But the long-repressed magic flickering to life within her demanded she say one final thing.
“For your information, Orobus has another meaning. The One. Life is one big circle. The stones, the name you chose for this entity. In life…” Sydney’s power reared up and she shoved it back down. “We’re connected—mortals, immortals, gods, and monsters. Despite power or magic or fate, we’ll all end up in the exact same place.” She knew a spark of flame flared in her eyes, but she couldn’t help it as she tossed her last jab up at Odin.
“Which, I guess, makes you no better than me.”
Only then did she allow Mir to steer her away.
Chapter 3
An hour later in his infirmary, Mir observed this Sydney person, aka the person who had totally fucked up his orderly world, tear into a sandwich the size of a football. Not that he watched the stupid human game or anything, but it looked roughly the same size.
Odin had waved him off with explicit instructions to interrogate and wipe her mind. He ordered Sydney to spill everything she knew. There was also an unspoken edict from the All Father. If Sydney posed a threat, she would be eliminated. They’d settled, instead, on lunch.
It seemed a reasonable compromise.
This was when he’d give anything to be Freyr. Look good, fuck, and eat. Or even the wolf. Kill, maim, and eat. But no, he had the shitty rotten luck to be him. Figure out all the world’s problems and solve each one of them. Distracted, he watched the girl eat. She ate like Fenrir killed. No wasted movement, equally efficient, and wholly focused on her task.
Sandwich. Whatever.
Along the way of the sandwich watching, he couldn’t help but notice again how unique she was. Redheads were unusual, but Sydney was exceptional. Her dark red hair framed a perfectly oval face with high cheekbones and skin so pale, he doubted it had ever seen the sun. The faint sprinkling of freckles dusting her nose and cheeks only made her skin appear more flawless. But it was her eyes that drew him in. Eyes that weren’t of this world, the palest green dusted with silvery flecks and ringed with dark emerald, as if the color had pooled around the edges. As if they glowed. He could drown in them if he allowed himself to. When those eyes blinked over at him, he glanced away.
“So I’m thinking…”
“No. You didn’t think.” The words came out roughly.
“Okay, you’re right, I didn’t.” She mused, looking around. “I held up the sign, I baited you to come out. You told me to keep my mouth shut, I didn’t. But to be fair…” She waved the sandwich around. “To be fair, Mir, how could I know any of this was real?
“I assumed the professor was delusional when he told me Norse gods lived up here. I figured maybe this was a military outpost, at best. I hoped for shelter and food, perhaps even held certain romantic notions about meeting said immortals. And yes, you would be correct that I didn’t apply any critical reasoning to the fact that once I set foot in here, I might have made a mistake.”
“Romantic notions?”
“Out of all of that, that’s what you pick up on?” Sydney shot him a faint, rueful smile. “I saw the expression on Odin’s face. And I know I’m on thin ice. I’m only trying to help.”
“I realize that.” Mir rubbed his head, stalling for time. “But Odin sees the world differently. For him, it’s about threat and risk assessment. And we go along with Odin.”
“So what are my options? Because I can tell you one thing. If you send me back outside, with the cold and no food…?” She looked at him imploringly.
Mir sized her up. “What was that horseshit there at the end?” She shook her head and for the first time in several hours clammed up, hiding her face from him with a fall of hair.
“Fine, then.” He hoped like hell this girl was who she claimed. “You’d better not be bullshitting about any of the rest, do you understand? Give me exactly what you promised Odin. Concrete proof there is a circle, and there’s a viable chance it might open up a gateway to one of the other realms. You do that, and you’ll get through this. I’ll owe you, big time. Plus, it’ll give you some leverage.”
She shot him an assessing glare. “I’ll show you the dolmens. I set them up myself in the loading dock at the museum and calculated their position. I plotted them according to the coordinated orbits of the moon and planets. I might not understand exactly how the stones work, but I am familiar with their setup. If I hand over my calculations, would that be enough?”
