by E. A. Copen
He dropped the coat and took an honest swing at me. I ducked out of the way and sidestepped, forcing him to move. I saw his next swing coming a mile away and dodged it with ease. In a fist fight, he had the advantage of strength, but his form was shit. He was a swordsman first, which meant he hadn’t ever had to rely on his fists, not like I had. Bleeding like that, I could outmaneuver him ten to one. I’d run him until he lost enough blood he couldn’t stand. With big, powerful swings like that, it’d be easy.
Fortunately for Haru, I didn’t actually want to kill him.
I caught his next swing in my palm and squeezed. “Bomb, Haru. How do we defuse it?”
“Can’t get to it,” Haru huffed and threw another punch. I threw up a forearm block. “Throw me to the other platform. Behind you.”
“What?”
“Throw me!”
He landed a snap kick to my shin. It was good form, but weak in power. Finally, the asshole had gotten his calibration right. I shuffled back, making it look like he’d hit harder than he did. Haru charged. In a normal fight, I’d have sidestepped and just let him throw himself into the lava. Instead, I kicked a leg out from under him once he got close and let him bust his chin against the rock. Blood spurted everywhere. Haru let out a long string of curses in Japanese.
I grabbed him by the ankles and hauled him up. “You’d better not fucking miss, Haru.” He was lighter than me, but that didn’t mean he was easy to spin. I grunted and fought to get him up before giving one quick turn and letting go while facing the next platform.
Haru sailed through the air looking like one of those flying squirrels on National Geographic. My throw was low, but he managed to grab the top of the platform with his fingers. Ice water pelted his knuckles.
Shit, he’s going to fall. Gotta do something. I took a step back, aimed, and jumped for the next platform. It was even smaller than the last, so there wasn’t much room to land without stepping on Haru’s fingers. I managed anyway, but only barely.
I couldn’t stop myself from sliding over the edge. For a moment, my feet dangled in a free fall over the lava pit. I flailed and grabbed for the platform, digging my fingertips into the ice. Shit, now we were both hanging from it. I kicked my feet onto the rock, trying to get some leverage to haul myself up.
Instead of doing the same, Haru pulled himself around the platform, still hanging and kicked at me. “Go to the next one, idiot.”
“I’m trying!”
“Try harder!” He kicked at me.
I scampered back to the top of the platform, turned and leaped for the next one, then the next. Behind me, Haru finally hauled himself up. The ice around his feet turned red with blood. Losing that much blood, he had to be feeling woozy. The next few platforms were so small, he’d miss with even the slightest miscalculation. He couldn’t afford to jump dizzy.
I tried to tell him to stay where he was, that I’d do whatever it was that needed to be done, but the moron didn’t listen. He made the next platform, but his foot slipped when he tried to jump for the next one.
“Shit!” I threw myself flat on the platform and extended my arms out to catch him.
His fingers slid straight through mine, and he plummeted toward the lava.
A few feet further down from where I could reach, he hit the thin platform and wrapped himself around it. He looked up at me, his face bright red and nodded to the right of where he was stuck. There, tucked into a small alcove, sat a cylindrical container about the size of a large cat. Wires protruded from it and wrapped around the platform just inches from Haru’s head. The wires were hidden under black tape. If I hadn’t been staring straight at them, I’d have missed them.
“I can get it!” he shouted up at me. “But you’ve got to pull me up after.”
“Teamwork’s likely to ruin our fight.”
Haru winced. “As soon as you pull me up, we sprint to our respective sides and zap him.”
I looked up to where Morningstar and Khaleda waited. Give me the signal, Khaleda!
“Come on, Lazarus! It’s a little hot down here!”
Screw it. We couldn’t afford to wait. She’d have to get with the program. “Go for it!”
Haru shimmied up the platform and yanked the bomb free of the stone, dropping it to the lava below. For a moment, it floated on the surface before melting into a shimmering puddle of silver. He thrust his hand up at me.
I grabbed him and hauled him onto the platform.
The crowd let up a collective gasp. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Morningstar shot to his feet. Khaleda followed, drawing an obsidian knife from her belt. She plunged it into her father’s heart.
Haru and I turned and ran in opposite directions. I leaped to the next platform and slid off the edge, pushing off into an awkward jump at the last second. My fingers found stone and dug in, pulling me to my feet. By the time I jumped back to the largest platform, I was huffing and fighting a screaming stitch in my side. I could only imagine how much pain Haru was in. That he was still mobile at all was a testament to his physical and mental fortitude.
I slid over the platform on my ass and grabbed the Rod of Aaron on my way through. The harsh power of the staff’s magic bit into my hands. I clenched my teeth and forced myself to keep a grip on it until I slammed into the far wall. The dryad staff clattered across the ground and rolled right into my hand as if I’d called it.
Across the arena, Haru took up his sword and tossed the sheath behind him. We spun around at the same time, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Nikki screamed. The crowd all around them panicked and stampeded toward the exit.
Morningstar’s hand closed over Khaleda’s, his expression one of shock. Khaleda grimaced and twisted the blade. His expression changed, shifting from the wide-eyed, open-mouthed look of shock to the blazing eyes and determined grimace of a man who understood exactly what was going on.
