Badb nodded because at that moment, she completely agreed.
“Um…” Ares murmured, nervously eyeing the sky as the spirits swooped toward them. “Should we…”
But he couldn’t finish either. Lugh returned with a wooden box in his hands.
“You went home for that?” Badb screamed.
“Of course,” he answered, pulling off the lid and placing it on the ground. Even the Sumerian gods were looking at him like he’d lost his mind.
“Lugh,” Badb warned.
“It’s ash,” he explained. “Just… don’t move.”
The other gods still blinked at him like he was crazy.
As the spirits reached them, Lugh instructed his family and friends to back up… but not too far. They complied, but Badb gripped her sword anxiously even though she had complete faith in her boyfriend. The foremost phantom dove toward them, and she bit the inside of her cheek so she wouldn’t curse at it. Several more misty shapes followed it, but as they passed over Lugh’s enchanted ash box, they suddenly disappeared. Two more utukku vanished before the others stopped diving toward the gods and retreated back into the safety of the sky.
“What the hell…” Zeus mumbled.
“They’re trapped now,” Lugh said.
“In a box?”
“Yeah. I thought you knew ash was one of the few substances we could imbue with great power. Why do you think it’s in so many of our legends?”
Zeus threw his hands up and exclaimed, “Why do you expect me to remember all these things?”
“Bet you remember the names of every woman you’ve ever seduced,” Athena retorted.
“Bet you he doesn’t,” Ares countered. “You’re assuming he ever bothered to learn them.”
“Conceded,” Athena agreed.
“Would you shut up about my lovers?” Zeus snapped. “We’re still in the middle of a battle here.”
“Sorry,” they both mumbled.
“They’ve broken the rules of warfare twice now,” the Dagda said. “So we’re no longer obligated to follow them either.”
Lugh smiled and nodded in agreement. “Good. Because I’m about to burn this city to the ground.”
Most of the Sumerian gods had disappeared before Lugh had a chance to engulf them in his fire, but the blazes burned behind the Irish gods and their allies as they ascended the steps of An’s ziggurat. Badb still couldn’t figure out how Lugh had managed to summon so much of his power here, but it certainly hadn’t been the first time he’d surprised her with his ability to do something most gods couldn’t.
There had never been a god quite like him, and she doubted there would ever be one who could rival him.
At the top of the stairs, a ruffling noise made their group stop and draw their weapons, but their apprehension quickly dissolved into relief as two black shapes flew from high perches, stretching and morphing into the shapes of young women. “You’re all right,” Badb breathed, sheathing her sword so she could throw her arms around her sisters.
“Why wouldn’t we be?” Nemain answered. She hugged her sister quickly then nodded toward the massive doors of the palace. “An is inside waiting. If we open those doors, we’ll be ambushed.”
A larger brown shape fluttered past them and shifted into Montu’s normal appearance, the handsome man with a flawless complexion and onyx hair. Lugh sighed and rolled his eyes at Badb because she had been admiring how attractive her old friend was, so she blushed and cleared her throat.
“Did you find another way in?” she asked.
Montu shook his head. “Any chance one of you has a secret invisibility gift?”
“I don’t think anyone has a secret invisibility gift,” Artemis replied. “And even if we did, I’m not sure any of us could use it here… except Lugh.”
“Feel kind of invisible right now,” he teased as he smiled at Badb.
She didn’t think he was funny.
“Uh, hardly think now’s a good time for a lovers’ quarrel,” Athena whispered.
“We’re not quarreling,” Badb corrected. “We don’t quarrel.”
“You quarrel,” Athena argued.
“What you mistake for quarreling is war goddess foreplay,” Lugh insisted.
“Would you all stop saying ‘quarrel’?” Ares snapped.
“And don’t ever say ‘war goddess foreplay’ again,” Athena added.
Lugh smiled at her and shrugged.
“I think I’ll just take on An myself,” Zeus decided. “Because at this point, I don’t really care if I die.”
“You should,” Athena told him. “Because you and Hades will drive each other crazy.”
