Not My Apocalypse (8 page)

“Alex, I can’t get involved. It’s not my pantheon.”

“You’re only a demigod, like me. We don’t have to follow the rules of noninterference.”

“But I’m not a fighter, Alex. I’m not like you.”

Was that supposed to be a dig or a compliment? “Fine. Then sit here and wait for us to save the world for you. If you change your mind, I’m going to the cemetery and using the gateway to get to Saint Louis Number One in New Orleans. Meet us there if you want to help out. We can do it without you—we did it last time, but we can use all the help we can get.”

He looked guilty. “Good luck, Alex. Really, I mean it.”

I wanted to yell at him, to shake him until he realized how serious this was and agreed to help us. This was his world even more than it was mine and he was supposed to love humanity and all that shit, but he was just going to sit there and let Ragnarok happen because it wasn’t his pantheon.
Arrg…
it was so fucking frustrating. But for a change, I showed good judgment and didn’t go all ragey on him. I took a long, deep breath and made sure my skin wasn’t heating up. I was calm enough. No immolating things in his bedroom. “Fine. Then stay here. I’ll go save the world for you.” I turned and left.

At the doorway, I paused. “And thank you for letting me stay here. Tell your mom thank you, too.” See? I can be civil if I try really hard.

Quietly, he said, “You’re welcome.”

I left. Mew-Mew trotted along behind me as I made my way to the cemetery. I tried to keep my shoulders from tightening with nervousness. I was healed enough to take another beating if I had to, but I was more worried about Satan finding me before I could stop Fenrir. Could we take Ra’s spears again, even though we’d wrecked those last two we’d taken? Or would we have to go looking for another weapon? The spears had worked, but they’d also been hard to handle. Maybe we could get something smaller that only needed one of us to wield. It would also be nice if each of us could have a weapon of our own.

I got to the cemetery and my body relaxed a little. Satan hadn’t found me on the way here, and the power of the cemetery would protect me a little. Since it was the middle of the night, the ghosts were at their most active. On the way to the gateway, I asked them if they knew of any supernaturally powerful weapons that might be able to kill, or at least defeat, Fenrir. I asked them if they could ask around, check with other ghosts and other cemeteries to see if any of them knew. Even though they were dead, I was betting most of them didn’t want the world to end, either. After all, they liked to hang out on Earth instead of spending all their time in the afterlife. A few of them were stuck here, but most of them came and went as they pleased. The ghosts I talked to agreed to pass the word that we needed weapons.

I took the gateway to Saint Louis Number One and found Elliot almost right away. He was pale and looked like he might throw up any second. “I don’t know if I can go through that again. The first time was bad enough.”

“Hey, you didn’t even fight Sköll last time. All you had to do was switch the horses.”

He wrapped his arms around himself. “That was bad enough.”

Shit, was he gonna be useless against Fenrir? You’d think the son of a fucking war god would have more balls, but no. “I’m gonna start calling you Ferdinand.”

“What?” he asked.

“Ferdinand, as in the bull. You should be this badass son of Ares, but you’d rather sit around smelling flowers than fight.”

Elliot made a face. “I don’t just smell them, I grow them. And there’s nothing wrong about not wanting to fight. Not everyone is as violent as you.”

“But sometimes you
have
to fight.”

He looked at me for a moment before dropping his eyes. “I wish there was a better way.”

“Well, if you think of one, let me know.”

Colin showed up, then Stefan arrived with Emily. The ghosts pestered all of us with questions as we made our way to some benches near the non-Catholic part of the cemetery. I asked the ghosts to see if they could find out about any weapons that might help us fight Fenrir and a few of them went off, happy to have something to do. The others kept hanging around, so I figured they might as well be useful and help us come up with a plan.

“So, Fenrir,” I said.

“If we want to stop him, we need to tie him up again,” Stefan said.

“That sounds like a job for Elliot.” I turned to him. “You can go take a look at the fetter and see if it can be fixed. And if so, find a way to fix it.” If we could get him chained up again, it would put Ragnarok on hold. The problem was we had to get him back to where he’d been kept prisoner for so long and I didn’t think he’d follow after us like a good little dog. We had to trick him, drag him, or beat the shit out of him so we could get him back in those chains. Sometimes I can be full of myself, but I didn’t really entertain the idea that we could kill him. I could hope, but the plan had to be to tie him up again.

