by Alexie Aaron
“I take it my father-in-law is AWOL,” Ted said.
“I think Dieter is following him.”
“Dieter knows the city. He’ll find him.”
Chapter Thirty-one
Mia called out for Nicholai in her mind. She didn’t hear anything. She next called for Cid. “Can you hear Nicholai?”
“No, not for some time.”
“I’ll check at Angelo’s,” Mia said. She flew over the chaos searching for the large birdman to no avail. She shot upwards, flew, and landed in the penthouse gardens. There before her stretched a line of dead heroes. Mia turned off her earcom. She took time to uncover the dead birdmen to identify them. She planted a kiss of appreciation on the forehead of each one. She got up and approached a rather large covered body. She drew the cover back slowly, fearing it was Nicholai. To her relief, and then sadness, she found it was a Norseman. She gave the stranger the same reverence she gave her flock.
Idra approached Mia, concerned. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Nicholai.”
Idra saw Mia’s hands shake. “He’s not dead, but he’s got a lump on his head.”
Mia felt a wave of relief wash over her. “Where?”
“Angelo put him in his guestroom. He’s sleeping, but he will recover.”
“Victor?”
“Victor has broken his right foot. He is…” Idra looked around. “He’s over there. He is barking orders, so you’ll have to speak quickly.”
Mia didn’t bother Victor. There was no way he could do the doomsday spiral with a bad foot, let alone a broken one.
She walked into the guestroom and sat on the bed next to Nicholai. He wasn’t coming out of his imposed sleep anytime soon. “What do I do now?” she asked herself.
“Who are you talking to?” Angelo asked, entering the room carrying a stack of towels.
“Myself.”
“What are you doing?” Mia asked.
“Playing fetch and carry for Idra.”
“Mia, get your birdman ready,” Abigor said.
Mia answered, “I’m working on it.”
Angelo sat down. “What’s wrong?”
“Look. Nicholai is unconscious, Victor has a broken foot, and I have no partner for the spiral, and things are dire over there. You’d better get ready to evacuate the children.”
Angelo stood up and squared his shoulders. “All along, fate has planned this.”
“I don’t believe we were fated to lose,” Mia argued. “I thought once Odin showed up we were all set. What a letdown.”
“No, Mia. I’m going to do the doomsday spiral with you.”
Mia smiled. “We’re going to die.”
“No, I’m fresh and easily as strong as Nicholai. I have more motivation than Victor. You’ve done this before. Both times you were successful.”
“We’re going to die because Ted’s going to kill us,” Mia clarified.
“I think he’ll understand. After all, at the end of the world, one must make concessions.”
“Mia, Nidhogg is curled up in front of the door. Odin is convinced it’s waiting for Surtr,” Abigor told her.
“I’m working on it. Move the ships.” Mia looked back up at Angelo. “Think clearly, if you die, who will be there to save the children?”
“Soren is here. Mia, we are birdmen; we sacrifice ourselves for humanity,” Angelo said and let go of her.
Mia tapped her earcom. “Ted, I love you.”
“I love you too, pumpkin. What’s going on?”
“End of the world stuff,” Mia said.
Angelo walked out to change into something quickly removed.
“I’m all ears,” Ted said.
Mia told him about Victor and Nicholai.
“Why not ask Angelo?”
“But…”
“Mia, there are a few things that I understand: one is that Murphy and Cid will never completely leave us, and the other is that Angelo wants you, which pisses Murphy off. This gives me great joy.”
“Yes, I think you have a good grasp of things.”
“If you punched a hole in a rockface with Nicholai, then Angelo and you will probably start a blackhole. You must try. I’m sorry to put this on you, Mia, but we need you to put aside your fears. I’m not going anywhere. But if we have no world to come home to then…”
“Just tell her you give her permission to complete the spiral with Angelo,” Baxter said from beside him. “That’s all she wants is your permission. She has fought off Lucifer to remain true to you.”
“I’m writing you a hall pass for Angelo.”
“Bring the men into the bunker. I have no idea what the shock wave is going to do or what direction it will take.”
“Will do. Mia…”
“Yes?”
“Remember what makes a god a god and a goddess a goddess. Their power comes from the people who believe in them. I and all the men and women you have touched in your short life believe in you. Heaven and Hell and, yes, Roumain believe in you. You’re more than the being who was cobbled together from this and that. You’re an independent, mighty woman whose heart is so large that it can’t possibly be contained in your little body. Your ability to see beauty in the vilest of creatures and forgive when the good forget to be honorable has made you very unique. I’m privileged that you love me and have chosen to live your life with me. I will never be able to repay you for seeing in me what lay buried under several tons of math books. I love you, Mia. Go and kick some butt.”
“I’ll do my best, Teddy Bear,” Mia said and stopped transmission before her voice and courage broke.
