“Gowns? What gowns. She has clothes. Perfect ones that define who she is. Tell her, Dimples.”
Celestia looked over her shoulder and shrugged. “She says I need gowns and you can’t argue with your mother.”
Mother chuckled. “Listen to her, Eirik. Of course, her clothes are perfect for running around here or going to school in. In Asgard, she represents Eljudnir, and must dress the part. Litr!” The Dwarf entered. I swear he either listened behind doors or had hearing like Heimdall. “Tell Maera to bring the gowns and shoes she’s been making for Celestia. I also need Trudy.” She glanced at me. “You also need a few more cloaks. You’ll be taking four guards and two Grimnirs. They must dress in their finest. And last, we’re still waiting for the emissary I’d sent to return.”
I couldn’t believe this. She was making a big deal out of nothing. “Emissary? Mother, we’re just going to consult Eir.”
“I know what I’m doing, Son.” She patted my cheek. “You’re not visiting your grandfather’s looking like Helheim chewed you up and spat you out. Your grandfather’s court is filled with warmongers. The last thing I want is for them to mistake you for a raiding party and attack. Asgard is not like other realms, where you can enter and leave without worrying about being attacked. They guard their borders, their portals and their gates. Your grandmother will make sure no mistakes are made when you arrive. You’ll leave once the emissary returns.”
I should have just grabbed Celestia and left as soon as we got here. All these protocols were a pain on my ass. On the other hand, as long as she was here in Eljudnir where she was safe, we could go to Asgard next month or next year for all I cared.
“Fine. But I’m taking four Grimnirs, two males and two females, and two guards.”
Mother smiled. “Good. Send them to Maera for measurements.”
I went to my quarters, showered, and changed into a flight suit. I grabbed my camera and made sure I had a picture of Cora and got Jessica’s picture too. I made one quick stop in the guest quarters and kept Echo updated on the Resting Hall situation, then sent a guard with a message to Ranger and the others before leaving the hall.
Shifting, I hooked a talon around the strap of the camera and took off. Ten minutes later, I was pounding on the doors of Corpse Strand, not caring whether the snake guarding it went crazy.
The guards weren’t surprised to see me. I told them they didn’t need to accompany me. I grabbed the torch from the table in the middle of the room, and headed to Granny’s dungeon. She saw me coming and stood. She’d probably felt my presence before I entered the building.
“What do Marguerite and her minions want with Celestia?”
“She is supposed to ask me that. Not you.”
Right, like I’d bring Celestia here. “What do your minions want with her?”
“What I ordered them to do. Just like I ordered them to find your sister and bring her to me, and they did.”
She just gave me an opening I was waiting for. I held Jessica-slash-Anne Marie’s picture.
“What am I supposed to be looking at?” she asked, not moving from her bed.
“Why don’t you come closer and see? Or are you scared to find out how your plans failed. There’s dignity in accepting defeat rather than being happy in ignorance.”
She got up and moved closer. She studied the pictures. “I don’t understand. This is Einmyria. Why does she have blue eyes?”
“No, this is Jessica, the girl Marguerite brought from Earth and you brainwashed to destroy our family. She didn’t. Instead, she told us the truth. How you wanted her to destroy my family. Really? Do you really think you could ever do that?” Hatred burned in her eyes. “As for her eyes, blue is her real eye color. She wears gray contacts, so she could look like the real Einmyria.” I turned on the camera, set it to display, and found Cora’s picture. I turned it around and held it up for Granny to see. “This one. I found her and I’m bringing her home.”
Crazy Granny glared at Cora’s picture. “Marguerite will get her first. She knows where the real Einmyria is.”
“No, she doesn’t, or she would have taken her by now.” The same people who’d protected me had also protected Cora. “Einmyria is protected, not just by her parents, but other Immortals, Valkyries, and a former Norn-in-training. That’s why you couldn’t find her. You said your visions of her were blurry.”
