Fate Undone (The Mythean Arcana Series Book 5) (31 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Logan paced the small stone cell, his gaze constantly darting to the figure under the bed. He was trying to outrun the pounding nerves that chased him but there was nowhere to go.

Logically, he was the best choice for the role of guarding the body. As a god, he was the most powerful in their group of allies and would most easily be able to silence or destroy whoever came through the door before they could wake or possibly harm the prisoner.

But emotionally—as a man who cared for Sylvi—he despised not being by her side to protect her while she was out in the open. He craved action. Control.

When Sylvi had told him the nature of the spell she’d use, he’d thought it too dangerous. He still thought so, though they’d had little choice.

“It’s been a long time,” Logan said to Ian. “She should be back by now.”

Once the labyrinth was destroyed, Sylvi would terminate the spell and race back through the portal. With her ability to enter the aether and move with a speed only imagined by others, she shouldn’t have much trouble escaping the overseers.

That is, if everything went perfectly. They didn’t have the time or the resources for backup plans, so he was praying to the fates that Sylvi’s plan went off without a hitch.
 

“She’ll be here soon,” Ian said.

Footsteps sounded in the hall. Logan stiffened. Ian disappeared. A key scraped in the lock.
 

Shit. This was it. Something had gone wrong. Logan braced himself, ready to slay whoever walked through the door before they could disturb the prisoner.
 

The door swung open to reveal half a dozen guards. Power pounded through Logan’s body as he called up flame that would incinerate the guards. Just as he loosed the flame, the ground beneath his feet broke apart. Cracks split the stone as tree limbs reached up through the floor and wrapped around his ankles and arms.

He felt the grasp of Ian’s invisible hands around his bicep right before a tree limb sucked him down through the ground. Panic clawed at his throat as dirt closed over him. His mind grappled for answers that wouldn’t come.

Seconds later, the dirt disappeared and he fell through a short expanse of sky before crashing upon the ground. Pain coursed through him.

Enormous tree limbs soared thousands of feet above him. He sensed a being of immense power nearby and surged to his feet. A gigantic ash tree loomed in front of him, the trunk hundreds of feet in diameter. The branches would have cast a shadow had there been a sun, but there was only diffuse light in this otherworldly realm.

Shock nearly made him stumble on the soft grass. He stood before Yggdrasil, the world tree that was central to Norse mythology. He hadn’t seen the tree since he’d been hung from its branches.
 

Yet it had freed him from his torture all those years ago and had now pulled him through the prison ground into its realm. Yggdrasil was the all-perceiving heart of creation. And at the most important, danger-fraught moment of Logan’s life, it had chosen to kidnap him to its strange realm?

The truth hit Logan in the chest. Yggdrasil was the Ancient One. This timing wasn’t coincidental. The power that emanated from the tree pulsed on the air. This was a being whose life force could support the labyrinth, and whose magic and long reach could capture the gods to imprison them. Yggdrasil was greater and more important than all the gods.
 

The world tree had manipulated gods before to get what he wanted, when he’d saved Logan from strangling on his branches and released him, telling him he had work yet to do.

If he were here, it meant that Sylvi had been caught. And the guards were in the cell, a threat to the body she had stolen. Fear seeped like acid into his veins, weakening his muscles and souring his stomach. Without him there to protect the body she’d stolen, their bond could break and she could die.

“Loki.” The voice was ancient. Neither male nor female. He whirled, searching for it.

Seated in a throne of roots at the base of the tree sat a striking person. This was the one who threatened Sylvi.

Fear and rage welled within him, so great a force that the flame he normally controlled with precision burst from his hands. He directed it at Yggdrasil, an inferno meant to destroy. He cared not that he threatened a being upon which the earth relied. Or that it was a force so great that it could tear him apart.

Something huge crashed into his chest. Pain exploded within him as he was thrown off his feet and through the air. He crashed to the ground and gasped. His chest felt crushed.

He opened his eyes as a huge root wrapped around him like a giant snake. It lifted him into the air and brought him closer to the figure seated in the throne.

The androgynous form was tall and slender, draped in a green cloak that was created from the same leaves trembling on the branch above. An incredible sense of weariness, of lost will, radiated from the figure. It was visible in the posture—slumped and weary—but it was also a tangible sense upon the air. It reached out and touched Logan, sending a shivery sense of misery across his skin.

