Hellraiser, page 3
Limbo, is that where Chi was? Her spectral form present, her body carried on its way to Asgard. But hope, it was something I had to hang on to.
“Her parents are there,” Vali said as if that held any more weight as to what was going on.
My parents weren’t the biggest of concerns right now. Family was not always related by blood. In that family, I’d been the misfit, the outcast, the black sheep even. I’d been the one who’d refused to kneel, but, instead carved out my own way.
That was more than true, and surely, no love was lost for them on me. They’d disowned me for believing in these gods, and surely, they didn’t expect me to be able to save them with a faith so heretical to their own. My pagan heart wasn’t filled with glee at that thought, either. I loved them, even if they chose not to love me.
And look where it got me.
Ready to die in the god of thunder’s arms as they argued over nothing.
Love, no matter what shade it came in, was a minefield. My gaze drifted over to Loki, and although I loved him most, I loved all those here with me.
But for Loki, things were a little more than special.
I couldn’t deny it, deny him that honor. Deep within the recesses of my heart, even where I dared not look, a shrine to him was made.
That would remain my secret. For love did not betray, and I wasn’t too sure if he was truly on my side, Lady Hel’s, or even just on his own side. He was fire. I wanted to warm my hands on him, to allow my fingertips to dance along his large hawk tattoo that covered his back, along the curves and bends of his body. But even more, I wanted him to love me unabashedly. To be unafraid of what it meant for us to be together.
He couldn’t do that, and I couldn’t demand it from him, either.
Taking a deep breath and pushing down the swell of emotion that mixed with my physical pain, I gritted my teeth. He would not make me weak. He would not make me feel or fail.
I loved him. I hated him. I had to become indifferent.
This next battle would bring war and even death. Was I willing to sacrifice them, and even myself, for some higher purpose? This was my resurrection, and now it was time to free us all.
Through half-shut eyes, I watched Heimdall open the portal, and together we journeyed over the rainbow bridge to Asgard, and once there, the horn blew.
“We’re being attacked,” Thor swore, and handed me over to Loki.
Crap, we’d had only a break it seemed, as even here, now the giants attacked.
5
Thor
The horn blared to life, and goose bumps rose up Thor’s muscular arms. His large hands were hidden in gloved bands, and around his waist rested a belt, from which hung a mighty hammer. He’d barely crossed over the bridge with the others, to the city of gold under attack. Coming from the direction of the southern border and the wall that surrounded the capital city, he heard the skirmish. His thick, curly, rust-colored hair blew in the slight breeze.
“The giants?” Thor asked and glanced over to Heimdall, who’d also paused. Heimdall with his superpower of hearing and sight could hear the grass growing. He could also see hundreds of miles away. Without his presence in Asgard, though, the gods had not seen the approaching giants who meant no good.
“Aye.” He nodded.
“And my father?”
“He rides Sleipnir, there in the distance.”
Gripping Mjolnir’s handle, he raced off leaving the others behind, only to encounter his mother out in front of Valhalla, the hall of the dead, staring at the runes engraved in the archway.
“What are you doing, Mother?” Freyja was Odin’s wife and his stepmother. He honored her with the title of mother, as she’d been motherly to him since her union with his father.
“I was looking for your father and then stopped to stare at this. Just imagine what could have been.” Her golden hair fluttered behind her, despite the lack of wind. Thor’s head swiveled in search of her companions. But unlike her usual time in the city, none of her feline friends fancied snuggling with her, as they all sat in the nearby tree staring down at her.
“Are you not feeling quite like yourself?”
“I am feeling fine, but do you mind helping me into the hall? I feel somewhat out of breath.” She grabbed her chest and would have fallen over if Thor hadn’t swooped her up into his arms.
Thunder rolled.
Today must have been his day to carry women that he cared for, he assumed, and pushed open the doors to walk in. The chambers were quiet, and only the usual fire burned in the hearth.
He hurried down the hallway to his parents’ private chambers and placed her on the ornately carved chaise. “Should I go and get Idunn for you? Maybe you only need to eat of the apples?”
Freyja shook her head and cupped Thor’s cheek. “Dear son, I shall be fine, as I require only a couple of minutes rest. This, with the giants, has simply taken much from me. Go, surely your father requires your help.”
“My father requires nothing of me. Instead, he places only pitfalls at my feet.”
“No, he helps you to become stronger. Is this about that woman?” Freyja wheezed and pointed at a nearby cabinet. Thor went to the cabinet and retrieved a vial of clear water-looking liquid.
“A potion?”
“No, just medicine which shall help me. So, tell me of your heart’s hurt.”
In all of his time, even after that Baldr’s death, his mother had never coddled him or been interested in his romance or “entanglements,” as she called them. They were simply what the gods did.
“Things are complicated.” Thor huffed. He knew that such a sigh would be full of emotion, something that no mother would ignore. But maybe he needed a female's opinion, as apparently his art of courting was horrid.
“Complications can be overcome.” Freyja took the offered vial, uncorked it, and deeply inhaled the scent wafting from it.
“Mint?”
