“You want us to say anything to Odin when, or if, we see him?” Kase asked.
“Yeah, call him a motherfucking bag of giant dicks,” Mimir said and walked away.
“I’m going to miss him,” Harry said when Mimir was out of earshot.
“Really?” Layla asked.
“Nope,” he replied. “Not even a little bit. I think it’s probably a good thing Remy wasn’t here, or he’d have either killed him or moved in with him.”
Layla smiled at the thought of Mimir and Remy in the same space at the same time, and then she shuddered at how horrible that would be after about ten seconds.
They left Mimir to his catacombs and met up with everyone else outside. No one looked particularly thrilled about the information discovered. Jidor marched up and down a short distance from the carriage.
“So what are we meant to do now?” Harry asked.
“Fuvos is a traitor,” Jidor said, almost shouting. “I told Goretis, who walked off after telling me he knew.”
“What?” Layla asked. “He knew?”
“Apparently, the elders sent him to work for Fuvos to investigate him,” Jidor said, waving her arms around in an exaggerated manner. “They trusted him to keep an eye on Fuvos, but not me. They just let me work for a man who wants to bring about the end of peace.”
“I’m sorry,” Kase said softly. “I know this must be hard.”
“Do you?” Jidor snapped. “How? How do you know?”
“When I was a kid, I was told about the great and wonderful Arthur,” Kase said. “About how when he returns, things will improve. That they’ll get better and the world will be united under one leader. That he was a good man. And then I learned the truth. I saw the death and destruction that he brought with him. I saw people, friends, die because of him and those who follow him. I never worked for Arthur, so you’re right, I can’t possibly know what that’s like, but I did have faith in him. I had faith that he would make things better, and everything I was ever told was a lie. So many people had their hearts broken because they’d wanted to believe in something better. Fuvos betrayed you. He betrayed everyone.”
“Fuvos will be waiting for us,” Jidor said. “Goretis said Fuvos knew about Mimir but let him live because he wasn’t actually sure that Mimir can be killed or how much Odin is linked to him.”
“We could just go back into town, take Fuvos aside, and kill him,” Hyperion said.
Everyone stared at Hyperion for a second.
“Let’s call that plan B,” Layla said.
“Why haven’t they sent anyone after us?” Zamek asked. “Anyone else think that’s weird? Fuvos knows that Mimir knows his plan. He knows we’ll find out. So what does he plan to do about it?”
Everyone immediately looked around the clearing.
“This feels like one of those moments in a horror film where someone walks into a dark house and doesn’t switch on the lights,” Kase said.
“Where is Goretis?” Harry asked.
“He walked off to the woods,” Jidor said.
“Right,” Layla said, feeling more than a little concerned about the possibility of an ambush before they returned to the city. “Let’s find Goretis, and then we can figure out how to get back to the city without Fuvos and his people waiting for us.”
The group moved toward where Goretis had walked off, with Tego emitting a low growl as they reached the edge of the clearing.
“What’s wrong?” Layla asked.
“I’ve learned to trust Tego’s nose,” Harry said. “If there’s something in there she doesn’t like, it would be best to stay away from it.”
“Goretis is in there,” Jidor said.
Layla looked down at the saber-tooth panther. “Can you find Goretis?”
The cat nodded and began to walk into the woods. The rest of the group followed behind. Many of them had already drawn their weapons.
It took five minutes to find Goretis. He was kneeling in front of a large knotted tree that twisted up high above them. Several runes had been drawn on the tree itself, but most were hidden from view by the mass of Goretis’s body, which had been nailed to the tree by a large sword through his back.
“A summoning circle,” Hyperion said as Layla used her power to remove the sword.
Goretis’s body dropped to the grass as the ground beneath their feet began to shake.
“What’s that sound?” Harry asked, concerned.
“Prepare for battle,” Jidor shouted, unsheathing a huge claymore sword.
Chapter Seventeen
NATE GARRETT
Waking to the sound of banging on my bedroom door, I sat bolt upright. There was no clock telling me what time it was, so I swung my legs out of the bed and opened the door. Donna was standing in the hallway looking as though she were positively crushed by worry.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, moving aside and letting her into my room. I walked over to the window and tapped it twice, changing it back to normal clarity and blinking furiously as the sunlight streamed in.
“I’m really sorry for waking you,” Donna said. “But Jess and Daniel are missing.”
That got rid of any semblance of sleep that remained. “What?”
“Daniel needs medication for his high blood pressure, and we didn’t bring it with us, so he was going to go get some from a nearby pharmacy. He left this morning before anyone could stop him. He left me a note telling me he was going to wait for the pharmacy to open and that he wouldn’t be cowed into hiding away.”
“That fucking idiot,” I snapped. “Sorry.”
“No, you were right the first time,” Donna said. “I sent Jess out to get him, but that was an hour ago. The shops are a ten-minute drive from here.” The concern in her voice told me exactly how seriously I needed to take this.
“I’ll go check up on them,” I said. “Have you told anyone else about this?”
“Medusa,” Donna said. “She suggested I come wake you up.”
“I’ll go find Medusa,” I said. “You stay here with Simon and Ava, and I promise you I’ll find them.”
“Thank you,” Donna said, placing a piece of paper on my bed with the address of the shop.
I got dressed in the first things I could find and was still putting on a T-shirt as I ran toward the lift at the end of the floor, where I met Medusa, who was leaving it.
“Just the man I wanted to see,” she said, carrying a black rucksack in one hand.
“Daniel and Jess are missing,” I said, stepping into the lift. “You can tell me on the way down.”
“Jess told me this morning that her grandfather is a stubborn man. I expected them both back by now. You’re going after them?” Medusa pushed a button on the panel to take us to one of the three basement levels.
“I’m going to go check,” I said. “It’ll be quicker for me to jump in a car and go than to wait for your guards to get there.”
“Agreed,” Medusa said. “If it helps, I sent three guards with Jess. I’m sure whatever is happening, they’re fine. There’s no way that Avalon knows of Daniel or Jess’s location. They’re probably just trying to find the right medicine.”