Endless Knight (Darkling Mage 9)

I gave him a puzzled look. “Huh?”

“I was already awake when you came in this morning. You normally stay over at Herald’s, but not last night, and even if you do come home in the morning, it’s just before he goes to work.”

I frowned as I stared at him in silence, trying my hardest not to look so impressed.

“And you looked bummed as hell when you walked in. Shit, you look bummed as hell right now, even worse when Carver finished his story.”

I cocked an eyebrow, incredulous. “You spying on me, Mason?”

He chuckled. “I try to get up to exercise if I can. I was grabbing a drink in the kitchen when you came in. Guess you didn’t see me. Point is: it’s going to be fine. Whatever it is, you two will work it out.”

I gave him a forced smile. Mason didn’t know about the Apotheosis, either. None of them did, but they were doing their honest best to be good friends regardless. I clapped my hand on his shoulder, squeezing it as thanks, and the two of us continued up the mountain in silence.

We hit the plateau soon enough, the air even thinner and colder. Banjo stopped in the middle of it, looking around himself, blue lights trailing as he moved his little head, searching for who knows what. But Carver seemed to be following his gaze, and together the two of them watched the sky, their heads turning with precision in oddly synchronized motions.

That was when I saw them, tiny specks of light, one green, the other blue, just among the clouds. They could have passed for stars streaking along the sky, if it wasn’t for the completely unnatural way in which they sped in different directions, flying in erratic patterns. Every now and then the two lights would collide, then spark, then dash away again, circling each other as if they were locked in a duel.

“Is – is that what we’re looking for?” I said, my hands on my hips.

“Hush,” Carver said, pressing a finger to his lips. “There,” he added, bending to the ground and lifting Banjo by the chest, so that he looked like a teddy bear, belly and legs dangling in the air. “You see them, Banjo? Do it for Daddy.”

So Banjo did – it, whatever it was. He opened his little jaws and borked a bork that shook the heavens. If anyone on that mountain was asleep, they sure as hell had to be awake now.

But more importantly, as the sound of Banjo’s bark spread across the mountain, so did its power, jerking the twin lights in the clouds so that they flew completely out of pattern, then fell from out of the sky. And as they plummeted, each light stretched and grew into the vague shape of a human, until the two gods had assumed their more recognizable forms.

Then they smashed into the earth. Or the rock of the plateau, more accurately, sending up clouds of dust, rocking the mountain itself with the force of their impact. Loki arched his back as he groaned in agony, acknowledging the pain as he returned to his corporeal form. Odin’s face was dark with fury, his fingers digging deep furrows into the rock as he fought to right himself.

“There had better be an excellent reason for this interruption,” the All-Father growled, glaring holes into my very soul.

“I’m suing the pants off of everyone present,” Loki croaked. “Including the dog. Then I’m going to eat all of your souls.”

“Sure thing,” I said. “Anything you say. But first, we need a little favor.”

Chapter 22

Sterling knelt to look more closely at the two gods. A little too closely, if you ask me, but people are surprisingly gung-ho when they can only really be killed by sunlight – or a stake through the heart.

“So the two of you have been fighting since the last time we saw you, huh?”

Odin frowned at Sterling, gathering his huge thighs under him and sitting cross-legged. “Yes. And as you could all see, I was clearly winning, until you so rudely interrupted.”

Loki stroked a lock of hair out of his face, then guffawed. “All-Father, I will confess that you are a powerful adversary, but it was very clear that I was on the brink of defeating you. I have the upper hand.”

I cleared my throat. “But not for long, Loki. Not if you have to stay away from your company just for this extremely protracted battle. Who’s keeping Happy, Inc. running at the moment, anyway?”

Loki brushed off his suit, trying to look dignified by sitting up on the ground, raising his chin at me. “I’ll have you know that I hired only the best people. They aren’t fools to run around like headless chickens at the slightest sign of something gone wrong.” His eyes flitted evilly towards Odin, and he wore a sly grin. “Quite unlike some other people I know. It’s a wonder the valkyries haven’t torn the Twilight Tavern apart without your leadership.”

Odin raised his finger, his mustachios twitching with rage. “Now listen here, deceiver – ”

“Please,” Carver said. “Save the threats for later. There is a reason we have tracked the two of you down. We require aid.”

Odin folded his arms, fuming, very much like a seven-foot-tall child with a beard. Loki tilted his head, studying Carver before he gave a frustrated huff.

“Truly? After all you’ve taken from me, now you want more? I should destroy you where you stand, lich.”

Carver chuckled, spreading his hands. “And you may very well try, god of lies. But for now, it seems that it is I who have the – how you say – upper hand.” He snapped his fingers, and plumes of amber fire rose from the ground, arranged into a convenient circle around Loki.

The god leapt to his feet, his arms squeezing against his body, his eyes wild as he spun in a circle, watching the fires close in on him. “What trickery is this, lich? What have you done?”