Thankfully there’d only been three giants, and the Giant Killers had made quick work of them with the help of anyone with wings.
The trolls, however, were a bigger problem. Well . . . not bigger, per se. But not as quickly taken out and there were considerably more of them.
A Carrion landed behind her, and Kera turned and hacked its head off with the axe that the goddess Freyja had given her. Her axe did not originally have that ability, but Vig had broken down one of the Carrion’s weapons and merged the flint from their blades with Kera’s. It had been phenomenally effective.
Once again, Kera looked over the battle, hoping to see a bouncy little redhead with a big mouth, but so far nothing. Nor any shifters, so that hope was dead in the water.
Still worse, poor Erin didn’t even know things had changed. She thought she had days left. This battle would not last for days. Kera wasn’t sure it would last for another fifteen minutes. The eight Clans were holding their own but for how much longer, she didn’t know.
“Freida!” she yelled to the Giant Killer’s leader. “The trolls! Get the trolls!”
Kera saw some of the Mara suddenly appear behind her sister-Crows who were busy fighting demons. “Annalisa! The Mara!”
Annalisa, grinning, took the rest of Kera’s Strike Team toward the Mara. The woman loved dealing with the Mara. When they tried to torment her with her own memories or nightmares, it never seemed to go well for them. Kera didn’t actually know what her sister-Crow did or what those demons saw, but the reversal had sent many a Mara screaming into the night.
Seeing that the Killers needed some help with the trolls, Kera turned to signal to the Ravens.
“Rolf! Help the—”
Arms around her waist cut the rest of Kera’s words off and the Carrion snatched her off the billboard sign she’d been standing on and carried her to the other side of the freeway before tossing her onto the grassy shoulder near an exit.
She rolled and stopped on her back. That’s when the Carrion leader landed. His big legs straddled her, with a blood-covered sword in each hand, the tip of one pointed right at her throat, his leather wings out and beating against his back.
“Hello, slave.” He grinned. “I have great plans for you.”
* * *
Everything was ready. Stieg had created the circle, written all the runes in the sand. And the Carrion’s hand sat in the middle of it all, just as Inka had instructed.
Now he just needed Erin.
Holding the sword against his chest, Stieg paced back to the top of the dune, hoping to see that Erin had finally finagled herself away from Nidhogg and that she was almost . . .
He let out a relieved smile when he saw her flying toward him. But then he heard that roar and that giant shadow began to cover him. He leaned to the side—although he didn’t really have to—and yeah . . . that was Nidhogg . . . chasing Erin.
“Go!” she screamed at him. “Go, go, go, go, GO!”
Without any other options, Stieg ran back down the dune, quickly said the words Inka had taught them and watched the circle turn into a mystical doorway.
“Stieg,” Erin yelled, closer than ever. “Just gooooooooooo!”
So he did—and gods help them all.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Kera hit the ground, with Önd on top of her, ramming his fist into her face. She grabbed his arms, pushing him back. She brought her legs up between them and kicked, throwing him off. Rolling over, she scrabbled on hands and knees toward her axe, avoiding the stomping, kicking feet around her.
Kera had reached her weapon, her fingers wrapping around the handle, when she was grabbed by the ankle and flipped over.
As she was dragged back, the axe still clasped in her grip, she swung at Önd but he caught her wrist and stomped on her other hand, pinning it to the ground. He began twisting her wrist even as he burned her flesh with his touch and Kera could feel the bone breaking.
She rammed her foot into his groin, and the leer on his face changed into a grimace.
Önd leaned down, his mouth open, fangs dripping. Kera tried to yank her arms away but he held on tight, coming closer and closer—
The bear tackled him right off her, its thousand pounds knocking Önd to the ground and nearly crushing him in the process.
Kera sat up, mouth open. They came onto the 405 Freeway in a blur of fur, claws, and fangs. Their roars and growls beginning to drown out the war cries and curses.
