“What’s that?” I asked, watching him carefully. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it seemed like it might pain him to ask.
“I need you to let Connor die.” He swallowed hard. “I won’t understand. Hell, I’ll try to stop you. Forgive me, I know not what I’m doing.”
“What the frig are you talking about?” I cried, shocked he hadn’t grown a third head because that seemed way more reasonable at this point. Had he just seriously told me to let Connor die and that he would stop me?
“Lillim, I’m from the future.” He poked his chest with his thumb. “I’ve seen what happens if Connor doesn’t die. Hell, like an idiot, I spent years trying to ‘fix’ it. Do you know what happened when I did?”
“No?” I said very carefully. I wasn’t sure how he could be from the future, but I was going to just assume it was true for the moment. If I didn’t, I was going to break my brain. Besides, he’d traveled to the past before. Maybe he’d done it again, only just not as far back.
“The world ends. Nidhogg breaks free and kills everyone. There is no rebirth.” He shook his head. “Connor knows this. He told me he knew, and that I was a fool. He knows he has to die on this battlefield. Still, I stopped him from doing so, and for my trouble, I got to watch the world burn and know it was my fault.” He turned away from me. “I killed everyone and everything, Connor included.”
Pain filled his voice as he spoke, and before I could stop myself, I had reached out and touched his shoulder. “It’s okay, Thes. People make mistakes.” I took a deep breath. “I’m assuming you fixed it.”
“I’m trying.” He turned back to me and unshed tears glinted in the corner of his eyes. “I’ve had to stop myself from saving a lot of people, Lillim.” The way he said that made me very concerned. Who else had he stopped himself from saving? As I studied his face, a horrible realization struck me. He was talking about not saving me!
“I died, didn’t I?” I asked because there was no way it could be true. Could it? Could I have really just died at Loki’s hands after ripping out his spell? It hardly seemed fair. “Is that why you healed me?”
He didn’t respond. Instead, he took my hand, and as he did, I felt myself get pulled free of the scenery. I saw myself sitting there on the platform as Thes tried to figure out how to go down below. I watched my chest rise and fall slower and slower as he kept talking, totally oblivious.
I saw myself reach for Idun’s apple, and as I did, the fruit slipped from my hand and rolled across the platform. As I flopped over, trying to grab it, my chest stopped moving. I wasn’t sure how long my body lay there before I saw my spirit leave my body, but as it happened, Thes turned and saw me like that.
Then it all sped up. Thes crawled down the roots of Yggdrasil alone. Thes tried to stop Nidhogg, and as it was about to eat him, Connor killed the dragon. The dragon fell to the ground, and as it did, Yggdrasil crumbled. Connor and Thes looked at each other as glowing white fire rained from above, and everything turned to ash and void.
“Whoa, what the hell?” I asked, still trying to get over the fact I’d died. I mean, actually died. While part of me had been willing to repeat Dirge’s sacrifice, but now that doing so stared me in the face, I wasn’t quite as okay with it as I’d thought I’d been.
“Here’s the problem,” Thes said, turning to look at me as everything around us settled into a void of nothingness. “There isn’t just your battle going on. Right now, the horsemen fight for victory too. They will win, but in the end, Death will defeat them all.” Thes swallowed, and I got the distinct impression what he was about to say next wasn’t the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. “Connor can stop that from happening.”
“And it will kill him?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. It seemed crazy to think we could win and still lose, but then again, this was real life. Yeah, in the movies Superman faced his apocalypse, and it didn’t matter what Green Lantern was doing at the time, but what if while Superman was busy stopping the giant meteor from crashing into earth, Green Lantern failed to stop the alien invaders from unleashing their death ray? The world would end even though Superman stopped the meteor. It was kind of a hard lesson to swallow.
“Yes. It will kill Connor.” Thes looked at me very, very hard. I wasn’t sure how much those words cost him, but I was judging from the way his eyes flicked to his feet, it was a lot. “I just came from that scenario. I just saved him, and this happened.” He spread his hands wide as if presenting me with exhibit A. “The only way to change things is to make sure you live. You cannot die here.” He coughed and blood sprayed from his lips. “Only you can get Connor to do what he must.”
