“From the sounds of it, you’ve been through some bad shit, Celine.” Morgane continued, starting up the steps, her boots echoing with every footfall. “And Fen told me a little about your father.” She paused. “I’ve gotta say, I’m glad the bastard’s dead. I can’t even imagine…” She left it at that, climbing higher and higher, until Celine’s thighs began to burn. “Well, like I said, I’m glad he’s dead. And I’m glad you and Fen found each other. You’re good together, and we need another woman around this place.”
“As far as the stone, and this situation with the dark god, I don’t think you’re going to find any answers in a book. Or on your computer.” Morgane stopped, and Celine realized they’d reached the top of the steps and were perched beside each other in a narrow entryway, Morgane’s hand resting on the knob of the door.
“I don’t know what Fen’s told you about me or my sister. But if you want answers, Celine, this is where you’ll most likely find them.” Still, Morgane didn’t turn the knob, and her voice turned hesitant. “You should probably know, I haven’t actually seen my sister in weeks. She’s been taking the trays of food I’ve been leaving, but…” Tension rolled off Morgane in sheets. “Let me go in first, just to be safe.”
She swung open the door and stepped inside, Celine following closely behind her. The room was pitch black. So dark, Celine wondered for a moment if she might go blind from the sheer strain of it pressing against her eyes. The only way Celine knew she wasn’t alone in the room was the faintest sense of movement in front of her. Reaching out, she felt through the air for Morgane. She found nothing, only that shifting of the darkness in front of her, the slightest rush of air. The whole room was freezing, a gut-wrenching cold which seemed to suck the life right out of her.
“Ava?” Morgane’s voice came from somewhere to her right. Celine stumbled slightly, her hands reaching toward the voice. “Ava. Stop this. You need to get a hold of yourself.”
Something touched the back of Celine’s neck, the barest brush of ice across her skin, even as right in front of her, Morgane demanded, her voice growing angrier, “Ava, goddamn it, get a fucking grip.”
Celine froze in place as something roved over her body. The distinct feeling of fingers dragging across her skin, their touch sharp and searching, made her mouth go dry.
The touch wasn’t even remotely human.
Morgane’s voice snapped with anger, “Damn it Ava, maintain some control, will you?”
With a flash as bright as a nuclear blast, sunlight seared Celine’s retinas, and she was left blinking in a room that seemed to be made entirely of glass, overlooking the entirety of Chicago, the setting sun streaming in from every direction.
In the center of all of that light stood a woman.
She was the negative to Morgane’s positive. Where Morgane was blonde, with glass-green eyes that danced with mischief, Ava Burke was her dark twin. And there was no hint of mischief in those dark blue eyes. Something heartless shone brightly there, instead. Gleaming like midnight, Ava’s gaze was endless, otherworldly. Too powerful for this world. But the shape of their faces, the slope of their noses, the curve of their lips, left no doubt they were sisters.
“Well, well, well. Who is this?” Ava’s husky deep voice managed to sound mocking, even while she pushed her tangled hair out of her face to get a better look at Celine.
“Celine, this is Ava. Ava, Celine.” Morgane circled her sister. “You look better. Much, much better. You’ve been eating, and you’ve put on a bit of weight.” Morgane lifted a lock of her sister’s dark hair. “You need a shower, though. You stink.”
“Whatever. I’ve been rather busy.” Ava didn’t take her eyes off Celine. And Celine didn’t dare take her eyes off Ava. “So, there are some new faces in the Tower, I see?”
As if she didn’t hear, Morgane continued, “You need to maintain better control, Ava. For now, everyone’s pretty much forgotten your existence. But what if someone else had come through that door just now? What if it had been Odin?”
Ava’s vicious, answering smile told the tale.
Odin would have had his damn hands full.
“Still.” Morgane’s mouth twitched. “Not an option. You have no business picking fights with these guys. We need to keep the peace. And you need to pull yourself together.”
“What do you expect? You left me by myself, I was bored.”
