The Banished Gods Box Set: Books 1-3

by L. A. McGinnis

  “How are you still alive, then?”

  “Not quite sure.” He paused as if somewhat bemused by the concept. “You?”

  “Luck. And divine providence...if you believe in that sort of thing.”

  “I don’t. Not anymore.”

  “No. I don’t either.” For two people who had traveled to the ends of the earth, dug up the bowels of history, and erected the means to end the world, they had surprisingly little to talk about. He shuffled his feet. She waited.

  It was awfully freaking cold in Chicago in June, she thought. Again.

  “How much of what you told me was true, professor? And how much of it was a lie?”

  “All of it. And none of it,” he admitted. “I thought, for the first few months, perhaps I was just losing my mind.”

  Sydney nodded. She knew how he felt.

  “And then, when things started falling into place, when I got the feeling that maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t the crazy one after all, it was already too late.”

  Syd nodded again.

  McRoy went on, “I was a good man. Once. Loved my work. Liked my students. Believed in my research. Looked forward to the day I got tenure. Usual kind of crap. Then I started having…visions, delusions, whatever the fuck you want to call them.

  “When I saw where the dolmens were buried, at the Askesan Bog site, it was like the hand of fucking god had come down and touched my forehead.” He shook his head. “No fucking shit. Could see it, clear as day. And you…”

  He raised his eyes to hers. Piercing. Even sorrowful. “I fucking saw you, Miss Allen. Knew how to find you, as if I had a Rolodex with your name and number in it inside of my head. Once you were aboard, it was as if everything just fell into place. Like it was meant to be. Funding lined up, more than I’d expected. Research grants, those flowed in, one after another. My secretary booked flights, and local man power was lined up. Not a single hitch. I should have fucking known,” he muttered, pacing across the carpeted floor, footfalls dampened by the dense wool. “I should have known, just by the way everything went so perfectly that it was all about to go tits up.”

  Syd listened, fascinated. She’d literally come aboard late, boarding the plane barely in time, backpack thrown over her shoulder, her Harvard credentials crumpled in her hand. “You requested my assistantship be transferred from Harvard to the Field. That’s all I knew when I boarded that plane.”

  He gave her a wry smile. “That’s all I knew myself. It was as if someone else was pulling all of the strings to make this happen. And I was only a puppet. We dug up the stones, had them transferred back here.” His face went blank. “And then…my visions stopped.” His eyes narrowed. “And I can only assume that’s the point when yours began.”

  “I never had any visions, professor.”

  “Bullshit. You knew how and where to line up each dolmen, the placement of the capstones, even which lunar event the stones coordinated with.”

  Sydney protested, “I swear to you, I didn’t know. I did the research. It tied into the thesis I wrote for my doctorate. About the prophecy? I thought that’s why I was picked?” She was a little bewildered. All this time, she believed he’d chosen her on the strength of her work. “I was so sure…” Her voice tapered off.

  “Sure of what?”

  “Don’t you even know about my paper?”

  “What paper?” His smile widened.

  “My paper on the Irish Morrigan legend. The one about the white door, the gateway between realms. Sure, it might have started out based on an ancient prophecy, something I heard when I was very young…but I backed up the account with an illuminated manuscript from the eleventh century. When I was called in on this huge Irish find, I just assumed…”

  All of this time, and never once had they actually discussed her qualifications. Nor what had led her to that bog in Ireland. “My thesis, professor, explores the opening of this door and the alignment of five celestial bodies—the moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter. My research was predicated on ancient prophecy, rooted in Irish mythology that foretold of a doorway to another dimension, hidden by mankind so as to never be used. That if the gateway was to be opened, it would bring about the…end of the world.

  “But the prophecy…was where it started. My theory… I calculated the placement of the dolmens on…” Sydney frowned.

  “Go on, Miss Allen,” McRoy urged, his voice silken.

  “On research…” She rubbed her forehead, trying to remember. “I calculated…”

  “Continue, Miss Allen.” Now his voice seemed oily, almost cunning.