“Wait,” I said, making a time out gesture with my hands. “You said you altered things to make sure Connor survived. What did you change?”
“You weren’t supposed to miss.” He didn’t meet my eyes as he pulled my revolver out of his pocket and offered it to me.
“Do I want to know why you made me miss?” I asked, taking the gun. I could scarcely believe he was telling the truth. This was Thes. Truth, justice, and the American way, Thes. The guy I trusted to do the right thing, and he’d sacrificed me? Me?
“It’s complicated.” For a moment he looked like he would say more, but instead he met my eyes. They were rimmed with red. “Just kill the dragon, Lillim. I’ll make sure everything else happens as it should.”
A surge of anger exploded through me. He had been willing to sacrifice me? When I’d lived? That was total bullshit, and a lot of me couldn’t quite believe he’d done it. Thes had changed, and not for the better.
“We’re not friends anymore, Thes,” I said barely able to resist the urge to just shoot him with my super gun. I didn’t, but I wanted to do it with nearly everything in me. The only reason I didn’t was because it said something about him that he gave me a gun that could kill anything, while giving me bad news. That took guts.
“Oh, I know that,” he said, and as he spoke, the scenery seemed to speed back up and he vanished. “Trust me.”
I wasn’t sure how to take what he’d said. I mean, he was from the future, so he no doubt knew how I’d react, knew I’d hate him for it and he did it anyway. Goddamn him and his nobility. It made me sick.
I shook my head and turned around to see my Thes, gesturing like a kid in a candy store. Guess future Thes was done with me for now. Good. I wasn’t fond of him anyway.
“Lillim, I think I know how to get down there!” Thes cried, excitement filling his voice. I turned to see him there still clad in his gym shorts. Toga Thes was gone as quickly as he’d come. This was my chance to fix his mistake.
Thes pointed to the far wall where I could just make out the roots of Yggdrasil. I wasn’t sure what his idea was exactly, but I had a feeling it’d involve climbing. Unfortunately, I was too angry at him to care. I knew it wasn’t fair. This Thes hadn’t killed me to try to save Connor, but well, he would do it. Maybe not here and maybe not now, but he’d grow into the future Thes who would kill me to save Connor. The bastard.
“Great,” I replied, narrowing my eyes at him. “Let’s do it.”
He stopped and stared at me. “What’s up?” he asked, and as he did, his eyes widened. “And how are you okay? You were about to die on the ground a second ago.” He tried to smile. “Not that I wanted you to die. I kept dreading having to turn around because I didn’t want to find you that way.”
“Would you believe me if I said you came from the future and saved me because you tried to kill me and apparently the universe needs me to live so I can do some messed up shit and pull us out of the fire?” I almost said. I didn’t, but it was a near thing. Instead, I forced myself to smile. “Magic.”
He nodded like he didn’t quite believe me but didn’t want to argue with me. It was funny because I’d seen that exact same expression on countless faces before. What can I say? I have a way with people.
“All right,” he said very slowly. “Let’s get this show on the road. Connor is down there and so is the dragon.”
/>
“Yeah,” I said, not looking at him. It hurt my cheeks too much to keep fake smiling at him. “Let’s go.”
23
Climbing down Yggdrasil’s roots was less eventful than I’d expected in that we didn’t run into any gods. That was good. Gods were dicks. Still, when we landed lightly on an asteroid closer to Nidhogg’s head than was probably absolutely necessary, I was a little dumbfounded by what I saw.
Connor lay on his back in front of the dragon, darkness undulating off of him like the wavy heat lines on asphalt. Nidhogg’s immense maw loomed over him, eyes shut in ecstasy as it inhaled said darkness. Black pulsing veins crisscrossed the dragon’s immense bulk as it continued to suck power from Connor. I wasn’t quite sure how it was doing that, but one thing was certain, the last thing anyone needed was for Nidhogg to get itself all hopped up on Connor’s destroyer juju.
