War and Famine: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Revelations Book 2) (17 page)

Kim 02:07

The whole world was fire, burning, and more fire as Kim tumbled through the sky. Incinerator blazed in her hand, the edge so white hot, it boiled the air around them as they plummeted downward, terror ripping her every thought to shreds. She had one hand wrapped around Caleb’s waist, her bare arm pressed against his exposed flesh as Surt bellowed commands in her brain like an angry Charlie Brown schoolteacher.

It was too hot to breathe without scalding her insides. The moisture on her skin evaporated and her lips cracked. The taste of blood filled her mouth for a split second before her tongue dried out in the heat. She couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything.

A sea of lava came rushing toward her from below. If she hit it, she was as good as dead. The moment she struck that fire, she would be burned to a cinder, assuming she survived being splattered like a bug. She had no powers over fire, and even if she did, how was she supposed to survive a swan dive into hot freaking lava? No, no, it was impossible!

“It’s not impossible,” Surt hollered, but his voice was barely a whisper in her ears as the wind rushed by, bringing with it the scent of blackened meat and singed hair. “Concentrate. Allow me to help you. Believe you can do this. Break the chains binding you and conquer the fire, Kim! Use your mantle to bend the flames to your will. Become Victoria!”

A panic scream tore from Kim’s lips as the realization that she was going to die filled every ounce of her being. There was nothing she could do, no way to escape. She was a fool for coming here, for thinking she could bend fire to her will. It was insane, and soon, she would pay for listening to that insanity. To think she could survive a trip into Muspelheim when she could barely turn on her stove without catching her dinner on fire was absolutely ludicrous.

“I can’t do this!” Kim cried as Surt reached out around her, enveloping her in his presence. His dark hands slid over hers, bringing Incinerator to bear in front of her. It split the wind, diverting it off of her long enough for her to focus. Flames leapt through the air as lava fell from the sky, but as long as she held the blade it slipped around her, never touching her at all. It bought her a moment to think.

Kim reached out with her mantle. It was a distant thing inside her, pushed so far down she could scarcely believe it. Had it been that long since she’d called upon her powers? Had it really? The last time she’d used them was during the battle with Jormungand, but that hadn’t been that long ago, had it?

Even then, she’d never really embraced her powers. Sure, she’d called upon them when it mattered, whipping them out to crush a foe or stop a disaster, but she didn’t know how to do it consciously. She had not trained, not even bothered to try embracing her mantle even a little bit. But maybe that didn’t matter. This was her power, her birthright, and she would use it as she pleased.

The spark of her mantle leapt to her call, spilling out of her in a surge of bright white light. It flowed down her arms, up over the sword in her grip, across the torso of the boy she held tight.

“I swear to god if this doesn’t work, I’m going to stamp you from existence, Surt,” she said, but her words were lost as the flames around her died abruptly. Light spilled from Incinerator’s edge as white lightning crackled across the sky behind her like electrical dragonfly wings.

The ground below her erupted, spitting lava up into the air. Kim braced Incinerator defensively in front of herself. She wasn’t sure what her plan was exactly, but it was something along the lines of cut the lava to shreds with her sword. Admittedly, it wasn’t a very good plan, but then again it wasn’t like she could fly.

Except she could fly. At least she’d been able to fly the one time with Malcom. She hadn’t even tried to fly since then, but there was nothing stopping her. Hadn’t that been what Malcom had said? Hadn’t everything been inside her head?

The lava hurtled closer, and as it did, she realized about a zillion fireballs ranging in size from softballs to Volkswagen bugs were flying toward her. It was way too many to try to dodge, but maybe she didn’t have to dodge them, maybe she just needed to cut a path through them.

She shut her eyes and reached out with her mind, focusing on the power within her, trying to remember what it was like when she had flown. She hadn’t thought about it then. She’d just done it, mostly because at the time, she hadn’t realized she couldn’t. Now that she had done it, there was no reason to think she couldn’t do it again.

Her eyes snapped open. She saw the world for what it was, a series of chains holding her down, a reality interposing itself upon her. Those things she could conquer. Those things had no hold over her, over Victoria, the horseman of conquest. She could crush it all beneath her heel.

And she did.

