“Oh, come on,” London said, “your sun god here is always joking around, but suddenly it’s Armageddon because I play one prank?”
“This is why I don’t like trickster gods,” Thor mumbled.
“Funny,” London cooed, “I seem to remember your legends claiming you were awfully close to a trickster god.”
“Yes,” Thor boomed, and even Cameron stepped back from him, “and he grew more and more wicked until he orchestrated Baldr’s murder.”
“Well, I’m not Loki,” London retorted. “And it was just a joke.”
“Would you just shut up!” Badb yelled. “I only care about finding Nemain.”
London faced the Irish war goddess, and her hands fell from her hips. She tilted her head and her eyes shifted toward the mountains in the distance. “I can sense her,” London said.
“You joke about Nemain and I’ll kill you right now,” Badb warned. Her sword appeared in her hand and Selena gasped. Cameron wasn’t sure what to do, but he didn’t think the young goddess deserved to die because of an inherent nature she most likely couldn’t even control.
But London shook her head slowly and didn’t seem terribly concerned about Badb’s threat. “No, I really can. Ask your friends.”
“I can, too,” Selena whispered.
Badb’s murderous expression quickly dissolved as her lips spread into a wide grin. Cameron exchanged a What the hell is wrong with the old crow now? look with Selena who just shrugged.
“If you can sense Nemain then she got away from Loviatar,” Badb explained. “We’ll find her and help her track down the goddess who thought she could take on one of the Mórrígna. Just wait until she finds herself facing off against two.”
“Sounds like we can go home then,” Cameron said.
“Nice try, Sun God,” Badb retorted. “I need Selena in case Nemain is hurt, and we both know you won’t leave her side.”
“Sounds like we can go home then,” Thor told London.
London nodded and narrowed her eyes at the mountains in the distance. “Beats sticking around with you and getting killed because none of you can take a joke. But if I do leave, Jasper will probably give me some god-awful assignment like writing reports or filing reimbursement forms with the feds.”
“Wait,” Cameron interrupted. “Which god?”
London blinked at him, and Thor sighed. “Just don’t do it again, Little Goddess. And you get used to him. Eventually.”
“That name had better not catch on,” London mumbled.
Thor and London began to follow Badb across the dry, cracked terrain so Cameron shouted after her, “I still want to know which god!”
“Give up, love,” Selena teased. “She hasn’t been broken in yet and Nemain may actually be hurt and need me. Harass Little Goddess later.”
“I heard that!” London called back to them.
“Not harassing,” Cameron pointed out. “Just asking questions to seek clarification since we wouldn’t want to invoke the wrong god.”
Selena nodded in complete smartass agreement. “We have made that mistake a lot.”
Cameron brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Only you appreciate my concern for ensuring the proper gods are always invoked.”
“Knock it off!” Badb yelled over her shoulder. “And hurry up!”
“Can I smite her yet?” Cameron begged.
Selena snickered and tugged on his hand to get him moving toward the group of gods who were walking toward the shimmering mountains that lined the horizon. After walking a few hundred feet in silence, Cameron finally sighed and planted his feet. “This is ridiculous. Just tell me exactly where Nemain is and I’ll teleport us all there.”
“Keep walking,” Badb ordered without turning around.
Cameron glared at her back and called out, “Make me, crow!”
“Selena!” Badb answered again.
“That’s still cheating!” Cameron yelled back.
“Keep walking,” Selena ordered, too.
Cameron sighed loudly but started walking again. He pouted for almost a mile before Selena finally pulled his hand free from his stubborn, defiant stance and placed soft kisses on his palm. After that, Cameron couldn’t pout anymore. He could never pout or be angry when Selena touched him like that.
Actually, it made him want to abandon the rest of these gods in whatever god-forsaken desert they were in and go back to their room in the Dagda’s palace. Selena knew exactly what he was thinking and offered him a sly smile, promising, We can’t go back to your apartment in Baton Rouge, but we’ll get our own hotel room tonight. No more boarding with half the supernatural world.