“What do we do?” Thes asked, but instead of responding, I pushed a surge of magic into my legs and leapt. I landed hard on the dragon’s back and took off running. My boots smacked against his black scales so loudly, I was sure they could hear me on the surface. Part of me had wanted to creep up on the dragon, but most of me wanted him to hear me.
When the dragon continued to ignore me, I pulled the twin blades of Shirajirashii from their sheathes and pushed power into them. The sigils emblazoned across Set and Isis lit up like the neon signs outside a liquor store. It was time to do some damage.
“Are you ready?” I whispered to them as I raised my arms.
“Yes,” the voices of three Egyptian gods called in unison, and with their battle cry echoing in my ears, I plunged them into Nidhogg’s back as I ran across his spine. It was hard to do because his scales were slick and he was moving, but I really wanted it. My swords sliced through the thick scales like a warm knife through even warmer butter, cleaving a great swath of destruction through the dragon’s flesh as I continued to run.
I probably wasn’t doing much actual damage to the dragon. After all, he was immense, and even though I was putting a pair of foot deep slices into his back as I ran, I doubted it did more than annoy him. Fortunately, that’s what I wanted. Well, not to annoy him, but to draw his attention from Connor.
It worked, which was both good and bad. Nidhogg’s good eye shot open, and he focused it on me. As he did, his massive body twisted, nearly tearing free of the roots of Yggdrasil. He must have been as surprised by it as I was because his gaze shifted from my impertinent form to the world tree and back again.
Then laughter unlike I’d ever heard before erupted from the dragon’s throat. It hit me like a full on sonic boom, knocking me from my feet as Nidhogg shifted his immense bulk.
My feet went out from under me, and as I tried to drive my swords into his flesh in an effort to anchor myself, Thes seized me around the waist with one arm and leapt into the air. He grabbed ahold of one of Nidhogg’s spines with his other hand. His muscles corded with effort as he glanced at me and shook his head.
“So now that he’s pissed off, what’s the plan?” he asked, strain evident in his voice. Behind him, I could see a whole army of dragoons coming toward us. There were way too many to fight. We needed to get Connor.
As I opened my mouth to tell him just that, Nidhogg roared. The rock overhead cracked as a burst of crimson flame exploded from the dragon’s massive jaws and struck the world tree like a flamethrower on steroids. For a moment, it almost seemed like Nidhogg’s flames would slide off Yggdrasil’s ashen bark, like its immense roots would succeed in rebinding him, but then that same writhing darkness that pulsed in thick veins across the dragon’s body flared like starlight on a dark night.
The dragon’s flames turned black as coal, and the smell of sulfur hit my nose as the blackened fire ate into Yggdrasil. Ash rained from the sky as the world tree began to burn, and as it did, Nidhogg finally tore himself loose. The roots of the world tree snapped, and the sound reverberated through the immense cavern like crushed dreams. It was the snap, crackle, pop of the world ending, and this time it wouldn’t be with a whimper. No, this time the world would end in ash and flame.
As the world came tumbling down, and the nine worlds started to shatter, blasts of ice mixed with molten spray filled the air. Jotunheim and Muspelheim, the worlds of fire and frost, converged above. Next would come the other worlds until at the end, even our world was consumed in fire and ice.
That couldn’t happen. Yggdrasil wasn’t dead. Off balance, sure. Hurt, definitely. But not dead. We could still stop this.
“Thes, get me closer,” I cried and even though we were right next to each other, my words were nearly lost in the arctic gale raging around us.
“Okay,” he said and flung us forward. I’ll say this. The werewolf was surprisingly agile. He moved through the air with a liquid grace I could never have matched, and as he did, I sheathed Set and Isis and poured magic into him. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but as I forced power into his body, urging him to move faster, leap farther, his golden fur took on the color of destiny. I’m not sure how else to explain it. It was like he had been made from the golden gates outside of Heaven rather than just plain old gold.
Still, it wouldn’t be enough. I could tell that now. Nidhogg’s head was too far away, and while I could chance a shot into the dragon from here, I really wanted to shoot him in something that wasn’t covered by foot thick scales. For one, I didn’t want my bullet to bounce off. I mean, it wasn’t like I had a second shot, and two, I didn’t want to tempt fate. No, if I shot him, it’d be a kill shot. I was going to shoot him in the eye and put the bullet into his brain.
