Grimm chuckled. “Now I feel bad,” he said, laughing even harder as his hoof pawed at the ground, leaving a trail of white fire. I bit back my own laugh, recalling him taking a crap on the two gods and then playing Chopsticks with them.
“What were you two talking about?” Gunnar pressed, frowning at Nate and Kára. “What did you do?”
“Just watch,” Nate murmured, still staring at Zeus as he struggled with the lid, finally committing to opening it. “You should probably put on your Masks. There might be fallout…”
49
We all turned to Zeus as he fumbled with the box, even though my full attention was actually focused on Ares and Apollo, waiting for their surprise attack. A thick, milky-white mist suddenly flooded the pavilion as I felt Nate draw on his magic.
“When you see them get up,” Nate said, discreetly pointing at Ares and Apollo, “I need you to howl as loud as you can, Gunnar. I want you to make your vocal chords hurt. Howl for Calvin and Makayla.”
Gunnar grinned wickedly. “I take it they’re scared of wolves?”
“They weren’t a few hours ago, but they spent some time in your old vacation spot,” Nate said, chuckling.
Gunnar laughed. “They’ll think the mist is from Niflheim,” he breathed, nodding eagerly. I grunted. That was where Nate had sent them? To freaking Niflheim, the realm of deadly mist? Why would a wolf howl frighten them? The only Norse wolf I knew of was Fenrir, Loki’s son—the giant wolf destined to kill Odin in Ragnarök.
And then it hit me. Nate had just saved Fenrir from captivity before he was captured in turn by Zeus. He must have stashed Loki and Fenrir in Niflheim—and then sent the two Olympians there for a party with their cousins. No wonder they looked like they’d been gnawed on and beat to hell. They’d just survived a giant freaking wolf strong enough to kill Odin. I eyed Nate with grim respect. That was downright cold of him to call up mist so soon after their encounter. Talk about PTSD.
“If they don’t scream it, I need one of you guys to do it,” Nate urged. “Loud enough for Zeus to hear.” We nodded our agreement. “And put your damned Masks on!” he snapped. Then he snaked his hand around Kára’s waist, pulled her close, and kissed her with so much passion that it was almost primal.
She melted into the kiss as the mist swirled around them. I growled, maybe a little jealously but also happily, as I reached into my pocket and grabbed the silver butterfly charm that I used to disguise my Mask of Despair. I pulled it out and slapped the mask over my face, gasping at what felt like a thousand fingers massaging my cheeks as the Mask fused with my skin. With very little effort, I could enhance my vision to move faster than everyone around me, almost seeming to freeze time. Like entering the Matrix.
But after sitting on the sidelines for so long through the Olympian soap opera All Zeus’ Children episode, I really wanted to get my hands dirty. I knew the precise moment Gunnar and Alucard put their Masks on because I sensed a chiming hum of power connecting the three of us together, strengthening us like a braided rope rather than three separate strings.
Nate and Kára had separated during our wardrobe change, and were now staring at us with feverish grins. “They’re all growed up,” Nate mused, proudly.
To them, I knew my mask looked like uncut white crystal with six silver teardrops spilling down my cheeks. From the waist down, my body became ephemeral, blending with the glittering white mist Nate had summoned so that it looked like the roiling fog was an extension of me. As I moved my arms, I left a trail of misty vapor in my wake. I knew I could shift fully into mist and zip through walls, but the first time I’d done it had burned up almost all of my energy. This time, however…
I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt so energetic, as if Gunnar and Alucard were feeding power into me like extension cords.
I glanced over at Gunnar, grinning with anticipation. The Horseman of Justice was a towering white wolf, easily eight-feet-tall even though he was slightly hunched forward. His golden mask had reformed to fit his canine face, making me think of those old plague doctor masks with the long beaks. His paws sported long black diamond claws, and his thick shaggy fur looked to weigh a few hundred pounds all by itself.
The Horseman of Absolution—Alucard—hovered above a scorched circle on the ground. His quartz-like skin gleamed with emerald light, and claws of pure flame hung from his fingers like whips. I could feel their heat even though we were five feet apart.
“Ahh, shit!” Grimm neighed, prancing about excitedly. “It’s happening!”
