Episode Thirteen: Hunted: Scene 27

Instead, Hunin switched to English, “She is not for you.”

“That’s up to her,” Tyz’vel noted.

I snorted. “If you believed that, you’d be leaving me alone. As you aren’t, I don’t believe you. I’m with the bird.”

“I’ll knock his feathers off.”

I thought I saw a silhouette, a winged one, overhead. Hopefully it was Munin. Both of them might make him think twice.

But while the ravens did indeed outrank both of us, fighting was not their purpose. Knowledge was.

Knowledge. “So. What would it actually take to make you back off? What do you really want?”

“A promotion. Obtaining a consort such as you…”

I considered. Interfering with the politics of Hell struck me as a stupid idea, but… “What else might get you one?”

Hunin mantled, but didn’t argue with me.

“Are you trying to buy me off?”

“I don’t find you attractive, I don’t want to rule in Hell, I don’t care who’s in charge down there.”

That time I sensed some approval.

“So, you’re trying to buy me off.”

“I’m trying to make sure you know how serious I am, how determined I am that I am not going to be taken in by you. And maybe there’s a way we can both have what we want. I’m not an angel. I can negotiate with you.”

He glanced at Hunin again.

“He’s not an angel either. And you know full well that Odin isn’t some sweetness and light deity.”

“So do you. He’s your blood enemy.”

“And my uncle. Things aren’t that simple, are they.” And they really weren’t. I knew that, knew it in my bones. Remembered…remembered something, remembered my mother and a house, a small one. Modest but well made.

“That is true. They aren’t. And we all go with our natures.”

“And choices. So, think about it. Think about what I could maybe do to solve this without ending up in some fancy four poster bed in Hell.”

Oddly, he simply turned away. And vanished. A moment later, Hunin took off to join his brother in the sky.

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