The Monstrous Child Read Online Free PDF Page B

that would have been a different matter. Just my bad luck, as always.)
    ‘Well, Hel,’ he said.
    (It rhymes! He made my name rhyme.) His hair is white gold, his brow smooth and fair. He is One-Eye’s son. I don’t hold that against him. After all, we don’t choose our parents, any more than they choose their children.
    ‘There’s something you need to know.’

13
ONE DAY HE’D BE MINE

    Y HEART POUNDED . He’s going to tell me he loves me .
    â€˜Do you know what is prophesied about Fenrir?’ said Baldr.
    I hid my disappoint ment. My face was still. He’s not ready yet. I understand. Of course I understand.
    â€˜What prophesy about Fen?’ I said. ‘That he rids the world of rats?’
    â€˜That he will kill Odin at the End of Days,’ whispered Baldr. ‘During the Last Battle at Ragnarok.’
    I know that Fen is vicious, but how could he ever be powerful enough to kill the Wizard King?
    â€˜Fen?’
    â€˜And Jormungand will kill Thor.’
    That I could believe.
    â€˜Who foretold this?’
    â€˜The Fates,’ said Baldr. ‘That’s why you were all kidnapped.’
    My throat tightened. Did I want to know my future?
    Of course I did. Who could resist? I know, I know, a man’s fate should be safely hidden from him, but I am bolder.
    â€˜What about me?’ Maybe, just maybe, they’d said that Baldr and I …
    â€˜Nothing.’
    For a moment, I was insulted.
    â€˜So I don’t kill anyone?’
    â€˜Not that they mentioned.’
    I nodded. What could I say? I wasn’t exactly the axe-wielding type. Anyone could outrun me.
    And then I thought, Am I so unworthy the Fates have nothing to say about me? Just my hateful brothers?
    On the other hand, that meant Fenrir was in danger, and I wasn’t.
    Did I care that my remaining brother needed to beware? Are you joking? I was delighted at the thought of being an only child.
    I smiled up at Baldr. He alone of the gods had been kind to me.
    His voice was like honeyed mead, dripping into my mouth.
    He had a wife. He had a son.
    I didn’t care.
    One day he’d be mine.

14
CRÈCHE OF HORRORS

    T HAD TO HAPPEN. One day Dad returned, leading a colt with eight legs. My trickster father, Loki. The sly one. The giant’s son. My bad blood.
    I watched as he swaggered through Asgard, teasing and laughing, slapping gods on the back. Whispering jokes and gulping mead. Boasting about how he’d enticed the wall-builder’s stallion away by changing himself into amare. (As if you’d want to brag about that.)
    â€˜And now, thanks to me,’ he gloated, ‘we saved Freyja, the sun and the moon, and got our Asgard wall built for free! That disgusting giant couldn’t build the ramparts in six months without his stallion to help so he lost the bargain as well as his head.’
    So the lazy, two-faced gods cheated a poor giant out of his promised reward. Oath-breakers.
    What a surprise. Not.
    â€˜That’s a fine horse,’ said One-Eye.
    â€˜He’s yours,’ said Loki. ‘He’s my son, Sleipnir, and the greatest horse alive. He can outrun anything, and take you anywhere you want to go, even to the land of the dead and back.’
    I listened, horrified, as Dad shamelessly added a HORSE to his menagerie. What next? A boar?
    But One-Eye smiled and nodded. The colt trotted over to him.
    Then Dad saw me. His face went grey, as grey as Sleipnir.
    â€˜What is IT doing here?’
    One-Eye put his arm around Dad and murmured in his ear. They walked off together into One-Eye’s gleaming hall.
    Thanks, Dad. Great to see you too.
    Let’s pause and take a closer look at just some of Dad’s children.
    Â 
    Eight legs (Sleipnir)
    Four legs (Fenrir)
    No legs (Jormungand)
    Corpse legs (yours truly)
    Â 
    I’m getting a leggy theme here. What’s next in the progeny department, Dad – a centipede?
    What lovely siblings I have. My new