If this is half the supernatural world, we’re in serious trouble, Cameron joked.
Selena shrugged. Seems like we’ve killed half already so this should be all that’s left.
Cameron snorted and Thor shot him a strange look so Cameron gave him a funny look, too.
“You two are talking in your heads again, aren’t you?” London asked him.
“Yes,” Badb answered for them. “And you don’t want to know about what.”
“Stay out of my head, old woman,” Cameron demanded.
Badb finally slowed down and tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder as she glanced at him. She grinned and said, “I was actually just joking. But you tend to fixate on one of three things so I stood a pretty good chance of guessing correctly.”
Selena snickered and asked, “What are the other two?”
“Hey!” Cameron protested but Badb cut him off.
“Sandwiches and football.”
“That is not… entirely accurate,” Cameron mumbled.
Thor sighed and ran a large hand over his face. “Is it too late to go back to Falias?”
“Yep,” Badb told him. “Nobody’s going anywhere until we get my sister back and find Loviatar.”
“Then you might want to keep it down,” Nemain hissed. “You’ve made enough noise to alert every spirit in Findias.”
The gods stopped walking and blinked at Nemain. Cameron grunted at her and said, “You could have shown up two miles ago and saved me the trouble of hiking through a desert.”
“Glad to see you, too, Sun God,” Nemain told him.
Badb threw her arms around her sister and cried, “What happened?”
“When Loviatar took me?” Nemain asked. “I was too surprised by the three humans with the plague she threw by my feet to defend myself. One second I’m standing there thinking, ‘Holy shit, I haven’t seen the plague in five hundred years,’ and the next, I’m in a forest in Finland.”
“How’d you get away from her?” London asked.
Nemain let go of her sister and arched an eyebrow at the young goddess. “You really think one of the Mórrígna can’t handle a goddess like Loviatar?”
“Wow, how was Ireland ever big enough for this much ego?” London muttered.
Thor laughed so Badb threatened to slap him. He dared her to do it, and Cameron urged her to try, which made Selena fuss at them all.
“Where is Loviatar now?” Selena asked Nemain. “We just healed three people with the plague. We’re really terrible Guardians if we can’t even stop one minor deity from spreading a disease that few people contract anymore.”
Cameron nodded, but he wasn’t quite sure if he was just being a smartass or not. “This is why we need to find the Stone and its heir.”
“Maybe the Norse should become the new Guardians of Earth,” Thor said.
“Tara,” Cameron corrected.
“That was in Ireland,” Thor argued. “I’m proposing we become the guardians of the entire world.”
“Keep up, Jötunn,” Cameron retorted. “We’re using Tara to refer to the entire world.”
“That’s just stupid,” Thor insisted. “At the very least, it should be terra.”
“Now that’s just stupid,” Cameron snapped. “None of us are Roman.”
“How did this group ever find the Sword and Bridget?” London
asked no one in particular.
No one in particular, who more often went by the name of Badb, told her, “I’ve been wondering the same thing for a week now.”
Thor laughed again so Cameron hit him.
London groaned and muttered, “I’m going after Loviatar myself. If I get killed, someone tell Jasper it was worth it.”
“Damn,” Cameron sighed. “That’s the second person I’ve driven to suicidal confrontations.”
Selena nodded. “At least Doug survived.”
“I miss Doug,” Cameron said. “Even if he is Norse.”
Thor crossed his arms and snapped, “That’s what this group needs, obviously. More Norse.”
“What this group needs,” London complained, “is to shut up and figure out where Loviatar is hiding now.”
“You mean like you were helping to find both Nemain and Loviatar when you took off and made us all think we were about to be attacked by another giant serpent?” Badb asked.
Nemain ignored them both and squinted at Thor. “Get more Norse down here, and I’m going home.”
“Good,” Badb responded. “I’ll take your place. I can handle a few Norse if they turn on us.”
“Hey,” Selena snapped. “Thor is our friend. Leave him alone.”
“Thank you, Selena,” Thor told her.
