Not My Apocalypse (3 page)

I kept nudging the horse forward, talking to him softly the whole time, asking him to go forward, telling him what we were doing and why. I think maybe he understood some of what I was telling him because it got easier after a while and he walked along without me having to keep tapping my heels against him. When we were a few dozen feet from the stable, Stefan took my hand in his right and Elliot’s in his left and teleported us all out of there. Luckily we didn’t need a Greek god to get us out.

We arrived in the cave we’d picked out, where we’d keep the horse until daybreak. I figured with nothing but rock around him he couldn’t set anything on fire. There were two problems with the spot—one, there was no door or anything to keep the horse in, so we had to watch him; and two, there weren’t any magical protections on the cave, so there was nothing to stop my father from finding me. We were right by the ocean and I hoped that would mask us a little. Water is not my father’s element.

The three of us settled down to wait out the rest of the night. I sat close to the sun horse and talked to him every once in a while. He seemed calm enough and I was thankful for that. It seemed to take forever, but finally the sun started coming up and Elliot went to the mouth of the cave to look for Emily and Colin. They showed up carrying two huge spears and having some trouble with them. As I watched them come into the cave, I wondered how we were going to be able to use those huge things.

Emily and I switched places. She tried to make friends with the sun horse while I took a closer look at one of the spears. It was heavy and twice as long as my body. I could barely lift it. How the fuck was I supposed to fight with this? Stefan had an easier time of it, although he looked awkward as he gave it a few test thrusts. He sighed and looked at the spear. “I wish we had a better plan.”

“Well we don’t, so let’s do the best with what we have.” I turned to Emily. “Do you think you can handle switching the horses?”

She swallowed. “I don’t know. I don’t know how the reins and stuff work, so how am I supposed to get the one unhooked so I can get this one hitched up?” She was petting the horse’s flank so at least the fire wasn’t going to hurt her.

“Maybe I can figure something out,” Elliot said. “I went to horse camp for four years.”

I stared at him. “That might have been useful information when I made an ass of myself trying to ride him.”

Elliot pointed at the horse. “It’s made of
fire
. I’m not gonna ride that thing.”

I sighed. “But you can help Emily figure out what to do, so you’re with her. Colin, you can help me hold up this spear.”

We spent precious time working out a few more details, which brought our plan only up to half-assed instead of almost no plan at all. One of the things that saved this whole thing from being fucking pointless was that Stefan could get us into the sky. Thor had shown him how to get up into the Norse layer of the sky so he could show off how great his aim with lightning bolts was.

So with Emily riding the sun horse, we all joined hands and Stefan took us up.

There was something like ground up here, but it was invisible. It’s pretty fucking scary to be that high up and not see what you’re standing on. I looked around to make sure everyone else had made it. Emily had her eyes squeezed shut tight, and Elliot looked like he was about to piss his pants. “Guys, the chariot is coming. We don’t have time to be scared.” And there it was, the chariot of the sun, coming at us along the curve of the horizon. Behind it was the huge black wolf, Sköll. When I say huge I mean huge, like I underestimated how big he was.

This thing was like, the size of a motherfucking elephant. And Stefan, Colin, and I could still barely lift the damn spears we were supposed to fight him off with. Shit.

“Hurry up,” I told Emily and Elliot. Elliot was so pale he looked like he was trying to turn himself into a cloud so he could fucking disappear, but Emily swallowed and nudged the sun horse forward. Elliot jogged to keep up. They went to head off the chariot and I hoped that they would be able to stop the damn thing, otherwise we were fucked.

Colin grabbed hold of the end of my spear and we raced toward Sköll. Emily passed us and got the sun horse in front of the chariot, blocking the way. The horses pulling the chariot tried to veer around them but they shifted to stay in front of them. The horses pulled back and skidded to a stop to avoid colliding with the sun horse. Watching all this was hard because the sun was in the chariot and staring at it hurt. I really wished I’d thought to bring along some fucking sunglasses. Through the bright light I could sometimes see a figure that looked like a woman. The Norse sun was female, so that made sense. I wondered if we could get her to help us, even if it was just to keep the chariot still while we switched horses.