A crown of branches sat upon the figure’s head, partially covering hair the color of the tree’s bark. Yggdrasil’s skin was so pale as to be nearly transparent.
 

“You aren’t real,” Logan said. The pain in his chest was starting to diminish. As his mind cleared, the enormity of his situation hit him. There was no defeating Yggdrasil.
 

“But I am. I take a form that allows me to communicate with you. Were you a bird—your falcon, perhaps—I would appear as a bird. But since you are a man, I appear as a man. I take this form to help you understand.”

Logan could feel Yggdrasil’s disappointment and hopeless weariness. The feeling radiated from the figure, a cold blanket that wrapped around Logan’s heart. Yggdrasil lacked all hope and will.

“Why would one as great as you join forces with the Architect and the Retaliator?” Logan asked. Wasn’t Yggdrasil too powerful to need to align himself with the likes of them?

“They had what I needed. The Architect had a burning desire to create the greatest maze ever built and the Retaliator had the hatred and the heart required to fuel the creation. I found and recruited them for my own ends. But I didn’t expect you to get so far in destroying my labyrinth,” Yggdrasil said.

A spark of hope flared to life within Logan’s chest. Sylvi had succeeded?

Yggdrasil seemed to read his mind. “No. Your companion did not succeed. She destroyed but a small corner of my creation. It would take months for her to complete what she set out to do. Years, perhaps.”

Hope died a silent death within Logan’s chest. They’d failed. And Sylvi was likely doomed. The idea sent a wash of helpless rage through Logan that nearly sent him to his knees.

He couldn’t fight Yggdrasil. Perhaps he could bargain, but outright violence would get him nowhere, as he’d proven. Logan was powerful as a god, but nothing compared to Yggdrasil. If there was any infinite power in earth or all the afterworlds, it was the world tree. And he’d clearly earned the Being’s displeasure.

“Why build the labyrinth?” he asked. It must be related to the pain he felt radiating from Yggradsil. Even the being’s fine features were creased into lines of sadness.

“Isn’t it obvious? The gods have failed. They have become so obsessed with their own desires and lives that they have forgotten to shepherd the mortals in stewardship of the earth. You, Loki, were my last hope.” Yggdrasil’s disappointment crashed against Logan like waves against the shore.

“I?”

“You, who were born to challenge the gods, failed in your duty. For a time, your tricks did shake them and force them to realize they weren’t infallible. It should have reminded them of their duties, as well. And it did, for a time. But you were foolish and hasty and got yourself banished from Asgard. Once on earth, you hid from your duties.”

“I fought on the side of man!” He’d continued to fight oppressors as he had in Asgard, just on a different scale. Could Yggdrasil not see this?

“You interpreted your duty incorrectly. You were meant to fight on the side of man, but in Asgard. To shake the gods out of their self-obsessed stupor.”

“You are more obsessed with the gods than I was,” Logan said.

“You are my last disappointment, Loki.” The tone of Yggdrasil’s voice twisted something in Logan’s chest.

“So you built this prison, all because you were disappointed in me?”

Yggdrasil grunted, a dismissive sound that was laced with weariness.

“Because I was disappointed in all the gods. There is no point to you any longer. You’ve failed. Eternal damnation in the labyrinth is a fitting end, I think. We will start fresh from there, with new gods perhaps.”

“Not Sylvi,” Logan said. “Spare her.”

Surprise flared in Yggdrasil’s eyes. “You’ve used her in the past and discarded her. Yet now you ask to spare her?”

Hope flared in Logan’s chest. This was something that Yggdrasil didn’t understand. The world tree could see all, but it couldn’t understand the emotions or motivations that drove gods and mortals to act. “Please, spare her.”

“And spare you, too, I assume? I know how you fear death. How you fear being forgotten. I’ve watched you for a thousand years. You’ve consulted seers an astounding number of times, always hoping to cheat your fate and avoid Ragnarok.”

“Spare her,” he begged. He’d never before begged for anything. The thought would have horrified him. Yet for her, it was easy. “I’ll do anything.”