Kim stopped in midair. The fabric of reality around her broke just a touch as the horizon wobbled. She floated there, watching, waiting. No, she didn’t need to fight through the deluge of fire coming toward her. Those flames were but things of this world, and she could command them.

She waved Incinerator in front of her, sweeping the flaming blade through the air. White light spilled out of the weapon like a tornado. It swept downward, sucking up the fire and drawing it up into the sword. She felt the flames hit the metal, felt the temperature rise by hundreds of degrees, but she ignored it, pushed it down. It did not matter.

Surt cried out, not in anguish or pain, but in triumph. The whole of the fire world darkened as Incinerator drank up the fire. As the last of the flames vanished within the molten steel blade, Surt’s smile stretched across the back of her mind, filling her with a sense of triumph. She’d done it.

The lava burst through her tornado, obliterating it like it was made from nothing more than chewing gum and candlewax. Kim shrieked, her control faltering as flame unlike anything she’d ever felt before surged up around her, wrapping her in a cocoon of burning death.

“Whoever you are! Whatever you want! I won’t let you hurt these people!” a familiar voice screamed. Kim turned toward it in time to see a solid wall of lava rushing toward her.

A fist came rushing through the rivulets of flame and smashed into the underside of her chin. She hurtled backward through the air, her grip slipping free of Incinerator’s hilt. The blade tumbled from her hands as the sky above her shattered into a million shards of flitting white light.

Her vision dimmed, fading to black around the edges. Amy stood upon a platform of lava. Her back was to Kim. She must not have recognized her through the light and the fire. At least, that’s what Kim hoped because clutched in her other hand was a katana as black as space itself. It was the same one she’d seen Ian using. The same one that had made him do terrible things. Why did Amy have it?

Amy reached out and plucked Incinerator from the air. The moment she wrapped her hand around the hilt of the weapon, a gout of flame shot from its tip, painting the sky in dancing oranges and blues. She turned to face Kim. Her eyes were ablaze with determination as gobs of lava hovered in the air around her. The whole of the sky darkened as she brought the weapons up to bear.

“Kim?” she asked, stopping in mid-motion. “Is that you? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

“You have?” Kim asked, relief flooding her voice. She was pretty sure Amy wouldn’t attack her again, since just being near the girl was enough to ease the loneliness in the pit of her stomach. Something about Amy’s closeness made her feel a lot better, and for a moment, she wondered if Amy felt the same way. Was that why Amy had been looking for her or was there another reason?

“Yes. It’s why I came here.” Amy gestured at the surroundings. “I needed to find you. Why else would I be here? To work on my sun tan?”

“To be perfectly honest, I didn’t exactly expect to find you here.” Kim shrugged sheepishly. “I went to save this guy.” She gestured toward the unconscious Caleb with her free hand. He was still slumped against her even though she’d been knocked halfway across the sky. Thin braids of gilded light were wrapped around his body, lashing him to her. So that’s why they hadn’t been separated.

“Who is that guy?” Amy asked, moving closer to take a better look. As she did, the lava spread out beneath her feet into a thin platform of molten lava. Kim wasn’t quite sure how Amy was controlling the lava, but then again her mantle had seemed to control fire. It was a neat perk, especially in the heart of Muspelheim. It made Kim extraordinarily glad Amy hadn’t actually wanted to kill her.

“He’s the guy who owns that sword you’re holding. His name’s Caleb. He’s from the same race of people as Sabastin. Our teacher, Mr. Matthers had captured him, and Caleb was trying to burn his way out. Thankfully, I managed to stop him from killing Mr. Matters.” Kim felt a grin spread across her face. “You might say I single-handedly averted Ragnarok.”

“Wait, timeout.” Amy held up her hands and looked like she was going to make a timeout gesture, but found her hands full. She stared at the two swords for a moment before shrugging dejectedly. “Why would Mr. Matthers capture Caleb, and what’s so special about his sword?”

“Oh, yeah. Mr. Matthers is actually the Norse god Freyr. Apparently, during Ragnarok, Surt, the king of Muspelheim, slays Freyr.” She gestured to the sword. “I don’t know if you can tell, but that sword is inhabited by Surt in the same way Haijiku is inhabited by The Emissary of Tragedy.”

“I regret calling a timeout,” Amy replied, staring at Incinerator wide-eyed. “And this makes no sense. Assuming I even believe that craziness, I mean, come on, Mr. Matthers?”