  “I was sure… I have files…calculations…?” But everything seemed suddenly so blurry, as if a sheet had been drawn over that part of her life. As if it had never really happened. Something queasy and evil churned in her stomach.

  “Can’t quite remember, can you?” He seemed suddenly different, as if a thin, human skin covered a thing both mortal and not of this world. “I know the feeling. Ever get the impression, Miss Allen, that you’ve been used?”

  “Very good, professor,” Hel crooned, stepping out from the shadows, her footsteps silent on the carpet. “Tools are meant to be used. Dull though you are.”

  “Oh, Hel,” the professor muttered.

  “Exactly,” Sydney whispered out of the side of her mouth.

  “It seems, Miss Allen, we are at somewhat of a crossroads.”

  Sydney, focused wholly on the unexpected presence of Hel, had turned her back to the professor. Big mistake.

  “As the woman said, we are dull tools, for the most part.”

  Syd felt something cold press into her side as the professor pulled her against him, pressing the barrel of a gun into her abdomen.

  “Some of us, however, are far less dull than others.”

  Hel’s eyes narrowed. “Little meat sack is full of surprises, isn’t he? Well, well, professor. Look at you. Let me guess? Little fish in a big pond?”

  “Something like that. Perhaps I’m not so keen to perish when this planet does. So. I’ve got your pawn at the point of my gun and a bargain to offer your boss.”

  Hel’s temper snapped. “You stupid little bastard. Nobody bargains with the Orobus. It doesn’t even understand what bargaining is.”

  “Oh, but it is learning, isn’t it? At a furious pace, I would imagine. So fly down to the nuclear plant and let the creature know that I have his little pet in a rather delicate position. I’ll blow her brains out as soon as watch myself perish with everyone else on this shitty planet. I want a way out, and I’ll leave your lot be.”

  “That’s your bargaining chip?”

  McRoy nodded. “That’s it. I escape this shithole before he burns it to the ground. I want to go to Vanaheim. That’s all. In return, I’ll tell you a secret about your little stone circle.”

  Hel’s eyes glittered with the fire of a thousand deaths. “And what might that be?”

  “About why it’s not going to work. And how it’s been sabotaged.” The professor’s smile was ruthless, his gun barrel pressing deeper into Sydney. “Fly away now, Goddess, and come back with good news. Once I’m where I want to be, you get the solution to all your problems. Win-win.”

  Hel shrugged. “Your funeral, asshole.” She winked a dark, obsidian eye at Sydney. “Hang tight girlfriend, be back in a flash.” And disappeared.

  Sydney stumbled forward as McRoy released her, not an ounce of regret in his addled, brown eyes. “Yeah, sorry about that, but you were my biggest ace in the hole. Once I’m off this godforsaken planet, I’ll give her the correct positioning…”

  “You asshole.” Sydney stepped forward, ready to do God knows what, but whatever it was, it was going to be really, really bad. Because she was really mad and tired and hungry and a little put off at being used as leverage in this big bad war between all of these assholes, when all she’d really wanted to do was travel around the world and see exotic places.

  So not fair.

  Halfway through her very first step, before
she even so much as got her hand around the old man’s shirt collar, a big, black shadow came through and simply swept him away.

  “Huh?” Syd stood there, in the opulent, or what had once been the opulent lobby of the Chicago Theater, as alone as alone could be.

  “Now what the hell am I supposed to do?”

  When the tall handsome god stepped out of the shadows, she shouldn’t have really been surprised, but she still gave a little surprised squeak.

  “Whoa, it’s okay. I’m Freyr, do you remember me? Did the man harm you?”

  There seemed to be actual worry and real concern in those great big blue eyes of his, and what great timing he had. Right place, right moment kind of thing. The thought caused Syd to realize that maybe those weird sensations of being followed weren’t so weird after all.

  “I don’t think so.” She absently rubbed her side, feeling a slight ache from where he’d pressed the gun barrel in a bit too hard. “Well, just a little, maybe.”