With a scream, Khaleda ripped the knife out and stabbed him again and again, turning the front of his brand-new body into mincemeat.
Morningstar’s mouth opened and a black, writhing mass crawled out. There was our signal.
I pumped everything I had into both staffs.
I’d never been a heavy hitter in the magic department, but even a scrawny guy like me could work up a wallop of magic with enough of a push. I thought about Emma: the sparkle in her eyes when I’d handed her that necklace at Shel on our first impromptu date, the fire that overtook her on the trail of a bad guy, the gentle way she pushed up drooping flowers in the greenhouse, the way she rolled her eyes at my stupid jokes.
Morningstar had destroyed all of that and left her a cold, broken and bloody corpse. More than that, he’d backed her into a deal to surrender her soul for eternal damnation. He hadn’t just murdered her, he’d destroyed the good person she was. He’d killed her soul, and for that, he had to die.
A beam of pure, blinding light shot out of the end of the rod, mixing with a ray of brilliant viridian that exploded from the dryad staff. It slammed into the black mass that was Lucifer Morningstar and bored into him.
At the same time, Haru leaped from his platform, making the impossible jump to the far wall. He struck it and ran up the wall as if gravity didn’t apply to him. When he reached the railing that separated the crowd from the arena, he swung over it, gave a shout and stabbed his katana into the beams of green and white light.
A shockwave rocked the arena. It slapped me in the face and knocked me flat on my ass. I forced myself to get back up so I could confirm that we’d won. We’d just hit with Morningstar with everything we had. He had to be dead. Nothing survived two Horsemen.
Black smoke spun in the place where Morningstar had been standing. It floated like a fog threatening to dissipate for a moment before it snapped back together into a solid mass.
No. No fucking way! That bastard was still alive.
I swallowed my exhaustion and readied my staffs for another blow.
Khaleda lifted her head but staye
d where she was. She was bleeding from a big gash in her forehead.
Haru pushed himself away from the railing and took a step before doubling over and sinking to his knees. His katana clattered to the stone floor.
Guess it was up to me.
Before I could fire off the spell, Morningstar twisted in the air and shot into Nikki’s gaping mouth. The girl’s eyes lit up blazing red.
I pulled the spell at the last possible second. If I hit Nikki with that, I’d kill her.
Morningstar grabbed Khaleda off the ground by the throat and lifted her high enough that it left Khaleda’s feet just barely kicking the ground, a feat since Nikki was two inches shorter than Khaleda. Nikki’s face twisted into one of Morningstar’s smirks. “I think you need a time out, daughter mine.”
Haru managed to pull himself together enough to lunge for them.
Morningstar and Khaleda disappeared in a puff of black, sulfuric smoke before he got there.
Chapter Thirty
We lost.
Not only had I lost Emma, but I’d failed to abide by the terms of the contract. As soon as I turned to fire on someone in the crowd, my team was disqualified. Haru’s too.
Security came and escorted me from the arena at spearpoint, forcing me into a small waiting room near Loki’s quarters. I sat on the stone floor alternating between feeling numb, fear for the lives of my daughter and friends, and a rage that gave me just enough energy to scream and pound on the floor. When I’d exhausted myself with that cycle, I added sobbing grief to the pile and wound up curled in a ball on the floor,
Loki walked in on me like that and I didn’t care enough to get up.
“Are you going to kill me?”
He crossed his arms and sighed. “Kill you?”
“For breaking the rules. I imagine there are consequences.”
Loki sighed and rubbed his forehead. I thought he was trying to decide on how to deliver bad news until I saw his shoulders shaking. Bastard was laughing at me.
I pushed myself up. “I don’t see anything funny.”
“No? You don’t? Oh, you’re absolutely hilarious!” Loki lowered his hands and grinned at me.
“Emma is dead. How can you just stand there and grin?”
His face sobered. “Yes, I was sad to hear it. She seemed like a good person. It’s clear you cared about her. Is that why you decided to kill him?”
I stared at the stone floor and clenched my fists so tight it hurt. I didn’t have to answer him. In the end, Loki was going to do whatever it was he wanted. I was tired of fighting gods and getting screwed.
He tugged up his pants and sank to sit on the floor cross-legged in front of me. “Because both finalists were disqualified, I had to invoke an obscure rule to choose a winner. That rule gives me the power to choose the Namer. The wording is somewhat ambiguous, but after consulting with a council of impartial judges, they’ve determined that I can name anyone to the position, without regard for their participation in the tournament. I chose me.”
I raised my eyes from the floor to study him. He had to be joking. Yet there was no sign of a smile on his face. “You knew this would happen. Somehow, you knew.”
Loki’s eyes sparkled. “Are you familiar with the Norn?”
I shook my head.
“In simple terms, they are like you, existing outside the normal structure of things. They are neither gods nor men, but women granted the ability to control the fates of god and men both. Three months ago, the fetters that held me in my punishment failed, and three Norn came to see me. They placed a long strand of silver hair at my feet and said the time for my vengeance against the gods that imprisoned me was at hand. A very special child had been born, a child with the power to give and take life with a touch. A child whose birth signified the end.”