“Make your legend, Riders.” Nate said, dipping his chin in respect. He pointed behind us and we turned to see Ares and Apollo climbing to their feet, looking alarmed at the blanket of mist surrounding them.
Ares wore a deep red toga trimmed in gold and cinched with a wide, leather belt. His fiery red hair was tied back in a man-bun, his cheeks were grotesquely scarred, and he had a thick ginger beard. His head was the shape of a worn boulder that had tumbled down Mount Olympus a few times. There was nothing symmetric about it at all. He was big and strong, but he definitely wasn’t ripped or running at a low body fat percentage. He was just a massive man—like the guys in those strong man competitions. He was just big.
Apollo, on the other hand, was tall and lithe with broad shoulders like a swimmer, but legs like a thirteen-year-old long distance runner. The stark contrast between his torso and his lower half made me cringe—built more similar to an ostrich than a humanoid male. His once white and gold toga was stained with blood and filth, and his long blonde hair was a bird’s nest from his time in Niflheim. He had a gaunt, imperious look on his face as if he was always looking down upon anyone who might attempt to talk to him. He was the guy who lifted his pinky when he took a drink.
Gunnar let out a bone-chilling howl that actually caused the mist to stir and roll. The two Olympians jumped in fear, waving their arms at the fog in hopes of dispelling it.
“NIFLHEIM!” Apollo screamed, terrified to the bone. “Why is it so dark—”
Ares grabbed him by both shoulders and violently shook him before pointing at the three of us. “This ain’t Niflheim,” he growled, seeing through Nate’s plan to mess with their heads. “Get your shit together.” He drew a flaming sword, and I found myself grinning as he doubled in size, becoming almost as large as Gunnar. As he grew, close to thirty skeletons rose up from the mist like wraiths, their eyes glowing with red fire to match Ares’ sword.
Apollo tried to look tough by angrily scowling at us, but he smelled scared. He began to glow, powering up—
Absolution zipped towards him to tackle him in midair, burning a clear path through the mist in his wake. He hit the god so hard that they both flew entirely off the pavilion and then through the black clouds and out of sight. Golden and green flashes of light intermixed with the red lightning, creating a dazzling light show.
“Wow,” Nate murmured. And then he cursed as a swirling knot of green and gold light exploded out of the clouds and zipped right back towards us, barely missing our heads as the Horseman of Absolution and Apollo chose a change in scenery for their battle.
I heard Nate and Kára talking to each other, but I tuned them out, locking my gaze on Ares and his small army.
It began to rain, hard, the water pouring down on us in great heavy sheets. Gunnar stepped up beside me, huffing heavily as we assessed Ares and his small army. The water striking their skulls resembled fresh blood every time a blast of ruby lightning crackled across the sky.
Zeus was playing weatherman in an effort to slow us down and dispel the mist. I saw Nate and Kára racing through the fog, skirting the skeletons as they closed in on Zeus. Olympian politics and retrieving Pandora’s Box were up to them; the war zone was up to me and Gunnar. Oh, and—
Alucard zipped past us again, and I instinctively slowed time to make sure I knew which way to lean so as not to get clotheslined. For my efforts, I clearly saw that Alucard was laughing as he literally rode Apollo like a surfboard, crouching at the knees to tug
hard on a fistful of the god’s hair while grinding his lead foot into Apollo’s face. Alucard was laughing as he stomped his back foot into Apollo’s groin in a steady rhythm. I grunted, resuming my perception of time to normal speed to deal with my own Olympian.
Ares, the god of war.
I stepped forward, crafting the mist around me into a long, wickedly sharp spear that glowed with inner light. “They are just skeletons,” I said in a calm tone, but my voice exploded across the pavilion like thunder, making Ares flinch. “And bones break.”
I pointed my spear at the closest skeletons and they exploded into clouds of dust.
Ares snarled, slamming his fiery sword down into the ground. This time, hundreds of skeletons rose up from the mist, and these all wore armor and wielded gleaming weapons. They didn’t bother with Nate and Kára, but focused directly on me and Gunnar—Despair and Justice.
