"And what brought you back to our fair Earth?"

Jason got to his knees and bowed his head.

"The Ageless One known as Adrastia provided me the opportunity to return here. She left me here so I could ask for your aid."

Quetzalcoatl laughed.

"My aid? You attack my people, and you think I will help you in any way?"

"To be fair, My Lord, my team and I inflicted only minor injuries on your team. The only lives we took were those soldiers belonging to the traitor Anubis. Even as a captive, I did not flee your people. Instead, I a.s.sisted them to the utmost of my abilities."

Quetzalcoatl looked not to Fuyuko, but to the other members of her team.

"Is this true? Will you confirm this man's story?"

Toms stepped forward.

"What he says is true, My Lord. None were lost in the battle at the Library. And during our escape from Anubis' forces, this man put himself in harm's way to save our lives. He obtained the helicopter at great risk to himself and then piloted it to Cyprus where we were able to finally escape."

The others nodded their agreement.

"And what sort of aid do you wish from me?" Quetzalcoatl asked.

Jason raised his head, his mouth drawn in a firm line.

"We need your help to kill Woten."

14.

Nidhoggr

Gwynn stepped into nothingness.

Aside from his own head and feet, he was in a world with no discernible features. He stood upright but didn't actually feel anything beneath his feet. Pressing a toe harder downward provided no resistance. And yet he didn't fall any further.

Nothing appeared ahead except a blazing white light-so bright it obliterated everything else. Gwynn envisioned it like the bright lights in interrogation scenes in the movies he used to watch. But this light was everywhere. Turning to the left, right, or looking up or down was all the same-maybe he was inside the sun, or at the center of a star imploding.

Even the door he'd used only a few seconds ago vanished under the light's intensity.

What did Marduk even teach me? he wondered.

Gwynn clenched his fist and bit hard on his bottom lip.

I shouldn't have come here. I was a fool for letting Adrastia play on my fears. What good is trying to become stronger than Cain if it kills me first?

But it wasn't just on Adrastia's word he had come. Sophia's dreams, her confidence this was a journey he needed to take, held the most influence over his decision. He trusted her with his life. She'd been his constant companion since they'd infiltrated Valhalla seven years ago. He was useless without her.

So of course I came when she said I had to.

Could he trust her dreams, though? Hadn't her dreams led him to the bowels of Valhalla where he destroyed a billion worlds and lost his right arm? No, it wasn't right to use the word trust. When it came to Sophia herself, he could trust her completely. But visions, G.o.d help him, fate, seemed d.a.m.n unreliable. Sometimes he wondered if Sophia's visions were just someone else's tool for manipulating them. Could that be G.o.d? Or worse yet, some other false deity who intended to usurp G.o.d's throne. Was free will a thing or just another illusion? There'd been more than one time in the past eight or so years where Gwynn felt he was just someone else's p.a.w.n being shoved around a chess board.

Sophia would say that's me not taking control of my life-playing the victim. She'd tell me if I didn't like how things were, I should be more proactive instead of reactive. But could seizing my own destiny just be playing into the grand cosmic design? Maybe all of us are p.a.w.ns.

Or maybe the frightening truth is there is no plan. Maybe there's no endgame. We really are just making everything up as we go.

In the distance, a black spot the size of a pebble materialized. Gwynn reached out with his left hand to pluck it from the s.p.a.ce in front of him. But his hand came back empty.

Now it was the size of a baseball.

Without anything else for reference, I have no idea how far, or how big, that thing really is.

Gwynn squinted his eyes against the glaring light.

I still can't even make out any details.

Something stirred in his gut-a familiar fluttering that seemed out of place. He'd felt it numerous times before, and was able to distinguish the nuanced differences between this sensation and those of nerves or hunger. But it made no sense. Because this feeling meant only one thing-an open tear in the Veil. But he was inside the Veil-he was so permeated with its energies, his whole body should be vibrating. As the dark shape neared, the intensity increased.

Gwynn tried to step back, but there was nothing to step on-his foot pushed against open air. He started flailing his limbs, trying to move in the non-s.p.a.ce. No wind pushing past his face, no change in landscape-even if he were moving, he couldn't tell.

The shape only seemed to be getting closer-or bigger-he still couldn't tell which was actually happening.

How did Adrastia and Marduk do it? How'd they move through this?

The White Room-a bubble made from one's own soul-was what Marduk said. They'd traveled through the Veil shielded by his own soul.

I need my soul, it can protect me from this place.

He reached out, trying to recall a time years ago when he pleaded with some larger version of himself to help save Pridament.

Please, I know you're here. I need you. I haven't always felt you, but I know you've helped me over the years-or that you've helped yourself. Where do I end and you begin? And if we are connected, if we are one being, where do your connections and loyalties to Cain begin and end? Can I trust you? Please, show yourself. Help me. Give me the answers I need.

Darkness rushed at him, swallowing the light on all sides, coc.o.o.ning him in nothingness.

The thudding in his chest was so loud, so hard, it caused his limbs to tremble. He couldn't even form words around the incessant pound, pound, pound.

Against the noise of his own heart, he became aware of something else-a rhythmic whooshing that reminded him of waves crashing and receding.

