by Linsey Hall
Contents
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
DEAR READER
GLOSSARY
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
EPILOGUE
THANK YOU!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ABOUT LINSEY
FATE UNDONE
Linsey Hall
This is a work of fiction. All reference to events, persons, and locale are used fictitiously, except where documented in historical record. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright 2015 by Linsey Hall
Published by Bonnie Doon Press LLC
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form, except in instances of quotation used in critical articles or book review. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which may be applied to this work.
[email protected]
www.LinseyHall.com
https://twitter.com/HiLinseyHall
https://www.facebook.com/LinseyHallAuthor
ISBN 978-1-942085-40-9 (eBook)
ISBN 978-1-942085-41-6 (Paperback)
DEDICATION
For Doug Inglis, my amazing friend who is always there for me and shares his awesomely clever ideas. This book is better because of you.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This story benefited so greatly from the time and effort of many people.
Thank you, Ben, for everything you’ve done to support the creation of this book. Thank you, Doug Inglis, for your help and incredible ideas about the plot. It’s so much fun to talk to you about the story. Thank you, Emily Keane, for reading every story I’ve written and for sharing your great ideas. Thank you Catherine Bowler for reading the first draft and for your insightful comments.
Thank you to Barbara Ankrum, Jena O’Connor, and Simone Seguin for various forms of editing. The story is much better because of your expertise. And thank you Kaye Amis, whose eagle eyes saved the day.
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoy my version of the story of Loki and Sigyn. It was a thrill to write and I hope it’s a thrill to read.
Happy reading,
Linsey Hall
GLOSSARY
Aether - The invisible substance that connects the afterworlds and earth. It is both nothing and everything.
Aetherwalking - A method of traveling through the aether to access the afterworlds or different places on earth. Some Mytheans have this power and can bring another person with them.
Afterworld - A heaven or hell created by mortal belief. Mortals can access them only through death. Some Mytheans can aetherwalk to them.
Historious - Mytheans who have the ability to locate valuable artwork and artifacts, as well as perform a limited amount of magic. Their long-dead ancestors had been disciples of the Celtic god Gwydion, a god of magic and the arts. The skill had passed down through the generations, which were few, as immortals rarely reproduced.
Immortal University - An organization created thousands of years ago to protect Mytheans and keep them secret from mortals. It was initially founded as a true university, hence the name, but over time it morphed into an institution with greater power and responsibility. The university’s primary goal is to maintain the secrecy of Mytheans and to keep the gods from warring to obtain more followers. They do this primarily through diplomacy. The university also provides services to Mytheans that they can’t get elsewhere, lest mortals figure out that their clients never die. Things like education, health services, and banking.
Mortals - Humans. They are unaware of the existence of Mytheans or that all heavens and hells truly exist. They are immortal in the sense that their soul will pass on to whatever afterworld in which they believe.
Mythean - Supernatural individuals created by mortal belief. They are gods and goddesses, demons and monsters, witches and other supernatural creatures. They are immortal in the sense that if they live on earth, only beheading or grievous injury from magic can kill them. If they are killed their soul will pass on to an afterworld. Secrecy from mortals is one of their highest priorities. Some Mytheans, particularly species of demons and some gods, are trapped in their afterworlds. Others have access to both earth and the afterworlds.
Mythean Guardians - Powerful mortals made immortal, or other supernatural beings who serve at the Praesidium. They protect those mortals and Mytheans who are important to the fate of humanity.
Praesidium - The protection division of the Immortal University. Mythean Guardians work here. Their job is to protect those important to humanity and maintain law and order by keeping Mytheans secret from humans and keeping the gods from warring.
Seidr - A type of sorcery practiced by the Norse, including Vala.
Sila Jinn - Derived from Arabian mythology, a Jinn is a supernatural spirit in a class below that of angels and devils. A Sila is a female Jinn who can shapeshift, aetherwalk between all afterworlds, and manifest some types of magic.
Soulceresses - Mytheans who fuel their power by draining the immortal power of other Mytheans’ souls. When fueled by the power of others, they can manifest their magic with a thought. They are hated by other Mytheans because of this. They also have the ability to see the evil in a person’s soul.
Sylph - An ancient air spirit from a religion that is lost to memory. Sylphs and their descendents have the ability to attain invisibility by becoming one with the air. They are also able to manipulate the wind.