“Um…” Cameron stammered, looking around the vast wasteland they were still standing in. “Anyone know where London went?”
“Goddamn it,” Badb muttered.
“Which god?” Cameron asked. “London? Or Loviatar?”
“Not now!” Badb exclaimed. “We need to find her before she gets herself killed!”
“You were ready to kill her half an hour ago!” Cameron exclaimed back.
“Wait,” Nemain interrupted. “What the hell has been going on here while I was trying to get away from a crazy Finnish goddess?”
Badb waved her off. “I suspect Loviatar has returned to Finland already,” she said. “So we should probably look there.”
“I could just summon London,” Cameron added. “We don’t have to go to Finland.”
“If we want Loviatar dead, yes, we do,” Nemain argued.
“Fine,” Cameron sighed. He pulled the zipper back up on his coat and flinched as the frozen air bit into his bare face.
Nemain shivered and scowled at him. “Can you warn people before transporting them halfway across the world?”
“You’re the one who just said we have to come here!” Cameron protested.
“I’m going to join London,” Thor mumbled.
Nemain shook her head and pointed westward. “We can all sense her. She’s fine. Loviatar didn’t bring me to her… lair… but I think it’s close. There’s something over there she’s trying to hide.”
“Selena, you still have that list of deal breakers, right?” Cameron asked.
“Are you just checking or adding pervy, kidnapping, disease-inflicting goddesses to it?” Selena answered.
“Both.”
“Good call.”
“Badb, if you find my reindeer, make sure it has a shiny red nose,” Cameron told her.
Badb gestured toward the track marks in the snow and smiled at him. “What do you think left these prints? I’ll happily bring you several to live in the palace with you.”
“Deal breaker,” Selena warned.
“You have to admit,” Cameron said as the group of gods began walking toward the west, “a reindeer raid would be so much cooler than a cattle raid.”
Badb glanced at him then tugged nervously at the cuff of her coat. “There haven’t been any cattle raids. Not since the Battle…”
Cameron looked at Thor to see if mentioning the Battle of the Gods and those they’d lost bothered him. The giant god bit his lip and kept his pale gray eyes focused on the invisible lair in the distance. He realized he’d never even asked the thunder god about the death of his father – a god Cameron had killed after he sort of murdered Selena.
He cleared his throat and also kept his eyes on the horizon. “Uh… guess you lost some people you care about, too.”
In his peripheral vision, he noticed Thor shrug then heard him clear his throat as well. “It’s ok, Cameron. We don’t have to pretend like the Battle never happened. Or that my father didn’t force all of you to defend yourselves and the people you love.”
Cameron took Selena’s hand and pulled her a little closer. He already knew he’d never be able to erase the memory of her death. He’d witnessed it before.
Thor must have seen him pull the love of his lives just a little bit closer because Cameron caught the thunder god smiling at them. He just shrugged again and said, “I always liked Selena, even when she was supposed to be my enemy. You, however, had to grow on me.”
Cameron snickered and told him, “I have to grow on everyone.”
“Completely true,” Badb interjected. “Some take longer than others. A lot longer.”
“You never had to grow on me,” Selena assured him.
Nemain waved a hand in her direction. “Midir wasn’t as… annoying. And you couldn’t help loving Cameron because of who you are.”
“Were,” Cameron corrected.
“Close enough,” Nemain said.
“And Cameron’s not annoying,” Selena snapped. “If it weren’t for him, you’d all be dead so you should show a little gratitude.”
Um… Selena? You know they’re just joking, right?
Selena blinked at the clearing in the forest but didn’t answer him. Badb and Nemain gave her strange looks but didn’t answer her either.
The bantering among the gods stopped, and they trudged through the snow in silence until Nemain caught her breath and pointed to a building in another clearing that reflected the bright sunlight so that it appeared to shine. Cameron stopped and squinted at the glowing structure then glanced uneasily at Selena.
“Is it just me or does that remind you of the glass castle?”
