Dark Devotion: Dark Series 3 Read Online Free

bloody.
    Brok handed the thin ribbon to Odin. “See how little effort is needed to control it.”
    The All-Father took the end of gleipnir and gave it the smallest tug. The giant howled in pain as the noose around its neck tightened further. With its clawed hands, it attempted to shred gleipnir , but no matter how much it tried, it could not undo what had been done.
    Odin studied the knot. “How is that possible?” he asked.
    “Only the hand which ties the bonds has the ability to undo them. There is nothing stronger than gleipnir in all the Nine Worlds.”
    Odin felt sick to his stomach. This was the only way he could see to secure Fenrir successfully. This was the only way he could bring Loki into line again. He wished it hadn’t come to this, but Loki had made his bed when he’d transformed Fenrir into a man. Now he would have to lie in it.

Chapter 1
Chicago – present day
    Odin peered out of the curtains like some goddamn recluse, his eyes scanning the area directly beneath his hotel room. The sidewalk was scattered with a few dozen people, but other than that, everything was quiet.
    Perhaps a little too quiet.
    He’d been laying low for the past month. One reason was because he was still in mourning for the loss of his wife, Frigg. Despite the estrangement, despite the infidelity, he had still loved her. The other reason he’d been more vigilant about protecting himself was because he had a target painted on his back, and his dear blood-brother Loki was the one taking aim.
    Loki had always been difficult to handle – even when he was among the Aesir in Asgard. A long time ago, Odin had laughed off Loki’s behavior as nothing more than harmless pranks meant to make people laugh, but it was the Trickster’s involvement in the death of Odin’s most favorite son Baldr that changed everything. Loki had simply gone too far. Driven by a rage Odin had not felt since that day all those thousands of years ago, he had done what he said he never could and imprisoned the man he called brother, killed Loki’s wife and son, and not felt a shred of regret for it.
    The bonds that held Loki were supposed to hold him forever …
    But now Odin was being hunted.
    Once powerful, once feared, he had been reduced to skulking from shadow to shadow to protect himself. After the Fall – a time when the humans stopped believing in the gods – everyone had abandoned him. His wife, his Valkyries, the other gods, but the biggest blow had been losing Brynhildr. She was his first Valkyrie, the one who he had poured most of his soul into when he gave her immortality. They were unequivocally bound in life and death – if Brynhildr died, then he could be killed by a mortal wound too.
    All he’d ever wanted was to protect her, but she never saw it that way. She claimed that he was controlling and manipulative, but all of his actions had been in her best interests, always. The last time he’d seen her – had tried to speak reasonably with her – she had been … unreceptive to what he had to say.
    And now he was powerless and the only person he could depend on was himself.
    He had to get rid of Loki. Imprisoning him again was an option, but Odin was thinking of something much more permanent and much more painful. Odin had to protect himself, and if Loki’s death was the only way, then that was the way it had to be. But how was he supposed to kill him?
    Loki was a god, just like any other Aesir, but Odin had gifted him with extra protection so it was as if he were Odin himself. He didn’t know whether he could be killed by conventional means, and the only weapon he could think to use against him was a Valkyrie’s sword. All it would take was one of them to cut Loki and he would die. There was just one problem: Odin was not on good terms with any of his warriors anymore. They would sooner watch him burn than throw water on him to douse the flames.
    Despite Odin’s vast knowledge, he could not see into the past and future. He needed to