“Move faster, wolf!” I called, pulling the revolver from its holster. We were running out of time, and I’d be damned if we’d die now. I had to speed this up! “We haven’t got all day.”
“You found your gun?” he asked, surprise filling his voice as he landed hard on the serpentine back of Nidhogg. The dragon roared again, and the surge of blackened flame coming from its gullet grew ten times hotter. Only as it did, the blackness started to fade. It was like he’d spent all of Connor’s energy and now he was turning back into plain old Nidhogg. Yippee.
The dragon must have realized this too because as the last of the darkness ebbed from his fiery breath, he cut it off and turned to look at us. That look told me everything I needed to know. Nidhogg thought he’d won.
His immense arm, now free of Yggdrasil, came flying at us. Thes leapt and hurled me into the air like a goddamned meteor. The clawed hand of the dragon hit him a half a second later, flinging him off into God knows where like he was no more than an annoying fly. Still, I was pretty sure he wasn’t dead being that he had come back from the future and all, but then again, he’d screwed up the timeline. Maybe he was dead. Either way, I didn’t have time to think about it now.
I tucked my body into an aerodynamic missile and careened through the air. I landed hard on the dragon’s shoulder and called upon my power. Electricity danced across my skin as I shut my eyes and pulled everything I had up. It hurt. It tore at my insides in a way that almost made me think I’d downed a fifth of Fireball, and as it did, I knew, I might not survive. That was okay though.
“From Hell’s heart I shoot at thee!” I cried, springing toward the dragon. Magic exploded from my feet with enough force to melt the scales beneath my boots into slag. The dragon howled in pain and instead of trying to swat me out of the air, brought his immense claw down on the spot where I’d stood. The force of the blow was enough to bring him just a bit closer, just into range.
As I neared the apex of my leap, I aimed my revolver at his big serpentine eye. Now, I was a pretty good shot, and Nidhogg had an eye the size of a barn. So when I pulled that trigger, my aim was true. Even with lightning crackling above and ice falling from the sky.
My bullet hit him square in the pupil. It tore into the soft, fleshy tissue of his eye with a thunderclap of sound and force that threw the dragon completely to the side. Gore exploded from the dragon’s ruined eyeball
as white flame rippled outward in a geyser.
Nidhogg’s face fell into a sort of blank expressionless void as the sound of a volcano erupting filled my ears. The dragon squealed, rearing back and driving its own hand into its eye with enough force to cleave off half of its skull in a single blow.
Brain, bone, and blood flew everywhere as the putrid smell of burning flesh filled my nose. The dragon dropped the burning half of its skull into the void below and smiled, which was altogether insane being that it only had half a head. I wasn’t even sure how the hell this was possible. He should have been dead. Why wasn’t he dead?
I had half a second to contemplate that, to curse the gods for not helping me appropriately. To scream my rage and let my frustration fly before Nidhogg opened what remained of his face hole and unleashed a torrent of fire at my falling form.
24
I threw all the power I had left in front of me in a vain attempt at a shield as Nidhogg’s glowing orange flames slammed into me. My power buffeted his dragon fire with all the strength of a soap bubble beneath a deluge of bathwater. Fire hot enough to turn my skin lobster red slid around me, but it wouldn’t last. It couldn’t last. I could feel the last vestiges of my strength ebbing away. If I didn’t do something soon, I was done for.
“Please, if you have anything left,” I whispered as I holstered my revolver and grabbed onto the twin blades of Shirajirashii. “I’d really appreciate your help.”
As I pulled my swords free, their white blades seemed to warp under a sudden strain. I felt Isis grab ahold of me, felt Set steady my hand, and felt Apep reach out from the void. Their power spread out around me, spilling over the ruins of Nidhogg’s lair like a white blanket. The dragon’s flames surged, pouring past me into the void. I can’t quite explain how it felt to be a conduit drawing dragon fire into the void, but it was burning me up from the inside in all the wrong ways.
Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) Page 15