A black panther leaped in front of Kera, slapping away another Carrion before turning into Karen—Oh, my God! The lovely, lovely Karen!—and, standing tall, she faced Kera. “Are you okay?”
Kera nodded and took Karen’s outstretched hand.
“Your wrist,” Karen noted, concerned.
“It’ll heal.”
Karen studied the crowd of fighters around her. “No Erin? No . . . Stieg?”
“Not yet. But they also think they have three more days, so . . . Karen, move!”
Kera shoved the woman hard, pushing her out of the way as Önd came back, the claw marks from the bear that had attacked him going from his head to his feet.
He swung his sword down, trying to cut Kera in half. She dove to the side, rolling until she reached her axe. She picked it up in time to block his next blow.
“Do you really think you can kill me, slave?” he asked, pushing her back with his weapon. “When I’m done with you—”
Betty came at him from the side, ramming her blade into his gut. Annalisa slammed her blade into his neck. Maeve wrapped a rope around his throat and yanked him back.
Kera, now able to move freely because Maeve and the others had him, hefted her axe, loosened her shoulders.
She stood in front of him. “When you’re done with me what . . . dead thing?”
Kera swung her axe under and up into his groin, and the Carrion’s scream echoed out over the battle. She yanked her weapon out, hefted it again, and swiped it across, taking his head.
Once he was on the ground, Kera tossed her axe to Alessandra so that she and their sister-Crows could hack into the Carrion leader, tossing pieces of him away in the hopes he’d never be re-assembled by Hel.
Karen, still in human form, stood behind Kera. With her hands clasped in front of her, she said, “I see why Stieg kept me away from you guys.”
Kera turned to talk to her, maybe make her feel a little better, but Karen suddenly took in a sharp breath and her entire body went rigid. She quickly shifted back to cat and faced north, angrily hissing.
And Kera knew.
“Clans! She’s coming!” Kera called out to the others.
The ground shook and the sun grew brighter, seeming to turn everything around them gold.
Gullveig appeared on the far side of the overpass. She wasn’t in her Rodeo Drive gear, but that could have been because she couldn’t fit into it. In her goddess form, she towered over the freeway and the battle. The only thing covering her naked body were thousands of gold necklaces and strings of pearls; diamonds, rubies, emeralds woven into her hair. “Kill them!” the goddess laughingly screamed out. “Kill them all!”
“Kera!” Chloe called. “What do we do?”
No Erin. No sword. But this would be their only chance.
Kera looked up at the hills again. The Four Horsemen still sat up there, waiting.
“We fight!” She unleashed her wings and flew up over the battle so her sister-Crows could hear her. “Crows! We fight!”
* * *
The Valkyries still watched from the hills opposite the Four Horsemen. Like vultures, the four waited for the battle to end so they could feed on the souls of the dead. They watched but did nothing.
Just as her Valkyrie sisters were doing, Katja Rundstöm realized as she watched her brother Vig fight with his Raven brothers. And now, Gullveig had made her appearance, but the key figures the clans had counted on—Erin and that damn sword—had not. Even if she and sweet Stieg weren’t dead, there was no guarantee they’d arrive on time. Non
e at all.
“Does this feel right to anyone?” she finally asked her sisters.
“We have our orders,” Sefa repeated. She’d been repeating it for the last twenty-four hours, but Kat could tell it was bothering her leader. Killing her even.
“I agree with Kat,” one of her Clan sisters said from the back.
“We choose from the slain every day,” Kat reminded Sefa. “We choose the most honorable. The ones who fight. And if we have nothing else to lose . . .”
Sefa closed her eyes. She was loyal to Freyja. They all were, but unlike the Crows, the Valkyries didn’t question their god. They’d never had a reason to, but this was different.
Finally, Sefa pulled her sword from the holster that hung off the saddle of her winged horse and held it up in the air. “Valkyries! To battle!”
