“And what are we?” Raziel asked.
Loki glanced over at the fire again and watched as Katha put her head on David’s shoulder. “Older and wiser than those two, that’s what we are,” he said, and his voice sounded sad.
Raziel put their glass down and looked at Loki like the angel hadn’t really seen him before. He was supposed to be the Trickster, the Norse god of chaos, but he’d been nothing but helpful, attentive, and kind.
“Why did you allow yourself to be caught?”
Loki smiled to himself, and then grinned and Raziel. “I’ve been watching you for a while, angel. It can be a lonely existence, this. I liked your style...and your curls.”
Raziel stared at him for a moment, and then chuckled and shook their head. “That was you that night at my window. You’ve been stalking me?”
Loki shrugged. “When I had the time.” He paused and then held up the jumper he’d got the angel, which had magically appeared in his hand. “You’re soaking wet.” Then he slid over and started unbuttoning Raziel’s shirt, much to the angel’s embarrassment. The god laughed when they looked around to see if anyone was watching. Then he slipped the shirt off, and helped his angel put the jumper on. “There, that’s better isn’t it?”
Raziel looked themselves over, and then smiled affectionately at Loki.
Later that afternoon, the rain let up, and the skies almost cleared. The only thing left of the storm was a low-lying mist that covered everything in an almost supernatural fashion. Raziel watched it out the sitting room window, sipping at a cup of tea, and then gathered everyone together around the fire. They didn’t all like what they heard.
“What do you mean you want us to stay here?” David demanded.
“Yeah, I’m fine now,” Katha added.
Raziel sighed and shook their head. “I don’t think this storm was altogether natural. There’s no need to risk everyone.” When David started to protest again, the angel held up their hand. “You’re a mortal. It’s just too dangerous. The two of you stay here and run support. If I’m right, there’s going to be a good deal of damage control to do on this one.”
Neither of them liked it, but David and Katha nodded in agreement, and then Raziel, Loki, and Jack headed back out into the mist.
“I’ll drive,” Loki announced and took the keys from the angel.
“You drive?” Raziel asked.
“Of course I drive. You don’t?” He smirked as Raziel and Jack looked at one another sheepishly.
The Storr seemed eerily quiet after the torrential downpour. No one had come back out, and it would be easy to think that they were the only three people in the world. The three of them were quiet as they hiked up the trail, all of them realising the power they’d felt from the place had been more than just that of a storm. Someone or something else was there. As they reached the end of the easier part of the trail, and started up toward the rock formations, Jack took Raziel’s arm.
“I think we’ve missed something,” he said. “I think we’ve been going about this the wrong way.”
“What do you mean?” the angel asked.
“The Sefer. It wasn’t written for supernatural beings. You wrote it for humans to learn the wonders of the universe.”
“You think a human is doing all this?”
“It would explain a lot, wouldn’t it? The lack of control, the power overload, wanting to lure Loki out...”
Raziel turned and looked back at Loki who was still pushing up the trail. “You think one of his followers is doing this? Why?”
Jack shrugged, and then Loki turned back and held up his hands. “What are you two waiting for?”
As he said it, the clouds closed in rapidly, and a bolt of lightning struck the ground beside the Norse god. A loud explosion of thunder erupted around them, and Loki went flying back towards Raziel and Jack.
Time seemed to slow as Raziel watched Loki hit the ground a few yards from them in horror. The angel screamed out and then ran to him. The air around them shimmered with power, and made their breath feel heavy but Raziel didn’t care. They could hear Jack yelling behind them, but it was a vague, hollow sound, like something from far away. The angel ignored his voice too. What seemed like eons later, they skid to a stop on their knees, beside the Norse god. Suddenly, it was as if Raziel was afraid to touch him, that somehow, they might break him. Loki was covered in burns, half his face blackened, the icy blue eye gone.
Raziel reached out with a shaking hand and touched the other side of his face. They felt the tremble of life underneath the skin and let out a breath of relief. Then, taking another deep breath, the angel threw their hands toward heaven, drew every ounce of strength and power they had, and brought their hands back down to Loki’s face. The air shimmered even more around Raziel, and after a moment, they closed their eyes and cried out from effort. Suddenly, Loki’s skin began to glow, as if on fire from the inside, and the burns began to heal.
