Then again, maybe it was the sight of Connor standing there that made me able to push back the haze. Curiosity and cat killing and all that.
My dad had told me Connor was alive, but I hadn’t expected to find him like this. No, he’d been some geeky kid who had helped me around my classes in high school before being sucked into Ancient Egypt. He’d been the epitome of normal, and now, well, he probably had enough power to knock down Kevin Nash with one finger and take the WCW championship with ease. Yeah, I saw that.
“I flew.” He took a step toward me, and as he did, he turned toward the sky and gestured with one hand. “Or did you miss my sweet entrance?” He shrugged. “I thought about doing a superhero landing and cracking the ground. You know, send power flying in every direction, but I also didn’t want you to blast me.” He quirked a smile at me. “It wasn’t super fun when your dad did it before.” He nodded at the still glowing runes filling the street behind me. “And the runes didn’t glow half as brightly then.”
So my dad had blasted him with the whole force of Lot… and he’d survived? That wasn’t good. It meant he was strong in a way I couldn’t fathom, and well, I didn’t like things that strong. I tended to kill them. As I had that thought, I realized I was scouring him for weaknesses and vulnerabilities so I could strike him down. Only, this was Connor. He wouldn’t hurt me, right? I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t willing to take that chance. Not after everything I’d been through.
“Your entrance was fine,” I replied evenly as he closed the distance between us and reached out with one hand. He was covered from head to toe in familiar seeming decorative medieval armor, and his hand was no exception.
“Admit it. You’re impressed,” he said, touching my face with one gauntlet-covered hand. A spark of cold leapt from his fingers as he touched me. Actually, cold wasn’t quite the right way to describe it. It was more like a void trying to suck in everything and anything. Heat merely disappeared into him.
“I was impressed when you opened a car door for me,” I replied, taking a step away from him so he wasn’t touching me. A pained look flashed across his face for an instant, but instead of turning it on me, he looked at his hand for a long time before dropping it to his side. “You don’t need to try to act cool.”
“Sorry,” he said, heaving out the word in a breath that seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. “I’m still not used to this whole destroyer thing.”
“Destroyer thing?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow at him, and as I did, I realized I still had a white-knuckled grip on Isis.
Power flitted across the Egyptian hieroglyphs etched into the snow white blade, casting sapphire sparks into the air. I wasn’t sure if he’d noticed my display of power, but if he had, he didn’t say anything. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d unconsciously charged the weapon with nervous energy, and that was a bit scary. I should have had better control, and while I wanted to blame it on a myriad of reasons, I knew it was pointless.
He touched his chest with his hand. “When Thes got me, well…” he shook his head before he could say more. “It’s probably better if you don’t know more. Every time I’ve tried to explain it to your people, they just try to kill me.” A sad smile played across his lips as he looked off into the distance like he was remembering something. “I don’t want you to try to kill me. Especially since I’m on your side.”
I didn’t quite believe what he’d said was actually true because even though he didn’t say anything else, it really seemed like he had left off the words “for now.”
“Okay…” I said, unsure of what to make of that. Everything about him felt wrong in a way that made me think we’d one day be enemies, but at the same time, this was Connor. He’d been about as dangerous as a teddy bear. “I’m going to allow it this one time.” I made myself loosen my hold on Isis. “Why are you here, and why are you dressed like Arthas from World of Warcraft?”
“Because there must always be a Lich King.” He smiled at me. “I’m surprised you noticed.”
“You’ll come to find I’m keenly aware of all things,” I said, wondering where he’d found time to make such an elaborate costume.
“Yeah, well, you’re one of the only people who noticed.” He smirked. “Anyway, this is going to sound crazy, but Thes knows where your other sword is.” He gestured toward Isis with one hand. “He sent me to help you get it because you’ll need it if we’re going to help stop Ragnarok.”