  The blonde god looked her over gently and turned her around. “You seem to be okay. I’m going to call Mir and let him know. Stick right here with me, that she-bitch will be back any second, and I want you close to me in case she’s in a foul mood when she shows up.”

  Syd nodded, silent and fuming. So did everybody except her know what was going on? There were sure a lot of people running around, scheming and plotting. How had she fallen so far out of the loop, when she was the one who set the stones up in the first place? How was it that she felt like the only one who wasn’t up to speed?

  Listening to Freyr mutter into the two-way, she scanned the room, wondering where the professor went and what exactly had taken him away. But he was gone, and boy, was Hel going to be pissed when she got back. Syd had a feeling that wild goose chases were so not her thing. Freyr raised his voice, muttering into the radio, and Syd heard Mir shouting on the other end, his voice indistinct but definitely pissed off. Freyr clicked off, midsentence, and he squeezed his eyes shut for a second before he turned back to her.

  “Okay, now here comes the hard part. You’re going to wait for Hel to come back. You’ve got to tell her that something took the professor. What did you see?”

  “A big shadow. Kind of swept him away.” Her voice trembled.

  “That’s good, honey. Just stick with that. She’ll be pissed the doc is gone, but she won’t do a thing to you. I’m pretty sure she kind of likes you. Just let her ramble on and she’ll slither back into her hole.” He nodded toward the shadows under the staircase. “I’ll be right under there, just an arm’s length away.” He brushed her arm, leaned in. “And Fen’s here too, honey, we’re real close, so don’t you worry. Nothing’s going to happen to you on our watch.”

  It was like magic, watching the darkness swallow him back up. Waiting didn’t take long. Hel exploded out of the shadows, trailing a stream of anger and darkness behind her. “Where is that little fucking shit?”

  Sydney didn’t have to fake the shaking in her voice. “I’m…I’m sorry, but he…he’s gone.”

  “Where the fuck did he go?” The goddess’s voice slithered down to an evil hiss.

  “I’m not sure.” Syd let a fair amount of panic creep back into her voice. “One second he was standing right there.” She indicated clearly where the asshole had been standing. “And the next minute, a big black shadow just…” She shook her head and flapped her hands around.

  “What? What did the big black shadow do, little girl?” Hel was a mess. Her hair was tangled, and it looked like there was a smear of blood across her face.

  “You won’t even believe me.”

  “Try me.” Hel stalked closer. “Just fucking try me. I just about got annihilated by something I can’t even see, all for being an errand boy to a fucking human. And now, when I get back, the little shit isn’t even here. So fucking tell me where the hell he is.” Her voice was dangerously high at the end.

  “A big, black shadow came and snatched him right out of the air. Right in front of me. It’s like he just vanished.” Sydney flapped her hands again, her eyes wild. “I think the Orobus killed him.”

  “Do you now?” Circling, she came up behind Syd. Sniffed her, as if she could smell the fear oozing from her pores.

  “You might just be right.” Her voice leveled out. “I need a fucking nap after all this running around. Can you find your way home, or do I need to get you there?”

  Sydney was proud of the way her voice didn’t shake a bit when she answered. “No thanks, I’m good.” And when Hel finally blinked out of existence and she was left blissfully alone, she sagged in relief.

  Freyr’s quiet whisper floated out of the darkness. “Head straight back to the museum. Don’t stop for anything. Fen and me, we’ll stay right there with you, every step of the way, even if you don’t see us.”

  She tugged her borrowed coat tighter around her ears and headed back toward the light, wondering what happened to the professor. She’d sure as hell like to have a word, or ten, with him. Getting himself off the planet was one thing. Saving your miserable skin? That she understood.

  Selling them all out was another.

  “You guys had better be at the museum when I get back. And somebody’d better explain everything to me.” She was getting angrier by the minute. She almost swore she heard a chuckle behind her, but when she stepped out into the street, the harsh wind blew everything away except the shivering that shook her to the bone.

