Death's Daughter

by L. A. McGinnis

  They’d agreed on this strategy the night before. No one would know the truth about Hunter’s parentage, not until Hunter tracked the goddess herself, or, gods forbid, saw Hel with her own eyes. Tyr hoped it never came to that.

  “Morgane’s going with you.” Tyr’s gaze met Loki’s in perfect understanding while he gave his next order, praying it would be followed to the letter. “You two will stick together. Tight. Do not take any chances.”

  “Ava and Celine. I want you to figure out ways to leverage the Otherworld and the Dreaming to our advantage. The way I see it, they’re just two more potential battlefields we’ve got to cover. So figure out how to best utilize them when the time comes.”

  “Syd, Mir. You two are on advance planning. I want an overall contingency plan. Any way to use magic against them, ways to amplify your power.” He sucked in a breath. “And I want an escape plan. For all of us. Some place we can go if this world goes to shit.” He raised a hand to stave off the rising dissent. “I have no intention of abandoning this world. I have no intention of losing this one, either. But shit happens. Better to retreat and fight another day, right?” He sent an especially pointed look at Fen. “Some of us have more at risk here than others. I’m doing whatever I can do to keep everyone safe. Let’s get this done.”

  “I notice you gave me two jobs.” Mir held out both hands to stop Tyr when he started to give an explanation. “No problem, it was just an observation. I’ve got it handled, no worries.” Mir left, the other filing out behind him, their voices subdued.

  “Hell of a halftime speech.” Loki’s voice was dripping with amusement. “And glad to see you back in the game. Not worried about what’ll happen once we kill the bastard?”

  Tyr lowered his voice to a whisper. “Of course I am. That’s why I’m giving you another job too. Something I expect you’ll fucking excel at. Spectacularly.”

  “Lay it on me.”

  “I want you to find a loophole. Any godsdamnned loophole to get me out of this bargain I made with the Fates.”

  Loki looked uncomfortable. “That’s a hell of a big favor.”

  “Tell me how that’s different from anything else you’ve ever done in your long and colorful history of manipulating everything and everyone to your own ends?”

  “But we’re talking about the Fates, my brother.”

  “Yes, it is the Fates,” Tyr agreed. “And they used Hunter’s words against her, boxed me into a corner and screwed us both over. So tell me again how this is unethical. I’m using their tactics against them. Love and war, man, love and war.” Tyr knew he had a satisfied smile on his face when he’d finished. “I never fucking lose. And I won’t this time, either.”

  “All right,” Loki agreed. “I’ll do it. But they’re slippery fish, Tyr. Just remember that.”

  Tyr thought about Hunter and everything else that was on the line here. “I’ve met them, remember? Between you and me, I’m counting on finding a work around.” His smile turned pure evil. “But if I fail, then I have you. You’re my backup plan.”

  Ice glinted in Loki’s blue eyes. “Thanks for picking me to do your dirty work.”

  “Yeah, well, I do have a tendency to play by the rules,” Tyr admitted, once he was sure everyone else was out of earshot. “But right now, I don’t much care about rules. If this is our final stand, I’m willing to do what it takes to keep everyone alive.” He met Loki’s gaze steadily. “Whatever it takes,” he reiterated.

  “That’s an awfully big promise,” Loki told him in return, his eyes burning. “This time… Things feel different to me, as well. As if we’ve run out of options, finally. We’re certainly running out of soldiers,” Loki warned.

  “Tell me about it. If the Orobus destroys this world, even if we manage to escape another one, our chances of survival go down dramatically. You know it as well as I do. We make a stand here,” Tyr told him. “Worst-case scenario, we get the women somewhere safe, then we come back and finish this.”

  Loki nodded. “Most likely scenario, I agree. So what’s our timeline? I’m thinking weeks, but it might be less.” Idly, Loki spun his knife on the table. “And what about Ava? The way I see it, she’s the wild card in all of this.”

  Tyr had to agree. He didn’t want to admit it, but something about the explosion, something didn’t add up. There was more to her recent instability than Odin pissing her off. “Someone could talk to her. You saw her in the meeting...”