She smiled. “Continue.”
“It is Loki.”
She sighed. “It always is. You worry too much about things that need not concern you. How can a woman fall in love with you, when you are honorable to her feelings? No, instead, you must take a stand for her. Woo her, like your father has told you.”
“Has Father spoken a lot about that?”
A distant boom hindered any further talk of his heart. They could catch up later regarding those things. He glanced toward the door.
“Your father is concerned about all of Asgard, even you.” Freyja took a sip from the vial and pointed again, but this time toward the still-ajar door. “Now go, dear, as the gods need you.”
Thor again, dashed away. Yet, without a steed, it would take time to get to where the action was happening.
It might have been better had he not returned carrying Sif back into Asgard. Word must have reached Odin. His father's wrath radiated off his shiny armor. Many seemed to forget that there was more to his father than just his caring side—at times, only a façade. He was so much more, but the idiot giants had brought the battle back home, back to them, while he’d been away.
Loki saddled up to him, and his presence again interrupted his thoughts.
Thor tried to shrug off his rising anger. He'd been so distracted these last few months, trying. Seemed like he was always trying. Each step he took away from the gates, where he'd left Sif behind, he wondered about the reasoning behind it all. She felt nothing for him, instead choosing the shape-shifter at his side as her companion. Thor grumbled.
It hadn't bothered him until now. Why would anyone choose Loki over him? Wasn't he the strongest, the bravest? Was there anyone better than him?
He pulled back his shoulders and tensed his muscles.
The same enemies attacking them now carried the same bloodline as the one racing with him toward the battle.
"What is it that has you in such a funk, as the Midgardians say?" Loki asked and frowned.
Thor sized him up. In a fair fight, Loki would lose, of course. But how was this with Sif fair?
"Nothing that you need to worry your little head about. You have done nothing but cause more strife where there need not be any," Thor accused.
"Me?" Loki grimaced. "And what say you have I caused? If nothing else, I have saved you from your own defeat. My daughter will do everything in her power to bring all of this tumbling down."
"Yes, your daughter. I wonder where she was baptized in betrayal."
"Is it me you wish to fight, or those who now seek to invade Asgard? I am here to help."
"You are never here to help unless something is in it for you. And let us not forget, that it is only the All-Father's oath that keeps you coming back."
He didn't need anyone who pretended to be his friend, when, instead they wanted to destroy him just like all the others.
"You are mistaken, Thor," Loki called out. "I am here to help."
"The only one you ever help is yourself. Now move out of the way before I decide that Asgard has already been invaded by you and your kin." Thor pushed past Loki. Loki blanched, nodded, and stopped walking beside him, just like he'd wanted.
Upon arriving at the wall, he found Odin on Sleipnir, while the other gods readied their weapons. All the while, other's watched. Maybe it was a spectacle, as peddlers sold refreshments to onlookers who rested on the hillside out of the way.
The soldiers of Asgard also waited for Odin's command. Where were Mother and her forces? He couldn't wait for those answers, though. When the battering ram slammed into the wall anew, he heard Tyr call out: "Ready your weapons, men." He turned to Thor. "On the other side of the wall are giants, hundreds deep. We shall need every hand for this."
The soldiers had an array of weapons that encompassed the differences in eras from which they were culled. Swords mixed with single-shot bayonets, automatic weaponry as men dressed in Rambo-styled fatigues waited for a chance.
"This is different." Thor sidled up to his father's post.
"My warriors are fine," he stated matter-of-factly. Maybe it would have been better had he not said anything, but the weapons from the Iron Age differed drastically from those of more modern Midgardian times. But then again, not all of those in attendance were from Midgard. These were the most brutal of their kind. Many might even consider them vile. However, to the All-Father, they were useful.
Under the battering ram's attack, the wall began to crack.
A gasp went up from the spectators.
No one had ever broken through the wall.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Thor readied his hammer.
Boom. Boom. The sound stilled.
Loki shifted into the form of a hawk, rose high in the sky and hovered, and dove back down to retransform into his manly shape. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it appears that no one is there."
Odin slammed his scepter onto the ground. "That can't be."
"What was there is no more," Loki said.
Such trickery between the gods and the giants was not something new. He'd experienced it himself, over several days on a farmstead far away.
"But why would they do such?" Odin wondered aloud. He turned his head as if looking for someone. "Where is your mother?"
Thor frowned. He looked at the field of those gathered but did not see any of her men. “She wasn’t feeling well, and I took her to your chambers.”
Odin scowled. “You had to take her inside?”
“Yes, she was quite weak, out of breath even. Surely, she will recover once she drinks of the vial in your cabinet and returns to your side.”
“My son, you have been duped. Your mother would never drink from that vial. Hurry, we must return to the great hall, as something is amiss.”
Thor jumped on the back of the horse, and together, they raced toward the hall where there was neither sign nor sound that Freyja had been there.
“Freyja?” Odin shouted. Thor could see the panic around his father’s mouth, as his lips folded in and created a razor-sharp edge.