“Raziel!” Jack screamed again, as the air itself seemed to catch on fire. Then he ran to his friend and fell down beside him. “Raziel!” He put a hand on the angel’s arm, pulling him away.
Raziel fell away from Loki, breathless, their eyes glowing, and a soft hallow of light around their salt and pepper curls. Both faded, until the angel that most people saw was all that was left, breathless and exhausted. Then they noticed Jack was pointing toward something. They looked toward the trail ahead and saw the Old Man of Storr beginning to shake, smaller rocks falling from its edifice. Then Loki moaned, returning to consciousness, his burns almost completely healed.
Raziel helped him to his feet, and as the shaking continued, asked Loki, “Where did you take them?”
“What?”
“The people you saved, where are they?”
“Well...”
Raziel shook his head. “Just think about it.” As Loki did so, the angel waved their hand, and the world ceased to exist. Instead of the Storr, the three of them found themselves in some kind of otherworldly realm. It was icy and windswept, yet they didn’t seem to feel any cold. A mist similar to the one in Skye swirled around their feet.
“Where are we?” Jack asked.
“Niflheim,” Loki answered. “One of the Nine Realms. A realm of ice. I’ve shielded this little spot from the cold, though.”
It was then they realised they weren’t alone. From behind a large boulder, where a fire seemed to be burning, a group of people emerged. From ahead of them, though, another being appeared.
“You?” Raziel said in disbelief.
The old woman laughed, a vicious, mirthless chuckle. It was the woman they had talked to at Marygate carpark. “Nice to know someone pays attention.”
“Oh, I’ve been paying attention,” Loki seethed. “I’m just not in the habit of rewarding people for their bad behavior.”
“Don’t you though?” the woman countered.
“Oh my gods, you know nothing about me, do you?”
“I knew enough to lure you where I wanted you.”
“Why? What do you want from me?” Loki demanded, stepping closer to the woman.
“To change your mind,” she answered as if the conversation was exhausting. “The Isle of Skye? You should have moved your sacred place to York.”
“You’re threatening the lives of supernatural beings because you don’t like where I chose to live?” Loki spat in disbelief.
“You have a loyal following in York! You’ve seen what I can do, what we’re capable of. We are worthy of your council, lord.”
“This is insanity,” Loki muttered, shaking his head.
“Enough!” Raziel’s voice boomed through the snow and ice of Niflheim. “You have no right,” they added, the angel’s voice becoming low and menacing. “You have something that belongs to me.”
“Oh, this little thing,” the woman teased, pulling an ancient, leather bound volume from under her skirts. “It’s come in handy.”
“You have broken every rule, violated the spirit, the intentions of those secrets.”
“Have I? Who are you to keep these powers secret?” The air began to shimmer again as the woman opened the book and read from it.
“No!” Raziel shouted and light began to shine in their amber eyes again. A moment later, the world slowed again, but this time, everyone noticed the change in time. The angel’s gun metal gray wings suddenly unfurled, and in this supernatural realm, they seemed to be twice as large as they had been back at the Guild mansion. Raziel lifted them in a threat display, stretched to their full length, and balled their fists. A faint glow of hallow played at their curls.
The woman flinched, and stepped backward, but did not relinquish the book. “Who...” she whispered.
“I am the Archangel Raziel, Keeper of God’s Secrets and Angel of Mysteries. The book you read from is mine. I demand its return.” With that Raziel began to speak in a different language, and his voice sounded like a mixture of singing, and something that caused the hair on the back of everyone’s necks to stand up.
“What is that?” Loki asked, leaning in toward Jack to be heard over the tumult.
“Enochian,” Jack answered. “It’s Raziel’s native language. Very few ever get to hear it, and most wish they hadn’t.”
“I think it’s beautiful,” Loki said in awe as he watched his partner in all their glory.