We tossed around several ideas, but it all came back to us needing weapons. We really didn’t have time to go shopping for supernatural weaponry. Fenrir could be attacking Odin right now for all we knew, but we also couldn’t just run after Fenrir with nothing. Not if we didn’t want to get chomped on, ourselves. I mean, if this wolf could gulp down Odin, a full-blown god, he’d have no trouble gobbling up some teenage demigods.

“We could try to get Excalibur,” Colin offered.

“Seriously? We need some major ass-kicking weapons. We don’t have time to go play knights of the fucking round table,” I said.

He frowned at me. “I am serious. Excalibur is a very powerful weapon.”

“Ok, fine. But isn’t it buried with Arthur in Avalon?”

“Yes, it’s in Avalon and it’s in Arthur’s tomb but not literally buried with him. It’s in a chamber in his tomb, shoved into a stone like the way he found it when he was a boy.”

“If it’s stuck in the stone, what good does it do us? And we can’t even get to Avalon, it’s protected.” Fuck, that would be a great place to hide from my father, but no way would they let me in there.

“We could at least try, unless you have a better idea,” Colin said.

“How are we even going to fucking get there?” I asked him. It was well-guarded and we couldn’t just waltz in.

“I can get my mom to take us. We don’t have to tell her why we’re going. We can just say we want to see Arthur’s grave.”

I shook my head. “She might take the rest of you, but not me.”

“Sure she will. I’ve talked to her about you, and she knows you love cemeteries and ghosts and stuff. She can give us a tour,” Colin said.

It sounded crazy, but I have a weakness for crazy plans. I love them. It’s not like we had a better idea, and the ghosts would ask around for us to see if they could find any other weapons that might be able to take on Fenrir.

So Colin went to ask his mom if he could take all his friends to Avalon, like right now, and the rest of us sat around trying to come up with a better plan and failing.

Chapter 7

Not only did Brigid show up, the Morrigan came too, and she vouched for me. There was this look on her face, like maybe she knew what we were up to, but she was gonna play along. She’s a battle goddess, but I doubt she wants the whole world to end in war and fire the way Ragnarok goes down. The goddesses took us directly from the cemetery to Avalon. I was so jealous of how easy it was for them. Someday I was going to get that good at teleporting.

It was like the weirdest field trip ever. Five demigods and two goddesses taking a trip to Avalon to visit Arthur’s tomb. Brigid straight up gave us a tour, complete with a history lesson. Arthur was buried in a huge stone casket carved with his likeness on top. The sculpture depicted him holding Excalibur in his arms. The real thing was in a chamber beyond, stuck in a stone just like Colin had said. He went up to the sword as if to examine it and not too subtly leaned closer and grabbed the handle. He tugged a few times, then gave it one more yank before stepping away, looking embarrassed. “Sorry. I had to try.”

Brigid waved it off. “I suppose everyone would want to try. It does no harm.”

“I think you should all try it,” the Morrigan suggested. Yeah, I totally think she was on to us, which gave me some hope that this boneheaded plan might actually work.

We encouraged Emily to go for it next. She was the only girl and we did a half-joking ladies first, although Colin had already given it a try. It didn’t come out for her either. Then Stefan went and part of me expected it to work. He was the oldest and the most king-like of all of us. But nothing. The sword didn’t even budge. Elliot gave it a try, although he looked like he didn’t want to. We just peer pressured him into it, like we did with most things. After a few tries, he shrugged and stepped away.

My heart sank. So much for that plan. Everyone looked at me. “What? That’s a sword for a good guy. I’m the son of the fucking devil.”

“Try it, just for fun,” the Morrigan said. “It’s part of the tour experience.” That was definitely a joke. I tried to imagine her as a teacher in some kind of demigod high school we all went to. Maybe gym class? The thought almost made me laugh.

“Yeah, everyone else tried,” Emily said. The others agreed, egging me on.

“Fine, I’ll give it a try.”

With every step toward the stone, I got more nervous. This really fucking sucked. It was the only idea we had and no one had been able to get Excalibur out of the stone. What the fuck were we supposed to use to fight Fenrir? We had to find something or he would eat Odin and soon after the world would end. That sword was like failure staring back at me.
I don’t even want to keep it or anything,
I thought.
I just want to borrow it, just to fight off Fenrir and get those fucking chains back on him.

