Ascension: Nate Temple Series Book 13

by Shayne Silvers

  He frowned. “I saved her life. Right after you abandoned me at Yggdrasil.”

  That film of red rage I’d just suppressed was back in a nanosecond.

  Whips of white fire suddenly exploded from my hands. War and Alucard fell backwards off their crates, cursing in surprise. Loki had moved the fastest, already standing five feet away with his hands held up above his head in a gesture of surrender.

  “What did you just say?” I whispered, letting my whips scorch the concrete as I began to walk towards him. “You were supposed to be finding Fenrir, but now you tell me that you were the Odin we met up with? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t rip you in half for wasting my time. I thought you wanted to save your son, but it seems I was mistaken.”

  Loki waved his hands dramatically. “This still means surrender, right?”

  Seeing that I hadn’t slowed my advance, he took another step back. “Oh, fine. I’ve known where Fenrir was for a while now—days after you killed that lying sack of shit, Mordred,” he cursed, spitting on the ground.

  I stopped and stared at him, my whips still crackling and burning.

  “This better be good, Loki…” I warned.

  Chapter 34

  Loki shrugged, but I heard the desperation in his voice. He’d found my line—how far he could push me before I snapped.

  “I’ve been checking in on Asgard a few times here and there, sending out false reports for Odin to chase down. He hasn’t actually set foot in Asgard since the Mordred thing. Not once. Poor leadership in my opinion. Even Freya hardly wanted to remain in the same room with me, if that tells you anything. When she saw me—Odin—I saw true fear in her eyes.”

  I knew Freya was wise enough to fear Odin—the god, not her husband—but she had obviously downplayed that fear when we’d spoken in Asgard. Maybe she feared that if she said too many bad things about him that I would simply kill him for her. Which…hurt, to be honest. That she’d been scared to tell me the full truth for fear of what I might do with it—like she thought I couldn’t control my emotions.

  She hadn’t said many nice things about him either, though—lending truth to Loki’s claims.

  Loki was nodding eagerly, realizing that he’d struck a topic that walked me back from the edge. “And to hear what some of the other gods are openly saying these days about Odin…he has no shortage of enemies, that’s for sure.” He shook his head slowly. “Which makes me deliriously happy, if I’m being honest. He was, and always will be, a frost giant’s dick.”

  I ignored that, still wondering what the hell his goal was with all of this. “If you already knew where Fenrir was, then why didn’t you just tell me last night?” I demanded, cracking a whip dangerously close to his face. “We could have already gotten your son back!”

  And I could be dealing with any other number of important things.

  Loki frowned at me, urgently brushing a live spark from his shoulder “I’m the only one in the world who knows where my son is, and I’m not Mimir. Chop this handsome head off and we’re all unhappy.”

  I took a deep breath and let the whips wink out. “You’re right. Decapitation is way too good for you. Talk or we are going to take turns beating your head against the wall.”

  Loki’s face paled as War loudly cracked his knuckles, clenching his cigar between his teeth with an eager grin. “Oh, I like that plan.” Alucard nodded excitedly.

  Loki stepped closer to me. “The reason I’ve been dicking around with you for the last ten minutes is because we don’t stand a chance. None. I know where he is, but I don’t know who runs the compound. That’s one major reason I went to Asgard—to try and get some real answers—but your little stunt cut that short.”

  “Did you want War or Alucard for the first round of head-smashing?” I asked.

  “Judging by the security at the compound,” he said hurriedly, “I knew I stood no chance at breaking in. So I tried sneaking in, pretending to be one of the guards. But the alarms went off the second I tried to open the door—like not even the guards are allowed inside. They have these gargoyle things…” He shuddered. “The only other time I ran that fast was ten minutes after I first tasted something called Indian curry. Luckily, I made it away from danger…this time.”

  Alucard grimaced, shaking his head. “Oh, that’s foul.”

  “Oh, you have no idea,” Loki agreed. “I was so embarrassed that I pretended to be a different person when I left the restroom. Then another identity when I left the restaurant. Never again.”