“Yes,” Jack agreed. “And terrifying.” Then he rolled his eyes at Loki’s answering smile.
Suddenly, the winds began to pick up and snow swirled around them until they could barely see or hear anything, except the sound of a lone woman, screaming in fear. A moment later, she stopped, and they could hear her trying to continue her spell. Raziel kept up their stream of singing terror though, beating their enormous wings until they lifted a few feet off the ground. The other ethereal and supernatural beings Loki had safeguarded either stood and watched in awe or cowered away in fear. Raziel’s entire being began to glow with inner light, and suddenly, the snow around them exploded with enough force to knock everyone down.
As the powder cleared, Jack and Loki stood up and brushed themselves off. A few feet away, Raziel stood, looking as they always did, like a kindly middle-aged professor, and glanced off in the direction the woman had been. The other two turned to glance in that direction but the woman was gone.
“What happened to her?” Loki asked, approaching his partner without the same caution Jack had decided to, hanging back a few feet.
“I’m not sure,” Raziel admitted, their voice low and soft. “I believe she may have simply ceased to exist.”
“Huh,” Loki grunted, and then noticed his flock creeping out from behind the rocks. “It’s alright now,” he assured them. “You’re going home.”
As Loki began the gesture to return them to earth, Raziel cried, “Wait! The book!” The angel scrambled over to where the woman had been but the Sefer Raziel HaMalach was nowhere to be seen. They dug through the snow, but to no avail.
“Come on,” Jack said after a few minutes, and put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “It’s getting cold and David and Hatha will be worried about us.”
A little while later, the three of them slumped through the front door of the lodge, looking and feeling a little worse for wear. Katha ran over and threw her arms around their necks, even Loki, as David laughed and shook his head. Then they stepped back to see half a dozen different beings coming in the doors behind them.
“Most of them magicked themselves home once we got them back here,” Loki explained. “A few don’t have that ability so, looks like we’re a taxi service now as well.”
“What happened out there?” David asked Raziel.
“Yes, that’s something I wouldn’t mind knowing as well,” Jack muttered. “We’ve known each other a very long time and I’ve never seen anything like what happened out there.”
“I may have lost my temper,” Raziel admitted, and looked away sheepishly. “I’ve been looking for my book for a very long time, and the idea that someone was using it for such selfish reasons...” Suddenly, Loki’s arm was around their shoulders.
“Well, we survived. What more can we ask for?” he quipped.
Loki had a new scar on his cheek, where the burn hadn’t quite had time to heal before Jack pulled Raziel away. He didn’t seem to mind, and the angel thought it gave him an interesting look beside the small scars around his mouth where his brethren had once sewed his lips shut.
When the story had been told, and the captives warmed and fed, Raziel moved away from the dining room, back to their spot at the sitting room windows. The angel sensed that Loki would follow, and when he did, Raziel said, “What will you do now?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Skye has lost some of its charm, don’t you think?”
The angel chuckled and nodded in reply, but then their face fell in embarrassment and worry. After a while, they finally looked back up at the god, and said, “You could stay with us, you know.”
“Me? A Norse god at the Veritas Guild? The Trickster at that? I don’t know how that would sit with the Conclave.”
“We haven’t exactly been doing things by the book lately as it is,” Raziel pointed out.
Loki’s face grew grim as well. “I wonder why they didn’t want you investigating this case.”
“Yeah, that’s been weighing on my mind too.”
The Trickster thought about it for a moment, and then put his arm around Raziel’s waist. “Well, I guess I’m just going to have to stay until we find out.”
Other Books by Spring Horton
The Atticus McLaren Mysteries
Murder at the Museum
Digging for Skeletons
Ghosts of the Past
Dead & Buried
A Haunting in Edinburgh
Aurora Station: The Purloined Cat
Autumn in the Highlands
Hawaiian Valentine
Her Majesty’s Historical Detective Society
The Long Dark
Zero One Zero
Writing as Finnegan O’Riordan
Sky Pirate
Safe Harbor
The Misfit Fleet
Sanctuary
Airship Shenanigans
The Veritas Guild Page 10