Would I go after Fenrir if I couldn’t find a weapon? I supposed I could try to use my fire powers or the new freezing power I’d just discovered, although it was a long way from making it snow in the dining room to using it to fight off a giant wolf. Would I still go after him knowing I might not survive? What was the alternative, to sit and wait for the world to end?

Fuck that. I’d rather go down fighting.

I gripped the handle and took a deep breath. So what if I couldn’t get it out? It’s not like I wasn’t used to failure. So I pulled, and the sword came out so fast I stumbled backward.

“Holy fuck.” I stared at the weapon. It hummed with power. I was sorry for giving Colin crap about it earlier. This felt as strong as Ra’s spear had. I turned to face the others, and everyone was looking at me in shock. Except for the Morrigan. She looked like she had totally expected this. “Uhhh… does this mean I have to rule England or something?”

Stefan made a snorting noise and covered his mouth.

Brigid kept staring at me. “Only the one true king is supposed to be able to take the sword from the stone. You can’t be the one true king—you’re not even human.”

Ouch.

The Morrigan shook her head. “He’s not the one true king, but he is
a
king. He was born to rule the world.”

“But I don’t want—”

The Morrigan cut me off. “No, and that’s why you can wield the sword. You take it not for yourself, but to defend the world. The sword isn’t only for the one true king; the sword is for the defender of the realm, which is what you are.”

I swallowed and looked down at the sword again. “But you guys aren’t supposed to interfere with another pantheon. It could start a war, and a war between the gods could bring us right back to the end of the world.”

“We did not give you Excalibur. Excalibur gave herself to you,” the Morrigan said.

“I should’ve bought her dinner first,” I muttered to myself. Stefan still heard me and he laughed before he could cover his mouth again. To the Morrigan I said, “So then I shouldn’t thank you for giving me a weapon that can fight off Fenrir, huh?”

She gave me a crooked, crafty smile. “No, not at all. We took you here to see Arthur’s tomb, that is all.”

Brigid gave her a look that was half angry, half impressed. “No, the Celtic gods did not do anything to help you in your quest. Excalibur makes her own choices.”

Stefan got over his laughing and turned serious. “Okay, mission accomplished. Now we need to figure out what to do for the rest of us. Unless you want to fight Fenrir alone, Alex.”

“Fuck no.” Not unless I had to.

Brigid and the Morrigan took us back to the cemetery and we checked with the ghosts to see if they had any ideas or had heard anything. Stefan went to check and make sure his dad hadn’t gotten eaten yet. He wasn’t gone long, although the waiting still killed me. He reported that Fenrir was running around Asgard destroying shit, but he hadn’t devoured Odin. That was good news, but we didn’t know how much time we had and I was the only one with a weapon.

Then we got a lucky break when a ghost showed up with Tyr’s sword, which the god had given away ages ago to a servant. I don’t know where the ghost got it or how, but he appeared and handed it to Stefan. Ghosts, considered to be part of the human realm, weren’t under the noninterference rules gods had to follow. Stefan took the sword with a look of reverence. “The sword must be returned,” the ghost told him. “Use it to defeat the great wolf and then bring it back to me.”

A loaner sword like mine. “Two is better than one,” Stefan said when he’d gotten over the surprise.

“Three or four would be even better,” I grumbled, although I was happy I wasn’t going to go up against Fenrir alone. We kept kicking ideas around but eventually we just couldn’t wait anymore.

I told Elliot to go see about the chains while Emily and Colin went in search of weapons. Emily especially would be lunch meat if she didn’t have something mega powerful to protect herself with. They didn’t want to leave me and Stefan alone to fight Fenrir, but we had weapons and they didn’t—it was that simple.

Stefan took me up to Asgard, the city of the Norse gods, which they were sure to be pissed about since I wasn’t supposed to come in. Despite all my attempts at convincing, they didn’t trust that I wasn’t going to cause trouble. They were probably less likely to be inviting now that I’d messed with their end-of-the-world prophecy and I was about to do it again. The part of the city we teleported to was in chaos. Fenrir was sure fucking things up. Broken buildings, things burning. “What if we’re too late?” I asked Stefan.