The Banished Gods Box Set: Books 1-3

by L. A. McGinnis

  “The way Odin sees it, Hel and I worked together to destroy Asgard. Exactly as the Fates said I would.” Running his hand down her back, Loki allowed himself a small, bitter smile.

  Loki’s touch steadied her, if that’s what the feeling could be called, as the revelations, each one more incredible than the next, hit her. “So, you see, Odin hates both of us equally. Which is why he sent me to the darklands, and why you are leaving. Right now.” Except he didn’t make a move to let her go. Instead, he murmured into her hair, “I swear, I’ll sort this out. I’ll offer him something to buy you time. Time to get out of the city. Get away.”

  “Do you think running away will fix this? And where, exactly, would that leave you?” A burn of temper ran along her spine. “Besides, do I really strike you as someone who would leave you holding the bag while I take off?” She resisted the urge to punch him in the arm. “Do me a big favor and don’t insult me like that again.

  “I’m sure they played me last night. Odin set me up, knowing damn well I’d do anything to bring you back. And Hel was right there to take advantage of the situation. Except, what could they possibly want from me? I’m just a human, as all of you enjoy pointing out.” Then she remembered the ravenous look in Hel’s eyes. “Maybe, more importantly, what does Hel want from me?”

  “Nothing good.” He leaned into her, tucking her closer, nestling her head into the hollow of his neck. “Did you ever consider she might really want your soul, Morgane? And you went ahead and promised her whatever she wanted.”

  “Through trickery. I was set up. You were dying. Odin brought you back half dead, knowing I would agree to anything to get you back. But again, I’m nothing special or anything.”

  “So says you. She sent that many Grim after you, twice now. She wanted to kill you, but she failed. Now Odin’s taken an interest in you as well. There has to be a reason. Neither would bother if there wasn’t something in it for them.”

  “Well, I can’t think of a single reason they’d find me the least bit interesting.” She tried to ignore his face, rough with whiskers, the gentle pressure of his arm around her waist. They watched the sun cutting the room in half, dust motes rising and falling within the bands of light. “This is totally unfair. She took away my family because she could. She maneuvered me into a bargain because she could. I hate your daughter.”

  “Most days I feel the same, trust me.” His lips were in her hair, warm against her scalp, his fingers tracing the line of her arm when he suddenly stilled. “There’s always a way out, Morgane. The way our magic works, there’s always a loophole. You just have to find it.”

  She huffed out a laugh. “You sound pretty sure of yourself.”

  “Trust me, somehow, someway, we’ll find a technicality to get you out of this. And since there are strict rules to the way magic works, everyone has to abide by them. Even us. And more importantly, even Hel.” He jumped out of bed, pacing back and forth in front of the window. “She’s tried to kill you twice now, right?”

  “Three times,” Morgane reminded him, “if you count the first time, two years ago. But please, continue, this is fascinating stuff.”

  Loki’s eyes swung from her to his view of the city below. “The bigger question is, what does Odin have to gain? Why is he involved with Hel at all?”

  Morgane weighed her options. “So maybe it’s time I go and find out? At least I have no one left alive for them to use against me.” She kept her eyes carefully away from Loki’s.

  “And they might think they hold all the power,” she reminded him. “But power doesn’t always mean being bigger.

  Sometimes power only means you have to be smarter.”

  15

  She found Odin behind his throne, his silvery hair pulled back, bound by bands of silver, so long it fell halfway down his back. He was spectacularly handsome, like some kind of exquisite ice king, deathly pale and cold. Drawing closer, Morgane willed herself to keep her breath steady. The morning’s anger had faded away, replaced by vigilance. Well, vigilance tempered by a trace of fear. She prayed he wouldn’t sense either as she dove right in. “I want to know what I agreed to.”

  What I was tricked into.

  “And why should I tell you anything?” Turning around, he stopped whispering to one of the ravens on the back of the throne, the bigger, fluffier of the two. Cocking its black, shiny head, it looked like the damn bird understood every word.

