Hellraiser, p.8
Hellraiser, page 8
She nodded but remained mum. She moved to turn the doorknob and found it unlocked.
“What are you doing?”
“The apartment is protected by runic and elemental magic, Sif,” Ola said. “Trust me to know what I’m doing.”
I was beginning to understand that Ola wasn’t anything like I thought she was.
“Whatever you do, follow my lead. This will be tricky as he is Lady Hel’s son and—”
“Lady Hel’s son? So, we have to deal with her son to resurrect Chi?”
“Don’t forget you are sleeping with her father, so just think of keeping it in the family.” Ola laughed, and I elbowed her in the ribs. The pantheon and the family connections thereof were small.
I couldn’t begin to understand why Lady Hel hated me so much, but it didn’t matter. I just wanted Chi back like she was supposed to be—alive.
The apartment was sparsely decorated, nothing here really to make it personal. It would have made more sense if maybe everything was painted in black. But instead, it had generic white walls, and even the furniture seemed to be right off the showroom floor. No photos of what this necromancer was supposed to look like, either. All that hung on the walls was an old framed map of a place called Thule, and on the opposite wall, that of a multicolored dragon.
“Okay, the only thing I’m getting from this place is that this guy shops from a catalog and has the personality of a wet rag. Heck, there is nothing here that even individualizes the space.”
“Some call it minimalism.”
“Blech. With such a view of the river, I’d think he’d have something made of diamonds to sparkle. Maybe even a real grass putting green on the balcony.”
I finally spied what Ola was concentrating on in the shape of a small altar that rested on the table before the dragon painting.
I watched her pull out a rune stone from her jeans pocket and place it on a wooden altar situated in front of the painting. Ola was a wielder, one who could pass through the realms. I assumed the runes were the coins she’d have to pay like that given to Charon on the River Styx.
Whatever the story there might have been, it was ongoing, and carried with it a lot of emotion—more than I could bear. I pushed back at their onslaught.
“He’s not here.”
“Yes, he is.” I turned at the male voice and came face-to-face with a tall, broad-shouldered man with slicked-back salt and pepper midnight-colored hair, and shadows beneath his wary, bloodshot silver gaze.
“Mr. Naldoson,” Ola said. “I hate to intrude, but we found your address—”
“Whatever it is you want, know that I do not do freebies, gifts, or anything of that nature. All magic comes with a cost, and I must be paid.” He sounded like a tired and overworked stockbroker who spent too much time guzzling down coffee. He rubbed his untrimmed beard. It looked like he hadn’t shaved in days. For one living so close to the sky, which said that he had to be of the social elite. Calling him unkempt was nice talk. For a demigod, I expected him to look like he’d walked right off the cover of GQ, and not P.U. I tried not to breathe through my nose just in case the looks off him was a promise of his stench.
“We don’t have any of that stuff,” I said.
“Well, you risked coming here for nothing. If you want my help, you have to pay the fee.”
It didn’t look like he needed the money from what I could see. He wasn’t peeing in a jar to stay warm at night or trying to filter drinking water with dirty socks, a soup tin, and a hope and a prayer.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s gotten your designer boxers into a bunch, but first, we’re getting Hell from your mother, pun intended, and now having to face off with you acting like a douchebag. I mean, I know your family is fed up, but that’s not an excuse to be a dickwad.” I crossed my arms and gave him the stare of a thousand stares, the same one I’d been giving since I was five, and my mom would tell me to fix my face.
“My mother?” His hardened jaw relaxed, to only then start to tick. Yep, he had Mommy issues.
“Yes, your mother helped kill one of my best friends, and I’ve been told that you have the skillset to resurrect her. Now, I know there are probably more rumored necromancers in this overrun city, but I’d like to think that the one who is having issues with Mommy dearest might be willing to stick it to her and raise my dear friend from the dead.” I paused to take a breath. I’d had a bad day; screw that, I’d had a bad couple of months. Nothing in this new world made sense, and it was like I was in an urban fantasy Dungeons and Dragons game or cosplay and didn’t know it. Next thing you know, someone was going to jump out of the closet with their hand in the position of a gun or blaster and start making “pew, pew, pew” sounds.
The man stood as still as a statue until he started to pace as if my words jump-started him. Maybe he was weighing the pros and cons of what it meant to double-cross his mother, or maybe he was ensuring that he had all of the ingredients for his evening martini. For such a rich and dapper guy, I could smell the alcohol leaking out of his pores.
Who said money brought happiness?
“If your friend has not departed to the afterlife, there are only so many conclusions.” He paused and tapped his foot as if was thinking.
I couldn’t help the loud sigh. This was like an endless shopping list of tit-for-tat.
I didn’t trust him. A loud humming rang in my ears, almost sounding like an alarm. What was this? My skin started to prickle. I reached out for Ola’s hand. We needed to get out of here. Something was deadly wrong.
“Okay, I can do that,” he finally said, “but you have to do something for me since you can’t pay.”
Ola wasn’t picking up on how hard I must have been squeezing. She ignored me.
“Let me guess,” I said, “you want us to find a way into a secret lair, drug the bad guy, and steal his heart?”