  “At least she’s coming to the meetings,” Loki pointed out.

  “True. But not one wisecrack. And I expected to see her hanging with her sister. But not so much as a word passed between them today, and I was watching. What’s your take on the whole situation?”

  Loki took a moment before he answered. “Morgane’s worried about her. She’s tried to get her to open up, but Ava’s shut down tight. Keeps saying she needs more time, but if you ask me…” His voice trailed off, and he looked uncomfortable.

  “Don’t stop there. You might as well get it all out there.”

  “If you ask me, Ava’s hiding something. If Ava lets her get too close, Morgane might figure it out. And Ava doesn’t want anyone to know what’s in her head right about now.”

  “You think it’s more than Odin pissing her off.”

  Loki nodded.

  “Good, we’re agreed. We figure out what she’s hiding, then. And where the fuck is Odin? I haven’t seen him in days.”

  “Last I heard, he’d been drinking on the roof.”

  “You have got to be shitting me.”

  “Wish I was. Look, I don’t know what’s coming, but wasting time on Odin is just that, a waste. Forget him. He’s completely checked out.” Tyr wished it wasn’t true. But after months of heavy drinking, it looked like the bastard wasn’t coming up for air. And Tyr was tired of waiting.

  “All right, enough with the personnel problems. On to the elephant in the room.

  “Somehow, we’ve got to force the Orobus away from the site. What if we spread him out thinner, over a larger area?” Tyr met Loki’s gaze. “Freyr got me thinking. Basic Art of War stuff. If we attacked on multiple fronts, he’d be forced to change shape,” Tyr mused. “His Dark Elves are gone, almost all the Grim too. This is as good a time as any. He’s practically defenseless at the moment.”

  “Until he brings his armies through. And you know that’s only a matter of time.”

  “Yup, so we work fast while we have this narrow window of opportunity.” Tyr ran a hand through his hair.

  “And what about Hunter?”

  Tyr hesitated. “She’s not going anywhere near that thing. Almost lost her once already. Besides, he already took what he wanted from her. No other reason for him to be interested in her, at this point. She has other leads to pursue at the moment.”

  Loki’s blue gaze narrowed. “So you have an ace up your sleeve, and you’re not telling me what it is.”

  “I’m telling you what I can.”

  “Fine. But if you keep secrets, expect them to come back and bite you in the ass. Ask me how I know.” Loki hesitated. “I’m trusting Ava less and less these days.”

  Tyr clapped a hand on Loki’s shoulder. “We all deserve a second chance. We at least owe her that. She’s holding something back, but she might have her reasons. And if she’s part of this whole mess, then where does she fit?”

  Loki’s eyes blazed as he considered it. “Well that’s something we’ve never asked ourselves before.”

  “Right. We need to lay everything out on the table, see where everyone fits. All this time, we’ve been busy putting out fires, focusing on pieces of the problem. When have we ever taken the time to see the big picture?”

  “Maybe it’s about time we did.”

  44

  Hunter was trying to figure out why they were all packed into a bathroom.

  It was a really nice bathroom, but a bathroom nonetheless.

  Ava was curled into a ball in a corner, Sydney and Morgane were together, whispering, and
she was stuck over here by herself. Wondering what in the hell was going on.

  “Sorry I’m late. I had to figure out how to slip away without Fen noticing,” Celine said, closing the door behind her. Chewing her lip nervously, she looked to Ava. “All right, we’re all here. Where do you want to start?”

  Hunter’s gaze swung to the brunette in the corner, who apparently was in charge of this little meeting.

  “You know what I’m asking you to do, right?” Ava inquired in that sultry voice of hers, eyes so dark and deadly they looked black.

  “Are you absolutely sure you’re up for this, Celine?” Morgane sounded worried, pulling the same chewing-on-her-lip move and added the twirling-of-the-hair thing, besides.

  “I’m sure.”

  But Hunter noted she was a wreck, even while Sydney settled in beside her, taking her hand. “Okay,” Sydney coaxed, “the first thing Ava wants to know… Is there anything you’ve glimpsed in your dreams. Anything weird?” Trading glances, they all burst out in nervous laughter. “Okay, right. Anything weirder than what’s already happening. Anything out of the ordinary.”