My heart seized. Remy. When she was born, the fae theorized she might be able to develop both powers, or just one. There was no way to know for certain until she was older.
“I was granted a glimpse of the future,” Loki continued, lifting one finger. “The many paths this child might take converging on a single event. This moment. From here, there is but one possible course of action for you, Lazarus. You know it. I know it.
“And what course of action would that be?”
He smirked. “You don’t give a damn about this tournament, or that I won, or even who I plan to name to the post. None of that matters to you because you’ve got more immediate concerns. Like going after Emma’s soul.”
He was right; that’d been my plan. Kill Morningstar and make Khaleda tell me how to bring her soul back. If I could, I’d heal her body and put her back together. I knew I’d only have seven days to do it before she was lost to me forever, but I had an edge most people didn’t, being a necromancer and the Pale Horseman. The only problem was, Khaleda was gone, and I had no idea where to begin. Plus, I had to make sure Remy stayed safe.
“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “The only person who knew how is gone. The clock has already started. I’d have less than seven days now, and Morningstar is out there. My daughter is unprotected, and I have no help.”
“On the contrary,” said Loki, his eyes sparkling. “You have Emma.”
He produced the small glass vial that held the Yggdrasil sap. He must’ve recovered it from my room.
I blinked at it. “I don’t understand.”
Loki grinned. “I’m not allowed to interfere directly with certain future events. However, nothing prevented me from informing Emma about the fate that she faced. I lured her away and explained the situation. What she did with that information was up to her. I merely acted as an informant.”
That time I saw them walking together in the hallway. That had to have been when he told her. But she was smiling, laughing even. How could she so happy after being told she’d die and go to Hell?
I stared at the milky liquid in the vial. Drinking it would transport me to any of the Nine Realms. One of those realms was Helheim, the land of the dishonorable dead. Would Emma be there?
Loki dangled the vial in front of me. “I’m afraid it won’t be as simple as walking into the land of the damned and walking back out with her soul. But I’m sure she wouldn’t have wanted you to have this if there wasn’t some way.”
I held my hand out and he dropped the vial into my palm. “She wanted me to…”
The arm-wrestling match had been a sham. Just a show. He must not have been able to give it to anyone freely, but if won in a contest of strength and wit, a gift like that would be indisputable. Emma had arranged all of it. She’d known all this time, and she didn’t say a word.
My throat constricted. “Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because you would have tried to stop her. In the future where you intervene, you die in her place. I told her this. I believe she said something along the lines of, ‘Of course that idiot would die.’ It was shortly after that we discussed methods of transport for humans between the Nine Realms, and she suggested I offer it as a prize. Bet me a considerable sum you would take up the challenge. She died a poor woman, your friend.”
That didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was getting her back. She must’ve seen a way, or she wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of setting it up. She knew I would try and left this to help me. It felt like she’d reached beyond the grave to help me.
“Remy,” I said. “My daughter. Morningstar may try to get to her to hurt me.”
“Already taken care of.” Loki smiled. “I have five Valkyries watching that run-down hovel you call home and two working as her personal bodyguards. You needn’t fear for your child’s life. I have a vested interest in keeping her alive for a good, long while yet.”
I stared at the vial in my hand and closed my fingers around it. “Why are you helping me?”
“Because,” he said, standing, “helping you helps me. Any more questions?”
“Just one. Who are you planning to name as Famine?”
Loki grinned. “
I’ll make you a deal, Horseman. Make it back alive, and I’ll introduce you. He tapped on the door. It swung open. “I’ve had my people preserve the body, in case you should succeed. I can’t repair it, but that’s no matter. I’m sure you know of a capable healer. You’re free to go.”
He turned as if to go out the door but stopped. “Oh, there’s just one more thing. Make sure your body is in a safe place where it’s unlikely to be disturbed when you drink that potion. You won’t need it where you’re going.”
***
It was raining in New Orleans. I limped along the sidewalk toward the coroner’s office, my fist closed around the little vial of hope Emma had left for me. It was dusk. I hoped Nate was in.
I reached the front door and pushed on it. Locked. Right, I was after hours. I’d need someone to let me in. Without a phone to make the call, I decided to just sit in front of the door until someone came by.
It didn’t take long, maybe forty minutes. By then, I was soaked the bone. My teeth chattered in the October cool. Behind the clouds, a full moon drifted, red and fat. I stared at it, wishing it was daytime, that it was warm, that I was home with Remy in my arms and Emma on the phone. I had to get that life back. It was worth dying to try.
“I warned you, didn’t I, boy?” Baron Samedi stood under a black umbrella just in front of me.
I hadn’t heard or seen him walk up, but that didn’t mean anything. Normal rules of physics didn’t always apply to the supernatural.
He stared down at me, his white eyes practically glowing against all the black. “I told you if you kept digging, you would not like what you found.”
If I had listened to Baron Samedi and walked away right then, Haru wouldn’t have punched me in the face. I would have been conscious and on time for my fight. Emma would be alive and I would be dead.
I shivered. “I have to go get her. Don’t try to talk me out of it.”
“Too late for that. I assume Loki gave you the sap?”
I lifted it so he could see.