  War grunted, shaking his head. “This is incredibly unhelpful. Let’s just do a couple head smashes. I’m having a hard time focusing on what he’s saying because I keep envisioning how much better his whiny bullshit would sound if he was lisping through a few missing teeth.”

  “Think about it, Temple!” Loki pleaded. “They’re holding Fenrir hostage—without Gleipnir. You know how many chains Asgard made to try and restrain him before finding one that worked? These are scary fucking people.”

  He wasn’t wrong. In fact, I almost suspected Odin was behind it all, and that maybe he’d commissioned a new Gleipnir while he searched the globe for his stolen spear so that he could come back and kill the wolf at his convenience. But that would be a side of Odin I hadn’t yet seen. I knew he’d been an asshole in the stories about him, but if he had Fenrir restrained in some hidden bunker, the problem was already taken care of.

  In fact, he probably would have announced it to all of Asgard, parading Fenrir down the streets to prove Odin was back and in charge—having successfully recaptured Fenrir without having to use Gungnir. It would make him look all the more impressive.

  It just didn’t make sense for Odin to be behind it.

  I pointed at my chest and then at Alucard. “You had two Horsemen volunteering to help last night! You’re telling me this compound is that secure!?”

  Loki nodded somberly. “Absolutely. That is exactly what I’m fucking saying. It’s why I’ve been visiting Asgard disguised as Odin. I’ve been trying to figure out which one of the throne-hungry bastards is behind it all. Because whoever runs the compound with Fenrir, I think they’re Asgardian, and they fucking hate Odin more than Thor ever did. More than even I hate him, and he locked me in a book for a few centuries! Any other god or pantheon would have turned him in and demanded a ridiculous award, knowing Odin would gladly pay up.” I nodded thoughtfully, and Loki pressed on. “I have three suspects so far. Baldur—for the obvious reasons you saw during your visit. Tyr—because Odin took the throne from him. And Heimdall—because he’s too perfect. And I’ve never much liked him, to be honest. But that’s just petty spite. We’re destined to kill each other at Ragnarök, so I propose we kill him just to be thorough. Hell, let’s just kill them all.”

  I threw my hands into the air. “This is ridiculous. I’m going to put the Bioloki up for auction. You could have bitched and moaned about this last night and saved me some time.”

  “Let’s not be hasty,” Alucard said, holding his hands out in a calming gesture. “There was talk of head-smashing.” War nodded, punching his fist into his palm.

  Loki ignored them without fear this time, his eyes glittering with anger and disdain as he leaned forward. “You just don’t get it, do you? I’ve fucked with every single Asgardian, and now they finally have a chance to stick it to me. Or Odin. Or both of us. And Thor isn’t around to stop them and look like a hero. In a way, that’s on you.”

  I sputtered incredulously. “Me?” I demanded. I couldn’t help it. I started laughing at him.

  “No one had the balls to get in Thor’s way,” Loki argued. “He was a necessary evil. But you and your werewolf pal removed him from the equation. And rather than including the Horseman who now wields Mjölnir—because Thor’s old hammer might have been enough to frighten any of these opportunistic pricks off the map—you picked the suck-head.”

  Alucard stepped forward, his face livid. But War latched onto his shoulders, pulling him back.

  “
I thought if I waited you out for the twenty-four-hours you gave me, you would bring the wolf with the hammer along, too.” Loki eyed War thoughtfully. “I’ll admit, this is a good bench you have, Temple. But you know what? I’m not convinced it’s enough, and I would do anything to save my son. I would even die for it. But pointless suicide won’t save him. Why don’t you call the Horseman with Mjölnir, and we can give this a real chance at success?”

  I grunted, purposely not glancing over his shoulder—where Carl was suddenly lurking. Yeah, it was probably about that time. I turned to Alucard. “Don’t kill him, Alu-Carl.”

  The Daywalker grinned wickedly.

  Loki scoffed. “What are you going to do? Sparkle me to death?” he muttered.

  And then Loki gasped in total surprise as Carl wrapped his claws around the God of Mischief’s throat and hoisted him into the air. Loki resorted to magic, throwing flames down at Carl, but the Elder used his free hand to swat it all away, only looking mildly perturbed.