Angrboda growled. “Marguerite had failed me before when she couldn’t kill that brat of hers, and vowed she wouldn’t fail me again. She will find Einmyria.”
“She didn’t fail the first time. Celestia’s guardian stopped her. My other grandmother.”
“Frigg,” she spat.
“She didn’t even send her handmaiden to do her bidding. She went personally to help Celestia over and over again, and made sure your plans didn’t work. You tried to destroy my family and failed. Jessica, the girl you used, is a sweet girl who couldn’t go through with the deception. She will be living with us too. Eljudnir is going to be one happy place. My mother cannot wait to have her grandchildren running around the place.”
Granny’s eyes turned to slits and her arms scaled. She roared and hit the wall. For one brief second, I thought it would give way. She bared her teeth.
“I still have my ace. Your little Witch.”
“No, you don’t. Celestia’s place is by my side, where she belongs.”
She sneered. “Not for long.”
“You will never touch her.”
“I already did.”
Was she talking about marking her? That bond was already broken by her love and bond to me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She walked back to her bed. “Soon, you will open these doors for me and I’ll walk out of here a free woman.”
“Whatever Marguerite is planning will not work.”
“Yet it’s already started.” She rolled on her back and stared at the ceiling. “Soon, son of Baldur.”
Celestia! I turned and raced toward the hallway.
“You’re too late,” she yelled, her maniacal laughter following me. I went into super speed. The guards saw me coming and opened the door. I shifted the second I cleared the door.
~*~
CELESTIA
“Are you sure this is where it started?” Ranger asked, looking around the school parking lot.
“Yes. That’s what I saw in my vision. Students leaving the gym for lockers in the portable showers then screams and Hayden yelling my name.” I’d gone to find Ranger and Daiku when I couldn’t find Eirik after I came out of the trance. The goddess had insisted once I told her my friend needed my help.
The flutter of wings came from the sky, and I looked up as the crows swooped down, their excited caws deafening. I still couldn’t tell Merle apart from the other birds. Could she see me while I had invisibility runes? I got rid of them, but made sure the cloak covered my arm.
“Merle!” One crow swooped down from the tree and landed on my arm. I stroked her feathers. “Did you miss me?”
“You might as well get that bird a cage and make her your official pet,” Daiku said, studying the crows.
“Nope. I’m afraid she’s their leader and the rest might camp outside our door. She’s smart, but she’s still a wild bird.” There was a weird stench in the air. “Eww, what’s that smell?”
The two Grimnirs exchanged glances.
“Smells like a Draugr,” Ranger whispered. “Damn. I hate those creatures.”
Hayden had said Draugar were dead bodies possessed by evil souls. I couldn’t believe I was about to see one. I was scared, but at the same time curious. Having the two Grimnirs was also reassuring.
“Do they move in packs?”
“No, and rarely during the day,” Ranger said. Daiku was already headed to the trees lining the parking lot. “You didn’t see it in your vision?”
“No, just students screaming and getting hurt, and Hayden yelling my name.”
“We’ll find it.” He left to join Daiku. The monster
didn’t stand a chance against those two. The bell rang, signaling the end of the next class.
“Go, Merle.”
The crow took off just as the back door opened and students from my gym class raced toward the portable showers. I stayed by the wall while Daiku and Ranger continued toward the trees, their body language different. Some of the students saw me and frowned. I had missed half of the classes on Wednesday, yesterday, and most of today. I wonder if Ethan and Phil had asked Hayden where I was.
I ignored them and waited. Weird sounds came from the trees, but I couldn’t see what the Grimnirs were doing. Hayden stepped out of the building and saw me.
“Hey, stranger.” We hugged then she leaned back. “What are you doing here?”
“I had a premonition. A Draugr is coming.”
“Here?” Screams came from inside the trailer, answering her.
“It’s here. Have you ever seen one?”
