by C. R. Jane
Surt’s jaw twitched, his eyes widening just slightly. “The raven of memory.”
“He thinks I still serve him,” I said. “You let us go through into Midgard, and I’ll deliver the Allfather to you.”
“And why should I trust your word?” the giant said, but longing threaded through his voice. He wanted to trust me. He wanted to believe his greatest desire could come true.
“I can vow it to you,” I said. “Like all the things of the realms vowed to Frigg they wouldn’t hurt her son Baldur, except the mistletoe. You’ve heard that tale by now, haven’t you? A vow of Asgard can’t be broken.”
Surt shifted his weight from one foot to the other, studying me. He lowered his sword. “Why would you do this, raven?” he asked.
“I value my life more than his,” I said. “We both gave him more than he deserved, didn’t we?”
Something in my tone must have completely convinced him. He jerked his chin at the spider-thing, and it clambered off of me. I stood up, rubbing my pinched wrists.
“All right then,” Surt said. “Let’s hear your vow.”
I looked him straight in the eyes. There was no conjuring around this, no pretending it. He would feel whether I spoke the words true. All the conviction I had in me collected in my throat.
“If you let me and my three companions pass through the gate of our choosing, I, Muninn, raven of memory, will see that you take the Allfather as your prisoner to do with as you please. I swear it by all the realms and by my soul.”
My voice echoed off the high ceiling. The blazing giant grinned. He swept his sword arm toward the other creatures, and they eased off my lovers. The guards stepped back to the wall.
“Go then, Muninn, raven of memory,” Surt said, his voice as scorching as the magma in his moat. “I look forward to our next meeting.”
I glanced at the gate to Asgard, but only for a second. The guys were getting to their feet. I crossed the stone floor to them in a few brisk strides, wrapping my arm around Jerrik’s waist, Svend’s elbow, leaning my head toward Gunnar’s chest. They surrounded me with warmth and the bright mortal smell of them.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Svend murmured.
“I did,” I said. “Now let’s go.”
Jerrik’s embrace tightened. “This is good-bye, then?”
I blinked at him. Hadn’t he realized yet?
“I’m coming with you,” I said. “I’m coming to Midgard.” I paused. A lump swelled in my throat. “I know you might tire of me, or of each other, or I of you, but… not yet. And I want to have what we have for as long as it’s going to last.” I could make new memories of that place, ones with laughter and sighs instead of shouts and clattering, ones of peace and pleasure.
“Muninn,” Gunnar said in a rasp, and they were all hugging me to them at once. I closed my eyes. Right then, I could believe that mortality meant nothing. That what we’d shared in the last day was only the beginning of a long, long happiness.
I tugged them with me toward the gate to the realm of humans. With hands clasped, we leapt into the dark together.
Chapter 11
I held my breath as I led my lovers toward the home I’d built. The property with its little brick cottage lay off in a quiet part of the countryside no one much passed by, but that suited us fine. I just wasn’t sure what they’d make of the refinements I’d brought to life.
Jerrik noticed first. He stopped in his tracks on the packed dirt path through the meadows, staring at the stretch of trees beyond the cottage’s sloped roof. “That patch of forest wasn’t there before,” he said. “It looks… It looks like the woods near my childhood home.”
“Where you had many happy memories,” I said quietly.
He glanced at me, and understanding lit in his eyes. Without another word, he tipped up my chin to offer me a kiss.
Gunnar exclaimed next, at the burgling stream a small wooden bridge led us over. “I used to walk along a stream just like this, back in Jotunheim…” A smile crossed his face. He squeezed my hand with a buoyant laugh.
When we reached the cottage, Svend hesitated, his hand lingering over the stone bench set up out front. “Where I used to sit with my little sister and tell her stories,” he said. He swallowed audibly. His eyes shimmered as he looked at me. “Muninn, you’re a wonder.”
I found myself grinning back at all of them. “No, all of you are. I could only build what you’ve given me.”
Their breaths caught as we stepped inside. I’d incorporated every detail from every fond memory I’d gleaned over the last few days, arranging them in what looked to me to be some semblance of cohesion. Gunnar took it all in and swept me around before wrapping me in his arms.
“It’s beautiful,” he said. “Almost as beautiful as you.”
A few additions I’d constructed for practical reasons more than sentiment. My favorite of those was a broad cushioned couch more than big enough for the four of us to sprawl comfortably on, which filled one end of the living room. We settled there, me nestled between the three men who would have made any space feel like home to me now.
Of course it was Jerrik who broke the joy of the moment. “How long do we have?” he said, brushing his fingers over my hair as I rested my head on his lap. “Until you have to bring Odin back to Muspelheim?”
Gunnar stirred by my feet. “Are you really going to fulfill that vow?”
“I have to,” I said. “I’m bound by it. But… I didn’t give him any timeline. I never said I’d deliver Odin soon. So I expect it’ll take me a good long while.”
Svend smiled slyly. “Perhaps forever.”
