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My stomach dropped. I recalled the vision. It’d taken four gods to chain Fenrir in the first place. Even then, it’d cost them. Right now, we had a goddess, her mortal kin, and a wolf shifter. We didn’t exactly measure up as a group.
“Oh no,” I whispered.
Fenrir laughed. He squatted low, his elbows on his knees so his hands could hang languidly between them. “Don’t worry about it, child. Before long, there will be nothing. No one will have to worry then.”
“What kind of backwards doomsday logic is that?” Man, I really needed to think before I spoke. I was getting way too bold for my own good.
But Fenrir seemed to think it was funny. He glanced from Hel to Maddox like he was sizing up the threats. He didn’t think we could chain him again, but he wasn’t so cocky as to rule it out entirely. His attention remained on Maddox specifically.
Fenrir rose. “Come with me, brother. I’ll show you how to take what you need. We can consume to our heart’s content.”
Maddox’s eye twitched. I nearly laughed. Fenrir had misjudged Maddox. My detective would never betray me. It wasn’t just the fact that I could keep Maddox satisfied—wow, that sounded sexual even to me. I trusted Maddox’s love for me.
No one trusted their soul in just anyone’s hands. Even if Maddox couldn’t express his feelings verbally, his faith in me was more than enough. He didn’t press me for his soul now that we knew where it was. He simply accepted this as the way things would be from now on. Though I would have given it back in a heartbeat if I could, he never asked.
Without breaking eye contact with Fenrir, Maddox reached down and offered me his hand. I took it and pushed a wave of arcana into Maddox as he lifted me from the ground. Fenrir’s gaze narrowed. He looked me up and down with the kind of distaste one might give their least favorite food.
“Don’t you have small universes to devour?” Hel asked, impatiently.
Fenrir perked up, that charismatic car-salesman persona sliding back into place. He cast a broad smile in Hel’s direction. “You’re absolutely right! I have to get started if I’m going to eateverything.”
Why wasn’t she even trying? I didn’t understand. Fenrir wasright here. He’d presented himself to us. If we were going to do anything about it, now was the time. I pulled my arcana up from the deep well inside myself and braced myself for the fight that was to come.
But Hel never moved. She remained stiff, her gaze on the back of Fenrir’s head as he walked away from us. His back was even turned. Now was the perfect moment!
But Fenrir shifted into the large black wolf and leapt into the woods to disappear once more. We had unleashed hell upon the world and let it walk away unharmed. I felt grimy. My stomach turned sour at the thought of what Fenrir would get up to in the meantime.
Once he was gone, I turned to Hel. “He’s a danger, right? We just let him walk away! What wa—”
“Do not speak!” Hel roared. She whirled on me, fury darkening every shadow in the skeletal half of her face. “You unleashed him! I do not want to hear a single word uttered from your useless lips.”
I realized that she was shaken. This was a reunion she’d never planned on. Her attention drifted back in the direction Fenrir had gone.
“He’s the greatest threat the world has ever faced. If you thought the divine apocalypse was bad, at least there would have been something to save after it fell. Demons can be vanquished so long as the mortal plane sits between Heaven and Hell.
“If Fenrir devours everything, then there is nothing to be saved. It will all be gone. No world is safe from that monster.” Hel looked to Maddox.
I stepped between them. “This isn’t about Maddox. Yell at me. Give me a quest. Just leave him out of my mistake.”
I didn’t want the damn quest. This was Hel’s problem…even if I was the one who’d let Fenrir out. Sure, I had a lot of power, and it came from Hel. That didn’t mean I had the power to catch a demigod, though!
“Let’s take this inside,” Hel grumbled. “Your pet needs feeding, and we have to start making plans.”
She marched away, leaving us on the lawn. Maddox still stared in the direction Fenrir had gone. I couldn’t read Maddox’s thoughts, and he was good at keeping them off his face. Perhaps that came with years of working as a detective. He knew how to hide things…from most people.
I could see the tension in his shoulders. He thought he was hiding it well with his empty expression, but his body gave him away. So, I took his hand and gave him another wave of arcana to drink down.
His gaze slid to me. I tried to keep my face full of hope and cheer, but I doubted it was working. Inside, the sea of arcana churned with ice. Moments ago, I’d been eagerly anticipating Maddox’s kiss. Now, I found myself looking down the barrel of another impossible feat.
“Are you coming?” Hel shouted, her power making her voice go further than it should have.
I rolled my eyes and tugged Maddox’s hand. “You don’t have to stay here and deal with Hel. Go. Do what you need to do.”
“I’m going to go to Fenrir,” Maddox said.
My stomach flipped. The fact that he was telling me was a good sign. Still, I didn’t like the idea of him doing it alone. So, I tried to reason with him. Maddox shook his head.
“I’m going to distract him while the two of you come up with a plan. He wants to talk to me. I think he considers us the same…and I want to know why.”
