Arthur Quinn and Hell's Keeper by Alan Early Read Free Book Online

tower had ended and the dust was settling, Fenrir had felt a strange mixture of relief and regret. If Loki had been angry when he’d first found him weeks earlier, there would be no end to the torture the god would inflict on him for actually standing against him. And so, getting to a new hiding place had been first on his agenda. He had seen the other wolves scattering in the aftermath of the battle and, though he liked many of them, he didn’t intend to invite them along. It would be much easier to hide one person than many. Off he had gone, by himself, through the dark of the night.
    He’d kept the boat docked in Dublin Harbour for years and no one – not even Drysi – knew about it. Despite limiting the wolves’ chances to leave the seclusion of the tower for decades, he had snuck off several times by himself for fishing trips over the years. It was as close as he could safely get to the thrill of the hunt. He’d spent the past month on the boat, just out of range of any phone or television signal. He hadn’t even bothered putting on the radio, cherishing the silence. He’d spent his days fishing, reading and simply looking at the water lapping at the side of the vessel, and he spent his nights worrying and wondering if this would all blow over soon and praying that Loki wouldn’t find him this time.
    His peace had been disrupted the previous night when Drysi had visited him in his sleep.
    â€˜Father,’ she had said, her face filling his mind. Her eyes were shut but a third one in the middle of her forehead was staring at him. It was disconcerting.
    â€˜Drysi,’ he could hear himself respond in his head.
    â€˜Father, where are you?’ She seemed concerned.
    â€˜I’m sleeping.’
    â€˜I know. But where?’
    â€˜Why do you want to know that?’
    â€˜Meet me, Father.’
    â€˜But … Loki …’
    â€˜He … he abandoned me, Father. It was terrible; he called me a useless cripple and left me by the side of the road. And the things he did to people! The things I saw!’ She squeezed tears out of her closed eyes while her third one just kept staring.
    â€˜I’m so sorry, Drysi.’
    â€˜Meet me. Tomorrow.’
    He hesitated, not quite sure what to believe or what to think.
    â€˜Please, Father,’ Drysi pleaded. ‘I miss you so much.’
    And eventually he said the thing that he most wanted to say, even if he wasn’t certain it was the thing he should say.
    â€˜All right.’ His voice broke slightly. ‘I’ll meet you.’
    And here he was, on his way to meet his daughter. A part of him – a cold and logical part – screamed that this was all too simple, that Drysi had lied to him before and would do so again. This part of him was wary and on edge – the wolf ready to bolt at the first click of a hunter’s gun. And this small part of him had taken the precaution of slipping a flick-knife into his pocket. But another, bigger part of him – the man and the father – desperately yearned to believe Drysi, wanted her to be his good, loving daughter once more. This part of him wanted them to live together in a world where Loki was gone – dead or defeated, it didn’t matter: just gone. And this part of him, this foolish but hopeful part, refused to consider for a second that he was walking into a trap.

    â€˜The train’s late,’ Ash said, checking the time on the little dashboard clock.
    â€˜It’s not late,’ contradicted Ellie. ‘That clock is fast.’
    They were sitting in a 1960s pastel-blue Volkswagen Beetle. It belonged to the Lavenders’ parents. Ex had no problem ‘borrowing’ it from under the nose of their grandfather, who took care of them while their parents were away. He’d been getting very forgetful over the past few years and spent most of his days dozing in the drawing-room armchair, which had attained a deep