“What about this professor of yours? What does he know?”
“McRoy disappeared over two weeks ago and never came back. I can only assume… He wasn’t young, and he never seemed to be very…self-sufficient.” She paused, her face grim. “The weather alone would have proven deadly to a man his age.”
He considered her carefully. “What about you? How have you survived outside on the street for all this time? And explain to me how you travel from the museum and back? I’ve been out there. Michigan is a gauntlet.”
The girl’s face hardened. “Five years of kickboxing, I’ve got my CCW. I can take care of myself. I try not to get caught out past nightfall, since that’s when the scavengers come out.” She pushed her hair back. “Actually, you’d be surprised. Most of the people out there? They’re more scared than anything. Only trying to find food and a safe place to sleep. Or get out of the city. Only the crazy ones are trying to stay.”
“Are you crazy, Sydney?”
“No,” she said slowly. “Not crazy. I just figured my best chance of survival was to figure out if what Doc told me was true. Plus, something’s keeping me here, something’s going on with those stones…because at night…” Her voice trailed off. “The truth is, my family lives too far away, and I don’t own a car. I didn’t have a way out.”
Her face turned serious. “What’s the rest of the country like? The world? Last I heard, Gary was burning. And Naperville too. Is it true? I guess I have plenty of questions for you too, Mirmir.”
“Mir,” he heard himself say. “Just call me Mir. And yeah, this whole area’s pretty much fucked.”
“And farther west of here? Have you heard anything of Washington State?” Her voice tapered off. She sounded spooked, beyond worried this had spread. Ah, family. The girl must have family out on the west coast. His voice gentled as he answered. “From what our scouts have determined, most of the damage is concentrated around the city and hasn’t spread west. Not yet, anyway.”
“Okay, that’s good,” she whispered, her shoulders relaxing while Mir wondered exactly what sort of family she’d left behind. Friends? A lover?
He shook that idea out of his head as fast as the thought appeared. Their problems were bigger and far deadlier.
“Okay,” Sydney asked briskly, “so what can you tell me about this anomaly, and why it chose the Cloud Gate as a crossing point?”
“What can you tell me?” Mir countered.
She rubbed at her left sleeve absentmindedly, revealing a long, linear tattoo on her inner arm. “Well, for one thing, it was enormous. Not physically, but physically, if you get my meaning. Its energy left a distortion you can see, assuming you know what to look for. And the ground was displaced by almost ten feet. If the weight of the thing compressed the earth that much?” Sydney held Mir’s gaze. “I did the math. The force to do that is astronomical.”
Mir could have sworn he saw something akin to fear flash in her eyes.
“It dumped an enormous amount of energy around Millennium Park. And those markings on the stainless steel? Besides the entry point, and the dolmens, the only other place I’ve seen anything close is in a place called Cairn de Gavrinis. There might be a connection.”
“I found something else, too.” The drop to her voice and her quick, furtive glance told him he wouldn’t like it one bit. “I poked around the general vicinity of the park after I ran those tests, and my equipment went haywire. Walked a few of the alleyways, and I poked my head in a few doorways.”
Mir’s voice sounded gruff as he broke in, “T
hat was needless. And dangerous.”
“And necessary.” Her voice turned bitter. “Every person in the area was dead, and their deaths weren’t…natural. They looked frozen solid, almost mummified. As if whatever came through that gate killed, and it indiscriminately killed everything within a quarter-mile radius. I didn’t check every building, but it’s safe to assume the same.
“Something tells me whatever this thing was, it crossed over from one of the other realms. From what I’ve studied of your mythology, I’m guessing…Niflheim? Tell me if I’m on the right track so far?”
Mir kept his yap shut. Truth be told, he’d been so busy hunting the Orobus these weeks, he hadn’t had time to investigate where it came from. The important thing was, it was here, and he had to stop it. But she was right about one thing. The entity had used huge amounts of energy when it had crossed through to Earth. Which was a big part of the problem.