Zeus flinched and sighed. “Conceded.”
Before the gods could move on to an equally ridiculous subject to argue about while standing outside the palace of their enemy, the doors swung open, revealing a spacious atrium with marble floors and spiraling archways, multi-colored light streaming in from stained-glass windows on the ceiling and walls. No god waited for them in the atrium though, and whoever opened the doors remained hidden.
“Any chance he’s inviting us in for a beer?” Lugh asked.
“I don’t want Mesopotamian beer,” the Dagda scoffed. “What could they possibly know about good beer?”
“I think the better question is who just opened those doors?” Athena asked.
“Telekinetic?” Osiris guessed.
“Then why let us in? Why not use his telekinesis to keep us out?” Lugh countered. “After all, we’re in his world. His powers are greater than our own here.”
“And where did all of his gods go?” Montu added. “An’s greatest warriors just disappeared from the battlefield.”
Badb pointed her sword to the atrium and took a deep breath. “They’re inside. It’s obviously a trap.”
“Any chance you have another ash box you can trap gods in then torch them like those spirits?” Ares asked Lugh.
“I don’t even know how to answer that,” Lugh admitted.
From somewhere deep within An’s palace, Badb thought someone sighed irritably.
”We should probably go inside,” Lugh said instead.
“Wait,” Badb pretended to bargain. “What if we just stand outside on his doorstep for a few millennia annoying the hell out of him until he just surrenders?”
Lugh blinked at her then slowly pointed his Spear toward the atrium. “I’m going inside now.”
Athena patted Badb’s shoulder and offered her a mischievous grin. “For what it’s worth, you do have a knack for annoying the hell out of people.”
Zeus winked at her and said, “When you dump Lugh for leaving you out here, you know where to find me,” then followed her boyfriend inside.
“When I snap and kill him, nobody’s going to blame me, right?” Badb complained.
Athena snickered and shook her head. “Least of all me.”
“That’s still our father,” Ares reminded her.
“He’s still a pig,” Athena reminded him.
Ares lifted a shoulder. “Conceded.”
“We’re supposed to be finding An and killing him before those scorpion men destroy Hades,” the Dagda reminded them all.
Badb stepped inside the massive palace, following the echoes of Lugh’s footsteps and the dancing shadows on the walls as he and Zeus carefully ventured deeper into their enemy’s sanctuary. She rarely got nervous in battle, but something about this palace and its eerie silence worried her. She’d battled in other gods’ worlds before—hell, she’d defeated Thor and taken him prisoner in Asgard—but something wasn’t right here.
She glanced at Athena whose fingers twitched nervously around the hilt of her sword. As Macha, the last of the gods to enter the palace, stepped into the atrium, the doors slammed closed behind them, and the walls began to bleed a strange murky charcoal gray, the viscous color oozing from the ceiling toward the snow-white marble floors.
The shapes shifted then leapt from the walls as a god’s laughter filled the room.
Lugh suddenly appeared by Badb’s side again and pulled her into his arms, but he didn’t need to tell her who had trapped them and what fate awaited them now.
Nergal and his spirits that could spread disease among mortals and gods alike had arrived.
Chapter Five
“I was hoping this bastard was dead,” Badb whispered.
“Yeah,” Lugh agreed. “We all were.”
A slithering gray shadow slid from the wall to the floor, elongating and stretching until it reached the height of a man. Badb swallowed as the form approached Zeus, a smoky hand lifting to reach for the Greek god.
“Dad,” Athena said, her voice cracking with panic. “Dad, do something!”
But what could the weather god do?
Lugh lit a fire between Zeus and the spirit, but not surprisingly, the spirit walked through the flames and continued to approach the head of the Greek pantheon. Athena ran her fingers through her hair and turned on Badb, screaming, “Make it stop!”
Zeus backed farther away, but the group had been surrounded by identical phantoms. There was nowhere to go.