  “Because I have a right to know what you’re going to do with me,” she blurted before she could stop herself. “Because you and Hel decided to pull me into this mess, and I’d like to know why.” For a second, something dark slithered up her spine as he turned his full attention on her, finally deciding she was worth the attention.

  With a flick of his finger, both birds flew off, spiraling for the shadowy, arched ceiling. She watched them disappear before tearing her gaze back to the silver-haired monster in front of her.

  “What use would I possibly have for you?”

  “I don’t know. That’s what I’m trying to figure out. So lay it out for me. And bottom-line it, I’d like to go home today, since I’m sure you want me gone.” As much as Morgane didn’t want to hear whatever he was about to say, she really, really didn’t want this drawn out.

  She clenched her hands behind her back, hating that they still trembled. She knew Odin was capable of anything. Things she probably couldn’t imagine. And she could imagine quite a lot these days.

  Once she found out what he wanted, maybe she would figure out a way to work this situation to her advantage. Careful, she cautioned herself, feeling a flush of temper climbing into her cheeks, slow and careful, and you might get through this in one piece.

  “You don’t want to know what’s in store for you, girl,” Odin said flatly.

  “Oh, but I do,” Morgane countered, her voice just as level. “More so, I have a right to know.” Rules of magic, she thought, hopefully, please, please let this be one of the rules of magic.

  When he rose, the sight of Odin towering over her from three steps above set her bones trembling, but even as he came toward her, she stood her ground. She had stood against monsters. Watched them kill everyone she loved. She doubted very much this man, immortal though he might be, could take any more away from her.

  “Oh, you would be surprised how much you can still lose, human.” Odin brushed her arm as he circled by, and she turned, not trusting him at her back. “You made a terrible mistake last night, Miss Burke. You made your proposal to Hel, and not to me. You offered her anything she wanted. And the only thing the Goddess of the Dead has any interest in is your eternal soul.” Morgane’s heart almost stopped beating.

  “So clever, yet you never saw that coming, did you? But never fear, I’m going to get you out of your current predicament. I need you to do something for me, resourceful little human that you are. Call it a favor if you will. Or don’t, it matters not. But since you’re heading down to the Underworld, I’m going to use your situation to my advantage.”

  As he circled her, she met his eyes, greeting the darkness within them with a questioning look. “Hel means to trap you down there as her prisoner. Seems set on it, for some unknown reason. I would assume you would welcome a chance to avoid that fate. I’m willing to offer you something no one else could.”

  “And what is that?” Morgane couldn’t keep her voice from quivering.

  “A way back.” Odin smiled. If you could call it that. Teeth-baring was more like it. “Providing, of course, you give me something in return. Find someone for me and bring them back.”

  “You can do that? Bring people back from the Underworld?” How would she ever find the one Odin wanted? God, there had to be millions and millions of them down there. Everyone who’d ever died was there.

  Suddenly, Morgane stilled.

  At the realization. At the loophole, the opportunity that was suddenly right in front of her. The once-in-a-lifetime-chance that was presenting itself. Right now. Because the real question be
came, if she could bring back one person, could she bring back more?

  “I will give you the name of whom I desire, and you will give that specific name to the Goddess of the Grave. You swear to perform this one task for me, and only then shall I give you a means to return to this realm. Do we have an accord?”

  Morgane nodded, her mind racing as a nebulous, crazy plan formed in her head.

  “Yes, yes we do. Now tell me, what’s the plan?”

  According to Odin, he’d promised to deliver her to Hel after dinner, which meant she had a few hours to kill. Deception, it seemed, was not her forte.

  When Loki found her, he all too quickly figured out she was up to something. And Morgane had no doubt if she told him her plan, her one chance at getting in and out of the Underworld would disappear. Unfortunately, not being able to get her to admit what she was hiding pissed him off enough to set a watchdog on her.

  A mean, bad-tempered dog.