  Ava spoke softly from her corner perch. “It will be a vision that leaves you with a feeling of déjà vu, Celine.” Her voice held a quiet certainty. “You’ll get this terrible, awful feeling inside of you, and that’s when you know you’re close.”

  Celine’s hand tightened until her knuckles turned white. “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.” Her eyes seemed to grow larger in the dim light of the bathroom. “There’s this…place that keeps coming to me in my dreams. Over and over again. I don’t know where it is. But it’s big and cavernous…and echoing, and we’re all inside. I’m never sure why we’re all there, if the God of Chaos brought us together or if we came to fight him...” She squeezed her eyes shut, while she added, “But we’re all together.”

  “Keep going, Celine, you’re doing great,” Sydney urged her. “Did you see anything else?”

  “Ask her about smells,” Morgane added, circling the room, seemingly unable to land anywhere.

  “It’s cool, like a cave, or maybe it’s winter. And yeah, the place smells. Kind of like dirt, earthy, you know and…” Celine thought for a moment, then tacked on, “There’s the sound of water. Running or falling and the sound is loud, almost deafening.”

  Morgane stopped her there. “Take a break, Celine. Syd, give her a sip of that water. So it’s a cave, or it’s cold, but you’re not in the city, you’re pretty sure?”

  Celine’s voice was shaky. “Y-yeah.” She firmed her mouth. “Yes. The place feels closed in, and I can smell woods, or leaves, definitely not city smells. And my feet are on rock. Rough rock, I think. And now that I’m remembering, yes, the sound of the water is constant, it’s roaring, like a rhythm.” These final sentences came out in bursts of breath, Celine struggling over each of them.

  “So a cave?” Syd prompted. “And the roar of the water, would you say it sounded like waves?”

  Celine nodded, as if she were past speech.

  “Were the rocks a certain shape or color, or were any markings on them, Celine? Anything at all, something that might set them apart or distinguish them?”

  “Not color… Only…. Oh, they looked like my rock.”

  As Hunter watched, Celine drew something out of her pocket. The object was palm-sized, dark, like a goose egg. Flipping it over, the surface caught the faint light, and Hunter saw it was covered in lines, markings of some sort. “The inside of the cave was covered with these marks, ceiling, walls, everything. Round and whirling, like fingerprints. Dug into the rock.” Celine slipped the stone back inside her hoodie.

  Over in the corner, Ava drew a harsh breath before folding herself into a ball.

  “All right, that’s enough.” Sydney’s voice grew shaky, too. “I think you’ve given me enough I can establish some possible locations. There are only a few underground dolmens near an ocean or sea. Here, take a sip of water, Celine.”

  Hunter’s gaze, and everyone else’s, turned to Ava, still balled up in the corner while Morgane paced closer, setting her hands on her hips, and facing her sister. “All right, Ava, spill. Celine’s seen something. Now tell us, why did you ask us here, and what does all this mean?”

  “I wanted to talk to you…because I know something no one else does.” Ava’s voice turned reedy. “When we were at the circle, the day everything went wrong, the Orobus touched me. A bit of his magic, it touched me.”

  “But he’s touched me before, almost killed me and Mir, the day we fought…” With a wave of her hand, Ava cut Sydney off.

  “Not like this,” Ava insisted. “Not the way he did with me. Our magic intertwined. It danced, it sang, it… I don’t fucking know… We communicated. And in that moment, he knew me.”

  Her eyes grew depthless. “And I knew him.” Imperceptibly, Hunter felt Ava’s peculiar energy pulse through the air, the tingle as it passed over her, and she shifted until she stood beside Ava as her voice dropped lower. “This place Celine described, I’ve been there too, in my dreams. The stone circle may be the hub of his operation, his way of moving armies, multitudes of beings between realms.

  “But that circle isn’t the heart of his operation. Nor the true source of his power. That’s coming from somewhere else.”

  Trembling, Ava raised her sleeve, revealing her arm, one inch at a time. Hunter froze as she glimpsed the markings, the narrow, white ridges shining in the light. Celine drew the stone from her pocket and held it out, its shiny black surface covered with the same markings.