“No, but Mother has.” A portal opened behind me and Daiku appeared, carrying a huge scythe. He was still invisible, so the student running out of the trailer and past us didn’t see him.
“Open a portal and get as many of the students to safety as possible,” he ordered. “We have more than one.”
I heard him, but my focus was on the two things moving between parked cars at unnatural speed. They looked human, but had black eyes, stringy, wet hair, the tattered clothes barely covering their slimy skin, and stinky. I covered my nose.
Daiku swung his scythe to chop off the first one’s head, but it disappeared into the ground, it’s movement so fast it blurred.
“What the…? How do they do that?”
“Draugar do that,” Hayden said. “They use clay if they don’t have flesh. They bite or smother, can disappear into the ground or come up from right underneath you.”
Yikes. I looked around, starting to panic.
“They move fast and have superhuman strength, so don’t let them get you. Did he say to open a portal?”
“Yes.”
“To where?”
“Somewhere private, or a hospital,” I added as a guy knocked a girl and she went sliding on the parking lot. When she struggled to her knees, her chin was bleeding.
“Mom will kill me, but… damn, that is gruesome.” Her eyes were on Ranger, he was fighting two a few feet away. He kicked one Draugr and aimed his scythe at another. Light shot from the blade, and the flesh and the skeleton fell to the ground, leaving behind something dark and shadowy. It looked just like the soul from Cora’s phone. It tried to run, but Ranger was faster. The light from the scythe hit it. It appeared to expand then it exploded into tiny dark smoky particles.
“Okay, I’ve opened a portal to a bathroom at the hospital and locked the door. Let’s do this,” Hayden said, she engaged her speed runes, and took off. She became a blur.
I tested my runes. I couldn’t move as fast as Hayden and my legs weren’t used to moving at super speed. I tripped on my first attempt. After a few trial and errors, I settled for going at twice as fast as the students. I managed to get some through the portal. They stared at me in shock. Hayden was lucky. I doubted they even saw her. A few times, she skirted around me like the damn Flash. I couldn’t wait to move like that.
I added strength runes to help a girl from the ground when I looked up and caught the Grimnirs fighting several Draugar. What happened to they didn’t move in packs or during the day? Three more rushed forward from the bayou.
“Damn, scavengers,” Ranger snarled. The words barely left his mouth when crows descended on the three Draugar. No wonder they’d been cawing like crazy earlier. They’d probably sensed the creatures.
“Go, Merle!” I yelled.
“Oh crap! The crows are possessed too,” the girl moaned.
“No, they’re not. This way.” I led her through the portal. There were already a dozen students in the bathroom, confusion and amazement on their faces. “Do not open the door,” I warned them. I hoped they didn’t figure out they were in a hospital. “All the injured will be taken to the ER at the same time.” They nodded.
“Celestia!” Hayden yelled and I whipped around.
A pandemonium had erupted as students poured into the parking lot screaming. The Draugar were inside the school. Some students fell and more tripped over them, only to be kicked and stepped on by the others. A new kind of terror followed as students realized they weren’t safe outside either. I managed to pick up speed and helped some of them, focusing on the injured ones struggling to get up.
Engines coughed to life and horns blared, as those with cars tried to leave the parking lot at the same time. Every time I left the portal, drivers were screaming at each other while their friends continued to pile in the back seats like sardines. Some with four-wheel drives cut across the lawn and bounced on the curb, people falling out of the backseats or off the jammed bed of their pick up trucks.
Daiku opened a portal into the school. I could see students and teachers running in the hallway. The portal closed and minutes later, two Draugar staggered out of the building. One had an arm missing, black goo pouring from its torn shoulder. They didn’t seem concerned with the students even though they knocked them out of the way.
They looked around as though searching for someone, until their eyes fell on me. I was helping a girl with a cut on her temple and a ripped shirt. She started to scream. Ranger rushed forward to face them as more Draugar left the school building. There were too many. There was no way the two Grimnirs and a murder of crows could defeat them. We needed Eirik.
