The Gatekeeper (The Guardians of Tara Book 1)

by S. M. Schmitz

  Selena smiled at the Norse thunder god and tilted her head at him. “And you cared enough to track us down to warn us about her. You haven’t left your days of defending Midgard behind you.”

  Cameron noticed the Norse god’s cheeks brighten as he waved a dismissive hand at Selena, but he’d dropped his eyes and fidgeted with his beer bottle. “Well, no one needs a giant with a magic hammer to protect villages anymore, so there’s not much use for me here.”

  He sensed what Selena was about to say, but she spoke before he could stop her. “You know, we can certainly use a giant with a magic hammer and impeccable fighting skills.”

  Thor’s gray eyes darted up to her face as Nemain choked on her beer. “You want me to fight with you?”

  Selena shrugged and apparently decided to ignore the death-stare from the Irish war goddess sitting across from her. “Why not? The old gods of the Tuatha Dé might have a hard time coming to terms with our new friendship, but I trust you. And even before the Battle of the Gods, Cameron recognized you’d likely want to do things differently if you’d been given a choice.”

  “Yes, but…” Thor bit his lip as he struggled to respond, and Cameron heard himself jumping to Selena’s aid before he could stop himself either.

  He really needed to work on that whole think-first-speak-later thing.

  “There are few warriors who could make me break a sweat, and you’re one of them. If you want to return to Earth to defend people, we really can use all the help we can get.”

  Thor’s cheeks darkened again at Cameron’s compliment, and he ignored the death-stare Nemain was shooting him now.

  “It would beat building palaces in Falias…” Thor said slowly.

  “Just so you know,” Cameron added, “we’re not only looking for the pervy heart-stealing Aztec god, but a pissed off Sumerian god who thought kidnapping and almost killing my girlfriend wasn’t sufficient grounds for murdering his son.”

  “Have you managed to ever not piss off a god?” Thor asked.

  “Um… Dagda?” Cameron asked in response.

  “Don’t know about that,” Selena said. “He was likely a little pissed when you burned his mallet so he couldn’t torture Perun.”

  “Oh, in that case, no,” Cameron said.

  “Food’s coming,” Nemain interjected. “Can we decide whether or not a bunch of Irish gods are going to allow a Norse god to fight with them later?”

  Cameron shrugged and turned his attention to the plate of po-boys and bowls of gumbo heading their way. “Nothing to decide. Selena invited him, and I’ll always support her. And get ready to be humiliated. I’m about to own you.”

  Nemain offered him a self-assured smirk and asked, “What’s the bet, Sun God?”

  “If I win, I never have to fight another snake again.”

  “And if you lose?” Thor asked.

  “You go back to the Otherworld and apologize to Badb for all the cruel things you’ve said to her and about her,” Nemain wagered.

  “I…” Cameron stuttered and narrowed his eyes at the war goddess. There was no way he could lose now. “All right, Gatekeeper. What are you laying on the table?”

  “If I win, we put the question of the Nemedians and Stone behind us for now and focus on Huitzilopochtli. And if I lose, I’ll take on the next serpent myself.”

  “Totally going to die but ok,” Cameron agreed.

  “Cameron,” Selena sighed.

  Nemain waved her off and insisted, “I can handle it. Besides, I’m not going to lose.”

  Thor laughed and pulled his plate and bowl closer. “My wager. If I win, no more Norse jokes from any of you, but especially you, Cameron.”

  Damn it. How was he supposed to communicate with him if he couldn’t mock his entire pantheon?

  “And if I win,” Thor continued, “no more snide comments about my joining your expedition, Nemain.”

  The Irish war goddess flashed a smug smile in his direction and said, “Deal, Jötunn.”

  “Prepare to fight Jörmungandr, Crow,” Thor retorted.

  “Hey, she does turn into a crow!” Cameron interrupted.

  “And you’re about to turn into a loser,” Nemain retorted.

  Selena rolled her eyes and picked up her spoon. “I’m going home,” she muttered.

  Cameron shook his head and flashed a mischievous grin in her direction. “Not with our egos on the line. And we both know I can’t lose now. Badb would never let me hear the end of it.”