Loki, Fen, Tyr and Freyr had been tracking the dark god ever since it broke through the Cloud Gate. The creature might be weakened from its ordeal, but the damn thing was growing by the day, consuming cities and energy like a Pac-man video game. Rebuilding its power stores, priming itself for battle.
Mir crossed his arms and leaned back, daring her to keep going. It worked.
“Fine,” she continued pissily, “let’s postulate that this thing came from Niflheim, then. Dragging behind huge amounts of energy, like some psychic black hole, pulling in huge amounts of cold, like from an ice world. What’s to say it didn’t drag through a few Frost Giants along the way?” That fucking tic in his eyebrow started up again, and she chuckled victoriously.
“So it’s heavy as hell, colder than space, and kills everything in its path. Maybe even dragged some other nasties through the doorway with it. It’s destroyed Gary. And Naperville. Who knows what else?” Sydney pushed herself up and circled the table until she stood side by side with Mir. She barely reached his chin, though she was tall for a woman. “So my question to you, is this. Why is this damn thing in my world? And how do we stop it?”
“We? Why do you people always assume you are part of the solution?”
“Because in case you haven’t noticed, this is my planet too. So don’t act like I don’t get any say in this matter.”
Mir growled. “I don’t need you to help me.”
She continued, shooting him a superior, knowing smile. “I discovered the markings on the Millennial Park site. You’re looking at the most qualified person, this side of the Atlantic, in Pictish and Norse mythology, ruins, and artifacts.” Her smile faded. “Except you, of course.”
The smile brightened. “But I know the dolmen circle better, I’m familiar with their setup, and I’m a year ahead of you in calculating the date and time of the astrological alignment.”
The expression of absolute victory on her face reminded him of a Valkyrie as she leaned in slowly until their faces almost touched. “And that,” she purred, her warm breath feathering his ear, “is something that none of you know. Not even you, I’ll bet. There’s my loophole, asshole.
So yeah, I guess you need me after all.”
As warm, moist breath exploded in his ear, lust raced through Mir, eclipsing the clinical emotion he usually operated under. Maybe, he mused, it was all of that soft, red hair, the kind he’d love to bury his face in, against all of that creamy fine china-white skin, the kind he’d love to sink his teeth into. It had been a long time since he’d wanted a woman, even longer since he’d found one that had interested him in such a way as this one. She made him want to do things that had nothing to do with science and everything to do with plain, simple lust.
The things he used to enjoy before everything became so damn…complicated.
Rearing back, Mir escaped her heat and his feelings by heading for the door. “Keep your ass in here and don’t talk to anyone. Understand?” One long, wicked glance over his shoulder was the only luxury he allowed himself. “I’ll see if I can reason with Odin. Then I’ll be back. Whatever the verdict is, I’ll make this quick.” There was doubt written all over Sydney’s face, but she nodded.
Mir took his measure of the woman as he made the trek to the Throne Room.
She seemed truthful. And if she was everything she claimed? They’d spent nearly a month tracking the entity around the state, watching it grow in power, but helpless to destroy it in its nebulous, matter-less form. Hell, they couldn’t even see the damn thing, only the wreckage left in its wake.
She was offering them the first real glimmer of hope. If this circle was a doorway, perhaps the Orobus could be trapped within it or shut out of their world forever.
It was a chance.
And he was damn sure going to make sure Odin took it.
Chapter 4
Sydney squeezed her eyes shut after Mir left. Tried to get the image of the handsome, enigmatic god out of her head. And failed miserably. She’d screwed up by coming here. No guessing about it, she’d messed up. But what was she supposed to do? Sit around and wait for the end of the world to happen? Nope. Not when her office was thirty feet away from those dolmens.
Not when the damn things seemed to come alive at night.
No, she thought, better to come here and take her chances. Better to be in the thick of things than on the fringes if you’re just going to die anyway. Besides, she could still talk her way out of this.
