The Banished Gods Box Set: Books 1-3

by L. A. McGinnis

  “Nondescript, really. Light brown hair, a thin goatee, or trying to grow a beard, more accurately. Hazel eyes, tall and skinny. Oh, and he always dressed in a ratty old sweater. Trying out that grad assistant vibe, if you ask me.”

  Sydney adjusted the bangles on her arm, and they made a faint, musical melody. “I guess I don’t get it. You were at least as involved as I was in the initial stages of the project, even if it wasn’t for as long. So I don’t understand…?”

  “I was in an accident,” Celine explained, lifting her hair and revealing a pink, fading scar. “I forgot some things afterward. But I’m working at getting my memory back.”

  Stomach lurching, Sydney felt like an insensitive idiot. “Oh God. I am so sorry.” She fumbled. “I had no idea. One day you were there, and then all of a sudden, you weren’t. I assumed you moved onto another big project… McRoy said…” She clamped her mouth shut before she said something even stupider.

  “What did Dr. McRoy say?” Celine asked.

  “He told us you’d made great progress with the markings, enough so I could update my calculations for the stones’ placement and a new astronomical calendar.” Syd closed her eyes. “That would have been… I dunno, maybe in March? A month before all of this craziness started. I’ve kind of lost my grasp of time, ever since April twenty-fourth.”

  Again, that connection flared to life, as if they were kindred spirits. Sydney opened her mouth to apologize again when Celine glanced at the door.

  “When do you think Mir’s coming back?” Celine asked casually. “Not much of a friend, leaving you here all alone.”

  Sydney offered what she hoped wasn’t a totally desperate smile “Mir isn’t so much a friend as a…shield right now. He’s having a talk with Odin about…what to do with me.”

  “Ah, I get it. What did you do to piss off the king?” The elfin blonde smiled gently, causing Syd to relax ever so slightly. After weeks of solitude, another voice—another human—was a lifeline she hadn’t expected, especially up here.

  “Only offered him a way to figure out what’s happening.” She hastily pointed out, “Or if we’re lucky, to stop what’s going to happen.”

  Even though she wasn’t sure anything would happen. It was only a feeling. But looking at Celine, sensing this connection between them, it sure seemed she was supposed to be here.

  “How are you planning on doing that?” Celine tried to smile. “In case you haven’t checked, the world’s falling apart out there.”

  “Oh, I noticed. I’ve been living in the basement of the Field Museum for the last few weeks. I might have a lead on where this Orobus thing will come through next. If I can ever get Odin to listen to me. Neither of them even let me explain anything. Not about the stones or the dolmens or anything. I thought they’d be curious, you know?”

  “And not just threaten to kill you first?” A wicked smile tweaked the corner of Celine’s mouth. “That approach seems to be their go-to. Let me guess, Odin didn’t even give you a chance, did he?”

  “Well, Mir listened for about a half a minute.” Sydney pushed her hair out of her eyes. “But Odin’s a whole other ball of wax. He gave Mir the evil eye and practically ordered him to get the truth out of me. I have been telling the truth. About everything.”

  “I believe you.” Celine patted her hand. “Then it’s a good thing we ran into each other. Trust me, Mir’s doing everything he can to diffuse the situation. Odin’s a different story though…” Her voice trailed off as the door slammed wide open.

  Mir took one look at the two of them and shook his head vehemently.

  “Goddamn it. No good will come of this.”

  Chapter 5

  Sydney was about to explain when Celine’s cool hand lay atop her own. “Now, Mir. Why so suspicious? We’re only getting acquainted.”

  Mir snorted, although Sydney noted how his eyes softened slightly as they skimmed over the elfin creature beside her. Dressed in soft grays and whites, jeans, tennis shoes, a t-shirt and hoodie, the arms pushed up, the simplicity made Celine’s ethereal beauty stand out even more. Beside her, Sydney felt like an Amazon. When she hunched her shoulders in slightly to make herself seem smaller, her bangles jingled merrily, her red hair entirely too bright under the lights.

