Poisoned Pearls (17 page)

“This way,” Sam said, leading me to the left.

I followed, finally hearing what she did—a man’s
shaking voice saying, “No.”

Sam and I both started to run. Just around the next bend was
a scene that I’m sure was meant to draw headlines. Loki was that kind of sick
fuck, not caring if his crimes or his good deeds brought him attention.

A box had been set up on the floor, covered with a purple
silk cloth. White stones lay scattered across it. Hunter was on his knees
behind the box, shaking his head, refusing Loki, who stood behind him.

Loki, who held a glittering knife to Hunter’s throat. There
was something different about that blade, something that wasn’t right.

I’d have to remember to ask Sam later what she’d seen.

Loki glared at the pair of us as we came racing up. “You
again,” he said.

“Told you it was my job to get in your way,” I told him
gleefully.

“Sir, put the knife down,” Sam said formally.

I couldn’t help but smile. She sounded like a real cop.

Loki shrugged. “He was just a backup. A guarantee. I’ve
already used the other fortuneteller. The fate of the worlds is set.”

“Not if I can help it,” I growled at him.

Sam flicked her eyes to me but stayed focused on Loki. “Sir,
you need to put the knife down and come with me.”

“Really?” Loki said, smiling at her, giving her that same
killer smile he’d graced me with earlier.

It had about the same effect on Sam as it had had on me,
which was, none.

I nearly crowed with delight.

“You’re kidding me,” Loki said, turning to me. “Both of
you?”

“What can I say?” I said, shrugging. “I have good taste.”

“But not enough sense to stay out of the way,” Loki replied.
“You should not meddle in affairs that are beyond your ken.”

With a smooth movement, Loki slid the knife across Hunter’s
throat, stepping back.

Hunter rose as soon as Loki released him, half turning. I
knew he was going to try to go after Loki with his dying breath.

Loki disappeared before Hunter could take a single step.

“Call 911! And stay with him!” I told Sam as I turned to go.

Hunter went down to one knee.

“Where did he go? How could he move that way?” Sam asked as
she fumbled her phone out of her bag.

“I’ll stop him. I swear,” I promised both of them.

Then I turned and ran, back to the sky boxes.

Back into battle.

***

Stepping back into the arena was like stepping into a storm.
Foreign, alien winds now circled the arena, blowing sand and blood and grit.
The howls of the dying now also filled the space. The air smelled rotten, like
leaves that had been drowned.

I hopped another two barriers to get to the sky boxes. I
couldn’t see through the darkened glass, but that
had
to be where the gods were.

Where Loki was.

The door, of course, was locked. I didn’t have Hunter’s
strength to kick it in, though I doubted even he could have made a dent in the
reinforced steel.

Frantic, I looked for another way in. Was there a different
entrance? Where the peons would come and go, serving the high and mighty
drinks?

Yes, there was. To the far left. A much smaller, less grand
door.

With just a card lock.

Praying that this trick worked, I got out one of my credit
cards, slid a piece of paper over it, then slid it into the lock, pulling it
out quickly.

Nothing.

Crap.

I tried it again, barely tapping the bottom of the slot
before yanking my card out again.

Still nothing.

I looked at my card, and finally realized that the magnetic
strip reader was on the other side.

Reversing my card and keeping my fingers crossed, I tried it
again, only this time, going a touch more slowly.

The resounding
click
sounded loud in the hallway, despite the wind and the cries that echoed around
me.

I slipped inside the sky box, then took off my leather
jacket and left it bundled up on the door jamb, holding the door open.

I wanted Sam, or anyone else who followed me, to have at
least a single breadcrumb.

Vertigo took me as I stepped into the main part of the
boxes. It was difficult to reconcile the two very different worlds that I saw.

On one hand, there were dark boxes, full of fancy seats that
overlooked the arena. The battle below looked more like an ocean of fog. The
men were still visible, but just barely. I couldn’t tell one from the other,
couldn’t see which side was winning or losing.

They all looked the same from up here: not individuals, just
a mass of bodies.

In the boxes themselves, several not-men and women battled
as well.

I didn’t know my mythology well enough to recognize them
all.

A big guy with red hair and a big hammer was wrestling with
a serpent. That had to be Thor, though I couldn’t remember what the name of his
hammer was.

A hefty woman with a huge key ring hanging from her waist
battled a giantess who was bare-chested and breathed frost on her. Maybe that
was Frigg.

An older man with a flowing gray beard fought a fucking
huge
wolf. He had an eye patch similar
to Loki’s. Was that Odin?

I didn’t see Loki anywhere. He should be fighting, right? Or
was he planning something else?

I tried to step around the battle. It wasn’t really here, it
couldn’t hurt me, right?