  Nemain cocked an eyebrow at him as she picked up her po-boy. “I’ll make damn sure of that.”

  Cameron eyed the po-boy she’d already begun to eat and suddenly wished he’d never made this bet at all.

  Cameron pretended to study the tapestries in the Dagda’s hall as footsteps and the familiar presence of the three goddesses behind him told him the Mórrígna had arrived. Selena tried to comfort him with a sympathetic smile, but she couldn’t hide her thoughts from him anymore, and he knew she thought it served him right for engaging in such a childish bet anyway.

  He at least took some comfort in Thor’s defeat and the stupefied expression he’d returned to Falias with.

  Cameron turned around slowly to face the reaper.

  And as soon as he saw the smug expression on Badb’s face, he seriously regretted going into that restaurant at all.

  “Nemain tells me you have something to talk to me about?” Badb said, her voice unable to contain the absolute delight she took in tormenting her young friend.

  Cameron crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at the war goddess. “Yeah, I think your sister cheated.”

  “Sore loser,” Nemain shot back.

  “Cheated at what?” Badb asked, her voice still annoyingly innocent. The pretend doe-eyed expression she gave him was like rubbing salt in the wound.

  “Where’d you put all that food?” Cameron asked Nemain.

  “For God’s sake, just hurry up so we can get back to Earth,” Nemain demanded.

  “First of all, which god?” Cameron asked.

  Nemain shot him an angry look and crossed her arms defiantly. She clearly had no intention of playing along.

  “Fine,” Cameron hissed. “Sorry for all the teasing, Badb, even though you totally deserved it.”

  “Not good enough, Sun God,” Nemain said. “You know the bet.”

  He glanced at Selena, who was biting her lip so she wouldn’t giggle, and narrowed his eyes at her. “This isn’t funny.”

  “It kinda is,” Selena responded.

  “You’re sleeping on the couch tonight,” he told her.

  Selena just lifted a shoulder at him and kept smiling.

  He turned back to Badb and grimaced. “You’re not really an evil witch,” he tried. “Just a regular one.”

  “Binding agreements between gods,” Nemain reminded him. “We’ll stay here for the rest of eternity until you get it right.”

  Cameron squinted at her and retorted, “You’re the evil witch.”

  “Still waiting,” Nemain said.

  By now, even the Dagda had entered the hall to see if he’d fold, and if Cameron weren’t actually worried about what would happen if he broke a deal as a god, he would have just disappeared and hidden anywhere on Earth. Even Ellesmere Island.

  “I think Nemain is trying to kill me,” Cameron complained. “Dagda, surely you aren’t going to let your new sun god get murdered by your ancient war goddesses?”

  “You made the bet, Sun God,” the Dagda laughed.

  Cameron waved a hand in Nemain’s direction and exclaimed, “I thought I might lose to Thor but her?”

  The Dagda just shrugged.

  And the Mórrígna just stood there smiling at him.

  He was pretty sure this was the real incarnation of Hell.

  “All right,” he groaned. “Sorry, Badb. I eventually stopped hating you, and we were good friends once, but you have to admit: the constant bantering and teasing is the foundation of our current friendship. If we end that n
ow, how will we interact with each other?”

  Badb laughed and assured him, “I’m not asking you to change anything, Sun God. I love you the way you are. The apology is enough.”

  Cameron cast a hopeful glance in Nemain’s direction who just gestured toward her sister. “She accepted your apology. You’ve held up your end of the bargain.”

  “That was a lame apology,” the Dagda muttered. “I was hoping for something more. Maybe a little groveling, complete with kneeling and maybe a few tears.”

  “Hey!” Cameron protested. “Why are you on her side all of a sudden?”

  The Dagda smiled at him and said, “I’m not. It just would have been more entertaining.”

  Cameron grunted at the good god of the Irish and thought of a few epithets to throw in his direction, but Badb spoke first. “He finally stopped resenting me. No way am I going to ruin our friendship now by forcing him to grovel. Even Midir would have been pretty pissed off about that.”

  Cameron nodded seriously. “And I’m way more stubborn than Midir.”

  “Conceded,” the Dagda agreed.