  “First, I’m always suspicious, and secondly…” His eyes narrowed. “Secondly, I can practically smell the scheming going on in here.” He shut the door tightly behind him as his angry gaze swung over to Sydney. “What is going on? I thought I told you not to talk to anyone?”

  Celine’s hand tightened over Sydney’s. “It’s like I said. We’re getting to know one another.”

  “And I told you. I know you’re lying, Celine. If you can’t confide in me…” There was a tone of bitterness in those words that tugged at Sydney’s heart. “If you can’t trust me after everything that’s happened, then I don’t know what else to say.” His gaze fell on their clasped hands as he added softly. “Sydney’s already told me she worked at the Field Museum, Celine. It’s not much of a stretch to assume that your paths may have crossed at this point.”

  There were times you could bluff, and then there were times you couldn’t. Sydney blurted out, “You’re right. I recognized Celine the second I saw her.” Sydney gave Celine’s hand a quick, reassuring squeeze and pulled away to face Mir. “But she doesn’t remember me because of her accident. So there’s not that much to talk about, as it turns out.”

  His face turned hard, impenetrable. “Bullshit. That means there’s a connection between the two of you. And what’s going on at that museum. And I don’t believe in…”

  “Coincidence.” Celine finished for him, softly.

  “What happened with Odin?” Sydney asked, nervous about her current status. Not that she was in any hurry to face the pale god, but now she had an unexpected ally and colleague here, so perhaps her odds had improved. “You took a while to come back.”

  “Odin still claims he does not need your help.” Mir’s mouth clamped tight. “However. Once I explained you dug up the dolmens in the first place, he was a lot more interested in what you might bring to the table. Which gives you a slight edge. For now, Sydney, you’re in.”

  His eyes flicking between them, Mir seemed to decide.

  “But I don’t care about any of that.” He yanked out a chair and sat. “Tell me what you can about Celine’s involvement in the project. Who set it up, how far back does it goes?” Celine settled backwards into her seat, her attention, like Mir’s, locked tightly on Sydney.

  Who swiftly counted backwards.

  “Let’s see. I got the first call in the middle of December. That’s when they made the find. And it wasn’t a farmer or a hiker that came across the archeological site, as usual. No, this was a private excavation funded by some special grant out of Cambridge.”

  “Cambridge?” Mir’s eyebrow lifted.

  “Yup. Cambridge is McRoy’s alma mater, where he received two of his five doctorates. Anyhow, I got the call, and before morning, I was on a redeye to Dublin. From there, a puddle jumper to Abbeyschrule and took a car to the site. By that night, I was waist-high deep in the bog, and before a week’s time, I was raising the biggest stones from the muck.” She’d been freezing, she remembered. Frozen and wet and tired and utterly exhilarated, watching the crane winch that first, giant behemoth up from the mud.

  “The heel stones were the first…”

  “Excuse me,” Celine interrupted, “What’s a heel stone?”

  “It’s often set at the base of the…” Noting her blank expression, Sydney stopped. “Okay, think of a dolmen formation like a small room. The sides are called…the side slabs, while the front and back traverses are called front or rear, depending on which way the formation faces in the circle. Each big, overhead stone is just that—the overhead slab. The heel stones support the side slabs and the traverses in a channel, like the footer of a basement.”

  Sydney frowned. “Except…We only found one full set of traverses in this entir
e circle, on the largest dolmen, while the rest of them…”

  “What?” Mir prompted, when her voice faded away. “What about the rest?”

  “The rest are like doorways. They’re open arches, and we found no sign of another traverse. I assumed they were plundered, used by farmers for walls or building materials, but now…”

  She shook her head, her voice troubled as she continued, “Anyway, four months later, we excavated the final piece. After which we had to circumvent customs and get everything back to the Field Museum. We hit a few hiccups, but McRoy pulled some strings, and by spring, we had them here in Chicago.”

  Her gaze slid sideways to Celine. “And that’s when you came in.”

  Mir’s voice turned sour. “And what, exactly, was Celine’s job?”

  “She interpreted the markings on the inner sides of the two complete traverse slabs and on the bottoms of all the overhead and the side slabs. All of them were covered in that weird writing… Hey, are you all right?” Sydney reached out and laid a hand on Celine’s arm. She was rubbing her head furiously as if she was in pain.

