“You’re dying,” he said.
I nodded slowly. “Yes, turns out this sucks.”
Erebus smiled. It was weird seeing someone with my face smile at me differently than how I smiled. “You need to know the truth of who you are,” he said softly. “That’s the last link. I said nothing because you were meant to regain your powers on your own, and because you were human, I was too deeply buried in your psyche, but as you die, your human consciousness and sorcerer subconscious are more fluid.”
“Meaning what?”
“Chris will not save your life. You will die. Your friends will die. Avalon will win. Those are simple facts. The bullet inside you is not silver, but it has shattered ribs, punctured your lung, and created an internal bleed that cannot be controlled outside of a hospital. And you’ll be dead before you get there.”
“How do I stop it?”
“You need to remember who you are.”
“I can’t,” I snapped. “I don’t know who I am—that’s why I’m in this goddamn position at the moment. No one knows who my father is. No one. No, that’s a lie; Baldr does, and he really didn’t seem to be interested in telling me.”
“He told you that he hated you more for it.”
My subconscious mind turned to look back at Chris, who was trying everything he could to keep me alive.
“Do you know who he really is?” Erebus asked.
“Chris?” I shook my head.
“Ask him. And you know, Nathaniel Garrett is only part of your whole name. Ask him to tell you your missing name.”
“Why can’t you just tell me?” I asked Erebus.
“We both know why. I can’t tell you information you don’t already know. And this information is blocked from you. I will push your mind back to your consciousness, but you will not have long to ask.”
I nodded and cried out as I was dumped back into wakefulness. Chris knelt beside me. “I’m sorry,” he said, taking my hand in his. “I’m so sorry.”
“Who are . . . you?” I asked, before realizing that was the wrong question.
“Loki,” he said. “That’s my real name. I was told to keep you safe from harm, and I failed you. I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were alive for so long, and then I was forbidden from ever interacting with you, so when Hades contacted me about helping you, about keeping you safe, I jumped at it. I wanted to get to know you.”
“What is . . . my name,” I asked.
Chris stared at me for a second before nodding. “You deserve to know the truth. Your mother and father wanted you to have a part of his name, but giving you it would have painted a target on you.”
Thunder rumbled above, and the sound of rain drummed against the building, creating an echo all around me.
I looked at my hand and saw lightning jump between my fingers.
Loki stared at my hand and smiled. “Your full name is Nathaniel Garrett Woden.”
I recognized that word. It was Old English. A variation on . . .
“Your father was—” Loki continued.
“Odin,” I said, my voice low and guttural, as pure, untamed power flooded my body.
Chapter Twenty
LAYLA CASSIDY
Realm of Jotunheim
The team ran back to the clearing as Kase changed into her werewolf beast form, her body growing several inches in height, increasing in muscle mass, and becoming covered in dark fur. The first unicorn charged through the trees at high speed, its head down, horn ready to gore whoever it hit first. Zamek’s ax caught it in the neck, causing the creature to fall to the ground short of its attack, and the dirt was quickly drenched in its blood.
Five more wild unicorns ran toward them, with two giants herding them. One of the unicorns turned back to attack one of the twenty-foot giants and received a kick for its trouble, which sent the creature airborne. It crashed into a tree in front of the team.
“Jidor, can you get our ride away from here?” Kase asked.
“You will need help with the giants,” she said, climbing up onto the carriage and taking the unicorn’s reins as Kase practically threw Harry into the carriage.
“Then hurry,” Hyperion said.
The carriage was twenty feet away when all five unicorns burst into the clearing, kicking up huge amounts of dust and dirt.
The team split off, forcing the unicorns to separate from the herd they’d formed and attack individually. Hyperion had turned into his dragon-kin form and hovered over the clearing, his massive wings occasionally beating to keep him airborne as ice exploded from his mouth. It hit the closest giant in the chest and sent him sprawling to the dirt with enough force that the ground beneath Layla’s feet shook.
Tego leaped up at one unicorn that got too close to Layla for her comfort. The massive saber-tooth panther’s jaws clamped on the unicorn’s neck with an awful sound of bones being crushed beneath her powerful bite.
Layla pulled metal out of the earth and wrapped it in tendrils around the legs of the unicorn closest to her, pulling them tight and tripping the animal. It tried to gore her with its horn as it fell, but Layla was too far away, and she wrapped more tendrils around its body to keep it in place.
Tarron had used his two black swords to remove the head of the unicorn that had attacked him, and a second was no match for Kase, who picked it up and threw it into a nearby tree. More tendrils of metal tore out of the ground, dragging the remaining unicorn down before it needed to be killed to stop it from hurting anyone. Layla wasn’t keen on the idea of killing animals for acting out their nature, but if it was between that and a friend getting slaughtered, it was an easy choice to make.
The giant got back to his feet just as the second giant pushed apart two trees and stepped into the clearing. He punched Hyperion in the chest, and despite the fact that the Titan was in his dragon-kin form, he flew back through the trees at the other side of the clearing with incredible force. The first giant kicked Kase across the clearing as his body began to turn bright orange.
“Move,” Tarron screamed, diving for cover behind a large boulder as fire erupted from the mouth of the giant. The fire wasn’t magical fire, which looked normal; this was thick and had the appearance of lava.
Jidor, now over twenty feet in height, charged through the clearing and caught the flame giant under the jaw with an uppercut that took her opponent off his feet and dumped him on the ground.
He blocked a second punch and threw Jidor over him. Layla was reaching out to gather more metal from the earth when Hyperion returned, and a blast of ice hit the flame giant in the eye. He screamed in pain, flailing at his face in an attempt to pull out the six-foot blade of ice.
While he was distracted, Jidor punched him in the jaw, sending him crashing toward the clearing. The flame giant shrank in size as he hit the ground, the blade of ice puncturing the back of his skull. Tarron drove one of his blades into his head, killing him.
The second giant had been dealing with Tego, who had torn out a large part of the giant’s leg, causing him to drop to one knee. The saber-tooth panther ran rings around him, never getting close enough to be injured. Tarron ran toward the giant, and Hyperion poured a blast of ice onto the ground beneath the giant’s legs, which Tarron used to slide past the giant, slicing through the tendons in his ankle and causing him to hit the ground with an almighty crash.