Two orbs, burning blue in the dark, appeared in front of him. Dark spots rolled into each of the orbs from opposing sides, falling to the center, and focusing on Gwynn.

"Is that you?" Gwynn's voice cracked like a piece of ancient parchment-he couldn't even be sure his question was audible.

Darkness behind, above, and to his sides, began to peel away. As he watched them move, he realized they were not random splashes of darkness as he'd first thought, but that each side was symmetrical, textured-wings.

Light spilled in as the wings parted, revealing the details surrounding the blue orbs.

In books, he'd seen his share of dragons depicted. Some were terrifying, with a countenance speaking of nature's fury given physical form. Others carried a sense of n.o.bility in their appearance, as though the knowledge of their awesome power put them above all other life. Looking at the images on a page, Gwynn wondered what his response would be, to be confronted by such a creature.

In all his wonderings, he could never conjure the fear he felt now.

The creature before him was so large, the blue orbs-its eyes-were taller than Gwynn's six-foot-two. It's wings and body blotted out the light coming from in front of him.

It lifted its ma.s.sive head-covered in scales and scars-and cried into the nothingness.

Gwynn thought he'd be shattered to atoms by the roar. It filled every s.p.a.ce, resonated on every frequency Gwynn could hear and on ones he couldn't but still experienced as a sickening wave of nausea.

The dragon's eyes pushed down on him-he couldn't move or speak. Its mouth dropped open, revealing teeth so jagged and uneven, it looked more like a cave with rows of stalact.i.tes and stalagmites.

It rushed forward, a cave of dark oblivion swallowing him.

All Gwynn could do was muster a scream.

15.

Frozen s.p.a.ces

Quetzalcoatl leaned forward, his expression impa.s.sive.

"Explain to me why I should care about Woten or his fate," he said.

Jason cleared his throat.

"If you'll indulge me a moment, My Lord, I will do so. But first, I need to give you some back story."

Quetzalcoatl waved him on.

"At least a century ago, Woten seized control of the planet he renamed Asgard-in honor of his mythological home. With many of his fellow Aesir, as well as several devout followers, he subjugated the people and forced them, literally, underground. Aside from his own hall of Valhalla, he purged the surface of Asgard. I'm sure you know he was the one who triggered the Cataclysm."

"I am. Though I'm still murky on his intentions. Miss Takeda's father was able to provide enough details so we could defend this world."

"I see. Well, it was his belief that by utilizing the bleed throughs, he could cast a web, drawing the separate worlds together into a singular whole, all situated on Asgard."

Quetzalcoatl nodded thoughtfully and leaned back in his throne.

"Leaving himself the lone G.o.d of all humanity."

"Yes, My Lord. But because of your efforts, as well as miscalculations due to the Fallen's activities, his plan failed. Asgard continues to be a barren world on the surface, and eight other worlds, including your own, still exist. I now belong to a guerrilla organization made of Asgard's original citizens who are fighting to dethrone Woten and take back their world. We call ourselves Fenrir."

During their conversation, Quetzalcoatl managed to maintain a stony exterior. This cracked, just briefly, at the mention of Fenrir. Jason tried to interpret what the brief shift meant.

I don't want to press. If I overplay my hand, he'll see me as a threat as well.

Quetzalcoatl shifted and tapped his right finger on the arm of his throne. His eyes probed Jason so deeply it felt like hands had seized his shoulders and were pushing him down.

"What, specifically, do you require of me?"

Jason bowed his head.

"We would ask for two things-doses of the antidote to Takeda's Solution, as well as weapons, which we have on short supply. And, if possible, as a third favor, I would ask for Fuyuko to accompany me."

Fuyuko gasped but quickly covered it with a clearing of her throat.

Quetzalcoatl said nothing initially, nor did his expression change. But Jason noted a whitening of the man's knuckles where he gripped the throne arms.

"I still haven't heard why any of this should interest me," Quetzalcoatl said after an agonizing minute of silence. "As I'm sure you know, the phenomenon linking the worlds are spa.r.s.e-and the ones we do have are well guarded. If you hadn't been allowed through, your entire team would've been decimated before you'd taken six steps on our soil."

Jason nodded.

"Yes, I took note of that. I was also impressed with how the facade of a construction site camouflaged those defenses. But your a.s.sumption is there is no other way for Woten's forces to reach your world. This would be incorrect."

Quetzalcoatl pounded his right fist against the throne's arm-the metal screeched where it warped beneath the force.

"Do not presume to tell me what I do and do not know. Aside from the anomalies, the only option to move between worlds is crossing the Veil itself. While we all know it is possible, there is no way Woten has a force large enough to pose any threat that can do so."

"He has two military forces made of the strongest Anunnaki across the multiverse who can do so," Jason said.

Gasps and murmurings filled the room. Jason suspected were it not for Quetzalcoatl there would be shouting and maybe a lynching for suggesting such a thing.

One of the guards stepped forward from the left side of the throne.

"My Lord, please let me throw this insolent dog out the window. There is no reason you should endure such insult."

Quetzalcoatl lifted a hand, silencing her.

"Enough Hildy. We shall let him finish speaking his peace. If I am displeased further, I will throw him from the window myself."