He nodded. “6 a.m.”
“Great.”
I headed back to the room I was borrowing and collapsed into bed. As I fell asleep, I realized that the expression I hadn’t at first recognized on his face was one that should have made me nervous.
It was patience. As if he knew I had a secret and would wait to figure it out. Or, like he wanted to get to know me.
There was no way I could let that happen.
The helicopter hovered over the glittering water of the fjord, its rotors beating in the wind. The noise roared in my ears as the bright sun shone through the glass windows.
We’d flown to Bergen, on Norway’s west coast, this morning and picked up a helicopter at the same airport. I had to admit, my job was a lot easier when the way was paved by Aidan’s influence and money.
Norway’s green mountains and glittering fjords spread out beneath us. I’d used my dragon sense to lead us here, following the pull of treasure at the other end of the line. Our pilot, Neilson, had followed my ambiguous directions to a T. She was in her sixties and had chin-length brown hair, cool sunglasses, and nothing fazed her. In short, she was the perfect helicopter pilot.
Aidan and I were strapped into the back. I squinted down at the forest below. It sat in the middle of a valley that ran perpendicular to the fjord. A river poured from it, feeding the massive body of water between the cliffs. The familiar strong tug of recognition pulled at my middle, directing me toward the valley.
“There!” I pointed below. “We need to land there.”
“There’s nothing down there!” shouted Neilson over the rotors.
“Just put us down,” Aidan said.
“You’ll have to use the ropes,” Neilson said. “Nowhere decent to land.”
“Not a problem,” I said.
On the plane ride over, Aidan and I had discussed the possibility. Because of Norway’s steep terrain, helicopter was the best way to scout for the site. But since landing a helicopter on a mountain wasn’t always possible, we’d planned on a mid-air descent. Aidan had offered to jump out of the plane first and turn into a griffon so that I could jump onto his back. While it sounded totally badass, and I’d almost taken him up on it, it also sounded way to intimate. No way was I riding on his back.
So we were going the old-fashioned way.
Neilson hovered the helicopter over the trees about forty feet from the ground. Once it was stable—relatively—she shouted, “Whenever you’re ready!”
Aidan and I glanced at each other and nodded, then turned to our separate doors on either side of the chopper. I pulled mine open and braced myself against the wind that whipped at my hair. My eyes watered. With my heart in my throat, I looked down.
Forty feet. Not so bad.
Enough to splat, but that was unlikely. At least, that’s what I had to tell myself. I grabbed the hook and cable near the door and latched it to the harness I was wearing.
“Ready?” Aidan shouted against the wind.
I met his gaze. “Yeah!”
“Watch out for the trolls!” Neilson added.
Of course there would be trolls.
We both crouched at our door. With one last look at his ridiculously handsome face—I was weak, what could I say?—I lowered myself out of the helicopter. My weight on the rope made the gears kick in and it slowly lowered me to the ground. The wind buffeted me. Hell of a ride.
When my feet touched down, I unhooked my harness. Aidan did the same. We stood in the middle of a sparse forest, the narrow-trunked pine enveloping us. With a wave, Neilson took off. We’d call her when we needed to get back out.
“You good?” Aidan asked.
“Better than.” I closed my eyes and focused on the tugging sensation at my middle. “We’re close.”
“Good,” Aidan said. “Because something is coming our way.”
My ears perked up. There was a rumbling in the forest, as if something huge were running at us. I hadn’t noticed it because I’d assumed it was the noise of the chopper flying away. Wrong.
I met Aidan’s gaze. “Trolls.”
Neilson hadn’t been joking. Some parts of Norway had a bit of a troll problem. They were huge. Fifteen feet tall on average and weighed about two thousand pounds. I’d never actually seen one, but I knew they liked to hang out around ancient sites.
“Follow me.” I set off through the forest, dodging tree trunks and jumping rocks. We were so close I could feel it. I assumed it was an ancient ruin of some kind, so we just had to get inside. If it was too small for the trolls to enter, they likely wouldn’t destroy it. They had too much respect for the ancient sites.
Getting out would be a problem, but we’d deal with that when the time came.
Water sounded in the distance, which increased the likelihood someone had once built something here.
“We’re close!” I shouted at Aidan, who ran at my side.
Suddenly, the trees thinned. Nothingness loomed before me. I skidded to a halt and looked down. A waterfall poured into a crystal pool about twenty feet below. The water sparkled, blue and inviting, surrounded by boulders and ferns. It looked deep enough to jump into.
“Oh no,” I breathed.
“Where is it?” Aidan asked.
The thunder of the trolls chasing us grew louder.
“In there!” I pointed to the pool.
“What do you mean?”
I freaking hated this part. That water was going to be icy. “It’s the entrance.”