Lugh’s ash box had trapped the utukku, but he’d burned it in order to destroy the spirits inside, and no one could leave An’s palace. Someone was preventing them from returning to the Otherworld. Badb allowed herself to pry in her boyfriend’s mind again, hoping he had a solution to save them.
And as always, he didn’t disappoint her.
“If you’re listening, Badb, I need your torc.”
Badb touched the gold band around her neck, hesitating for a moment because Lugh had given it to her, but she pulled it off and handed it to him, her eyes never leaving the god who’d been chosen to die first. Ares stabbed desperately at the spirit with his spear, but it passed through the translucent shape, which had finally reached Zeus.
Lugh brought Badb’s neck ring to his lips, but the spirit suddenly lunged at Zeus and disappeared.
“Dad?” Athena called.
Zeus didn’t answer.
“Dad, answer me!” she yelled.
Zeus turned his pale blue eyes toward her and opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He clutched at his throat then fell to his knees, and Athena and Ares knelt beside him, clawing helplessly at his shirt and hair as if they could exorcise the demon killing their father.
Another spirit leapt toward the Dagda, and Lugh threw the torc at it, the smoky gray mist breaking apart before it could reach the Irish god. “Grab the torc!” Lugh yelled. “Throw it at any spirit that gets too close.”
The Dagda immediately obeyed. No one ever argued with Lugh, the master of all things. As the Dagda threw the enchanted gold ring at another spirit, Badb risked peeking at Nergal, whose eyes had narrowed.
And his attention was only on one god, the one god for whom Badb would destroy every world and every realm.
Nergal wanted Lugh dead.
Badb stepped away from her boyfriend, who immediately grabbed her arm, but she pulled it free. Her eyes never left the Mesopotamian god trying to slaughter them with evil spirits. She would slaughter him instead.
“Badb,” Lugh begged, “don’t.”
But for once, she ignored him.
Nergal finally looked away from Lugh to watch Badb as she broke away from her allies and slowly ascended the stairs. The Sumerian god’s mace appeared in his hand, and he smiled at the war goddess as she approached. Behind her, the clanking of gold hitting the walls and floor as the enchanted torc annihilated Nergal’s spirits assured her they’d be preoccupied while she went after the god who controlled them.
“You’re foolish to take me on alone, Crow,” Nergal taunted. “You’re not in your world. But admittedly, I’ve been looking forward to killing you for centuries.”
Badb stepped onto the landing of the second floor and arched an eyebrow at the Sumerian god. “But I have a secret, asshole.”
Nergal’s eyebrows pulled together, but Badb lifted her sword and advanced as her sisters appeared behind him. The Sumerians might be able to prevent the Irish and their allies from transporting themselves, but the Mórrígna shared one soul. Wherever one went, the others could easily follow. Nothing could separate them except for death.
Nergal blocked Badb’s blade with his mace, but realized he’d been trapped just before Nemain’s blade could decapitate him. The Sumerian god disappeared, and with him, his spirits. Athena screamed and Badb gasped, running down the stairs to reach her best friend, her heart beating wildly as she begged Fate not to take Athena from her.
But Athena hadn’t been hurt.
She’d screamed because her father was dead.
Athena’s fingers curled and uncurled as they ventured farther into An’s palace. The Sumerians had taken not only her world from her but her father, and someone would have to pay.
Badb intended to make not only the Sumerians pay for her best friend’s losses, but the Norse as well because Olympus had to be their fault. Their oldest enemy would soon learn what it was like to lose their home, to become gods without a place or purpose.
“This is taking too long,” Artemis murmured. “If we lose Hades as well…”
Athena suddenly turned on her and snapped, “We won’t lose anything again. And I’ll kill An myself. This bastard is mine.”
Osiris and Montu exchanged uneasy glances and Montu put a hand on Athena’s shoulder, which she shook off. “Vengeance is a dangerous emotion,” he said gently.
“She needs to do this,” Badb interrupted. “And we will help her.”
Ares glanced up at her then lowered his eyes again. Apollo and Artemis wouldn’t look at the other gods either. After all, they’d lost their father too.
