Destined (Desolation #3) Read Online Free

to be the Great King, ruler of Asgard and Guardian Regent of Midgard. She told me that the Vanir gods had collected material from all across the Great Unknown and created the Bifrost, a well of their power and good intentions. With that power they made the worlds and stars, and connected them all to one another, because they were family and the gods wished to always have a way to travel between each of their worlds. She said the Svart god’s children were among the first to be created and would often play unsupervised on the Bifrost. 
    One day, one of the children, for they were a wild and unruly bunch, pushed another over the well and directly into the Bifrost’s energy. They thought the child lost, but after some time, he returned, though he was never the same. And so the light elves, the Alfahr, were born—out of a Svartalfahr, now known as the dark elves, and the magic of eternal light.
    Now as I watched li’Morl reflect the Bifrost’s light I came to accept what my mother had told me as true. It only helped ease my fears a little—the Svarts were creatures of endless self-satisfaction and mischievousness, after all. I had no promise the Alfahr were any different.
    “Let us speak with your dog,” li’Morl said.
    Heimdall raised his horn to his lips and blew one low, perfect note that reached between my ears and squeezed my eardrums, setting every nerve in my body humming. I closed my eyes against the exquisite pressure—until a moment later the sensation eased and I opened my eyes once more.
    Before me, just past li’Morl who knelt on the Bridge, sat a dog. Or rather, a Hound.
     

My mind looped on all the times I’d scowled at the immobile Hounds as they stood guard over Desi’s chambers—the very place Loki imprisoned me. Occasionally I would see the pair of them, in dog form, watching me as I walked the corridor to Loki’s throne room. Now one Hound stared at me so intently that li’Morl twisted around to look at me as well. 
    “It seems he wishes to speak with you.”
    I cleared my throat and rubbed the back of my neck. “What makes you think that? And how can he talk to me?” I knew I was stalling. Knew I wasn’t speaking the whole truth. Knew that I’d be forced to live this reality, this pain, the second the words were out of my mouth.
    The Hound rose up on its haunches and began to shift from dog to man. His hair slipped beneath his flesh and his legs and body straightened until a golden-skinned youth appeared, dressed in a shendyt, his bare chest adorned with a wide gold and turquoise collar. For a moment he wore the face of Anubis until it, too, faded away. The Bifrost caused his golden adornments to sparkle in its cold, multi-faceted light. Beneath his headdress, warm, brown eyes regarded me. I could read nothing in their depths but an endless sorrow. 
    “We serve the young mistress,” the Hound intoned. His voice sounded flat, and somehow less resonant than I thought it had been before when I last heard him speak in the accompaniment of Helena and Desi. Then I realized: I was used to hearing the Hounds speak in unison. Not once had I ever heard one of them speak alone. Nor had I ever seen one without the other. I craned my neck to locate his companion, but he was not in sight. Only this one Hound stood before me, his dark eyes fixed on my face.
    “The young mistress?” I asked, when my thoughts singled in on what he had said.
    “We serve the young mistress,” the Hound repeated.
    “What about the grand mistress?” I asked. Helena had created the Hounds to be her own personal bodyguards. When Loki had overthrown and imprisoned her at the bottom of Ygdrasyll, she ordered the Hounds to stay with Loki’s daughter—the young mistress. Desi. Helena’s goal was to have them one day lead Desi to her prison, which was exactly what they did. 
    The Hound clenched his jaw—a greater show of emotion than I’d ever seen from the creature. “We serve the young mistress,” he