The Undoing (36 page)

From the darkness, she watched two strangers meet in the middle of the hallway. One snarled, “I can't find anyone.”

“That's impossible,” the other said. “They were all—”

Annalisa dropped from above, landing behind one of the strangers. A woman. Annalisa took her blade and yanked it across the woman's neck.

The man raised his weapon and began firing, but Annalisa was already gone, disappearing into the darkness, waiting in the shadows.

A blade flew by Kera's head and slammed into the back of the man's neck. He dropped instantly, and a sister grabbed her blade and vanished.

Without turning around, Kera knew someone was standing behind her. And she knew it wasn't one of her sisters. Or even one of the Clan. She spun and caught the barrel of the machine gun aimed at her. She jerked it to the side, the palm of her hand burning when the bastard fired the weapon, heating up the metal.

Kera buried her blade in the man's neck and quickly yanked it out. She pulled the weapon from his dead hands and threw it at the man who'd just run into the room. It hit him in the face and he went down, bullets tearing across the ceiling.

She ran past him—slashing his throat as she passed—and out into the hallway.

More bullets came at her then, and all Kera had time to do was hit the deck.

 

Jace didn't realize she still had Hel's breastplate until one of the Carrion got close enough to grab it.

She yanked it from his hand, pulled back, and slapped it into him, knocking him down.

“Jace!” Ski yelled. “Come on!”

She'd followed him deep into some cavern, and she only assumed he knew where he was going.

Even stranger . . . her very rational thoughts. Because she knew she was still in a rage. She would be until she got back to the Bird House and checked in on her girls. Until she knew they were safe, no one else was.

And yet . . . she knew who Ski was. Understood she was trying to escape from Helheim. Knew that Baldur had helped them.

And there was only one explanation for her clear logic while in a rage—her grandmother.

When Nëna had slapped her that last time, she'd done something to her. To protect her, she'd said.

To protect her granddaughter.

Ski pointed to an opening in a crevice high up in the cavern. Extremely high. The pair began to work their way up using their hands and feet—Jace still determined to hold on to Hel's chest plate because, dammit, she'd earned it!—when Ski stopped and stared at her. It took her a moment, then they both rolled their eyes, unleashed their wings, and flew up to the crevice.

Ski looked over Jace's shoulder and suddenly grabbed her. “Think of where you want to be,” he barked at her before shoving her inside the opening. She expected it to be a typical mystical doorway that would send her flipping through an unknowable ether into another realm.

That did not happen. Jace had to keep running. And this time she couldn't unleash her wings to fly anywhere, the space was too small.

As she kept going up, she could see loose dirt. That seemed strange because the loose dirt was in the ceiling of a cave, but she had a feeling it was her and Ski's exit.

But just as her fingers grazed the opening, a hand grabbed her ankle and yanked her back.

 

A hand grabbed hold of the back of Kera's neck and yanked her to her feet. She started to fight, but the pressure of a gun against her forehead kept her a little calmer.

It was a man, and he pushed her toward the double glass doors that led to the backyard.

“Where's Jacinda?” he asked.

“Believe it or not . . . in Hel.”

The arm around her throat tightened. “You think that's funny?”

“You asked.”

Once outside, he turned in a circle and yelled out, “Jacinda!”

“She's not here,” Kera said again.

“Then where is she?”

Kera sighed. “I'm not saying it again.”

He leaned in close and swore, “I am going to kill
all
of you.”

“Do you realize that you're only alive because of Jace? Otherwise, the rest of us would have killed you a long time ago.”

“Shut up!”

A low growl came from the trees, and Kera chuckled. “Oh man. You've done it now.”

He turned, still holding on to her.

Brodie stood at the edge of the woods, her head down, teeth bared. He pointed the gun at her.

“I wouldn't draw down on her if I were you,” Kera warned.

Before he could even pull the trigger, Brodie charged them.

The bullets hit the ground where she'd been running, but she was flying at them now, her wings unleashed, the metal slamming closed over her muzzle, protecting it.

He raised the weapon, aiming, but Kera grabbed his arm and twisted. Blood splattered across her face, and bone stuck out of his skin.

She took the gun from his limp fingers and stepped away. Brodie had leaped over them and tackled another man coming up from behind. She tore into that man's throat and started to drag him off into the woods.

“Do not drag him anywhere, Brodie Hawaii!” Kera ordered.