  The room she was currently locked up in held a bank of TV’s, one dirty, dilapidated couch, and a pissed off, red-haired immortal genius. “Look, Mir, I’m telling you, I’m just going to watch some TV and maybe take a nap. You don’t have to sit here, wasting your precious time babysitting me because Loki thinks I’m up to something.”

  His grunt was the first sound he’d muttered in hours.

  “See? See? I knew it. You’ve got stuff to do, so go do it. Go organize your medical shit or something. Don’t tell me you really enjoy sitting there on your ass, watching me watch TV?” Another grunt told her he was close to gouging out his own eyes.

  As Morgane clicked the remote, coursing through channel after channel, Mir finally gave up. “Since I know you’re doing this shit to drive me crazy, I’m outta here. I’ve gotta make up the hunting rotation for next week. Be back in twenty.” He spun around with a finger pointed in her face. “Don’t you fucking go anywhere, do you hear me? I will kick your ass.”

  “Of course not. Where would I even go? Just going to sit around here all night long.” Keeping her face glued to the screens, she waited until the last echo of his footfalls disappeared and thumbed up the volume on the televisions. She slid on her boots, before taking a final look around, and eased the door open. Wishing there was another way around this mess, she tugged the door closed behind her and headed toward Odin’s Throne Room.

  What she couldn’t tell Loki was that Odin had opened a doorway when he’d offered her this task. An opportunity he had no idea even existed. A chance she had never seen coming.

  But one she meant to make the most of.

  Earlier, standing there in Odin’s shiny Throne Room, Morgane had been struck with an idea. So brilliantly stupid and glorious, it had, for a second, blinded her to everything else. All the dead were in the Underworld. And Odin was giving her a free pass down there and back.

  A “Get Out of the Underworld” free card, so to speak.

  And a means to bring someone back.

  With any luck, several someone’s.

  There was a time, not so long ago, when she never would have stood up to someone like Odin. Never would have even considered this current, insane plan. But now, after losing everyone in her life, after two years of staring death in the eye every damn day, Morgane wasn’t so scared of this world anymore. As it turned out, not the next one, either.

  She and Loki, she reasoned, had only known each other a few days. It wasn’t like they were joined at the hip, for chrissakes. Which was why, she rationalized, she’d tell him everything. Right after she went to the Underworld and got back safely.

  With her mom and sister in tow.

  Oh, and whoever this person Odin wanted, too.

  Like they said, better to ask forgiveness than permission, right?

  By the time she jogged into Odin’s Throne Room, Morgane figured she was about three hours late. The doors flew open before her. “Sorry, sorry, here I am. Better late than never. Ready to go.” The words were barely out of her mouth when the room went whirling around her, and the drawling, bored voice of Odin floated from somewhere far away.

  “About time, you’d think I’m running a country club. Have a nice trip. And remember who you’re bringing home with you. If you can’t find him, don’t bother coming back.”

  The whirling, spinning, dropping sensation didn’t stop for a long time. Finally, she hit something hard, and the pressure of a cold, wet surface punched her in the face. Water dripped from her hair, adding to the disorientation when she sat up in complete darkness, pushing tangled strands away from her face. Blackness rippled around her, the sort of shadowy dark that sucks every thought straight out of you.

  Like why she had agreed to come here in the first place.

  And how she was totally ready to take on this world.

  No, this was the kind of blackness that absorbed you until you disappeared. Tucking her knees into her chest, she felt her ribcage expand against her thighs. Contract back down. Felt the warmth of every breath dissipate into the icy, depthless emptiness around her. If it wasn’t for the cold, hard floor underneath her ass, she would have thought she was floating. But she was somewhere. And she was sitting in water. And her ass was freezing.

  Her skin goose bumped underneath the thin t-shirt.

  Wet meant water. Cold meant weather. The idea loosened the tightness in her chest. And breathing meant she was still alive. Or at least, she hoped it did.

  Squeezing her eyes tight, she imagined two faces. Holding those images as a shield against the dark, she rose to her feet.

