“Bresal Etarlám,” Badb explained, “is, perhaps, the most powerful druid that ever lived. He figured out how to grant himself a kind of immortality like us gods. He can be killed, but won’t age or die of natural causes. He’s a demigod, but with his knowledge of spells and manipulating the natural order of the world, he’s easily mistaken for a god, which is why Cian thought he’d been attacked by more than one god in Ireland. So we now know who two of our traitors are, which means we’re still missing one.”
“Well, that partially explains why we can only account for Ailill’s absence in the Otherworld,” Macha said. “And I’m willing to bet the third god is fairly new and never lived with us in Murias. But wouldn’t the Dagda know who all heirs are?”
Badb shrugged. “Not all of our new gods have Treasures to inherit like Cameron and Selena. They did because their roles on our pantheon are so important. And I didn’t know who would inherit those Treasures until after I met them, remember?”
“Still,” Nemain said, “I’m glad we don’t have another traitor among those we consider our family.”
“Bresal Etarlám is Irish,” Badb argued. “And a druid, which means he may have been born with a gift for the mystical, but we gave him the knowledge to cast spells. He used that power to stab us all in the back.”
“And most of all, he used it to betray Midir and Étain,” Cameron added. “He lied to me so I’d agree to marry Fúamnach, and when I broke off that engagement, he used his power to get revenge on us both.”
“So it’s true,” Selena said as she appeared among her friends and family. “My father has been associated with Fúamnach the whole time. He had a hand in my murders.”
“Only you could use murder in the plural,” Cameron supplied helpfully.
Prometheus finally moved into the lobby and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat. Cameron was mildly curious where his coat had even come from but decided against asking given how many obstacles they still faced to save both worlds. “I realize your friends have a lot of questions about me,” Prometheus said, “but may I ask my own question?”
Cameron shrugged, so Prometheus asked, “What the hell is Loki doing here?”
Cameron laughed, so the Norse trickster god flipped him off.
Tyr yanked on Loki’s arm and dragged him closer to Prometheus. “Huitzilopochtli had the brilliant idea of letting this asshole out of his cave to trigger Ragnarok so that it would keep us preoccupied while he attempted to take over the Otherworld.”
“That actually is a pretty good plan,” Prometheus said smartly.
Cameron caught Athena eyeing Prometheus in a way he’d never seen her look at anyone, so he shot her a strange look and she blushed then flipped him off too.
“Why is everybody flipping me off?” Cameron complained.
“Yeah, things are definitely getting back to normal,” London observed.
Cameron squinted at her but silently asked Selena, You think Athena is attracted to Prometheus? I thought she was… asexual.
She is, but come on… he’s kinda gorgeous.
Hey, Cameron protested, but Selena laughed aloud and assured him, But no one, not even him, compares to you, love.
Cameron smiled back at her, and Badb groaned and warned them to knock it off, which led to Ares reminding them, “We’ve told you that’s incredibly annoying.”
“So…” Prometheus said slowly. “This is the group that’s going to save the world?”
“We really are a colossal disappointment, aren’t we?” Cameron asked.
“Is it just me, or did New Orleans suddenly get much darker?” Thor asked.
“That’s weird, considering I don’t think the Earth is actually spinning right now,” London added.
“Wait, if the world isn’t spinning, does that mean one side is going to freeze?” Tyr asked. “You’re totally going to cause another ice age.”
“Dude,” Cameron sighed. “Don’t try to be scientific. Time itself is frozen, so nothing will change anywhere in the world. I think.”
Thor grunted at them and repeated, “It’s getting darker, so clearly, something is changing.”
“Perhaps,” Loki interjected, “it has something to do with those daevas descending on the city.”
Cameron stepped onto the sidewalk and glanced toward the sky where black, amorphous shapes obscured the sun and dove toward the Earth like ash from a volcano. “Well, this can’t be good,” he announced.
“I thought daevas were just demigods,” Badb said. She turned on Loki as if he held the secrets to the daevas puzzling existence. “My sisters and I encountered them before, and they were just Ahriman’s followers… demigods who worked for him. Why are we being attacked by evil spirits?”