With the chariot stopped and us running, we caught up to it and hurried past. “We’re trying to help!” I shouted as we got close. “We’re giving you a new horse!”

Now we were behind the chariot and Sköll was catching up fast. My stomach dropped out because holy fuck, we were actually going to face this thing. He looked even bigger close up and he opened his jaws as he ran toward us. I bet he could swallow me whole. “Stop and hold steady!” Stefan yelled. We stopped and planted ourselves and I hoped the sight of us holding the spears would at least give him pause.

“Now!” Stefan yelled. I missed my cue, but he jabbed the spear forward and got Sköll right in the lower jaw.
That
made him pause. He skidded to a stop and whined, his tongue flicking out to lap up the blood. For a few seconds he was confused, staring at us like he couldn’t comprehend what had happened. Then he growled and lowered his head. Great. We’d just made him mad.

At least we knew the spears could hurt him, even if we didn’t know if they’d hurt him enough. I looked around for weak points. His eyes were the most obvious, but to reach them we’d either have to get right up next to him or throw the spear and I wasn’t willing to take either risk. The inside of his mouth would work; if we could get a spear jammed down his throat that ought to at least distract him for a while (and it would make it a lot harder for him to eat us). But he’d have to have his jaws open for that and I wasn’t sure we could count on it.

He came at us and we jabbed at him, missing but keeping him from getting at us. Stefan went for his mouth again, which I thought was probably our best bet. Then I noticed the way Sköll turned his head and shifted slightly to the right to snap at Stefan whenever the spear came at him. It left him vulnerable on the left side. His right, my left. He snapped again and I looked at his throat, wondering if I could go for it. I didn’t know if the spear could kill him and I wondered if I could take the risk of going for it and missing.

Even if it didn’t kill him, it would have to slow him down. So the next time he turned his head to snap at Stefan, I went for it. There was a little resistance as Colin didn’t know what I was doing, but then he moved with me, carrying the back end of the spear. I lifted it as high as I could and jabbed it at Sköll’s neck. I missed.

He turned back toward me and the spear was thrown aside by his head. I was too close, way, way too fucking close but for a second I couldn’t stop my momentum. That momentum carried me forward and the spear came with me. Instead of hitting him in the throat, the spear point sank into his leg. Sköll howled and lunged at me.

I let go of the spear, not thinking of anything but getting away from his jaws. I stumbled out of the way and regained my balance in enough time to see Sköll coming straight at me. The spear was stuck in his leg and slowed him down as he tripped over it. I dodged out of the way again, my heart racing as I panicked. I didn’t know what to do against a wolf big enough to swallow me whole.

I lifted my hands, hoping my sporadic ability to call fire would work and save my ass. A few feet away from me, his open mouth looking like a tooth-lined cave, Sköll stopped and twisted aside. Stefan had taken advantage of the distraction and stabbed Sköll in the side. The huge wolf went into a rage, turning on Stefan instead. Now we’d lost both our weapons, the spears sticking out of either side of Sköll. I spared a glance at the chariot and saw Emily and Elliot fiddling with the straps on one of the horses. I couldn’t tell if they were strapping Apollo’s horse in or still trying to get the limping one out.

Stefan dodged the snapping jaws and ran. There was no way he could outrun that thing. Colin looked fine but he was just standing there. Someone had to do something or Sköll was going to eat Stefan. And oh fuck, I realized that someone was me. I ran at the wolf, ignoring all thoughts of self-preservation. Stefan had circled the wolf, so now Sköll was facing the opposite way as he chased him. The spear Stefan had stuck in him was shaking up and down as the wolf moved, the wound dripping and leaving a trail. I went straight for the spear, grabbing it with both hands and pulling as hard as I could. Sköll let out a piercing yelp as the point came out and I fell on my ass with the spear still in my hands.

The wolf turned to me again. “Little halflings, you try my patience. What do you mean to do by meddling in my affairs?”

Okay, so the motherfucker could talk. His willingness to be chatty gave me a chance to get to my feet. Easier said than done with the huge, heavy spear still in my hands. “We’re stopping you from eating the sun.”

The wolf laughed. “You cannot stop me. I am destined to eat the sun and not even the gods can stop me.”

