(VALI)

It was all Narvi's fault.

A month ago, after Father left for the city, Narvi found one of Father's old handwritten spellbooks and hid it under the floorboards of our room. I told him Mum would be angry and blame me, but he wouldn't listen. Made me promise not to tell, so long as he shared whatever spells he learned.

It bothered me that he was better at magic. Annoyed me that he hardly seemed to try. Yet whenever I was hurt, Narvi took my pain away, so I trusted him. He could fix whatever I did wrong. I agreed to keep his secret, but only because I was bored with lighting candles and the simple charms our classmates could do, too. I wanted more.

Our parents told us we would have a baby sister within the year—something both Narvi and I dreaded. Weren't we enough? Father sat us down and explained how such a thing happened...I always knew it was gross when he and Mum got close together. I didn't like it one bit. Narvi didn't, either. Now we were going to have to share our bedroom with a girl?

All the better to learn ways to escape.

Narvi and I stayed up late, well past the moonrise, deep into the night after Mum fell asleep. With Father out of the house, it was easy to hear her snores in the next room and keep from being caught.

Tiwaz was another thing entirely. He scratched at our bedroom and stuck his paw under the door, whining to be let in.

"Shh, Tee, stop it," I hissed, glaring at Narvi to read faster. "Found anything worth trying yet?"

"I dunno. Father writes funny." Narvi squinted and held the book closer to his face, huffing to himself.

"What's the matter?"

"It's just..." He flipped a few more pages back and forth. "This doesn't make sense. Maybe we should start with a different book."

"Come on, there has to be something worth trying in there."

"Do you recognize this?" He put the book flat on the floor and pointed.

I remembered to sneak a couple of extra candles in before supper and lit them with a quiet snap to see. Tee's scratching didn't stop, but Mum was still louder than he was.

"It's a map, right?" I asked, trying to find any familiar names.

"I think so. But look..." Narvi peeled back a few pages to a drawing that I'd seen Father make many times. "You know how Father talks about Yggdrasil? The Great Tree?"

"Aye, so?"

"So, he often talks about it being split up into pieces. Realms, remember?"

I stared at him. "And?"

He grumbled. "You really need to pay attention more, Vali."

"Pay attention to what? What are you going on about?"

"The realms are split up. Look at the top." He pointed to a word in curling font that I barely understood. "This is Vanaheim." Flipping the page, he found the same word over an intricate map that had several dotted lines for roads, symbols for camps and fortresses like ours, and a stylish letter L. Our house. "We live in Vanaheim."

"Aye. I know that. I'm not stupid, Narvi."

"You're missing the point." He showed me the tree again, focusing on the next spot down, which was marked with a symbol made up of three triangles instead of a name. "This matches the next map in the sequence, and down and down again. Father knows these places."

"So, the spells in here are from other realms?"

"Not just from them." Narvi looked at the map for Vanaheim again and put his pointer finger across a line of the same curious triangles. "These are all over the second map. I think...I think there's a way to travel between them. Go to them."

"Like a door?"

"Aye." He shook his head and closed the book.

I opened it again and devoured the maps with my eyes. "That's amazing!"

"Vali, I don't know about this."

"About what? Seeing other places? If Father's been there, what do we have to fear?" I found the L for our home again and sulked at how far away it was from the other symbols—across the valley where we often went foraging, but never into another grove of trees, as the map showed.

Narvi sidled next to me and turned through the maps, reading faster than I could keep up with. His eyes flickered back and forth over the pages. He was frantic, searching for something he wouldn't say. He was always doing stuff like that, but it had been worse the past two weeks. Something frightened him.

"You know you can tell me what happened, right?" I whispered.

He snapped his face toward me. "I don't wanna talk about that."

"But Narvi...you don't steal. I do. What are you looking for?"

"Nothing." He nearly tore the next page but finally paused, tipping his head.

I glanced over the drawing below and swallowed hard. The same triangle symbol from before reappeared alongside what looked like a small, yet quite familiar, rock formation. "I've seen that. It's not far from the wall. To the north."

"I know it, too." Narvi raised one of his brows the same way Mum would. "Vali...this says it's a portal."

I grinned.

"But we don't know where it goes."

"Sure we do." I found the second map in the sequence once again. "We'll take this and use it as a guide. I'm willing to bet this is on the other side."

"And...and if we can't get back?" Narvi chewed on his lower lip.