Celine watched in silent fascination as tiny tendrils of darkness began to leak out of Ava, questing lightly through the air.
“You told me to get out and not come back.” Morgane slapped the bits of darkness away from her face. “And I’ve been bringing you food three times a day, as has Loki.” Sighing in frustration, Morgane stepped over to her sister and pulled her into a stiff hug. “Christ Ava, what are we going to do with you?”
“I don’t know.” For a moment, Ava’s voice sounded lost and very, very young as she curled herself into Morgane, as the hug turned into a clinging, desperate embrace. “Sometimes I don’t think I know anything, anymore.” Then darkness began to fill up the room around them, faint hints of shadow and smoke twining through the bands of sunlight.
“We’ll figure it out together, Ava. But for right now, Celine needs your help.” Morgane plunked down onto the couch and patted the seat next to her.
“You two must be in serious shit to come to me.” Ava laughed again, but now the humor sounded forced, masking fears that ran far deeper. “How desperate are we these days?”
“Celine has a problem. I’m hoping you’ll help her out.”
As Ava turned those otherworldly eyes upon her and unease rippled through her, Celine suddenly understood where the phantom shadows around them came from. There even seemed to be a hint of brimstone and sulfur hanging in the air.
“This stuff inside of you is the same darkness that makes up the dark god, isn’t it?” She glimpsed the barest flicker of pain before cool amusement slid over Ava’s face, turning it into a beautiful mask.
“I did try to give it back to him, down in the Underworld,” Ava said pointedly, gliding over to sit next to her sister. “But he left me with a kernel of his power. Maybe he thought it would be funny. Who knows? Now it’s growing and I can’t seem to stop it.”
“But you’ve learned to control it, haven’t you? Maybe not all the time, but you can master it? The power?”
Ava inclined her head. “Most of the time. But there are other times…” Her voice trailed off as she scrutinized Celine. “You’ve seen him, haven’t you? That’s how you know what this is, inside of me.”
Celine nodded. “He talks to me in my dreams. So I guess he’s inside of me too, except in a different way since he’s in my head.”
This war, her situation, gained a sense of clearer purpose as the question erupted out of Celine. “If he’s inside of you…can you…do you know what he is?”
“Not exactly. I feel this kernel of power, how it’s changing. How it’s changed me. But no, I don’t know what he is. Only that he’s ravenous and dangerous.” Ava’s interest sparked. “What about you, Celine?”
“I know what his intent feels like. I know how powerless he makes me.” It was unnecessary but Celine added, “And I know I hate him.”
“Well then, I suppose that makes us sisters, in a way. Both of us with that monster inside us, in some way, shape, or form.” Ava’s gaze swung over to Morgane. “Did my sister happen to mention to you, Celine, that after he killed her, Morgane was locked inside of some kind of alternate dimension with that monster?” Before Morgane could answer, Ava continued, “No, I don’t suppose she did. What do you make of it, that all three of us have been touched by him?”
Morgane turned to Celine. “It’s true, he killed me in the Underworld two months ago. And Ava brought me back from the dead. And yes, there was a moment…”
“More like ten.”
“Fine, ten minutes where I was locked in some sort of bubble with this thing.” Morgane shrugged. “Those moments felt like death, or w
orse than death. I could feel its hunger for this world, maybe its evil intent. But that doesn’t matter.
“What we need now is to ask if you can reach him, figure out how close he is to crossing over?” Morgane continued, “Celine’s life depends on it, Ava. The thing’s going to come through her, use her as a freaking doorway. It’ll kill her when it does.”
Celine swore something close to emotion flickered across Ava’s face. “Maybe, I don’t know. Before I try, let me warn you. Our connection, this power, goes both ways. If I reach out to him, he may very well sense exactly where we are. It could go…badly for us. How close do you think he is?” Ava quietly asked Celine.
“Close,” Celine whispered. “I can almost touch him, as if he’s just on the other side of a thin veil.”
Morgane sat forward swiftly. “Wait, your father said we had weeks, right?”