"She has disappeared." Odin rubbed his chin and took a seat on the marble steps. Thor had never seen his father suffer from a moment of weakness. “She will return.”
Odin opened his hand, and therein was the vial that Thor had seen Freyja drinking from.
“No, my son, my beloved has disappeared, and I dare say your Sif is at fault.” Odin pushed up from the stoop. “Guards, you are to find Lady Sif and imprison her.”
“What are you doing, Father?”
“Are you too naïve to see what has happened here? Your mother has been taken.”
“And why would Sif do that?”
“She was here just a few moments ago,” Odin roared, “and now I find the poison of time, an empty vial that she has consumed. There aren’t many things that can kill the gods, but the water from the well of Urd can.”
Odin called forth his ravens. "Find her," he ordered. "Yes, that is what we all must do. Find our queen as she is, indeed, missing. And find the traitor who took her."
6
Lady Hel
The wages of war were constantly underestimated. Lady Hel and Harley sat at the chessboard, and she stared at the ivory-and-onyx figures. The rules of chess could be simple: all things were done to protect the king.
She glanced up at the handsome specimen across from her. Harley’s perfectly chiseled face as he concentrated on his next move. Playfully, he stuck out his tongue.
“You’re staring again, love,” he said. Yes, her eyes took in everything.
They were seated in matching leather stools in Lady Hel’s library in the castle of Helheim. The black-and-white décor of the room stood in stark contrast against the bejeweled quartz walls and walls of glass. It resembled more of an ice landscape: cold, and almost impersonal.
“You know, I know you will do anything to protect me,” he said and moved his pawn forward on the left flank.
“I know you better than you probably know yourself, but even more, I know that life is never simple.” She reached out and placed her hand over his. She knew her coolness assured him; her touch a comfort. He had said as much many times.
“Finvarra, my heart.” Hel’s low whisper caught in her throat. “It is time to take your throne next to your queen.” She’d not gotten used to calling him by his true name, instead that of Harley seemed somewhat closer to who he was in this rendition.
Although she’d expected him to trade lives to forget the existence he’d had, things hadn’t yet settled in place. Simply put, it was as if he were torn in two and now left wondering how he should embrace this new life. A part of him was still Harley, the young college student who craved purpose, but the other half knew him to be the High King of the Daoine Sidhe, the King of the Dead.
Buried in those mounds of sacred earth rested truth, and although she didn’t tell him that which he lacked, she knew things conflicted. The dust hadn’t yet settled, and instead, it was almost as though his soul had grown restless as if the shell he was in was too weak, too frail to contain him. She recognized it in the way he moved more like the room belonged to him, and those in his presence should recognize his gift.
“There is something amiss, love,” Hel continued. “But when we proceed with the Black Wedding, our powers will be united, and you will again be made whole.”
“Whole is questionable. Why do you grow fearful?”
Under his gaze, she squirmed. He always had a way of riling her up, attempting to distract her from that of importance at hand.
“You know, they have forgotten us out there,” he continued. “They’ve made us into sideshow appearances. They don’t know or remember what we are.”
“Why do I feel that you are planning something terrifying?”
Could it be that he needed to get his blood pumping?
The doors flew open, and in sauntered Eir, the Valkyrie of healing whom Lady Hel had invited to Helheim for a bit, at least, that was the way it had been framed.
“Sorry to interrupt your game today, your highnesses, but it is time for his lordship’s tonic.” She watched Eir stir up a concoction. Every day his sanity seemed to shift. Sometimes he was the attentive lover, and other times, he would then revert to that of wishing to crush his enemies beneath his feet.
Harley shuddered.
“You mustn’t fear, love,” Hel said and squeezed his hand. “We only need to find the other stone to truly return you to your old self, and Eir has assured me that this tonic will help the effects of awakening you without all of the stones.”
The stones, she’d heard so much about them, and still, one was missing. No word yet on where it could be, who might have it. The missing stone had resurrected only part of him, not all. Harley was like a bird with snipped wings.
“And Alfheim did not say anything as to its location?” Harley questioned.
Hel shook her head, and she watched Eir pour the neon-green glowing tonic into what resembled a shot glass.
As the drink filled the glass, Hel let her thoughts wander. If Harley had remained on Earth, if he’d remained as the human Harley, he’d be working a nine-to-five job now, probably stopping his friends from sending inappropriate dick pics on social media, partying, laughing, but not now. Now he was in Helheim, and although he loved Hel, things were amiss.
She knew he was pretending that everything was like it should be, but instead, he was akin to a Ming Vase that she’d put back together with Scotch tape.
“How is the status of our treaty now that I’ve been reawakened?”
Hel sighed for the briefest of moments and bit back her grimace. “Things are fragile, as I think all of the realms are waiting to see what you shall do, what we shall do. The Black Wedding will unify us and our powers. Once that is done, I expect the fealty tour to start, as ambassadors from the realms make their rounds to swear it to us again.”
“Hmpf,” he muttered. “There are many things I remember, but the details of my death evade me. It took more than a normal blade to run me through. No, the blade that killed me on that hill so long ago must have been made from enchanted metal.”