"Father will find us." I bumped his shoulder. "I promise, if that happens, I'll take the blame. Deal?"

He waited a beat before nodding. "Deal."

"First light, we'll go. Come on in, Tee." I stood to crack the door for the cat, who barely stuck his head in before leaving again.

"Vali?"

"Hmm?"

Narvi closed the book and held his hands out in front of him. "Nanny said...she told me..."

I sat again, trying to meet his gaze. "What?"

He sighed. "Cold magic is bad."

I squinted. "Bad how?"

"I dunno. Just bad."

I chuckled and pointed at the book. "I think taking this is the worst thing you've ever done."

Narvi looked at me with shining eyes. "Not according to her."

"What?"

He picked up one of our four lit candles and held it up with his thumb and two fingers, barely holding it. Without warning or even a breath, the flame went out, sizzling as if a drop of water had been used to snuff it.

But that was only part of Narvi's concern—lit with the other three around us, I saw his hand distinctly shift to blue, though only for a few seconds before returning to normal.

I gasped and picked up one of the others. "Teach me!"

"Vali, I don't know how. I'm not trying to do it."

"Do you feel it? Are you cold? Is that why you always wear so much?"

"No, I'm not cold. I never feel cold. It's like—"

"But you have to be doing something. Show me again."

He groaned and took the candle from my hands. In an instant, it was out, too.

I clapped and felt my heart jump to my throat.

"Shh..." he chided, looking over my head to the crack in the door.

"I wonder how it feels," I whispered.

"It doesn't really feel like anything. I just concentrate, and it happens."

Once again, I took a candle from the floor and stared at the flame. Poured as much energy into it as I could, like Father said to do when casting other spells. But it didn't budge. Barely moved with my breath. Another thing he didn't even have to think about to learn.

Narvi must've seen the disappointment on my face. "Vali, please—"

"Augh. It's not fair," I hissed, not taking my eyes off it. "Why can't I have the same control as—"

Like that, with the swell of my inner anger, the candle went out. My hand, and arm, all the way up my right shoulder—it all changed color the same way Narvi's did, only the shift in me was more visible with my short sleeves.

We were both silent and stared at one another. Did that just happen?

Narvi was quick enough to blow our last candle out before Mum creaked around the corner to the kitchen. Our eyes glowed in the dark, but without even having to say a single world, we knew there would be more than portal attempts once morning came around.

I couldn't hold still once light crept in our window. Our beds had been built one on top of the other, and I slept closest to the ceiling, hopping down to the floor without bothering to use the ladder Mum insisted on. The book, tucked by the wall after last night's read, fit perfect into my satchel with some room to spare for a few loose candles. If Narvi wanted to bring a pack of his own, we could fill it with lunch for us both.

Narvi slept like Mum, with a trail of spit coming down from his lip as he snored.

I was already beyond alert and ready to get moving. I shook the entire frame of both beds to disturb him. "Wake up!"

He snorted and shot his eyes open. "Ah!"

"Wake up! Wake up!"

"Boys, it's too early for that," Mum groaned from the next room.

"Come on. Let's go," I whispered, kicking my head back. "You pack the rope." Tiwaz greeted me when I was finished cleaning my face and teeth in the washroom, and I gladly filled his bowls in the kitchen so we wouldn't be delayed.

Narvi leisurely awoke, almost like his eyes had weights on them for all he wanted to leave. "Almost ready," he mumbled when he came out to slip on his shoes.

"Where are you going so soon, hmm?" Mum asked, tying her hair up on top of her head as she normally did when first appearing.

I stood by the door with my hands behind my back. "We're building a fort outside the gates."

"A fort? Why would you need to build a fort when you have a perfectly good home right here?"

"So we can be as loud as we want without upsetting you." I smiled as widely as I could.

She snickered and shook her head. "I won't argue with that."

Narvi filled a couple of canteens with water and yawned. He seemed to be moving more slowly by the second.

My whole body itched. I opened the front door to bring in more light and encourage him.

"When you're done, you'll be sure to show your father and I, yes?"

I nodded to her without answering. If I said nothing, it wasn't a lie.

"And be careful. Be back well before moonrise, or I'll send your Nanny to find you."

"We'll be careful, Mum," Narvi said, welcoming her to hug him before leaving. Such a thing meant I would have to hug her, too, which I did as quickly as possible.

"Ah, ah, ah, little wolf. You be nice to him and let him have his way a little, alright?" She raised her brow at me in a predictable warning.