Except that somehow, by
seeing
so much of the battle, I’d stepped between the two worlds and into the thick of
it. When Thor shook the serpent’s head, venom splattered. A drop caught my arm
and I howled in pain as it burned through my shirt and onto my skin.

Fuck
that hurt.

And it meant that unless I was very careful, I could be
killed here as well.

I kept as far back as I could while I circled the back of
the boxes, seeking Loki. He had to be here.

I was going to spoil everything for him. Fucker.

But I didn’t see him.

“Cassie!”

Sam was here.

“Careful!” I said as she walked past the giantess thrusting
with her spear.

Sam didn’t see it. She hadn’t stepped through the portal as
I had. She wouldn’t be affected the same way I was.

“Cassie!” Sam called again, looking straight at me, then
beyond.

Shit
. She didn’t
see me either.

Where the hell was I? I’d really stepped into a different
world, hadn’t I?

I walked carefully over to Sam, not sure what to do. Should
I touch her?

I ran my hand down her back. It was an odd sensation, as if
I was but wasn’t touching her.

I didn’t like it. It was too much like being a ghost. As if
I were already dead.

And I did
not
want
to be dead. Not before I’d tasted Sam fully.

Sam stopped and shivered, then called my name again.

I closed my eyes and sought that blue dot. Holy fuck was it
huge
. I found the lines easily, much
more easily than ever before, and pushed one at Sam.

She gasped. “Cassie?” she asked.

“Right here, babe,” I told her.

She still couldn’t see me, but she knew I was close by.
“This isn’t happening,” she said.

I shrugged. There wasn’t anything I could do to convince her
right now.

Then Sam gave another gasp and marched straight over to the
side. “You are under arrest,” she told the air. “For attempted murder. You just
better hope the EMTs pull Hunter through and that charge isn’t changed to
murder.”

Fuck. That’s where Loki was hiding? In plain sight?
Somewhere in between worlds where I couldn’t see him?

I had thought once I’d gotten my abilities, I’d always be
able to see.

“You’re as annoying as your little friend,” Loki said.

I could hear the fucker. Just couldn’t see him.

“But you’re too late. The fate’s been set. Now all I have to
do is exchange places with Odin. And I’ll live past the end of the world.”

Maybe if I couldn’t see Loki, he couldn’t see me either? I
wasn’t sure. He was a god, after all.

But he no longer had both eyes. Like Odin, he was partially
blind.

Whereas while I might not have been able to visually spot
Loki, I could still keep my eyes, both of them, on the prize.

Saving the world.

I turned and left Sam. It was one of the hardest things I’d
ever done. She had to be able to take care of herself, even with a god. And
since she’d mentioned EMTs, I knew Hunter was in good hands as well.

I had to go warn Odin what was happening. That Loki was
trying to change fates with him. Or else.

***

The battle had grown more desperate behind me. The winds
that circled the arena had made their way into the boxes, howling their anger.
Seats rocked back and forth under their great strength.

I paused at the edge of the field of battle. It stretched
far beyond the end of the box. Distance was an illusion, though. It was all
happening right here as well.

I couldn’t move like Hunter. I didn’t have Sam’s authority.

But I had the stubbornness that my mother always claimed I
did, more a curse than a blessing.

I wasn’t about to stop now.

Making it past the coils of the snake was tricky. The scales
stung, tearing up my hands as I vaulted over first one loop, then the next. I
stifled my cry of pain as another drop of venom dripped down my back.

Goddamn it
. Not
cursing using any god in particular, however; just in general.

Finally, I made it past the serpent. Then I had to dance
around Frigg and the giantess. I slipped and fell on the ice, bruising my butt.

First time that winter I’d fallen, too. I hated breaking my
record.

It only took a little more to make it to Odin’s side. He
continued to fight the wolf, though his arm was torn up and even over the
howling winds I could hear him panting.

Sam didn’t come out into the boxes. I didn’t know if that
was a good thing or not, if she was safe behind, or if she was hurt, injured,
and unable to follow.

Odin was losing. Even with my lack of battle experience I
could tell that. He fought on, bravely, valiantly, almost dancing with the
great wolf, his great spear weaving and bobbing, preventing the monster from
getting closer. I knew this was the kind of battle that was made into song.

Then Loki exploded into view. He had to come to this world
to finish his deed. He rammed straight into Odin. He was trying to throw Odin
to the ground. Odin stayed on his feet, choking Loki. They embraced like angry
lovers, each unable to quit the other.

Neither of them were paying attention to damned wolf. I
swear that thing smiled like it had just been awarded a prize. It unhinged its
jaw extra wide, like a snake’s. It was about to swallow Odin and Loki whole.