Mia took off her heavy armor, abandoned her chainmail, pulled on a halter, and prayed her underpants would not embarrass Ralph. Angelo came in and handed her one of his silk pajama shirts. Mia slipped it on. She kissed Nicholai on the head. “Goodbye, you will always be my idol.” She walked through the makeshift hospital ward that was once was Angelo’s posh penthouse. He took her hand and walked her to the small private garden and took off his robe.
Mia slid off the silk shirt and turned her back to Angelo. She pulled her hair off her back, and she willed the tattoos to come.
Angelo watched as his little bird seduced him. He didn’t want to tell her he didn’t need to be primed, that he was always in a state of needing her. When she opened her back and produced her wings, he was pulled into something so special that he would forever be searching for a word to describe how he felt at that moment.
This wasn’t the young woman who mistakenly started the mating ritual all those years ago. This was a woman who had loved, given birth, and matured. Her beauty was breathtaking and her soul so rich and strong that he feared he would be consumed by it.
Mia turned around and looked up at Angelo. He bent down, took her face gently in his hands, and timidly kissed her as if asking permission. He received it with her returning his kiss. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Mia opened her mouth and drunk in the exchange of want and need. He wanted her. She needed him. But there was still time to stop this madness.
“Mia, the ships are moved. Now or never,” Abigor said.
Mia reached up and stroked Angelo’s face. “I always knew that at the end of the world, it would be your face I was staring up into,” she confessed.
“If I die, I die knowing that, for one moment, I was the most important man in your life.”
He kissed her until she no longer had reason. All she had now was need. Mia pulled away and shot into the heavens. She raced him to the top of the world, extending her talons towards Angelo’s. He grabbed hers with his, and they spiraled downward.
Abigor moved his legions away from the door. They marched in an orderly fashion and prepared for any blowback of energy. No one noticed the man approaching the door.
“Ted, isn’t that Charles?” Baxter asked, tapping the screen.
Ted screamed instructions to abort to Mia, but it was too late. She was too high up and too involved in the spiral.
&nbs
p; “She’s going to kill her father,” Ted said. “She’ll never recover from that.”
Victor raced to intercept Charles, but he was too far away.
Sticks saw him and pushed Moonlight to move at her fastest speed towards the door.
Dieter ran after Charles, pleading with him to come back.
Charles only saw the death and the destruction Amanda had let loose into this world and knew somehow that he had to stop Surtr from stepping out of the doorway.
Mia and Angelo were churning up so much energy that a thundercloud started to develop.
Charles contemplated the sleeping dragon before him. “You there, go back and eat of the ash tree’s roots. You don’t belong here.”
The dragon opened an eye.
Dieter stopped so suddenly, his hoodie’s hood fell over his face. He opened himself up to Nyx and held out his hands.
Mia and Angelo were twenty feet from the water. Angelo started to pull away from Mia. The anguish of leaving her was explosive.
Dieter stopped time for every living atom. Everyone was suspended. He couldn’t breathe lest he start time again.
Sticks felt a weight behind him and saw a handsome black man riding with him. Time continued for them. They rode Moonlight down, and Sticks grabbed Charles and cleared the door.
Dieter took a breath and time resumed. Victor pulled Dieter backwards using his mighty wings. They shot backwards out of the path of the incoming shock wave.
Mia broke free from Angelo. The power and anguish of a love that would never be realized ripped a hole through space into another place, drawing into their world a mighty wind. It plowed towards the shore, picking up the dragon, the remaining giants, and most of the beach, and pushed all into the open door. The door fell backwards. Odin, Vili, and Ve rushed to engage the locks. The locks fell into place, closing the door. They cast their powerful magic and sealed the portal to Niflheim and Muspell.
Lightning flashed, and a mammoth thundercloud darkened the city. Victor saw a mighty wave form and instructed his birdmen to clear the beach. Abigor moved his legions to the far side of Northerly Island and opened the portal to Hell. They moved quickly into the water of the marina, and Abigor closed the portal before he picked up Murphy and flew in search of Mia.
Odin looked at the rip in space and urged his brothers to attach chains to the vault and pull it behind them as they rode their ponies off into this unknown. The surviving Norsemen marched through the portal after them. Thunder rumbled, and a mighty bolt of lightning closed the rip behind them.
Mia was underwater. She had tumbled for miles and was so disoriented that she swam deeper under water instead of rising to the top. A shimmer of blue approached her quickly. One of Baxter’s nymphs took hold of Mia, locked her lips on hers, and breathed a solution into Mia. Mia allowed this into her lungs. Other hands gently brought her to the surface. Exhausted, Mia barely was able to turn over and float on top of the water.
Angelo frantically flew in search of her. He let his primal pull navigate for him. He saw a bit of blonde hair and swooped down. He gathered her in his arms and flew them to the nearest beach before collapsing.
Charles looked at his rescuer. “You look familiar. You’re Sticks. We had a delightful conversation in a park in New Orleans if memory serves me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Dieter ran over. “Granddad!” he said, hugging on to him as if he would float away.
Cid saw the storm approaching and encouraged them to come inside the bunker, where Ted grabbed and hugged his son. “You saved your granddad.”
“Mom and Angelo saved the world.”