"Aye, Mum. I will."

"Aye," she whispered under her breath, "never thought my sons will still talk like Vanir at this age..."

I waved to her and grinned at Narvi, who lit up once we were outside. Without wasting a beat, he sprinted through the chickens on the road and bolted for the front gates. Our adventure was already sweet. A day we would never forget.

The sun was high by the time we found the pile of rocks from the book, and Narvi and I spent most of the hike there playing imaginary games about fighting monsters. We took turns playing the hero, but Narvi always won with magic, and I always won with a sword. He didn't want to pick up weapons like I did. I liked that—it meant I might just learn something he wasn't as good at.

Narvi plopped in front of the rocks to look at the book again in the light. "I can't tell if it's already a portal, or if we have to do something first."

"I bet we have to do something. Hopefully it's not dance on one foot." I hopped around him in a circle. "Unless I'm doing it right."

He laughed and shook his head. "No, no."

I stopped and stared with my hands on my hips. "It's not a big opening, is it?" The hole at the center of the large boulders ahead was easy to miss—I only recognized it from a time in the past when Narvi and I joked that some creature lived inside. It breathed loudly enough to be heard where we stood.

But now, what I once thought was breathing now sounded like a gentle breeze. "You think we can hear the other side?"

"Maybe." Narvi finally stood at my side and stared, too.

We were scared, but we wouldn't say it. Excited, but we couldn't move.

I swallowed hard. "You ready?"

Narvi blinked a few times. "I think so."

"Okay. Let's—"

"We're just looking around and then coming back, right?" he asked, his voice higher than normal. "Step out, see what's there, then come home?"

I nodded.

Narvi untangled the rope from his satchel and we fastened it around one of the small tree trunks in front. We didn't have much length, but it was a decent enough idea to get us back to the same spot. I had the book strapped around my shoulder in my own bag, and we alternated our hands as we climbed up the unstable edge to the cave opening.

"It's not big enough for both of us, is it?" Narvi asked, starting to pant with anxiety.

"It...it'll be fine," I said, squeezing in first. "Just don't let go of the rope."

"I won't."

It was so dark, I wished I'd brought one of our candles, but it was too scary to think about leaving one hand free. "Can you see anything?" I asked.

"No. It's so dark. But why is it still going?"

I huffed and continued to wriggle my way in. "Deeper than it looks. You sure we don't need to be saying anything?"

"I dunno. You took the book before I really understood it."

"Don't blame me for this."

"Well, it's true. You're always running in before thinking."

"I do not!"

"Yes, you do!"

The rope went slack and I fell backward, further into the darkness. "Whoa...why'd you do that?" I yelled.

Narvi's voice was far away. "Vali?"

I was surrounded by flashing lights, too bright to keep my eyes open. "What's happening?"

"Vali?"

My fingers, tightly wound on the rope, were suddenly empty. I could hardly breathe. There was no up or down. Whenever I landed, it would hurt. I screamed as hard as I could, squeezing into a ball.

I'm sorry, Narvi. Go home.

My panic stopped when my back hit the ground. Soft ground. A little wet. Everything was still too bright to comfortably open my eyes, but I wasn't falling anymore.

Narvi's voice sounded like mine, growing closer by the second. Just as sharply as I'd landed, he fell on me.

"Augh," I said, still trying to catch my breath fully.

"Vali? Are you alright?"

"Aye...now get off me."

Narvi rolled away, letting me breathe. "What happened? Why'd you let go?"

"I didn't let go. You pushed me."

"No, I—" he stopped short, gasping loudly instead.

I half-covered my face with my hand and finally opened my eyes. His shock carried over to me.

We weren't home anymore. The soft ground was grass, but it was a different color than any in the valley. The sky was too light, and too blue. There was a light in the sky like in ours, but it was bigger and more intense. The air was dry. It smelled funny, too.

"Narvi, we did it. We're somewhere else." I turned to see how he felt about it. "Doesn't look dangerous to me."

His jaw hung open. He clutched his arms and shivered, though it was warmer than home.

The portal didn't look much like the cave we entered, but it was obvious enough as a cave by itself. Back and forth we went, three times to each side, until we were certain the rope wasn't needed and how to appear without falling over. We marked it on the foreign side by carving an L into the stone.

Ours. It was ours. We swore we'd keep it that way.

Narvi broke that promise, though. This was all his fault, you know.