He gave me a confused look and Ola interjected.
“Excuse her. She’s had a bad day. What is it that you’d like to know?”
The wary look on his face changed as quick as a finger snap. His eyes filled with anger akin to bloodthirst. Heck, I didn’t come here to fight, but I would.
“The only one who can find that book is one who’s connected to Lady Hel, as it is from the family athenaeum. How’s it that you were able to find it, and how’s it that you can pay with the rune of Hagalaz, which requires me to appear? Who are you, really?
Before I could answer, he removed a sword, hidden behind his back, and pointed it at my throat.
“There are books that are cursed, grimoires,” Erich said, “And one that I need to free…”
It was what he didn’t say that gave me pause. The grimoires were not just books that could be checked out at the local library. These books, often time-bound with the skin of their human sacrifices, harbored unbridled powers. Rumored powers that could tip the scales in our favor.
I raised my hand and touched the blade, pushing it to the side.
“If you are a necromancer, one who can raise the dead, why would you need a grimoire?” I asked.
He lowered his blade. “Some of the grimoires could enact curses. The Codex Gigas is famous for the negative energy it holds. Words have power, and people can imbue their works with such energy. The monk who’d been entombed while alive for breaking his sacred vows, wrote it. But I’m looking for the Grand Grimoire. The original text was locked away in the Vatican’s secret archives, but with the invasion, and the Vatican now under the control of the Dark Elves, the book has been removed from the shelf.”
Everything I thought I knew about the invasion was wrong. I’d assumed it was localized, and that we could simply overthrow it, but it was cantankerous, insidious even, with its roots dug in and spreading like a virus.
“But the border?”
“That is a lie, an illusion to placate. Those who can see into the world of Spirit know it to be so.”
My shoulders sank.
There was no one size to topple it.
He frowned. “You weren’t here when they came?”
I nodded, unable to vocally utter that I still had no idea what was going on.
Ola squeezed my hand. “When they arrived, the military was prepared to defeat them, but they were powerful and easily overwhelmed us. It was like fighting with pre-Civil War weapons against modern laser technology. Laser weapons that could even melt the eyeballs of pilots, cut planes in half, and the speed of their weapons, some could even hit Mock 20.
“Those who could survive had only two options: get out of the city and hope it would pass or fight back. They expected us to fight back, too.
“It was a bloodbath like no Hollywood movie had ever depicted. They weren’t here after our water—we were the resource. They fed on us, used us to fuel their technology.
“’We saw them invade here in Richmond, but the larger cities were wiped out. But they didn’t come from the skies as we’d believed, but a portal taking the Rainbow Bridge to us. They didn’t come for anything, except us.”
The legendary Rainbow Bridge was how I’d been able to travel back from Asgard. It had to have been their way to bring everything in, too.
“First they struck capitols, military strongholds, government entities,” Ola continued. “They used an electromagnetic pulse, and everything electrical failed until we went back to what felt like the nineteenth century. The cities failed, and those who could survive had to surrender in order to do so.
“And then they rebuilt, creating a society where they ruled, without question. Those loyal to the cause rose, and the dissent was quickly quelled through the illusion of normalcy.” Ola tilted her head. “You’ve been using magic to help create the mirage, right?”
Erich ran his fingers through his thick hair and collapsed into the leather armchair. “We all do things we don’t want to, to survive.” He picked up a golden picture frame of him and a beautiful woman and stared at her. “I’d do anything to make this right.”
I had no idea what or who he was talking about. “Care to explain that?” I pointed at the image.
“Things happened outside of my control, and I haven’t been able to make it right.” He took a deep breath, and a small smile spread across his face. “Nothing has worked, but you might be the way for me to fix it.”
“And you will help us then, help us to raise my best friend, Chi, from the dead?”
“If Chi has not moved on, then surely it is because either my mother or one of the death gods has willed it so she cannot move into the hereafter. But without the grimoire, my hands are indeed tied.”
“The shopping list continues, it seems.” I’d wasted enough time and turned to leave.
“But time is also of the essence. You’ll need to retrieve it, to tether her to this world soon, or she will not be able to find her body again. I’ve something that can buy you some time, so all is not lost.”
He moved into the kitchen, loudly opened cabinet drawers and doors. I heard him rattling around in there, to only return with a satchel of herbs in a small canvas bag tied with a leather cord.
Ola stretched out her hand. “You will need to find her body and place this on it.”
“How much time will it give us?”
“A fortnight, max.”
Would that be enough time to raise my best friend from the dead? But even more, how was I supposed to get to the Vatican when I was in Richmond, Virginia, and the Vatican was still in Italy?
17
Thor
Sif was special. Thor knew that it was more than her talents that stirred up this mess. The Norns, those women of fate, knew how to pit god against god and make it look as though all spoke with forked tongues. Sif was incapable of harming Freyja. She’d barely come to recognize her own talents. No, this was something bigger than even him, he suspected.
In Asgard, Thor and Heimdall watched and waited. The crowd of soldiers, dressed in battle gear, maneuvered away from the wall. The threat should’ve been over, and that of war just a foregone thought. But, Lady Hel’s presence with her soldiers did not put Thor at ease.