  “I’m fine,” Celine told her, “Keep going, tell me how you would describe the markings?”

  “Well, that’s not my area but…” Sydney kept her hand on the girl’s forearm, the flesh freezing cold. “I told Mir they may be”—Celine nodded in encouragement—“a form of ancient Pictish but more…circular in form. Like fingerprints, as we discussed.

  “The oddest thing about them was…the markings were so evenly formed…” Sydney’s voice tapered off, watching the blood drain from Celine’s face.

  Mir saw it too, his gaze resting on her face. “Finish it, Sydney, tell her the rest.”

  She choked out the words, Celine growing paler with every passing moment. “The markings were elegant, as if mere chisels and hammers hadn’t etched them, because they seemed too…”

  “Perfect?” Mir suggested.

  “Yes, that’s it. The depth of the markings, the evenness of the lines, I doubt very much you could do similar work without a laser.” Beneath her palm, Celine began to tremble, her eyes squeezed tightly closed.

  Sydney shot Mir a worried look. He crouched down until he was eye to eye with her. “All right then, Celine, honey, let’s go find Fen. You don’t have to listen to any more. We’ll hash this out, and then…”

  Celine raised her pale face. “And then what? Odin will order you to wipe her mind? Or worse? She knows, Mir. She’s already involved.” Celine flicked a miserable glance up at Sydney.

  “You’re here for the same reason we all are. There’s a tether pulling us together, and we’re all connected to this…thing. And now it’s got you too.” Celine swung her eyes up to Sydney, and for a mere second, Sydney glimpsed clarity there along with some terrible truth. Those words held the same sense of fate she’d felt when she’d first laid eyes on the girl.

  “Even if she’s here for the same reasons, she’s another piece in the puzzle.” Mir insisted stubbornly. His head swung Sydney’s way. “Tell me more about these dolmens. You said they’re arranged in a circle, right?”

  Sydney clamped her mouth shut. “Whenever I talk, it causes Celine pain. And I’m not hurting her anymore, not if I can help it.” She eyed the thin arm beneath her hand, watched it tremble uncontrollably. “Celine said she was hurt and lost her memories. I’ve told you about the excavation in Ireland, and now? You’re both scaring me.”

  Sydney thought her heart might beat out of her chest as fear pushed adrenaline through her. “It’s about time you told me what your interest is in all of this. Because it’s not purely academic, is it?”

  “I want…” Mir’s sentence was cut off as the door opened and a man’s huge, shaggy head poked into the room. His angry, navy blue gaze skimmed over them all, finally resting upon Celine, worry pouring off him in buckets.

  “I sensed your pain three floors up. What is happening in here?” Striding in, the enormous man kicked the door shut behind him as Sydney shrank back into her chair. “And who the hell are you?”

  “I’m Sydney. Allen.” She was glad Celine was between her and this…huge person looming over them. But despite how scary he was, beneath the weight of her hand, Celine relaxed, her muscles going all loose.

  “Chill out Fen, Sydney’s from the Field Museum.”

  Fen went perfectly still at her words, as the tension in the room ratcheted higher.

  Like they had a secret code.

  Right then Sydney knew. Something huge was happening. Something that involved the museum, the dolmens, and these people. They were all connected in ways she had no inkling about. But ways she’d better figure out quickly.

  Mir continued, “She was outlining Celine’s role in the project at the Field. You know, the private project run by Ellis?”

  Okay, it was also clear they knew way more than she’d given them credit for.

  “I was in the middle of telling Celine what I remembered,” Sydney offered quietly. “I worked days, Celine in the evenings. But I don’t think she’s feeling up to any of this right now.” Sydney offered Celine on encouraging nod and a way out. “It seems all of this makes her head hurt, am I right?”

  Celine gave a little moan of assent before leaning back into the man’s arms gratefully. He began to massage her temples, and she relaxed with a breathy sigh.