  “It is a pretty nice bench, isn’t it?” I said, grinning at Loki. I let him gag for another ten seconds before clearing my throat and glancing at Alucard.

  “Aw, dad,” he complained, “I want to keep playing!”

  I rolled my eyes.

  Carl set Loki down and the God of Mischief skittered a few feet away, coughing violently. “What the hell!?” he rasped, his eyes zeroing in on the silver wire over Carl’s mouth.

  I shrugged. “Old family friend,” I said. “You have three Horsemen and an Elder, but no Mjölnir. What are our odds of breaking into this compound?”

  Loki thought about it, and he slowly began to nod. “Favorable. Maybe.”

  “That’s good enough for me.”

  “Did you bring Gleipnir?” Loki asked.

  “I thought you didn’t need it.”

  “And if I don’t survive first encounter with the enemy?” he replied dryly. “I doubt Fenrir will think highly of you. He is very likely in a maddened state. I might not even be able to control him right now. He’s a prisoner in enemy territory. He won’t go down—for us or these goons—without a fight.”

  I stared at him. “You really think he’ll try to kill us, too?”

  He nodded. “Precisely. Until we can calm him down, and I doubt we will get the time to do that in the middle of an abduction. We can talk him down after—if he doesn’t eat us all first.”

  No one else spoke as Loki’s words echoed with grim finality. “Or maybe we don’t calm him down…” I said, thinking out loud. “Maybe we just need to get close enough to set him loose.”

  Loki stared at me with both fear and…a budding consideration. He took a moment to appraise each of us individually, and I saw confidence beginning to shine in his eyes. “I could agree to that, but I have one question, first.”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  “Do you have any more team shirts?” he asked, glancing at our matching Show-Me Your O-Face tees. Well, Carl didn’t have one because he’d told Alucard that it felt scratchy against his scales. Diva.

  I turned to War. He nodded. “One left.”

  “Then I’m in.”

  “It’s a small,” War said, clenching his cigar between his teeth in a big grin.

  Loki’s excitement faded somewhat.

  “I need to check on one thing before we leave to wherever we’re going. You guys think you can keep an eye on him while I’m gone? Without killing or otherwise injuring him? We’ll need him in fighting shape.”

  “I’m right here,” Loki said.

  Alucard spoke up. “That’s the problem. We can’t trust what we see with him, right?”

  I nodded. Then I flipped open my satchel and pulled out a leather harness. Alucard’s eyes widened in recognition. And then a truly evil smile split his cheeks.

  “Why is he smiling like that?” Loki asked, splitting his attention between the item in my hand and the sheer happiness on Alucard’s face.

  Instead of answering, I snapped my fingers.

  The Darling and Dear harness launched from my hand and wrapped around Loki in about a millisecond. He dropped to his knees, unable to move, and staring at me with wide eyes. “What the hell is this thing?” he whispered in horror. “I can’t use my powers at all!”

  Carl stared at it with an intent look on his face. He’d been the first victim.

  War grunted. “That…is very useful. And creepy. Because it kind of looks like—”

  “Bondage gear,” Alucard said smugly. “Where did you find it?” he asked me.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I said, repressing a shudder. “But I chose to thoroughly disinfect it before putting it in my satchel.”

  War cocked his head, taking the cigar out of his mouth to silently repeat my answer, trying to decipher my meaning.

  “Yeah. That was probably a good call,” he said knowingly. “Who would have thought, right?”

  I didn’t want to go anywhere near that conversation, so I appraised Loki instead. “This is for wasting my time. If one of these fine gentlemen snaps their fingers a second time, you’ll experience the ball-gag option. So I would be very, very polite, because they don’t know the codeword to release it.”

  Loki stared at me, openly terrified. “Right. How, um, long were you going to be gone, exactly? Because I really need to use the restroom.”

  “I hope you can hold it better than that other time you told us about,” I said, turning to walk away. “No unnecessary cruelty, guys. He’s harmless. I shouldn’t take more than an hour.”