Stumbling back from her, the man she assumed was Jace's ex-husband held his destroyed arm against his body. He was now consumed by panic . . . and she knew for a fact that it wouldn't be going away any time soon . . .

The first body dropped from the sky and landed a few feet from Braddock. A few seconds later there was another. And then another.

Horrified, watching the bodies of his followers land on the ground all around him, Braddock started screaming.

“Shut up,” Kera snapped; then she growled at Brodie who stood near one of the corpses, “Stop gnawing on that thing!”

The sliding door opened and Erin stomped out, blood pouring from her head and dripping down her nose.

She stormed up to Kera and said between clenched teeth, “If I get shot in the head
one more time!
”

“I'm surprised you're not shot in the head, like, every day.” Kera frowned. “If you were shot in the head, shouldn't you be . . . you know . . . dead?”

“How many times do I have to explain this to you? You can't die the same way twice. You won't die if you get another knife to the heart and I can't die from a bullet to the head. Is that really so hard for you to grasp?” she barked, throwing the bullet she held at Braddock.

After the bodies of the cult members stopped hitting the ground, Kera's sister-Crows landed. They left their wings out, moving to surround the man who'd come here to kill them all because his ex-wife didn't want back into their shitty marriage.

He was on his knees and sobbing now. It wasn't pretty. He kept calling on God to help him, but Kera was pretty sure God had better things to do than deal with some needy douche bag.

“So?” Chloe asked as she petted Braddock on the head like a pet. “What do you want to do with him, War General?”

Kera cringed at the title, but she decided to deal with that later.

“Kill him,” she finally said, and Chloe grabbed Braddock by the hair, snatching his head back and pressing her blade against his throat.

But before she could make the final stroke, the grass about fifty feet away exploded and Kera pushed past her sisters, Erin and the rest of their Strike Team right by her side. Blades out, they were ready for what might be coming at them next.

And what came first was a piece of metal. It took Kera a few seconds to realize that metal was actually armor. Really, really nice armor that smelled so bad, her eyes watered. Hands shoved the armor out of the hole and Jace quickly followed.

She'd just gotten onto firm ground when she abruptly stopped and kicked her leg back, hitting a Carrion in the face and sending him falling out of sight.

Still on her knees, Jace turned around and reached into the hole. A few seconds later, she was helping Ski out of the same pit, but he was struggling against the hands of several Carrion, the exposed flesh they were grabbing beginning to decay.

Chloe pointed at Rachel and several of her Strike Team. They ran over and helped Jace pull Ski out of the pit. Once he was out, he pushed the other Crows back.

The Carrion attempting to drag the pair back in rushed out of the pit, and Jace and Ski, using Hel blades, tore into them. Lopping off heads, releasing intestines, splitting spines.

Jace cut one Carrion right in half.

Her eyes were that berserker red, but she didn't focus on one victim until she was distracted by another, which was her usual berserker battle style. Instead she logically decimated anything that came near her or Ski until it stopped. And it did eventually stop. For now.

“We need this closed,” Jace announced.

Chloe turned to Tessa. “Get the Maids on the phone, tell them about this pit, tell them we need it closed. Now.”

“Got it.”

Ski pulled Jace to him and kissed her forehead. They looked exhausted but surprisingly healthy. Holding hands, they walked toward the Crows, stopping to hand off their weapons to Rachel and her team, who took over watching the open pit until the Maids could close it down.

As Jace came closer, she blinked a few times, her gaze focusing on her ex-husband. But her rage didn't return, her eyes going back to their normal blue.

Kera didn't know what was going on with her friend, but she was loving it.

Once the pair reached them, Jace shook her head at Chloe. “He lives,” she said, still panting.

“Are you nuts?” Erin snapped. “He came here to slaughter us.”

“He's a false prophet. That's what Hel called him. A false prophet. She said he'd be of use. I think we're gonna have a use for someone like that. So he lives. For now.”

“What are we supposed to do with him until then?”

“I'll take him,” Annalisa offered, smiling a little. “He clearly needs proper treatment for his mental illness.”

Jace pointed at the bodies of Braddock's followers. “You'll have to get rid of them, though.”

“All right.”

“And there's something else.”

“What?”

“Hel. I think she's going to bring Gullveig back sooner than we were planning.”

“And,” Ski added, “Hel has
legions
of Carrion. Not just a few.”

“That's . . . unfortunate,” Chloe sighed.