Curiosity gleamed in Yggdrasil’s eyes, pushing aside the weary disappointment that clouded them. The figure leaned forward. Dread and hope warred in Logan’s chest. “Your fear of death and being forgotten was one of my inspirations for the labyrinth. But what you’re saying now is unexpected. I offer you freedom from the labyrinth and from Ragnarok. If you take it, I keep Sylvi. She’ll be the first into the labyrinth, but not the last. Or, you could be the first into the labyrinth and spare her forever. You can escape your greatest fear or save your greatest desire. Freedom or Sylvi, but not both.”

“Save Sylvi,” he said instantly. “Free her and I’ll be the first to go into your damned labyrinth.”

All the other gods would eventually follow him in. With Yggdrasil’s knowledge and power behind the task, it wouldn’t take long to hunt down the earth-walking gods. He could just pluck them with his roots that extended all over the world, as he’d taken Logan. The afterworlds would follow shortly after.

Logan burned to fight Yggdrasil, to challenge the authority that made him think that he could choose this fate for hundreds—no, thousands—of gods.

Yet if he did, Sylvi would pay the price. Everything was much clearer when Sylvi was at risk.

“Save her,” he repeated.

Surprise flashed in Yggdrasil’s eyes. “Fine. It is done.”

Yggdrasil grasped Logan’s arm. The contact sent a chill through him before he felt himself being aetherwalked. The great tree disappeared and soon they were standing on the desert sands of Moloch.

The desolate weariness faded now that he was away from the world tree. It still radiated out from Yggdrasil, who stood near his side, but it was more bearable.

What was left of the cathedral-like portion of the labyrinth lay destroyed before him.
 

Horror chilled his skin as he looked upon a valley that had been hidden by the building. It stretched as far as the eye could see, filled with hundreds of miles of labyrinthine walls.

It was his fate. Imprisonment until Ragnarok and he was going to it like a lamb to slaughter. He’d run from it for so long, yet in the end, he’d embraced it. He pushed aside the fear and searched the area, hoping for a last sight of Sylvi before he was thrown to his doom. Even as his muscles strained to fight, to flee, his will subdued them. He wouldn’t flee as long as his sacrifice would save Sylvi. No matter how great his powers, his will had always been the greatest.
 

Now, he turned it toward forcing himself into the labyrinth in hopes of saving Sylvi.

She stood only a dozen feet behind him, her arms held by two guards. She’d broken the spell linking her to the other prisoner and now wore her own form again. His heart ached for what could have been between them.

She caught sight of him and started struggling and yelling. “What’s going on? Let go of me!”

“To my great surprise, Loki has decided to embrace the fate he has fled from,” Yggdrasil said. “Loki has chosen to go into the labyrinth to spare you. He’ll be the first.”

The color drained from Sylvi’s face as her horrified gaze riveted to Yggdrasil.

“Who are you?” she whispered. No doubt she felt Yggdrasil’s power, but without the tree, she couldn’t place the figure.

“I am the voice of Yggdrasil.”

Her muscles sagged, hopelessness dawning on her face. She might not recognize Yggdrasil’s human form, but she recognized the name and the power. There was no fighting the world.

“I suppose I could let you say goodbye.” There was weariness in Yggdrasil’s voice.

“No!” Sylvi yelled.

Logan’s heart stuttered.

“No?” Yggdrasil asked.

“I’m going with him!” Sylvi struggled harder. She broke the grip of one of her captors, then swung her staff at the other. She was at Logan’s side a moment later, throwing herself into his arms.

As much as his heart soared and he wanted to clutch her to him, he couldn’t. He thrust her away. “No! You can’t. You’ll lose your mind.”

Sylvi whirled to Yggdrasil. “If he goes, I go.”

“So be it.” Yggdrasil’s voice was more weary than malicious. “You are a demigod, and as such, not as sensitive to the waters of the river Lethe. You will lose your mind more slowly than Loki. You’ll watch your love disappear before your eyes.”

The Ancient One waved a hand and Logan felt a great pressure at his back. He struggled against it, shouting, “No, Yggdrasil! We had a deal! She cannot do this!”

The Ancient One ignored him, pushing him forward along with Sylvi, past the ruined walls of the cathedral-like entrance and into an intact portion of the labyrinth. The broken space in the wall behind them closed immediately once they were inside.