“I know, right?” Kim replied, smirking. She’d felt the same way. It had been utterly ridiculous when Mr. Matthers had revealed himself. What was worse was that she’d had no choice but to believe him because he’d preceded the reveal by doing magic. It would have been hard to argue with Clark Kent revealing himself as Superman if he’d already run faster than a speeding bullet and leapt over a building in a single bound.

“Yeah, so assuming I believe that, and I am only because I trust you.” Amy bit her lip as if mulling something over. “When I was with Sabastin, his crazy computers told me to find you and stop Surt. But it seems like you already stopped him from helping Caleb kill Freyr. What am I supposed to stop him from doing?”

“I have no idea,” Kim replied as a bad feeling crept over her. She’d trusted the spirit within the sword to get her out from within Freyr, but for all she knew the creature had lied. Maybe Mr. Matthers was already dead, or maybe, Surt had an alternative reason for wanting to come here? It didn’t strike her as particularly unlikely.

“Well, that doesn’t seem good.” Amy’s forehead creased in concern as she stared at Incinerator. “Maybe we should take the sword back to Sabastin and ask his computers?”

Kim was about to reply when the whole of the world shook. The sky above them fractured, splitting open in a gust of sleet and snow. Moonlight shone through from a frozen plane, and the shadow of the wolf fell across the whole of Muspelheim.

“Fenris is free,” Amy murmured, her eyes far open and distant. The twin weapons in her hands blazed like blow torches as the lava carried her toward the broken horizon. “We have to stop him.” She turned toward Kim, and her face was filled with panic. “We have to stop him from—”

A sonic boom ripped across the heavens. Images from within all of the nine worlds filled the sky. The shadow of an enormous dark wolf stretched across them all, blotting out the sun and casting darkness across the lands. She wasn’t sure how Fenris was free, or how he was causing so much destruction, but she agreed with Amy. They had to get there and stop him. The only question was how?

“How do we stop that?” Kim asked, her voice quavering more than she liked, especially since she’d been going for overwhelming confidence.

“I don’t know, but we have to try,” Amy cried, moving toward the center fragment, toward the snowy hilltop of Jotunheim. Fire began to pour from the sky above Muspelheim, dousing the land in lava. Within each of the other worlds, Kim could see similar things occurring. On Jotunheim, hail filled the horizon while on earth, blood rained from the sky. It was like a veritable apocalypse in action.

“Okay,” Kim said, but she wasn’t sure Amy had heard her because her friend was already leaping into Jotunheim. So much for taking Incinerator to Sabastin. Hopefully, bringing the weapon into the heart of Jotunheim wasn’t the absolute wrong thing to do. After all, that’s where she’d found Freyr, and for all she knew, the god was still there. If he was, Surt could still strike him down. Then again, at the moment, Fenris seemed like a much bigger problem. Besides, Amy had already vanished into Jotunheim with the weapon. There was no use worrying about it now.

Kim glanced down at Caleb and sighed. “If you could wake up now and use your godly powers to help us, that’d be awesome.” Caleb didn’t respond which was just as well, if he did he might tell her not to do something stupid, like leap into a frozen wasteland with no weapons to confront a wolf destined to kill Odin and swallow the sun.

Caden 02:05

“I know how to beat you,” Ian said, his voice colder than the plains of Jotunheim. “It’s so obvious. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier.”

The air temperature dropped as Ian brought his hands together in a downward arc, turning the air surrounding him into ice. Blue energy filled the space around his body as he thrust his hands outward, shattering the icy air into thousands of shards.

Something rushed at Ian so quickly Caden couldn’t follow the movement. What he did see was the swirling snow caught in the air current generated by the creature’s attack. Ian’s eyes narrowed as he stepped sideways at the last second. The thing rushed by him, and as it did, Ian swung his left elbow in an upward arc. The blow caught something invisible with a wet smack.

A cry of pain filled the night air as a grin spread across Ian’s face. He reached out, wrapping his right arm around the invisible monster. As his skin touched the creature, hoarfrost spread outward along its flesh. It wasn’t enough for Caden to make out the details, but what he did see looked more like a skeleton than a wolf or even a human. Then again, he could only make out the back of its neck and shoulders through the splotchy frost.