Freyr pulled out the com unit. The whole place was eerily quiet. The crunch of gravel the only sound as Tyr navigated the vehicle around the hunks of what used to be the Field Museum while they made their way down toward the pit that held the circle of stone dolmens. “Park here.” He pointed to a spot behind the remainder of a retaining wall.
In the distance, he watched Loki and Fen appear out of nowhere, decimate a patrol of Dark Elves, and disappear just as quickly. Tyr swung the vehicle in and they got out, Freyr raising the com to his mouth. A second later, the entire site was lit by the yellow glare of fire before the roar of the explosion hit them, the sound deafening as it tore across the open spit of land.
Another small troop of Dark Elves came tearing across the rubble field, feet kicking up gravel. Tyr rose up in front of them, took two of them out, while Freyr circled behind and cut down another. The fourth made a swipe for Freyr’s throat, and Tyr gutted him. Off in the distance, a few Grim scuttled out of the shadows, then disappeared, the smoke swallowing them up.
“We’ve got a few pockets of Grim up here on the north end.” Thor’s voice cracked out of the com. “Taking care of them now.”
“All right.” Freyr spoke into the com, his voice low. “Make it quick. Morgane and Celine have eyes all the way along the corridor. Trust me. They’ll see anything coming and give us a head’s up.”
Settling in, Tyr put his back to the stone, jammed his hands into his pockets and began counting down the seconds.
23
Circling back from the north, Hunter planned to ditch the truck outside a million-dollar mansion in Evanston. She sensed the Orobus barely twenty minutes behind her, and she meant to maintain that distance.
Once morning dawned, she intended to be working her way to the circle, ready to do her part and take her lumps from a pissed off Tyr.
She shivered. “He is going to be sooo angry with me.”
She hadn’t exactly picked the house strategically. She was almost out of gas, and she didn’t want to get too far away from the city. In other words, she was out of options, and this was the best she could do. Not that it was awful she thought, surveying the terrain as she crested the long drive. The house was immense, mostly glass, and the big break wall might prove useful if things went south. The water meant no human casualties, and the surrounding structures appeared abandoned.
Her plan, such that it was, was to hold the Orobus here long enough for Tyr to set off the explosion to draw the thing back. Once that happened, the God of Chaos would fly back to Chicago. She’d follow, a safe distance behind.
Except she’d used most of her gas.
And she had no other transportation.
She sighed. Surely one of these huge garages had an extra sports car or two in them. She couldn’t believe she’d run out of gas. Her head wasn’t in the game. Her concentration was focused on a certain unyielding god, who she imagined had steam coming out of both ears right about now. I should have said goodbye. Nope, he would have tied her to the bed. That thought made her tingle. I should have at least left a note, she amended.
Next time, she reminded herself, she’d do better next time.
There had to be a learning curve for this kind of stuff, right? Some sort of step-by-step manual on how not to screw relationships up so badly?
Dropping her head to the steering wheel as she inched up the drive, Hunter’s eyes burned, and her head throbbed. She’d been through the wringer these last few days but still had enough juice to finish this thing. Too many people depended on her to finish this. She thought of them now, tentatively, as a sort of extended kind of family. Between them and the fate of the world, well, it was no wonder a girl’s shoulders felt a bit heavy.
Glancing in the rearview, she frowned at what she left behind her.
She’d done her best, laying bread crumbs for the Orobus to follow.
Letting just enough of her darkness escape for the creature to sense, enticing him farther northward. The tiniest whisper of fearsome power was crucial for this to work, but God, it hurt her heart as she killed everything she passed.
“It’s for a good cause,” she’d assured herself. Now, from the rearview, she was not so sure. The once-lush yard blackened to moldy gray, trees turned skeletal, birds dropped from the sky. But as the pestilence spread, her target followed.
Opening herself up a bit further, she allowed another flicker of deadly energy to escape. Once she had planted enough of herself here, he’d circle. Until Tyr and the others called him back. Then they’d have their chance. Possibly their only chance.
“And then, I’m going to burn you down.”