  Raised, circular ridges.

  Like fingerprints, burned into the surface.

  “Every one of us in this room has been touched by the Orobus. There’s no doubt the circle should be destroyed. But this other place, if that’s where his true power stems from, that should be our real target.” Ava hesitated. “He was so focused on me when I glimpsed his thoughts, that he might not realize we’re aware of this secondary site.”

  Sydney hopped off the bench. “There’s only a handful of places matching that description. Let me see if I can narrow it down to one.”

  “I don’t want anyone else to know,” Ava said, her voice hushed, trailing her fingers over the ridges on her arm. “Not until I figure out what these marks signify. And until I’m convinced I’m not a threat, I’ll be keeping my distance from the rest of you. No offense.”

  A low murmuring of assent passed between them all.

  “All right, Ava, your secret is safe with us,” Morgane pronounced, her gaze never leaving her sister. “Sydney’s magical lockdown is keeping the Orobus busy. And you’re right. We should capitalize on this information while he’s focused on the stones.”

  “Except we have to do the jobs Tyr tasked us with,” Hunter reminded them all, her gaze straying to the door. “And Morgane and I are already behind schedule.”

  “Right,” Morgane agreed, “which means we’d better leave. Right now.”

  “And we’re heading for the dolmen site?” Hunter responded, already pushing to her feet.

  “Nope, the portals were a secondary site. Let’s poke around Millennium Park. That’s where the Orobus came through first. My gut tells me there’s something there we missed. I want to take another look.”

  Hunter paused, weighing the ramifications of this new information. “All right. If I’d known the Dark God came through anywhere but the stone circle, I would have checked it out myself.”

  Sydney caught Celine’s arm when she went to stand up. “I’m good,” Celine said, even though her face was pale, and she was wobbling on her feet. “You know what? On second thought, I do think I’ll take a nap,” she told them, swaying as she held onto Sydney. “Just a short one.”

  “C’mon let’s get you settled.” Sydney threw them a worried look before helping Celine out into the bedroom. “To bed with you, missy, and then I’ll cook you something really special.” They watched Sydney help Celine into bed. “Get some sleep, and I’ll check on you
in an hour.”

  Filing out of Celine and Fen’s room, it occurred to Hunter that they probably could have picked a better place for a clandestine meeting. Especially when Fen’s giant body was blocking the hall they needed to get through.

  “Going somewhere, ladies?” His greeting was velvety soft. “And please do not let me find out you were talking to Celine.” Dangerous, like a predator’s warning snarl.

  “We’re heading to the War Room.” Hunter stepped in front of the others, blocking them, placing a casual hand on her knives. “And you’re impeding progress.” The wolf didn’t budge. “Tyr’s going to have a shit fit if we don’t get busy. You want to be the one to tell him why?”

  “Nice try, sweetheart. But just in case you were wondering, I wasn’t born yesterday.” His eyes drifted over them as if deciding to kill them or let them pass. “So I’ll ask you again, what the hell were you doing in there with my mate?” This time, there was a hint of fang with the question.

  When Hunter hesitated, Ava chimed in. “We had a girl’s meeting. You know, girl stuff. Which is code for none of your damn business.”

  Fenrir got right down in her face. “Everything about her business is my business. Everything, do you hear me? You weren’t going behind my back, were you? Using her talents to find something out, the kind of information you couldn’t get anywhere else, perchance?”

  Ava’s hands went to her hips, her stance straightened. Fenrir leaned forward until they were almost nose to nose. Morgane stepped up beside her, shoulder to shoulder, and pushed against his chest, with a low warning, “Fenrir…”

  “You did, didn’t you?” Nostrils flaring, the air in the hallway seemed to change, charged with his rage. “You went behind my back, and you…”

  “Fen. Stop it.” Celine’s sharp order had the desired effect. He froze in his tracks and then backed off a few steps when she ordered, “Come here.” Her tired voice was edged with resignation. “They didn’t do anything. They needed answers to a question. So I told them about the dreams.” Without a backward glance, Fenrir shouldered his way through and slammed the door in their faces.