Since he seemed to be in such a good mood…and she desperately needed something to drown out the sharp, slicing, juicy sounds of battle, Freddy asked him a question that had been bothering her. "Why did you wait to sell me off? I mean, your kind--"
"Our kind, daughter."
"Your kind doesn't mind marrying babies to each other, right? So why wait so long?"
Cernunnos shrugged. "I thought Abigail might be made to see reason after so many years on the run, hiding you from the Phantom Queen. I thought by now you would be old enough to understand the necessity of the arrangement." He sounded disappointed.
"Uh-huh. So why didn't you ever tell my mom what you had planned for keeping me safe?"
Cernunnos' jaw clenched, and his eyes narrowed to slits.
"You still want my mom back, don't you? That's why you never told her. You knew she'd never take you back after that." The way he'd looked at Mom back in camp returned to Freddy now, the tender way he'd held Mom and, suddenly, Freddy got it. "Even after all the stuff you pulled to get Kore, Mom's the one you really want. Isn't she?"
Cernunnos whirled and raised his arm to hit her.
She didn't flinch, not wanting to give Cernunnos the pleasure of scaring her.
One of the huntsmen ran over and bowed to the ground before the Lord of the Hunt to make his report. "My lord, our men have penetrated the building, but found the nurse's station empty."
No. Where are they? Freddy covered her face with her hands and shook her head. But she looked up as someone screamed. The scream sounded like Mom.
"Abigail." Cernunnos covered the last bit of space to the clubhouse at a dead run. He broke through one of the country club's walls to get into the building, shouldering through it like a piece of construction paper, sending plaster and dust flying through the air. Freddy threw a hand up and squinted her eyes closed in the smoky mess.
She picked her way in through the hole Cernunnos had made, ending up in a ballroom with his men at her back. Mirrored walls and gauzy curtains hung all about them, some dangling from their fixtures, half-covering spider-webbed mirrors, or languishing in the sea of broken glass.
Morrígan was there with her sisters and her men. Deg and the others huddled behind a table littered with so many arrows it resembled an old man's birthday cake.
Freddy blew her breath out through her lips in a frightened gasp at sight of her dad.
He battled ten men at once. All the dressings Mom and Deg had so carefully applied were unraveling, falling off. The bandages flapped and fluttered around him like the ragged remnants of a mummy's wrap. She winced at every move Dad made.
He would die. He was already hurt so badly…Dad couldn't survive being beaten by ten men.
Except--
Except he was. He was beating the snot out of all of his opponents. Two men clung to his arms and tried to hold Dad still while the others moved in to pummel him. The approach should have worked, but for the fact Dad had but to swing his arms and his captors went flying. She squinted and realized she wasn't imagining it--Dad was taller. Bulkier, too. Downright ripped.
Morrígan and her minions were too distracted to pay much notice to Cernunnos' arrival. Freddy would change that.
Shrugging off her bow and quiver, Freddy's hands shook as she fit the arrow to her bow. She'd never shot at a living target, but she took a breath as she fell into a perfect T-stance. The first arrow she shot into the crowd around Dad. One of the attackers fell back, his hands gripped around Freddy's arrow in his thigh.
Swallowing a sour taste in her mouth, she strung another arrow, but Cernunnos snatched the bow from her before she could fire again. He gripped her shoulders and shook her so hard her teeth rattled in her head. "Idiot child. The Hound needs not your help. He's slipping into the ríastrad."
"Ríastrad?"
"A battle frenzy." Cernunnos shook his head. "It is shame upon me that any child of mine should be so ignorant."
She jerked herself free, disgusted by his touch, disgusted by him. "We're even then--I'm ashamed to be a child of yours."
Again, he looked like he wanted to hit her, his eyes bulging, his veins throbbing. Instead, he grabbed her forearm to tug her toward Morrígan and the fighting. "Macha, my love," Cernunnos called out when he was near enough to the goddess.
Morrígan had been ogling Colin with something that looked a lot like panting lust as he slaughtered her men. The Phantom Queen glanced over at the sound of her consort's voice. Distaste settled onto her face in an ugly mask. She waved to her men and the volley of arrows pelting into the banquet table ceased.