Loki actually looked offended by her question. “Has it ever occurred to you that as your prisoner, I may not be in the position to want to disclose information to you?”
So, quite naturally, Badb punched him.
And, also quite naturally, nobody helped him up when he fell to the ground, complaining, once again, that his nose was broken.
But there was, apparently, a goddess among them who cared.
“Touch my father again, and I’ll level this entire city,” Hel warned.
Cameron glared at the Norse goddess and warned back, “And I told you to return to your own realm.”
Loki lifted himself from the street where he’d fallen and rubbed the dirt and blood from his hands onto his pants. “I don’t suppose you could hide me there?”
“I could,” Hel said. “But when Odin cast me out of Asgard, what did you do to stop him?”
“How was I supposed to stop Odin from doing anything?” Loki asked. “Besides, he did give you your own world. That’s a far better fate than Fenrir or Jörmungandr.”
“Huh,” Cameron interjected. “Given how pervy you are, I really kinda suspected Fenrir was just born a wolf and Jörmungandr a snake.”
Loki blinked at him then turned his attention back to his daughter, but not before Thor whispered, “Sleipnir was born a horse, you know.”
Cameron wrinkled his nose in Loki’s direction and mumbled, “Perv.”
“I think,” Prometheus said, “this city is being invaded by malevolent spirits, and we should probably deal with them before worrying about Loki’s admittedly disturbing offspring.”
“A Titan,” Hel cooed. “Among this group? How very strange.”
“It’s certainly not the worst idea I’ve ever had,” Prometheus supplied helpfully.
Hel arched an eyebrow at him, but while she was distracted by the Titan’s presence, Cameron retrieved his Spear from the Otherworld and threw it into the goddess’s chest. Hel’s eyes widened in pained surprise, and her hands rose to the handle of the Spear but didn’t touch it. The daevas shrieked and swirled in gusts of black smoke then formed into the army of demigods Badb had claimed she’d encountered.
Loki let out a slightly mystified sigh and said, “Well, I suppose you should’ve listened to him and returned to Hel then.”
“Your daughter is dying, and that’s all you have to say?” Thor asked.
Loki just shrugged.
“Think you can hurry up and finish dying so I can get my Spear back?” Cameron asked Hel.
Not surprisingly, she didn’t answer him.
“Are you really so impotent, Sun God,” Ahriman goaded, “that you’re useless without a spear?”
A familiar voice joined Ahriman’s and added, “He hides his fear and incompetence beneath all of that sarcasm and false bravado.”
“Says the god who’s too cowardly to show himself,” Cameron shot back.
Nergal materialized by Ahriman and offered the young god a half-hearted bow, taunting him with his ability to command the spirits that had not only led to the outbreak in Austin but Badb’s death. And, perhaps, mocking him for not being able to kill him since Cameron had already sort of killed him in Mexico City.
And, truthfully, Nergal and his allies had also bested them with each out
break. The Guardians had been following behind trying to control and repair the damage, but they’d always been following. Even now, as the dark misty shapes joined Ahriman’s daevas, none of the gods could combat them. How could they possibly kill something that wasn’t alive?
Athena lifted her sword and challenged him. “It shows your incompetence that you hide behind spirits rather than fighting yourself. Choose any one of us to fight.”
Nergal laughed and shook his head. “I haven’t survived this long by being stupid, Zeus’s Daughter. He died so easily, by the way. So weak for such a legendary god.”
“He’s baiting you,” Badb whispered to her best friend. “Ignore him.”
“Nergal killed Zeus?” Cameron sort-of whispered to them both.
“Not now,” Badb groaned. She looked like she wanted to chastise him some more for delaying, as usual, the impending battle, but Ahura Mazda joined them and scowled in Ahriman’s direction.
“Unless you want to end up like your ally, Hel, return to Basri at once,” Ahura Mazda commanded.