“We can stop you from doing it today, at least.” I pulled my hands along the spear, bringing the point closer to me.

Sköll glared at me. “Ragnarok will come, little one.”

“But not today!” Stefan yelled from behind the wolf.

Sköll spun around, probably expecting an attack. I felt the back end of my spear lift and assumed Colin had picked it up. I ran at the wolf, aiming for his back leg. This time I hit what I was aiming for, the spear sinking in deep. Sköll yelped and spun around. Another snap of his jaws and I felt his teeth sink into the spear by the vibration that went up my arms. I let go and fell under the wolf. I scrambled to get away and out of the corner of my eye I saw him yank the spear out of his leg. I didn’t see Colin and hoped he’d gotten out of the way.

Sköll tried to break the spear in his jaws but he couldn’t. He tossed it away and it went flying, disappearing down the curve of the horizon. He tried to step on me but I scrambled out from under him. Stefan went past me and grabbed hold of the spear in Sköll’s front leg. He pulled it out without stumbling the way I had. The next time Sköll opened his mouth, Stefan shoved the spear in it. The wolf flailed and both Stefan and I took the opportunity to get the fuck away. We regrouped.

“Should we go for the other spear?” Colin asked.

“Guys, guys!” Emily came running up to us. “We did it, let’s go!”

A strange kind of neighing echoed back to us and I looked over to see the chariot start up. Elliot stood near a sun horse that must be the lame one, watching us with wide eyes.

The huge black wolf turned enraged eyes on us and I wondered if we’d be okay because he couldn’t bite us with the spear stuck in his mouth. Then I wondered if he’d just crush us under his huge paws. Sköll’s head snapped up as he caught sight of the chariot and for a moment he stood looking between the chariot and us. Finally he raced off after the chariot and I watched them as they went, growing smaller and smaller.

“Holy fuck,” I said, and started to shake.

Chapter 3

We went back to the cave with one injured horse and zero spears. Emily was freaking out a little about how she was going to explain it to her father. She’s such a daddy’s girl. I told her to just say we stole them, or we lost them, end of story. I mean, Set basically told us to take them, it’s not like they’d be surprised we listened.

“But he
needs
them. What if they don’t have enough spears to fight off the serpent?”

“That would be pretty fucked up if us taking the spears ended up causing the end of the world,” Stefan said.

“How many spears were there when you went to get the two for us?” I asked.

Emily tilted her head. “Um, I think there were twelve.”

“That should be plenty, and they can make more, right?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I guess I can ask when I go tell him.”

“You might as well go now and get it over with,” I told her. She gave me this sad look and I rolled my eyes. “Oh for fuck’s sake, it’s not like he’s going to beat you or anything. I’m gonna get my ass beat whenever my father comes to drag me home.” Mew-Mew came over and hopped in my lap, lending comfort. I’d left him here while we went on our little adventure. I didn’t want him to get hurt.

“I’m sorry.” She hung her head.

“Just get going.”

So she went off to tell Daddy we’d lost his weapons. While she was gone Colin came back with Epona. She was willing to help us as long as we didn’t tell her anything. She knew we were messing with things we shouldn’t, but she said as long as we were just asking her to heal an injured horse, there was no reason for her to object to the request. Even if the horse in question was a sun horse. She healed him and told us he wanted to say thank you. Her job done, she left and we sat and discussed what we were going to do now. The idea of holding off Sköll again so we could switch the horses back was not appealing to me.

“We could just leave it there. I mean, a sun horse is a sun horse, right?” Elliot said. For a change, I agreed with him.

“So we could just put this horse in Apollo’s stable and hope he doesn’t notice the difference,” I said.

“I think he’ll notice,” Colin said.

“But what else can we do?” Stefan said.

That’s when my father showed up. Always with the drama, he came in a flare of fire that was as bright as the sun horse. Mew-Mew immediately hopped off my lap. He knew the drill. Whenever Satan showed up, he needed to hide. I never knew if Satan might take it into his head to punish me by killing my cat. My mom and my stepdad, Ken, knew better than to mess with him, but that was because I could hurt them, even if it was only indirectly. I couldn’t even protect
myself
against Satan.