Dad continued to rough up her men and chased them down when they tried to run. The stag-god towed Freddy along with him toward his wife. Freddy wanted to tell him to stop, but he held her arm so tight she'd lost circulation from the elbow downward. Nothing short of amputation would break that hold, and she was fond of her arm, after all.
Cernunnos smiled as he watched her dad fight, his voice slick with satisfaction as he addressed Morrígan. "Macha, the more fool you to have raised the wrath of Cúchulainn, Hound of Ulster."
Morrígan put her hands on her hips and faced Cernunnos when he stopped before her. "What do you desire, Lord of the Hunt? After you let your bastard spawn burn our camp, I thought we had nothing to say to each other."
"I take care of what is mine, Macha."
Her breath hissed out in a livid growl. "Do not call me that name. I am the Morrígan. The Phantom Queen. The most powerful War Goddess in the World."
Freddy flinched as Dad bashed two men's heads together. Cernunnos didn't even notice. He stared at Morrígan and kept his voice patient. "You are my wife, Macha, though it may shame you. We signed the marriage vows in blood. You are a goddess and our vows bind us more surely than chains."
Morrígan jabbed her blade toward Cernunnos, her eyes dark and glinting. "You betrayed me, betrayed our people for an old whore and her filthy offspring. Any allegiance I owed you is done. This is war. And war is my domain, little hunter."
"I have come to get what is mine. I told you that." He turned and stalked past Morrígan, past her sisters and her soldiers and over to the banquet table. Freddy craned around. Morrígan looked dumb-founded. Cernunnos reached the tipped over table and released Freddy's arm at last. She rubbed her bruised flesh.
Cernunnos hesitated then stretched his hand down to help Kore stand. She stared at him with naked adoration. Freddy wrinkled her nose in disgust and darted a glance at Deg. He just shook his head and looked away. Mom eased herself to her feet and stumbled into Freddy's arms. Freddy banded her arm around her mom's waist and helped her stumble toward the safety of Cernunnos' men.
Freddy heard a crash and a meaty thunk. She turned to see her dad still fighting with Morrígan's men. Freddy passed Mom off to Deg and went to Cernunnos. Shoving Kore out of the way, Freddy forced Cernunnos to face her. She pointed at her dad. "You're forgetting someone."
Cernunnos cast an idle glance at Colin. Regret flickered in the stag-god's eyes, but he shook his head. "No. The Hound is no longer my servant or my problem."
A sucker punch to the gut would have been kinder just then. Blinking at him, she suffered nothing but pity, laced with a heavy dose of disgust. "Well, fuck you. And the eagles you rode in on." She whirled on her heel and ran toward Colin. "Dad."
As she ran away, she heard Cernunnos say blankly, "Eagles?"
Chapter Thirty
The Hound was winding up now, and the sight of his viciousness and power made Polydegmon tremble within. Freddy had not noticed the changes in her father yet. Colin's muscles had gone all knotty beneath his skin. His hair stood upright, changing from ashy blond to a deep blond red spreading from the roots outward.
Freddy started toward her father, and Polydegmon grabbed her round her waist and hauled her back.
She thrashed against him. "Let go."
Colin whipped around. "Don't you touch my daughter." His eyes glittered in a face almost unrecognizable now, contorted as it was wit
h pain and anger. He doubled over, hugging his arms around himself as if they were all that held him together.
Polydegmon gulped from fear, unhappy to have attracted the fearsome Hound's attention. Freddy gaped at the Hound and clasped the arm Polydegmon had slung around her waist.
Colin shuddered and fell to his knees. Every piece and part of him trembled separately from all the rest, shaking as if they meant to rip away from his body. He reared back, his face puckering in a study of agony. Sinews swelled on his head and inflated in a course all the way to his chest. His hair stood on end in deep red spikes. Something bulged beneath his skin. He pulled himself to stand. The Hound's feet and shins had turned to the rear, his heels and calves switched to the front.
Freddy turned away and vomited violently on the ballroom floor, the mess splattering among the broken glass and other debris. Polydegmon held her hair back but remained mesmerized himself in horrid fascination as this latest spasm tore Colin to pieces and built him anew into a malformed, hideous monster. Blood gushed from the top of the man's head and stained his face in gore like war paint.