Ahriman’s daevas stood perfectly still, like the terracotta soldiers of Qin Shi Huang’s entombed army. They certainly looked like demigods now, but as Cameron studied them, none of them breathed or blinked or twitched their fingers. Whatever Ahriman had done to his followers, they were no longer living.
He let his attention return to the Norse goddess who’d collapsed in the street, her mottled, rotten feet exposed now as they extended beyond the hemline of her dress. Cameron almost felt sorry for her, for the miserable life she’d been given and Odin’s banishment of her, most likely for the sole reason that she’d been Loki’s child. Selena slipped her fingers around his wrist and told him, Get rid of these spirits and gods. I’m going to heal her.
“What?” he exclaimed aloud.
If she refuses to return to Hel, we’ll kill her again. But what good has this goddess ever had in her life? A father who doesn’t care about her fate, a leader who threw her out of her own world because of her ancestry, rule over a kingdom of the dead, a disability that earned her the scorn of her own family. I want to give her a second chance. Please.
Cameron groaned, but how could he possibly tell her no? He firmly believed Selena’s boundless capacity for compassion would one day save them all.
“Badb, listen to me,” Cameron said aloud, then silently, asked her to take Hel’s body and bring it somewhere safe where Selena could heal her. Badb’s initial reaction was exactly as he’d expected, but her incredulity quickly transformed into compliance and she pulled Cameron’s Spear free from the Norse goddess’s chest before disappearing with the body and Selena.
Nergal tilted his head at the Guardians then his focus settled on Cameron. “Are you in the habit of defiling your enemies’ bodies?”
“Maybe,” Cameron responded. “And it’s still far less weird than Loki giving birth to a horse.”
“Cameron,” Thor sighed. “Time and a place, young friend.”
“In my defense,” Loki said, but Cameron stopped him.
“Don’t care.”
Loki ignored him and finished anyway. “I was a horse at the time.”
“Dude!” Cameron exclaimed. “That doesn’t make it any less weird.”
Loki just grinned at him and shrugged.
Just as Cameron had used the distraction to throw his Spear into Hel’s heart, Nergal flicked his wrist and his spirits surged toward the Guardians on the opposite side of the street. Ahriman’s daevas finally came to life and marched in tandem toward the gods who still weren’t sure how to fight malevolent spirits.
The ashy, misty shapes that had spread an incurable disease throughout Austin and had abducted three of the world’s most powerful gods leapt at the Guardians, and a violent fire, far hotter and more powerful than any he’d created before, burst from Cameron’s body. Like the explosive force of a bomb, windows shattered and doors were knocked off their hinges. His friends, who had gathered around him, remained unscathed by the furious flames consuming Chartres Street, but ear-splitting screams rose above the roar of his fire.
Nergal’s spirits were being disintegrated, broken apart by the intensity of this fire.
“Nergal will try to run now,” Athena said. “He’s gotten away from us too many times.”
“Don’t worry,” Cameron assured her. “I’m not letting him go anywhere, even though I did kill him in Mexico City. His death still might not be permanent.”
Ahura Mazda nodded toward the other side of the street and said, “Ahriman’s daevas won’t even attempt to get through this wall of fire. Can you keep him here too?”
“Yeah,” Cameron said. “Although he attacked me with a giant snake filled with smaller snakes. Bastard totally deserves to die for that.”
“One day,” Ahura Mazda promised. “And if you like, I’ll return and let you help me seal him in Basri forever.”
“Deal,” Cameron agreed.
As the shrieking of Nergal’s spirits quieted, Cameron allowed his fire to collapse into the pavement of the street and pulled Nergal into the middle of the Guardians who immediately descended on him. He noticed Ahura Mazda slipping away and disappearing with a frightened Ahriman, and with them, the daevas disappeared as well.
Cameron looked down at the Sumerian god who’d been kicked and beaten, and who was about to be decapitated by Badb’s sword.
“Wait,” Cameron cried. “Don’t give him such an easy out. Not unless he tells us where the other gods have hidden their souls. As far as we know, only Koschei can be killed now.”