Justice tucked Mjolnir into a thick leather belt at his waist, reached down and grabbed one of the new skeletons, and then ripped it in half with a bestial roar. His massive tail wagged, beating at the mist and bowling over a handful of armored skeletons. Then he proceeded to beat the closest skeletons with the remains he held in either paw, swinging them like clubs. Since he was bigger than me and could cover more ground, I let him focus on the skeletons as I squared off with Ares and his massive, fiery sword. I knew mist didn’t work well against fire so I hurled my spear at the god of war. He swatted it aside with a dismissive sneer, not realizing it had only been a distraction, allowing me time to reach behind my back and draw my silver katana.
Our size difference was comical, but he still looked cautious. I took a moment to imagine all the things he had done to Nate Temple on this mountain. The full week of torture Ares and Apollo had given him several times a day, every day. Any shred of decency or honor for the fight ahead evaporated in my mind.
This wasn’t a battle. This was a humiliation for all to see.
“Most people say you are evil and violent, Ares,” I said, holding my katana between us. “But I think you’re myth-understood. You look like a big old whiny bitch to me.”
50
He gritted his teeth and his sword hand quivered with rage. “The things I’m going to do to you, Horseman—”
I sped up my perception of time—making the pavilion stand still—and rushed the god of war. I stabbed him in the gut and then sliced his sword wrist before the pressure of manipulating time throbbed at my temples. I backed up a few steps and let it go.
Ares roared with pain, dropping his sword and clutching at his gut. The fiery sword impaled him straight through the foot and he squealed in agony. His eyes locked onto mine and I knew there would be no mercy from him.
“You were saying?” I asked, smirking.
He snarled and then made his way towards me, limping and furious. I took a moment to glance back at Zeus, and I was just in time to see him finally open Pandora’s box—only to be blasted with a shower of embers and sparks that lit his beard up like a wildfire. He dropped the box, swatting at his flaming beard, and a fist of molten lava burst out of the box to punch him in the face with volcanic knuckles. What the fuck was going on over there, and why wasn’t Nate doing anything useful?
I focused back on my own problems rather than worrying about Nate. Ares batted a wandering skeleton out of the way without breaking eye contact. Then he swung his sword down at me, fully intending to smash me like a bug. I pivoted and spun, flicking my sword out to slice through his knee before I rolled between his legs and called up my silver claws in my free hand to stab him straight in the groin—without looking because I was directly under his toga and I wasn’t eager to see a two-thousand-year-old fire-crotch. He gasped and fell to his knees, unable to support his weight after my gash to his leg.
I jumped onto his back and stabbed him in the shoulder, burying my sword through his collar-bone. He reached back and grabbed me by the shoulder, but I grabbed onto his man-bun to use as a tether. He flexed in an attempt to throw me clear across the pavilion but I held tight to my fistful of his hair, so he paid the price of ripping an alarming chunk of his scalp free for the benefit of me tossing me a few feet away. Right before impact, I shifted to mist and disappeared from his sight as he screamed and cursed about his new bald patch.
Which was when Gunnar hit him like a truck, sinking his massive fangs into Ares’ chest and sending him crashing into a pavilion. The two of them tumbled and rolled, fighting with claws and fists because Ares had lost his sword.
I heard shouts and screams coming from Zeus’ direction, as well as blasts of lightning, flares of orange light, geysers of molten rock flying through the air, and unrecognizable voices screaming at each other. I spun to see Zeus hovering high overhead, clutching his stomach. Ichor and what looked like lava dripped down from his wounds, and his beard was almost burned entirely off. I glanced down at the ground to see Pandora had arrived and that she was wielding a scythe at least twice as long as she was tall. A large, fiery man stood beside her and his fists glowed like molten rock.
The black clouds began to swirl around Zeus, the crimson lightning screaming as it grew, piling on top of itself. Zeus’ eyes glowed like stars and I knew he was about to blow up the entire goddamned mountain.
ABSOLUTION! Disrupt Zeus! I mentally screamed at Alucard. He’s getting ready to throw something big!
Alucard’s voice came to me, sounding amused. Ready or not, here I come!