Freddy straightened. She swiped a hand over her mouth then started toward Colin. Polydegmon caught her again and held her by the arms. He pressed her rear to his front and, slowly, he walked her backward with him, away from the Hound.
The Hound's head snapped around with a crack. "I told you not to touch her." His voice boomed like rolling thunder.
Polydegmon did not hesitate. Did not think. He pushed Freddy to safety away from him, not sure the Hound would not hurt her in this state. Polydegmon sprinted headlong out of the ballroom to lead the Hound far away from Freddy.
Colin let out a bellow of rage and bounded after him, making the floor shake beneath Polydegmon's flapping sandals.
As he ran away, the Morrígan snickered behind him.
~~~
Freddy gaped at Polydegmon's retreating back and blinked when her dad gave chase, shoving aside the line of twenty of Cernunnos' men as if they were not there.
Mom rushed toward her. "Colin's going to kill your Deg."
"Dad…what just happened with Dad?"
Mom shook her. "Go after them. I'll try to keep up, but you have to stop Colin."
"Dad wouldn't hurt--"
Mom pinched her arm. "Colin wouldn't. Cúchulainn would. Your dad is all Cúchulainn right now. You have to stop him." She shoved Freddy forward. "Water will do it. Go. I'll be behind you."
"So will I." Kore jerked herself free of Cernunnos to stand with Mom.
Morrígan sauntered forward. "Oh, but I think we shall all enjoy the spectacle of young Polydegmon being rent to pieces."
Freddy wasted no time on Morrígan. She bolted from the room, arms pumping, lungs burning, stomach heaving. Her two menfolk thundered ahead of her, something breaking with a violent crash, and Freddy found her mother's terror suddenly infectious. No. No. No. She pinched her lips closed to stop herself saying it aloud.
Another crash, and a cry from ahead.
No.
She didn't know if she prayed or commanded.
She just hoped someone was listening.
~~~
"Coward. Whelp. Face me like a god." Cúchulainn roared, smashing walls in his fury as he went.
Darting through the club, turning down one white hallway after another, Polydegmon sought to lead the Hound away from Freddy and yet stay out of the Hound's grasp himself.
Every moment of this frantic chase, Polydegmon's heart hammered ever harder, panic choking him. Polydegmon seemed continually short of breath, as if he had split his air with someone and been short-changed.
He dodged down a hallway, only to have Colin come barreling through the wall to cut him off, plaster, wood chips and dust clouding the air. Polydegmon stumbled back, sliding along the wall to keep himself upright as the debris blinded him, stinging at his eyes. He backtracked but dead-ended in the club's gymnasium. Glass walls separated the exercise station from a large pool that glittered below. Dark blue water shone, the moon's reflection bathing in its depths. Trapped, Polydegmon pinched his eyes shut, and gently thunked his head against the glass in frustration.
Cúchulainn banged into the room and Polydegmon whirled to face him, his bare skin screeing against the glass in a high, piercing note. His hands shook with fear, but he drew his shoulders back, standing straight and proud as the Hound advanced with palpable menace. A large piece of equipment lay in Cúchulainn's path and he tossed the metal contraption out of his way as easily as he would a wicker chair.
I will not go quietly, and I will not die without a fight. Stirred to action by the thought, Polydegmon ran to the rack of barbells and weights, he lifted them with ease and tossed them at Cúchulainn's head, one after the other. Some the warrior batted away. One he caught and crushed, wiping the powder from his hands. He charged toward Polydegmon, and Cúchulainn's beefy hands, the muscles swollen knobs all across them, fastened around Polydegmon's throat.
Polydegmon gagged and choked. Blackness tore away pieces of his vision. Air rasped and refused to pass through his throat to his suffocating lungs. He gagged and pleaded with bulging eyes.
Cúchulainn's grin was malformed, horrifying on a face that grew more distorted and hideous by the moment. "I told you not to touch her. Die, little godling." His hands tightened, bruising, crushing. "Die now."
"Dad. No."
