The doorbell rang. Everyone ignored it and just watched Matt, shaking their heads in disappointment as he recoiled from the box. The serpent stretched until its head touched the floor, then it swung over and wrapped around his father’s legs.
“Dad!” Matt shouted.
He tried to leap forward, but he couldn’t move. The serpent wound its way up his father’s body, wrapping around and around like a python, green scales glittering, red eyes gleaming.
The doorbell rang again.
“Aren’t you going to take your serpent, Matt?” his mom said. “You won’t make your father look after it, will you? That isn’t very responsible.”
The serpent’s coils now enveloped his father’s entire body, its head poised over his father’s. Its jaws opened, fangs flashing. It looked at Matt, who couldn’t move, couldn’t even shout now, but was frozen there, watching the serpent’s giant jaws hover over his father’s head.
“You really should take care of it,” his father said… right before the serpent devoured him.
Matt’s eyes snapped open, and he found himself staring up at a white ceiling with a weight on his chest, pushing him down, pressing the air from his lungs. He struggled to breathe, but he couldn’t open his mouth. He couldn’t move. It was like he was still in the dream, paralyzed. He couldn’t even blink. His eyes stung, and his chest was on fire, and he couldn’t breathe.
Somewhere he heard Laurie’s voice and Baldwin’s and he tried to yell for them, but he couldn’t get words out. He was trapped there, on the floor in Baldwin’s living room, suffocating.
“You need to take care of it,” a voice said behind him. His mother’s voice.
She leaned over him, and her face was gray and pale.
“Are you going to take care of your serpent, Matty?” she asked. She leaned down farther, until he could smell her breath, stinking like rotted fish. “You really need to take care of it.”
She kept bending, her mouth opening, eyes glowing red dots now, skin green scales, teeth sharpening to fangs, forked tongue flicking out.
Matt bolted upright like a slingshot. He bent over, coughing and sputtering as he caught his breath. Then, slowly, he turned. The serpent was gone. He blinked and rubbed his eyes and looked around.
He was in Baldwin’s living room, on the floor. Fen was fast asleep, curled up in the recliner. The couch where Laurie had been was empty now, her blanket draped over the side, and he could hear her talking to Baldwin at the front of the house. Just like in his dream.
So it wasn’t a dream?
No, it must have been. Some weird kind of waking nightmare.
He blinked again and rolled his shoulders, then squinted at the blue numerals on the DVD player. Past midnight. Why was Laurie up and talking to Baldwin?
He gave a soft laugh as he thought it. Dumb question. He’d seen Reyna sneaking looks at Baldwin earlier. He supposed if a girl thatpretty was checking Baldwin out, the guy must be good-looking.
Matt yawned and rubbed down the last goose bumps on his arms as the wisps of the nightmare finally floated away. He was stretching out again when he heard another voice—a girl’s. Reyna?It didn’t sound like her. As he sat up he dimly remembered the doorbell in his dream—the one no one else had seemed to hear.
Matt got up and padded barefoot toward the front hall. The girl’s voice came clearer now, saying something about Odin. Baldwin asked her to come inside, and the voices retreated to the dining room. Matt followed. When he drew close, he could see the girl through the doorway.
She had… pink hair. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. Okay, it wasn’t completely pink, but the ends definitely were. She wore pink boots, too, ones that went right up to her knees. Weird, but cool-weird.
She looked up. When she saw him, she smiled, a smile so bright and wide that it made her whole face light up. Laurie was saying something, but the girl started toward Matt, as if she didn’t hear Laurie. If it was possible for her smile to widen, it did. Matt felt his cheeks heat.
“You must be Matt,” she said. She looked him over, and he was sure his face went as red as his hair. “Wow. You really are Thor’s son, aren’t you?”
“N-no. Just a descendant. A distant descendant.”
She smiled. “You know what I mean.”
“Matt?” Laurie said. “This is Astrid. She’s Odin’s girlfriend.”
Laurie emphasized the last word, and Matt yanked his gaze away, cheeks flaming now. Had he been checking Astrid out? He hoped it hadn’t looked like that. He wasn’t. Or, at least, he didn’t think he’d been.
“Odin’s girlfriend,” he said quickly. “Cool.” He walked in and leaned against the wall, as casually as he could. “So what’s going on?”
“Odin sent her,” Laurie said. “He’s busy doing stuff to get ready for Ragnarök, so he sent Astrid here to help us.”
“Cool.”
“Is it?” Astrid sighed in relief. “Good. Odin said you’d be okay with it, but I wasn’t sure. It’s your call, right? You’re the guy in charge.” She was looking right at Matt.
Matt managed a laugh. “I wouldn’t say that.”
She shot him a small, secret smile, as if they knew better.
Matt cleared his throat. “So, how exactly can you—?”
Something drifted past the window, wispy, like a puff of smoke. He instinctively reached for his amulet. When his fingers touched bare skin, his eyes widened.
“Matt?” Laurie said.
“My Hammer. It’s—” He stopped and patted his pocket. Then he paused again, thinking back. “Right. I left it on the end table so I wouldn’t lose it.”
“Because we need to get a new cord again,” Laurie said. “I’m starting to think we should buy them in bulk.”
“Yeah, yeah.” His gaze rose to the window again. It was empty.
“Did you see something?” Laurie said.
“Just fog, I think.” He gave a short laugh. “Getting jumpy. Too many trolls.”
“No kidding, huh?” Laurie pulled out a chair. “Okay, so—”
“Did you say fog?” Astrid cut in. She looked at Laurie. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. But…” Her gaze shot to Matt. “Fog?”
“Or something,” he muttered. “Maybe nothing.” He pulled out a chair.
“No, it could be something.” Astrid walked to the window and tugged the curtains back more, her hands clenching the fabric, voice going tight. “What exactly did it look like?”
“I dunno. Fog. Smoke.” He walked over and peered out into the night. “It’s gone now.”
Astrid turned. “Was everyone sleeping okay?”
“I just heard the doorbell,” Laurie said. “I wasn’t sound asleep, but that’s it.”
“Everything was fine with me,” Baldwin said.
They all turned to Matt.
“Um, sure,” he said. “All good. Just sleeping.”
Astrid’s eyes bore into his. “Really? This is important, Matt. Was anything going on when you woke up? Were you dreaming anything?”
He flinched. “Sure, I guess. Kind of a bad dream, but I don’t see—”
“A nightmare?” she asked. “And then when you woke up? Did you feel anything?”
He looked from one face to another.
“Matt,” Laurie murmured. “She said it’s important. Don’t play tough guy.”
“Yeah, I was having a nightmare,” Matt admitted. “I thought I woke up, but I didn’t really. Not completely, anyway. I couldn’t move, and I was seeing things, and I couldn’t breathe.”
“Because it felt like something pressing down on your chest?”
“Yeah,” he said. “How’d you—?”
“Mara.” Astrid yanked the curtain closed. She spun. “I thought I’d gotten rid of them.”
“Gotten rid of what?” Laurie said. “What’s a mara?”
She looked at Matt for the answer, but his brain just spun, whipping through all the old stories and finding nothing.
Astrid strode into the hall and looked around, tense, as if braced for attack. “Odin warned me, but I thought I’d lost them. I am so sorry. If I knew they’d followed me, I would never have come here.”