“Any idea where she is?” Ted asked, worried.
“I’m worried about the rip in space,” Cid said. “They closed it, but she could have ended up there.”
“Nope, your physics are all wrong,” Ted argued.
“I tracked her to South Haven when she hit the water,” Baxter said.
There was a terrific crash of thunder and the power quit. It took a minute before the PEEPs backup generator kicked on.
Mike walked down the steps. “Fear not, I feel Mia here,” he said, patting his chest. “She’s alive somewhere.”
“How scientific of you,” Burt said. “Angelo will find her.”
“I don’t know if that’s good news or not?” Ted worried.
Baxter smacked his hand hard on the desk, and everyone stopped speaking. He looked at the men he regarded as Mia’s harem and spoke. “We asked her to do something that is impossible and against what her heart was telling her. Whatever is the result of this, all of you are going to accept it, or I swear, I will break every bone in your bodies.”
“I just think it was an elaborate way to get out of dead-giant cleanup,” Mike said, his face twisting into a wry smile.
“Anybody see where Murphy ended up?” Cid asked, changing the subject.
“He was searching with Abigor. I expect he’s still with him or with Altair who is at Angelo’s, healing birdmen along with Lucifer,” Ted said.
Baxter saw that the men were back to business, and he was able to breathe again. He was baffled why he lost his cool. It wasn’t up to him to fight Mia’s battles. He didn’t need to draw a line in the sand. These men would love Mia no matter what she did.
Chapter Thirty-two
The media room was quiet. The men had sent their women to their rooms. Moments before, the sky had cleared and provided the assemblage with the clear unobstructed view of an empty beach with a deep groove carved out of it. The dragon, who had them all on their feet cheering, was gone. The frost giants had rallied after Nidhogg appeared and the Norsemen were battling, but it was evident that, soon, Surtr would be walking out of Muspell and into their world.
Earlier, when Gerald had seen Mia standing there prior to Nidhogg’s appearance, he smiled. He put a hand on Beverly’s arm and whispered, “It’s time to go.”
All eyes were on the screen as the battle resumed. He ushered Beverly to the private yacht he had arranged to wait for them. Before he boarded, he handed the employee at the dock an envelope to hand to Clupea, one of the heritage demons. The employee tucked away the gold ingot he received for his trouble as he climbed the hill and moved to deliver the missive.
Beverly watched the island become smaller and smaller. “Why are we leaving? They’ll find us and make us pay for our desertion.”
“They will be too busy.”
“But the frost giants are going to win,” Beverly argued. “Where can we go when Surtr arrives?”
“He’s not arriving,” Gerald said confidently.
“Why?”
Gerald handed Beverly his phone where he had taken a picture of the satellite feed.
“It’s just Mia.”
Gerald took the phone back, played with the screen, and handed it back to her. “Look at her face. That’s not the face of a loser.”
Beverly looked at her niece. Gerald had caught the moment when Mia had turned her head to greet Odin, Vili, and Ve. Her eyes were shining with power, her face full of confidence. “If I didn’t hate her so much, I’d be proud of her.”
“You don’t hate her.”
“She took Guillaume from me.”
“She did not. Death took him.”
Beverly frowned. “You’re not helping. Beth at least bolstered my irrational hatred of the girl.”
“I’m taking you someplace where you can take the time and think about who you’re really mad at.”
“They will follow us.”
“As sure as I am that Mia will save the day, I’m sure that not one of the bastards, Piers included, is going to leave that island alive.”
Clupea looked puzzled at the envelope. He ran a claw under the flap. Inside was a message written in High Demon.
Clupea,
I just thought, since you have always treated me and mine with the utmost civility, that I would return the favor. Are you aware that this door, that your master and the others have arranged to be opened, will le
t in a creature who will eventually destroy this planet? What this means for you is that you will die. You don’t get to move on to the stars as your masters assume, incorrectly, that they will. Hell will be destroyed along with the surface of this world. Without Hell, you will not be regenerated. There is no light for you. You will cease to be. This hasn’t been overlooked in this endgame of the Cynosura; it is part of the plan. You have not only been used today, but you have allowed yourself to be used for hundreds of years. I’d be pretty angry if I were you.
Also, if by any chance the tide turns and the door is closed, the Cynosura will continue to use you until they can find another way to destroy your world.
Gerald Shem
Clupea discreetly gathered his brethren together. He shared the letter from Shem and asked for their opinions. It became very evident that the others agreed with Shem’s assessment of the outcome.
Piers looked at his colleagues. “I’m receiving reports that confirm that Surtr did not exit the door, and the door itself disappeared into a rift in space with Odin, Vili, and Ve.”
“What now?” asked one of the elite.
“We do have a military solution…” Piers said with a smirk. “We will need money to bribe the officials. This door-to-Surtr operation was expensive, but we will recoup our losses once we disable the program Ted Martin is overseeing. I’m sure the killing of his parents will convince him that he is vulnerable. Clupea, make arrangements to head for Wichita.”