“I just think,” Montu continued quietly, “we’ve lost enough friends for one day.”
“I won’t fail,” Athena said. “And the Sumerians will wish they’d chosen their alliances differently.”
The Greek war goddess spun on her heels and resumed her search for An, so Badb quickly followed. As they passed a hallway on their right, a door opened, its hinges creaking softly. “Another invitation to walk into a trap?” the Dagda sighed.
Badb glanced at him then quickly looked away. She couldn’t bear seeing the grief on his face. Zeus had been his closest friend longer than she’d been alive. His loss would haunt the man she loved like a father for a long time.
“Even in their own realm,” Athena answered, “they’re weaker than us. And they know it. All they have are traps, tricks they hope will kill us one by one.”
“I still have the enchanted torc,” Lugh offered. “If Nergal and his spirits return, we can fight them off again.”
“We didn’t exactly fight them off so well the last time,” Apollo muttered.
“Perses,” Athena breathed.
“What?” Ares demanded. “Athena, don’t you dare…”
“He can destroy this realm!” she exclaimed.
“He’s a Titan,” Artemis hissed. “He’d just as soon destroy us.”
“But his daughter was honored by our father,” Athena insisted. “Surely that means something.”
“I thought he was dead,” Badb interjected.
Athena shook her head but kept her attention on her Greek family. “Only in the stories of the mortals. And not all Titans hate us. Prometheus doesn’t.”
“Oh, great example,” Nemain said. “Use the god Zeus tormented for centuries.”
Athena shrugged. “Help me summon him,” she begged. “My powers are too weak here to do it on my own.”
“Sister,” Ares started but Athena cut him off.
“Help me, Ares. Let’s cause this world to crumble like they did to ours.”
“And if he turns on us?” Ares asked. “What if we can’t expel him once we get him here?”
“Then we kill him,” Badb decided.
“No,” the Dagda groaned. “This is a bad idea.”
“It’s our only idea,” Athena countered.
“Well,” Lugh sighed, “if con
juring a god of destruction who happens to belong to a family that’s the mortal enemies of our best friends is a bad idea then we really need to live a little.”
The Dagda rolled his eyes at him, but groaned again and nodded. “All right. Let’s hope one of us is awfully convincing and awfully quick about it… because he’s here.”
Badb glanced over her shoulder at the god who had joined them, obviously confused as to why he was in the highest heaven of the Sumerians and why he was with this group of gods.
“Perses,” Athena pleaded, “we need your help. They’ve destroyed Olympus, killed Zeus, and their scorpion men are in Hades where…”
“And why should I care about Olympus or Zeus?” Perses interrupted.
“I don’t expect you to,” Athena agreed. “But if you can harness enough of your power here, you can create such a powerful earthquake that the highest heaven is destroyed. And I do suspect there’s something we can offer you in return.”
Perses lifted an eyebrow at her and folded his arms over his chest. “What do you think could possibly entice me to help you?”
“Mnemosyne,” Athena answered.
“Athena,” Ares hissed. “Have you lost your mind?”
“I’ll free her if you destroy this world and kill An,” Athena continued, ignoring her brother.
Apollo grabbed Athena’s arm and spun her around to face him. “Every Titan who’s still imprisoned should stay there forever. It’s not worth it. We can kill An and destroy this world ourselves.”
Athena pulled her arm free and ignored her entire family now. “Do we have a deal?” she asked Perses.
Badb looked between them nervously and sheathed her sword, trying her own luck at convincing her best friend to change her mind. “Not this, Athena. The Titans have wanted her back for thousands of years for a reason. Leave her in Hades, and trust me to avenge your father.”
But Athena ignored Badb too. Her mind was only on one thing: revenge. She extended her hand toward Perses and asked again, “Deal? I want this place gone. And An dead.”
Perses eyed her hand for only a brief moment before grasping it and smiling at the younger goddess. “I suggest,” he purred, “that you and your friends leave this palace now.”
Blades of Ash: An Unbreakable Sword Series Prequel (The Unbreakable Sword Book 5) Page 4