“That’s what he claimed, yes, but he always was a lying piece of shit.” Something like approval crossed Ava’s face as Celine hurried on, “I took this from the dark god, months ago. I feel like this stone is important somehow. It has to be a piece of this puzzle, a clue of how to keep him trapped. Could you look at it, tell us if that’s even possible?” Celine pulled it from her pocket, held it out towards Ava.
Ava leaned in, sniffed, and then recoiled away slightly. “How do you know it’s important? It could just be a rock, you know.” But there was a distinctive look of unease now on her face.
“Because he wants it back. If it wasn’t important, it wouldn’t matter.”
Ava’s steady, merciless gaze was mesmerizing.
“I know this is important, it has to be.” Another moment of stony silence passed by. “Please, Ava, it feels like the Orobus is right around the corner. If you could just…”
“Orobus? I like that the creature has a name now.” Ava chuckled. “So much better. We were calling it a thing, or simply an it, last I heard. Finally, a proper name for a proper villain.” The gleam in her eyes kindled to something far, far keener.
“We’ve got to figure out how to stop him from crossing over in the first place.” Celine’s voice went flat, her patience running out.
Instead of answering, Ava changed the subject. “So you’re a thief, huh? I like her, Morgane, she’ll make a nice addition to our little ragtag army. So…tell me, any other new faces around? What else have I missed?”
There was a wicked edge to her now, Celine thought, as if all of this was just a game.
“Perhaps I should come downstairs and play more often.”
“No,” Morgane said pointedly. “Remember what happened last time?”
Ava snorted. Whatever happened last time must have been truly awful because both sisters sat back, studying each other, arms crossed defensively over their chests.
“Actually? Yes,” Celine answered, sliding the stone back into her pocket, her voice calm and steady. “Yes. There are new faces. What do you know about the Swede?”
“The seer who does not see?”
“Yes, that one,” Celine breathed. “Tell me all about him.”
Next to Ava, Morgane went quiet as well, weighing her sister’s words.
“Where is Njor? What is he doing right now?”
An edge, any edge, to buy them more time, to give them something to use against this god who sought to take everything away.
“Preparing for his lovely new world. A world he will not live to see.” Ava’s smile grew sly and knowing. “But that isn’t what you really want to know, is it?”
No, Celine thought, no it is not.
“I need you to tell me if there is a way to stop the Orobus. By myself, inside my dreams. And what this stone is. I must have brought it back for a reason, I just can’t figure out what it is. I know I’m missing something, but I don’t know what. We’re running out of time.” Her voice sounded desperate, even to herself. “There has to be some way to stop him.”
Ava cocked her head as if someone else was speaking to her. “You already know the answer to that, Celine.”
“I have to die.”
When Morgane opened her mouth to protest, Ava cut her off with a quick slice of her head, her fingers digging into the cushion, concentrating. In seconds, sunlight faded away to shadow and gloom. Darkness became a dense shroud of quiet wrapping around them, the outside world fading away, silence becoming a thudding presence as all sounds were shut out.
A shield.
Ava had dropped a shield around them, so no one else could hear.
As if she knew someone might be listening.
“Death is one option, yes. But there might be another.” Ava’s blue eyes were a wild sea, furious and hopeful all at once, as if grasping for something she hadn’t dared wish for. As if she saw everything.
“You know exactly why he chose you. It wasn’t only for your knowledge, or the languages, or your clever little mind.” Ava’s gaze drilled into her, straight through her, and something inside Celine quailed. “It was because he thought you were different than what you are. He thought you were a tool, he thought he could control you. But you’re not going to let him, are you?”
“No,” Celine whispered.
“You defied him once by stealing the stone. By taking what was his, in return for what was being done to you. Do you think you can do it again?”
“Yes.” Not a shred of doubt in that answer. Celine would not allow herself to think otherwise.
“Then there’s your answer.” Ava’s voice was insistent in the beating quiet, “The next time he comes for you? Stand your ground. And you take from him, Celine. You take from him, like he’s taken from all of us. And after that? You get your ass back here and then we use that stolen power to bury that bastard.” Ava’s gaze swept over to Morgane then returned to rest on Celine.