“Assuming I believe that, why didn’t Thes come himself?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow at Connor. This seemed crazy and not in a good way. I remembered Thes, and as far as werewolves went, well, he’d been reasonably formidable. Not only that, but he’d been a genuinely good guy. He was one of those Captain America types. The kind who did the right thing even when no one else would, and while part of me hated him for it, most of me was secretly jealous.
I wasn’t sure what had happened to him after he’d ventured into Ancient Egypt to recover Connor’s soul, but if it was anything like what happened to Connor, I was in for a world of surprise.
“That’s the part you have trouble with?” Connor asked, and his dopey grin returned as he shook his head. “Seriously?”
“Uh, yeah?” I replied, putting one fist on my hip. “I’m a member of a race of people trained from birth to fight monsters.” I let out a slow breath as I gestured at him with my magic katana. “So you’re going to say something like ‘we’re going to go rescue Set from a horde of monsters’ and I’m going to go with you and do that, but I’d like to know what Thes is doing right about now, funk soul brother.”
“Well, yeah, okay.” He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “Thes is leading the charge toward Yggdrasil. He’s trying to displace Loki’s forces so we can break inside.” Connor smiled conciliatorily, like he felt guilty for bringing it up. I mean, okay, what he’d said sounded odd, but I was reasonably familiar with Ragnarok because I was a monster hunter. It seemed logical a battle at Yggdrasil would happen, but I still wasn’t sure why Thes was there leading the charge. Was there truly no one else or was he just that strong now? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to that question.
If he was strong enough to have pulled the leadership position, it meant he’d really changed, and changes like that seldom happened for the positive. Thes was one of the good ones, and the idea of forcing him into that position, of handing him that much power, scared me on his behalf. On the other hand, if he was just as strong as before, did that mean no one else was able to take up the charge? If that was the case, I might be walking into an absolute slaughter, and I’d lost way too many friends, allies, and family to deal with that.
“You know what,” I said, waving off his story with one hand because if I tried to understand it now, I was going to give myself an aneurysm. It was probably better to take things one step at a time, and first thing was first, I needed to find my sword. “Let’s just go get my sword.”
“Just like that?” he asked, shock melting across his face as he looked me over. Evidently, he’d expected more resistance from me, and while I understood why, it was immediately obvious he didn’t understand me. I was Lillim Callina, and I had one method of solving problems. Punching it in the face until it stopped being one. Killing monsters and rescuing my sword was firmly within my wheelhouse.
“Yeah,” I replied, taking a step toward him and offering my free hand to him. “Besides, I’ve always wanted to fly. Fancy playing Superman, Connor?”
“Don’t you even want to know where we’re going?” he said, reaching out and taking my offered hand. Even through his weird armor, the touch of the void emanating from him danced across my flesh. I bit down the urge to pull my hand away. I knew Connor wouldn’t appreciate it, especially after I’d offered to be his Lois Lane. No, it was time to put my big girl pants on and let him carry me, even if touching him was like having my insides smothered in darkness.
“Is it after a horde of monsters?” I asked, calling upon Isis’s power in an ef
fort to shield me from whatever Connor had become. As the goddess’s power flowed through me, extinguishing his void touch, I shot him a smile.
“Yes, but not just any monsters.” He pulled me close, and before I realized what had happened, he had one arm wrapped around my waist. As his chest pressed against my back, a strange sense of familiarity settled over me, but I couldn’t understand why. “We’re going after Hrym. The captain of Naglfar.”
I didn’t respond because that probably would have pleased him, but I should have. I should have said to leave me here. I should have turned my happy ass around and marched straight back to my bed because clearly I’d gotten up on the wrong side of it. I didn’t do that, but I wanted to do it. A lot.
Naglfar was the ship loaded with the worst of the worst of the Norse’s warriors and was destined to bring those bastards to earth’s shores to wage war upon the gods. And Hrym? Well, he was a frost giant of untold power and the captain of said death ship.