Selena nodded slowly. “I suppose you war gods are about to tell me we have to check it out, right?”
“Afraid so,” Nemain answered. “Because gods don’t live in glass castles. Not willingly.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Cameron asked.
“It means Loviatar is most likely not here,” Badb responded. “But for some reason, she was trying to keep Nemain away from this glass house. And I have a horrible feeling as to why.”
Thor approached the glass building slowly and lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the sun as he peered inside.
“I don’t see anything,” he said. “Perhaps it’s empty and she hasn’t imprisoned anyone yet.”
Selena peered inside as well and as her eyes trailed down to the floor, she jumped and screamed then stepped closer to Cameron who immediately put his arms around her. He followed her gaze and sucked in a quick breath. “No,” he said quietly. “I think Loviatar has been pretty damn busy, actually.”
The other gods moved closer so they could see what had frightened the Goddess of Healing, but Cameron’s attention, as always, remained fixed on one woman and the sorrow she felt over the deathly ill and bleeding gods trapped below the glass floor of Loviatar’s prison.
Chapter Eleven
The sun always seemed to shine in Findias even though the weather remained pleasantly cool. The tall red spires of Uscias’s palace reflected brilliant streaks of magenta across the sky behind them. Cameron turned around again and groaned toward Ukko and Anita’s door.
“Is this really necessary?” he asked Selena.
Selena answered him by knocking.
Cameron groaned again as he heard footsteps approaching the closed door. When it opened, Ukko groaned, too. “You’d better just be here for coffee,” he warned.
“You still drink coffee?” Cameron asked.
“I’m not dead,” Ukko responded.
“Who is it?” Anita called from the back of the house.
“The most annoying god Fate ever created,” Ukko
called back. “Oh, and Selena.”
Anita appeared through a doorway and put a hand on her hip. “Stop teasing poor Cameron,” she scolded.
Ukko rolled his eyes but stood aside to let the young gods in. “A week,” he muttered. “I got an entire week free from you.”
“Ukko,” Anita warned.
Ukko pressed his lips together and gestured toward the room Anita had just left. “Coffee?” he asked.
Selena immediately shook her head. “We need to talk to you, Ukko. Believe me: I miss Anita and would love to sit down and visit with her, but I’m afraid we don’t have a lot of time.”
“Of course you don’t,” he sighed. “How do you two manage to always get in so much trouble?”
“This isn’t our trouble,” Cameron told him. “We’re here because your entire pantheon is in serious trouble.”
“Ah,” Ukko said. “I know about Loviatar. But she’s no match for you. I don’t see what the problem is.”
“Loviatar may be fairly easy to kill if we can find her,” Cameron corrected. “I’m talking about the rest of your pantheon.”
Ukko’s forehead wrinkled in confusion and he gestured toward his table again. “All right,” he said slowly. “I’m listening. But I have a hard time believing my gods would be so stupid as to follow someone like Loviatar.”
Cameron bit his tongue so he wouldn’t retort, “But they were stupid enough to follow you.”
Instead, he sat in the chair Anita offered him and held Selena’s hand again as she sat next to him. She was still shaken by what they’d seen inside the glass prison and their inability to help the gods trapped within.
“I don’t think your gods were willing to accept her as the new head of your pantheon,” Cameron explained. “Maybe a few, but most did resist. That’s how they ended up imprisoned.”
“Imprisoned?” Ukko asked. His pale blue eyes darted between Selena and Cameron. “What did they say?”
“We couldn’t talk to them,” Selena answered quietly.
“Why not?” Ukko demanded, his confusion tinged with anger now, but Cameron didn’t think the Finnish thunder god was angry with them. Ukko was most likely beginning to suspect Loviatar had done something terrible to his gods.
Selena took a deep breath and glanced at Cameron. Their inability to free the gods trapped inside Loviatar’s prison meant she’d been unable to heal them, and she couldn’t stop thinking about the gods who would soon die if they didn’t figure out how to free them.
The Gatekeeper (The Guardians of Tara Book 1) Page 11