Stepping out of the truck, Hunter watched in sick fascination as shadows spun out from her body, burning deep, black trenches out through the grass, then floated over the water, bringing silver fish to the surface. A bone-deep shudder spasmed through her as she closed herself down, the effort causing pain to shoot through her, the power clawing against her insides.
“Not a chance,” she muttered, stalking across the blackened, dead yard, then into the skeletal tree line. It wasn’t long before she reached fresh, green woodland, the dense undergrowth hiding her, thorns raking at her skin as she settled in to wait. Long minutes passed, the breeze rattling the leaves, the lapping of the waves on the shore just beyond them, rhythmic and almost soothing.
It took her a moment to realize that not all the shadows were from the early dawn.
Something cool and oily flowed over her. Like the wind, the touch of the creature was all but invisible, his clutching grasp curious and infinitely evil. Silently, Hunter drew out a knife, knowing, rationally, it wouldn’t help.
The thing was here, and he was covering the entire site in a strangling blanket of fume.
Afraid to even breathe, Hunter stilled and watched the world disappear before her eyes as the Orobus wrapped her in his shadowy grasp. For a few long seconds, she was alone with only her own heartbeats and the smothering dark. And ever so slowly, a fingernail scraped its way along her cheek as she began to pant, instincts going crazy, firing orders at her brain to run, run, run.
There was no weapon made for this creature, no steel that might defend her.
Unfortunately, there was only one thing that would work. In a surge of fear and adrenaline, Hunter opened herself up, releasing years of restraint and control, dropping the walls that kept the world safe. For only a second, she dropped her guard. She prayed nothing lived in the nearby vicinity, as power blew out from her in all directions.
When she lifted her head, the Orobus was gone.
24
Twenty minutes after the explosion, with the smoke still clearing, a cloud of darkness appeared on the horizon, and Thor knew they were in trouble.
Thank the gods Tyr had put him up here as lookout. If it had been, say, Freyr, that asshole would have been fucking with his hair or some such shit and completely missed the incoming attack all together. Speaking quickly into the com, he watched Loki, Balder, and the rest jockey into position. Catching a glimpse of Syd’s red hair, he scanned the vicinity for Mir, and sure enough, watched as the big guy yanked her behind a chunk of rubble the size of a bus. Way too close, he thought, they’re way too close to the dolmen from hell.
But this was her plan, after all.
Eyeing the incoming storm of evil, he watched the monstrous shadow scatter overhead, while beneath him, darkness wound between the buildings, filling the streets like a black, flowing river.
Something twisted in the pit of Thor’s stomach while the Orobus circled, making a lazy turn toward the basin where the stones waited, the whole scene completely still. Except…
From somewhere, behind a half-ruined wall, slithered ghostly, snakelike tendrils. Worming across the gravel-strewn field, they twisted and twined their way toward the largest of the formations, spiraling up the sides like so many rampant vines. In a matter of seconds, Ava had encased the structure with her dark magic, the stone all but obscured by shadowy fingers.
> It worked. Curious, the Orobus sucked in on himself, growing smaller and smaller, until he took on an irregular form, a few errant streaks of shadow escaping from it, but for the most part, semi-solid as he pulled himself together.
Thor hadn’t realized he was holding his breath. Not until he heard the faint roar of a far-off engine, the deep, churning grind of machinery pushed to its limit, did he release it. When the sound cut off, he knew Hunter had arrived.
Raising the com to his lips, he whispered, “Go.”
Tyr focused on his team. Everyone was in position. Thor, Celine, and Fen had given them enough time to get lined up. Syd was in place, Mir at her side. Ava was currently doing her…thing.
Check. Check, and check.
Watching the Orobus condense itself down to a car-sized shape didn’t exactly fill him with confidence, but at least so far, Sydney was right on the money. The God of Chaos was acting…predictably. And as he drifted closer to the prison dolmen, seemingly drawn to the writhing root-like tendrils Ava laid over the stones, Tyr was happy to report things were going according to plan.