“You said you were going to help me,” the girl by my side wailed. “There’s nowhere to go.”
“Yes, there is.” I pushed her through the portal when Ranger roared and I looked back. A Draugar had him in a headlock, teeth bared as though it wanted to bite him. Another, partially out of the ground had his arms wrapped around Ranger’s legs. Daiku was still in the building and couldn’t help him. Going by instinct, I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled like a dockworker.
“Merle!”
The crow left the group keeping a few Draugar busy by the trees and flew toward me. I pointed at the struggling Grimnir.
“Attack.”
She cawed repeatedly, calling the other crows. In seconds, part of her family converged on Ranger’s attackers. I focused on the head of the one slithering into the ground, and twisted. His neck snapped and I threw it over the cars. Hayden grabbed me and pushed me through the portal.
“Stay in there and calm them down,” Hayden snarled. “I can’t stand hysterical Mortals.” She went to help Ranger. I had no idea she could punch and kick like that.
This time, I didn’t disobey her. There were too many, and more kept coming out of the bayou. I used my telekinesis from the portal entrance while Hayden joined the Grimnirs. It was impossible to kill the souls possessing the bodies. They disappeared through the ground to escape being attacked, leaving behind the bones and piles of goop, while some slithered out of the ground to take over the bones and the mud. Someone powerful was controlling them.
I ignored the students whining and crying behind me, and searched for a thread of energy linking the Draugar to the person controlling them while doing what I could to help. If I found the person, I could break the link to the souls. Students still hid in the trailer and petrified faces stared out of the second floor windows of the school buildings. I found a familiar thread and followed it. Whispers reached me from behind.
“She’s an Immortal,” a student said.
“She’s freakishly strong. She carried the two of us at the same time.”
“But Immortals are not allowed in our school,” another said.
“What if the monsters are here because of her?”
They were messing with my concentration and pissing me off. I whipped around. “Shut up! Or I swear I’ll throw you out there to the Draugar. You’re in here because of Hayden, so show some freaking gratitude.” They clammed up.
“I broke my ankle,” a girl
whispered.
Before I could respond, Hayden appeared with Ethan and Phil. I stepped aside to let them enter. I continued to search for an energy link.
I found the energy. Yes! I pushed back and a bellow rippled through the air. Everyone froze. Even the Draugar stopped. I grinned. My man had arrived. I didn’t even care that I’d lost the energy.
I looked up, expecting him to swoop in from above, but he was only in partial shift when the portal finished forming and he stormed into the parking lot, his eyes slitted in rage, his wings out, and Gunnlögi in his scaled hand. I’d never seen his wings out like that. He looked glorious. It didn’t help that he had his flight suit on. He really looked like a god. Instead of just his glowing runes, he had the black ones, which contrasted sharply against his golden scales. More of them appeared as he tore through the Draugar nearest to him.
“Celestia!” he roared.
“Here.” I waved, so relieved I laughed. “I’m okay.”
He whipped Gunnlögi above his head while running and let it go. At first, I thought the mace was coming toward me, but then I saw the two Draugar creeping closer to where I stood just outside the portal. The mace took them down. I launched myself into Eirik arms, my arms wrapping around him like tentacles. I squeezed him hard, relief coursing through me. His wings formed a canopy around us.
“I’m okay,” I reassured him.
He leaned back and searched my face. “You sure? They didn’t hurt you?”
“No. Daiku, Ranger, and the crows protected us.”
“Then stay out of the way while I finish this.” Then he was gone.
He stood right in the middle of the parking lot. Daiku and Ranger stopped fighting. I had a feeling they knew what he was about to do. Eirik turned slowly and stared down the Draugar. Their bodies started to disintegrate, leaving behind bones and skulls as the souls that had possessed them drifted toward Eirik, drawn to the black runes on his body. It was an awe-inspiring sight.
Gods Page 36
