I thanked the bartender as I took my glass of wine, then turned to head over to Kirill's group. That's when I smelled him. He of the non-existent odor. As casually as I could, I changed direction and went toward Odin. I was halfway there when Odin spotted me. He narrowed his eyes, and I nodded.
Odin went to lean against the wall.
And finish the warding.
But suddenly, Odin's expression changed. He slid down the wall, his legs bending at the knees, and his stare went distant.
“Odin!” I ran for my husband.
The atmosphere shifted instantly. From casual conversations to wary silence, the gods and demigods searched the room for their target. Then Trevor went down. Machar fell shortly afterward. I saw them out of the corner of my eye. Cursing, I came to a stop and searched the room with both eyes and nose. Odin and Trevor would be fine, but I had to stop Katila before he took us all down and left us drooling into our cocktails.
There! I smelled him. With a yank, I got rid of my cumbersome skirt and ran for Katila.
Re, who was coming toward me, shuddered to a stop.
“Re!” I shrieked.
Wolves dressed as wait staff surrounded my fallen Froekn prince, facing outward and snarling. The citadel knights did the same with Azrael sans the snarling. But Az shoved his way out of that protective circle and ran for me. Everyone was running for me.
“Hello, my Queen,” Katila was suddenly standing before me.
He just appeared, but he didn't startle me. I had smelled him coming.
“Hello, Katila the Hun.” I punched him in the nose like you're supposed to do with sharks.
I don't know if that actually worked on sharks, but it didn't do much to Katila. His head swung back a little, but he only smiled bigger and reached for me. Impressive, considering my strength, but no biggie. That was just to buy me some time to summon my claws. And my magic.
I blasted Katila with Moon Magic. Not Lunacy. Hell no. I didn't want that guy any crazier. Instead, I tried to dehydrate him. I say tried because he turned incorporeal again, and my magic found nothing to lock onto.
But now everyone else had seen him.
Blast after blast of magic came at Katila. I jumped out of the way and dove for the cover of a table. There was a crash, then another. Without the ward up, someone outside might hear us. Or worse—Katila might escape.
I crawled to the wall and got to my feet. Behind the lines, as it were, I made my way over to Odin. Meanwhile, Katila laughed. The blasts went right through him, every one of them. A chill ran down my spine. We had enough god power there to win a war against another pantheon but a single god was defeating us by simply going ghost. But he had to get solid sometime, right?
“Odin?” I grabbed my husband by the shoulders and shook him.
Odin blinked.
“Odin?”
He was a god of knowledge, not just death. If anyone could get out of that confusion spell, Odin could.
Odin's stare shifted toward me.
“Hey,” I said.
He just stared at me.
“Damn it!” I shook him again. “Come on, Odin! Snap out of it!”
I glanced around the room. Gods were stumbling away from the fight, all of them dazed. Katila just laughed and danced, twirling in his spectral body. And he was wearing a suit. The crazy son of a biscuit had dressed up for the party.
Then he vanished.
“Oh, fuck,” I whispered. “Odin!” I gave up on him and smacked my hands against the wall. He wasn't the only one who could lay a ward. But then I hesitated. Did I really want to trap Katila in there with us? Who would really be trapped? “Shit,” I muttered.
The hesitation cost me.