Fighting him wouldn’t be easy. Hell, I wasn’t sure it was possible. Still, I’d been acting brave, and I couldn’t let my armor of bravado fail now. If it did, I might not take a step out of Lot, and at the moment, I had to move forward, no matter the consequences. After all, that’s what my mother would have done, and after everything, I was going to make her proud.
“So what you’re saying is my sword is being held hostage by a giant on a ship full of zombies,” I said and was somewhat surprised at how confident I sounded. “I thought this was going to be tough. I’ll have my sword back before lunch.”
5
“Is that all?” I asked even though the sight of the massive ship Naglfar scared the bejeezus out of me. I knew it was supposedly made from the nail clippings of the dead, but looking at it, I didn’t see how that was possible.
The ship was so massive, I almost mistook it for an island upon first sight. I mean, I’d seen pictures of aircraft carriers and stuff before, but this boat could eat a fleet of aircraft carriers for breakfast and still be hungry. Vikings more numerous than the sands of the Sahara sat upon the deck in rows as they heaved massive oars into the churning ocean waves. From here, they weren’t much bigger than ants, but I could tell they were decked out in everything from glinting iron armor to furs and pelts.
Fighting through that many people didn’t seem possible. Even if they were only as strong and fast as a grade school cheerleading team, it wouldn’t take long for them to overwhelm us beneath the sheer weight of their bodies. Unfortunately, these weren’t cheerleaders. They were undead Vikings, and while I wasn’t sure what the extent of Connor’s magical abilities were, if he was anything like me, a well-placed axe to the face would kill him just as quickly as it’d kill me. I wanted to avoid such an outcome if possible, only I wasn’t sure how.
Sure the smart play was to turn around and run for the hills, but I needed to get my sword back. I could feel it pulsing like a heart below the decks of Naglfar. I couldn’t just abandon the weapon, not if I wanted to have any hope of stopping Ragnarok.
Thankfully, we had time to plan an attack because we were largely obscured by the gray storm clouds, which was good because from the look of the catapults mounted to the deck of the zombie ship Naglfar, it would be hard to avoid that many incoming objects.
“I knew you could handle it. This ain’t no thang.” Connor smirked at me. “I’m going to do my awesome superhero landing in the middle of the ship and fling them across the deck with a surge of pure awesomeness, and while they’re still stunned, you challenge Hrym to single combat.” He glanced at me in a way that suggested he was one hundred percent serious. Only, he couldn’t be serious because what he’d said was absolutely insane.
“Um, what?” I asked, searching the deck for any sign of the giant. He was nowhere to be found, or if he was, well, I couldn’t pick him out of the crowd. I was assuming he was supposed to be huge though. Maybe he wasn’t? Either way, landing in the middle of the boat sounded like suicide. It would take them less than a second to swarm us, and I did not want to be swarmed by a billion guys with muscles the size of my head.
“The Vikings have this thing about single combat.” He shrugged which was altogether disconcerting since he was holding me around the waist about a thousand feet in the air above a ship filled with people who’d slit my throat for fun.
“You want me to fight an ice giant in single combat?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him because he had to be out of his frigging mind. “I thought you’d want me to do something tough.”
“Well, if you feel like it’s beneath you, I could take a crack at it?” The hint of eagerness in his voice made my stomach churn at the thought. I wasn’t sure why, but he wanted to fight the frost giant. It made me wonder how powerful he was, especially since he didn’t have a magical weapon of any kind. What would he do? Pummel Hrym to death with his fists? That hardly seemed practical.
“No,” I said, shaking my head for effect. “I’ve got this one. After all, I’m the trained warrior and you’re...” I clamped my mouth shut, cutting off the hurtful response about to spill from my lips.
“I’m what?” He wasn’t looking at me. Rather his gaze was locked on the ship down below. Holy crap, he was expecting us to go down there so I could challenge Hrym to a duel. I was so going to die.