When the door swung open, Syd tensed. It was too soon to be good news. Which meant it was the worst sort of bad news. The swing of white hair and a delicate, elfin face popping through the door made her do a double take, and another, the hair on her arms rising.
A ghost. She was seeing a damn ghost. It was the only possible explanation.
The ghost spoke, her pale gray eyes sparkling with sudden interest if not recognition. “Hey. I’m looking for Mir. Thought maybe he’d be in here. Sorry, didn’t mean to disturb you.” The girl tried to duck out, and Sydney spit the words out quickly, before she even realized what she was saying. “I remember you. From the museum project. You’re the writing expert. The one they brought in last summer.”
The hand gripping the door tightened until the girl’s knuckles grew white, but she didn’t turn, she hovered half in and half out of the doorway, poised to run. Her words drifted into the room, low, almost inaudible. “That’s not possible because I don’t remember you.”
Dread settled into the pit of Sydney’s stomach, although she couldn’t explain why.
“Well, I remember you quite well,” Sydney answered softly. “You hardly ever said a word to anyone, and you came and went, usually in the dead of night. But you were definitely at the museum. What’s your name?”
The girl stepped back into the room as if every stiff movement was against her will. “Celine,” she answered quietly. “My name is Celine Barrows. How often was I there?”
“Almost every night of last summer. Less frequently, during the fall.” Sydney mentally skimmed back over the past year. “I was traveling for part of the time, managing the excavation at the…”
“Askesean Bog?” The girl filled in, her voice hollow.
“That’s right. But I don’t understand.” Confusion clouded Sydney’s brain. “If you remember that, then how…?”
The sense of dread in the room amplified, rippled between them, as the air went perfectly still. As if in those frozen seconds, some knotted cord bound them tightly together, something invisible but stronger than anything she’d ever felt before. As her father used to say, fate chose the people you meet in your life, and the wheel bound you tightly. From the way their energy was tangling together, Sydney knew something momentous was about to happen. Holding her breath, she waited for the woman to either escape. Or stay.
The door shut with a snick as Celine put her back to it, closing them in together. “Who are you? And why are you here?” Her questions were equal parts curiosity and accusation.
“My name is Sydney Allen. I worked at the Field Museum. And I’m here because I’m trying to help.
I know what’s happening, where the anomaly will occur again.” Sydney’s voice grew quiet. “And so would you, if you remembered. You spent enough time with them, Celine. Are you sure you don’t remember the stones?”
Celine shook her head vehemently.
“Not any of it? The writing? The work we did with the calculations? Nor even Dr. McRoy?”
Sydney swore she saw the blonde jerk at the mention of the professor’s name, but finally the girl pushed off the door and took two shaky steps to the table, pulled out a chair, and fell into it. On the edge of the seat, as if she wanted to jump up and run should she need to.
“What can you tell me about my part of the project? My duties?” Sydney noted beneath the forced calm, Celine was sweating, perspiration beaded on her upper lip, and her eyes widened until they were far too big for her face. The girl’s torment made her own situation seem less desperate.
“McRoy brought you in at the halfway point, during the initial excavation. After the fourth slab was unearthed, and the writing was discovered to be uniform on all the stones. I was still at Donagh, managing the excavation, so I wasn’t involved directly, but the professor emailed me, told me you arrived on-site.” Sydney counted backwards. “That might have been May or June of last year, I suppose. It was September when we brought the last of the stones over to the states. By then you worked mostly nights. I worked during the day because McRoy needed me at his beck and call. I only saw you occasionally.”
“And?” Celine prodded.
“And nothing. You never talked to anyone. Turned your notes into McRoy directly or occasionally to Colin…to Dr. Bryce, his assistant. I only saw you coming or going.”
“Colin Bryce?” Celine tried the name out as if for the first time. “Dr. McRoy’s assistant?” She rubbed her head furiously. “I don’t remember him. What does he look like?”
The Banished Gods Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 52