* * *
They struck at Gullveig. Again and again, but nothing touched her. She just laughed, her voice booming out. Her hands knocking them all back.
Even when the Valkyries on their winged horses, the Ravens, and the Protectors joined in the strike, nothing harmed her. Nothing.
But Kera refused to give up. She’d never give up. Instead she did take a quick break on a nearby hill, trying to think of next steps.
Brodie, panting at her side, gazed up at her, waiting for her orders.
She patted her dog’s neck.
“If I told you to run, ordered you to run,” she asked the dog, “would you?”
The bark Kera got back was so vicious, she immediately got defensive. “I was just asking! No need to snap, Bitchy McGee!”
Brodie stopped snarling at her and abruptly stared down at the ground. She seemed . . . jumpy. Like the old Brodie. The one Kera had found abandoned and alone on the streets of Los Angeles.
“Brodie? What’s wrong?”
Kera crouched down beside her dog, her arm around her dog’s middle. The pit bull began to dance from foot to foot. A weird sort of hop thing that Kera had never seen her dog do.
What was happening? Had she lost her mind? Was all this too much for her sweet dog?
But then Kera felt something wrap around her ankle and it wasn’t Brodie’s tail.
Crow weapon raised, Kera looked over her shoulder, to see—
“Erin! Oh, my God!” She reached down to hug her poor battered friend, who was lying flat on the ground, her face, arms, neck . . . everything Kera could possibly see was covered in bruises and open, seeping gashes. She was like a walking wound.
Yet, despite all that she’d clearly been through, she was still the Erin Kera knew, loved, and barely tolerated on her best day.
“Where’s the cunty whore god?” Erin asked, her voice sounding raw.
“On the freeway.”
“Freeway?”
“The 405. The fight ended up on the 405.”
“You challenged the Carrion to a fucking battle on the 405?”
“No, the Carrion challenged us,” Kera explained while pulling Erin to her feet. “And don’t chastise me, Amsel. Do you know what we’ve been through waiting for your—oh, my God! What is that smell?”
Kera slapped her hand over her mouth and nose and dry heaved.
Even Brodie skirted away from Erin.
“Cut me some slack,” Erin complained. “I was just hanging out on a beach with a bunch of corpses.”
“Dude, I’m not sure that’s a good enough excuse.”
When Brodie began coughing, like she was trying to dislodge something from the back of her throat, Kera sent her to get Chloe and Tessa.
“Did you get the sword?” Kera asked, her hand still over her mouth.
“Yes, you fucking drama queen.” She held up . . . a big knife? At least not a sword for a giant.
“What the fuck is that thing?”
“Surtr’s fire sword.”
“That looks like something Vig cleans fish with. There’s no way that is going to work on her.”
“Would you just trust me?”
“No!”
Chloe and Betty landed, but both immediately backed away from Erin.
“What is that funk?” Chloe demanded.
“Can we table this discussion ’til later?” Erin asked, pushing past them so she could carefully study what was happening on the freeway.
Betty shook her head but, unlike Chloe and Kera, she didn’t bother to cover her mouth. “I have to tell ya, sweetie, I’ve only known two or three actors who’ve ever smelled that bad before.”
“I can’t believe you’ve found any who smelled that bad.”
“You didn’t hear it from me, but some actors do not bathe on the regular.”
“So what’s the plan, stinky?” Chloe asked.
“Well, the first thing you’re going to do is stop calling me ‘stinky.’ And second, we need to distract Gullveig.”
“Why?” Kera asked. “So you can poke her with your little stick?”
“Stop trying to turn me on, Watson.”
Erin waved at someone below and Kera saw that it was Stieg. She let out a relieved sigh, then felt guilty as hell because she hadn’t asked about the man. That should have been the very first thing after making sure Erin was okay!
But to be honest, she was still shocked that Erin had made it back. She’d thought asking about Stieg would just be pushing her luck.
Erin faced Kera and the others. “We need a distraction.”