And the best part? From Thor’s one-word message, Hunter had arrived.
The closer the Orobus approached, the more Ava withdrew, inch by miniscule inch. It was a tedious dance, filled with small hesitations, and a slight back-and-forth teasing movements. But as the god drew ever closer to his prison, Tyr allowed the slightest sense of hope to spark.
Twenty feet. The thing was twenty, then fifteen feet away, until finally, he breached the magical line. Ava’s shadowy fingers began receding faster, revealing the stones in their entirety, and as they did, the thing hesitated, then shrank back. Along his line of sight, Tyr watched as Sydney raised a hand, and the slightest shimmer of magic sparkled in the air around the dolmen, so faint the distortion wouldn’t be noticeable up close.
Another slight, flicker of movement from the redhead and Tyr caught a flash of light, brilliantly bright, a spark against the inky blackness as her fire flamed hot, igniting the oxygen, vaporizing everything within her magical chamber. A high keening rang through the air, the sound of air becoming ionized and turning to plasma. Exactly like Sydney said, the Orobus was sucked toward the cylinder of magic, now glowing red-hot.
And then like some sort of awful movie, everything went wrong.
The cylindrical cone of magic Sydney created began to buckle, the whining sound growing ever louder as the center caved in, and Mir began shouting, dragging Sydney backward, her heels cutting grooves in the dirt as he pulled her farther away.
Instantaneously, the dark god spread himself thin, the barest layer of shadow over the open debris-strewn field, diluting himself. And when the vacuum exploded, the force of it rippled through the Orobus, cut through the circle like some sort of cosmic storm. The wall of debris struck Tyr hard in the face, shoved him backward, and for a second, he couldn’t see a thing. Somewhere to his right, a woman began screaming. Ava, it sounded like, and whatever it was—pain or fear or both—made his heart freeze.
Pushing up, he brushed rocks and stone off him and surged for the circle, toward the screaming. White dust was swirling so thickly he might as well be blind, but the sound was a beacon, and he ended up against one of the dolmens, feeling his way along until he found Mir.
“Over here, she’s over here.”
They found her sobbing against the side of an overturned car, face white beneath the dust, vacant eyes skittering over them, past them as she sobbed uncontrollably, rubbing her arm like it was on fire. A moment later, Morgane skidded to a stop beside her sister, crushing her into her arms.
“I’ve got you. Jesus Christ, I’ve got you.”
“Where is the fucker?” Mir demanded, covering Syd with his body, a gun in one hand, his eyes scanning the air, debris still falling. Tyr couldn’t say. Between the dust, the darkness, and the shadowy presence of the thing, the Orobus was indistinguishable. One thing was for sure, they were sitting ducks if they stayed where they were.
“We have got to get out of here. Right now.”
“He’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming.” Ava chanted in a high, sobbing whisper. “Please, please, before he gets here, we have to go. Oh God. We have to go.”
While Mir grasped Sydney, Tyr took Ava and Morgane’s arms. “I’ve got my sister, you watch our backs,” Morgane told him, flipping out a knife of her own. She pointed through the smoke. “If we head that way, there’s better cover.” Ava clung to her neck as they clambered up the side of the rocky basin, Tyr feeling the Orobus creep closer with every slow, unsteady step they took.
Shoving Morgane forward, Tyr hissed, “Get to the top and run if you can. Stick with Mir. The others will be waiting, they’ll help, once you clear this dust and they see you.”
Turning, he headed back down, sliding through the gravel until his boots hit the bottom of the grade and their footsteps faded away. Debris settling was the only sound as he rounded the circle, feeling his way along, one hand on the stones, the other holding the knife.
Ridiculous, but old habits die hard.
Out of the dust, the shadows coalesced into a loose form, then tightened until they resembled something almost human. They were jerky, the thing’s movements. And when he opened his mouth, a low, series of sounds came out. A walking, talking parody of a mortal form. Somehow, Tyr found that to be the most obscene thing he’d seen in a long time. And he’d seen some shit.
Let the others clear the area.