  “Now that I get to choose what we’re prioritizing,” Nemain said, “we’re going back to Earth and looking for Huitzilopochtli.”

  “Technically,” Cameron argued, “we found him already. That’s why we got attacked by hummingbirds.”

  “Wait,” Badb interrupted before Nemain could argue back, “what’s this about Thor?”

  “Would you get out of my head?” Nemain hissed.

  Badb crossed her arms and scowled at her sister. “When were you going to tell us these two invited Thor along?”

  Nemain tossed her hair over her shoulder and shrugged. “It won’t matter. It’s not like you’ll have to fight alongside him. We’ll be done long before my month is up.”

  Macha snickered and shot her sister a skeptical look. “I’m third in line here. No way are you going to deal with all of the problems facing Earth in such a short amount of time. Even if you find Huitzilopochtli, we still have to track down Enlil and an evil Finnish goddess.”

  Nemain waved her off. “Don’t worry, Sister. We’ll have all the loose ends tied up by the end of the month, too.”

  Cameron gently nudged Selena and told her, “I’m starting to think Nemain doesn’t even need us. Let’s just stay here and work on having those kids you’ve always wanted.”

  Selena nodded. “Plus, there are no snakes of any kind in the Otherworld.”

  “Or hummingbirds,” Cameron pointed out. “I’m adding them to my must-be-smote animal list.”

  “Don’t blame you,” Selena said.

  “You two knock it off,” Nemain insisted. “My biggest contribution here is tracking Huitzilopochtli and you know it. Cameron’s the only one who can actually kill him.”

  Cameron wanted to make a smartass remark, but the Dagda responded before he had the chance.

  “I think Thor is trustworthy. He’s always been a god of honor, even as our enemy. As a new friend, this could test our alliance with the Norse, and I’d prefer Cameron and Selena are around for it anyway. Thor wouldn’t stab anyone in the back. If he decided the alliance couldn’t stand, he’d tell you before breaking it.”

  “It’ll hold,” Selena insisted. “Not all of the Norse are happy about our new alliance, but they’ll accept it.”

  Badb smiled at her and said, “So now you’re psychic, too?”

  “Don’t need to be,” Selena answered. “Thousands of years ago, you fought over control of small chunks of land on Earth and the worshippers who lived there. And then you destroyed Asgard and ensured the battle between our families would continue long after fighting over control of Europe became irrelevant. We allowed them into our world to rebuild their lost kingdom, and they won’t risk losing the first real Asgard they’ve had in centuries over old rivalries.”

  Cameron grinned at her and said, “You’re so damn hot when you’re being brilliant.”

  “So all the time then?” Selena teased.

  Cameron nodded seriously. “Exactly.”

  “This is what I have to put up with all the time,” Nemain mumbled.

  “I can take your place now,” Badb offered. “After all, I had almost three months to get used to it.”

  “Not a chance,” Nemain said. She turned to Cameron and added, “Grab Thor and let’s head back to the Basin.”

  “I’m really starting to hate that place,” Cameron sighed.

  Selena took his hand and brought it to her lips then assured him, “Don’t worry, love. According to Nemain, we should be out of there in a few hours.”

  Cameron smiled down at her and gently squeezed her hand. “Never thought I’d be fighting alongside Thor one day. It still seems like yesterday I was trying to kill that bastard after breaking into Anita’s house.”

  “Heard his shoulder still acts up,” the Dagda said. “And you were only a demigod. Still grateful you’re not my enemy.”

  Cameron used his free hand to gesture toward Selena. “Well, you know she’s going to go heal it now.”

  “Yep,” Selena laughed. “He’s too proud to ask for my help, so I’ll have to sneak up on him.”

  “Might as well do it now,” Cameron relented. “Feel like taking a trip to Falias?”

  Selena kept smiling at him as she responded, “Love, I left Murias with you for Falias once, and I’d do it a thousand times more.”

  “No more evil fiancées back there this time,” Cameron teased then corrected himself before Selena could give him a hard time about it. “No more fiancées of any kind back there.”

  “Good God, you two, let’s go,” Nemain groaned.

  Cameron opened his mouth to ask her which god was so good, and if it was still the Dagda or if he could be considered a good god, too, but Selena had obviously grown tired of listening to the bantering as well because the Dagda’s palace disappeared as she brought the three of them to the glimmering gold towers of New Asgard.