Alucard and Apollo screamed across the sky, aiming directly for Zeus, forcing him to release his gathered power. After a few quick passes, Zeus finally gave up, spun around, and then took off through the clouds, fleeing the mountain and abandoning his children. I saw stunning, metallic wings flare out from Kára’s back, reminding me of a magician fanning out a deck of cards—except her feathers looked like a fan of swords rather than paper. She shoved that Greek helmet on her head and promptly disappeared. Nate climbed atop Grimm and took to the skies, pursuing Zeus like a hunter pursuing his prey.
Looked like we were all on our own.
Apollo slammed into the ground directly in front of me. I grabbed him by the hair, feeling the power of the Horseman mantle flow into my muscles as I took stock of our fight. Apollo groaned weakly, obviously disoriented from the aerial manhandling he’d suffered under Alucard’s surfing skills.
I saw Gunnar hoist Ares over his head with both hands and let out a roar as if he intended to perform the WWE backbreaker on the god of war. Instead, Alucard swooped down from the sky and halted about a foot away from Ares’ face, hovering in mid-air. He made a kissing sound and then blasted him in the face with a beam of fire that sent the god cartwheeling through the mist and into another column, cracking the marble. The entablature above wobbled precariously and Ares climbed to his feet, lifting his arms high to catch it right before it crushed him. Then he flung it at Alucard, knocking him down to the ground.
“JUSTICE!” I shouted, drawing the ridiculously large werewolf’s attention. With the power of the Horseman’s mantle powering my muscles, I lifted Apollo up as easily as a rag doll and began to swing him in a dizzying circle. “FETCH!” I screamed, releasing the god of the sun and sending him flying through the air.
My aim was off, so Gunnar tore across the pavilion, destroying the dozens of skeletons who were somehow still alive and currently in his way. Gunnar leapt into the air and caught Apollo in his teeth by the knees, chomping his jaws hard enough to shatter the sun god’s tiny, tiny legs and create a tiny, tiny shriek of pain. Gunnar landed on all fours and began shaking his head back and forth, slamming Apollo repeatedly into the ground.
Ares ran up and punched Gunnar in the jaw hard enough to make him stumble and send Apollo flying into Alucard, right as he was climbing to his feet. They both went down and, once again, I saw blasts of gold and green light burning away at the mist and scorching pavilions. Gunnar and Ares squared off, circling each other like combatants in a UFC prize fight.
But I had my own problems as several doz
en skeletons rose up from the mist, surrounding me. I called up my claws and began tearing through them, drawing on everything Ryuu had taught me about fighting.
The skeletons fell like wheat at harvest, and I felt myself moving faster than I ever had before, riding through the mist like a ghost to appear wherever I wanted without having to cross the space between. Skeletons died before they even knew I was behind them, but more and more rose up in an endless spiral of obvious necromancy on Ares’ part. After what had to be a few minutes of my game of whack-a-skull, I froze and let out an amused laugh.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” I snarled, and the skeletons all crumbled to powder. I flung my hand and called up a blast of air to send the skeletal dust out into the sky so it couldn’t reform.
I glanced back to see Pandora and lava guy watching me, looking like they wanted to help. Pandora’s scythe was so huge that it looked more like she was holding onto a standing umbrella at a pool party, but her eyes were feral and hungry.
I shook my head at them. “No. This is our fight. Go find Hephaestus and Aphrodite, and don’t let them leave!” The pair nodded and then jogged down the wide stairs towards the prison cells.
I turned to see Gunnar swing Mjolnir in an uppercut fashion and knock Ares into the air. I grinned, calling up my angel wings and gauntlets, and I leapt up high to intercept him. I caught Ares by the throat and flew higher and higher, into the black clouds. Ares punched and kicked at me but I was used to taking blows from Ryuu, and my Horseman’s armor over my skin made his attacks more of an annoyance than anything.
“Let me go!” Ares choked. “You wretched bitch!”
I grinned at him. “Okay, Gingersnap.” And I let him go.
He plummeted like a pallet of bricks, screaming and cursing as he fell over a hundred feet. I tucked my wings and pursued him all the way to the ground, laughing so that he knew I was close. Gunnar was waiting for him and took a full swing with Mjolnir, clobbering him right before he hit the ground, altering his trajectory into a marble column. He struck it with a crunching sound and did not get back up.
Trinity: Feathers and Fire Book 9 Page 29