“I’ll do it,” Chloe said.
“No,” Betty cut in. “None of you girls are sacrificing yourselves. I’ve grown much too attached to all of you. I’ll handle it.”
“Betty, you can’t!”
Betty snorted. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you really think I was going to sacrifice myself? I thought you bitches knew me better.”
The Elder Crow took off, flying over the battle until she reached the other side and landed by one of the Aisling twins; Kera still didn’t know which one was which.
It had been Chloe’s decision to put the twins nowhere near each other during the fight. A strategy that Kera had completely agreed with. The girls were fierce fighters but when they were near each other . . .
“Oh, she’s not going to . . .”
But she was. Betty sent one twin to challenge the Carrion troops who protected Gullveig; and, after tracking down the other, sent that poor girl to challenge the demons who just happened to be loitering around Gullveig.
“Guys,” Kera protested, “we can’t—”
Erin looked at the ground, her abrupt reaction cutting Kera’s words off.
“Oh, God,” she whispered, “he found us.” Erin moved past Kera and waved again at Stieg.
“Who found you?”
“It’s complicated. I just need you to trust me,” she said, her wings lifting her off the ground. “And when I tell you . . . everybody run.”
Chloe watched Erin fly off. “I don’t know about you, Kera . . . but I really don’t like this.”
Kera understood that. Especially when the ground beneath her feet moved. Hard.
“Chloe . . . ?”
But Kera only realized how bad this had suddenly gotten when the shifters, still in their animal forms, turned tail and ran. Out of nowhere. With no warning. And for no obvious reason.
Yet the one thing Kera had learned a long time ago from life with her dog and watching a lot of National Geographic documentaries. . . wild animals didn’t do anything for no reason. They only did things to survive.
“Man,” Chloe observed, “we are fucked.”
* * *
Gullveig was about to leave. The battle wasn’t over by any stretch, but none of these humans offered her any real challenge, nor did they interest her in any other way either.
So why sit here? Especially when there was a sale at Neiman Marcus!
“You bitch!”
Gullveig thought someone was directing that hysterical sounding scream toward her. She searched the crowd to find whoever was attempting to challenge her. She’d kill them and then go get some shoes. Rumor
was, if you got there early enough, thirty percent off.
Who could beat that deal?
But the ones yelling . . . they weren’t talking to her. They were talking to each other.
At first, she thought she might be seeing some witch trickery, but no. This wasn’t witches. These were twin Crows. How odd. How did that even happen? Did they die at the same time? What twins died at the same time?
The twins yelled at each other, slapping away the Carrion trying to kill them, before turning on each other. It was like throwing two cats in a bag. There was no elegance to their fighting. They didn’t use weapons. They simply tore into each other like wild animals.
Finally! Gullveig was entertained!
* * *
“Move! Now!” Kera screamed from the top of the small hill where she stood with Chloe. “Everybody! Go!”
At first, Ski thought Kera was calling a retreat. Clans didn’t call retreats . . . that’s why they always ended up in trouble. But he felt something. Underneath him. Something moving.
Something was coming and it was coming fast.
“What’s going on?” Bear asked from beside him.
“I don’t know . . . but I think we should listen to Kera.”
Ski reached down and grabbed Jace off her latest victim. He carried her off the freeway, ignoring her Berserker screams. He landed next to the Crows and some of his Protector brothers. “What’s happening, Kera?” he asked, his arms around a struggling, screeching Jace.
“Erin’s back,” she said with less enthusiasm than he expected.
Jace stopped fighting and her red Berserker eyes locked on Kera. “Erin’s back?” she asked, suddenly rational. “And Stieg?”
“Him, too.”
“Then why aren’t you happy?” Ski asked.
She pointed. “Because of that.”
It began right in the middle of the freeway, before the Sunset Boulevard exit. The asphalt fell in and the sinkhole widened, spreading out until it reached across all the lanes.
The Unyielding Page 36