“Perhaps,” I said, but I didn’t really believe it. A sharp ache still pierced my chest when I thought of the god I’d served for so long. Of the horrors he’d subjected me to without any apparent care. Of the brutality he’d abandoned so many in the nine realms to.
I snuggled a little closer to my lovers, but my jaw had set. I wasn’t going to sacrifice one second of the happiness I’d found with these three, not as long as I had them. But after that…
“Perhaps it’s time the Allfather found out what it’s like to fall.”
The End
How does Muninn take her vengeance? Find out in the first book in the Their Dark Valkyrie series, Claimed by Gods:
http://smarturl.it/ClaimedbyGods
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About Eva Chase
Eva Chase lives in Canada with her family. She loves stories both swoony and supernatural, and strong women and the men who appreciate them. Along with the Their Dark Valkyrie series, she is the author of the Witch’s Consorts series, the Dragon Shifter’s Mates series, the Demons of Fame Romance series, the Legends Reborn trilogy, and the Alpha Project Psychic Romance series.
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On Death’s Wings
MYTHOMORPHOSES
by Joely Sue Burkhart
I woke in a pile of corpses with no memory of who I am or what happened.
Contaminated by a virulent alien virus, people are either dying or turning into twisted shapeshifters that make werewolves look like teddy bears. I don’t know if I can trust the two aliens who pull me out of the mass grave. More, I don’t know if they can trust me. Not when I can’t remember anything.
We live—while the rest of the world dies around us, turning Earth into a rotting graveyard. What more fitting names could we give ourselves than Thanatos, Hades, and Kharon?
I’m Thanatos. Dead—but alive—and determined to discover who—or what—I am.
Welcome to the Underworld.
Created with Vellum
Copyright © 2019 by Joely Sue Burkhart
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written
permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
For my Beloved Sis.
Thank you to my comma warriors and beta readers:
Sherri Meyer, Stephanie Cunningham, Lydia Simone,
Bibiane Lybæk, Kaila Duff, and Jennifer Swan
Chapter 1
Waking up was like razor blades shearing off my eyelids. I blinked away the pain, trying to remember where I was. I couldn’t see anything.
The smell of something rank filled my nostrils, making me gag. I’d never smelled anything so wretched before.
I tried to lift my arm, but I was pinned. I couldn’t even feel my fingers.
Panic ripped through me in a hot flash of terror. What happened? Where am I?
I could taste that smell. Death. On my tongue.
Bile bubbled up but I swallowed it down, determined not to add yet another horrible smell to the mix of sewage and rotting flesh.
“Help!” At least my voice worked, though it sounded like more of a croak than an understandable word.
I focused on my body, trying to categorize what I could feel. I could wiggle my toes. I wasn’t paralyzed. My chest felt so heavy. I could barely draw in a breath. Maybe I had pneumonia. But why the fuck couldn’t I see?
A muffled voice filtered down to me. I couldn’t understand the words, but I could tell it was a man.
“Help! Down here!”
The voice came again. Closer. A foreign language, I thought, but not one that I recognized.
“Please!” I screamed harder, even though my throat ached with strain. “I’m here!”
Something shifted above me. I could feel things moving incrementally. Scant more light. A little less weight on my chest.
“Hold on,” the voice said in English this time. I couldn’t place his accent. His voice was gruff and low, but it was the most beautiful sound in the world.
I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t going to die here. Yet.
The darkness lightened another shade. A crack appeared. Blue sky above. Sunlight.
A face. Thick, dark glasses covered his eyes, giving him a bug-like appearance.
I would have wept with relief, if there’d been any moisture left in my body. Even if he wasn’t human.
He was one of two alien species who’d come to Earth—months or years ago. I couldn’t remember when they’d arrived, though I’d seen constant news coverage of their ship’s shocking appearance. I couldn’t remember where I’d seen the shows, or what I’d been doing at the time.
I couldn’t remember my name or what had put me at the bottom of this stinking pile of refuse, but my mind fired fact after fact at me, lightning fast.
He was a Thracian. He wore the thick glasses to protect his sensitive eyes from our sun’s powerful rays. His otherwise human appearance was misleading. He was a shapeshifter species. Supposedly a winged dragon-like creature with fur rather than scales, but I’d never seen one in person. At least I didn’t think I had. I couldn’t picture the animal-like form in my mind, though I recognized the special glasses.
But why couldn’t I remember my name? Had I suffered a serious head injury?
He tossed something aside with a heavy grunt. “Almost there. Fuck, human. Who’d you piss off to end up buried alive? Or are you just looking for your keys?”
I blinked up at him. Buried? I was buried?
The smell.
I swallowed. Hard. Willed my eyes not to look anywhere but the man’s face. I didn’t want to see what he was tossing aside to free me. He didn’t have a shovel. So it wasn’t dirt. And if I was buried…
Another male spoke somewhere out of my sight. His voice sounded like music. If I closed my eyes, I could float away on the complex symphony in each tone.