  “Better. That’s way better, thanks, Fen.” Her eyes opened, and they seemed dimmed. “It hurts, but we need to get through the rest of it. These stones are in a circle, you say? Where, exactly?”

  “In the basement of the Field Museum.” Debating how much to reveal, Sydney settled for, “Positioned according to your translations of the etchings on the stones.”

  “Positioned by whom?”

  “By me. I took your translations and calculated the closest astrological event, then extrapolated their likeliest orientation, according to the lake, the calendar, and elevation.” She frowned. “Except McRoy chose the site. Insisted on it, actually. I always thought the basement was a strange place to set the thing up.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then, the apocalypse happened. After that, I was a little busy trying to stay alive, along with most of the other humans in the city. When the professor told me this wild tale about the Norse gods being alive and well and living large in Chicago at the Phoenix Club? I thought I’d see if…” Syd let her voice trail off, thinking about all the other crazy things the professor had said.

  “So you worked with Professor McRoy?”

  Sydney nodded.

  Celine and Fen shared a look before Fen asked pointedly, “And you believe this circle could serve as a secondary site for another event?”

  “I do. It would be logical, since the original site’s been blown to bits.”

  Celine’s eyes took on a faraway look, as if she were sifting through the universe’s secrets. “An ancient stone circle, buried for thousands of years, set up in downtown Chicago? The timing seems lucky, doesn’t it?”

  Fen, growled in agreement, and Sydney had to side with the both of them. Everything was lining up too perfectly. Except for one thing. “The question is, where does this leave me?”

  Briskly, Mir lifted his coat from the back of the chair. “We’ll find you a room for tonight. In the morning, we head out, and you show me this circle of yours. I decide if it’s got anything to do with the Orobus and what’s happening in the world. Then he’ll decide what to do with you.”

  Celine sat upright. “Seriously Mir, you can’t be considering doing anything crazy? Odin’s just twitchy, right?”

  “No…maybe… Odin’s word is fucking law around here, and you damn well know it.”

  Sydney’s stomach flip-flopped. There was a moment, a second, when something gleamed in Mir’s eyes. A flash of, well, she’d have called it male interest, but with everything going on, she figured she was wrong. Yet, when he focused on her again, something warm licked at her core.

  “I got a fucking extension, if that makes
you happy.”

  Celine shot Sydney an I told you so smile.

  While there were a thousand snarky retorts burning on the end of her tongue, she settled for a cool, “Thanks. I realize convincing him wasn’t easy.”

  “It was my pleasure.” The word pleasure came out a long, rough purr, sending a decadent shiver down Sydney’s spine. “Remember the catch? You’re our tour guide for tomorrow. For now, consider yourself the resident expert on those stones. At least until I see them. And I’m warning you, you’d better tell me everything you remember about them.”

  “Fine with me. I’m tired of freezing my ass off. So point me to somewhere I can sleep tonight, and I’m good.”

  Mir hesitated for a second before glancing over to Celine.

  She grasped Sydney’s hand. “Yeah, I’ll fix you right up, Sydney.” Fen smiled down at her, adoration lighting up his face.

  “Syd.” Sydney smiled slightly in return, watching the two of them together. “Just call me Syd. Everyone else does. And seriously, all I need is a corner. I’m used to a cot in a tent, so anything will work.”

  “The hell with that, I’m setting you up with a bed and dinner. Have you eaten?” Celine jabbed an elbow into Mir’s stomach. “Please tell me this guy at least fed you dinner?”

  “Yeah, he did.” Syd shot Mir a smile of gratitude, hesitating. A lot had happened since she’d been out in the cold, sign in hand, praying she’d step inside this building. A lot had changed. “Can you guys possibly give us a minute alone?”

  After Celine and Fen stepped out, Sydney murmured, “I meant it when I thanked you. What you said earlier? You were absolutely right. I didn’t think things through today. Not like I should have. Sometimes I think too much and sometimes I don’t think at all. So I appreciate you looking out for me.” She caught a strange, fleeting look on his face before he marshaled it into his usual, stoic, military-issue expression. She sighed. “I guess I’ll see you in the morning.” His face was so blank, she prompted, “When I show you guys the dolmens?”