As soon as they were all in Katila's territory, he cracked his neck and grinned.
“It's a trap!” I shouted. “Get out of here!”
I didn't know what Katila was up to, but it wasn't good. Men didn't smile like that for nothing. Granted, Katila was crazy, but his crazy had some backing.
They either didn't hear me or it didn't matter to them. The army kept coming. As they did, the land beneath them shuddered. The scenery shifted again. Suddenly, Katila and I were atop an enormous mountain. The sides of the mountain were unnatural, shaped like waves. The solid stone looked as if it had been carved and smoothed into those rolling hills and valleys, creating a strange obstacle for the invaders.
But they kept coming. Furred bodies flowed over the stone waves, claws scraping for purchase. Gods slipped and slid, but not all of them were on foot. Angels, Demons, and Valkyries took to the air to fly for us. The sky filled with wings.
Then the mountain moved. The solid waves rolled as if they were water, spewing the ground forces into the air to knock the airborne out of the sky. It was the craziest shitstorm of a battle I'd ever seen. Gods cried out in shock, flying horses neighed and lashed out with their hooves, and the army folded in upon itself like pastry dough.
My fingers were going white from clinging to the bars. Was this it? Was Katila truly going to kill my husbands and friends? Was this bastard going to win?
But then the army rallied. They pulled back the ground troops and sent only the winged soldiers forth.
Katila chuckled.
The landscape shifted again. Became darker. Full of shadows. Cold. I drew back from the bars. Without my magic to protect me, the wrongness of the place sank into my skin and burrowed deep. Evil reigned here. Everything looked menacing. Like the scene in a movie when someone approaches a haunted house, there were warning signs everywhere.Even the plants looked as if they were screaming at us to leave.
But there was nothing else there. I searched the shadows for terrors and found none. The place was empty. Wasn't this Hell? It was obviously one of the hells with levels or sections or something. Different areas for certain types of souls. Degrees of torment. I'd seen souls standing over those empty bassinets. But this place had none. No dead. Come to think of it, the waving mountain didn't have any either. Where were the souls of the dead? Oh, fuck, had Katila eaten them too?
The army paused. The winged soldiers landed. I wasn't the only one to sense the evil there. But nothing happened. It was just creepy.
Then the scenery changed again.
It got even darker. So dark that I couldn't see. The others, with their god senses, probably saw just fine. But my eyes were shrouded with the sort of darkness that makes you feel blind. I blinked and blinked until I wasn't sure if my eyes were open or closed.
Then came the screams.
I huddled into a ball, fear coating my skin and crawling down my throat. I hoped those were the screams of tormented souls, but after seeing the last levels empty, I wasn't sure.Flashes of magic lit the dark. I got glimpses of movement with every burst. Tableaus of battle. Faces set in harsh lines, bodies twisted in mid-motion, and weapons lifted. The Valkyries were on the ground, surrounding Odin. One of them was grabbed by something and tossed away.
I gasped. The darkness was alive. I'd faced such darkness before, but this was different. This darkness wasn't Fey. It was born of fear-ridden humans. Of their hatred and hope for revenge. And it had one job—to torture whatever landed in its grip.
Jackals whimpered. A flash showcased the ground swallowing several at once. Lightning crackled through the sky and hit Thor's hammer. He looked like a painting. But then darkness swallowed him, even the lightning.
“Thor,” I whispered.
“Tima!” my lions shouted.
I couldn't feel them without my magic, but when I heard their wounded cries, I knew they were going down. Fenrir was roaring, but it was cut off suddenly. The Great Wolf God had been defeated. Seconds, only seconds, and this dark land was winning. Katila barely lifted a finger.
Then Re turned on the light.
Shrieks came again, but this time it was from whatever thing that darkness was. It seeped into the ground as my husband went supernova. Then Blue added to the sunshine, and then Mr. T. Horus lent his strength to his great-great-grandfather, his right eye glowing gold. And under the light of the sun gods, the darkness didn't stand a chance.
I took a breath. Maybe we stood a chance after all.
Then the landscape shifted.
The light of the gods illuminated a horrifying swamp. A fetid ooze covered the ground. It bubbled thickly, the goo gleaming puke green and putrid yellow. The Gods began to scream. I screamed along with them. Not in pain but in horror. The noxious stuff on the ground was crawling up their bodies and consuming them. No, not crawling. Infecting. It was toxic. But immortality is a tenacious thing. The Gods healed and those with wings launched into the air, taking as many with them as possible before the sludge could do its damage again.
But there were so many. My husbands were safe, but my Intare were falling. Screaming. Boils covered their bodies. Tears poured down my cheeks as I shook the bars. My lions! I couldn't help them. Couldn't heal them. It was on Kirill to sustain them now. At least they had him. Oh, and the Froekn. They were holding Fenrir aloft, keeping him off the ground while they writhed in pain. Fenrir should have been roaring, fighting, helping them. But he was unconscious. Gello carried Anubis, her great Demon wings holding them both aloft, but he fought her, trying to get to his jackals. His dying jackals. His jackals who shouldn't have been able to die.
“Stop,” I whispered. “Please, stop.”
“What's that, my love?” Katila asked gleefully. “You want this to stop? Your wish is my command.”
The landscape changed.