Vala - A Norse sorceress who uses Seidr magic. Vala use a staff to channel their magic and when they are threatened or fighting, an apparition of a blue cloak appears around their shoulders. The first Vala, Sylvi, was trained by the Norse goddess Freya. All other Vala were trained by Sylvi.
PROLOGUE
Asgard, Afterworld of the Norse Gods
1213 AD
Pain tore through Loki’s chest, burning through every vein in his body. He roared, his muscles straining against the chains that bound him to the rock. Despite his godly strength, he could not break them. Above him, the great snake draped over a tree limb, dripping venom onto his chest. Its yellow eyes gleamed, watching him as the fluid seeped from its fangs.
The venom sizzled when it hit his skin, eating through to the muscle underneath. His heart must be beating against the air now, no longer protected within its cage of flesh.
“You went too far, Loki,” roared Odin, the greatest of the Norse gods.
Loki wanted to yell back at him, at the crowd of gods who stood around him, but words could not for
m on his tongue. I’d do it again, he would shout, if only the pain hadn’t stolen his words.
“You’ll stay here until Ragnarok, when the final battle shall take your life. It is a fitting punishment for your crimes,” Odin said.
The snake’s venom dripped again, shooting pain through Loki’s body until his vision blurred. He could barely see the other gods nodding their heads before they turned in unison and walked out of the clearing in which he was trapped.
Bastards. But he hadn’t seen Sigyn. His love hadn’t been with them, thank fates.
The venom dripped again, pouring from the snake’s mouth in quantities only magic could create. Loki roared, his voice hoarse, and almost passed out from the pain.
A feminine scream pulled him from the daze.
Suddenly, delicate hands reached out over his chest, attempting to catch the venom before it fell onto him. Sigyn.
“No!” he roared, fear for her giving him the strength to form words. He was close to blacking out from the pain.
When the venom dripped onto her palm, she screamed and collapsed to her knees. He craned his head to see her, slumped against the stone upon which he was bound, her golden hair concealing her face. She’d passed out from the pain.
Terror for her stole the breath from his lungs. He’d been angry about this punishment, but never afraid. Not until it risked her. She must leave here. Though his vengeance against the gods had been necessary and just, it had caused this nightmare. He didn’t want her to suffer for it. If the other gods knew how he felt about her, they might punish her too. She’d done nothing wrong, but it wouldn’t stop them.
He couldn’t bear to think of her suffering. The thought of her suffering was a pain worse than the venom. He strained against the bonds, attempting to break them so he could drive her away.
She moaned, then sat up. When her gaze landed upon his face, her eyes widened.
“Go,” he rasped. “Go from here.”
She pushed herself up and leaned over him, her tears dripping upon his face.
“Go.” His voice was so rough it was almost gone. He had to make her leave. His pursuit of vengeance put her at risk. She would hate him for that. Would likely never forgive him.
“Never. I’ll get you out of—”
He roared when venom dripped into his wound, the pain finally taking him into the blackness.
CHAPTER ONE
Prison for Magical Deviants, Immortal University
Edinburgh, Scotland
Logan Laufeyson gritted his teeth as the guard removed the manacles from his wrists and shoved him into his damp stone cell. The familiar rage at his powerlessness welled. He breathed deeply to tamp it down, counting back from ten. He had more important things to be worried about than an asshole guard.
He’d only been in this hell three months, after all, and it was temporary. Barely anything compared to the tortures he’d suffered in the past or the century that his friend Ian had been locked in here before Logan had taken his place. He’d been a bastard for leaving Ian rotting in here for so long, but it had been necessary.
Logan dragged his shirt over his head and used it to scrub the grit off his face. The worst thing about the daily prison work detail which he’d just returned from was the damned sand in the afterworld of Moloch. The best thing about prison work detail was that the hellish Moloch was exactly what he’d been looking for when he’d broken into the Prison for Magical Deviants three months ago.
He didn’t mind spending twelve back-breaking hours a day hauling rocks, not once he’d realized that the stone was being used to construct the place he’d been hunting for nearly a century. He could use that time to learn enough about it to destroy it.
Though washing the sweat and grime off himself would be the greatest pleasure he had all day, he ignored the leaky hose in the corner of the cell in favor of using his magic to change his clothes. He closed his eyes and envisioned a shirt and pants identical to the ones he wore as his usual prison uniform—black on black. Not so different from his normal attire.
What was different, however, was his face. He ran his hand over his unfamiliar nose and jaw. He was full shapeshifter, able to adopt any identity of man or beast. Since he was in this prison to take his friend’s place, he’d adopted a copy of his friend Ian’s face. Alone in his cell, he could change back to the looks he adopted normally. It, too, was a disguise, but he’d worn it for centuries and it was comfortable by now.