“How,” Nergal panted through pained breaths, “did you kill my spirits?”
Cameron sighed and threw his hands up. “When is everyone going to stop asking me how I do anything?”
“You know,” Thor added thoughtfully, “since Nergal was stupid enough to allow Koschei to remove his soul, too, then we can just beat him to death over and over until he can’t take it anymore.”
Cameron blinked at him because he couldn’t tell if his giant friend was serious or not. For a god who always proclaimed he fought with honor, that didn’t seem honorable at all… but then again, the world was ending, so it’s not like they had plenty of time to figure out a solution without killing a god repeatedly.
Ukko suddenly materialized beside him and kicked Nergal in the stomach then yanked on his hair and dragged him to his knees.
“Hold up,” Cameron said. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Brought you a present,” Ukko told him.
Cameron looked around the now mostly empty street and lifted an eyebrow at him. “Please tell me you’re not the present.”
“God, I hope not,” Macha mumbled then immediately pointed at Ukko and corrected herself. “Him. I obviously mean him.”
“Actually,” Ukko clarified, “in a way, I do mean me. The demigods of the New Pantheon are currently useless, including Jasper, but not the gods who spent decades working for me. And they’ve finally begun to unravel just why we’re having such a difficult time destroying one Aztec god’s comparatively small army.”
“Soulless?” Cameron guessed.
Ukko shook his head and kicked Nergal again for good measure.
“Koschei and a few other gods are soulless, like this one and his father. The Aztec gods, though, every single one you thought you’d killed but has returned isn’t back because of the same trick that Slavic psycho pulled a few thousand years ago. You only think you’re fighting the same gods, but they’re all already dead.”
Cameron and London glanced at each other, confused because they most certainly had been busily fighting very real, very deadly Aztec gods for months now. “All right, I give up. If it’s not really Xololtl and Xipe Totec I’ve been encountering, who are they?”
“I suppose in a way it is them, but only in a roundabout kind of way,” Ukko clarified, but Cameron wasn’t the only god getting frustrated with Ukko’s cryptic explanation.
“For God’s sake, Ukko, just tell us!” N
emain yelled. She shot a menacing glare at Cameron and warned him not to even think about saying it, so for once, Cameron pressed his lips together and didn’t ask even though she really should have known better than not to specify which god she was invoking.
Ukko rolled his eyes and kicked Nergal for a third time since he was trying to stand again then told Tyr if the Sumerian god even moved, he should behead him. They had no use for him anymore. “We won’t encounter Loviatar again because she died before Koschei could remove and hide her soul. Or maybe, for some inexplicable reason, she declined immortality, which doesn’t sound like her at all. Nergal, Tarhunt, Enlil, Veles… as soon as the New Pantheon is operable again, its agents will hunt down the vessels containing their souls. But the Aztec gods have likely been dead for some time. They sacrificed themselves to Huitzilopochtli and gave up their hearts and their power to him, and now, he’s creating new gods in their image by imparting their memories and personalities and even their power into mortals. There’s only one god we have to kill to end this war. And he’s the one god no one can find.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Cameron found Selena inside their room at the W Hotel where Badb stood over Hel, who sat on one of the beds, transfixed by the normality of her feet. She ran her fingers over her ankles and along the soles, completely mesmerized by her ability to move them. Cameron nodded toward the Norse goddess and asked Badb and Selena, “Is she going to be a problem?”
Hel looked up at him, still wide-eyed and astonished. “I’ve never walked before. I don’t know how.”
“Is there anything you can’t heal?” Cameron asked Selena.
She shrugged and told him, “I doubt I could heal how crazy Huitzilopochtli is. Or Loki for that matter, considering I’ve had to heal him already and he’s still crazy.”
“Yeah, we need to talk about Huitzilopochtli, but we’ve got to figure out what to do with her first,” he responded, gesturing toward the Norse goddess who looked more like a scared child now than the angry, vengeful deity he’d expected.
Hel looked up at him again and sighed. “Do you think Baldr will see me differently now that I’m normal?”
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