, Kir and Jordan to him. I have no idea whether or not he planned on you dying.”
Oh. Well then. That made it so much better.
“Toot toot! All aboard the cuckoo train!” Jeff pumped his arm in the air like he was pulling on a train whistle. “Next stop: Asgard.”
Travis bit his lip, obviously stifling laughter, but was silent.
Jamie ignored her insane twin and turned her attention back to Travis. “My grandfather is Odin?”
“Yes.”
“My father is?”
“Thor.”
Jeff busted out laughing. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
“No.”
“So who’s Jordan’s father? Tyr?” Jamie and Jeff had the same mother as Jordan, but Jordan’s father was Adam Grey. Or at least that’s what they’d been told. Travis made a face. “Hell, no.”
“Oh, well that’s good.”
“Her father is really Adam Grey, but he’s also known as Frey.”
“Yeah, right. You’re missing a hand. Does that make you Tyr?”
“Yes.”
Jeff growled and turned. He grabbed Jamie’s hand and pulled her from the couch, ignoring her painful moan. “That’s it. I’m done. We’re leaving.”
A deep, multi-choral voice sounded from behind them. It was Travis, but echoed and magnified to be nearly unbearable. “Let her go, Jeff.”
Jamie looked back and gasped. Travis was glowing. Not turn-the-lights-out-and-you-can-barely-see-by-it type glowing, either. She could hardly make out his features in the painfully blinding light he exuded.
She pulled free of Jeff’s hold and waved her hands in front of her in an instinctive pattern, willing the light to die down a little. To her utter shock Travis’s glow dimmed.
“Holy fuck. Where’d you learn to do that?” The stunned look on Logan’s face would have been priceless at any other time.
“Learn what?”
Travis smiled and opened his eyes. They were completely white, the blue she’d come to know and love completely covered over. They glowed with the same intensity as his body had earlier, making it nearly impossible to stare into them. “It is instinctive to you. You are your father’s daughter.”
“Her father isn’t Jotun.”
Travis smiled enigmatically. “Ask your questions, Jamie.”
Where do I start? “What’s a Jotun?”
“Mistakenly called giants by humans, they are a race of elementals that existed in this world long before humans walked it. Fire, Ice, Light and Dark, they assisted in the creation of mankind and crafted some of the greatest artifacts ever wielded by the gods.”
“Light and Dark?”
Travis ignored Logan’s question. It was as if… “Light and Dark?”
“The Jotuns of Light and Dark you know as Alfar and Dvergar, or Lios Alfar and Dökk Alfar.”
“Light elves and dark elves?”
He ignored Jordan’s question, his unseeing gaze focused on Jamie.
She stepped closer to him, fascinated now that her eyes weren’t watering. It was as if he couldn’t even hear anyone other than her and Jeff. “Light elves and dark elves?”
“That is one way they are described.” His hand reached out and cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking the cheekbone in a soft caress. His gaze was still directed over her head, but the expression on his face was one of fierce tenderness.
He can’t really see me. “Are you really Tyr?”
Travis nodded once. “Yes.”
She went with her gut. “You’re Lios Alfar, aren’t you?”
He closed his eyes briefly. “Yes, and no.”
“What does that mean?”
“I was the leader of the Vanir, who were once the gods of the Jotun.”
“Whoa.” Magnus was watching them with a dazed expression. Morgan didn’t look much better.
Logan looked positively sick. “Guess he’s not related to the Old Man, then.”
“Jamie.” Travis’s hand moved and buried itself in her hair, his voice still otherworldly but full of yearning. His head tilted down, his broad, powerful shoulders moving over her protectively. The stroke of his fingers against her scalp was intoxicating. She closed her eyes, unconsciously leaning into him, jumping slightly when their bodies touched.
“Is Ragnarrok coming?”
Ragnarrok was the end of the world and the beginning of paradise, at least in Norse mythology. Jamie didn’t know much about it other than most of the gods died and Baldur wound up ruling paradise, something that would please her sister but scared Jamie to death. Jamie started as Jeff asked his question, the seriousness of his voice registering. Travis stiffened against her.