He had no watch and no window, so no way to tell time. But he could count on the prison schedule to be military precise, and every seven days, directly after he was shoved back in his cell, he had a meeting.
He listened carefully at the heavy wooden door for footsteps. Silence. It was highly unlikely anyone would come to his cell before a guard brought a miserly dinner in an hour. Once he was confident there was nothing but silence in the hall, he moved to the corner that would be hidden by the door if it opened.
Logan drew in a deep breath and held out his hands, envisioning flame. A fire, two feet tall and at least as wide, burst into life in the corner, as if a hearth had been built. After a moment, a face appeared. The seer was always on time for their meetings.
“Loki,” she said, using the name that he couldn’t hide from her vision. The image of her face flickered in the firelight.
“Logan,” he corrected.
“Fine. Logan.”
He was the Norse trickster god Loki, but he went by Logan to protect himself from the wrath of the other Norse gods. He also consistently used his shapeshifting to alter his face. He had the same dark hair and eyes as he’d had as Loki, but his face was shaped differently enough that no one would recognize him.
He’d buried Loki deep in the past.
“Do you have anything for me?” he asked. He was so certain she would say no, as she had at every other meeting, that he nearly lost control of the flame when she answered.
“Yes. It’s almost time. The Labyrinthine Prison of Lethe will be complete in no more than two weeks.”
Adrenaline spiked through him, driving through his veins and making his mind hum. “Two weeks? That’s all? Damn it, what kind of seer are you that you couldn’t see it sooner?”
“The best.” She smirked. “Of which you are well aware, or you wouldn’t pay me so much money. Visions come when they come. You need to quit with the recon or protecting your friend or whatever it is you’re doing in there and go get whatever’s at the end of the map I gave you.”
She was right. There was no question he had to leave the Prison for Magical Deviants. He wasn’t learning anything new here now and Ian MacKenzie, his only friend, was safely out of Scotland.
“Fine,” he said. “You’re certain of this? I’ve been on Moloch every day for three months, helping to build the labyrinth, and it doesn’t look nearly finished.”
In an ironic twist of fate, the university prison was using prisoners to construct a far greater monstrosity than the one he’d been caged in—an inescapable labyrinth prison that would capture and contain the gods. Like himself. Like Sigyn.
He sure as hell wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Yes. I believe the prison is designed to make you forget. I saw more in this vision than in all the others. It’s called the Labyrinthine Prison of Lethe because the architect of the prison has diverted the waters of the River Lethe. He’s created a portal to the Greek afterworld that allows the river to flow through the labyrinth.”
“What the hell?” He hadn’t heard the name of the river that ran through Hades in centuries. The River of Forgetfulness made those who drank from it forget their lives.
“If you’re imprisoned—which you will be, as all gods will be—you’ll forget yourself entirely. As will the world. I believe the river Lethe is making even the builders forget what they’ve built. It’s part of the torture of the labyrinth—to endlessly toil yet believe you make no progress.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. This was a hell of a lot worse than he’d
anticipated. Aleia’s prophesies always came true. Always. The cocky part of him had always kind of thought he’d be able to break out of the prison if he were thrown in.
But from what Aleia was saying, it sounded like the river Lethe had already fucked with his mind. If the prison was completed, he would end up there as prophesied. With the river working on his mind, there’s no way he’d find his way out before he forgot.
“It looks like my time here is up. I’ll contact you if I need you again,” Logan said.
“Aye aye, boss.” She disappeared into the flames.
Logan thrust aside the chilling thought of losing his memory in the labyrinth and focused on what was next.
Escape.
His heart sped at the idea of finally being able to break out of this hell hole. With the wheels of the Labyrinthine Prison finally turning, he couldn’t stay, hoping for more information. Aleia had informed him of the prison’s construction over a century ago. After a hundred years of searching for it, he was suddenly running out of time.
Speaking of time… The guard would arrive with “dinner” any minute. It took only seconds to tear off strips of the bed sheet. He took up position at the door and quieted his mind, listening for the coming footsteps of the burly guard.
The guard was part demon, though from what afterworld, Logan wasn’t sure. Mytheans, as supernatural individuals of the various species were called, could be dangerous. The university, which was more of an unofficial government organization dedicated to hiding the existence of Mytheans than it was a learning institution, hired all sorts of Mytheans.