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5
ADDIE
Maddox’s shoulders had relaxed, but he still looked as gaunt as ever. It was like he’d passed a point of no return while I’d been gone, and I would never bring him back to life. I could reanimate the dead, but I couldn’t breathe life into the living. That was outside of my scope of power.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Hel had taken me only to prove a point. She wanted me to see what would happen to Maddox when I wasn’t around. It was her fault that I’d been gone in the first place. This wouldn’t have happened had she not taken me…
Still.
This wasn’t looking good for him. I didn’t ask where the rest of the food had gone. Maddox’s kiss had tasted sweet and sour, giving away his buffet on the road. As I stabbed another piece of General Tso’s chicken with my fork, I shoved a wave of arcana at Maddox.
He cut me a glare, but otherwise said nothing. He knew he needed it, and it wasn’t a problem to give him a drop or two. ThewavesI sent might have seemed like a lot to him, but I’d tapped into a deeper power that was as endless as our oceans. Maddox needed nothing more than a glass of water, and I had so much more than that.
He stepped closer to me and rested his head on my shoulder. I savored his touch as much as I savored this meal. It satisfied another part of me begging for a carnal sustenance. My cheeks heated, but he couldn’t see them.
If I let this go on, I would have to tell him that I’d never been with anyone before. At least, I’d never had sex. Sure, I’d kissed tons of boys. I’d even experimented with women before, though I’d realized that wasn’t for me. Sex still scared me. I’d always been afraid I would suck the life out of my partner, literally.
“Don’t the two of you paint a pretty picture.” Hel appeared behind Maddox. She had her hands on her hips, her glare fixed on the two of us.
I flipped her off and rested my cheek on Maddox’s head. A low growl emanated from him. Hel had made herself visible to him, then. I narrowed my eyes. What did she want this time?
“If you will not obey, then I have no other choice,” Hel said.
I stiffened. Maddox wrapped his body around me and growled in warning. My fork fell from my hand when I clutched his shirt like Hel would rip us apart again.
Hel’s voice lowered. She lifted a hand. Magic filled the air, so familiar to my own. “I have something to show you.”
My vision vanished. The kitchen and Hel’s disapproving face disappeared. A new scene formed. It was nothing more than vague splotches before the vision sharpened. I saw a craggy cliff poised at the edge of the world. A great tree reached high into the clouds. I recognized it from Hel’s domain. It was the world tree, Yggdrasil.
A man stood beneath it. He reached his arms to the sky and laughed before his spine bent and his body burst into the form of a massive, feral wolf.
Far below, in the rocks at the base of the cliff, several gods stood and raised their heads in fear. Thor’s lightning crackled around his hammer. Odin stood at the head of the pack, caution tightening his shoulders. Freya approached his flank and tightened her hand around the spear in her grasp.
The man above howled and the sound of it shook everything from the ocean to the rocks beneath their feet. The howl turned into a vicious laugh filled with gleeful rage.
Hel pushed her way between the gods to step out at the front. She lifted her face, her jaw tight.
The scene ripped, a jagged force tearing through the vision before it jerked back into place. The rocks at the base of the cliff were now covered in blood. The gods were in disarray, flung far and wide, their weapons far from their reach while their blood seeped into the salty waters lapping at the rocks.
Above them, the wolf stood. His back was bent, his hackles raised. He growled low in Hel’s face. The human half of her face twisted with agony. The wolf’s maw opened wide. Inside was a great darkness that seemed endless.
“I will feed until I am satisfied, even if that means devouring the entire world.” The wolf’s voice emanated from the hollow darkness inside him. “When I am done with this world, I will feast on the others. I will savor them while they drown in the void I have become.”
“You have made it this far, but you will get no further,” Hel declared.
She lifted her gaze to the sky above like there was a greater power than herself that she was asking for help. When she raised her hand, familiar threads glimmered in the light of the gray sun. She grabbed ahold of them and tossed them in the wolf’s direction.
He thrashed. The threads of fate snapped and splayed in every direction. In retaliation, he lunged at Hel. The fight was bloody. I flinched at the sound of bone crunching. There was no telling if it was Hel’s bone or the wolf’s.
The other gods dragged themselves upright. They swayed on their feet. When they reached for the threads of fate, their hands were shaky. This wolf had fought them all at once and come out on top. How did Hel expect to win by herself?
She was only buying time to keep the wolf away from the world tree. I realized that when the wolf twisted to leap away, towards the tree, and Hel jumped to grab ahold of him. She threw herself on his back and clung on, dragging him back down. It was a desperate move, lacking all the grace and power of divinity.
That’s how dire this was. One man, one wolf, defeated them all.
The gods took ahold of the fate threads. The tiny glimmering wires turned into great chains in Odin’s hands. He lashed them around the wolf. On the other side, Thor caught the flying chain and brought his hammer down onto it, binding the links together.
The wolf fell that day. They dragged him into the underworld to keep him locked away. The cost of the fight was too great. The gods staggered. They slumped. This fight had demanded everything from them. If they had to do it again, they might not survive.