His father’s words erupted across Asgard, moving forward in waves. For a moment, all activity ceased, and the cacophony of those gasping in surprise punctuated the air. Moreover, all of his days, Thor never thought he’d see the day when the All-Father would accept Lady Hel’s terms.
He had attempted to eavesdrop, but both Odin and Lady Hel moved away, and her soldiers stood guard to block him from following.
Plus, she seemed almost too confident in her approach, as if she knew the All-Father was practically neutered. She’d brought the most high to his knees without striking him. Thor’s hammer hung limply in his hand; the weight somehow heavier. This battle would not be won by simple combat, fighting. It wouldn’t be won by the weight of the tainted soil or the piles of ashes that remained.
Maybe Lady Hel wanted it more, or maybe Odin was more focused on his loss instead of what he still had to protect. The longer Freyja was missing, the more hostile Odin grew.
“If the witch shall not return on her own accord, the Valkyrie will fetch her. Kara, take the garrison out to find the traitor, and bring her back, dead or alive.” Odin’s cloak fluttered behind him as he paced on the portico.
“You know sending Loki after Sif is going to make things more complicated for you,” Heimdall whispered.
“Stupid, yes, but what other options were there? Father is not in his right mind, and whatever Lady Hel is up to, well, it’s going to make us all culpable for the destruction of the realms because that is what she has in mind.”
“You would give her away?” Heimdall asked.
“She isn’t mine to give. She can make her own decisions, and what she does now will not affect her importance to me or the master plan.”
“She might love him.”
“She just doesn’t see the destiny, the long game. Loki is a diversion, but watch and see, he will hurt her, and she will fall into my arms as it is destined to be.”
“You are quite full of yourself, dear Prince.”
“There is nothing of depth between them, nothing more than biology. I can fulfill those needs.”
“But she doesn’t seem to be interested in you doing such. Right now, Loki seems to have found her company.”
Thor shrugged. Right now, it didn’t matter who Sif’s bedmate was. In the end, they’d be together.
“She’s marching toward horrible odds.”
“Isn’t she always rushing toward something when only eyeing part of the puzzle?”
In the gist of things, Thor never fully understood why Sif behaved the way she did. Maybe it had something to do with her humanity, at least the humanity she thought she had. She didn’t seem to understand or embody an immortal mindset. Instead, she sought to tame the chaos and disrupt order, the natural order of things.
Who was he to go against his father? Odin was the All-Father, and the one responsible for keeping the wheels turning, the train on the track. Just as Lady Hel was now experiencing a madness caused by love, maybe the All-Father’s madness was based on the same matters of the heart.
“The question becomes: how can we help her from our position here?” Heimdall asked.
Thor considered his options. Either he could betray his father, or he could send help to save the woman he was destined to love.
“My concern is that any help we send might be too late,” Thor said. “But, although we cannot personally go to assist her, and though Kara will be hot on her heels, her best hope is—”
“Don’t say it,” Heimdall interrupted and shook his head.
“Yes,” Thor said. “Vali. He is our only option.”
“But he is just a kid.”
“Well, all kids grow up sometimes,” Thor concluded.
“But what of your mother? How can we help the All-father if your mother is truly missing?”
“If the magic were to leave a residue of sorts, it should lead us to her and show us somewhat of what has transpired.”
“You are speaking of the Kvasir? We don’t have any other choice, dear Heimdall. If we leave the All-Father to this path, we are doomed, to be ransomed to these unmoving forces which even we can’t control. Kvasir will give us an answer.”
“And what is the answer, something that we don’t like?” Heimdall asked.
“They would do it anywhere.”
In a flurry of fabric, and with Lady Hel’s face wearing a knowing grin, Thor’s stomach sank. What had his father done to abate and appease her?
“Father.” Thor pushed toward Odin, who turned to head back into Valhalla. The soldiers milled around, an oddity. Either they fought, or they got drunk celebrating their deaths and victories in their mock battles. Right now, though, just as he, they seemed confused by the All-Father’s lack of clarity.
Odin paused and turned to him. “You mustn’t snap after me as if I were a hound. I am still the All-Father, and you, my son.”
“I fear that you’ve done something all of Asgard will regret.”
“This place is what I have built, but without your mother, it isn’t worth it. Lady Hel will help make amends to that. She will ensure that we can locate her and return her to me.”
“And for that, you will risk all of the realms.”
“If it means getting your mother back, I will risk it all, even you.” Odin waved his hand. “You are not to intervene in the matters of Midgard. Now leave my presence before I consider that as an option.”
Was Thor willing to risk betraying his father? It would be treason. Whatever he did, this critical choice would hurt no matter what he decided. Choosing family and watching the worlds burn, or choosing the world and burning the family tree?
18
Lady Hel
“Have you come to invade us, Hel?” Odin sat on his golden throne and sneered down at her.
Today he reminded her none of the vibrant, young god who had cast her into the realm of the dead to now rule. Weaker than she ever thought. Was his power connected to Freyja, or was it more that his heart was weakened by such a human emotion?