“Odin! Look out!” I shouted, trying to make myself heard
over the sounds of battle, the crunch of bones, the howls of agony.

Neither of them looked up. They were too busy to see that
they were both about to be eaten.

I did the only thing I could think of.

Ran forward, leaped up as high as I could, grabbed that
huge, stiff tail of the wolf, and yanked on it. Hard.

I must have done some good, because the thing gave an
ear-shattering howl. I barely ducked in time to avoid its snapping teeth.

But that distraction was enough to get Odin to pay attention
to what was happening. When the wolf turned away from me, back toward his other
prize, Odin used his great spear like a mighty bat, smacking the wolf’s jaw
away from him.

Toward the figure lying on the ground a few feet away.

The great wolf leaped forward, its jaw open again.

And he swallowed Loki whole.

The winds died suddenly. The giantess gave a howling cry as
she dissolved into a flurry of snow and ice. A great hiss filled the air as the
snake wafted away like a poisonous mist. The warriors on the floor of the arena
gave a great cheer before they disappeared, too, off to their victory feasts.

I stood in the middle of the darkened sky box, still in pain
from the serpent’s poison. I was going to have to get that checked out, before
it killed me.

Had we won?

“Cassie!” Sam called, coming up from behind me.

I turned to her, flinging my arms around her.

I didn’t care if it wasn’t appropriate. I was going to get
to hold her once. She was soft and warm and smelled like sunshine, the other
side of winter.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Odin turn to look at me
as well.

Shit
. It never
paid to draw the attention of a god.

“We
gotta
get out of here,” I
warned Sam.

“Wait,” Odin said.

I froze.

“Thank you,” Odin said formally. “We are in your debt.”

I glanced at Sam. She was going to have to accept me as I
was, crazy or not. I took her hand and turned us both to face the one-eyed god.
He’d grown in stature, towering far above my head now. His gray robes were
clean, he held a huge oak staff instead of a spear, and his one eye appeared to
twinkle at me, as if he’d just heard a great joke.

“You’re welcome,” I told him. “Anytime.”

Sam gasped beside me. “Holy…
That’s
what you see?” she whispered.

Odin gave me a wink, then disappeared.

We were suddenly alone in the darkened sky box.

“So, babe,” I said, turning toward her, taking both her
hands. I realized that she was bleeding, a long cut down one arm.

But since she was ignoring it for now, so could I.

“You ready to ride this crazy train?” I asked.

“I am,” Sam replied, leaning forward and giving me the
sweetest kiss in the world.

Followed by one that was equally dirty.

Everything was going to be just fine. At last.

Odin walked beside the new ocean. Fresh winds scoured the
coast, unburdened by the past, carrying scents from hundreds of miles away. The
green of the grass on his other side hurt his eye with its purity. Everything
seemed possible, now that so many paths had been wiped clean. Even man had so
many options now.

Loki appeared beside him, his face a wreck from the renewed
poison dripping on it in a different past, another way. His bare chest gleamed
in the morning sunlight, and his gray woolen pants were filthy and hung from
his emaciated hips.

“Wouldn’t this fate have been better?” Loki whispered from
across the worlds. “Wouldn’t it have been easier?”

Odin shrugged. Maybe this fate that Loki had engendered
would have been better.

Not easier. It was harder to start again, to try to live
fresh, to not make the same mistakes as had been made in the past. Especially
as Odin would appear in this place, his skin hanging from him in folds.

“It is a lovely fate,” Odin did finally admit. “Thank you
for letting me see it.”

Since Loki had brought it into the world, Odin had found a
way to step through to it, following the planes on Yggdrasil, the world tree.

This fate wouldn’t last, however. The edges were fraying
fast. The old fate would return to dominance soon. Odin would only be able to
visit this other fate, where he survived the Twilight Battle, this one time.

“Always. Only for you,” Loki sighed and shivered in pain.

Odin knew better. It wasn’t for him—none of this had
ever been for him.

However, he didn’t blame the trickster. Loki couldn’t help
but try to find a way to cheat Fate of her due.

“I will find another path, you know,” Loki admitted. “To
free myself from this place. To end my pain.”

“I’m not sorry you’re in pain. It’s only equal to what Frigg
suffers, every day, from the death of her son,” Odin pointed out.

“How can she stand it?” Loki cried out. He writhed, trying
and failing to free himself from his fetters.

Odin looked out across the water. On a nearby point, two
fair-haired gods strode, blessing the earth with every step, their song ringing
out clear across the new land, bringing joy to all who heard.

“She has her ways,” Odin said. Knowing her sons would live
on past the end of the gods helped.

Loki didn’t have such assurance, such faith.

And Odin couldn’t give him any.

Each person had to find their own path out of darkness. Such
was the curse of all fates.