  Chapter Seven

  Cameron squinted as the sunlight of the Otherworld reflected off of the golden domes and turrets in front of him. In the distance, Tyr turned toward the Irish gods who’d just arrived in Asgard and lifted his good hand in greeting. Cameron wanted to wave back, but he was still too dumbstruck by both the rapid progress of the Norse and how gold everything seemed to be.

  “Time for us to leave already?” a familiar voice asked from behind them.

  Cameron didn’t bother turning around. “Um… what’s the deal with Valhalla? Odin’s dead.”

  Thor stepped beside him and waved a dismissive hand at the golden palaces before them. “Not Valhalla. None of our dead warriors are here. Yet.”

  “Yet,” Selena repeated nervously.

  “Where else should we send them?” Thor asked. “Their spirits are scattered now, but the Valkyries will find them and bring them home.”

  “Of course they will,” Nemain muttered.

  Thor laughed and assured the war goddess, “They’re no danger to you, Daughter of Danu. You know this. And my family is grateful we’ve been allowed to rebuild in your world. You’ll come to trust us.”

  Nemain waved toward Cameron and Selena and retorted, “I guess I’ll have to now.”

  Thor held out his hand and his famous hammer appeared in it. He smiled down at it, and Cameron could have sworn he even heard him sigh happily.

  “I wish you still looked at me that way,” a woman teased.

  Cameron and Selena turned toward the sound of her voice, but the beautiful woman with long flaxen hair kept her eyes on her husband as he teased her back.

  “After several thousand years, I still love you. That surely counts for something.”

  Sif snickered, but her smile faltered as her gaze shifted toward the three members of the Tuatha Dé. “This isn’t your fight, Thor. We need you here.”

  “For what?” Thor asked. “To get my opinion on stone versus wood floors?”

  “Wood,” Cameron intervened. “Stone is awfully damn
cold. Trust me. The Dagda has stone floors.”

  Thor smiled at him but his smile just as quickly faded when his wife didn’t share her husband’s appreciation for the Irish god’s input.

  “Thor,” she warned, and Cameron knew that tone. Apparently, the you’re-one-comment-away-from-sleeping-on-the-couch tone was universal, even among deities.

  Thor pointed toward Cameron and said, “Do you really think we’ll be so easily defeated with him around?”

  “I think he’s Irish,” Sif hissed. “And he’ll save the other Irish gods before worrying about you.”

  “Um…” Cameron interrupted. “You know you’re still speaking English, right? And I’m right here.”

  Cameron could sense Selena’s indignation. She wanted to defend him and he silently begged her not to make the whole thing more awkward, but she apparently decided to employ selective telepathy.

  “Cameron would help anyone who needed him,” she spit out. “And besides. I’m a healer. If Thor were injured, how dare you imply I wouldn’t save him?”

  “He’d be one less Norse for you to worry about!” Sif insisted. “We’re only here so you can watch us more closely!”

  “Sif,” Thor pleaded.

  Selena ignored him, too. Apparently, the two goddesses had decided this was personal. “If I didn’t care about him, I wouldn’t bother healing him now!” she snapped.

  Selena grabbed Thor’s arm who winced and looked down at her in surprise. When she let go, he slowly rotated his shoulder then winked at his wife. “Huh. It’s too bad I have to leave now.”

  “Ew,” Cameron groaned. “I’m leaving your giant ass here just for that.”

  Thor laughed and clapped his back. “Don’t hold Sif’s outburst against her, Sun God. Given your past life, I’m sure you can understand how powerful some attachments can be.”

  “Yeah,” Cameron agreed. “Selena and I both get it, and few things ever piss her off, actually. You know, besides me.”

  Selena rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest but offered an apology to Sif anyway. But the beautiful Norse goddess with the legendary hair just tilted her head as her eyes darted between the young gods. “I forgot about your pasts. And you’ve been given three chances at life, Selena. That’s unheard of and must speak to your character. Just…” She took a deep breath and stood on her toes so she could quickly kiss her husband one last time. “Take care of him, Children of Danu.”