“He’s touched all three of us. Can’t be a coincidence we all ended up here. Which means we’re connected now, sisters, as I said before. The stone is nothing but a talisman of his power and a very small part of it. The real power to defeat him is something else. If there’s any way to beat him, that power will be what tips the scales.”
The darkness receded, light streamed in, sounds resumed and the shadows slipped away from Ava’s eyes. With a hint of cool amusement, she added loudly to no one in particular, “Death is completely overrated, in my opinion. Now. Tell me everything I’ve missed. It sounds like you’ve all been having loads of fun.”
Chapter 32
“Just answer my question, son. What are we going to do?” Loki sat in his chamber, watching Fen intently. Waiting for an explanation. They’d been talking for hours and hours, and Odin was right. Fen’s wolf was hovering close to the surface. Still, it was a testament to physics, seeing all of that raw, otherworldly power locked down into such a mortal-seeming body. Even though he knew full well Fen’s control the only thing holding the beast in check.
But what Loki needed was an answer to his question. Fen’s face was grave when he finally gave him one. “That bargain I made with the Dagda is finished. You have nothing to worry about. I already told you, he’s never going to find out about Ava and Morgane. There’s no way he could, not locked behind the walls of their realm. You know as well as I, nothing gets in or out, not even information.”
Loki blew out an exasperated breath. “There’s no way you can guarantee that, Fen. What if that Fae bastard or his damn sister, the Morrigan, calls in your marker? What then?”
There was not so much as a flicker of doubt in Fen’s eyes as he answered. “There is no oath, nothing the Tuatha De Dannan could hold over me that would cause me to betray you, Loki. Do you understand? Nothing. We’re all family now, as you go to great pains to point out on a regular basis. You, me, Morgane, and Ava.” He smiled a little. “Besides, the Dagda made me swear an oath to kill anyone with the surname of MacAskill. Last time I looked, neither Morgane nor Ava’s family name is MacAskill. It’s Rigan. They’re perfectly safe. Case closed, as far as I’m concerned.”
Loki didn’t budge. “A
technicality.”
“A reality.” Fen’s voice was resolute, but his face grew more troubled as he went on. “I’ve got bigger issues than the Dagda and the Morrigan. When Celine was taken by her father, something happened to her. When I got there, by the time I arrived, he’d…” Fen’s voice grew even flatter. “It was as if he’d sucked the life right out of her.”
His son slid his hands beneath his legs to keep them still.
“When I saw her like that, a part of myself died right alongside her. And I don’t think I’ve ever felt that kind of rage before, not that intense. I brought her home but then…
“Then she wanted to watch.” Fen’s face blanched. “She asked me if she could watch us question him, and she wouldn’t budge, not a bit.”
Loki watched his son’s hands begin to shake.
“I couldn’t get her to leave. So she did, she watched. All of it. She watched what I did to him.”
“What happened next?” Loki asked. “After her father’s questioning?”
“I don’t know. By the gods, I can’t even imagine what she must have thought, seeing me like that.” Almost frantic, Fen ran his hands through his hair until it stood up.
“Tell me what happened next, Fen. What did Celine say to you, what has she been acting like since then?”
“She told me she loved me. She thanked me, for Christ’s sake.” His eyes turned a wild, unfocused blue, as panic, genuine terror blanketed his face. “I don’t understand how she could say that? Not after she watched me with her father.”
Loki said calmly, “Have you ever considered she accepts you for who you are, Fen? That she’s accepted both of you, the man as well as the beast?” Even before he’d finished the sentence, Fen was already swinging his huge head back and forth. “She loves you, son, and she’s accepted you. All of you, for who you are. The reason you’re struggling with it is because…”
“She needs to understand how dangerous I am. She needs to not be so reckless. She won’t see it, even though I’ve warned her. I’ve told her. She needs to realize…”
The Banished Gods Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 46