Jace rested her head against Ski's arm. “We've got to find out how to kill her. But tomorrow.”

“Even if Hel brings her back tonight,” Ski said, “she'll be too weak to fight anyone for a little while. Once that pit is closed by the Maids, I think we can all get some sleep.”

“Go on,” Kera told her friend. “We can take care of everything down here.”

“You sure?”

“I'm positive.”

“Kera's been crying over you,” Erin felt the need to add. “And crying. We were embarrassed for her.”

“Again,” Kera asked Erin, “how do you not get shot in the head every day?”

Jace and Ski headed toward the house. Lev bounded out of the trees and followed them, tripping over his own feet a few times before he made it inside.

“All right,” Chloe said, clapping her hands together. “Let's get rid of these bodies first; then we'll call nine-one-one.”

“I thought we were just going to bury him in some mental hospital somewhere?” Erin asked.

“The federal prosecutors will notice if he's gone even if they don't care about the cult members so much. Besides, having this idiot under Annalisa's government-sanctioned care means we can get immediate access to him when the time comes. Right, Annalisa?” Annalisa gave a horrifingly cheery thumbs-up.

Chloe lowered her hands and twitched her fingers forward. “So let's get moving. We've got a lot to do in a little time. And how long do you think before the Maids can close that . . .”

Chloe's voice faded away and she looked at Kera, who turned to Betty, who smiled at Erin, who gave a really cruel laugh.

The Crows immediately got to work bringing bodies over to the Helheim pit so they could toss them in.

Even Brodie helped by dragging over a few.

As Kera bent down to roll one body on top of another so she could carry two at once, she saw Annalisa slowly approach Jace's sobbing ex-husband.

Kera had felt no pity for the man until she watched Annalisa crouch in front of Braddock, gently place two fingers under his chin to lift his head, and purr, “You and I are going to have
such
fun together.”

J
ace woke up swinging only to realize the only thing stalking her through the dark, winding caverns of Helheim was . . . Bear.

And she wasn't in Helheim. She was in her Bird House bedroom, with a very annoying Bear Ingolfsson silently gazing down at her.

Still exhausted and annoyed at the very sight of him, Jace snarled, “What? What do you want, Bear?”

He reared back a bit—he'd been so close to her when she woke up, she was sure she'd probably hit him with her swinging fists—and replied, “You have work to do.”

“What?” She quickly glanced around, now worried she'd ended up in hell itself.

But nope. She was in her bedroom with Ski, safe and sound, both of them still in their battle clothes from the night before. They'd been too tired to do much more than drop facedown on the bed and immediately go to sleep.

So Bear being here? Irritating her at this moment? This was reality. Not a nightmare. A sad, annoying reality.

“To stop Gullveig from returning again,” Bear pushed, refusing to be deterred. “The library is waiting for you.”

“Do you know where we've been? What we've been through?”

“Yes. And now you're back. So it's time to get to work.”

“I'm tired. And I've been through hell . . . and Helheim.”

“But you have work to do.”

“I'm
tired.
”

“I don't think Gullveig will care.”

“Go away, Bear,” Jace warned him, lying back down and pressing her face against Ski's bicep. “Go away before I
make
you go away.”

Jace closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but she didn't hear anything. She didn't hear retreating footsteps or slamming doors. She heard nothing except the calm, steady breathing of a man she was now convinced had obsessive compulsive personality disorder.

She snuggled closer to Ski. “He's not leaving,” she growled between clenched teeth.

“He won't,” Ski replied into his pillow. “He'll stand there until Ragnarok comes.”

“Make him go away.”

“If I knew how, I'd have done it a long time ago.” Ski paused, then asked, “And what's on my head?”

“The love of my life.”

“I thought that was me.”

“He was first. He'll be forever. But due to your choice of friends,” she added, “I can't actually promise the same about you.”

“It's not like I chose him. Clan members are family. You don't choose . . . the gods simply curse you with their presence.”

“
Are you two getting up or not?
”

“No!” Jace barked at Bear.

“I can't,” Ski muttered. “I'm trapped by a vile beast of undetermined origin.”

“Get out!” Jace tried again. “Now!”

The bedroom door swung open and a clear-eyed, freshly showered Kera stood there, taking in the scene.

“What's going on?” she finally asked.

“He won't leave,” Jace told her friend. “He's just standing there. Staring at us. Like a psychopath.”

“You have work to do,” Bear reminded Jace. Needlessly.