Polydegmon slid his eyes sideways, drank in the sight of Freddy, the last he would ever have of anything. He let himself savor the fall of rich red hair around her slim shoulders, the flash of her green eyes, the suave curve on that soft, deep mouth. No dimples, but he need not be greedy. Closing his eyes at last, Polydegmon let the Dark take him.
"No." Her voice reached him again.
The world tilted and shattered.
He fell into Darkness.
His soul landed with a splash in the depths at the End of Everything. The afterlife was cold, fluid. He still couldn't breathe. His chest burned in futility for air. Someone grabbed his collar and hauled him up. His head broke the surface and he opened his eyes. Freddy swam beside him, wet and white-faced from fear.
Not dead. The pool. He glanced around, his eyes widening in realization. Freddy had knocked both him and Colin through the huge plate glass window into the water below.
Abby and Kore waved and screamed above through the broken window. He raised his arm and waved back. The women above looked irritated, continuing to flail and shout, but he couldn't hear them over the roaring in his own ears.
The water of the pool was hot. And getting hotter. Polydegmon looked down and saw Cúchulainn in a ball at the bottom. Polydegmon met Freddy's gaze.
So hot. Bubbles broiled up from Cúchulainn's body.
"Get out of the water." Abby and Kore. They were frantic. Gesturing and screaming.
Polydegmon grabbed Freddy's arm and towed her to the side of the pool. The burning water sloshed and stung at his skin.
She squirmed at the heat, too, but fought him. "My dad's drowning."
"This water will boil soon."
"My dad--"
"Frederica, get your ass out of the water!" Abby shrilled from above.
Polydegmon seized his moment and tossed Freddy over the side and onto the concrete rim, then hoisted himself after. She started to hop in again, so he collapsed atop her, pinning her with his body. He was too tired to fight her anymore, but as far as sheer bulk went, he had the advantage. Besides, she was soft and warm beneath him.
"Get off. My dad is drowning!"
The surface of the pool bubbled and churned. The heat rolled over Polydegmon in waves. Some of the tiles cracked and fell off. Polydegmon, using the little strength left in his limbs, held her to him and rolled with her farther away from the pool. He trapped her beneath him again when she tried to rise.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. "Dad. Dad." She punched Polydegmon all about the shoulders. "You bastard. You let him die."
"Frederica." Polydegmon snapped his head toward A
bby's voice. Freddy's mother stood over him as he lay atop her daughter. Polydegmon sighed and rolled off Freddy onto his back.
Freddy staggered to her feet. A cut on her leg Polydegmon had not noticed bled sluggishly. Blood oozed in a steady stream and had pooled beneath his back along with the water from his soaked clothing and Freddy'sFreddFre. Abby opened her arms and took Freddy in. "Mom." Freddy sobbed into her shoulder.
Kore came to Polydegmon. She looked him over, head to toe and back again for a long moment, her face blank and then, then, the silly thing threw herself at him and knocked him back so hard his head bounced against the concrete, setting a ringing pain through his skull. "Uncle Zeus and all the gods be praised you're all right," she choked out.
Polydegmon swallowed and wrapped an arm around her, patting her back, profoundly touched that she had worried so about his safety.
The surface of the pool stilled. A splash and a flurry of water cascaded to soak Polydegmon and the rest.
Colin's head bobbed up. He jerked and spun in the water until he saw Freddy, then he smiled. He'd returned to normal. In fact, many of the hurts from his torture and his fights had healed over. He seemed tired and his skin looked as pink and livid as Polydegmon's and Freddy's. But he seemed himself again. No murderous monster. Colin wiped the water from his eyes and gave a wan smile. "Why am I in a pool?"
Laughter burbled out of Freddy. She doubled over and gasped with it, tears pouring down her face. Polydegmon rolled onto his back and let the mirth rumble through him. Colin laughed and paddled in. Abby and Kore hauled him out of the pool together while Polydegmon and Freddy were consumed by paroxysms of giddiness.
"I see the ríastrad has passed. How nice." The Morrígan's cool voice echoed across the water as she came through the maintenance door nearby, her sisters and several warriors of her inner circle trailing behind.
Cernunnos and his men burst through the other door at the same time. They all stopped moving when the two parties saw each other. Polydegmon and the others lay caught in between.
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