Another alien, this one a Nyxosi. With their graceful, slender forms, the media had dubbed them elves for their beauty and musical voices. The two species had arrived together. That was important, but I didn’t know why. My brain… hiccuped, rattling like an engine skipping gears.
Buried. Alive.
How? Why? What the fuck had happened?
In desperation, I focused on him, letting the gentle melody of his voice soothe me, even though I had no idea what he said. I brought up all the facts I could remember about their species. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much. But it was better than thinking about the body-sized shapes the first alien tossed over his shoulder.
There’d been five ships, but only one had come to the US. The President had spoken on television several times to assure the public that everything was under control. Our visitors meant us no harm. They weren’t here to obliterate us. And they hadn’t. I remembered that much. They’d started dying first.
How do I know that?
Another low grunt drew my attention back to the alien. He was closer now. Leaning down over me as he heaved another body aside.
Oh god. Oh fuck. A body. I could see the tattered, stained clothes. Blue shirt. Long blonde hair. The red on her lips wasn’t lipstick. Vicious teeth—way too many to fit inside her mouth—glinted in the sunlight. Razor sharp canines lined up like ivory swords.
“Hey,” the alien growled. “Don’t look at that. Look at me. What’s your name?”
I focused on him, his face only a few feet away now. His ebony skin gleamed in the sunlight. No hair. Just the round shape of his head. The strange goggle sunglasses. Black shirt, too tight across the shoulders, like it’d shrunk. Or he’d borrowed it.
I refused to consider it might have been stripped off a dead body.
“My name’s Kharon,” he repeated. “What’s yours?”
Kharon… “Like from Greek mythology?”
He grinned and heaved another body aside. “Yeah, that’s right. It seemed fitting since he’s a ferryman. You humans couldn’t pronounce my real name.”
“You’re my navigator.” Even in English, the other alien’s voice rang with musical tones and bells. “Not a ferryman.”
“Same difference. So what’s your name, human?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
I closed my eyes, reaching back… trying to remember anything. But it was blank. Not even a hint or a foggy area. My memories were gone, wiped clean like an empty, brand-new whiteboard without a single streak or shadowed letter to decipher.
“All I remember is waking up here.”
Wherever here is.
With a low grunt, he threw another heavy body aside and squatted down closer, giving me a quick once over. Then he offered his hand. “Let’s go.”
I lifted my right hand up and grabbed his. At least I could move. I couldn’t feel his skin against mine, but I felt the firmness of his grip as he squeezed my fingers.
“Wait,” the other alien said. “What if she’s injured?”
“She doesn’t look hurt.” Though he did pause and give me another once-over. “What say you, human? Do you want Hades to climb down here and give you a checkup first? Or would you rather get the fuck out of this graveyard?”
Of course the other one was Hades. I had to snicker. It was better than running screaming like a madwoman. “Get me the fuck out of here.”
Kharon grinned and hauled me up effortlessly, tossing me over his shoulder. “Close your eyes, human. Don’t look. Unless you want nightmares to keep you up the rest of your short, fucked-up life.”
I had to look. I couldn’t help it.
I had to know what I’d come from. Maybe there was a clue. Something that would remind me of who I was.
But then I looked, and I wished to god I hadn’t.
Dead. Bodies. Everywhere.
I stared in horror as he clamped his arm around my hips, keeping me locked firmly in place, and started climbing.
Up bodies.
A mass grave.
Actually, just a mangled pile of corpses with no rhyme or reason. None of us had been truly buried, just tossed into a ravine like so much rubbish. The
pile stretched down behind us as far as I could see. An endless pile of the dead.
I couldn’t even begin to assess how many bodies. Not all of them looked human, either. Not after contracting the virus that had decimated the visiting aliens before we could develop a vaccine.
Then it had jumped to us.
How do I know this? Am I doctor? A scientist? But how did I get here?
Facts and data waited in my head. I even knew mortality rates once the mutated virus jumped back to the human population.
The survival rate had dropped to five percent once exposed. Literally just being in the same room with the virus had been deadly.
After infection…
Nobody survived. Not one.
For all I knew, I was the last human in America. On Earth. I had no idea.
How? How am I still alive?
Maybe I hadn’t been exposed.
A sound escaped my lips. Raw, jagged laugher. I’d just been buried beneath several feet of exposure.
“I told you not to fucking look.” Kharon heaved us up the last few feet and let me slide down to the ground beside him.
I couldn’t stop looking, my mind trying to comprehend. To count the bodies. Hundreds? Thousands? More?
“Do you know this place?” The other alien asked.
Even here, staring at what might be the largest mass grave ever to be used on Earth, I couldn’t resist the melodious tones of his voice. I glanced up at him, wordlessly trying to convey my horror and shock.
His long silver hair glinted in the sunlight like real metal, though it floated around his shoulders. His slight frame and delicate features definitely resembled an elf. He wore the same large sunglasses and dark clothing, though his sleeves were long to fully cover him. Actually, the only bit of skin exposed was his face. His cheekbones were angled and sharp, giving his face a triangular shape, though it didn’t detract from his beauty.