Kera quickly sized Bear up and said, “We really need your help downstairs, Bear.”

The big Viking sighed. “I'm not stupid. You're not going to distract me.”

“It's just that Rachel and her team are pulling the books we have in our library together to send over to the Protectors' house in case Jace needs them.”

“So?”

“Sooo . . . Rachel's just tossing those books, willy-nilly into a box. Using her big, ham-hands. She actually said that books are stupid. And asked why we have so many.”

Bear faced Kera. “What's wrong with her?”

“Everything. I just think it would be better if you go down there and help—”

The rest of Kera's words were cut off when Bear pushed her into the doorframe on his way out of the room to rescue the books.

“Excuse me,” he muttered before disappearing into the hallway.

Kera rubbed her shoulder. “Ow.”

“Sorry about that,” Ski mumbled into the pillow.

“No problem. I'll just let you guys get some sleep.”

“Thanks.” Jace relaxed against Ski and smiled . . .

Until the door opened again and Kera stepped back in. “Just so we're clear, we are on a bit of a time crunch here. I mean, everyone's pretty sure that Gullveig will be back sooner rather than later. So, you know, when you
do
get up, you'll need to jump right in. That's not a problem, right?”

“Nope.”

“Great. Great. Thanks, hon.”

The door closed, but a few seconds later opened again. “And just so you know . . . once you got home last night—and, man, am I glad you two are home safe and sound, I was so worried—I made a list of things you'll need to accomplish, pretty quickly. In fact, I went ahead and put up hooks in the kitchen downstairs and placed clipboards on them that have lists of what certain people need to do, and your list is getting a bit long. I'm assuming that'll mean you'll need all the time you can get. Just wanted to give you a heads-up on that.”

“Okay.”

“Great.” The door closed . . . then opened.

“Also, I typed up those lists on my computer, so I can e-mail the lists to you. That way, you'll have them on your phone or tablet or whatever.”

“Gotcha.”

The door closed. Opened.

“And so you understand where I'm coming from, with all that's happened, you've kind of become the point person on all this research stuff. We really can't get anything underway until you find out some answers in those books. But,” she added, “you get some sleep first. Don't worry about anything.”

“Excellent.”

The door closed and opened.

“If you want—” Kera began, which was when Ski flipped over, and Lev fell back on the bed.

Jace reached out for her dog but Ski grabbed him first and holding Lev out in front of him, shoved the puppy at Kera.

“He's about to pee on me,” Ski lied. “Could you take him outside while we get up?”

“Oh. Uh . . . okay. Sure.”

“Great. Thanks.”

He pushed the pair out of the room and closed the door, then stuck the high back chair from the corner under the knob.

Jace expected that Ski would return to bed, but instead, he opened her closet door and disappeared inside.

She sat up. “What are you doing?”

“I'm throwing some of your clothes into this duffel bag,” he explained, haphazardly grabbing some T-shirts and a couple pairs of her jeans. “And I'm going to take them out of here.” He went to her chest of drawers and pulled out bras and socks and panties, and quickly shoved them into the bag as well. He didn't even bother properly folding them. That didn't seem like Ski's way. She sensed he was all about clothes folding, but not at this minute.

Then again, she could sense his desperation. “I will grab Bear and take him out of here,” he went on. “You will, as soon as you can manage, meet me at my house. You will be moving in.” He stopped and stared at her. “Because I can't do this.”

“Do what?”

“Bear was just going to stand there. Quietly. And, every fifteen minutes, on the dot, he would ask, ‘Are you up yet?' He's very similar to a snooze alarm and, if things aren't too urgent, I use him in that fashion. But this”—he waved the palm of his hand at the closed door—“this I can't do. If I hadn't shoved that animal into Kera's hands and pushed her out the door, she would have been in here over and over again, every few seconds or minutes, in no real order, with some new thought that had randomly flitted across her mind until—and I hate to say this—I would have been forced to kill her. And I am well aware that such an action would have led to the end of the peace treaty the Protectors have with the Crows and Ravens.”

“Plus there would have been some moral issues surrounding her murder,” Jace teased.

“Exactly, but it would have been necessary. Because I can't live this way. You can do it and that's admirable, but I can't.”

He walked to the door, stopping to yank the high back chair out of the way, and opened it. Erin, who was about to knock from the other side, quickly pulled her fist back.