  Even if the world did end, the museum would still look like a grand old lady, Sydney thought trudging up to the entrance, pushing through the doors. Halfway down the second corridor, the batteries in her flashlight died.

  “It just figures,” she grumbled, slamming it against her hand, the sound making a muffled echo all the way off into the dark. Cursing both her luck and this never ending cluster of a day, she ran her hand along the wall until she turned the corner, descended the steps and finally, finally, reached her little office.

  “Tiny and humble never felt so good,” she groused, wishing her stomach wasn’t quite so empty and her lips weren’t quite so parched.

  When the light clicked on, illuminating the entire sixty square foot space, she was so blinded she threw both arms up in front of her face, shielding herself from the glare and the imposing shadow that seemed to suck most of the air out of the space.

  “Hey Syd.”

  Mir was there. In her office. Scratch that. Taking up most of her office. She smelled him, his heat, his scent, his deliciousness, and it made her mouth water. Or maybe it was the smell of food that wafted in the air around them, a deeply delicious smell of meat and garlic and…

  “Oh my God. You brought me food?”

  “I brought you dinner. I know you’ve got to be hungry. There’s water, too, and energy drinks. Christ, Syd. We had no idea you were out of food. You walked right past the Tower. Why the hell didn’t you come in?”

  Because I was tracking my old professor, you know, the one who turned out to be a homicidal maniac?

  “Because I’m still pissed off at you.”

  “I know.” She heard the resignation in his voice. “I know you are. You have every right to be.” More hesitation. “I still can’t tell you anything, Syd.”

  She reached for the bag that was emitting the delicious, mesmerizing aroma. “I know.” Opening it, she stuck her face in and breathed deep. “And that’s okay.” She pulled out a thick, heavy sandwich, something with piles of meat and cheese and a little something green on top. Sinking her teeth into it, she moaned.

  “What do you mean, it’s okay?” Mir was sitting on his hands, shoulders hunched inwards, on the other side of the room. As if he was trying to stay as far away from her as he could. The second she’d walked past him, all of his circuits had started firing. Watching her sink her teeth into that sandwich had about done him in, and now listening to her moan, if he didn’t get a grip on himself, he’d have her on the ground in no time. And they needed to talk. Really talk.

  He’d miss
ed her. Missed her in a way he hadn’t known it was possible to miss another person. Missed her viscerally, like an arm or a leg. Missed the touch of her, the stroke of her fingers against his skin. The worry had about killed him, as had the simple matter of just letting her be for these past hours. Hardest thing he’d ever done. To just let go. But fuck that. Fuck Odin and his edicts and his controlling bullshit. He was going to feed his woman, make sure she was satisfied, fed, warm, and comfortable, then they were going to talk. And then? Well, then he was going to fuck her until she couldn’t walk.

  From around bites of her sandwich and occasional quiet moans, she explained, “I know, Mir. I get it. That thing’s going to take me over again at some point. And when that happens, it’ll know everything I know.” Another bite, another low, throaty moan.

  Mir’s fingernails dug into the doorframe.

  “Which means the less I know, the less it knows.” She shot him a watery smile. “Ignorance is bliss, right?”

  The sharp, painful tightness inside of him relented ever so slightly. The aching regret retreated just a bit as he asked her quietly, “When did you figure it out?”

  “Pretty quick, I guess. About halfway through the meeting, or what I overheard of your meeting. I kept thinking there was no good reason for you to lie to me, not really. I felt like I was part of your inner circle, and then… Bam, all of a sudden I was shut out. Only one thing had changed, and that was I got possessed by the Orobus.” A deep, reluctant sigh escaped her. “In retrospect, I’d have done the same.”

  A slow, deep burn of pain began building. “So why did you leave?”

  Sydney put the sandwich to the side, her hands clasped in her lap, and raised her eyes to meet his. “Because for one thing, you hurt me by shutting me out. Even more than when you lied to me. After I overheard you talking… I wanted to get away so I could think. For another thing…if he came for me again, I didn’t want any of you getting caught in the middle.”