  The sound of rushing water drew her to the right. With the roar of it thrumming in her ears, she kept walking until mist coated her face, and continued following a far-away glow. Light was good. Not caring what it might reveal, she hurried forward, thinking anything would be better than this soul-sucking darkness. By the time she reached the bridge spanning the river, things were quite…misty. Odin had told her exactly what to do to make it across. Once she managed that, she knew exactly how far to reach Hel’s gates. But after that? It was anyone’s guess.

  Total crapshoot. Which was why she was going to wing it.

  The person, which was a charitable term, guarding the bridge held out a huge, stubby hand to stop her. She stopped. Waited. Ask me, ask me the question.

  Out of its grotesque mouth, the words twisted and warped, “You have but one wish before you cross over. What is it you want?”

  Morgane considered. Told him. It.

  And then palmed the thin sliver of metal that appeared in her hand, frowning. Wondering if Odin could have been wrong. Wondering how she could have been so stupid to trust him, before slipping it into her pocket and waiting for the go ahead to cross.

  “Um, I was supposed to receive a powerful, magic dagger? Isn’t this supposed to be big and fancy or something?” The thing guarding the bridge stared down at her from dark, empty eyes.

  She swallowed hard. She’d never once considered not making it over the bridge. This was supposed to be the easy part. The in-the-bag part of this whole plan. Finally, the…thing stepped aside and gestured down the long span of bridge.

  She didn’t need any more encouragement than that.

  Hours later, standing before impressive, slightly grimy gates, Morgane didn’t bother to look at the blackened, ruined landscape behind her. No reason to lift her head and smell the bite of sulfur in the air, taste the grit of dust between her lips, the searing ache of brimstone in her lungs. She didn’t want to remember any of it, ever again. The only thing that mattered was she’d made it across. And what remained to be done.

  The doors swung inward on silent hinges, revealing a gaping maw of darkness and flickering torchlight. What is it with these immortal beings and their penchant for the dramatic?

  “Ah, Odin kept his word. I’d wondered.” When Morgane saw Hel standing between the giant doors, looking all Project Runway and shit in a long, black silky dress and lots of bling, she knew she was in way over her head.

  Morgane pushed down her rising fear,
but her voice, thankfully, didn’t shake as much as it might have. “Came out to welcome me personally? I’m honored, I think.”

  “As well you should be. I’ve been waiting for hours and hours. I thought Odin and I made a deal.”

  “He said nightfall, and here I am.” Morgane surveyed Hel’s to-die-for Blahnik stilettos and heavy, diamond hoops that matched the silky dress perfectly. Which meant the Queen of the Dead didn’t spend all of her time stuck down here. “Nice outfit.”

  “You’d be surprised how often I get out,” Hel replied, stroking manicured nails through her hair. “Nothing you’ll have to worry about from now on. Any-hoo, time’s a wasting. Why don’t you come on in?” Hel waved Morgane inside, her arm swooping down in a flourish befitting a Barnum ringmaster.

  With the sounds of a million claws scraping the stone beneath her, and the rustling of millions more behind the stone walls, Morgane had only one thing on her mind. Finding the soul Odin wanted, the two she loved, and getting everyone back up to where they belonged.

  16

  “Where is Morgane? What did you do with her?”

  Loki was braced against Fenrir’s massive body as he screamed at Odin, Fen’s thick, muscled arm tight across his neck. For protection? For support? To keep him from killing Odin? Who the fuck knew.

  Straining against his son’s substantial bulk, Loki struggled, pushing against his hold. Fen firmed his grip, his long, black hair falling across his chiseled face, his arms binding Loki tighter. “Father, he will kill you if you persist with this,” Fenrir hissed in Loki’s ear, tightening his grip.

  As if it took him a lifetime to remember how, Loki lifted his gaze to Odin’s visage.

  To find only mockery.

  “You truly are a special kind of bastard.” Loki’s eyes, which were usually the clearest blue, now burned with the fire that gave him his name. Fenrir secured his grip on Loki’s shoulders and dragged him across the smooth floor, their boots making long, drawn out squeals as he was pulled backward, fighting every inch of the way.