“You’re not going to retrieve my sword. It’s mine. I’ll get it back.” I smiled at him, relieved I’d come up with an excuse to keep him from unleashing whatever darkness was pent up inside him. I mean, okay, I felt that way anyway, and he didn’t have to know I’d been about to call him an untrained computer jockey. For all I knew, he’d been fighting monsters for the last several months.
“Fair enough,” he replied, swinging in a wild arc around the ship. Wind whipped through my lavender hair in a way that made me glad I hadn’t bothered to try to style it. If I had, it’d have just been ruined. Besides, it wasn’t like I did my hair, anyway. “When we get down there, make sure you challenge Hrym to Hólmgang, and not Einvigi. It’s important.”
I thought about asking why since I was unfamiliar with both terms but decided against it. If I couldn’t trust the guy flying me across miles of ocean, I wouldn’t be living in this world much longer anyway. “What makes you think the giant will accept?”
“He’s Norse. They’re all about honor. Vidar, one of the Nordic warrior gods who has been helping us stop Ragnarok has assured me no Viking worth his salt will back down from a challenge to single combat. If Hrym does, he risks his men not following him. If you haven’t heard, they’re not the most trusting sort to begin with.” Connor smirked in a way that almost made me think he had everything all figured out, and maybe he did, but I hadn’t lived this long by letting other people push me around like a pawn. At least not willingly, anyway.
“Naglfar is filled with oath-breakers and worse. Why would they care about honor?” I asked, but instead of responding, Connor tore into a dive straight toward the center of the ship that made my heart leap into my toes.
“Come on, Lillim, what, do you want to live forever?” The words slipped from his lips right before he crashed into the center of the bow, splintering the deck of the massive ship and sending a shockwave of power rippling outward. Black smoke streamed off of him as a tsunami of energy threw everyone around us for several dozen feet in every direction.
His power rubbed up against me as he set me lightly on the shattered deck. It felt like oil and emptiness, and as it washed over me, it sucked at my aura. Connor took two steps away from me and planted his fists on his hips, and that small distance between me and him helped me to ignore the devastating thrum of his power. Somewhere I’d remembered hearing about something like this, but as I tried to reach for the memory, it dissolved under the boom of Connor’s voice.
“Hello, Vikings,” he called as the sails of the ship dissolved into streams of black smoke. “I come in peace.”
Men and women who looked like they’d woken up on the wrong side of the bed for a millennia or two fixed us with g
lares that would have made lesser people run and hide. I didn’t do that because the idea of hiding in a zombie ship made of human fingernails didn’t strike me as particularly smart or hygienic. Not that there was any kind of smart to this plan, whatsoever.
Instead, I readied my katana and hoped Connor’s plan was way less stupid than it seemed right now. Because right now, it seemed really freaking stupid.
“Hrym! It is I, Lillim Callina of the Dioscuri,” I called, trying my best to project my voice outward. I even kept the tremor out of it. Nice. “You have taken something that is rightfully mine, and I have come to challenge you for it.”
The ship beneath me groaned and listed as something immense below decks moved. The sound of booming footsteps filled my ears as a voice so deep it would have shaken a stadium echoed up from the lower levels of Naglfar.
“What is it you seek from me, Lillim Callina of the Dioscuri?” Another creak grown caused the ship to list the other way, and I struggled to maintain my balance. “If it is death, I shall happily oblige.” Laughter filled the words. “Destroy them.”
As the crowd surged toward us, I glanced nervously at Connor. The look of hunger on his face nearly made me forget where I was. He wanted them to attack us, to give him an excuse to lay waste to those before him. I almost let him do it, except, I was standing next to him, and even if he was going to wade through them like Ares himself, I was pretty sure this many Vikings would ruin our day really goddamned fast.
“Hrym, I challenge you to Einvigi!” I called, trying to remember what Connor had said, and as the word left my lips, time seemed to stop. The Viking charge halted before it began, and Connor turned toward me, fear swimming through his eyes.
Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) Page 3
