by Ben Zackheim
The gryphon flew off like a bullet. She was seeking out the mask. She was the only one who could find it in that mess.
“Follow her! Don’t let her take the mask!”
“On it!” My partner dashed off after the gryphon. Again, the feeling of sadness gripped me. I pushed it back down.
I eyed the wendigo. If he wanted to turn on us, he could make our lives miserable. But he’d also be putting himself and his mission in danger.
The giant god wrapped up his laugh-fest. He leaned over and picked up his eyeball. He turned it in his palm a few times, then crushed it. He blew emerald dust into the air, sending a cloud down on me and the others. It was hard to breathe. It was hard to see.
The giant took one large step toward us. I could barely make it out, but the last thing I saw was his arms raised. This was the crushing blow.
A flash of lightning lit up the world. The team and I had our eyes covered because of the dust cloud, so we avoided the brunt of it. When my vision cleared, I saw the thunder god swinging at the air like he was swatting at a bug.
I took a few steps back. A man with long red hair, a kilt, and no shirt flew around the thunder god. He dodged the clumsy blows easily and waited for the right moment to strike back with a large hammer.
“Thor!” someone yelled from behind me. I didn’t recognize the voice.
“That’s Thor?” I asked. I squinted to see. Of course it was Thor. Who else would it be? I just couldn’t place the face. I thought I knew him. I remembered meeting him once. Or twice? But I’d never seen this guy before.
I didn’t have time to worry about it. A loud growl from the other side of the warehouse caught my attention.
The dog demon had a mask in his mouth. He snarled at the gryphon, who was preparing a spell to tan his hide hard.
They’d found it. The gryphon and demon dog had sniffed out the genuine relic.
I couldn’t let her take the prize from us. I had to get that mask.
I struggled to summon my Swap Portal. If I ever needed it, that was the time. I ran toward the dog and whistled. The dog’s ears perked up. He spotted me, and ran in my direction, jumping over the bolts of energy being thrown at him. The mask dangled from his jaws.
The Swap Portal glowed bright. I’d opened it.
I reached for the dog demon. I had to pull him into the Swap Portal. The Tengu jumped at me, but he ran into an invisible wall and fell to the floor. The mask fell from his mouth.
A woman floated over all of us. Her presence stole everyone’s attention as she lifted her hands up, and the mask floated toward her. Great. Another enemy to deal with. I didn’t know who she was, but she would not get the mask.
I jumped up and grabbed the relic, but instead of pulling it down with me, I was pulled up and off my feet. The dog snagged onto my boot heel with its fangs and dangled there. Even with his weight added to mine, we kept rising into the air.
“Who are you?” I yelled at the woman, but our new guest didn’t answer me. The spell she had on the mask strengthened. If I wanted to keep the relic in my hands, I’d have to take her out. “Sorry, lady,” I said as I lifted my Glock, aimed, and fired.
Her head snapped back. The spell broke, and the dog and I dropped. But instead of hitting the cement ground, we hit a tiled floor. We weren’t in the warehouse anymore. We’d fallen through the Swap Portal. I didn’t remember where I’d asked it to take me. In fact, I didn’t remember much of anything at all.
The impact made me drop the mask. It rolled across the floor to a door.
I must have hit my head. My vision was blurry.
Where were we?
The dog was unconscious by my side.
The door opened, and a small demon waddled in.
“Oh, you found it. Well done.” He leaned over and picked up the relic. I tried to stop him, but I was overwhelmed by a blanket of nausea. The little shit slipped the mask over his ugly mug and looked around. “No. Nothing really special about it. Not that I can see, at least.”
He threw the mask in the air. It floated in place. He walked around it, inspecting the relic up close. He put his fingers up to his chin. “Nothing special at all. Are you sure this is the right one? Hm, if that Tengu friend of yours sniffed it out, then I suppose the answer is yes. Let’s see then…”
The little guy stuck a long fingernail into the mask and started peeling it apart. Strip by strip, paper fell to the ground as he dissected the relic like it was some kind of lab animal. He was careful, meticulous. But he was also destroying the one thing that could save the world.
It was only when he’d torn half the mask apart that he stopped and smiled. “Ah, look at this, sir.” He carefully peeled a strip of paper off the mask and held it delicately. He walked to me and dangled the relic in my fuzzy vision.
“You did it, sir,” he said. “You found the scroll piece. And you made a new friend, I see.” He patted the sleeping dog on the head.
“Who are you?” I asked the demon.
The door opened again, and a couple of men entered the room quickly. They were a harsh contrast with the calm of our demon host.
“Lucas!” one of the men yelled. “Get away from him!”
“What do you mean? It’s Kane, idiot! He found the scroll piece. Look!”
One of the men aimed his handgun at me. I didn’t recognize the weapon. Why couldn’t I recognize the weapon? I was a walking, talking encyclopedia of weaponry. “It may be Kane. It may not be. All I know is that Lancelot said to hold him if he swapped here.”
“What is the meaning of this?” the demon screeched. “Under what authority does Lancelot tell me I need to take Kane Arkwright into custody?”
“No authority at all, Lucas. But if we want to find out why he shot Rebel in the head, then we need him here.”
There’s not long to wait! Look for the next chapter Winter 2019
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Author’s Note
Kane and Rebel battled their way into this world during a conversation with author, John P. Logsdon (Ononokin, Paranormal Police Department). I’d been struggling with my writing for over a year. Writer’s block, poor sales, not much interest on social media — all of it was getting me down.
John started with his standard bluntness. The kind that comes from over a decade of friendship. “You’re thinking too much.”
“I’m a thinker,” I said. “I’m a great mind. Great minds must think.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know. What am I supposed to do? It’s how I am?”
“Then think about what stories you love.”
“I love Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
“Good.”
“I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
“Okay.”
“It would be cool to have an explorer of ancient relics team up with a vampire slayer to save the planet.”
“That’s a great idea.”
“They could search for treasures that the vampires want to find first.”
“Brilliant. Write it.”
“Okay.”
It really was that simple. With the help of John and a small group of authors, including Orlando A. Sanchez, Eric Knowles and Shayne Silvers, I wrote and launched Relic: Blade in two months.
It was the most fun I’d ever had writing. That remains true to this day.
The Relics series was born from passion, spontaneity. The simplicity of asking what I loved brought me back to what got me into this business in the first place.
A little fun.
A bunch of adventure.
And a heavy, heavy dose of escape!
Until the next book, keep hope (and snark) alive!
KANE ARKWRIGHT SERIES
Relic: Origins (FREE to subscribers)
Relic: Blade
Relic: Hammer
Relic: Shield
Relic: Grail
Relic: Sceptre
Relic: Scroll
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My sincere thanks to everyone who helped make Relic: Mask possible. These are my readers, my fans, my friends and my book family. I couldn’t have written this book, or any other book in the series without…
Audrey Cienki
Carolyn Fielding
Carrie M Blum
Cheryl pierce
Dana Audette
Denise King
Emma Porter
Helen Day
Janine Corcoran
Jim Stoltz
Larry Diaz Tushman
Lesley Sharp
Malcolm Robertson
Mary Letton
Mike Helas
Natalie Fallon
Rob Hill
Sara Mason Branson
Sharon Harradine
Stacey Stein
Tina Coulthard
Travis Sleeper