  “If it’s dangerous, you should take one of us with you. Just in case,” Alucard suggested.

  I stopped, turning to glance back at Loki. There was no way out of the harness, so I nodded. “Want to join me, Carl?” I asked.

  He nodded eagerly, and I felt a wave of relief as he jogged over to me. It wasn’t that I feared he had a newfound problem with me, but it was difficult to see him so…subservient. I missed his painful attempts at conversation, teaching him new things.

  But now he wouldn’t even look me in the eyes.

  So for him to seem excited to stand by my side felt like we were getting closer to the old days. I really wanted to rip that wire from his lips, but I knew it wasn’t just wire. It was symbolic.

  Maybe I could convince him to take it out.

  I grinned at a sudden thought, leaning close so that no one else could hear. “I’m about to show you the biggest D in the world, Carl,” I told him, grinning.

  He smirked as much as the wire would allow and extended his clawed hand. I grabbed it and Shadow Walked to the Drop Zone outside Chateau Falco.

  It hadn’t been necessary to come here, first, but it was all about the delivery.

  I pointed at Carl’s tree through the hanging willow branches that surrounded us in a protective dome. “Your D, for perspective.”

  Then I closed my eyes in hopes that my next jump would work like I theorized—that I could travel to a place as long as I’d once been there before. The World Tree was in some strange, time-shifting realm, after all, so I couldn’t be sure until I tried it.

  Hell, since it was a place outside of time…

  Maybe I hadn’t ever been there yet.

  I felt my ears pop and hoped for the best.

  Chapter 35

  Carl made a stunned sound from between his muzzled lips and I grinned, opening my eyes. It had worked! “The World D,” I told him, pointing at Yggdrasil.

  And we weren’t alone.

  Freya and Kára were seated near the trunk of the tree with Alice, but the three of them abruptly stood at seeing us appear out of thin air. Freya’s jaw dropped when she saw a muzzled Elder, of all beings, standing beside me. She’d never met him, after all. I waved off their concern with an easy smile.

  After Baldur’s friend had accidentally grazed Freya with the knife in Asgard, I’d made an executive decision. Wanting to keep Gunnar’s pups safe but needing to keep him out of the Loki mess so he could focus on his family—and his pups�
� strange new powers—I’d seen an opportunity to save three birds with one tree.

  To send Freya to Yggdrasil where she would be safe from the dangers in Asgard—which indirectly protected Gunnar’s pups since she was now bonded to them.

  But to keep it secret from her fellow Asgardians, I’d had to be cryptic. It was the major reason I’d wanted to visit Yggdrasil in the first place. Sure, the reasons I had hinted at with Odin had also been true, providing me excellent benefits down the road that I thought would be prudent to set up, but it hadn’t been pressing until I witnessed just how turbulent Asgard truly was these days. Thankfully, Loki’s impersonation of Odin hadn’t fucked it all up.

  Codename applesauce.

  In the confusion of the attack, I’d quietly told Freya that I needed to get her, Alice, and her most-trusted Valkyrie bodyguard somewhere safe, and that when I found a suitable place, I would say the word applesauce. That way the location was never mentioned where an Asgardian might overhear.

  Because I had fully expected Loki to infiltrate Asgard, pretending to be someone else as he either searched for information on Fenrir—like I’d asked him to do—or tailed me in hopes of gaining some kind of leverage that he could later use against me in order to get his precious book back via multiple avenues.

  That was how Loki always worked in the stories. He always found an out, and always found leverage.

  I just hadn’t expected him to be ballsy enough to choose Odin as his disguise. Sure, I had known that he could physically mimic anyone, but to truly pass himself off as Odin? In the heart of Asgard?

  No way.

  Loki had been imprisoned for hundreds of years, so he wouldn’t have had time to catch up on every little thing that had happened in his absence. No frames of reference on current events. Trying to impersonate Odin—the god who was supposed to know everything important that happened in his kingdom—just hadn’t seemed like a move with any chance of success.

  He’d say something that wouldn’t make sense, and everyone would instantly realize he was an imposter—especially since rumor had spread that Loki was free again.