She smiled in greeting. It was one of her warm, friendly smiles. Not her plotting, evil smile. But the difference didn't seem to matter to Ski. He simply shook his head and said, “No, no, no, no.” He looked back at Jace.

“I'll meet you at home,” he told her, then picked Erin up by her shoulders, moved her into the room, and walked out.

Erin pointed at the open and empty doorway. “What just happened?”

Jace grinned. “He loves me and wants me to move in with him!”

“Oh.” Her friend nodded, smiled. “Okay.”

“Erin Amsel!” Chloe screamed from somewhere in the house. “Why is there a goat in my bedroom?
Eating my expensive sheets!
”

Erin's lips briefly twisted before she said, “I forgot about that goat.” After a moment, she shrugged. “Still, it was a great party. Totally worth it.”

 

After helping Bear out of an argument with Rachel and her strike team that he was surely going to lose, Ski quickly deduced that there were not a lot of books that they would need to bring back to the house with them. So they'd taken what looked important and got out.

Carrying two small stacks each—and the duffel bag filled with Jace's clothes over his shoulder—they walked into the Protector house and Ski happily sighed in relief.

The quiet. The wonderful, blissful quiet.

“I don't understand why they had so much romantic fiction,” Bear complained as he came in behind Ski. “Who reads that stuff?”

“The Crows, apparently. And I saw just as many murder mystery novels as romances. Although I did see several books on Stalin and Genghis Khan.” He stopped by the stairs and faced Bear. “I don't know about you, but I found it worrying that the only history books they have in that entire house that didn't involve Chloe as a writer or editor were books on two brutal dictators.”

Gundo came down the stairs. “So glad you're back, brother!”

“So am I.” Ski looked around. The whole house was busy with activity. The Protectors were working. Preparing for Gullveig's return. But they did it all
quietly
.

“And where's our beautiful Jace?” Gundo asked.

“With the very chatty Crows. She should be here soon.”

“What does soon mean?”

Ski sighed at his friend. “Don't you start.”

“Don't worry,” Bear said, handing the books he held off to one of the younger brothers. “She'll be here.”

“Are we sure?” Gundo asked. “Crows can get easily distracted.”

Ski, unwilling to have this discussion yet again, began to walk away, until Borgsten came into the house with Jace's puppy in his hand.

“You had Borgsten steal that animal?” Ski demanded of Bear.

“There's no guaranty that she'll follow you here,” Bear patiently explained. “But she will follow that dog.”

“If the Crows find out you stole her dog—”

“Kera gave him to me herself,” Borgsten replied, handing Lev off to Bear, who started to cuddle the little beast, until he realized they were all watching him. “That Marine has a mission now so, yeah—she's going to get annoying.”

“True.” Ski shrugged. “But she'll get the job done. That's what she does. She'll make a good war general for the Clans.”

“You think it'll come to war?” Gundo asked.

“I don't know,” Ski answered honestly. “But no matter what happens, our job is to make sure we're all ready. And we will be.”

He turned toward the stairs, placed his hand on the banister. “Until then, though, you'd better secure that animal, Bear. Before Salka sees it.”

“Too late.” Bear walked off, Salka hanging from his ass, her claws dug in deep.

Ski's vindictive cat was not happy about the new presence in her house and she seemed to know exactly whose fault it was.

 

After a quick shower, Jace changed into jeans and a T-shirt, stuffed her feet into her black Converse sneakers, and ran down the stairs.

She knew she had to get to the Protector house before Bear made Ski's life hell.

She called out to Lev a few times, determined to feed him before she left.

“Borgsten has him and he's gone back to the Protectors' house,” Kera said from the kitchen.

Jace met her in the hallway. “Why does Borgsten have my dog?”

“He said Bear knows you'll follow Lev.”

“Your working with the Protectors is going to drive me crazy, isn't it?”

“Probably, but it won't last forever. Just until we get the answers we need.” Kera took a step back. “What? What's wrong?”

“What if I can't find the answer?” Jace asked. She'd been thinking about that the entire time she was in the shower, panic beginning to sink into her bones. “What if I fail you? What if I fail everybody?”

“You're not in this alone,” Kera reminded her. “You've got us. You've got the Protectors who, from what I've seen, adore you. You've got the Ravens. And the Maids are doing their own research. This is a group effort. So you can't fail anyone. Just do your best. I trust you.”

Jace glanced down the hall when she heard knocking at the front door, but she knew one of her sisters would get it, so she stayed with the current conversation.