That was Tyr’s only thought as he took a step forward, knife in hand, head clearing as he searched for a way to kill this unkillable thing.
“I need for you to get down, Tyr.” Behind him, out of the slowly settling dust, Hunter’s voice was shaking and unsteady. When he made no move, she said it again. And this time, he felt her hand dig into his shoulder. “You need to go. I need room…for what I have to do.”
Tyr opened his mouth to protest, then caught a good look at her face.
Something was wrong. With her, with her expression, with her eyes. As if she was being eaten alive from the inside. The shaking was her trying to hold in her power. The fear was because…
“Go. Please. Get them out. Now.” Her order was barely a whisper.
Tyr ran. Past the circle, up the side of the pit, his legs pumped as he raced across the field, weaving through the debris. Catching up with Mir and Morgane, he caught Ava beneath the legs and shoulder, heaving her up into his arms. “Run.” Was all he managed.
Soldier Field was too far, but if they could make the entrance to the underground walkway, it would provide some cover. “Over there,” Tyr yelled, changing direction, Ava’s arms wrapping around his neck, holding on tight. “We go in there, and we hunker down.”
Mir’s com went off, and he clicked it on as they rounded the low wall. They breached the entrance, the pounding of their feet a dull echo in the long, cavernous tunnel. “What in the fuck happened?” Fen’s voice exploded out of the com unit.
Mir spoke in between breaths. “Things…went to shit. We’re down in…the tunnel by the stadium. You have…to get to cover…now.”
“We already are. So are the others. But I had eyes on the circle before we did. Hunter’s down there…”
Mir threw the com over to Tyr. “She’s going to take him out.”
Static crackled loudly over Thor’s query. “By herself?”
Tyr leaned his head back against the wall, Ava sobbing softly against his shoulder, Morgane beside her, bracing her with a firm hand. “Yeah, by herself.”
Because that’s how Hunter did things.
Alone.
25
It was all Hunter could do to keep herself leashed long enough for Tyr and the others to clear the basin. Another minute, perhaps, until they cleared the rubble enough, and they’d be safe.
This see-saw feeling of being enticed by the creature, and needing to see it destroyed, was driving her insane. Add to that the power that was clawing at her insides. Chest heaving, she took a good look
around and finally got a clear look at her surroundings. She was inside the circle.
The power clawed its way up her throat, practically pushing out of her mouth before she shoved it back down.
Not here, not here, not yet, not now.
Her eyes wild, she scanned the stones, the gravel basin. If she let loose now, she’d wipe out everything within the vicinity.
Which couldn’t happen.
The circle had to remain standing, the dolmens must stay intact. If they stood any chance of sending this being to his death, or imprisoning him again, they needed this structure. Since their plan had completely failed, she would have to settle for incapacitating him.
But releasing a trickle of her power, a short burst, could do the trick.
She noticed he’d formed himself into some kind of humanoid, a close-but-yet-so-far version of a human. “Looking good, dark god. Definitely an improvement on the whole, spinning orb of evil you had going on before,” Hunter taunted breathlessly, estimating the others had almost reached the outer limits of her range. “Needs a bit of work.” She panted, circling him, searching the murky exterior for any sign of weakness. “But it’s a starting point, I suppose.”
Another ten seconds, and she could loosen up her throat hold on the damn thing thrashing around inside of her. And then she’d see. Partly curious, partly terrified, Hunter rounded the creature again, wondering at the form he’d chosen. “Interesting you’d turn into the very thing you wish to destroy. Some might call that projecting.”
A series of low, throbbing sounds came out of the thing, sounding almost pleading.
“Yeah, going to have to work on that. A mouth might help.”
Her ten seconds was up, and still, here she was, hesitating.
Weakness or fear or simple reluctance, she never figured it out.
In the seconds it took her to doubt, the thing rose up and encased her in shadow and vapor, the ephemeral gloom every bit a physical blow as if the god had reached out and clutched her in an enormous fist. Without thinking, Hunter blew apart, giving in to the horror at being held by something infinitely more powerful than herself.
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